Saturday, November 14, 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- A Nice Thing

It's Saturday Night - time for lots of Genealogy Fun!

Here is your genealogy writing mission, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music...):

1. What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time - surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!).

2. Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, or in a tweet on Twitter.

Here's mine (I have two from today):

1) Martin Hollick, author of The Slovak Yankee blog (you do read Martin's blog, don't you? It's excellent for New England researchers), commented on my NEHGS post yesterday, saying:

"Saw your comment on Eliza(beth) Horton Dill and read your postings on her. I was at the NEHGS library today and thought I would look into it. Thomas Dill leaves no probate at Barnstable Co. However, in 1821 a Thomas Dill was placed in guardianship for spendthrift. Didn't look at that although it could be that Thomas was getting senile and his kids had to reel him in. NEHGS doesn't have the Barnstable deeds but they exist after 1827 (when the fire happened), so a good quitclaim deed may be in the offing for you."

He continues with analysis of my Elizabeth Horton (Dill) Smith research problem, with expert opinion based on years of experience and knowledge. Very nice!!! I really appreciate Martin's effort, analysis and encouragement. It is often useful to have another pair of eyes stare at your research problem and analyze it for you. Unfortunately, I've searched the particular probate record and the land records, and cannot find anything that ties Elizabeth to that particular Thomas Dill of Eastham MA, although I'm pretty sure that he is her father. I'm still not tying her to Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill because of the conflicting evidence on her two death records naming her parents, which I cannot resolve yet.

2) Yesterday, for Follow Friday (another "official" daily blogging theme), Amy Coffin, who writes the We Tree blog (which now has a nice picture of Amy - it used to have a waffle image in the shape of Texas - I like Amy's photo much better) mentioned my name and Genea-Musings as worthy of being followed. Thank you, Amy. That was really nice of you. I appreciate it! I've enjoyed getting to know Amy at Jamboree and the FGS Conference.

P.S. would someone be nice enough to tweet the appearance of this post for me? I'm at the SDGS seminar all day today!

7 comments:

Amy Coffin said...

The pleasure is mine, Randy. Thank you for authoring such a great genealogy blog.

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

I just posted my "nice thing" at www.nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com A great idea for a rainy night here in New Hampshire!

owlhart said...

Someday, I'll blog. For now I'll keep posting here. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness has wonderful volunteers. I recently asked two ladies, Julie Pickett of La Plata County, Colorado and Dawn Mclennan of Lucas County, Ohio about taking a few photos of gravestones. They took many more photos than I asked for in their respective cemeteries, and I am truly grateful. I have made contributions to RAOGK, to keep this site available for other researchers.

Keith Hart
Ventura County, CA

Caroline said...

Thanks Randy!

Caroline
Family Stories

Leland said...

Good topic, Randy. I did a post about New York town historian, Margaret MacNab at GenealogyBlog. See: http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=7168

Lori E said...

This is a great topic. I always say how generous researchers are with their time and resources.
I have posted about my second cousin Maureen.
http://storiesofmyancestors.blogspot.com/2009/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun.html

Greta Koehl said...

Excellent topic and very timely. I have posted mine (late as usual) at http://gretabog.blogspot.com/2009/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-nice-thing.html.