Arrgggh!! A genealogy-free day

So cancel my reservations in Miami for February 4th already. Argghhh!

It's been a very frustrating day for me - my Chargers blew their playoff game with bad hands, bad mouths, bad tackling, and bad coaching. There were too many "ifs" to be counted. New England hung around and made fewer mistakes down the stretch than the Chargers did. The big news here will be if the coach, Marty Schottenheimer, is fired. Most everyone thinks he will - I do too. Too bad, I like Marty. He may go to the Steelers or the Dolphins and not win playoff games for them also.

So now my favorites are Indianapolis and New Orleans to win the conference championships and go to the Super Bowl. I tend to favor teams representing cities whjo have not been to or won the Big One (San Diego went in 1994, but lost). If they get there, I will root for New Orleans because of Drew Brees (former Charger QB) and Reggie Bush (San Diego boy).

The only redeeming feature of this day may be the first two hours of "24." They'd better be good.

I'll try to post some genealogy things tomorrow when I am not as POed or frustrated as I am now. My wife decided to go to church in the 4th quarter...I'm glad she wasn't home to hear my tirade.

My apologies for wasting your time tonight. Please, no gloating...

SDGS Program today - Nancy Carlberg

The San Diego Genealogical Society annual luncheon and seminar program was today at a local hotel. I did not make a reservation because of my house remodel project and the uncertainty over the Chargers' playoff game time. I went down there anyway, hoping to be able to at least hear the Nancy Ellen Carlberg seminar. They let me in for $20 (the member cost with lunch was $35).

Nancy Ellen Carlberg presented four lectures today -

1) Differences Between English, Irish, Scottish and US Research

2) Midwest Research

3) What I Learned Working with Alex Haley

4) Protecting Your Genealogy

I saw the first two lectures from the back row of a large meeting room - there were about 110 in attendance. The overheads were taken from Nancy's research files - mainly examples of records that supported her verbal presentation. I couldn't read a word from where I was seated, and I doubt that more than 25% of the attendees could either. Nancy had a lot of books to sell - she is quite prolific, but much of her material is pre-Internet. I didn't buy any, but got a book list for our society.

Nancy is an excellent speaker - very easy to understand and she uses humor effectively. The two lectures I heard were full of research suggestions - I was amazed how much information she presented in each hour.

She covered the comparison of English, Scottish and Irish records by outlining what civil registry records were available, and where; she did touch on parish, cemetery, census and probate records. The main point I heard was that a researcher in the US should exhaust the Family History Library microfilms and online databases before going across the Atlantic to research in record offices in those countries. Also, that everything you need to find is not on the Internet. However, accessing the birth, marriage and death records using the online databases (which charge a per-unit fee) is more cost effective than obtaining them by mail or by hiring someone there to do it for you.

The second talk on Midwest Research was similar - lots of examples, some migration and settling maps, many good tips, and essentially the same message - use the FHL Research Guides, check the FHL microfilms, plus online resources.

I left at lunch time and visited the Family History Center for a bit - looking for Tennessee resources to help me with my UFO (Thompson family) problem. I didn't find much on the shelf or on the CDs to help me.

Then it was home to watch the two football games, take a nap, and get ready for the Chargers-Patriots game tomorrow. My mind goes back to 1963 when my Chargers romped 51-10 over the Patriots in the AFL Championship game - that was the year I worked at the Chargers summer camp. Will it be that "good" tomorrow? Heck, I'll be happy with a 1 point victory.

"The Internet Guy" Genealogy Blog

Have you visited Rick Crume's genealogy blog called "The Internet Guy" at http://www.rootstelevision.com/blogs/the-internet-guy.html ?

While he doesn't post very often, the material he posts is usually excellent. As examples (unfortunately, you can't find copyable links on the site):

1) "Funeral Home Records" posted 8 January 2007

2) "U.S. Military Records" posted 16 December 2006.

3) "Locating Living Relatives" posted 29 November 2006

4) "Online Obituaries and Graveyard Inscriptions" posted 8 November 2006

Each of those posts defines the available online resources for the topic. The best way to save them, since they aren't directly linkable, is to copy and paste them into a word processing document and save it to your hard drive, and then print it out and put it in a research notebook.

Rick is an author, having written the book "Plugging Into Your Past." He has a web site at www.onelibrary.com. At that site, he has lists of free databases at http://www.onelibrary.com/links/freedatabases.htm .

"Ancestor Hunt" Genealogy Portal

I continue to look for genealogy data portals that might solve my problem with finding the elusive Robert Leroy Thompson.

I clicked on http://www.ancestorhunt.com/ recently and found a decent data portal with links to most states, and to many databases. Many of the links end up in an www.Ancestry.com database, but there are links to many www.Rootsweb.com and other free databases.

One of the free databases at the site concerns Family Bibles - at http://www.ancestorhunt.com/family_bible_records.htm. There are over 200 family Bibles every-name indexed. You never know when you might find the right Bible on a web site. There was a Thompson Bible here, but it was from Maine.

Another interesting collection is Prison Records at http://www.ancestorhunt.com/genealogical_prison_records.htm. These are mainly historical, but might be useful for those searching for their Black Sheep ancestors.

One of the databases listed on the Ancestor Hunt site is the Marriages database at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/marriages/. This might be very helpful to researchers.

What other genealogy data portal sites do you recommend?

Another subscription site - Footnote.com

I guess I'm one of the last genea-bloggers to write about the new subscription web site at http://www.footnote.com/ - "the place for original documents online." It has promise, but requires a monthly ($10) or yearly subscription ($100) for full access to the available documents.

Richard Eastman has an excellent summary of the currently available documents at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/01/footnotecom_for.html

Of course, you can currently see and obtain a copy of all of these documents at a National Archives repository. The obvious benefit to a subscription is that you can browse these records at home in your jammies or snugs to your hearts content rather than drive to a National Archives facility with the attendant travel time, parking woes, and copy costs.

I put my Seaver surname in the search engine and the Civil War pension cards (not the actual file) popped up, plus some FBI files and some city directories.

I'll pass on this opportunity for now (just as I've passed so far on the other recent new subscription sites like www.findmypast.com www.worldvitalrecords.com and www.genealogybank.com). They appeal to some people, and not to others.

UPDATE 12 January 8 PM: Sarah commented that I was unfair to the www.findmypast.com subscription site. In retrospect, I agree - I was dismissive because I don't have a need to use the site, or the others named, for my own research. But perhaps they would be useful to other researchers. The FindMyPast site is for British Isles records, and Sarah points out that you can "pay as you go" with limited costs to view indexes and pages, rather than pay for a whole year.

Web Sites for Genealogists

Do you have your own genealogy web site - with descendant reports, ahnentafel reports, photos, family Bible transcriptions, ancestral stories, and the like? I don't, but I want to have one. I do have some genealogy reports at a free site at http://www.genealogy.com/users/s/e/a/Randy-Seaver/ - I did it because I could control the formats and didn't have to submit a database, but I could still put my data out in a searchable format. But it isn't wonderful.

There is a web site for genealogists like me who want to put up a genealogy web site - at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/. The site has advice and links on how to develop a genealogy web site, with tutorials and resources on different web pages. Check out her own research page at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/. I think it is very well done, and I would like to do something similar.

Step-by-step planning and execution tips are on http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/planning-genealogy-website.html. Web page authoring and do's and don'ts are discussed at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/resources.htm. Many authoring programs don't require knowledge of HTML or other languages.

She also has genealogy research links at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/links.html which are useful.

All in all, I thought this web page suite was interesting and helpful.

Desperately seeking the Thompson family

I've been trying to find a certain Thompson family in the 1930 census for two weeks now. They are really well hidden...

The family is composed of:

* Robert Leroy Thompson (born 12 Aug 1880 in TN, died 1965, if you believe his head stone);
* Lillian Russell (Daniel) Thompson (born 1900 in TN);
* Gwen Margaret Thompson (born 1922 in TN);
* Lois Elizabeth Thompson (born 1926 in TN). Lois is still living and provided much of the information I have. She was born in Kingsport, Sullivan county TN, and thinks the family resided in either Sullivan County or Knox County in 1930.

I have tried all of the obvious census index gymnastics - using wild cards extensively to search using:

1) surname Thomp*, Tomp* Thoms* in TN
2) given names Rob*, Bob, R, Lee*, Ler*, L, Lil*, Lel*, Gwen, Loi*, Lou* in Sullivan and Knox counties.
3) families in TN with father Rob* (or Lee*, Ler*, R, L); wife Lil* (or Lel*) - not just Thompsons.
4) families in the US with the parents in 3) and Gwen or Loi* as children - not just Thompsons.

For these, I often clicked on the index name to survey the family names listed.

After exhausting those, I then defined other searches that might cause the family to be missed using the 1) to 4) searches above:

5) Line-by-line search of Kingsport, Sullivan County, TN, looking for families with the given names and approximate ages (on the theory that the enumerator got the given names right but messed up the surname badly). I also looked especially for the families where the parents might not be heads of household (and therefore not showing up in the 3) and 4) searches above). There were 244 pages of data - 11,914 names in all - in Kingsport. I haven't done the other 1,000 pages (approximately) of the remainder of Sullivan County.

6) Knox county has over 155,000 names, or about 3,200 pages, so a line-by-line search isn't really feasible.

7) Were the surname and given name exchanged? I didn't find any likely candidates in TN.

I posted a message board note on the Sullivan County TN Genforum board asking if City Directories for Kingsport in 1930 were available. If so, I want to identify neighbors and then go back to the census records. I'll do this for Knox County too if they aren't in Sullivan County.

To show the magnitude of the problem, there were:

* 9,189 people with surname Thomp* in TN
* 164 were Rob* Thomp* in TN
* 6 were Ler* Thomp* in TN
* 71 were Lil* Thomp* in TN
* 14 were Loi* Thomp* in TN
* 0 were Gwen Thomp* in TN
* 17 were Gwen (no surname) in TN
* 19,224 were Lil* (no surname) in TN
* 100 had the given name Thomp* (no surname) in TN

It may be that the family did not live in Tennessee, but all of the family data indicates otherwise.

Of course, I can't find Robert Leroy Thompson in the 1920, 1910, or 1900 census records either! He must have made a concerted effort to hide from the census takers.

Any more suggestions?

New T-shirts from JMK Genealogy

JMK Genealogy put a new set of genealogy gifts together with the words "Sexy Genealogist for Hire" - see all of the gifts at http://www.cafepress.com/jmkbooks/2366561

Pretty cool, eh? Here's the mousepad (shown mainly because it shows the image well):
Great family tree image. It would be a great Valentine's Day gift, wouldn't it? A real discussion starter at the next Society meeting? I guess it all depends who's wearing it.

Thanks to JMK Genealogy for the image and gift ideas.

Family tree tattoos?

Wouldn't it be neat to have your family tree tattooed on your back? If you knew enough generations, it could run down your legs too! Is that a great visual, or what?

Apparently, one of MY San Diego Charger favorite football players is doing exactly part of my vision - "the family tree on his back" part, as explained in this article from the San Diego CityBeat newspaper:

A rookie, McNeill had his whole extended family in town, from siblings and cousins to aunts, uncles and grandparents. They came to his house and whipped up a dinner just like the ones he used to have back home in Decatur, Ga. He’s so close to his family that his back is tattooed with an enormous spreading tree titled “McNeill” in looping script. It’s a family tree, and this off-season he plans to have the names of his grandparents and siblings inscribed into the branches.

Now Marcus McNeill is a BIG man (6-7, 350 pounds) and has a lot of back acreage for his tattoo tree. Apparently, he already has his own name and his parents names on his back.

I wonder how far back he can trace his family line? I wonder if his name is at the bottom of his tree - at the roots so to speak. I would think so, but who knows. That would mean his grandparents and earlier generations would be higher up in the tree.

I wonder if he wants the help of an experienced researcher to find more McNeill ancestors? I'll do anything for the team :)

"I love food" memories

This month's Carnival of Genealogy is supposed to be about food - family recipes, food memories, and the like. I have four separate experiences:

1) My mother was not a culinary wizard. Her parents were only children and fifth generation German-Americans, so there were no handed down recipes, big family meals with ethnic dishes or the like. Cooking for her was something she had to do every day - not what she wanted to do (she was an artist, a teacher, a reader) but she had a husband and three active boys in the 1950's and on. I remember meat, potatoes and vegetables for dinner. I remember pork chops, chipped beef, ground beef, fried chicken, meatballs, steak (cooked to shoe leather), etc. Mashed potatoes. Fresh vegetables. She went to the Safeway store across the street every day. The only special thing I remember (my dad loved it) was vermicelli - toast with egg whites over it, covered with grated egg yolk. We had fried egg sandwiches for lunch occasionally. On school days it was peanut butter or bologna sandwiches. Breakfast was sometimes scrambled or fried eggs with bacon, and pancakes on the weekend.

2) The big treat each week when I was a kid and a teenager was Saturday morning. My dad bowled on Friday night and would go to the bakery on his way home. Ummm. Doughnuts! cream puffs!! eclairs!!! They rarely lasted until Sunday.

3) My own cooking skills are pretty utilitarian - I can barbecue, fry meat, boil water and nuke almost anything. Oh, I can also open soup cans and Dinty Moore stew. Cooking on my own is pretty much desperation.

4) Now, my Angel Linda is a culinary wizard. Ahhh. I married a fantastic cook - and she loves to do it. It didn't take long for her to fatten me up after we married (and it's a battle to keep the weight to a steady level) because she fed me so well. It's still pretty much meat, vegetables and potatoes. Her special dish is baked stuffed zucchini shells with the zucchini inside stuff mixed with raw eggs and put back in the shells with a layer of cheese over the top of it. I'm so lucky!

I do love to eat - and it's almost dinner time, so bon appetit!