Connecting With Cousins

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have made connections with distant cousins, even though I have not met them in person. (I will not mention the names of my cousins as I do not have their permission. I'm not going to use any names, real or fake.)

So, how did I connect with other cousins? I mainly made connections through the message boards at Rootsweb and Genealogy.com. I have also connected with other cousins through contacting the owners of family trees that have my ancestors. In a couple of cases, I connected with cousins that I did not know, but were known by my grandparents. So, I have been able to verify people's claims that way. I must state, though, that I have only connected with a few cousins. I have not connected with very many cousins.

Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column Nine

Over this past week, Randy Seaver and Lee Anders have blogged about whether or not to help other people search for living people, and I thought that I would add my two cents to this debate.

To be honest, I really haven't searched for living people at the request of strangers. The closest I have come to looking for a living person is when I looked up the phone number of cousin for one of my cousins. Of course, I also knew why my distant cousin wanted to contact this other cousin; we were both hoping that this cousin might know more about our family's history. Outside of that situation, I have not been asked to search for living people.

Would I search for living people? Probably not. Personally, I don't like searching for living people as I feel that would be an invasion of a person's privacy. I truly believe that people have a right to their privacy, and I don't like the idea of intruding into people's lives. As I have stated before, I really haven't had to deal with this issue, and I really don't have any experience in searching for living people.

The only genealogy research that I engage in at the moment is my own genealogy. I have never been asked to help anyone do any genealogical research. When I have contacted people that I did not know on a line, I have either contacted that person through e-mail or on a message board, and even then, I clearly state that I believe we share a connection with the explanation as to how. Again, when I do contact strangers, I am only contacting that person or persons in the hope that maybe he or she has some information that would help me make a connection with an ancestor.

I won't go into detail about the ethical and legal issues of this problem as the issues have already been covered and to write about them would be redundant. But I can't help putting myself into the shoes of the person who is being searched for. If I knew that someone was searching for me, would I like that? Probably not. I mean, would I really want a classmate from elementary school searching for me? Probably not. Sometimes people don't want to be contacted by someone from their past for various reasons. If this person had not been a friend, I'm not sure if I would want to be contacted by someone who I haven't seen for the past forty years. Of course, some people would not have a problem. Maybe it is just me who has the problem. I honestly don't know.

Congragulations to Blaine Bettinger!

I just want to congratulate Blaine Bettinger for becoming a member of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy. I just noticed his announcement, and I want to say, "Congrats!"

New Poll Created!

I have just created a new poll, in order to determine what topics I should write about in my Genealogy and History Thoughts columns. The question is: "What topics would you like to see covered in the Genealogy and History Thoughts columns?" The choices are:

• Personal research experiences
• Contemporary genealogy issues
• Information on historical events
• Information on historical places or landmarks
• Information on the history of a location

Even though I have given five choices, you do not have to limit yourself to these five. If you would like to see a topic or have an idea, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

Note About the Genealogy and History Thoughts Columns

As you probably know, I have not posted a Genealogy and History Thoughts column in a while. Since I last posted one of the columns, I have been very busy. I have not discontinued the column, and I will start posting this columns. I do not believe I will be able to post a column every week as I originally intended because I am expecting another busy semester at school. Even though the columns will not be as regular, I still hope to write and post more columns in the coming months.

Genealogy Article on Pennsylvania Records ...

A couple of days ago, I noticed that Randy Seaver posted an article on Pennsylvania records. I have been busy lately, so I did not have a chance to post on this article earlier.

Of course, I read this article with interest, as I have at least three major lines that come from Pennsylvania. The only problem for me is that my ancestors lived in Pennsylvania before the state began to collect vital records. All of them died before death records were instituted, so I don't have death certificates to look at. The only records on death that I would find are probate records, church records, or newspaper death notices/obituaries. My biggest problem at the moment is trying to determine the church or churches that my ancestors attended. So far, I have not been successful in determining which ones those churches are. Another road block to my research is that I do not live in Pennsylvania, and so far, I have only been able to do my research from outside of the state. I have not researched in Pennsylvania yet.

But I digress, as the article was not on records before recording was instituted. This article was on the efforts of other researchers to get Pennsylvania to allow for wider access to its vital records, especially in the form of death certificates. The article ended with the suggestion that researchers write to the Governor and state Representatives about changing the law. Even though most of my research will deal with records pre-1906, I probably should write a letter when I have the time to do so.

Also, on another note, I just want to mention that Lisa at Small-Leaved Shamrock also wrote an article about this issue back in December.

New Genealogy Blog Added!

Today, I have added another genealogy blog. The blog added is:

• What's Past Is Prologue

I first learned about this blog from Jasia's post. You can find this blog and other genealogy and history blogs on the lower left hand side of the page. Any suggestions for other history or genealogy blogs are welcome.

The Genetic Genealogist Hosts Contest For Free DNA Test!

I realize that other people have already posted about this contest in the past few days that Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist, but I decided to post on this contest as well.

So, what are the requirements to enter? Well, one could post an article on the contest on his or her blog, and leave a comment with the URL for the post entry. One could subscribe to the feed of The Genetic Genealogist blog, or one could leave a comment explaining why one would to win the contest.

What is the prize? The prize is a free DNA test, and one could choose one test out of three. One could choose either a mDNA test, or from two different y-DNA tests.

To be honest, I am not sure what I would actually do with a genetic test, as I have never talked to any of family members about doing one. I am not sure if I could get my family to agree to the test. If I had to choose, I think I would do a y-DNA test on my last name, as that might be the easiest option in doing research. If other DNA tests have been done by people of the same last name, I might be able to make a connection, but that is, again, an if.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The carnival of genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next carnival is on meeting or connecting with living relatives while doing research. Enjoy!

1908: Where Were My Ancestors?

Earlier today, Lisa over at 1oo Years in America blog, put a challenge for other genealogy bloggers to write about where their ancestors were in 1908.

So, where were my ancestors in 1908? Well, they were living in various places ...

Some of my ancestors were living in the United Kingdom. Some of my ancestors were living in the county of Lancashire. Other ancestors who were living in England, I am not as positive as to where they were living, but they were most likely living in Bedforshire county. One ancestor, I am not even sure if he was still living in Scotland or was living in England. I do not know at the moment.

As for my American ancestors, most were living in Michigan: either in Detroit, or rural counties such as Saint Joseph County and Gladwin County. Other ancestors were living in Cleveland, Ohio. For one of my ancestors, I don't know where he was living are time, as I have not been able to find him in the 1910 census. He was either living in New Jersey or some other state. I do not have any clue, as he was working as a salesman and was traveling at this time.

So, as you can see, I still have holes that I need to fill, and I don't know exactly where all of my ancestors were at that time.

An Interesting Irish Genealogy Research Article ...

In light of the posting of the 2nd edition of the Carnival of Irish Culture and Heritage, I decided to post on an article that was just recently posted on Ancestry's Weekly Journal. You can read the article here.

Even though the article was short, I read it because I had a question that was similar to the topic of the article. I was wondering whether or not passenger lists existed for ships that carried passengers from Ireland to Scotland. Now that I have a little better understanding of whether or not lists existed, I'll have to keep in mind that a passenger list might not have existed for my ancestors. Either way, I thought this article was informative.

Yesterday ...

I hope everyone had good New Year's Day yesterday. I couldn't help but notice Jasia's article about the snow that she got over New Year's Eve, so I decided to write about my New Year's Day.

As most of you have probably figured out by now, I live in Michigan. I don't think I need to mention that a snow storm passed over Michigan the night before yesterday. Anyhow, where I'm staying at the moment, about 12 inches of snow fell over that night. The storm was pretty bad, so much so, that we ended up having several guests spend the night, since it was too dangerous to drive. Of course, that's not all ...

We also lost power at our house some time between and eight and nine the morning of New Year's Day. A power line fell down somewhere in the area that we lived. So, we were out of power until about 7:30 that night. So, in all, it was a pretty interesting day. ... And this morning, I woke up to see that another 2 to 3 inches had fallen last night. Ah, snow ...

2nd Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The second edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture was posted yesterday! You can read it here. The topic for the next carnival is on Irish places that your ancestors came from. The entries are due on January 29th. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

I just want to wish everyone a happy New Year. Enjoy!

2007 in Review: So, How Did I Do?

I don't have any resolutions to compare my genealogy accomplishments for 2007 as I did not start blogging until this past March. Even though, I did not have any resolutions, I did have some goals that I wanted to accomplish.

Goal One: Obtain the death notices and obituaries for my ancestors and their siblings who lived in Detroit. Results: I obtained some of the death notices for this branch. I was only able to go through the Detroit Free Press, and I did not find all of the notices. I have not yet checked the Detroit News, so the notices might still exist.

Goal Two: Order microfilms from the LDS of church records for the area of England that my ancestors lived. Results: I was able to order a couple of microfilms, but I was only able to find a couple of ancestor's marriage records. I did not find any baptismal records for my ancestors.

Goal Three: Order Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania probate records on microfilm. Results: I was able to order one microfilm from the LDS. I found the probate entry for my ancestor. It confirmed the name of his two sons, but did not mention the names of any other possible children.

Goal Four: Find the naturalization records for one of my ancestors. Results: I have not found it yet, but I have not had any time to go the state archives and look up the naturalization records.

Goal Five: Look up the death record of a possible sibling of an ancestor. Results: I was able to look up the record, and have a couple of the leads. I am still looking for more information to confirm the relationship.

Goal Six: Visit the local family history center. Results: I went a handful of times to the local center. I was not able to as much research as I liked, but a did a little.

Goal Seven: Find the marriage record of my great-grandparents. Results: I was only able to go to the state library once, and I did not have a chance to search for to search for their marriage record. I hope to find it this upcoming year.

Well, I remember of any more goals that I set-up as I did not write them down. As you can see, I did not accomplish all of my goals. I had hoped to be much further a long now than I am. I know I still have a lot more researching to do, and I hope to do more this summer than I did this past summer.

Genealogy Resolutions for 2008

Even though I did not come up with a genealogical list of New Year's resolutions for this past year, I've decided to come up with some for 2008. So, here's my list:

1. I hope to get a chance to go to the Grand Rapids Public Library this year. The main branch of the library has records of the Old Soldiers' Home where my ancestor spent the last two years of his life. I am hoping to find more information than I did at the state archive of Michigan.
2. Order more microfilms of probate records for Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.
3. Look up and print other probate records of ancestors who lived and died in Saint Joseph County, Michigan.
4. Order birth, marriage and death records of ancestors from the United Kingdom.
5. Order microfilms of Trippstadt, Germany's civil records.
6. And last, but not least, I hope to make more connections and to find more ancestors and relatives.

Well, those are my resolutions. I realize that it is not a lot, but I believe that I probably will be able to accomplish most of these resolutions. Well, I'll just have to wait until next year to see how I did.

Irish Research

I do not have any experience in researching Irish genealogy. I do have a couple of ancestors who were born in Ireland, but I'm not sure if they are Irish or Scottish. I haven't had much time to do research on those ancestors, so I don't know much about Irish records. I know more about English records, although my research has only been done on a long distance basis.

I do know, though, that FamilySearch Indexing is working on indexing the births, marriages and death indexes for Ireland at the moment as I have helped to index a couple of images. These index books, unsurprisingly, look like the indexes for England and Wales. (Ancestry and Free BMD do have images of the pages of the England and Wales' books' on their sites.)

Outside of that, I do not know anything about Irish records. Hopefully, I'll get some time in the summer to read up on the subject.

Poll Results

The poll is now closed, and the results are in! The question for this poll was, "Where in the British Isles are your ancestors from?" Nine people voted, and the results are:

• England - 8 votes
• Scotland - 4 votes
• Wales - 2 votes
• Ireland - 6 votes
• Other Islands - 0 votes

I think this has been one of the polls that has had the most participation. To those who voted, thank you for voting. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy!

Celebrating Christmas Eve ...

On Christmas Eve, my family usually goes over to my grandparent's house. Usually we have dinner, and then we open gifts that they bought for us. We would spend several hours at their house, eating and talking. In all, I don't believe our Christmas Eve tradition is very much different from other families' celebrations.