Add ons, Re-dos, and What I dos

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about my Civil War ancestors.  I spent about two hours writing this post and about a day later, I realized that I left out my Ranney ancestor who served.  Was it a Freudian slip perhaps?  My Ranney ancestor fought on the Union side so I would be admitting to the world that I'm part Yankee!  ;) 

RANNEY
  Comfort Ranney
Born February 7, 1838, Comfort was the only son produced from the marriage of Luther Boardman Ranney and Sarah Maria Carter Ranney.  He was my great-great-grandfather.

Comfort enlisted April 2, 1862 at age 24 as a Private with Company D, 61st Ohio Infantry Regiment.  I do not have a copy of Comfort's Civil War file, so there is another item on the to do list!  I do have a history of the regiment, and they fought in the following battles:  2nd Battle of Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg before being sent south and taking part in the assault on Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign, Kennesaw Mountain, and the action at Resaca, Georgia.  The unit also started out with General Sherman on his march to the sea until they marched up to North Carolina where they were consolidated with the 82nd Ohio on March 31, 1865.

Site of the battle. Photos taken 2009.

I have been unable to locate any record of a pension application made by Comfort. 

In looking further at the book "The Drake Family of Washington County, Georgia" by Charles Edward Francis Drake, I learned more information about my Drake family's service during the Civil War and research I wish to do to add to my sources.  I will write more (and re-do what I shared earlier) on what I find at a later date.

I wanted to share that I have found three "new" cousins in recent months.  A cousin on my Page side (my great grandmother's, Rebecca Page Tapley, side) found me online and contacted me.  She led me to another Page cousin who has done extensive research on the family.  I am very excited about that because I know almost nothing about the Pages, and honestly, I was a little intimidated to start researching them because of the common surname.  My cousin provided lots of information to me, and I am looking forward to assimilating it into my family tree.

My latest cousin that I have found is on my grandmother Nealie Drake Tapley's side of the family.  Barbara's grandmother and my grandmother Nealie were sisters.  I actually looked her up online and wrote her a letter.  Turns out she only lives on the other side of Atlanta from me.  She called me yesterday, and we really enjoyed talking.  Now I HAVE to get me a Flip Pal so I can go visit her and scan some photos.

I have also connected with a cousin who, while I always knew she was out there somewhere, I had never been in contact with her.  Her grandfather and my father were brothers.  We have hit it off.  She lives way up in New Hampshire, so Skype is my new best friend.  I have learned a lot about that part of the Tapley family.  The best part is we laugh so much.  What a blessing to come out of my genealogy work.    

And what have I been doing lately, genealogy-wise?  Besides trying to stay caught up on my e-mail and blog reading (a never-ending battle), I have a couple of large Family Tree Maker projects going.  First of all, I am trying to link media, such as photos and documents, to each of my ancestors or family members in FTM.  (Thanks, DearMYRTLE!)  In addition to linking them, I am also adding or correcting source citations for said media and all other facts for each person.  I started with myself and am working my way up.  I have made it all the way to my paternal grandfather.  This is a huge job that I am doing in small chunks.

My other project in FTM is to correct burial place citations so that I can print custom reports for each cemetery I wish to visit.  In this way, I can grab the list and go when I know I am going to a particular cemetery (another great idea from DearMYRTLE), and I will know whose headstones to look for.  Another huge project that I am doing a little at a time.  I did manage to print off two cemetery reports today.  In one cemetery of mostly Drakes, I have 60 graves to find and photograph!  I had better plan a couple of days for that trip!

I have attended a few great webinars recently and have tons of notes I want to follow up on from those.  Plus notes from blog postings I have read.  Plus... and plus....  you get the idea.  Lots to do and not enough time to do it all.

I am headed to NGS in Charleston, South Carolina next month.  Also, I am attending Megan Smolenyak's first seminar in Georgia in June.  (Visit her website here.)  She will be doing an all day seminar in Homerville, Georgia (that's WAY down in south Georgia) for the Huxford Genealogical Society.  I am fortunate that my sister does not live far from Homerville and she does genealogy, too!  We've planned to make a weekend of it. 

So a lot going on.  I'd love to hear what you're working on!  Please drop me a comment and share.