I'm Late Again - Puckerbrush Award

I am late, as always. I was given this award some time ago. I won't say how long. But, I am only now finding enough time at one sitting to get it taken care of. Thank you Cheryl at HeritageHappens and Geni at Ginisology for giving me the award!

Now, I might not have been able to find the time to blog, but I was certainly thinking about what blogs have influenced over the years. I was reading blogs long before I gave it a try. Usually I try to find the newer blogs to give awards to in hopes of bringing them into the circle, but this time I will truly give this one to the blogs I go to most often. Some I consider learning experiences that everyone should have on the 'must visit often' list!

Randy Seaver of "Genea-Musings" was one of the first blogs I read. I have learned much from Mr. Seaver. He has an easy to follow writing style and a way of going step by step that is made for easy following. He is a must on any list. I only wish he lived near and I could attend his talks.

Next is Denise of "FamilyMatters". I have learned much about the nuts and bolts of the tools I use online today. I really miss that she hasn't blogged in a while, but her archives are there and searchable. I would recommend that everyone go and read through them. Very informative.

Of course there is "Dear Myrtle". She is an absolute must read. I have been using her Get Organized lists this year. I appreciate her blog and it's information very much. She keeps me up to date about everything!

Renee of "Renee's Genealogy Blog" is the first genealogy blog I think I ran across. She was at another place back then. Her blog was informative and still is. I keep up with the FamilySearch changes at Renee's.

"Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog" is a very long name for a blog. It is deserved. Harold keeps me up on genealogy in my area of the country. Anyone in the midwest should follow his blog!

Jasia over at "Creative Gene" is another that I go to regularly. She often posts her scrapbook pages, though I believe she is all digital. I am still old-fashioned. I am still hard-copy scrapbooking. One day I will switch to the 21st century!

FootnoteMaven and Shades of the Departed are must reads too! fM and I share a deep love of old photos. She is always a good read. I consider her a friend as well. Shades is what I consider a 'learning' blog. I've come to enjoy the columnists and even have favorites I hate to miss!

Becky over at Kinexxions is a fellow Hoosier and very informative as well. She has given me many good ideas. One that comes to mind immediately is using aluminium foil to 'read' an old and faded tombstone! Comes in handy to have someone sharing these wonderful and helpful ideas!

And then there's Jessica and her "Jessica's Genejournal". I enjoy reading this young woman's blog. She always has something interesting and informative to say. She should be very proud of herself. She is a good writer and a good researcher!

I know the list looks like only 9, but fM gets it twice! She's just double the fun!! I do, of course, read many more as time permits. But it would be a very long list and you would give up reading long before you got to the end of the list.

Since I am so late I will not inform each one of the award as one normally would. I will simply put this up and tweet. Probably all have already gotten this award at least once. I know I have seen it already on some of them. I don't want to make them do it all over again. But if you show up, and you are on my list, all I can say is thank you. You have become a part of my life, and I think of all of you often in my research.

Read more...

Dad's Calling - The Good Earth

I could start out on this topic going a back a century or more and talking about ancestors that came to this country and farmed. I have a family history of farmers on both sides. But, I don't have to talk about family stories or ancestors I never met. I'll start with a very contemporary memory.

My Dad, Rufus Brock, died in June of 2006. So I will dedicate this post to him.

He was born in Alabama, but moved to Indiana with his family when he was a teen. His father didn't care for the family business, farming. He worked in a factory that was building a plant in Indiana. He agreed to go north. Dad lied about his age and went to work in the new Indiana plant. There he worked until he took early retirement when the plant was being closed in the 70's. He was a line foreman and die setter at Arvin Industries when he retired.

He then embarked upon his second career. He became a general contractor. He enjoyed building things. I have many pieces of furniture he built for me and often pass houses he built around town. He was good at it. But there was only one thing he did all his life. One thing he loved the most. He always had a garden. It was in his blood.


So he retired late from contracting, and began his final career and journey. Dad loved to learn and try new things.


He began his gardening in earnest. He took his vegetables to the farmers markets in the tri-county area. He was always growing unusual vegetables and the flower salads he made were quite popular! He offered fresh cut flowers when he had them.

Somehow he made the newspaper almost every year. He had become a well-known and well-liked regular at the local farmer's market. He went home with an empty truck most of the time. I think he enjoyed meeting the people at the markets most.

He spent his last morning in his beloved garden. That is how he would have wanted it to be.

Written for Carnival of Genealogy: The Good Earth
Due: June 1, 2009

Read more...

One Lovely Blog Award

Diana R. over at Random Relatives gave me an award! She said, "The instructions are quite simple - just to nominate 7 other blogs." Thank you so much, Diana, for the recognition of TwigTalk. I appreciate it.








Finding Grandpa

A Couple of Bubbles off Center

Gena's Genealogy

Tangled Trees

Two Sides of The Ocean

Kinfold News

Searching For Family Branches

Read more...

Busy and More Busy!

Seems like I never have time to post anymore. Right now so many things are calling out for my attention. I'm still working with RM4. I like it very much. I can cut down on the mess on WorldConnect, thanks to Mr. RM [Bruce B.], but not make it all look nice. Some still present different and not very neatly. But that is WC's fault. It needs to be upgraded I think. I like RM and will stay with it.
I have gotten 2 cemeteries [photos; one complete and one partial] onto the county site and I'm working on the third. Then I have 4th and 5th. . . . and a huge folder full of snippets, an entire family, and a lot of little things, photos both person and place type yet to go online. I have enough to keep me busy until next year. I will be going to cemeteries again myself to photograph stones. Nice to have a lot to do. For a long time the site was so quiet, no subs coming in at all. Nice pick up!
I've been looking at the FamilySearch Wiki. I wonder if anyone knows about uploading your file onto the new FamilySearch. I had read some time ago that it would be different. That you would be able to work on your tree online at the new FamilySearch and you could fix mistakes as well. I have been waiting for that and have heard nothing. I have been interested in putting mine online there when that is available. Right now I am just trying to find my way around and see everything. Though I did try working with the Wiki. I was putting one of my courthouse photos onto the Jackson County, Indiana page in the United States Wiki. I failed. I uploaded the photo and got a confirmation that it had gotten there but when I tried to put it in the Courthouse part of the page it kept saying there was no such image. I will try again later.
In the middle of all that I just need to make time for blogging! I'll make it somehow. I got an award and have only just remembered. I will get it up later as well....

Read more...

Blogoversary. . . Number 1

Well, it would seem that year number 1 is gone already. How time flies. I actually forgot all about it. I have been so busy lately that blogging has taken a back burner. Shame on me. But, I figure you have to go where life leads.
Thinking about when I started blogging brought to mind all that has transpired this year. I've met so many wonderful people. All of you Genea-bloggers! How marvelous you all are! I didn't even know you were out there. It's great to have gotten to know you all. I've learned so much and gotten so much work done as a result. I enjoy the community of like-mindedness. It's been a wonderful year full of results, friendships, lessons and fun. I've made more contacts than ever before. Can't ask for much more than that!
I can only hope that year 2 is just as productive. That I continue to grow in every area of my life. With Facebook and Twitter added to this blog, I find that it is easy to branch out even more, into places I thought I would never be. Explore other areas that I could not go before. So much to do and so little time.
You all have added such wonderful texture to the canvas of my life. Thank you all.

Read more...

Still Plodding On . . . . .

I have been updating files. Actually, file. I am still working on my Janes/Jaynes file. I have entered hundreds of sources, numerous individuals, photos and documents. I still have to finish up adding the census cites then I will be done, completely up to date with my Janes/Jaynes family. Sounds good. But . . . . :o) . . . . I have 3 more to update after this one. It is going to take a while.
NEW PROMISE TO SELF:
I will enter sources, individuals and documents as I go. I will not say, "I'll do it later", not once! This will not happen again.
I hope I'm listening. I am sniffling, sneezing and headachy which requires meds. But, of course that is NO excuse. I'll be very mad at myself if I come to this point again in a couple of years.
I can't believe how it piles up so fast. Anyway, I pulled all my files of the people in the file and have gone through the notes again. Some little treasures there. They didn't fit the last time I went through them, they do now. That is always fun. Besides it is very nice to see how far along I have come on some of the lines in the file. While still at a standstill on others. In particular my David Janes in Kentucky. I think in the end I will have to go through all the Janes in the area and find where they belong. Perhaps then I can see another avenue in this family. Though I am still pretty certain that he is the son of David from the "History of the Janes-Peek Family by Dr. Collins. If that is the only Janes family/line in the area, I will be even more certain. I can't find his death. I know they came north to Indiana to Washington County after 1860, as he is in the Washington County census in 1870. But other researchers have him in Kentucky after that, so it is still up in the air. So the hunt will continue when I have the time.......
I am doing all of this in the RootsMagic 4. I am VERY happy with this program! I cannot even say how happy. Sources are a breeze. It's nice to NOT have questions about how to cite a particular source. I've run into just about every kind citable (if that is a word) and no questions. I wasn't sure about 3, but I am pleased with 4. I've gotten quite familiar with the program now too.

Read more...

Techno Gen, My World - Blogging Prompt #14

I'll start off saying that over the past 3 days I have gotten so much work done! The only way to get used to a new program is to use it, use it, use it! So I did! I have added, to be exact now, 133 individuals (44 families), and 202 source/citations. I was using/learning the new RootsMagic4. I have to say I am really pleased. I wasn't sure about version 3 but this new one is excellent. The source/citing in particular. I could not have gotten so much done otherwise. I did not have to go to help at all. It is a really friendly program.
All of this is in only one of my files. the Janes/Jaynes file. I have my main file broken into 4, plus I have the kids and in-law files. (It's just easier for me to work on broken up.) So my first technology is the new RootsMagic4. (Bravo and thanks Bruce B.!!)
I'm actually rather low-tech. I use Windows Notepad a lot. I also use Treepad, the free version. Though during the past few days I have added notes to RM4's "To Do" under the person I need to do about. RM4 allows me to print them out so why have a dozen things up and running.
I never take in gedcoms from people or from online. I will go over them and by hand, extract things I need. I use MudCreeks GenViewer to open and look at gedcoms. I bought it several years ago and it continues to be fine, even when I made the change to Vista from XP. I worked on genealogy for many years before I got on the internet. So, I still tend to want to work on paper first, though I am getting very 21st century in the past couple of years! I may toss out those pencils yet!
Irfanview . This is the most important word people can learn! LOL! This little viewer has become THE most important image tool I have. It will batch resize! What a wonder! It will also open .gif format, which Windows no longer supports in Vista). I have PaintShopPro8 for doing any touch-ups, etc. to my images. I am happy with version 8 and have not updated. I also have GIMP, but I am not as comfortable with it.
Since blogging I have had so much help and a lot of contacts. I think blogs are the greatest thing since sliced bread for genealogy nowadays! Besides it's fun and you get to talk genealogy! Most people just want me to shut up. Now I can talk and talk.... (just click the little x on your tab above :o) Then there is Facebook, Twitter and all the other online goodies to help with the contact/aid and conversation part of the addiction...sorry, hobby. Let's see, I can Tweet and comment on FB at the same time, I can send a note, post, etc. from Diigo (Diigo is wonderful) to FB or Twitter. This is only the beginning........
NOW I have to learn "Cloud Computing"!
I really am a minimalist. The less stuff the more work as far as I am concerned.

This is my first time at Blogging Prompt. Nice!

Read more...