A Little Movie I Created...

I just created this little movie earlier today. It is a movie about the different stages of life, and it showcases different times in one man's life. It's just supposed to be a fun, little movie.




Update at 8:40 p.m.: In case anyone is curious as to where I obtained the graphics, my post on my daily blog explains where they came from.

Added a Poll

I just added a poll to see how far back other people have researched their family history. It is just for fun, and I will write about the results after the poll closes in the next two weeks.

Classes Begin

Today, classes begin at my university, and that has led me to think about our ancestors and what school was like for them. That is, if they went to school at all. In our world, today, children are required by law to go to school up to a certain age, but laws requiring attendance did not always exist. Or if our ancestors went to school, they may have only gone to school for a few years, especially if they lived on a farm. I don't know how many years my great-grandfather went to school, but according to my grandfather, his education amounted to the equivalent of a fourth grade reading level. As for my great-great-grandfather, I don't even know how long he went to school or if he did go to school.

Of course, if our ancestors went to school there should be some evidence that they did. These are a few record types where one might find evidence for an ancestor's education:

• Yearbooks (I realize this one is an obvious one, but these books might not necessarily be high school yearbooks. My middle school also had yearbooks.)
• Biographies (Biographies of prominent members of an area may indicate whether an ancestor went to school or not.)
• Family Stories or Traditions (I know you still must verify your information, but you might be able to obtain accurate information on how much of an education that your grandparents or your great-grandparents obtained, from those who remember past generations.)
• Legal documents (These might not be necessarily be documents that state how much of an education a person obtained, but documents such as wills, deeds or pension files can indicate whether or not a person went to school through that person's signature or lack of one.)
• School pictures (Again, I realize this is an obvious source, but finding an ancestor in an old school picture will indicate that that ancestor did attend school at one point. My grandma still has a photo of her class in elementary school.)
• Census Records (Some censuses will indicate if an ancestor is in school and possibly hint at when an ancestor was in school and not.)
• Old licenses (Primarily of professions, such as medicine or law, might indicate whether a person had a formal education or not.)

There are probably many more sources that one can find that would indicate whether or not a person obtained an education, but most of the sources I have listed above are sources that are part of the public record. Some school districts probably had their own censuses or cards with a student's information; however, a person may not be able to obtain those records for legal reasons. (I do have one old school district card, that I found in some family papers, that lists information on a student's family and which school that student attended.) Even though I just listed some records, there are other genealogists who have written articles on where one could find records. Other articles on school records include:

• Ancestry's Tips from the Pros: School Records
• Ancestry's 27 August 2006 Tips from the pros: School Records

These are just two articles that I quickly found. I don't doubt that there are others. If anyone else knows about other school records, please feel free to leave a comment. I can always add an update listing other people's suggestions. Thanks.

An Interesting Picture ...

I took a walk around my campus earlier today, and took some pictures. This is one of the pictures, and it is of a historical marker that I found on my campus. I realize the quality of this picture is poor, but I did read the marker. According to this marker, this area of my college's campus used to be a settlement. This settlement was involved in Michigan's lumbering industry over a hundred and fifty years ago. (For those who don't know, lumbering was a major industry in Michigan, especially northern Michigan, in the nineteenth century). I don't think most people would care or expect to find a historical marker on their campus. I guess this just goes to show you that you can find history where ever you go or look for it. Even if your college is fairly young compared to other college campuses.

To see other pictures I took and posted to another one of my blogs, click here.

Added Another History Blog

Today I found another history blog and added it to my history blog list. The history blog added is:

• Maggie's History of American Women

You can find this blog on the lower left hand of this page. Any other suggestions for history blogs are welcome.

Three Interesting Olive Tree Genealogy Blog Posts

I just recently noticed these three posts that I thought might of some interest to other genealogists:

• "Philadelphia Pennsylvania Baggage Lists"
• "Fort Ville-Marie, French Settlement in Montreal in 1642 found!"
• "Palatine History"

All three of the articles appear to be very interesting from a genealogical and historical view.

Birthdays ... and Genealogy

Today is my birthday, and earlier today I started to wonder about birthday celebrations in the past. I mean, how did our ancestors' celebrate their birthdays? Did they celebrate with parties and gift-giving? When did gift-giving start to become a tradition?

I don't have the answer to any of these questions. I just started to wonder about it. Hm .... I smell a research project! It looks as though I need to do research on these questions.

Anyhow, besides wondering how birthdays are celebrated, I started thinking about when people come of age. Not all too long ago, the age when a person legally came of age was twenty-one in this country and in other countries. I don't know if the legal age for adulthood is twenty-one is in other countries, but I do know that culturally, in the United Kingdom, twenty-one was once the age associated with coming of age. When my Mom turned twenty-one, her relatives sent her money because that was they age that they associated with coming of age. I don't know if that is still the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Of course, I wonder why twenty-one was chosen as the age when a person became an adult. I guess I'll just have to research it.

That's just my thoughts. Does anyone else have thoughts about birthdays and genealogy?

Two More History Blogs Added

Over the past few days, I have added two more history blogs. Those blogs are:

• Mass Moments (I first learned about this blog from Randy Seaver's post.)
• Roy Booth's Early Modern Whale

You can find the links to these two blogs on the lower left hand of the page. Any suggestions for other blogs are welcome.

Update at 9:oo p.m.: I should have said that I'm interested in genealogy or history blogs. I deleted the first two comments to this post because the blog suggestion was not to a history or genealogy blog. I'm sorry for any confusion that this might have generated.

Family Myths and Traditions - Confirmed, Disproved or Unconfirmed

Very few family myths or legends have been passed down in my family, so I haven't had many stories to investigate or confirm. I have, though, been able to confirm a few stories or at least confirm some of the facts in the few stories that my family has.

On my father's side, there was a story that one of our ancestors had served in the Civil War. I was able to confirm that this story was true and in addition to my ancestor, his brother-in-laws , his wife's uncle and possible at least two possible brothers also served. (I haven't been able to completely verify yet that these two other men living in the same county are my ancestor's brothers. I'm still doing research on whether are his brothers.)

Another story from my father's side claims that someone in the family became a cattle-rustler, but I haven't proven that story yet.

On my mother's side, one family story claims that my great-grandfather was the youngest of thirteen children and that he went to live with a married siblings after his parents died. This older sibling mistreated him to the point that he ran away at thirteen and joined the crew of a ship. I've been able to confirm that he ended up living in the household of his older, married brother, but I haven't been able to confirm the part about working on a ship. I don't know how true that portion is. Also, I've only been able to find about ten other siblings, so it may be possible that he was the youngest to thirteen.

These are just a couple of the few stories that were passed down. For most of the few family traditions that my family has, I have not yet confirmed or disproved them. I'm still searching.

Haven't Posted In a While

I've been busy lately and haven't had time to post anything, so I apologize to those who were wondering why I haven't posted lately. Now that I am back at school, the focus of my posting will be on history, but I might still write posts for the Carnival of Genealogy.

Added Two More Genealogy blogs

I just recently added two genealogy blogs. Those blogs are:

• Radixlog's Hungarian Genealogy News blog
• Family Connections

If anyone has any other suggestions for genealogy or history blogs, please feel free to leave a comment with a suggestion. Thanks.

Update at 7:20 am: I forgot to mention that you can find the link to these and other blogs on the lower left side of this blog. I'm sorry for any of the confusion.

Next Edition of Carnival of Genealogy Posted

I just wanted to let everyone know that the latest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted at footnote Maven's blog.

Library of Michigan Program

I just noticed on Ancestry's blog that the Library of Michigan has set up a class for kids on how to do genealogy. You can read Ancestry's article here. I would also read the article that Ancestry's blog provides a link to, and you can read that article here.

The title of the post, though, is a bit misleading because it states "Michigan State Library." When I first read the title, I thought the library at Michigan State University (MSU) was hosting the program. As a person from Michigan, whenever I see the phrase "Michigan State," I think of the university first. I guess I'm just too conditioned to think that way.

An Interesting Book

A few weeks ago, I went to one of the local libraries in the area that I live in, and found this book: Cripple Creek Days by Mabel Barbee Lee (Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Garden City, New York, 1958). (Okay, the library was giving away books it had decided to discard, and I got it for free.) I have not yet read this book, but it appears to be the author's memoir of Cripple Creek, Colorado's heyday.

So, if anyone is interested in the history of Cripple Creek, this probably would be a good book to read.

Another More Genealogy Blogs Posted Post

Today, I have just added several more genealogy posts. The posts added are:

• Dick Eastman's Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
• Bogus Corners
• Family History Quest
• World Vital Records blog
• Sandra Rothman's Forgotten Ancestors: A Journey to Western Ukraine
• Pat's a Journey into the Past
• Genealogy Dribs and Drabs

If anyone else has any ideas or suggestions for other genealogy or history blogs, you are more than welcome to leave a comment with your suggestions.

Looking for Muskegon County, Michigan Family Histories

To be honest, I'm not looking for the family histories, but the Muskegon County Genealogical Society is. I only found out about this today from reading Miriam, of AncesStories, and Dear Myrtle's posts.

From what I have read, the society is planning to publish a book on family histories from Muskegon County.

Unfortunately, I don't have any roots in Muskegon County. Now, if a book for Saint Joseph County were to come out, I might be interested in sending a family history . . .

Tombstone Maker Website

I just learned about this website from reading Randy Seaver's post. On this website, you can create your own tombstone epitaph.

I thought it was an interesting site, so I decided to create a tombstone marker. Here is mine:









Update: July 30, 2007:





I also created a tombstone for one of my ancestors. I know where he is buried (now, after a wild goose chase), but he doesn't have a grave marker. So, I made him one. Here it is:





Okay, I know the epitaph is not the most original, but this was the best I could think of. Maybe someday I will tell the story of how I found his grave, but it won't be today.

Ancestry News - More Databases

In case you haven't noticed, Ancestry has added several databases for Australian genealogy. The link to the information can be found here: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1672.

Also, Ancestry has updated the British World War One Pension records. You can read about it here: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1673.

Ethical Issues in Genealogy that I have come across

I really haven't come across too many ethical issues in my genealogical research, but there two that I believe are important. I won't talk about copyright laws as Steve Danko and Footnote Maven have already posted on this issue. Personally, when it comes to copyright issues, I think it is just better not to post what ever it is on the internet. But I digress; there are additional issues that bother me.

Online family trees, like Ancestry's World Connect, without sources bother me. I personally don't believe that citing a gedcom is sufficient enough as a source of where one personally obtained the information on their tree. I realize that I could always e-mail the tree's owner; however, I have run into situations where a person will have listed one of my ancestor's on his or her tree, and upon e-mailing that person, I learn that the tree's owner does not have any further information or where he or she has obtained that information. Or, I am unable to contact a person because there isn't an e-mail address listed. I'm sorry, but if someone is going to spend the time and effort to post his or her family tree on the web, he or she might as well spend the time to add citations on where he or she has found the information. The time spent on researching one's genealogy is fairly equivalent to doing research for a history paper or a history book. I realize that not everyone is a history major, but in every field that requires research all of the final papers have to have citations and information on where one has obtained his or her information. Any information that is not part of the public domain has to have a citation. It has to be verifiable. The citing format that I use is the Chicago Manual. I use this format for my citations in my history papers and since I'm familiar with this format, it is more convenient to use.

Another issue, with is really a sub-category of the above, is the plagiarism of other people's research. Yes, it is plagiarism if you copy someone else's research and then post on your tree as your research without acknowledging that other person's information. I realize that you can't take information on the web as gospel truth. My problem is that some people have copied other people's work, and having stated that the information they have posted is not their own. Why? It is downright dishonest. I realize that the best way to prevent people from stealing one's research is to not post it on the internet at all. I don't have my family tree online, and if someone has given me information, I cite who's work it is.

Another reason why I do not have my family tree online is that I want to minimize the risk of identity theft. I do not want to make it easy for anyone to steal my or a relative's identity, for that matter. And as I stated briefly before, it is better to not post something to the web if there is a risk that a person could end up in legal trouble or end up with a family feud. Or have one's identity stolen. Sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry.

A Few More Blogs Added

I've been really busy for the past week, so I haven't been able to post anything. I probably will not be posting as frequently as I have in the past because I have some stuff I have to work on. Anyhow, I have added a few more genealogy and history blogs today.

The genealogy blogs I have added are:

• Apple's Tree
• Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi

The history blog that I have added is:

• Sandusky Library Archive's Sundusky History

Again, you can find these and other blogs on the left of the page. If anyone else has any other suggestions for other genealogy and history blogs, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks.