The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale

by

Kristin Hannah

If I had to make a list of the most outstanding books I have ever read,  The Nightingale would be on that list.   I  listened to it in audio format on my way to and from work and was on the edge of my seat most of the novel.   It is the story of women in occupied France during WWII and how they were involved in  the resistance.  Most of the men in France had left to fight the Germans to prevent the occupation at the beginning of the war and were not available to participate in the resistance.  There were some men in the resistance, of course, but many women were involved.   The Nightingale is about two sisters specifically and how they came to decide to help others during the war and what danger that decision involved.  There is a movie being created from this book and if you are not a reader I recommend watching the movie.  It is a wonderful story that is both heart breaking and heart warming.  Please follow the links above by clicking on the title and the author's name to learn more and enjoy the video that follows.  

The Dear Santa Genealogy Challenge

The link to the Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge and all the posts that participated can be found HERE.  

Dear Genea-Santa,

     First off and most importantly,  I want to thank you for my early holiday gift!  When I got my repaired MacBook Pro back and all my files were there and intact, it was the best gift ever!!  I had worried over those files for over a month while my lap top was in Santa's workshop.   Even though my "cousin" and research buddy Shirley reassured me, in a very supportive and confidential manner,  that since they could find every thing that Hillary Clinton ever typed on a keyboard that indeed my files would be safe and sound too, I remained worried until I opened each folder and file myself.
   The most important gift I think would be for me to figure out how to set up my Time Machine.  Please have me find time to call Apple Support or spend time on google figuring that out.  In that way I won't have the worry of my files again as they will be all backed up on my external hard drive automatically.
   I would like to find and obtain a piece of pottery made by the Bohemian Pottery Company in Zanesville Ohio.  They were only in business from 1904 - 1918.  It was my grandmother's aunt and uncle's pottery company.   I think it would be cool to have an example of what they made.   I would like to run over there to Zanesville one day in the coming year and look around.  Hopefully before I finish the article I am writing on this family.
    I would like to see a land case file on one of my ancestors.  So far, every one I have tried to obtain has not been located.  I have a good NARA source but no luck so far.  I also want to see a Naturalization Application on the one ancestor that I can think of that came over recent enough to have one.   His name was Herman August Funk.  This is on my list for the next NARA record obtained so hopefully it will be found.
     I want my plans to go to the Ohio Genealogical Conference in the spring to work out.  And also I would like to make it to Anderson County Kansas this year on a research trip.  After wards I would like to find time to write the Samuel Tipton article I have plans to write.  
    In closing, if I could scale just one of my brick walls this year it would be cool.  To name a few of them specifically:  Peter Beck (1764 PA - 1864 IN),  Catherine Coolbaugh Sheafor (1754 NJ-1826 OH),  Sarah Armstrong Jacobs (1766 Ireland-1842 PA),  Jacob Isaac Rohrer (1780 MD? - 1850 OH),  and Solomon Zelner (1825 PA - 1886 IN).  I would love to have information on their families of origin.
    Do know Genea-Santa that I have been a gracious researcher this year and shared my information with others.  I have not been selfish.  I have also been kind to those who are less experienced than me.  And I have been patient with those who are more experienced than I am  and I did not call any of them snooty even if they acted that way.
  And do find your plate of home made cookies along with your mug of steaming hot chocolate on the mantle.
    Sincerely,
      Mary

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

 Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

by

Roz Chast

The December selection for my local library reading group is a graphic novel about caring for aging parents.  It is called Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant and is written by a cartoonist for The New Yorker by the name of Roz Chast.  Her parents were both the children of poor Russian Jewish immigrants.  They lived into their 90's and in the book the author has to navigate the health care system for elders in 21st century America.  Since I worked most of my nursing career in long term care facilities I was able to really get what she was talking about.  This is the first graphic novel I have ever read and I found it hard to get the hang of at first.  I expected to have problems so instead of getting the book on my kindle or in audio form I actually checked out a hard back copy of the book at the local library during the book group meeting for November.   It did take me quite a few pages to get the hang of the order of the cartoons.  But I enjoyed the format once I got the format figured out.  This  is a worth while book to read if you are going through dealing with aged parents.  It also might help open up some dialog for those that want to get family members talking about end of life decisions.   Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

On Writing Well

by

William Zinsser

As a teenager I wrote a lot of bad poetry.   And the last several years I have played around with my blog.  First on Yahoo360 and then on Multiply.  When those sites closed I moved to Blogger.   And while I do not get many comments I am always surprised at the number of  page views to my posts.  This past March when my three months in the recliner started with both bones broken in my lower leg, I got aspirations that maybe I would like to be prepared to enter some of the writing contests that I was seeing announced at that time by the time the 2017 contests were announced.  I began to gather information on a couple of my family  lines that seemed like interesting ones to write about and at the end of August for my birthday gift to myself I purchased and participated in a six week creative family history writing workshop that can be found at this SITE.  One of the many resources provided at The Family History Writing Studio is a book list of recommended reading.  One of the books that was recommended that I could check out from the State Of Ohio library on my kindle was the classic book On Writing Well by William Zinsser.   I finished reading the book in the night last night and found a lot of useful information in it.  I did find myself skimming through parts of it that did not apply to my interests and concentrating on the parts of the book that applied to my aspirations.  I do not have any desire to be a full time writer.  I don't even care if I win the contests I enter.  I just do not want to send in an entry that I am not happy with.   The course I took this September and October convinced me that "creative non fiction" is not my genre although I do think elements of it are things I will use a lot and the organizational skills I learned for putting together my writing are going to be invaluable.  In addition there were check lists provided that will facilitate exactly the items I want to research to find the information I want to include in my pieces.   William Zinsser's book also provided information that I will use on how to proceed and some pitfalls to avoid.  I do not know whether this is a book that people who normally read my blog for reading ideas will be interested in, but it is a book I would recommend if a person is trying to polish their writing craft and has not yet read it.  Please click on the links above and enjoy the video below presented by the author.  

Brain On FIre: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

Brain On Fire:

My Month of Madness

by

Susannah Cahalan

Library reading groups provide a couple of things to me.  One is a social group to attend but another is that the books that we read are often books that I would never choose.  Therefore to be involved in the group stretches me to new experiences and new ways of thinking.  A good example of this is the book that is the selection for my local library's reading group in November.   Susannah Cahalan's memoir Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness is not a book that would end up on my wish list.  I listened to it on audio and spent a good bit of the first two thirds of the book rolling my eyes as I drove to and from work.   Her symptoms were so obviously psychotic and as new symptoms showed up any nurse who had ever performed an AIMS assessment  would have asked the docs if they wanted to adjust her medication due to her EPS symptoms.   I envisioned a young woman who had pretty darn good insurance at her job at a New York City newspaper and had parents who both were very well off, admitted to The University Of New York Medical Center and burning through a million dollars because her friends and family could not accept a psychiatric diagnosis.  But well into the second half of the book something happened to open my mind and I was able to make the connection between auto immune disease and behavior.  After that I thought of the progress being made with cancer and our immune system.  Then my brain jumped to dementia and other forms of mental illness and the hope that perhaps as time went on more connections would be made between some psychotic symptoms and various auto immune diseases.   For several months I have been excited about the work that is taking place involving cancer, the immune system and genetic research.  Since reading this book that excitement has been extended from my hopes for the future on the oncology floors to my hopes for future on the psychiatric wards.   Susannah was in extremely fortunate circumstances and the fact that a particularly bright  Syrian immigrant physician was there to connect the proper dots was very lucky.  She realizes that the average person in America who would be admitted to the hospital with her symptoms would not get the same diagnosis but instead would get a one way ticket to a state hospital.   As a result she has re-dedicated her life to getting the word out about her disease.  This book is not an easy one to get through.   A young woman with psychotic behavior is upsetting to visualize.  But it is a book about a cutting edge medical breakthrough that is important to be aware of.   Please follow the links above and enjoy the video that follows to learn more about Anti-NMDA-Receptor auto immune encephalitis.  

The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernieres

The Dust That Falls From Dreams

by

Louis de Bernieres

This novel was reviewed in TIME Magazine quite some time ago and had been on my wish list to read ever since.  I discovered it was available to check out on my kindle from the State Library of Ohio so I was able to obtain it that way.  It is a very well written book and has been excellently researched historically but I found I really waded through it.  I enjoyed the story line and appreciated the fine writing but it was a bit over my head.  I am used to being able to touch a word on my kindle when I don't know what it means and the dictionary pops the definition up and I can read it and move on.   With this novel there were many words I didn't understand and when I touched the words the dictionary popped up "not found".  I am pretty sure they were British slang words that were popular during the early 20th Century.   There was also a lot of military information as far as aviation and weaponry that went over my head.  One of the main characters was half British and half French so he would throw French phrases out that I didn't understand.   Nevertheless,  I was able to glean enough out of the book to enjoy the story line and get an excellent picture of what life was like during WWI.  It did take me a long time.  I had to renew the book two or three times.  The novel is about a group of neighborhood children who come of age as WWI begins and how they made it through - or don't make it through - and for those that did survive, their struggle in the aftermath to put their lives in order.   I really felt as if I was in the trenches with the soldiers,  in the hospitals with the nurses,  and I could easily empathize as the young people mourned their friends and struggled to move on.   It is an excellent book and I recommend it with some caution.  If you are smarter than me,  if you are a man who is familiar with weapons and aviation,  or if like me you are motivated to struggle a bit,  this book is well worth the effort.  If you are more faint at heart and prefer fluff stories then I suggest you pass on this one.  Please click on the title and author's name above to follow the links for more information.  And please take time to enjoy the video interview of the author below.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge 10/22/16

My grandmother Doris Shively Whitehouse and I before a Mother/Daughter banquet

circa 1967

This week's challenge question is:  When you reflect back as a child, do you now see things that you did then, that show your interest in knowing extended family and/or your future interest in genealogy?  In order to see the other participants links and comments click HERE.  

The short answer for me is no.  But I was lucky since both of my parents parents divorced and remarried so I had twice as many grandparents as my friends.  As a result,  extended family was always a part of my life.  There were family gatherings with aunts, uncles and cousins a few times each year.   So I didn't have a specific interest but it was just normal to know them.  I have mentioned before in earlier challenges that my mother was interested in genealogy and drug us around to cemeteries when we were kids.  We were made to help find the stones she was looking for.  I hated it at the time but look back on those memories as good ones.  Also, once,  when I was about ten,  there was a mother and daughter banquet at the church my family was attending and we were to have wedding dresses modeled of several historical time periods.  My grandmother had her grandmother's wedding dress.  At age ten I was the only one in the family small enough to fit into the dress so I got to model it.  This was a really big deal to me.  See the picture at the beginning of this blog.  My sister and I have since donated the dress to the Miami County Museum in Peru Indiana.  Another interest that I had as a child that is related would be an early appreciation for history.  I loved to read as a child and my favorite books were the pioneer stories of the Oregon Trail.   Therefore,  while the short answer remains no to the question, the long answer is that I was exposed to things as a young person, and had related interests so that ending up with an passion for family history is not that far fetched of a result.  

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Guernsey Literary

and

Potato Peel Pie Society 

by

Mary Ann Shaffer 

and 

Annie Barrows

 The library monthly daytime reading group at my local library that I attend read this delightful book this month.  I had read it back in 2010 and reviewed it HERE.   I listened to it on audio CD then and I listened to it on my iPod this time.  It is very nicely read by multiple voices in the audio version of the book.   The novel is about the occupation of the Island of Guernsey during WWII.  It is a series of letters from the islanders to an author.  The friendship that forms between the author and the islanders  makes for a warm story that also teaches the reader what it was like for people to struggle  to survive  during the occupation.   This book is one of those that sticks with you.  I was glad for the opportunity to listen to it again.  For those that like love stories,  for those that like historical novels,  for those that are WWII history buffs - this is the book for you.  Please follow the links in this blog post for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

SaveSave

The "Which Relative Gave you Family Information" Challenge

Alice Wilson Rohrer

1886-1978

Center

The challenge states:   Was there a relative that was a big help in giving you family information?  Who and how was he/she helpful? and can be found HERE along with comments and the links to the posts of others who participated in the challenge.  

Alice Rohrer was the woman I knew as my great grandmother.    I featured her during March when I was honoring women in my family history for women's history month.  That post can be found HERE.   The woman who gave birth to my grandfather was dead two weeks after he was born.  Four and a half years after that my great grandfather married the person I grew up calling "Grandma Al".   I can't say that she furnished me with organized family history but she was quick to share fun stories.  She explained a great deal about how life was on the farm in the early 1900s and she also shared a morsel or two of family gossip here and there.  One of the most helpful things she did was keep a scrap book where she pasted obituaries from people she knew, many of who were connected to the family.   She didn't include sources of the papers they were in or dates of when the obituaries were published but the scrap book is still a treasure trove of family connections.  

Other people who provided family information to me were my mother,  who I featured last March in my blog also and it can be found HERE along with my explanation of how she got me started, which I posted during another week's challenge which can be found HERE.  And my uncle who had collected a great deal of information on the Rohrer line.  Yet undoubtably,  even though they don't count as relatives,  the folks that really helped me the gather the most information were fellow genealogists and family history buffs.   Since most of my lines are from the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage many of the helpful people I connected with were  from the old Brethren Mailing List on Rootsweb which can be found HERE.   The other message boards and mailing lists  at Rootsweb also had many helpful people which with  I corresponded and shared information.   I miss the days when Rootsweb was in its heyday but I think Facebook has replaced Rootsweb in many ways.   I also need to mention the many librarians and historical society curators that were quick to offer their assistance.     But I digress from the original question.  I pick Alice Rohrer as being a relative that was a big help in giving me family information.  

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Poetzsch

The Hangman's Daughter

by

Oliver Poetzsch

Some of the books I have enjoyed the most have been books recommended to me by others and that is the case with the book I just finished listening to on audio called The Hangman's Daughter.  It is the first of a series of historical mysteries by Oliver Poetzsch about a man who is in his family history.   Although fiction the books are based on fact.  Mysteries are not my genre but I do occasionally read one or listen to one as a break from other types of books and when I do I prefer mysteries that have some historical significance.  With my interest in genealogy this book was right up my alley.   Although a little dark it is a book that I will not forget and I highly recommend it as a good read.  It is  the story of an executioner in the 1600s that is trying to save the town midwife from being burnt at the stake for witch craft.  She is accused because children are turning up murdered in the area.   The author's ancestor is the hangman and while the mystery story is fiction the framework of the details of the hangman's trade along with the descriptions of a typical 17th century town in what is now Bavaria  are factual.   I enjoyed the book very much and will be thanking my brother for recommending it.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the link to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Saturday Night First Genealogy Society Challenge

A year or so  before the start of the new century I began researching my family history.  Then around 2004 I attended a couple of meetings of a genealogy group at the local library in the town I where was living at that time.  About the second time I attended a comment was made about coughing up a membership fee.  I wrote them a check - it was only about a twelve dollar membership - and never went to another meeting.  The meetings were not that outstanding and I wasn't getting that much information from them.  I had no ancestors in that particular county but happened to be living there myself at that time.  I did not appreciate having my arm twisted to write a check.  If I am honest,  I have to admit, I am not a joiner.  I am not comfortable in social groups.  I am not only an introvert but I find I lack patience with people in the social setting.  I use up all my patience in a professional setting and with family members so by the time I get to people in a club type setting I am easily annoyed.   Also before group gatherings I experience some mild anxiety.   Therefore I don't join a lot of things.  I know social interaction is important to mental health and so I do have try to have a few things I do with others on a regular basis.   Since I work second shift it isn't conducive to attend meetings anyway since most of them are in the evening.  So when I joined the Ohio Genealogical Society almost a year ago it was unusual.  I had aspirations to gain the experience of putting together a lineage society application and I had chosen to apply to one for the ADEAW.  I had been trying to put the application together  for a year and not having success as  I was stuck on one generation.   I decided I wanted to use the hard work I had done to apply for a lineage society that would work with what I did have documentation wise.  One of the OGS groups - First Families Of Ohio - was a fit.  It cost less to apply if one was a member and it also cost less if one joined to attend the spring conference where they would have  induction dinners for their lineage societies new members.   So I joined to save money.   I have found the OGS to be an organization that has a lot to offer.  I intend to renew my membership when the year is up.   I do not go to many of the events they offer but I did really enjoy the annual conference last April and hope to attend the one in 2017.   I also hope to have more time to become involved with OGS events after I retire.  To visit the blog where the Saturday night challenge is posted and find the links to everyone who participated click HERE.

The "What Books Do You Read" Challenge

Better late than never.  Last night's genealogy fun challenge was "What books do you read now and do they reflect your genealogy hobby? What was the last book that you read?"  The blog post of the challenge along with the links to the blog posts of the various answers of those that accepted the challenge can be found HERE.

I consider my genre of choice to be historical fiction.  I do switch it up a bit and for some reason have read quite a bit of fantasy or science fiction this year.  I have also been adding in some non fiction for balance.   I don't think the books I read particularly reflect my genealogy hobby.  I read  parts of books as a portion of my research.  I read articles and blogs, listen to podcasts or or watch videos to increase my skills related to genealogy.  All that generally takes place online and not in a book.  Right now I am enjoying an online workshop  which I am very excited about that is teaching me some creative non fiction writing skills.   The site can be found HERE.

The last fiction book I read was Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.  My review of it can be found HERE.  The last non fiction book I read was River of Doubt by Candice Millard.  My review of it can be found HERE.  I generally try to read for about thirty minutes before I turn out the lights at night.  It helps me sleep.  I read on my kindle fire and for the last several months I have been utilizing the State of Ohio's library to check out e-books on my kindle.  I have also been using them to check out magazines.  The magazines are in nook format so I read them on a nook app on my phone since I do not have a nook.  I did read the latest Family History Magazine in this manner.   While my blog is not exclusively book reviews,  it is mostly book reviews.  The other way I "read" is I listen to audio books on my 50 minute commute to and from work.

I find the books I read in various ways.  People know I am a reader so they will make suggestions which are always the best way.  TIME Magazine has good book reviews and I have found some good suggestions there.  I follow a couple of blogs that have book lists as their posts.   One example can be found HERE.  And I am in a library reading group.  I also still follow what the library reading group in the town I lived in before I moved are reading.  Sometimes when I want to find some ideas I will google a library such as the NYC library and see what their reading groups are reading.  Whenever I see a title I may like I add it to my wish list either on audible or on amazon.  So I always have two lists of books to choose from when it is time to select a new title.

Some of my go to fiction authors are:  Barbara Kingsolver,  Jodi Picolt, Dan Brown,  John Green, Phillipa Gregory,  Bernard Cornwell, Shirley Tallman, Victoria Thompson,  Elizabeth Peters,  and of course Diana Galbaldon.    Some of my go to non fiction authors are:  Bill Bryson,  Candice Millard,  Doris Kerns Goodwin, and Ruth Gruber.  I also have an obsession with purchasing hard copies of historical cookbooks.   Reading is an important part of my life.  One of my favorite sayings is "A good book will get you through a lot.".

The "What Started You Actively Researching Your Family History?" Challenge

Back in the days when genealogy was done by snail mail letters written to  people in states far away and a person had to travel to areas to spend time in courthouses and cemeteries, my mother had the genealogy bug.  I can remember being drug through many a cemetery as a child and I did not like it.  My mother died in 1990 and about ten years later I became interested in my cultural heritage.  I was especially interested in my great grandmother.  She died in childbirth with my grandfather and she was illegitimate so she was a question in our back ground.  One of the stories about her was that as a new bride she showed up at my grandfather's home with nothing but a bag of clothes and a guitar slung over her back.   I asked where my mother's research was and my sister had a large cardboard box stored of mom's genealogy work and my sister was glad to hand it over.   As I sat down and dug into the contents of the box I was taken back in time to when my mother was writing the hand written charts and notes I was reading.   I read letters that she had received from other researchers and copies of bible pages that she had copied from bibles other family members had in their possession.  Holding the papers and reading mom's handwriting made me feel close to her.  I still feel close to my mother when I spend time researching my family history.   So that is my "what got me started" story.  Click HERE to go to the original challenge page and find the links to the other entires in this weeks challenge.   By the way,  the beautiful woman in the picture at the top of the page is my great grandmother.  She married Oscar Rohrer and she is one of the women I featured during March of this year when I wrote the "Women From My Family History"  series.  The blog I wrote for Leona can be found HERE.   And below is a picture of my pretty momma.  The blog I wrote in March that featured my mother can be found HERE.  

Charlotte Ann Rairigh

1930-1990

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven

by

Emily St. John Mandel

For a person whose genre of choice is historical fiction,  I have sure read my share of science fiction/fantasy this year and the book I finished last night is one such book.  It is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  This novel is about the unraveling of lives and the ability or inability to move forward.  The book moves back and forth between life as we know it and the struggles of people moving through their particular lives and some of the same individuals after a flu epidemic ends life as we know it on earth.  It is a story of the apocalypse but it is a lot more than that.  I brings the meanings of Shakespeare's plays into real life,  mirroring a production of King Lear in the world as we know it with its  concept of regrets in our lives piling up and a traveling production company who performs Shakespeare's plays and classical music throughout the post apocalypse world.  The banner on the wagon of the production company is a line from Star Trek Voyager episode 122, "Survival is insufficient".   It is one of the those books that will stay with me for a long time.  Maybe always.  Please click on the title and the author's name above to follow the links for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

River Of Doubt by Candice Millard

The River Of Doubt

by

Candice Millard

Flying back to the midwest from San Diego on Sunday,  I completed listening to The River Of Doubt by Candice Millard on my iPod.  This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.  Although non fiction it is an action packed story.   It is the story of Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon exploration expedition that he completed after his presidency.  I was especially impressed with the Brazilian military leader Rondon that accompanied the group.  More about him can be found HERE.    Another member of the party was George Cherrie and he too was very interesting.  More can be found about him HERE.   I have fond memories of back in the 1980s when I did quite a bit of canoeing on various American Scenic Riverways and at one time I thought a trip down the Amazon River would be the ultimate journey.  Since listening to this book I am glad I never realized that aspiration.   The graphic descriptions of the rainforest and the river's dangers are very frightening.   This is a book that all history buffs will enjoy.  Please click on the title and the authors name to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.

The Who Would You Go Back And Interview Challenge

Doris Ellen Shively

1908 - 1994

Although late with the Saturday Night Challenge due to a wonderful wedding I attended over the weekend,  I wanted to participate belatedly.   The particulars of the challenge and links to the other entries can be found HERE but the basic premise is to state if I could go back in time and interview someone who would it be and what would I ask.   The challenge was more specifically what event I would want to go back in time and re-visit to complete interviews during, but I could not think of one specific event.   Yet if I were to pick a person who I had plenty of time to spend with and did not take advantage of the wealth of information available she would have been willing to share it would be my father's mother.   As you can tell from the picture of her I have posted at the beginning of this entry,  my grandmother Doris was my pretty grandma.   She always was dressed over the top and her hair and make up was completed to perfection.  I was lucky to be able to visit her in her home in Fort Wayne Indiana many times,  although we did not live in the same city while I was growing up.  I always had fun when I spent time with her.  Although she was more than willing to tell stories about family members I did not take notes and I did not ask enough specific questions.   I would ask her to tell me more about her mom and dad.  I would question her about her grandparents and her aunts, uncles and cousins.   And I would ask her to tell me specifics about my dad while he was growing up.   Her Find A Grave page can be found HERE.  

The How Many Surnames Challenge

This is a digital image of one of the pages from the Shively Family Bible.

This week the Saturday Night Challenge revolves around the different surnames in our family trees.  To read the original challenge and find the links to the other people that accepted the challenge click HERE.


1) Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database.

2)  Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.

3)  Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!!  Or 20!!!

4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post.

I use Reunion software for my family tree.  Under reports I can generate what is called a "last names"  report.  It tells me that I have 1479 unique last names.   To do this I go to the side bar on the left of my reunion tree window and click on reports.   Then I had a prompt to click on to form the report.  I believe it said "Show".   They are arranged alphabetically so I have to scroll though to pick up on which surnames I have the most entries for.   First I scrolled through and jotted down all the names and figures for those surnames I had in the three figure range.  I had seven.  Then I scrolled back through and counted how many I had in the two figure range.  I had 130.  So I scrolled through one more time and jotted down those surnames that were  more than 75 but less than 100.   There were eight.  So I decided I would  list my top 15 with date ranges.  The explanation given for date ranges is:  

• Earliest Date - the first event date recorded for anybody with a selected surname. The "earliest date" could be any event date, including a death date if there is nobody with the surname who has a birth date. 
• Latest Date - the most recent event date associated with a surname. The "latest date" could be today's date if a person with the surname is living. 

* Sullivan - 158 persons, from 1690-2016

* Shively - 152 persons, from 1709-1840

* Rohrer - 126 persons,  from 1696-2016

* Dexter - 125 persons, from 1500 - 2016

* Rairigh - 121 persons,  from 1775 - 2016

* Morris - 108 persons,  from 1663 - 2016

* Sheafor - 105 persons,  from 1754 - 2016

* Coffman - 99 persons,  from 1730 - 2016

* Moyer - 93 persons, from 1672 - 1979

* Snider - 92 persons,  from 1732 - 1963

* Duffield - 89 persons,  1590 - 1965

* Hutchinson - 85 persons, 1564 - 1740

* Wible - 84 persons, 1730 - 1967

* Lyle - 81 persons, 1765 - 2016

* Stair - 76 persons, 1678 - 2016

Please click on the link on the Hutchinson surname for an explanation of why this surname is in my tree.  She was one of the women highlighted in the series I wrote last March honoring women in my family history.   Hutchinson is one of those lines with issues.   Dexter is my married name.  Coffman, Duffield, and Lyle are all surnames that are from my children's father's lines.   Shively, Rohrer,  Wible and Stair are surnames from my paternal lines.  Rairigh, Sheafor,  Moyer,  and Snider are surnames from my maternal lines.  Sullivan and Morris are surnames that wind through both my maternal and paternal lines - we have to love those Pennsylvania Dutch Anabaptist's lines and how they intertwine. 

This week was another learning experience for me.  I did not realize that there was a last names report function in my software.  

Ten Question Survey Challenge

This week the Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge consists of answering a ten question survey.  It can be found by clicking  HERE along with links in the comments for whoever accepted this weeks challenge.

1) Which genealogy software programs for your computer do you use?    I switched from Family Tree Maker to Reunion last October.  I started with Family Tree Maker several years ago when I had a windows pc.  When I switched to a MAC I switched to the Family Tree Maker for MAC.  But I found since it was a program that was made for windows and adjusted to work for MAC it was clunky with the MAC version and crashed a lot and I really got frustrated with the syncing.  I would fix things at my computer and in syncing with the app and with Ancestry my correction would get changed back to the wrong way.  I also was getting multiple entries that I know I only put in once with the syncing. Syncing was fairly new and I just found it messing me up.  I have enough problems keeping things straight with out the software messing me up worse.   I have been very satisfied with Reunion.  It was developed for MAC to begin with.   It was an easy transition and while I am still learning all there is to know about it,  I was quickly able to do enough to get by.

2) Which online family trees have information submitted by you - in either a separate online tree  or a universal online tree?  Rootsweb is where I update my working file periodically.  I like it because it is available to everyone at no charge.  It is not that I mind paying for access to records that cost the site money to digitalize and make available but it bothers me to pay to put the information I have gathered on a site and then have them collect money from  other people to see my work.   And then since Rootsweb is not able to house my media files I work collaboratively on FamilySearch.  I have just started working on their universal tree in the last six months.  I am sometimes not so sure if I am helping or hurting the group effort.  I am not a member of the LDS church but I appreciate their free site.

3) For which subscription genealogy record providers do you have a subscription?  None at the moment.  In the past I have had subscriptions for short times to Genealogy Bank and to Fold3.  Several years ago I subscribed to Ancestry.   What I prefer to do is a 30 day subscription during a time when I can hit what they have hard with searching and then wait till I have time again to do a great deal of searching to join again.  In between times I write to local libraries and local historical or genealogy societies and when they respond with information I donate to their facility.   Since I belong to the Ohio Genealogy Society I do as a result pay to have access to their data bases.

4) Which free genealogy record providers do you use regularly?  I use Family Search,  Find A Grave, State Archives,  Google,  Genealogy Gophers,  Rootsweb,  USGENWEB,  USBiographies,   and as I mentioned before,  I have really had good luck writing local libraries for information.

5) How much time do you spend doing actual genealogy research?  Average number of hours per week.  Some weeks I spend no time on my research.  Other weeks I spend several hours each day.   It depends on how much luck I am having finding things and what else is happening in my life.  For me it is feast or famine as far as time spent.  If I had to guess an average lets say four hours a week.

6) How much time do you spend doing research in an actual repository (library, archive, courthouse etc) estimate average hours per month over a one year period.   Again it would vary because I might take a research trip over a weekend or a day trip to a nearby place but it would be something that would always happen.  I would guess it would average over a years time to eight hours a month.

7) How much time do you spend each week adding information to your software program? Estimate an average number of hours per week over a one month period.  I spend more time in the winter than summer doing this.  I am going to estimate an average of four hours a week.   But in this too I go in spurts.  I have times I do  concentrated hours of work  and times I don't do much.

8) How much time do you spend each month at a genealogy society meeting, program or event (excluding seminars and conferences) estimate hours per month over a one year period.  None.  I always say I am going to but I work second shift and since most of these events are either early on Saturday morning or in the evenings that leaves me out.   I haven't found a group to eat lunch with yet.

9) How much time do you spend each month on genealogy education?  (reading books, periodicals,  seminars, conferences, workshops, webinars, etc) Estimate average number of hours per month over a one year period.  I attended my first conference this past April.  I do periodically watch a youtube video.  I keep saying I am going to watch a webinar or listen to podcasts but do not very often.  I have  a fairly long list of books on my wish list of instruction but do not buy or read them.  I do once in awhile go over to the Family Search Wiki.  So I am going to estimate six hours a month.

10) How much time do you spend each week reading,  writing and commenting on genealogy blogs, websites and social media?  Estimate an average number of hours per week over a one month period. This is hard to say because the time is in short spurts.  But it does add up.  I am going to estimate 14 hours a week.


Total hours per week:  I think that is 27 1/2 hours a week.  Wow.  But that is not every week.  Some weeks I spend much more than that  and other weeks I don't do much with genealogy.

The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Mists Of Avalon

by

Marion Zimmer Bradley

A friend recommended that I read The Mists Of Avalon and since I read The Once and Future King back in high school and loved  it,  I thought it was a good idea.  I don't remember much about The Once and Future King and perhaps I should re-read it to compare the two works but I can say my friend did not steer me wrong.  I listened to "The Mists" on audio and it was 50 hours long.  The narrater was Davina Porter which made it a special treat for me because she narrated all of the Outlander books and that series is a favorite of mine.  I listen to audio books on my commute to and from work and on any drives of distance that I happen to take and it took me two months to get through the six downloads that "The Mists"  is divided into from audible.com.   These books transport you to another world and when I finished listening this evening I felt like the land of Avalon had truly melted into the mists from me.   The novel is about King Arthur and the knights of the round table only it is told from the point of view of the women around King Arthur's world.  The story starts with the love story of his parents and soon moves on to the life story of his sister.  The main theme is religious tolerance  - or lack there of - and the inclusion of women - or lack there of - in religion.   The politics of religion in the dark ages is displayed with the rise of Christianity in Europe at the expense of other belief systems being a large part of the drama that unfolds.   Click on the links above and enjoy  the video that follows of the movie trailer for the movie that was made from the books.   This book was a really enjoyable experience for me and I recommend it.

Life From Scratch by Sasha Martin

Life From Scratch

by

Sasha Martin

Every once in awhile a book comes along that I know I will be giving away from time to time as a gift and Life From Scratch is one of those books.  I checked it out from the State Library Of Ohio on my kindle but it is a book I am probably not going to be able to go without buying a hard copy of to sit on the shelves with my other cookbooks.  Although it is not really a cook book - it is a memoir that comes with recipes.  Ms Martin tells the story of her life and  shares recipes that have been treasures for her along the way.   She also cooks a meal from every country of the world over a four year period and includes some of these meals in the book.   Her experiences in life have not been easy ones and I was crying by the time I was one quarter way through the book - but the peace and strength she is able to achieve comforts her readers.  I can't begin to explain how much fun this book is between the  tears but I will share one short quote from toward the end of the book.  

"Being happy takes constant weeding,  a tending of emotions and circumstances as they arise . . . It takes work to be calm in the midst of turmoil. " 

This work of non fiction is a quick read.  Please click on the book title and author's name above and follow the links there.  Be sure to  take the time to read her delightful  book and enjoy the video that follows.  

How Many Mary LNUs Do You Have Challenge

The above article mentions John Jacobs and Sarah Armstrong who are  my direct ancestors.   Sarah would be the sister in law of my Mary Unknown #2.  

Every once in a while I do something stupider than usual.  Generally I am okay with laughing at myself and moving on which is a good thing.   When I make a silly mistake on the world wide web I feel like I did so in front of a larger audience.  Last pm,  before my husband and I went out for dinner and the comedy club show, I commented on a blog about a Mary Lnu that I had an Elizabeth Lnu in my data base.  Afterwards I learned that LNU is not a surname.  LNU is an abbreviation for "last name unknown".   In my defense,  some people capitalize all the letters of a surname in their data base.  But actually,  to make things worse,  I think I heard that LNU is last name unknown before but had forgotten.  At any rate,  I survived my faux pas and enjoyed my evening and today am joining in on the challenge about Mary LNUs in my tree.  The challenge,  along with the links of others that joined in on it, can be found HERE.

In my working data base I currently have 7112 individuals.   There are 87 listings that say Unknown and some of these don't even have a first name.  If I add in Elizabeth Lnu that would make it 88.  (Oh my,  it is always good to learn new things.)  When I narrow the search to Mary Unknown there are 9 Marys that I do not have a last name for.

1) Mary Unknown who married Henry Witmer.  No dates.  Their son, John W Witmer,  married Margaret Lyle in 1854 in Lancaster County PA.  Not a big priority to follow this line.  She is not in a direct line.  She is in my children's fathers family lines but not direct.

2)Mary Unknown who married William Armstrong.  No dates.  Their son, "Major Armstrong"  was born in 1766,  Cumberland Co PA.  I would love to know more about this Armstrong family but she would not be in a direct line back either.   But she is in a family that would be in my lines.

3) Mary Unknown who married Willougby Dexter.  No dates for her but he was born 1767.  She is not a direct line of mine.  This woman would be in a family that would be connected to my husbands side.

4) Mary Unknown who married John Duffield.  She was born in 1590 in England.  She is not a direct line.  This woman would be in my children's father's side of the tree.

5) Mary Unknown who married Morris Bailey.  She was born in 1889 in Mississippi.  She is not in my direct line.  This woman would be in a family that is related to my husbands side of the tree.

6) Mary B Unknown who married Arthur Fremont Morris.  She was born 1868 in Ohio.  She is not in my direct line but in a family that is in my side of the tree.

7) Mary F Unknown who married Hiram Clay Tipton.  She was born in 1847.  She is not in my direct line but is in a line that married into my side of the tree.

8) Mary J Unknown who married George Washington Reed.  I don't have dates for her but George was born in 1824 in Virginia.   She married a man who was an uncle in my side of the tree but not a direct line.

9) Mary P Unknown who married Leon Frederick Foss.   She was born in 1894 in Massachusetts.  She is not in my side of the tree.  She married into my husbands line.  Her husband's mother's maiden name was Dexter.

Therefore none of these Unknown Marys are in a direct line back from me.  Numbers 2, 6, 7 and 8 are Marys I hope to learn more about sometime.

2) No exact matches found on the Family Search Tree.

6) No exact matches found on the Family Search Tree.

7) No exact matches found on the Family Search Tree.

8)  I found three hits in the Family Search Tree but none were in Indiana where my Reed family was at the time this couple lived.    So I don't think I will take time to follow up on them.

If anyone has info on my Armstrong family please chime in!!

Mud bound by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound

by

Hillary Jordan

At 4 a.m. this morning I finished this novel.   Even though I am  an avid reader,  I don't say up in order to  complete a book too often.  But this book  had me from the first page.   I have enjoyed it for the ten days it took me to read it and looked forward to getting back to it each evening,  but the last  chapters wouldn't let me turn off my kindle.   I will be very surprised if this book does not make my top ten list this year  even though I have read some very good books so far.   No doubt,  I have  found a new favorite writer to add to my list of go to writers.  

Mudbound is set during the post WWII time frame in the southern United States.  It is about two soldiers who came home,  two mothers and wives,  and two farmers.   One of each is black and one of each is white.  Although there are characters in the book I grew to hate,  the six main voices of the story were people I was able to obtain a great deal of respect for.  This would be a wonderful book group novel as it lends itself to discussion but even on its own it is a very meaningful and enjoyable read.  

Please follow the links to learn more by clicking on the author's name and book title above.  And enjoy the author in the video that follows.  

The How Many Autosomal DNA Matches Do You Have Challenge

In order to read this weeks challenge and obtain the links to the other people's posts that took the challenge please follow this LINK.   My answer to how many autosomal DNA matches do you have is very simple.  Zero.  Zip.  Nadda.  I have tried to read about DNA and I admit the articles are way over my head.  The scientific reading is hard for me to follow.  I get through one paragraph and as I start the next paragraph I have forgotten what the paragraph before said.  Never the less,  I have waded though and conquered more difficult material.  But in order to work that hard I have to feel a need.  So I will use this blog to explain why I don't feel the need to understand DNA as it related to genealogy.   Before I do that,  I will direct  you to my brother's blog.  My older brother is who I refer to for all my genealogy DNA questions.  He is the one that has been tested in our family and the one that understands what matches to contact and what ones to not reach out to.  His blog is not current but I am sure you could still contact him through a comment there if you so choose.   Click HERE.  

To reiterate,  the first two reasons I am not the DNA contact person in my family are that 1) I don't understand it and 2) my brother is good at it.  But there are two more points I would like to make about my lack of interest in DNA as it relates to genealogy.  

My family heritage is predominately Pennsylvania Dutch and shows an ancestry of deeply religious people who were often Amish, Old Order Brethren,  German Baptist, or Mennonite.   These religious groups did not want their members marrying outside of their churches.  As a result they intermarried awfully close by todays standards and my family tree resembles more of a spider web than a tree.  How a DNA test can determine direct lines when lines are so closely mixed in exceeds my understanding.  

My last point reflects my personal feeling in regards to the age old question of "nature verses nurture".  While I concede that some potential is determined by nature or DNA as far as our abilities, it is my opinion that we are much more influenced by our nurturing.   It is those that raised us that instill our values and our morals.  It is the influence of those that are close to us as we grow that determines how we use the potential that  DNA handed us at birth.  Therefore,  I am much more a paper trail kind of genealogist. I don't really worry  if someone was begotten by the milk man somewhere along the way.

In closing, and bringing those two points together,  the question as to whether my ancestors were cousins or married their sisters husbands cousin who was their uncle's mother's son,  or whatever all those crazy relationships are in my family tree, is a mute point.  While I do the paper trail because it is like a fun puzzle for me to try to figure out and I find it interesting, what is important to understanding my heritage is to understand the value system that the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage passed down to me.   What I really need to understand in order to understand who I am is the voyage of the Swiss people across Europe and then on the the New World.  The persecution they were subjected to due to their beliefs,  the hardships they were able to endure,  and their journeys across this country to forge a life out of the land.