Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What First Sparked Your Interest in Family History?

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  Daniel Loftus and several other genealogists on Twitter (see My Genealogy Story?) challenged genealogists to share what first sparked their interest in family history.  What was yours?

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, in a post on Facebook, or on Twitter using the #MyGenealogyStory hashtag.  

Here's mine:

As I mentioned in my 2011 post, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Thanksgiving Edition, my maternal grandfather, Pop Pop, is the one who sparked my interest in genealogy.  He left behind a steno pad full of names and dates, and I took those and added and added to them until I now have 19,360 people in my database!  I've come a long way in the last 10 years!

Genealogy was a hobby I would work on feverishly for awhile and then set aside for a long while.  Then I would come back to it.  This went on for years until about 15 years ago or so, I really began to become immersed in it.  I went to my first conference, visited my local Family History Center location, became friends with genealogists from around the world through social media, and started a blog.

I also combined vacation trips with genealogy, for instance, visiting California with my mother for her high school reunion, but also visiting cemeteries, old home locations, etc.  Then in 2011, Mom and I traveled up through Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, visiting Civil War battle sites and researching my great-grandfather Tapley's path through the war.  

Now in the last 10 years, since I moved to North Carolina, I have moved away from the "social" aspect of the hobby but am totally immersed in working on genealogy in my home almost every single day.  I am constantly checking Ancestry hints, obituaries, Find a Grave or any other genealogical site for information to add to my family tree.  I visit Georgia several times a year, and we almost always visit with a cousin or go to a cemetery, or both!  

My late cousin, Wesley, Jr., was also instrumental in keeping those genealogy sparks of flame burning!  He had an excellent memory and boy, could he tell you some stories!  He would always talk family history with me and share whatever he knew.  It was like I had the names and dates aspect from Pop Pop, but I also got the names turning into real, live people through the stories Wesley Jr shared with me.  

Today, I have a family history database, an online family tree, a hard drive just for genealogy, lots of papers and photos, and a blog.  And I still want to grow it even more!

This is a passion, a calling, and an obsession.  I would rather do this than anything else.  Many times, I do.

Thank you, Pop Pop for giving me the spark to get me started.  Thank you, Wesley, Jr., for fanning those flames and keeping me going.

    

Pop Pop and me

Wesley Jr

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Best Family History Discovery This Week

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  What was your best family history or genealogy discovery (or discoveries) this past week (or month if you choose)?

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook. 

Here's mine:

I made some small discoveries this week:

*  I have been going through my tree and trying find the first names or surnames I am missing.  I will pick up a relative's wife's first name in an obituary, but there is no maiden name listed, for instance.  So I have found a good number of these names by using Ancestry hints and that makes my tree feel more complete.

* During this process, I have also discovered several instances of children attached to the wrong wife or even additional wives I did not know a relative had!  

* While doing this research, I sometimes trip over information I was not even looking for!  That happened this week when I was able to take my Hesser line (sort of - it's through their wives) back a few more generations to my 10th great-grandparents, William Blunston (1626-1683) and his wife, Anne Gamble (1628-1683).  This was exciting, especially after doing poorly in my Ancestor Score 2022 a couple of weeks ago!  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - 1940 U.S. Census Last Name Numbers

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  How many people had your four grandparents' exact last names at birth in the 1940 U.S. Census?  

(2)  List each last name at birth and the number of persons having that last name in the 1940 U.S. Census using an exact surname match.  I used Ancestry.com for this since I have a paid membership.  However, I could have used FamilySearch instead, if I had chosen to do so, as it is free.  

(3)  Have you performed a "one name search" for any of those last names and added them to your family tree?

(4)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook. 

Here's mine:

Two of my grandparents had the same last name at birth, so I only had three names to search.  The number of people with their exact last names in the 1940 U.S. Census are:

*    Tapley = 1,823

*    Drake = 36,622

*    Ranney = 1,901

I got these numbers from Ancestry.com by going to "Search," and then choosing the database "1940 United States Federal Census."  (I was lucky that it is a featured database so it was right there on the main search page!)  In the Search box, I checked "Match all terms exactly," and entered the surname I was searching for under "Last Name."  Then I scrolled down to the bottom and clicked "Search."  It was that easy!

I am not entirely confident is the accuracy of the numbers, especially for the Drakes.  I saw several names on the list that were NOT Drake.  Perhaps they are misspellings that were corrected by users; I don't know.  I did find that some of them were in a household with someone who had the name I was searching for.  So now I'm more like 90% confident.  

I have never done a "one name search" for any of my surnames.  I actually had never thought about doing that.  So this was a great exercise that gave me another avenue to research... since I don't have enough already!  ;)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Ancestor Score for 2022

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  Determine how complete your genealogy research is. For background, read Crista Cowan's post Family History All Done? What's Your Number? and Kris Stewart's What is Your Genealogy "Score"?  For comparison purposes, keep the list to 10 generations with you as the first person.

(2)  Create a table similar to Crista's second table, and fill it in however you can (you could create an Ahnentafel [Ancestor Name] list and count the number in each generation, or use some other method.) Tell us how you calculated the numbers. 

(3)  Show us your table, and calculate your "Ancestral Score" - what is your percentage of known name to possible names (1,023 for 10 generations).  

(4)  For extra credit (or just more SNGF), do more generations and add them to your chart.

(5)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook. 

Here's mine:

(1)  I did this by creating an Ahnentafel Report in Family Tree Maker 2019 (Publish > Genealogy Reports > Ahnentafel Report) for 10 generations.  I literally just scrolled down the report and counted out loud the names in each generation.  The numbers include duplicate ancestral persons.  

(2)  My chart:

Liz Tapley's Ancestral Name Score -- January 2022

Generation	Relationship	Possible People # People  --   Sum1		Identified People # People  --  Sum2		Percentage 100* (Sum2/Sum1)
1	You	1	1	1	1	100%
2	Parents	2	3	2	3	100%
3	Grandparents	4	7	4	7	100%
4	Great-Grandparents	8	15	8	15	100%
5	2x Great-Grandparents	16	31	16	31	100%
6	3x Great-Grandparents	32	63	26	57	90.48%
7	4x Great-Grandparents	64	127	35	92	72.44%
8	5x Great-Grandparents	128	255	31	123	48.24%
9	6x Great-Grandparents	256	511	29	152	29.75%
10	7x Great-Grandparents	512	1,023	34	186	18.19%

(3)  My "Ancestral Score" for 10 generations is:

*  Number of known ancestral names = 186

*  Number of possible ancestral names = 1,023

*  My Ancestral Name number = 186/1,023 = 18.19%  

Not.  So. Great.  I am no where near "done" with my genealogy!

Note:  I do not have maiden names for several of the women in my family tree, but each at least had a first name, and they were counted.  

I have never done this exercise before, so I have another goal for 2022 -- find more ancestor names!

Time Capsule Tuesday - Let's visit 1970

 

My niece, Missi, has a birthday next week.  She was born January 13, 1970.  Let's see what was going in the United States when she was born.

January 13, 1970 was a Tuesday.  The star sign for this date is Capricorn.  

In the United States, the most popular baby name is Jennifer.  This name was given to 46,157 baby girls.  For the boys, it is Michael. This name was recorded 85,303 times in the year 1970.  The estimated number of babies born on January 13, 1970 in the world is 332,888.  That's equivalent to 231 babies born every minute!  Imagine all of them crying at the same time!

Missi, like me, is part of Generation X, those born between 1961 and 1979.  This generation grew up right at the start of the technological revolution, are considered comfortable with technology, but not tethered to it as younger generations.  Generation Xers were born soon after the baby boomers and are associated with the hippie era.  They are often perceived as directionless and disaffected.  

The President of the United States was Richard Nixon.  The Vice President was Spiro Agnew.

News Events on January 13, 1970

*     A tower guard shot and killed three African-American prisoners at the California Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California, more commonly called "Soledad State Prison."  Three days later, after the local District Attorney announced that the deaths of the prisoners were "justifiable homicide," a prison guard at Soledad was beaten and thrown to his death from the 3rd floor of the cell block by inmates.

*    NASA announces further changes in the American manned space program because of a reduced budget, including the layoff of 50,000 NASA employees, and a halt in production of the Saturn V rocket needed to break Earth's orbit to make a trip to the Moon.  

 People Born on January 13:

*    Trace Adkins (1962), country music singer

*    Shonda Rhimes (1970), Film and TV writer, producer and director; creator of Grey's Anatomy 

*    Orlando Bloom (1977), actor

During that week in January in 1970, people in the U.S. were listening to Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head by B.J. Thomas.  M*A*S*H was one of the most viewed movies released that year while The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin was one of the best selling books.  

If you were to travel back to this day, famous people such Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Charles de Gaulle would all be still alive.  On TV, people are watching popular shows such as Columbo, Adam-12, Here's Lucy, and The Main Chance.  Children and teenagers are currently watching TV shows such as JOT the Dot, The Archie Show, Cattanooga Cats, and Sesame Street.  

Also, kids are playing with toys such as Etch-A-Sketch, Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots, Clackers, and Crissy (doll).  

People are using wallpaper to decorate their homes.  Lava lamps are all the rage.  Push-Button telephones started to replace the older rotary style.  While black-and-white television sets were still the  most-purchased, color TVs were rising in popularity.  

The Vietnam War is still ongoing.  By this stage, the conflict had become deeply unpopular with most Americans.  The number of troops in Vietnam started to be reduced.  

Patton won the Academy Aware for best Picture in 1970.  Other movies released in 1970 include Love Story, Airport, Woodstock, Ryan's Daughter, Chariots of the Gods, and A Man Called Horse.  

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel won a Grammy for Song of the Year. The Billboard Charts in 1970 were dominated by The Jackson 5, The Beatles, The Carpenters, The Partridge Family, Bread, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and George Harrison.  

Happy Birthday, Missi!  

(While she doesn't remember any of this, the rest of us can enjoy reminiscing about the good ole days.)

Sources:  Best of Date, TAKEMEBACK.TO, MyBirthday.Ninja, Birthday Answers, and Wikipedia, January 1970.  Video courtesty of YouTube.com.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What Are Your 2022 Plans/Goals/Resolutions for Your Genealogy Research?

  From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  It's the New Year, and many readers and bloggers have already made resolutions or goals or plans for one or more genealogy task(s) or project(s).  If they haven't yet, they could - maybe even should.

(2)  For this SNGF, please tell us what plans you've made or what goals or resolutions you have stated or set for 2022.  Writing them down may help you achieve them.  Do one or more as you wish.

(3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook. 

Here's mine:

I'm baaaaaaack...  I haven't posted a SNGF post since last April!  I got sidetracked in 2021, and it wasn't a very good year for me for the second half, but I'm hopeful 2022 will be better!  I make goals every year for genealogy, but never seem to complete them.  

Last year, my three goals were:  

    (1)     Scan all of my family pictures and organize my personal photos on my computer.  It appears I got less than 100 of the family photos scanned and never got around to doing any of my personal photos.  

    (2)      Participate fully in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge hosted by Amy Johnson Crow.  I started out really strong and did most topics... until April. Luckily, Amy says whether we do one post or all 52, we have recorded something about our ancestors.  

    (3)    Clean up the sources and data errors in my Family Tree Maker software.  I don't even remember if I worked on this any after I set this goal.  So no, this wasn't done either.

Now I will go ahead and state three goals for 2022 that I hope to accomplish... or at least make a dent.  They are essentially the same goals I had last year.  

*    Goal #1:  Scan the rest of the family pictures so that I put the albums back in the fireproof safe!  I have already added this to my goal list in my new, nifty planner.  If I only scan 5 pictures a week, I may get them all done by the end of 2022!

*    Goal #2:  I have already signed up for the 2022 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  This year, Amy has added a monthly topic for those that may find the weekly post schedule too daunting.  So I feel a little more optimistic about my participation.  Surely, I can at least do a post a month!  But I am going to try to do one a week.  

*    Goal #3:  Finish cleaning up the sources and data errors in my FTM software.  Again, if I just did 15 minutes several days a week, I would make a huge dent!  That is so easy to say, isn't it?!  

My overall goal for 2022 is to stay healthy.  I had COVID about 6-8 weeks ago, and I do NOT want to go through that again!  I also want to start scrapbooking again.  I cleaned off my table yesterday and found Christmas cards from last year!  Ugh.  

Those are my goals for 2022 - what are  yours?

Happy New Year!