Family History Center Trip PAYS OFF - FOUND THINGS

Family History Center in Menlo Park, California

I had some time on Monday night and was in the area of the family history center, so I decided to drop by and play around on the premium subscriptions available.  I was looking for the obituary for my Great Grandma Madison because a cousin had asked if anyone had it.  (I didn't find it, but I haven't given up.)  I got caught in a loop of finding a bunch of information on my Grandma Madison's siblings (my dad's aunts and uncles.)  I found out so much information.  Like one of the sisters was an army nurse during WWII.

Halverson is her married name.

I found much more information that I'm not going to post all tonight, like that one of the sisters was on the yearbook, and a copy of the yearbook is available on Ancestry.com, but you do have to download it page by page.

I had some holes in my research about my great grandpa Johnson, actually a lot of my Johnson research seems lacking.  I was trying to find more about his second wife (see more below) and found this nugget on Ancestry.com through findagrave.com.

I love that it mentions siblings and others survived by him, great for further research.

Someone took the time to put in next to his grave information what appears to be a news article regarding his death.  I was very distraught last night after finding it to see that my great grandfather died falling off a building, but that my grandfather watched it happen.  This happened only 3 months after my dad was born, and about 5 months before my grandparents split up.  It has made me wonder how much this incident played into their split up.  I doubt it was the reason, but I am sure it's hard to get over watching a parent die and would complicate whatever was already going on.

One thing that seems to happen in my family is death and divorce.  My parents are divorced, my dad's parents were divorced, and his dad's parents were divorced.  It might go back further, but you get the point.  My great grandpa Johnson remarried and had a daughter.  My dad has often asked me if I have found anything on her.  He knew that she died in the 1960s and that she had 4 kids.  I was able to find some information about her last night.  I was also to verify information about her husband, and a child who has passed away through findagrave.com again.

Hats off to Cecelia McKein

Overall it was a very productive couple of hours at the family history center.  It was great to find information to flush out people.  It also has my wondering more about generations and what we are left to deal with as children, and what kinks and flaws we pass down because of emotional scars from the kinks and flaws of our ancestors.  I think we just do our best.

Family History Binder Ideas

muahrilou: Family History Binder

If you are looking for some ideas for tracking your genealogy research this is a good idea.  Please read the post.
I like the idea of tracking more and more since I've been doing research for more than a couple of years now.  I am also finding I hear more stories and I need to write them down more often than I do.

Genealogy Programs

I get asked a lot what programs are best for tracking your genealogy work and family history.  Being LDS I do my family history with the goal of making sure that the temple work is done for that person (if you have any questions, please message me), so the program I like to use is synced with familysearch.org to track the temple work as well as the family history information.  The program I currently use is AncestralQuest.  There is a free version available.

Ancestral Quest

This program is replacing the popular PAF program, which will no longer be available any day now.

The problem with Ancestral Quest is that my MAC friends tell me it requires all of this back work to trick your computer it's not a MAC to use it.  I have not used any MAC software, but I have found some blogs that have recommendations for what to use.  I thought I'd share them in case you are searching for a program to use.

Genealogy Programs for Macintosh

There might be more programs out there for both MAC and PC.  If you use one not listed, please comment how much you like it, and if you would recommend it.  Or if you are using one listed, but have a strong opinion, either way, please share.

Sharing Family History to get Family Excited

I have said it before, and I'll say it again, Social Media has helped to make family connections.  I have been estranged from my dad's family.  Multiple complications have made it difficult to know them, until one day I started instant messaging with a cousin back in the early 2000's.  And then line upon line, I have been able to "friend" more cousins and aunts on that side.  We are far from besties, and it's strange in comparison to the relationships I have with my maternal family side.  But it's moving forward.  A couple of days ago, a cousin on the paternal side started a Facebook group for that side.  Another cousin started sharing family photos of when aunts/uncles were kids.  I decided to jump in too, and scan the couple of photos I have of my grandma and great grandma from that side.  This is the same great grandma that I shared about the post before.

Edna Marie Madison

Irene Madison (nee Amanda Sten)

I have also been able to collect some photos from my cousin of my father when he was younger.  She even had some I'd never seen.  (I haven't seen many of my father because of the estrangement.)

It is difficult to do family history when you aren't close (distance and emotionally) to family.  We do what we can with what we have.  Just because you can't today find the information you need, or there are road blocks.  But don't give up complete hope because miracles happen.  When they do happen, we count ourselves blessed.

Decluttering and Finding Family History Gems

While on break between Summer and Fall semesters in law school.  In between my other breaks I have been scanning my grandmother on my mother's side photo albums from her whole lifetime, plus the ones she inherited.  I am finally done with the photos.  So this break I've been working on decluttering my house, in preparation for my final year of law school and in preparation for taking the bar next year.

Amanda and Anna Sten

So I hit my closet in my bedroom today to remove stuff from the top to make room to move my photo albums in there away from the sun.  Up there was my Book of Remembrance that my dad gave me YEARS ago.  I knew it was up there, but because I do all of my genealogy on the computer I hadn't looked at it in YEARS.  I thought I would double check it to see if there was anything in there I didn't have online and I found an envelope from my Great Grandma Madison (my dad's mom's mom), and she had sent me part of her life story that a friend had put together.  My great grandma passed away in 1993.  I have had this story since some time in the mid 1980s, and I'm just now fully appreciating what I have in it.

Anders Perrson (the grandfather Amanda came over to America with)

My great grandma came over from Sweden in 1912 with her grandfather, and I am sad that I didn't take the time to know her better when I had the chance.  Every year for my birthday, she'd send me a birthday card with money in it.  It's a sad story how ego-centric we are as children and can't appreciate fully what family do for us.

I have already scanned and shared with my siblings and cousins.  That's the power of digital, the ability to share, and share quickly.

Lillhardal, Sweden - Summer

Lillhardal, Sweden - Winter

Four Generational Photo Ideas

My cousin recently did this same idea as a four generation photo.  (I am not sharing her photo because of privacy reasons.)  It was a beautiful way to get a four generation photo.  I have some from when I was a kid.

Me, my Mom, my Mom's mom, and my Grandma's mom
Johnson - Willis - Farnsworth - Loveridge

But I like the creativity of the multiple pictures.  It's a nice flair to the generational photos.  Also, my cousin held the photo of her baby at a slight angle so it stood out from the others.  It's good to capture these moments of generations for years to come.  I had the opportunity to know my great grandma and grandma for a while because I was the oldest of an oldest of an oldest, but not every grandchild has that opportunity.  It's good to have these photos and to tell family stories to keep family that have passed on alive.

Also, it's another idea of generational photos...

I like this idea, because I've come across old photos from my grandma's photo albums and the names on the back of the photo, but this helps you to see the photo and who the persons are from the front.  It's always good to think about the future and making sure that information about who people are is preserved.

Generations of New Yorkers

The idea of generations in the same city is novel to many of us.  We are a generation of movers.  I have moved about 40 times in my life.  I have lived in 2 countries, 5 states and at least 15 cities.  While I moved a lot for the average person, it's not uncommon to move a few times in a lifetime now that we are a more mobile people.  But I was born in Southern California, my mother was born in Southern California, and my mother's father was born in Southern California.  So I do feel like a true Californian.  This idea of spending generations in the same city boggles my mind.  But it also gives one a sense of belonging and permanence that I do not understand.  It also can make doing family history a little easier.

Here is an interesting New York Times article about generations of New Yorkers and Family History.
Family Tree New York