Who or What Sparked Your Enthusiasm for Genealogy?

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm and passion for genealogy? In my case, it was my Mom. Mom had always wanted to know more about her grandmother's family. She had even made a trip with her mom once to the courthouse in the middle Tennessee county from which she knew her family had come to Mississippi prior to her birth only to be told that all the records would have been lost due to a courthouse fire in 1865.

I'm not really sure what I thought when I first decided to see if I could find additional information for her, but I certainly didn't dream that I'd develop the passion and enthusiasm for genealogical research that I did. I was living in a city that had one of the top ten genealogical library collections in the country at the time. History had always been my favorite subject in school, even though I didn't major in it in college. I think I thought I'd find the answers for her and move on with my life. What happened is that I quickly became so engrossed in the study of my family that I moved from one line to another too quickly, a bad habit of many beginning genealogists.

I also made the mistake of beginning with poor genealogical software. This was back in the days of smaller hard drives and 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. I had a freeware program that allowed the input of basic information and 10 lines for notes. I was an academic and realized that I needed to cite my sources, but how could one do that properly in 10 fixed-width lines? I also had many other things I wished to include in the notes. I developed a short-hand for my sources, but the truth was that I had to go back to paper copies of notes for many of them. Even today I still come across old entries in my genealogical database that I have to fix as I discover them and as time permits.

I'm sure I also made other errors when I first began my genealogical research. I know that I jumped to a few conclusions about who an ancestor's parent might be before I had really performed that "reasonably exhaustive search" that standards require. In fact, there are probably things out on the Internet that I posted long ago (as recently as 9 or 10 years ago) that I would cringe to discover now. I've made the observation to other genealogists that I wish I had time to go back and review the data and conclusions on each of those lines. I never seem to have time to work on my own families any more. That's okay though, because I've discovered a lot of families that are much more interesting than my own in the process. I know one genealogist that sets aside a few hours each weekend to work on her own families. Maybe one of these days I can budget that time for myself but since I still have a regular job, the weekend is my only time to do a lot of things, and I'm very involved with church activities which takes most of Sunday.

I spent last night working with a most interesting church record from the 1820s. It was a case of church discipline. I hope to one day take the research plan I developed and turn this one into a full-fledged article for publication. This person definitely broke several of the ten commandments!

I'm glad that my mother was curious about her family. If she had not been, I may have never discovered the wonderful world of family history and genealogical research.

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm? Feel free to comment here or leave a link to your own blog post sharing the answer to that question.

Just Keeping Busy

I've spent a lot of this month to date trying to get caught up on things. The 2010 FGS Conference is coming up in August, and I've been doing a lot of work in preparation for it. We'd love to have you come visit East Tennessee then!

I also went to North Carolina Genealogical Society's Spring Seminar on April 10 in Wilkesboro. Mark Lowe was the featured speaker. We all had a great time of learning and of visiting with genealogy friends that we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

This past week has been filled with extra rehearsals for our choir's spring musical, "Savior: Jesus Messiah." We presented it last night. I heard a lot of positive comments from people who had attended.

There is lots to do this week as well. I've got a book that I need to finish reading so that I can get the review written by the end of the month. I've got an indexing deadline for Christian Periodical Index that is also looming for May 1. I've got a self-imposed deadline for another project this week. I've got some other deadlines for mid-May. I'm working on five to six presentations that will be made at various conferences this summer. (The 6th one isn't confirmed yet but will probably take place in July.) One of those may be repeated at another venue.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Greater Vision in Knoxville this coming Saturday night. This will be Chris Allman's first weekend back with them. Chris was their original tenor. I can't wait to hear those guys together again!

Odds & Ends

As I was reading the blogs that I have in my feeds, I came across a book that someone had just purchased. It was entitled Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Like any other genealogist, my reaction was that I would have much preferred the book without the subtitle. It would have been much more interesting if it had been a probate court dispute.

I've been reading on Facebook and on blogs about the UPS man visiting all my friends who pre-ordered the iPad. So far, most seem to be opting for WiFi but not WiFi + 3G. I will admit that I'm a little envious! As I read some of my newspaper feeds and saw photos of folks standing in line awaiting their iPad, I was certain the folks who pre-ordered theirs were smarter!

One of the blogs I read is entitled Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. Yesterday, they had the most marvelous family story and recipe for Easter Pie Palmiers. The story and recipe were shared by Cleo Coyle, author of a series of books set in coffee shops. I thought all my genealogy friends would appreciate the story!

Speaking of food, I love lemon. I love blueberries. I love scones. I may just have to try these.

Rough Month

I had really intended to be better about blogging, but the circumstances of last month interrupted my resolution. Many of you know that my Mom had called me about 2 or 3 weeks before my spring break and said that she and Dad were tired of being cooped up in the house and wanted to go somewhere during my spring break. I began to look for places along the Gulf Coast where I could find a room with furniture comfortable enough for them but which would allow us to bring along my cat (because Mom would have been upset if she hadn't get to see her grandcat). I settled on a place in Fairhope, Alabama on the Mobile Bay but very near to Gulf Shores. We went down on Sunday the 14th after going to their church and to the country club to eat lunch. We ate that evening at a place I'd found on the Internet with great ratings that was not far from Fairhope. We didn't try to do a lot Sunday night because I knew that the drive down was pretty exhausting for the two of them. On Monday, we did quite a bit. After breakfast, the elevator was broken so I had to take the stairs up to the third floor and get everything we needed for the day out. We began our day by heading to the Fairhope Pier. They have a very nice park right on the bay. I walked to the end of the pier, but Mom and Dad stayed close to the car. It was a bit chilly for them. After that, it was still too early to head to the shops downtown so we headed to Burke's Outlet which was open. Mom found several clothes. She'd lost a lot of weight in recent months and was just beginning to rebuild her wardrobe. We found several things that she could use. Then we headed to downtown Fairhope. Fairhope is a unique little town. The Indie-Bound affiliated bookstore was incredible. I purchased a book on the history of Baldwin County, Alabama (which I still haven't had a chance to read). I poked my head in several other stores. Before long, it was time for lunch. We had chosen Panini Pete's which has been featured on the Food Network. It really was worth the hype. Mom and I shared a sandwich. I ended up getting to try a bite of Dad's too. Both were great. As we were heading back to the car, there was a local TV station crew filming along the sidewalk. Mom and Dad walked in front of the cameras and ended up on the evening news that night. I saw the cameras and walked behind them. We headed back to the hotel, hoping the elevator would be repaired so Mom and Dad could get some rest before heading to Gulf Shores for the evening. When we got there, the elevator repair crew was there, but they still did not have it in working order. We decided to just take the scenic route to Gulf Shores. We headed down the scenic route along the bay, stopping at the Punta Clara Candy Kitchen in Point Clear. We knew from previous trips that we would want some of their pralines, but I also fell in love with their margarita pecans and had to get a bag of those as well. Mom and Dad picked up some pecan brittle and white chocolate covered pecans in addition to their pralines. We headed on down to Gulf Shores. We drove around a bit and enjoyed the beach. That evening we ate at Lulu's, a restaurant on the Intercoastal Waterway owned by Jimmy Buffet's relative. I don't remember what Dad had, but Mom & I shared the mahi tacos. I'm glad that it was good because we went early and still had to wait an hour for seating. Fortunately they had benches, a gift shop, etc. to make your wait more comfortable. That was the last meal Mom was able to eat. She began to get sick on the ride home. It really started out as just phlegm that she was spitting up. The next day, we planned to take it easy in the morning since Mom had not been feeling well the night before. We went down to breakfast, but Mom couldn't hold anything down. I had discovered that I'd somehow missed one of the shops that I'd wanted to visit to pick up a gift for a friend. We had planned to go. Around mid-morning, Mom suggested that I go on without her because she had a feeling that she wouldn't be able to go. I stopped and picked up a 7-Up on the way back to see if she could hold it down. That didn't work. My cousin who lived in nearby Daphne was picking us up for lunch to take us to the Grand Hotel in Point Clear. We decided to leave Mom in the hotel and that we'd just bring her nephew up to visit her when we came back. After he left, Mom still was having trouble holding anything down. She and Dad took naps. While they were napping, I went out. At the Dollar Tree, I purchased a bucket that Mom would be able to use to spit up in if we were in the car. At Winn-Dixie, I purchased some pre-made Jello, hoping she could hold that down. When I got back, she tried. I looked at her and said that we needed to get her to a hospital where they could get her rehydrated. I gave her the option of the St. Thomas Hospital in Fairhope which was about 2 blocks from the hotel or of checking out of the hotel and driving back to Mississippi. She didn't want to mess up the vacation and was going to settle for Fairhope, but I reminded her that they would be admitting her. She then decided to go back to Amory. We checked out at 6:30 p.m. (after Dad & I made a quick run to Wendy's for supper) and got the car loaded. We got back to Amory at 11:45 p.m. where I delivered the cat to their house and quickly repacked a suitcase so that we would only have items Mom needed in the suitcase we were taking to the hospital. We got to the hospital a few minutes after midnight. At first, even the doctors at the hospital thought we'd get her rehydrated and she'd go home. Later they thought that perhaps the esophagus had narrowed where it meets the stomach so that she couldn't hold things down. One of the surgeons was going to take a look at that Thursday morning, but after Mom took a turn for the worse in the wee hours of Thursday morning, that was no longer an option. They had to do tests which did not require her to undergo anesthesia. We moved her to ICU. The doctor told me Friday morning that the ultrasound showed that Mom's cancer had returned and spread to the liver. There was nothing that could be done. He didn't think she'd ever leave the hospital. I pretty much stayed at the hospital except to run home for a quick shower from then on. Her state of health continued to deteriorate, and she went home to be with the Lord at 4:33 a.m. Central Time on Monday the 22nd. I was with her the last 10.5 hours. The funeral was on the 24th. I look forward to seeing my Mom again in heaven!

Random Book Musing

I was cataloging some old books that belong in a special collection at our library. To assist with inventory I wanted to make sure that all the books were added to the proper record in the online catalog. These were books that I had been told were duplicates of other books in our collection although lately I've discovered that many are books which required original cataloging or that someone just didn't catalog.

Today I ran across one entitled How to Live 365 Days a Year. I had a couple of thoughts. First of all, I thought that it would be better to live than to not live. The second thought was "What about leap year? Do we only have to live 365 of the 366 days that year?"

I'll let you make the judgment call on my random thoughts.

North Carolina Bible Records

The State Library of North Carolina and State Archives have been busy adding records to North Carolina Family Records Online. They have added 249 new records this week, bringing the total number of records in the project to 731.

Heritage Quest Training for Tennessee Residents

If you are a resident of Tennessee, you may be interested in webinars on the use of Heritage Quest being offered by the Tennessee Electronic Library on March 16 and March 18, 2010. Beginner and advanced workshops are being offered. You must register in advance.

All of U.S. History Will Be Taught in NC High Schools

I'm really glad to see that the state of North Carolina changed its mind because of folks who complained. All of U.S. history will be taught in North Carolina high schools, not just 1877 to the present.

U.S. History in High Schools

Apparently there is a proposal in North Carolina to cut pre-1877 United States history from the high school curriculum. As a genealogist, I find this distubring.

2010 FGS Conference Registration is Open

Registration for the 2010 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, scheduled for 18-21 August 2010 in beautiful Knoxville, Tennessee, is now open. This year’s conference theme is “Rediscovering America’s First Frontier,” and is co-hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Kentucky Historical Society.

The conference schedule includes 173 presentations by 73 noted speakers, including a large number of sponsored luncheons with speakers. There will be two exciting evening events: “Come Sit a Spell: Ballads, Mountain Stories, and Country Fare,” organized by the host societies; and the annual gala FGS banquet, “An Evening in Old Appalachia,” which will be held at the fascinating Museum of Appalachia.

The exciting program includes a completely redesigned “Focus on Societies” day that will present societies’ officers, as well as their members and volunteers, with all new programs and focus group sessions to help improve their operations and effectiveness.

ProQuest is sponsoring Librarians Day, a full day of free sessions for librarians and archivists that includes a tour of the outstanding McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library.

FamilySearch will present an extensive track of sessions about its resources and projects that you won’t want to miss. Ancestry.com will present a free day of classes for the public and conference attendees on Saturday, plus they will offer free document scanning sessions to attendees by appointment throughout the conference. The Genealogy Guys Podcast will also be there to record a “live” session at the conference.

The Exhibit Hall will be filled with a wide array of vendors and organizations, and a special Spotlight on Societies area will showcase local and regional genealogical and historical societies. There will be extended Exhibit Hall hours on Friday evening, followed by a gala reception, hosted by FamilySearch, to kick off the 1812 Pension Files Digitization Project.

There are more activities and research opportunities too numerous to list. However, you can learn all about the 2010 FGS Conference and register for this exciting four-day event at http://www.fgs.org/2010conference. Be sure to also visit or subscribe to the FGS Conference Blog at http://www.fgsconferenceblog.org for lots more information and travel advice.

We look forward to seeing you in Knoxville in August!

Cherel Henderson and Pat Oxley

National Conference Co-Chairs

2010 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference

National Park Service Brochures and Genealogical Research

As I was cataloging, one of the folded brochures that individuals often pick up at various places in the National Park Service, I was impressed with the amount of background information that the brochure presented that would be useful for genealogists. This particular brochure was for the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York. It's SUDOC classification is I 29.21:AF 8. Unfortunately this brochure is not available electronically so you'll have to visit a government documents repository to locate it. Here's a partial listing of some of the items a genealogical researcher might find in this brochure:

• Partial listing of countries from which early Africans came to colonial America
• Brief description of the rights of "company slaves" in 1626 in New Amsterdam
• Information on a 1644 petition which granted a limited amount of "freedom" to some
• Effect of the English taking control of New Amsterdam in 1664 on slavery
• Description of typical duties of men, women, and children enslaved in New York
• Information on the "Negros Buriel Ground" (as it was called on a 1755 map)
• Laws regarding burial of blacks, African funerals, etc.
• Information on the archaeological finds that brought this location and its "residents" back into prominence

A First Time for Everything

Today I was cataloging some recent arrivals for our government documents collection for which we had failed to receive (at least to date) records from Marcive. One of these documents was a map of the Holly Springs and Tombigbee National Forests in Mississippi which is near the area in which I grew up. As I began to look at the map, I noticed that they had labeled U.S. 78 not only U.S. 78 but also Interstate 22. Now, those of us who have travelled that road frequently know that the corridor is the "Future I-22" so I was a bit surprised to already see its new moniker on an official government map.

As I began to think about this, I thought of all the street name changes I've encountered over the years. For example, the 1930 census of Amory, Mississippi includes the street names for the town, but they do not match up with present-day street names. I was eventually able to pinpoint most of the locations by asking my parents. Even they did not remember the old names for the streets, but they were able to tell me the locations of the streets when I told them who lived on the streets. I'm sure that if I'd gone to the trouble of locating an older map of the town that I might have been able to find the names of the streets and then compare to a newer map to identify the present-day locations. After all, there was a "first time" that the new name appeared on a map.

By the way, this particular national forest map would be useful for persons researching areas near the national forests because it shows the sections, townships, and ranges for of not only the forest itself but also the nearby land. The main part of Holly Springs National Forest shows significant portions of Benton, Marshall, Union, Lafayette, and Pontotoc Counties. The Yalobusha Unit for that county shows a large part of Yalobusha County and a small part of Grenada County. For the Tombigbee National Forest, the Trace Unit map shows a large portion of Chickasaw County, some of Pontotoc County, and a couple of sections in Lee County. The Ackerman Unit map shows a significant amount of Winston County and parts of Choctaw and Oktibbeha Counties. The interesting thing is that landmarks such as churches are also identified on the map as well as bodies of water (down to the creek level).

Reduced Hours for Some South Mississippi Libraries

Resource Shelf blog alerts us to an article that appeared in the Sun Herald. Apparently several libraries in the Pine Forest Regional Library System serving Covington, Greene, Perry, and Stone Counties were closed for most of this month. They will now be reopening with reduced hours. The same article reports the reopening of the Bay St. Louis library in Hancock County (which had been a victim of Hurricane Katrina).

Haiti's Libraries

A librarian friend of mine had family members who were missionaries to Haiti. They have been evacuated from the country, but they have received some news of the situation with the libraries in the country.

The oldest library in Port au Prince collapsed. This is the Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Pères du Saint Esprit. This is located in Saint Martial College.

At least a portion of Haiti's national library has also collapsed.
Many university libraries have collapsed.

The St. Louis de Gonzague Library is weakened structurally but still standing.

This is somewhat bad news for those researching their Haitian roots! The earthquake will rewrite the chapter on doing Haitian genealogical research for generations to come. Let's hope that someone comes up with the funding to digitally preserve what remains of records of interest to future generations of genealogists.

Home Again

I'm finally back home in East Tennessee. I spent over a month in Mississippi caring for my parents. The good news is that Mom's cancer was caught early, and it appears that they have removed all cancerous tissues. She's still got some recovery time, but things are looking good. Thanks to everyone for their prayers during this difficult time. More later.

Quick & Dirty Genealogy Research from the Hospital Room

I've been curious for a long time whether or not the Winsteads in Hamblen County, Tennessee are related to my Winstead line or not. My Winstead line is far enough back that I haven't really researched it very much, but I decided to just look at WorldConnect to see if I could determine if others have thought we have a common ancestor. Please realize that all of this needs to be documented and verified, and I'm not at all convinced that there are not errors in the trees I found on WorldConnect even though they do have a bit of documentation (not very thorough but more than most and with better quality resources than most). However, I did discover that we quite possibly share a common ancestor named Samuel Winstead who was born about 1701 in Northumberland County, Virginia. These sources show that Samuel had four wives. The Hamblen County Winsteads appear to be from one of the later wives whereas mine appear to be from an earlier. I really want to make certain that the sources have not confused multiple Samuels with one another because there is a very wide spread in children's ages.

Football Humor

This morning I was reading the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, MS) before we brought Mom to the hospital for her surgery prep. As I was reading, I noticed that Mississippi Valley State University had announced the top candidates for its vacant football coaching position. At the top of the list was Charlie Brown. I immediately began laughing as I pictured Lucy holding that football and jerking it away at the last moment while Charlie Brown once again landed flat on his back. I'm sure that many other readers had the same picture run through their minds as they read that article. I can't find the article in the online edition so I can't share the link.

Thoughts on Libraries and Genealogy

Many persons blogging about genealogy are taking part of a 52 week meme. I may occasionally post a response to one of the weekly themes, but I'm not able to participate in this week's challenge because of my mom's surgery and the fact that I'm nowhere close to home. I could use the Tennessee State Library & Archives catalog feature which allows one to search most of the public libraries in the state of Tennessee, but I can already tell you what the results would be. The challenge is to locate books that would help one become a better genealogist. I can tell you that my personal library is better than the holdings at the Morristown-Hamblen County Public Library or Jefferson City Public Library in neighboring Jefferson County. I would have to go into Knoxville to the McClung Historical Collection to find a better library and then I would not be able to check out any of the materials. The college library where I work has a number of genealogy books, but most of our methodology titles are becoming very dated. In fact, I own more recent editions of several of the titles. There are a number of other types of books or e-books which would be useful in getting background information to add dimensions to an ancestor's story. It is a shame that so many libraries (especially public libraries) do not offer circulating collections of genealogical titles. Some do have a few beginner's books in their circulating collections, but advanced researchers are left out. That's why I have my own genealogical library. I have books on methodology, record groups and their uses, research in various states and countries, standards, etc. I also have many published abstracts, indexes, and other tools. I have many histories of areas in which I do a great deal of research for myself or others. I'm not going to list a few books here because I don't want to pick and choose at this time. I can state that I'll be utilizing many of these books in the upcoming months. I can also state that my collection will continue to grow (even though I really need additional shelving). I also want to state that I often learn more about becoming a better genealogist by reading publications such as National Genealogical Society Quarterly. I enjoy discussing the cases with other professional genealogists who have read them when I have an opportunity. I keep hoping that Tennessee will eventually have its own APG chapter. A few of us discussed the possibility at the FGS conference in Little Rock this fall.

My Genealogical Christmas Present to Myself

I love receiving packages. Right before Christmas, the North Carolina Historical Publications Shop had a sale on many of their titles. I decided that I couldn't go wrong by purchasing their publications in light of how much North Carolina research in which I'm now involved -- either for others or for myself.

Here are the titles I ordered:

William P. Cumming - Mapping the North Carolina Coast: Sixteenth-Century Cartography and the Roanoke Voyages
Russell S. Koonts - North Carolina Petitions for Presidential Pardon, 1865-1868: (An Index)
Alan D. Watson - Bath: The First Town in North Carolina
Alan D. Watson - An Index to North Carolina Newspapers, 1784-1789
A. R. Newsome - Records of Emigrants from England and Scotland to North Carolina, 1774-1775
Marcus B. Simpson, Jr. & Sallie W. Simpson - Whaling on the North Carolina Coast
Catherine W. Bishir - The "Unpainted Aristocracy": The Beach Cottages of Old Nags Head
Alan D. Watson - Bertie County: A Brief History
Edward W. Phifer, Jr. - Burke County: A Brief History
David Stick - Dare County: A Brief History
James W. Wall - Davie County: A Brief History
S. Kent Schwarzkopf - A History of Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains: Exploration, Development, and Preservation
Lawrence Lee - New Hanover County: A Brief History
Alan D. Watson - Onslow County: A Brief History
Joe A. Mobley - Palmico County: A Brief History
Lindley S. Butler - Rockingham County: A Brief History
Roy Parker, Jr. - Cumberland County: A Brief History

I'm very happy with my genealogical Christmas present to myself. As I was adding them into LibraryThing, I discovered that the author Diana Gabaldon had the title about emigrants from England and Scotland as well as a book on North Carolina county formation. I was excited to see that such a popular fiction author had "genealogy" books in her library!

November & December

November and December were extremely busy months for me. I really just didn't have time to blog. I can't promise that I'll be much better this next month. We got the news a few days before Christmas that my mother has a form of stomach cancer. They will be operating next week to remove part of the esophagus, the upper part of the stomach, and then rejoining them together. She's going to have a long recovery period, and I appreciate your prayers.