My Experience on Judy G Russell's Blog Post

Judy, I was trying to keep a straight face as I read your blog post.  I am sure you were working at a straight face when you read the post that prompted your blog comment.
Musings from 30,000 feet

Suspecting that statement may have held water 300 or 400 years ago??? but not sure it ever held water.

Mom, Dorothy Inez Hoffman Jones, used to always say, "they did not go far because they had to walk."  I bet I heard that statement several times a day on days of research.

When I read to her the letter by her Great Grandfather and his statement to his  two sons and 1 daughter
in Iowa. Written about 1873, it shared much enlightenment about the family.

Later years pre 1879, he walked from his home to court, asking neighbors to care for the animals due to his wife's not ability due to health. He left after chores in the early light of dawn. He walked from Aleppo, Pa to Waynesburg, PA for a court hearing regarding land involving his son in Iowa and family in Greene Co. Pa.  He arrived in town prior to the hearing, learning it was canceled, promptly saw another child and then went back home. He went over many deep hills and valleys both ways. When the neighbor arrived to care for the animals, in the evening, he found Henry had already serviced them all.  This was before the sun went down.  I would have  to reread letter to say what month it was to how long the sun hung in the sky.  I have been to both that home place and Waynesburg.  Granted they did not follow a road they went the way they needed to go. But he walked over 50 miles each way according to family that was still living in Waynesburg, PA in 1993.  It was in the early spring.

Ah, our Marathon Walkers, Joggers, we were doing it way back when.

Then as gathering of records continued I kept track of the distance family seemed to go.

Some may live near within the 5 mile range but most were farther.  I counted 12 to 30 miles between siblings and parents. Between Grandparents and Great Grandparents it was the other side of the county, which was even farther.

After the CW, families lived counties and states apart and only a few of the siblings stayed close to assist the older family members.  Suspecting they discussed this prior to moving. Some hints of this were in letters.  A side bar comment was that at least with the Mail they could still keep in touch.
What trust they put in the Pony Express and mail system.

Looking at my family directly, we all took turns with the parents. Moved a second home on the ranch and assisted those there. Haven driven or flown home to assist as needed was a standard occurance, in my home. My own family knew, that if help was needed I would be assisting as the elder member of the children.  My sister was almost 5 years younger, younger brother 2+ years younger than that and baby brother was born when I was 12.  He was just starting school when I married and permanently moved. When he graduated he came to stay a while with us here in San Diego after 1970.  

Yes, one brother lived within 30 miles of my parents. One on the ranch  later as health went south,
then he moved in with them part time and I took turns a month at a time being there for him to have time for his family. Later the other brother moved in. Then he moved out and older brother moved into the house with Mom, until her death.

Cousins were any where from 30 miles to 120 miles away after we moved from Wyoming to California, at the start of the War.  We came then the other families that worked for various military
moved semi close about ten years later.

Yesterday (?) my brother was 30 miles away, other brother 60 miles away, sister 1,000 miles away and I was 900 miles away.  Both my parents families were in Wyoming.  Their parents had lived in Iowa,
We migrated from PA to Iowa after the CW, on Mom's side and we migrated to IA from NY in 1855 to  Nunda, Ill then after CW moved to Chickasaw Co. IA. Some family still in area. Most have scattered to MINN, OR, WYO, Carolina's, FLA, CA, UT and all over.

So maybe in Europe before they came, it happened. Because even my arrivals from Europe did not stay in one spot long and scattered all over the eastern area of the USA.  Really chuckling because even Moreen Duvall did not stay that close.

How far did your kin travel and how close do each other did they live?

Today, one daughter and her son lives with us. I daughter is right at 8 miles from us and one son is 10 miles from us and another 15 and another in Michigan.  Ironic is sometimes I feel like I see or hear from the family at distance more than those that are close. Weird huh.

 Enjoy your family no matter how far or close they are.

New Places that are Really Old Places to Search

Did you realize we forget some of the more exciting places to search?  When in Michigan 7 years ago I was gifted with a box of Post Cards.  I was in the Antique Mall with my son in his shop and the other side had other antiques and on the counter sat a box lid of Post Cards.

 When I was young I saved Post Cards.  In 1967 when we went to Hawaii, the government shipment lost them all the entire collection, half of the letters my husband had written and pictures and our recent Xmas gift from parents we just opened and repacked in that box.

So this lid of Post Cards was eye catching. I was able to replace about 15 of the cards, of course they did not have the relatives names and addresses on them but I did get the picture of the places they had been and were sharing with me.

Wishing I had accepted the other lid of cards and brought them home but so grateful for the ones I do have.

Have you ever gone Antiquing for Family Treasures.  I watch for old Books, Letters, Post Cards, Pictures, especially if your in the area the ancestors lived.  It also works if your in an area an ancestors family may have moved to and died out..

Someone else mentioned E-BAY and places of that nature to watch for items. I got a Land Grant from E -Bay back in early 90's. It is my Ancestor's. Estate Sale by County in PA.

Estate Sales are great on their own.  You never know what will surface.

Maps can be found this way also. Aunt used to hit an auction at least every other week for many years until cancer took her.

So if you were raised in the area, start looking at the antique stores, for clues.  I was in another Antique Shop in Pennsylvania in 93. I did not find an article but found a distant cousin that was in charge of the shop.  Now that was a truly great find.

Have you gone antiquing for family clues or tried E-Bay for letters, papers or books?

New York Researchers Heads UP...... UP Please READ and HELP.

New York Genealogists and Historical Societies, Groups etc.  Please read and somehow can we all work to make this happen and not let these documents get destroyed. Pass the word to any whom you think may be able to help.



 On Sunday Morning I received this and she gave permission for me to forward to the blog.

On 1/19/2014 3:27 PM, Chris Connell wrote:

The Sunday 1-19-14 Albany Times Union has a feature story about the

at-risk trove of books and papers in the NYS Education Building.

Here's the link to the story:

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/State-Library-s-tough-calls-on-what-to-save-what-5156008.php

Particularly disturbing is this:

/The weightiest challenge is what to do with 17,000 square feet of old

newspapers, including dozens from outside New York state. Many ceased

publication long ago. There is the Washington Globe, a semiweekly from

the 1830s, and the Washington National Observer from the 1850s. There

are stacks of defunct papers from 19th-century Boston, including the New

England Palladium, Boston Investigator, Boston Evening Gazette, New

England Galaxy and Boston Pearl./

/Limited storage and resources will result in jettisoning newspapers

from outside the state if they are unable to find libraries or archives

that will take them. Digitizing them is cost-prohibitive. Funding was

discontinued in 2007 for the New York State Newspaper Project, which

microfilmed more than 4.37 million pages from among 10,537 New York

state newspapers during 20 years by State Library employees./

-----------------------------------------------

 I have attempted to contact Newspapers.com, NGS, NEHGS, Fulton  County History site,  several Rootslists, asking each of you to do the same so we can save these papers, books etc.  There is so much missing in NY.  

We do not want it to be like SC mess. Please with email the communication can be done and surely somehow we can rescue these.

I am a descendant of NEW YORK people and records are slim to none for many after 30 years of research. Even in the age of the computer, it is slim.

Lemon Grove Wed Eve. 6 to 8 pm Past, Present and Future

Hi all,

Posting that we shall have a fun time Wednesday and be great to see everyone again being the start of a new year. New goals being made, ideas being shared and what are we to do next.

Interesting things  have been happening. As you saw the flyer for the seminar was posted here a couple of days ago.  Hope you plan to attend.  Lots of great prizes to be given and even better lots of good information will be shared and understood by the Hibben's.   They even mentioned music at lunch.
Wonder if that means they will bring the saw.  Well, only time will tell.

My knee is better, but I must share I pulled the other side of it the other day. I hobble some times but not as much as I did. It is that 2 am wake up that I am ready to have go away.

So bring your notes, your ideas, your hopes and dreams. Will be sharing my urls and places for research. Also a note from Dick EASTMAN that you may be interested in.

Future here we come, past your gone but not forgotten, now is here and present.

Let us march to a positive drum beat this year and help each other along the way.

See you Wednesday evening Lemon Grove Library, 3001 School Lane, Lemon Grove, Ca
 6 to 8.  Free open to everyone.

Seminar Information 29 March, Bonita, CA for CVGS

Goal Setting, Goal Achieving Ideas

Wow, the new year is here.  Ideas are flying up and down the wires for how to master our genealogy adventures.

 Some that I like are going to be listed here and it may help  you also.  The cool one also written up by Randy Seaver in Genea-Musings is ( 52 Ancestors ).

 The idea is that each week of this year you write something up about a different ancestor.  Having a blog would be awesome to go with it but not necessary.  If you just wrote an article about a different ancestor each week to those that you share your research with may help many. If it was a blog it may help even more people because it would show up when searching.   Nor is it a hard thing to do. A bit about where born, what they did, how they lived, how many children they had, etc.  Randy has chosen Friday for his day to write about an Ancestor.

Genea-Musings  link to his page.

Since Genealogy is such an encompassing event, another thing to help along the way is, put the word out your looking for a picture of the ancestor and obituary. Post this on Surname Boards and Roots Lists that apply to the area that ancestor was in.

If a member of our society or a society on Facebook you could post this information there and you may be amazed at the results you may receive.

Having shared for the Virginia Research group Virginia Pioneers, I want to remind you again of their quality and not expensive service.  Having shown to the Research Group Saturday what this site can lead you to. I will share some of it here.


VIRGINIA PIONEERS  they are covering each county.  They  have Wills, Probates and much data  for free to see and Wills etc that can be purchased. In Halifax County I found five Wills that had not yet been discovered.

Join one society where an ancestor lived you have not joined before.  Share with them what knowledge you have so they are willing to share knowledge back with you.

Plan to attend at least one monthly activity put on by your local society.  They need your physical and emotional support.

Join at least one active blog for information to assist your research.  If your society has Blogger helpers, follow them on their blog for the information they take the time to share with you.

For those who do not like Facebook, try google+ for the genealogical people there. A " hangout"
is a great way to talk and share data with others of the same name or same region or same goals.
One never knows who you may link with or find distantly related.

Remembering when Leland M and Bill Dollarhide was here you may want to join and receive their news bulletin.  It covers new books, current genealogical information  and hints and tips.
"Family Roots Publishing Co., LLC"

 Hope this helps.. Happy Blessed New Year to each and everyone.

Goal Setting, Not Resolutions.

Goal Setting Not Resolutions.

I have mine, have you set yours?  First of the year, time to review the past, snug in the shallow spaces and move forward.  But it would be hard to do unless you did a bit of goal setting and reviewing what you already have.

Have you collected your newly acquired photos and put them in proper sequence and places in your system.  Photo Album, Family Genealogy Program, so they can be shared and family is aware you have them.

What about the Christmas news letters, you do add them to the system,  information from cousins, and other related kin.  Leaving for the future a glimpse into your past.

This year one question that was asked was: "what did you do on your weekends when a youth"?
The answers surprised me by some.  My family felt family was very important and we spent many weekends traveling to a cousins, aunts, uncles or whom ever was kin possibly visiting near.  

The War made our family closer in many ways due to the duty stations that they were at and the age that we were as youngsters.  Dad would come from work we would do the chores and he had arranged for neighbor to do the animals and we would head to Oregon, or San Diego, Ca. or Wheatland, Wyoming depending on the time we had.  We would go to  San Jose, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto to cousins and Mom's relatives.  We would go to the coast of Petaluma to visit Dad's family and some times to SLC to see his Sis. He loved to get off early and we headed to San Diego to see his brother for two days and we enjoyed our cousins and their friends.  It was a 12 hour drive most of the time and sometimes less.  Oregon was like 13  +hours drive at times.  Dad's sis for some time was at the Army base near Monterey and he would catch with them.  Many times if Uncle could get off he would come to the country to get away from the military daily routine. His other sis family was military also. His brother was military, Navy.


My husband's family said Sunday was no different than Friday or Tuesday.  They worked the fields and the animals and on rare occasions the family would take time off and visit with other family members and then it was mostly their Aunt Marie Pentico Thomas's, in Newton, Iowa.  Not even the siblings that were just a few miles down the road from their own home, came or visited very often.
Yet, the older adults talked of the visiting that was done by the family before this generation.

Others had mixed visiting and work ethics, some spent more time on church activities, it was an interesting bag of information.

Going over the files, learning I have blank spaces forgotten about that need addressed. Not just those two stubborn names that do not seem to break the surface. Susan Madison's parents and Noel Jones, parents.

Needing to patch the holes I need to have goals to work on these open spaces.

Looking at the tree what is missing? Did you add the information you received from Aunt Carrie but was to busy to do when received ?  What about what cousin Ken said about Great Uncle Bob and his wife, something he found in his family files?

Did you ask family for pictures of people that you have missing in your file?   Did you share the pictures you received with others in the Xmas letter?

See, goal setting helps  to direct you to the items that are skimpy and need filled.  Amazing once filled more, you suddenly see new information that was always there right before your eyes.

I can think of many more reasons to set goals but this is enough to get you thinking, I hope.

Have a great joyous, adventurous New Year.