SNGF: Most Memorable Halloween

Tonight's Saturday night genealogy fun question is to tell about a memorable Halloween. I'm going to attempt to do that and am hoping that I'm not mixing more than one year in my memory, but I think I am not. My most memorable Halloween would have been the year that all of us neighborhood kids actually managed to con enough parents into taking us out trick or treating that we spent most of the night engaged in Halloween activities. We started out in our own neighborhood. We went house to house up and down the streets of the Love Subdivision. Love Subdivision was so-named because it was built on the site of the former Love's Cow Pasture. The little white house at the corner of Boulevard Drive and Hatley Road had been the home of the Loves, according to my Mom. Our home was built in 1959. I'm sure a few of the houses in the subdivision were a little older than ours, but I really don't know when the subdivision began. I guess I've just come up with a question to research that will add a little to the background of one event in our family's lives.

After we went there, we talked my Mom into taking us to Easthaven subdivision. A lot of our school friends lived in Easthaven. My Mom would only take us to the "safe" neighborhoods, and this was one that she deemed to be so. After we got back, we talked another Mom into taking us to the Meadowbrook subdivision. We had a lot of friends who lived in that subdivision as well.

Our next stop was the East Amory Community Center. This particular year is the only year that I really remember going to the "carnival" going on there. There was a cake walk. I won a caramel cake. We bobbed for apples. I believe they had a haunted house in one of the rooms there. I think you could "fish" for candy and other things like that. We didn't stay a really long time there. However, there was one house that David and Delores wanted to go to. It was a house that I'd never trick-or-treated at before so I really didn't know what to expect when we knocked. Mrs. Hodo opened the door. She lived across from St. Andrews Methodist Church on Town and Country Lane. She invited us into her home which was dark and eery. I remember that she had us hold our hands in a dish. The texture of the item in the dish was "gross" to a youngster in the late 1960s. She told us it was eyeballs. (They were really peeled grapes.) I began to wonder what was in store for me. I was scared. She continued to take us through her incredibly spooky home which even had a casket with a skeleton. I wanted nothing more than to get out of there and fast. Delores, however, kept insisting that we stick with it because the reward at the end was worth it. I had my doubts that anything could be worth the fright we were getting, but I was too scared to leave the others in my group so I stuck with it. At the end, Mrs. Hodo took us into her kitchen where she had candy apples or caramel apples as our "treat." To be honest, I think I still wasn't sure that the fright I'd had was worth it when I would have just as soon gone to another house or two on that street and received candy instead.
However, I will admit that the apple was good.

That was my most memorable Halloween as a child.

Music, Music, Music

The theme for the Carnival of Genealogy is Musical Instruments.

Musical Instruments! Do you play a musical instrument or did one of your family members? What instrument did you or they play? If no one in the family played an instrument, tell what is your favorite instrument or band and what is your least favorite one.

I do play several instruments. I began playing the piano when I was in the second grade. My first piano teacher was a lady named Mrs. Price. I really don't remember much about her. I only took from her one or two years. I later took piano lessons from Margaret Oliver who had been my elementary school music teacher until her retirement. All of us loved Mrs. Oliver. I remember the year after she left that we had a young music teacher named Miss West that we really didn't like that much. She just didn't measure up to Mrs. Oliver's standards. I took piano for several years from Mrs. Oliver. Something I've been told since I've been doing genealogy is that Mrs. Oliver's husband was part of the Oliver family who had lived in Cades Cove when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created. I really want to research his family when I get a chance since I live so close. Many records will be in Knoxville or at the park library in the visitor center. I never knew him because she was a widow when I first met her in elementary school. When the opportunity came to take from a pastor in a nearby town who played beautifully by ear arose, I took lessons from him. He was an excellent teacher, and I learned more about accompanying and techniques from him than I'd learned up to that point from my previous teachers. After he went to the mission field, I did take from one other lady, but that was short-lived because I was learning nothing from her that I couldn't do on my own.

I also play the organ. When I finished my seminary studies, I went to work for a church in Nashville, Tennessee as a director of children's education. The organist had a habit of running late on Sunday evenings because of his job selling musical instruments in one of the mall stores. I began going into the sanctuary and practicing during breaks during the day and with extra time on my lunch break. One night the organist wasn't there by 6 p.m. so the pastor had me play. I was scared to death since I really had not played the organ that much, but I made it through the service fine. I continued to practice and gained some confidence before I had to do it again in the next week or two. I still play the organ about once a year for a service.

Band was a big thing in Amory, Mississippi where I grew up. We joined the band in the 6th grade. There was never a question of what instrument I would be playing. I had been given my sister-in-law's flute and piccolo. When we got to the 8th grade, we had to audition to be able to continue in the high school band. Our high school had traditionally received all superior ratings in the band contests, so it was a big deal to be able to continue. My sister-in-law died of cancer during my middle school years. I still have her flute and piccolo. I did get a newer flute when I got into high school. I think that I can still play the Panther Fight Song and the Stars and Stripes Forever by memory on the piccolo. The disadvantage of playing the piccolo during marching season was that your fingers on your gloves had to be cut way back. During those Christmas parades where the temperature was below freezing, that was a rather frigid experience on those metal keys.

I also should not neglect to mention that the voice can be a musical instrument. I sing a lot. At one time, I might have said that I sing "all the time." I generally sing tenor in our church choir. I sing tenor or alto in ensembles. I have been known to sing soprano, baritone, and bass as well. I can't hit really high notes, and I have to use a technique I learned from a bass singer to hit notes below a certain point to reach them, but I can stretch that range an extra half octave lower with that technique if needed. The tenor range is the most comfortable for me.

My favorite instruments are probably the tenor saxophone or the oboe. I love the tenor sax on jazz tunes. Actually I like any saxophone. I love the oboe on classical.

I love music. I've been told that my Cockrell family ancestors were very musical. Bob Franks wrote an article about the musical talents in his Cockrell branch which is from the same family as mine. I'm happy to say that one of my nephews is also very talented musically. He plays guitar and piano.

Odds & Ends

About a week and a half ago as I was working on FGS stuff during fall break, my computer suddenly "turned off." It appeared to be a power issue, and when I couldn't get it to come back on after about an hour, I decided that I'd better try to go to Knoxville and get a new power cord. I wasn't sure it was the power cord, and I certainly had no previous symptoms to indicate that I'd had an issue with it. When I got to Best Buy, I decided to go to the Geek Squad counter just to get them to check to see if another power cord would work before I purchased a new one. The "geek" looked and said he was pretty sure that it was the jack into which the cord plugs that was the issue. He tested my cord and determined that nothing was wrong with it. He was pretty sure that the jack could be sauntered and recommended someone at Shields Electronics to do it. I had just enough time to get it to Shields before they closed for the day. I was given an estimate of two days because of computers ahead of mine with the same issue. When the tech there got to it, he discovered the jack was actually split in two and would need to be replaced. The replacement wouldn't arrive (due to the weekend) until the following week, but he thought it would arrive Monday and that he would be done by Tuesday. When he got the jack replaced, the computer still wouldn't power up so we realized that the jack was probably not the big issue (although it did need to be replaced) and that the motherboard was the problem. No warning -- just gone. I had him take out the hard drive and put it in a case so I could get to everything easily. I also had an online backup of all my files. I'm thankful for that. I had to use an old computer that has a tendency to overheat as a backup while I was without my usual machine. I also was very grateful for my iPhone which was my most reliable computer at the time! I now have a new computer with Windows 7. I've managed to get most of my software reinstalled on the new computer. I am still trying to locate my download of Paint Shop Pro's latest version's installer file. I know that I put that on either a CD or a USB drive, but I can't find it at the moment. In the meantime, I'm trying some of the free graphics editing programs out there. I downloaded Gimp, Photoscape, and Picasa. I'll see how I like those. I really don't want to pay another $70 if I can't locate the installer file. I have my product code!

Now . . . there were some interesting developments while I did not have a reliable computer to use. Many of you know that I enjoy reading. I've been pondering a Kindle purchase for some time. Sony has improved its ebook reader in the last few months, but Barnes & Noble has just come out with the Nook also. I think all of these are interesting. Right now, I've got an ebook reader called Stanza that is an iPhone application. I'm able to download public domain books with it for free. I have also learned that there is a Kindle application for iPhone which is very intriguing. One of these days, I'm sure I'll bite the bullet and get one, but since I had to purchase a new computer 1.5 years before the planned replacement, I simply can't afford one right now.

Another interesting development is the announcement of Footnote.com's interactive census. How many times have those of us researching on Ancestry.com wished that we had a similar feature rather than just the "corrections" feature? At the same time I'm excited about the interactivity of this, I'm also concerned that we'll end up with a lot of problems by persons who jump to erroneous conclusions. These would be the same types of errors that many online trees have. I specifically think back to a case in which most of the data on my Harris family was incorrect in Ancestral File. One brother had lived apart from the rest of the family and really had not kept in touch with his brothers and sisters who had moved on from the family's earlier residence (where he remained). The person who had submitted information was from this brother's line. The erroneous conclusions were reached because the person was searching for full names instead of initials which had been used by the enumerator for the census in which wrong conclusions had been made. While I realize that we will be able to interact and correct those errors, the fact that they may be there before we realize that they are there concerns me. I just don't go back and review online censuses that often. I tend to print a copy for my personal records which is filed for future consultations. If I'm not at home, I may look at an online census using the citation in my database. You also have to realize that until the last few years, most of my census research was done on microfilm. I have tons of print-outs which predate Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest census records. I even still have those 1880 CDs that the LDS issued. About the only time I've used those in the last few years though has been to consult an image which was hard to read in the other sources.

I need to get back to work. I'm working on FGS stuff and on a presentation I'm making in North Carolina next weekend. I also need to write a blog post for the carnival later today. I haven't participated in a long time, and I need to get back on track!

Blowing Off Steam

Recently I've been attempting to follow a discussion that has been occurring among members of a professional organization to which I belong. It's a trend that I've seen in other professional organizations to which I belong when voting migrates from a paper ballot that is mailed out to an electronic ballot. For years, members have been content with the brief sketches provided in a publication about each candidate. When the balloting moves to an online situation, those persons are no longer content with basic candidate information. They want to know more -- including the position each candidate would take on any individual position. (The suggested lists of questions were really somewhat amusing to read because many were "petty" questions that had nothing to do with the candidate's qualifications to serve in elected office.) I really disagreed with their statement that we knew nothing about the candidates. By having attended national conferences in that field, I knew each candidate who was running for an office, and I knew which ones I thought were the best persons to serve the organization. I also think that the committee responsible for elections did an excellent job of screening potential candidates for the positions. I think most of those listed as candidates would do an excellent job in advancing the organization. I know that in tough economic situations that it is sometimes not possible to attend a national professional conference each year, but when I see persons who claim to know nothing of the candidates, I question whether they've ever attended such a conference to enhance their own professional development. I have been purposefully vague on the discipline because I've seen the same thing repeated in others. I don't want to single out any organization because this statement applies to multiple ones to which I belong.

Has it been 6 weeks?

I just noticed that it has been six weeks since I've posted anything here. My apologies to my readers. Sometimes life just gets busy! I managed to say "yes" to something that has taken most of my free time during that period. Things will get slower in about another month, but in the meantime, I'm afraid my posting will continue to be erratic as I compile some information needed soon and attend to a couple of other duties with this new responsibility.

FGS 2009 Is History

The 2009 FGS conference has come and gone. It was sad to say goodbye to friends, but my cat appreciated seeing me when I finally got home shortly before midnight last night. A lot of people have already blogged their conference experiences. I won't bore you too much with my experience which was quite different than most of the others simply because I was presenting and also working. I'm sure that I must have walked 10,000 miles each day. That may be a slight exaggeration, but my feet sure felt that I had! Little Rock had an abundance of places to get good food at a reasonable price within walking distance of the conference. Saturday night I ventured further afield with some genealogists who drove to the Whole Hog Cafe where I had some barbecue. When I came back, I hung out with a friend in her room for awhile before heading down to the hotel's piano lounge to hang out with my fellow genealogists. We stayed there until after midnight which must have been really hard on those with early flights on Sunday. Since my flight wasn't until 4 p.m., it wasn't a hardship for me. I've done as little as possible today so that I can be rested for my return to work tomorrow.

Make plans now to attend the 2010 FGS Conference in Knoxville. It will be held August 18-21.

Save the Library of Michigan

At last week's Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Little Rock, we were made aware of an online petition aimed at keeping the Library of Michigan's collections in tact. A governor's order is set to go into effect on October 1 if the legislature does not act quickly. You do not have to be a resident of Michigan to sign this petition.

SNGF: Ancestors I Met

Randy has challenged us to name the ancestors we had an opportunity to meet in tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Since I don't want to name living ancestors, I will omit my parents, but that is 2.

The only others I met were my 4 grandparents. That's what I get for being born so long after my brothers!

Paternal Grandparents:

James Thomas "Tom" Thornton (1893-1977). He lived in Monroe County, Mississippi his entire life.

Nona Josiah "Jodie" Fowlkes (1894-1974). She lived in Monroe County, Mississippi her entire life as well. Interesting story of how she got her middle name. Her father died the night before she was born so she was named for him.

Maternal Grandparents:

Irving Lee Lantz (1885-1971). He was born in McLean County, Illinois and moved to Monroe County, Mississippi in late 1896. He actually did not have a "real name" but the family just called him "Mose" or "Moses." Before he moved to Mississippi, he named himself after a traveling salesman who came by his father's dry goods store in Carlock.

Gillie Mae Hester (1893-1993). She lived in Monroe County, Mississippi her entire life. She was a twin, but her twin Lillie Faye died at nine months of age. "Nanny" as all of us grandkids called her had been kicked in the eye by a horse as a child, and there was noticeable damage around her eye area from that childhood injury. She lived a long life, but she didn't quite make it long enough for Willard Scott to recognize her.

So - I met a total of 6 of my ancestors. That's fewer than Randy. My older brothers only met one of their great grandparents, but both were probably too young to remember the encounter as they would have been aged 2 years 5 months and aged 5 months respectively.

I'm glad Randy's genealogy fun was quick and easy tonight because I've got to finish the laundry and get started packing. My presentations for FGS are all finalized. I hope to meet some of you. I'll be the one running around most of the time.

Discovering a New Web Site Today

First of all, let me say that this is my 1000th blog post! I never dreamed that my 1000th blog post would be about a Web site and how I discovered it, but here it is!

As I was driving home from church today, I got behind a SUV (or it may have been a mini-van -- I honestly don't remember) that had a most unusual back window. Sprawled across the back of it was a URL, a huge tree, and 4 gravestones. The gravestones are enough to catch the attention of almost any genealogist. [The four markers on the back of the window contained 3 men who are dead and whose bones remain interred and One who only needed a borrowed tomb for a short period of time before He rose again! He wasn't there long enough to have a marker.]

Naturally, I had to check out the Web site when I got home. It is called GraveSiteGenealogy.com and is a cemetery photographing project. It presently offers photographs of 205 cemeteries in six states -- California, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. From the FAQ, it appears that they are charging for the site but will be providing free access at Family History Centers and to persons who submit headstone photos. What they call "core information" will be free even though there would be a charge for viewing the photos. I'm really not sure that a fee-charging cemetery photo site will be around for long when there are other places online where persons may view photos for free. I did look at one photo, and the quality of the image did not appear to be high enough for me to want to pay to access others.

I really don't know much about the site or the persons operating it other than the fact that they were driving down Highway 11E in front of me today. The site really appears to have been neglected recently as the most up-to-date note on the progress blog is over a year old.

On Heritage Festivals

As I was reading through some news feeds that came into my blog reader today, I noticed a story about a Heritage Fest. I will not name the location or the newspaper in which the story appeared because this is not a post about that locality or that paper's coverage of that event at all, but more of a reflection on what a Heritage Festival should be. However, it appeared to me that the festival had very little to do with heritage. As presented in the story, all of the events seemed to have more to do with the present than with the past or with American culture rather than ethnic heritage. There were a few accompanying pictures which seemed to collaborate the conclusion I had drawn.

I began to think about things that I might expect in a Heritage Festival. I will start with what I perceive to be the purpose of such a festival. A heritage festival should either connect one with the early settlers of an area or celebrate the ethnic heritage of the settlers of an area.

How can one achieve the purpose? Let's look at a few ideas.

Live demonstrations - I've seen people demonstrate the various jobs that people might have had in settlement periods. Someone might show how a blacksmith made horseshoes or other items. Another person might demonstrate how a grist mill operated. (This, of course, is assuming that there is a preserved and operational mill in the area.) Someone could demonstrate older methods of farming and planting. Someone might show spinning. Another might demonstrate making lye soap. Quilting, needlework, etc. could also be demonstrated. A demonstration of a one room schoolhouse could also be included. There are many other methods to achieve this.

Speakers - Speakers could provide talks on various subjects related to everyday life, to the history and settlement of the area, to the ethnicity of the area, etc. Of course as a genealogist, I'd like to see one of the speakers address the subject of finding one's own family history. Speakers could also include storytellers who can relate the heritage of the area in an entertaining manner.

Drama - A play based on the settlement of the area or about one of immigration to the area could certainly be a huge hit with the crowds.

Rides or Transportation Exhibits - Wagon rides, train rides, stagecoach rides, or horseback rides would be appropriate for many areas. Places near bodies of water might want to offer a few more options involving old ships and boats, rafts, ferries, etc. If making the ride available will not work out, at least make some exhibits available.

Exhibits - Exhibits of farm implements, old needlework, quilts, old artwork, medical implements (and maybe even leeches), spinning wheels, early laundry items, old cookstoves, animal hides, historic hunting equipment, historic portraits and photographs, things people might have brought from the "old country," etc.

Food - No festival is complete without food! Have foods that the settlers of an area or the ethnic immigrants to the area might have eaten.

While this is certainly not a comprehensive list, it does provide a few options that might have truly made the festival into one which truly celebrated heritage.

StoryCorps is coming to the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference: Make your reservation today!

StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening, is coming to 2009 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas on September 2-4.

By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

To learn more about StoryCorps visit their website. <www.storycorps.org>

Visit the FGS Conference Blog www.fgsconferenceblog.org for full details on making a reservation.


One important reminder -- Wednesday, August 26th is the last day to register online for the conference. You may still register at the door beginning at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 1st. Visit FGS' website at www.fgs.org to register.

Genealogical Spam?

Lately I've been receiving some "newsletters" from a company called AncestorStuff.com. [I am not going to make the link active for reasons which can be deduced from reading the remainder of this post.] I've been to a number of national conferences and never recall seeing them at one of these conferences. (That doesn't mean that my memory is not failing me, but I really don't recall seeing this company present.) According to their newsletter which offers mostly publications which one are available from Genealogical.com, they are headquartered in Dover, Arkansas. Since they are located in the same state as this year's FGS conference, I would expect to find a legitimate company listed among the exhibitors for the Little Rock conference. Were they on the list? No. The "slight" discount they are offering (for one title it is about 3%) is not worth the risk of doing business with what appears to be a company of questionable reputation. I've located comments on this company dating back about 5 years calling into question their "spamming." The general consensus seems to be that this company harvests e-mail addresses of persons interested in family history and "spams" them with their newsletters. I think I'd prefer to do business with a company that I trust. I'm more likely to trust a company which exhibits at a national conference. Spamming me with unsolicited e-mails advertising products (even products in which I may have an interest in purchasing) is not going to cause me to purchase them from a company about which I know nothing.