An Interesting Article on a Great Lakes Shipwreck

I just happened to learn about this article from one of the online genealogy groups that I am a member of, and I thought I would share this article. A shipwreck dating from the American Revolution was found in Lake Ontario, and you can read more about it here.

8th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - Father's Day Edition!

The eighth edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy is now here! The topic for this edition was similar to the last edition except that this edition is in honor of Father's Day. This edition is a little bit larger than the last, and after some technical difficulties, here are the submissions:

First off, we have an article from Elizabeth O'Neal of Little Bytes of Life. In John Andrew Pado: Loving Life and Family, she writes about her husband's ancestor, who came from what used to be Czechoslovakia, and memories of him from her husband's family.

Next, we have four articles from Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog. In The Declaration of Intent of Damian Niedzialkowski -1, he writes about a possible relation to his Niedzialkowski ancestors, and the vital records information he obtained about him and his family from the Declaration of Intent. In The Certificate of Arrival for Damian Niedzialkowski -1935 , he writes about the information he obtained from Damian's certificate of arrival. In The Petition for Naturalization of Damian Niedzialkowski -1938, he writes about the information he learned from Damian's petition for naturalization. In New Discoveries About Damian Niedzialkowski/Damian Cosky, he writes about the discovery that Damian's name change, and about further plans for research.

Last, but not least, we have an article from Jessica Oswalt of Jessica's Genejournal. In A German From Russia: Anton's Story, she writes about her ancestor who came from Russia, and about family memories that family members have of him.

Well, that concludes this edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. The topic for the next edition is on research experiences and techniques. What experiences have you had researching for your ancestors, and do you have any techniques or tips for doing research on ancestors from this area? Submissions are due on July 17th, and the next edition will be posted on July 18th. You can submit your articles here.

Poll Results for Carnival of Central and Eastern Genealogy Poll

The poll relating to the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy is now closed, and the results are in. The question for this poll was, "Are you planning to submit an article of the 8th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy?" Three people voted, and the results are:

• Yes - 2 votes
• No - 1 vote

To those who voted, thanks for voting. The 8th edition will be posted sometime later today.

2nd Edition of Smile For the Camera Carnival Posted!

The second edition of the Smile For the Camera Carnival has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition is on photos of homes. Enjoy!

They May Look Cute ...

As you may have remembered, I wrote a post about my two dogs several weeks ago. Since this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is on pets, I thought I would share a little bit more information on my dogs, Ben and Casey. (I have had other pets besides my dogs, but I don't want to write about fishes and hamsters I had in the past.)

As I mentioned before, Ben and Casey are mixed with Schnauzer and Terrier (which type of terrier, I do not know), and they love to run and bark. (Not surprising, since that is a characteristic trait of those breeds.) They both ten -going-on-eleven years old, and are still very hyper. Before I go any further, I think I should introduce my dogs separately.

To the right of this paragraph is a picture of Ben. (He is the one who had surgery a few weeks ago.)I do have other pictures of Ben, but I chose this one because it highlights the characteristics of his ears better than any other picture. As I have mentioned, Ben likes to run and bark, and he barks at almost anything that moves (but not cars going down the street), especially people and animals walking down the street or strangers that come up to the house. (Anyhow, I will spare everyone from the sound of his barking. I will not post that.) He is also territorial, and is not friendly with strangers. Once he gets used to dealing with a new person after a few days, he becomes a sweetheart and comes to love that person. (The only exceptions to this are the vets and groomers. He is always good and sweet for them, although he goes nuts when he sees other animals in the waiting room at the vet's.) A couple parts of his personality that has always been with him since he was a puppy are his hyper behavior and nervousness. (I don't know if it is just a part of the personality of the breed or not.) I don't think I need to add anymore to this paragraph about his personality.

Of course, I could think of many stories of Ben to tell, but I don't think I will mention any at the moment. Instead, I'll just say that I think I should have named him Houdini. (I'll let you guess why.) Oh, and Ben does not play fetch. If you throw something and he grabs it, he will take it to a corner. He will not bring the object back to the thrower.

And now onto Casey. To the left is a picture of Casey. He is much more relaxed than Ben and friendlier. Unlike Ben, Casey loves to play fetch, and he will bring back the object to the thrower. Casey also has hunting blood in him, and he gets excited every time he sees an animal out in the yard. Casey can also do other things, but I don't think I'll mention those. I'll just say that he can jump and climb up objects.

Well. that is a little bit more about my dogs. I realize I spent more time on Ben, but Ben is my dog. Casey is actually my brother's dog. Sometimes they can be precious, and other times, well ... (I don't think I need to say more.)

10th Shades Of The Departed Guest Column Posted!

Yes, I know I am late in posting this, but the tenth Shades of the Departed guest column has been posted! The author of this week's column is Lisa, and you can read it here. Enjoy!

Update to the Article About the Church Found in Jordan

I just noticed this update to the post I posted on the Christian church found in Jordan. The article is from the History News Network, and you can read it here.

Another Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy Poll

Since I have not yet received any other submissions besides my own that fit for this edition, I was wondering if people were still planning to submit articles to this edition.

Please let me know if you need more time. I will still accept submissions as long as they submitted to before Father's Day.

Limited Free Searching Of Ancestry's Newspapers

I just happened to read Randy's blog, and noticed that he had posted on Ancestry's limited-time offer on their historical newspapers. You can also read about it here. Enjoy!

Summer Reading Challenge: Book Review 3

Well, I have finally finished reading my third book. I've been reading several books at the same time, so it's been a while since I've had a chance to post one of these posts.

The book that I have just finished is Lincoln At Home: Two Glimpses of Abraham Lincoln's Domestic Life by David Herbert Donald (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association and Thornwillow Press, 1999). The book is short, coming only to about 96 pages long, and the book is focused on Lincoln's private life. One part of the book is divided into his and his family's life in the White House, and the other half of the book has transcriptions of letters between Lincoln, his wife, and their son, Robert. The book is very easy to read, and includes end notes at the end of the book that explains the context of the letters. Since I did not find any objectionable material in the book, I think it would be a good book for children to read and to use for reports.

Week of 8 June 2008: More Genealogy and History Blogs Added!

I've added a couple more genealogy and history blogs this week. The new blogs added are:

• Taneya's Genealogy Blog (I learned about this blog from Randy's Best Blog Articles of the Week post.)
• TeachGenealogy (I also learned about this blog from another one of Randy's posts.)
• Polish-American Genealogy Research
• Twig Talk
• Valeehill Genealogy Blog
• Wig-Wags (I learned about this blog from a World History Blog post.)

Of course, I should also state that I have not yet finished posting back up all of the posts that I use to have listed. I am still working on reconstructing the list.

Postmortem Photos: A Good Article To Read and My Thoughts

Within the past week, there has been a debate going around about postmortem photographs. A couple of interesting and informative articles on postmortem photos were written by footnoteMaven on her Shades of the Departed blog, and read the articles here and here. You can also read about the medicine bottles in one of the photos here.

Submissions for the 8th Edition Due Today!

I just want to remind everyone that submissions for the upcoming edition of the 8th Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy are due today by midnight. If you need more time, please let me know. I can extend the deadline if it is needed. Thanks!

Week of June 9, 2008 and Earlier: Genealogy and History News

This is the news relating to genealogy and history that I have noticed for this week and the past few weeks since my last post on this topic. So, here's this week's news:

• My post on database additions and updates for FamilySearch Lab's Record Search. Also, check out the Ancestry Insider's post for more information on the updates.
• The article on the discovery of a missing lighthouse. (Also check out my post on the topic.)
• An article on the discovery of an early, Christian church. (I also posted on this.)
• Dear Myrtle's post on bill to preserve U.S. history in Congress. You also posted two follow-up posts, here and here.
• Detroit's winning of the Stanley Cup. (I don't know if anyone considers this history or not, but it will become a part of sports history books some day.)

Well, I think that is all of the news of this past week or so. If I have missed any news, please let me know. Thanks!

Another Lesson Learned the Hard Way ...

As you might have remembered, in March, I posted an article on the importance making sure that one backs up his or her information after my computer crashed. Well, I'm really embarrassed to mention this, but I did not completely learn my lesson the first. No, my computer did not crash this time. Instead, my genealogy information was accidentally erased from the flash drive I had it on yesterday. I was trying to fix a problem with my flash drive, and everything on the drive was completely erased. So, now, I'm going to have to reinstall the family tree maker and re-enter all of the information that I have been working on for the past four years. Plus, I'll have to rescan some pictures that I did not add to my other flash drive the last time. Oh, well. I will definitely, though, make sure I back-up the information on to another device or program after I redo everything. If you have information on a flash drive, make sure you back it up on something else so that you do not have to redo work.

Another Reminder For the 8th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

I just want to remind everyone that submissions are due tomorrow (by 11:59 p.m.) for the 8th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. Again, the topic is on a male ancestor from the region.

Another Article You Might Find Interesting ...

I just happened to notice this article, posted on Yahoo, about archaeologists in Jordan discovering the first Christian church. You can read the article here. Enjoy!

Family History Center Visit 5

Earlier today I went back to the local Family History Center. Again, I did searching through the microfilm of church records for Holy Trinity (now known as St. Peter's). I did find a few more siblings of ancestors, but I was still unable to find a couple of my ancestors' siblings ( and children). I am still waiting for the other microfilm I ordered on Trippstadt, Germany deaths as it has not come in yet. Apparently there is a backlog on orders of microfilms, so I have held off on ordering any more microfilms until the other one comes in.

Another Quick Poll ...

I have created a new poll today in order to determine if certain posts are interesting to my readers or not. The question for this poll is: "Do you like reading posts on my Google Analytics results?" Your choices are:

• Yes
• No

You can only vote once and have about a week to vote. Enjoy!

Updates and New Databases In FamilySearch Labs' Record Search

I just happened to notice a couple days ago that FamilySearch's Record Search had updated some of their databases and added a new database. It appears that more images and names were added to the 1850 U. S. Census database. Also, the Philadelphia Marriages Index was added (images only). The Texas deaths, 1890 to 1976 (?) might also be new, but I don't remember if it was there before or not.

Another Google Analytics Post: The Top Ten Posts Of This Blog For The Past Month

I'm not sure if posting information from Google Analytics about my blog is interesting to my readers (if not, please tell me), but I thought I would post the top ten posts (in number of views) of this past month. The top ten posts are:

1. Here's An Interesting Article ... (with 71 views)


2. Things Handed Down: Traits and Characteristics (with 47 views)


3. FamilySearch Labs Adds More Databases To Record Search (with 31 views)


4. And Other Genealogy And History News That I Forgot To Mention (with 20 views)


5. 7th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy (with 15 views)


6. At The Beach ... and Speaking of Funny Place Names ... (tied with 13 views)


7. Tombstone Maker Website; My New Year's Resolutions: Five Months Later; 49th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!; and Just Wanted Everyone To Know ... (all tied with 10 views)
8. So, What Does It Mean To Be Irish? (with 9 views)
9. This Week's Genealogy and History News ...; 65th Carnival of History Posted!; Ancient History (search label); and Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy (all tied with 8 views)
10. My Family and the Great Depression ...; 6th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy; Family History Center Research Update; Genealogy And History News of the Past Week Or So; and A New Poll Created! (all tied with 7 views)

Well, that sums up this list of posts. To those who read my blog, thank you for reading.

Sixth Edition Of The Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The sixth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The next edition of this carnival is on Irish literature, and you read more about the topic here. Enjoy!

Four More Days ...

I just want to remind everyone that they have four more days to submit their entries to the next edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. Articles are due on June 12th.