40 years is a long time...

 

                                    

                   

... it's a long time since I've seen your face or heard your voice.  It's been a long time since that horrible night happened, but I still remember it as if it was yesterday.  It's been a long time, but I will always love and miss you.  It's been a long time, and I look forward to seeing you again someday.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Favorite Online Class At RootsTech 2026

  From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

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

1)  RootsTech 2026 just finished today.  Did you watch any classes online?

2) Which online class was your favorite, perhaps the most informative, most helpful, or most entertaining, for you?

3)  Share your selected online class in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or other social media post.  Please leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Here's mine:

I attended RootsTech 2026 online Wednesday night and the next three days, as I have done every year.  This year, I did not do a summary each day on this blog.  I have not gotten much sleep the last few days, and with classes as late as 10 or 11 PM, I just haven't had the energy to write blog posts also.  

I took fewer classes this time because every year, I get overwhelmed and never go back to my notes and complete any research that I was so excited about after taking the classes.  I also never go back and watch any of the classes I missed, so I wanted to try a little more laid back, easier pace this year.  I have to say the ones I attended were, for the most part, great classes.  So it is going to be hard for me to just pick one favorite!

But pick I did.  My favorite class was New to German Genealogy? Start Here! by Katherine Schober.  I take a beginner German genealogy class every year because I am still chasing my biggest brick wall, my 2nd great-grandfather, George W. Schwalls, Sr.  I never make any progress.  However this class was different.  Katherine took her time and explained step by step how to proceed in finding out what town and state (or province) your German ancestor was from.  She gave us tons of resources to use.  I learned a lot, and I was not overwhelmed this time around.  I have already taken her advice and did a search on Newspapers.com for any reference to George, and I have a second action item on my list that she suggested.  I can't believe I was off and running before the conference was even over!

I must also give a shout out, though, to my most fun class.  It was Gravestone Symbols from A to Z by Cathy Wallace.  Cathy made this topic so entertaining, catchy and easy to remember, by using the ABC song to go over all the things you may see in a cemetery from an anchor to Zzzz's from a sleeping baby statue.  While I have seen most of these symbols before, Cathy made it stick in my head and showed me a couple unknown to me.  

Tombstone Tuesday

 

Teresa Marie Price Lynn

b 24 Dec 1929 in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, USA

d 15 Jan 1999 in Pembroke Pines, Broward, Florida, USA

laid to rest at

Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery

Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, USA

buried beside Teresa is her husband,

 Marion Eleatus Lynn
b 26 Sep 1924 in Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, USA
d 20 Nov 1989 in Richmond County, Georgia, USA

Teresa is my 5th cousin, 3x removed.  

Our common ancestors are

John Moore and Sarah Norris.

Madness Monday

 Just a few days ago, I was on Newspapers.com searching for an obituary for my cousin's husband, Walter C. Cochrane.  This came up in the list of possible matches:

The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 14 Nov 1923
via Newspapers.com

My Walter C. Cochrane was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1915.  However, there are two glaring problems already.  The spelling of the last name is not the same and this incident happened in 1923 when my Walter would have only been 8 years old. While not impossible, I guess, I do not believe Walter C. Cochrane was married or killed his wife at the age of 8.  

But before moving on, I stopped and read the entire little article, and realized it is just madness.  The piece is out of Belleville, Illinois.  Mr. Cochran was granted a change of venue to Nashville - what?  Nashville, Tennessee?? But no, I found out there is a Nashville, Illinois.  Also Mr. Cochran "formerly resided at Wichita Falls, Texas?!"  What did that have to do with it?  And the piece was run in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama newspaper.  Why?  I am guessing it was printed there either to add some sensationalism to their day's paper or to just fill some space. 

Oh and let us not overlook the "alienists!"  I discovered this is what psychiatrists used to be called!

I enjoy running across these interesting tidbits while browsing old newspapers.  I hope you got a chuckle out of it, too.