From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:
My Tapley Tree...and its Branches
Including the surnames Tapley, Drake, Page, Harrell, Odom, Claxton, Bush, Swain, and Schwalls from the U.S. Southeast; and Ranney, Hubbard, Hesser, Carter, Schoonover, and Ozmun/Ozman/Osman from the U.S. Northeast and Midwest
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Surnames in Your Family Tree Database?
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (on a Sunday afternoon!) - What Keeps You From Doing Genealogy?
From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:
Thursday, April 14, 2022
Skiing, Senator Bob Dole, The Von Trapp Brothers, the 10th Mountain Division... and my Cousin
Private First Class (PFC) Lyle M. Ozmun (1917-1944) (my 4th cousin, 1x removed) was inducted into the U.S. Army on February 23, 1944. He received training at Camp Roberts, California and Camp Swift, Texas before going overseas in December 1944.
Lyle grew up in Winona, Winona County, Minnesota. Now when I think of Minnesota, I think of cold almost year around with lots and lots of snow. However, it turns out that Winona is located on the banks of the Mississippi River in what is called the bluff country. Theirs is the warmest climate of any in Minnesota. Temperatures are generally very mild by Minnesota standards year around; the January average is 17.6 degrees (-8 C) while that of July is 75.8 degrees (24.33 C). Winona has a humid continental climate with hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters.
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Location of Winona County, Minnesota |
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Uniform of the 10th Mountain Division courtesy of the National Association of the 10th Mountain Division |
Bob Dole in his officer's uniform circa 1944. |
It turns out that Lt. Robert "Bob" Dole was a rifle platoon leader in Company I of the 85th Infantry Regiment! Dole wrote later "I thought it was mighty odd that a kid from Kansas who had seen a mountain up close only once in his life would be assigned to lead a platoon of mountain troops. We Kansans didn't ski much."
Lyle was buried in the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Italy. The cemetery covers 70 acres, set in wooded hills. There are 4,392 of our military dead laid to rest there. The headstones are arrayed in symmetrical curved rows upon the hillside. They represent 39% of the U.S. Fifth Army burials originally made between Rome and the Alps. Most died in the fighting that occurred after the capture of Rome in June 1944, however, included among them are casualties of the heavy fighting in the Apennines Mountains of northern Italy.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Four Things!
From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:
Friday, April 1, 2022
No April Fool's Joke Here - The 1950 U.S. Census was Released Today!
It's like a birthday and Christmas all rolled into one day for genealogists in the United States (or anyone in the world who had family in the U.S. at that time)! Census release day only comes along every 10 years so it is a BIG DEAL.
There is a 72 year restriction on access to census records. So the latest available is now 1950. It can be accessed for free through a dedicated website at 1950census.archives.gov. This census was the 17th census of the United States. Taken every 10 years since 1790, the U.S. Census provides a snapshot of the nation's population. The questions on the census evolve each time to reflect the current social norms or changes in the world. For example on several of the first censuses taken, only the "head" of the household was listed, this most often being a man. Women and children were just numbers under age categories. I read that the 1950 census asked whether the household had a TV (though I have yet to find that question myself!!).
Now most of my genealogy friends and acquaintances stayed up until midnight and later this morning to see the 1950 census first thing. I did not, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I needed to go to bed to be able to go to work this morning. And secondly, it is hard to search the census when it first comes out. It does not come out of the chute already indexed so you can search by name. Now this census is the first one that was digitized, and it is the first time that artificial intelligence/optical character recognition (AI/OCR) technology will be used. However, that is not perfect. Handwriting can be difficult to decipher, for both humans and machines. So you must locate the proper Enumeration District where your family member(s) lived in 1950. I was feeling a little left out and jealous of my friends, so I decided to do a little peek tonight. I really didn't think I would find much. I chose to do my searching on Ancestry.com, and it was not easy, let me tell you. The map was difficult to navigate, but I got lucky.
I decided to start with Jacksonville, Florida. I was pretty positive that my father was living there then. I know with certainly that my Uncle Russ Tapley was living in Jacksonville, and I remembered he lived on 3rd Avenue. Fortunately, I know my way around that part of Jacksonville pretty well, so I was able to pull up the map on Ancestry and find the area of town (Riverview) where 3rd Avenue was located. That map is tricky, but I figured out my uncle probably lived in Enumeration District 16-11.
Then I went to the actual images of the count. There were 37 pages for that Enumeration District. I scrolled through the first few pages, looked at the street names, and I knew I was close. On page 17, I found 3rd Avenue! I went to page 18, and there was my father with his first wife and their two children, my brother and sister! I had no idea they lived on the same street as Uncle Russ!
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This looks to be the family at about the right time frame. |
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Full page image |
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Fearless Females' Education
From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What is Your Favorite Record Type?
From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings: