What a beautiful baby photo--my grandmother loved babies and she was a beautiful baby! Christene Adelaide Scott 1913/1914

It's coming together...

I have high expectation for what I want to do with my research. First, I want to document my pedigree as best as I can. I've actually been working on that aspect since I was a little girl. One of my Christmas presents was The Master Genealogist, an excellent software package for my genealogy projects, but the learning curve is quite steep, so it's been a struggle.

I knew that I wanted to post my database online and I was having trouble with miscellaneous "living" folks coming through. I finally figured out how to break my database into four parts starting with each of my grandparents, who are all dead. I still got a few "living" folks that showed up, but they were actually dead, I just hadn't entered a death date for them. Using my grandparents as starting points turned out much better.

I've started with my maternal grandmother first, since that part of my research is the smallest--less than 150 people when I started. Then I began going through my research files and entering documentation. I also found a lot of new information that I hadn't seen before. While searching for something else, I found the World War I draft registration card for my great-grandfather, written in his own hand. Going through the exercise of carefully documenting each source has been great--I've learned how I gained each fact and whether it is likely true. I've also learned that I need to work on getting my files in order! Some of the sources are filed in the wrong place.

The best thing was that I posted this infant database online. Soon I'll attach photos and digital images of documentation. This will create a place where my pedigree actually lives, not just some names and dates.

I found it!

Friday I had a long list of things to do, but I knew that it was my last chance to visit the Salt Lake Family History library in 2004, so I put everything else on hold and went downtown. I took along a thirteen year old son who had to go last time and said he wanted to go next time. This was next time, so he went.

First we checked out the books available for Ohio County, West Virginia. Someone has done an awesome job putting together indexes for the County records, but they were not of the right time period for the people I was searching for. So next we went to the second floor for the US microfilms (that's what my son came along for)

I've been trying to document the vital information of my great-grandmother, Beulah Agnes ROBARE who married Elmer Lee SCOTT. I had a birthdate, but no death date--only a month and year. My grandmother had told me that she died shortly after her ninth birthday in their home in Bellaire, Belmont, Ohio. I searched the online Ohio death certificate database, but didn't find her. I checked the Belmont County Death records last trip to the library, but she wasn't there. This time I checked the Ohio County, West Virginia records and sure enough that's where her death had been recorded. She had died in the Wheeling hospital after a long illness. It was quite an emotional experience to see her name in those records. I'll post the death certificate just as soon as I get the scanner up and running again. The certificate confirmed her birth date and gave the place as Ohio, but as yet I haven't found her birth record. It wasn't in Harrison County or Belmont County.

The library is closed today, so time for a database upgrade.

Happy New Year!

The Lewis and Sarah Brollier Family

A New Tool!

I was introduced to blogging last spring and thought it was nice...probably had a place somewhere for something...created a blog or two of my own, but then just let them sit. It seemed as one more thing on my list of things to do and I wasn't sure it was important. Recently thoughI discovered someone's genealogy blog called Geneablogy and now I see it as a cool new tool for family history, so I thought I'd begin a new blog devoted just to my pursuits as a genealogist.

I'm starting a new project just as soon as I finish the computer maintenance required to support it well. First, I'm upgrading my database to include research notes, detailed source documentation, digitized copies of documentation and multimedia using The Master Genealogist. I'll be cleaning up my database as this is accomplished. Then I'll be publishing this to the web on a dynamic website. I found the workings of most of what I had hoped to accomplish at The Next Generation of Genealogy Site Building V. 4. I found all of this from a mail list that I joined for Utah researchers. I had just about decided to quit the list since nothing had really come through that matched the Utah research that I was doing, until there was a post about Carterville. I was very impressed with the website--not only the excellent information that Charles Carter ( a new internet cousin) had posted, but the design and workings of the site designed by Darrin Lythgoe.

So now I must finish getting set up so I can begin this new adventure with technology! And to think, just a few years ago in 1985, I was tickled just to print pedigree charts and family group sheets :0)