Update to the Carnival of Genealogy and Topic for the 88th Edition

An update on changes for the Carnival of Genealogy and the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"Volunteerism! Here's a chance to toot your horn about whatever genealogy projects, organizations, or events you voluntarily give your time and efforts to. What do you get out of volunteering? How did you decide what to volunteer for? How much time each month do you spend volunteering for genealogy projects/organizations/events? Is there an organization or project you'd like to recommend to others? Tell us all about it! The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010."

Enjoy!

25th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

Welcome to the 25th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. The belated edition has finally arrived! The theme for the December (and now, January, as well) edition was on Hanukkah and Christmas traditions. Here are the articles for this edition:

First off, we have an article from Zenon of PolishOrigins. In "Christmas Eve - Wigilia," the Polish tradition of Wigilia is described.

Last, but not least, we have an article from Greta Koehl of Greta's Genealogy Blog. In "Advent Calendar Day 24: Christmas Eve - Holy Supper," she describes her family's Christmas Eve dinner tradition.

Well, that is it for this edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. The topic for the next edition will be a carousel. Submissions for the topic will be due on February 18th, and the edition will be published on February 20th. You can submit your articles here. Enjoy!

87th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 87th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be announced later. Enjoy!

Google Analytics Report For December 2009

Another month and year has gone by, and that means that it is time for another Google Analytics report! Here are the results for December 2009:

The top ten countries, in number of visits, are:

1. United States - 430 visits
2. Canada - 49 visits
3. United Kingdom - 25 visits
4. Spain - 12 visits
5. Germany - 11 visits
6. Malaysia - 10 visits
7. Australia - 8 visits
8. Sweden - 7 visits
9. Philippines - 5 visits
10. Italy - 5 visits

The top ten states in the United States, in number of visits, are:

1. California - 52 visits
2. Illinois - 27 visits
3. Texas - 25 visits
4. Michigan - 23 visits
5. Indiana - 20 visits
6. Virginia - 20 visits
7. Ohio - 18 visits
8. Georgia - 17 visits
9. New York - 15 visits
10. Massachusetts - 14 visits

The top ten articles, in number of views, are:

1. Happy Thanksgiving! - 29 views
2. Holiday Issue of the Shades Of The Departed Magazine Available! - 22 views
3. My 2010 Genealogy Resolutions - 22 views
4. Tombstone Maker Website - 17 views
5. 85th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted! - 15 views
6. British World War One Records Updated! - 14 views
7. Carnival Deadline Extended! - 14 views
8. My New Year's Resolutions - The Final Results - 11 views
9. 86th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted! - 10 views
10. Trippstadt, Germany Civil Death Records, Part One: 1806-1829 - 9 views
    

Well, that is it for this month's results. To my readers, I want to say, "Thank you for reading!" Enjoy and stay tuned for next month's results!

Happy New Year's Day!

I just want to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year's Day. Enjoy!

My 2010 Genealogy Resolutions

This year is almost over, and that means that it is time for me to make my New Year's resolutions for 2010. As you probably noticed from my post on this year's results, I did not succeed in my goals this year, but I hope I will accomplish more in 2010. Here are my resolutions for 2010:

1. Order William Oswalt's Civil War pension file. I ordered Benjamin's pension file, but I didn't do so for William. Hopefully, I'll be able to that in the upcoming year, and I hope I will be able to determine if my ancestor is related to William.
   
2. Research the tax records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan to obtain more information on my Oswalt, Detwiler, Stout and Havens-Mandigo families.
3. Order a microfilm of a Manchester, England church records for a marriage record of an ancestor.
4. Locate the German birthplace or home town for my ancestor, Carl.
5. Obtain Anton's naturalization record.
6. Determine who are the parents of my great-grandfather.
7. Uncover Adam's religious affiliation. I do not know what church Adam attended except that it was a Protestant church, but I'll need to figure out what church he or his family attended so that I can continue researching my Oswalt ancestors.
8. Obtain or order more records from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania to continue researching my ancestors from those counties.

Well, those are my goals for 2010. I don't know how much I will be able to accomplish because of school and because I need to spend my time researching for my Master's thesis. If I am able to accomplish one of those goals by the end of 2010, I'll be happy with my progress. Stay tuned for future updates on my goals ... Enjoy!

My New Year's Resolutions - The Final Results

Well, 2009 is almost over, and I think it is time to post my final review of the New Year's Resolutions I made last year. As you may remember, I posted updates on my research in April and August, but I haven't posted any updates since August. So, here are the updates as of December 27th:

1. Look up and print other probate records of ancestors who lived and died in Saint Joseph County, Michigan. As of April 1st: I still have not had the chance to look up any more probate records, but I am still hoping to do so this year. As of August 19th: I have not done any research in the probate records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and I am unsure as to whether or not I will be able to do before the end of this year. As of December 27th: I have not looked up any probate records for Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and I probably will not have a chance until next year.
2. Order more microfilms of Trippstadt, Germany's civil records. As of April 1st: I have ordered two microfilms of death records, and so far, only one has come into the Family History Center. I am still waiting for the second one, and after I have obtained all of the death records, I will be ordering birth and marriage records. As of August 19th: I have looked at book the microfilms that arrived earlier this year, and I found the death records of my ancestors and their siblings. I did not order marriage or civil birth records after the death records arrived. Instead, I ordered a microfilm of the church records to look for the births. I probably should order the civil records for those births and marriages, but I will have to put off that research until I have more time. As of December 27th: I have not ordered anymore microfilms of records from Trippstadt, Germany as I have been busy with school work.
3. Order naturalization records for my German-Russian ancestor Anton and his siblings. As of April 1st: I have not ordered any naturalization records, but I still hope to order some of these records. As of August 19th: I have not ordered any naturalization records to date, and I will probably have to wait until I have the time to do so. As of December 27th: I have not ordered my ancestor's naturalization record. I hope to do so some time in the future.
4. Obtain the Civil War Pension files for Benjamin and William Oswalt, and try to strengthen their relationship to my ancestor, Adam Oswalt. As of April 1st: I haven't ordered any more pensions files although I would like to do so. As of August 19th: I have not ordered any Civil War Pension files, and I am not sure if I will be able to do so before the end of this year. I might still order them, but I have not decided yet as to whether or not to do so. As of December 27th: I ordered Benjamin's Civil War pension file, and it came a few months ago. I've looked through the pension file, but I haven't found anything yet to directly connect Benjamin to Adam. I have not yet ordered William's pension file, but I hope to be able to do so in the future.
5. Find more information on my ancestor, Irene Havens. I am hoping to figure out who her parents are, and what her connection is to Rhoda and the Mandigo family. As of April 1st: A man named Jim, kindly looked up two newspaper notices for a couple of marriages in Rochester, New York and shared the information with me a few days after I posted my resolutions. Of course, I still need to do further research to figure out the exact relationship between my ancestor, the Mandigo family and Rhoda (Havens) Lang(e).As of August 19th: So far I have not focused any attention on or researched my Havens branch. I did obtain Rhoda's death certificate from the Seeking Michigan site, but I have not pursued any of the leads that I have. I do not know if I will be able to do any research into this branch before the end of the year, but I hope to do so next year. As of December 27th: I haven't really done any further research on Irene Haven's line, but I did uncover the death date and place for Rhoda's husband from Footnote.com's Civil War pension file index card.
6. Find more information on my WWI veteran great-grandfather's family and ancestors. As of April 1st: I am doing a little research on my great-grandfather's family, but I haven't finished looking at records in Scotland.As of August 19th: I have had someone help me by looking up records for my ancestor's siblings in Scotland's vital records, but I do not believe I am ready to start researching in Irish records. I think I still need to continue looking at Scottish records before I do so. (The person who has been looking up the records for me has been doing so since I started to research my great-grandfather in Scottish records.) As of December 27th: I haven't focused on my great-grandfather's line since I went back to school.
7. Order birth, marriage and death records of ancestors from the United Kingdom. As of April 1st: I haven't ordered any vital records from the U.K., but I hope to order some microfilms of church records the next time I visit the Family History Center. As of August 19th: I have ordered a few microfilms of church records from Lancashire, but I have had limited success in my research. I was able to obtain the baptismal record for an ancestor, but I have mostly had setbacks as I ordered the wrong microfilms for a couple of locations. As for ordering civil vital records from the U.K., I recently attempted to order a couple, but I have encountered some difficulties in trying to do so. (I will explain later in a future post.) As of December 27th: Through the assistance of family members, I was able to order a marriage record and birth record for two of my ancestors, and both records confirmed my suspicions as the names of their parents.
   
8. I hope to make more connections and to find more ancestors and relatives. As of April 1st: I've contacted a man who had information on a branch of my British ancestors, and he kindly shared the information he with me. Outside of that, I haven't made any other connections. As of August 19th: I was contacted by a woman from Argentina who was also descended from my Kees and Cotta ancestors, and we have been exchanging information over the past few months by e-mail. Outside of those two instances, I have not made any new connections. As of December 27th: I have not made anymore connections since this summer. I hope to do so in the future.
9. Publish posts listed in the "Coming Soon" box in a timely manner. As of April 1st: I am still working on this resolution, and I am still behind in publishing the posts I have listed. As of August 19th: I think it probably safe to say that I have failed so far with this resolution. I have not posted articles in the box in the time frame that I set up. Many of the future articles listed have been on the list for months, and at the moment, I am unsure as to when I will get around to posting some of the articles or topics listed in that column. Since I am now back at school, I am afraid that I won't improve in this regard. As of December 27th: I have not improved in reducing the length of time spent on articles I planned to post. I am still behind on several posts, and I don't know when I will get those articles published.
10. Improve the writing quality of my posts. As of April 1st: I am still working on this resolution as well. As of August 19th: I am unsure as to whether or not I have improved my writing or accomplished this goal. Has my writing improved? Please feel free to leave comments on my writing skills. Thanks. As of December 27th: I do not know if I have improved my writing. I will leave the determination up to you, my readers.

So, as you can see, my success rate for this year's resolutions was low. I've only accomplished, partially or fully, two of my goals. I hope to do better next year. Stay tuned for my New Year's resolutions for 2010! Enjoy!

Don't Forget! Submissions Due Tomorrow!

I just want to remind everyone that submissions are due tomorrow for the upcoming edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European genealogy. The topic is on Christmas and Hanukkah traditions. If you need more time, please contact me at: jess_history at yahoo dot com. You can submit your articles here.

Also, if you are interested in hosting a future edition of this carnival, you can contact me at the email address above. The months open are:

• January
• February
• March
  
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

If you are interested in hosting the month of January, please let me know at the above e-mail as soon as possible. Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Enjoy!

19th Editions of the Smile For The Camera Carnival Posted!

The 19th edition of the Smile For the Camera Carnival has been posted, and you can read it here. (I've been busy lately, and I did know about the posting. I'm sorry for the delay.) The topic for the next edition will be on

"'Valentine.' Love is in the air, so celebrate with Smile by sharing a photograph of a Valentine; be that person or paper. The interpretation of Valentine is yours. Admission is free with every photograph! Your submission may include as many or as few words as you feel are necessary to describe your treasured photograph. Those words may be in the form of an expressive comment, a quote, a journal entry, a poem (your own or a favorite), a scrapbook page, or a heartfelt article. The choice is yours!"

The entry will be due on February 10th. Enjoy!

Carnival Deadline Extended!

I've decided to extend the deadline for submissions to the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. Submissions are now due on December 28th, and the edition will be published on December 30th. You can submit your article here. Enjoy!