Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Fearless Females' Education

 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 National Women's History Month, so I'm going to use today's prompt from Lisa Alzo on her The Accidental Genealogist Blog.  What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmother's?  Note any advanced degrees or special achievements.

(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.  

Here's mine:

(1)  My mother, Linda Tapley (1942-) went to various schools in "The Valley" in California as a young child.  Her father moved the family often, following work.  She graduated from Redlands High School, Redlands, California in 1960.  She graduated from San Bernardino Valley College in San Bernardino, California in 1962.  Then the family moved back east to Tallahassee, Florida, and she attended Florida State University for a short while. 

Linda Irene Tapley, 1962
Graduation from San Bernardino Valley College

 

(2) My maternal grandmother, Ethel Irene Ranney Tapley (1913-1973), grew up in Duplain, Michigan so I assume she attended elementary school there.  She was probably about 9 or 10 when the family moved to California so she would have continued her elementary schooling there.  She graduated from Redlands High School in 1932. In her 1933 diary, she writes of attending school, but she never mentions what kind of school. My mother let me know that Grandma went to business school.

Ethel Irene Ranney, 1932
Redlands High School Senior Portrait

(3) My paternal grandmother, Nealie Drake Tapley (1895-1970), grew up in the Adrian area of Emanuel County, Georgia.  I assume she attended school there, but I have no information about her education.  What I do know is that my grandmother was a dedicated organist who drove her horse and buggy probably 10 miles or more each way to play the organ at Powell's Chapel Church every Sunday.  

(4)  My great-grandmother, Bessie Alice Carter Ranney (1883-1960), grew up and attended school in Eagle Grove, Iowa.  She graduated from Eagle Grove High School in 1901.  She married five years later, and I do not know if she attended any college in between.  My mother  shared that Bessie attended "normal school" after high school. This was higher education for girls at that time to provide them enough education to teach school before they married.  

Bessie Alice Carter, 1901
Eagle Grove (Iowa) Graduation Photo

I do not know anything about the education or talents of my other great-grandmothers:  Emma Vermell Harrell Drake (1867-1935) of Emanuel County, Georgia; Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page Tapley (1844-1924) of Johnson County, Georgia; or Mattie Schwalls Tapley (1877-1912) of Johnson County, Georgia.  I can only guess that some may have attended elementary school or high school, but none of them attended college.  

(I am sure I will be updating this post after my mother reads it and provides corrections and/or additions.  ;)

(Told ya! ;)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What is Your Favorite Record Type?

 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 is your favorite record type or resource? Not a website, but a type of record - e.g., census, cemetery, land, etc.  Why?

(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.  

Here's mine:

My favorite record type is obituaries.  While I realize obituaries are not primary sources, they are still valuable to me as part of my genealogy "toolbox."  I have found the names of parents, siblings, children, and sometimes grandparents.  I have found the deceased's date and/or place of birth or the date they got married, along with the name of their spouse(s).  I have found occupations and what their hobbies were.  Every once in awhile, I can find a cause of death.   It's a goldmine of information, especially for someone from a branch of  my family that I am not as familiar with.  

I know that the information provided in an obituary comes from a family member or friend of the deceased.  I am sure that many times, the obituary is a group effort made up of several family members and perhaps even funeral home staff.  So there is bound to be some mistakes along the way.  Just today, I found a mistake in my sister's obituary.  I was listed as Sue Tapley of North Carolina.  So I know it happens.  However, I have found that there are mistakes in all types of records.  If it is information I did not have before, the facts I find in an obituary, even if not entirely correct, puts me on the path to finding the correct information!  

My favorite type of obituary is a long obituary, full of information about the person's career, organizations they belonged to, and hobbies and interests they pursued.  The perfect obituary includes the person's maiden name, their mother's maiden name, the full names of their children's spouses, and to which child each grandchild belongs to.  

I find a lot of obituaries on Find-a-Grave that have been transcribed or copied by members and added to a person's memorial page.  If the person passed in the last few years, I do a Google search with "the person's name, year (if known), location, and [the word] obituary" in the search box.  I can find some older obituaries by doing a search on Newspapers.com (for which I have a paid membership).  I have also found obituaries on Ancestry.com where someone has uploaded them to a person's page.  I have subscribed to obituary announcements from funeral homes in my hometown.  Many years ago, I found an entire display of index cards with obituaries on them in my hometown's library.  What a find!  

Obituaries have been invaluable to me in piecing together relationships, for example, for my Schwalls line.  Finding the names of parents or siblings in an obituary was so helpful in putting together that part of my family tree, since the members of that family are so dang elusive!

20,000 Strong

 Today, I entered the 20,000th person into my family tree on Family Tree Maker!  That is a lot of folks!  While I am not related to every single one of those people, I am kin to the vast majority. 

The 20,000th person turned out to be a 4th cousin, 2x removed on my Osmun/Osman/Ozmun line by the name of:

Arvilla Mary Nelsey (1915-2014).  

Arvilla was the wife of James "Jim" Sheldon (1914-2000), the daughter of Tinmun Mills Nelsey (1890-1971) and Vera E Buzzard (1891-1981), the mother of three, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of ten.  Arvilla was born in Pontiac, Michigan and lived her entire life in the area. 

We are descended from Isaac H. Osman, who was a member of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.  He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Fort Montgomery on October 6, 1777 and sent to the infamous Sugar House Prison in New York City, where he died of starvation in 1778. 

(Of course, I kept working after entering Arvilla, and I'm already up to 20,045!)

Sources:  

Find a Grave Memorial #116935289 for Arvilla Mary Nelsey Sheldon.

Obituary of Arvilla Sheldon, 1915-2014, Sparks-Griffin Funeral Home, Lake Orion, Michigan, USA, sparksgriffin.com/obituary/4188841

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - RootsTech 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)  The RootsTech 2022 Virtual Conference was Thursday through Saturday (March 3rd-5th) this week.  Did you register and attend classes?  Did you watch the Keynote talks? Did you visit the virtual Expo Hall?  What was your favorite experience?

(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.  

Here's mine:

I registered for RootsTech 2022 months ago since I attended last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I took two days of vacation time for this.  I participated all three days, only taking bathroom and meal breaks.  I guess that's why I didn't write a blog post about the experience.  

I checked out RootsTech Relatives prior to the conference starting.  I have 44,981 relatives there; I only looked at maybe 10-12 of those!  The closest cousin match I had is a 2nd cousin, 2x removed.  That's pretty good!  Turns out, after checking with a cousin on Facebook, who turned out to be this person's aunt, that I am acquainted with her mother, uncle, and aunts already.  I had one 3rd cousin connection that I already know!  We met in person for the first time in December!  Then I had several 3rd cousins, 1x and 2x removed.  I researched a few of them, and sent messages, hoping to make connections.  I haven't heard back from anyone  yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  

Looking at the relationships between these cousin matches and myself, I have found some information I did not have and am busily working on extending my family tree!  I rarely use FamilySearch so I've been missing out.

The only Main Stage items I watched were "Ancestry For All" and "The 1950 U.S Census and You."  The Ancestry.com video made me very excited for the things they are working on, and the great things ahead for users.  I am especially interested in the partnership between Ancestry and Photomyne that will allow users to upload pictures, negatives, historical documents, etc. to the galleries of our ancestors for FREE.  Hearing about the 1950 census (and the handwriting recognition technology!) and seeing Crista Cowan's enthusiasm for the release has me getting more excited every day!  This will be the first census that my mother will be included in the enumeration.  I'm looking forward to getting a peek at where she and her parents were in 1950.  

I added many videos and classes to my Playlist.  I did watch a lot of them.  Luckily, I have more time to watch all of them!  Some of the ones I watched were:

    - "Tarheels:  Genealogy in Colonial Virginia and the North Carolinian backcountry" by Jonah Ryan            Barnes  

    - "Maximizing Messages" by Michelle Patient (messages to cousin matches!)

    - "What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022, Part 1" by Diahan Southard  (Looking forward to             watching Parts 2 and 3 also.)

    - "No Time? Try Five Minute Family History  Ideas" by Taralyn Parker

    - "A Call to Arms Part 1. Researching Revolutionary War Ancestors" by Melanie McComb 

I also visited the Expo Hall, though I did not explore it as much as I probably should have.  I chatted with a Family Tree Maker customer service rep about the companion manual for FTM2019.  I also watched the videos they had about the software, and I learned some very cool things this software will do that I was not even aware of!  It's the little things that are so exciting.  I visited Ancestry in the Expo Hall and watched some of their videos.  I also plan to visit Photomyne's "booth" and watch the videos they have posted there.  

This opportunity to attend RootsTech from my own home for FREE has been the best gift of the pandemic for me.  Otherwise, I would not be able to attend.  I thoroughly enjoy most of the classes, and I learned so much that my head was spinning at the end.  So I cannot say that I had one favorite experience, but I can say that I discovered two new teachers/presenters that I loved and hope to see again.  

    - First is Taralyn Parker.  I watched three of her presentations.  The above mentioned Five Minute Family History Ideas, but also "Power of the Post: Making Connections through Social Media," and, my favorite, "Finding Your Cousins on Instagram."  Taralyn is full of enthusiasm and it shows.  She explains things well. and she is full of great ideas.  Her energy was awesome.  I had joined Instagram years ago, but rarely used it.  She got me excited to sit down and learn out to use it, the purpose of hashtags, and how to participate on the app fully.  

    - Next is Jonah Ryan Barnes.  I watched two of his presentations at this year's RootsTech: The one mentioned above about researching in Colonial Virginia and North Carolina and the other was "Cracking the Internet: Stop Bumbling and Start Searching like a Pro."  (His wife, Charlotte, helped him on the last one.)  Jonah is FULL of energy.  He talks fast but he's understandable.  That is a huge help in squeezing in all the information he needs to share in 20 minutes.  He's funny.  His hints and tips for searching the Internet like a pro were great!  

Luckily, most of the classes shared a handout, syllabus, or copies of their Power Point slides with the attendees.  I saved all of those so I can refer to them as needed.

I am most looking forward to working with my DNA results more and figuring out how I'm related to my matches.  This will lead me to use DNA Painter, which I heard great things about at this conference.  I want to try out the new Ancestry feature for enhancing photographs.  I want to continue to use Instagram and Facebook to try to find new cousins.  I want to research my Revolutionary War ancestors.  I want to finish watching all the classes I didn't get to the last three days...

My goodness, I already thought I don't have enough time to try and do all the genealogy things I want, but I REALLY do not have enough time now!  There are not enough hours in the day... plus real life interferes... What are the chances of my becoming independently wealthy?  Then I could stay home and do genealogy all the time... A girl can wish, can't she?