Wordless Wednesday
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Something secret you may not know about me………I am completely and utterly ADDICTED to Blogs and Podcasts! (More on that later)
One of my favorites I love to read happens to be a Genealogy Blog called “No Story Too Small” by Certified Genealogist, Amy Johnson Crow
Let me share why I love this blog; about this time a year ago Amy gave herself a challenge – to research 52 ancestors in 52 weeks! Each week she posted about her ancestors and information, stories, facts and figures about them. Just one a week on the same day each week and encouraged others to do the same. Sounds reasonable – right? I thought so, so I am joining the challenge and encouraging you to do so!
Here is the link to the 2015 Edition of the challenge
If you are a blogger, please register with her so you can link your blog and your ancestors to her site. If you are not a blogger, keep these items in your journal, or share them with a cousin, or a newsletter to the family. There are all kinds of ways to do this. The rules are easy – just do it! Throughout the year, we will share and accomplish this all together!
I can’t wait to see what you find out about your family!
Remember – it all starts with just One Leaf
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HELLO and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!
It is a new year, which means new starts and new goals. What will your goals be this year? Will you BEGIN your family history? Will you SOLVE a brick wall problem? Will you PLAN a family reunion? Will you LEARN a new technique for research? What about SCANNING and PRESERVING all your documents and pictures?
Before you begin – or if you already have – set out your goals, make them attainable and do not hesitate to reach out for assistance wherever that may be. A community group, a local Family History Center, your friendly Professional Genealogist, or even the internet. There are so many blogs and resources out there to be had to answer everything from the simplest questions to the most challenging ones!
I for one have four major items on my goal list this year. They say if you share them with someone it makes you accountable, so I am sharing them with all of you. Hope you don’t mind too much.
What are your goals? I would love to hear them, maybe I have sparked something in you. Let’s do this together.
There is a lot happening in the genealogical world with company merging, access to new documents and records digitally, families being connected through DNA testing all over the world and much more! I hope you will stick around and share these stories with me as I will be sharing all the new stuff with you.
Just remember: One Leaf at a time!
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Where will your leaf take you? Look at these numbers…we don’t realize how far back or out we can go. The work is never done.
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Often times we are confronted with major decisions when we least expect them. Although we are confident that we can handle anything that comes our way, we often get giddy at the joy or crumble under the stress that occurs from these decision making moments. School, moving, jobs, family, buying a house, loss of a loved one, care of a loved one and the list goes on. A few of these I have mentioned have made my top list in the last three months, good things and bad things happen in tandem. Isn’t this what we call the “circle of life”? (go ahead and sing the song, I am in my head!)
So in the last three weeks my husband and I have traveled in three different states, taken care of an ailing parent, started a masters program, met 35 relatives we have never met in person before, said goodbye to my beloved mother in law, celebrated a wedding for a dear friends daughter, launched a business and took a deep breath every day. Not to mention said a little prayer to get us through it all. None of this in any particular order.
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Call me crazy, but visiting office supply stores and book stores is my dream! I love them; I could spend hours in them, looking at all of the different gadgets and gizmos, books and binders, pens and puzzles. My husband and I were out on a date night tonight, and he suggested we make a stop, so I took the opportunity to go today and browse through the local Barnes and Noble to take a look at their “journal” section. Barnes and Noble actually has a nice selection of journals from the traditional “diary” style (with a lock that I had when I was a child) to the spiral bound 5×7 size notebook with a pretty design cover. They had them in all sizes, and even had some that were bound in leather and removable. I actually bought myself a new one today, and have a drawer full of them for various purposes. Today, I chose a spiral bound book with limited pages in it, hard cover though. It lies flat when open for ease of writing which I love!
Read more →Starting your family history is simple. It all starts with you – just one person, one important person – YOU!
Grab a paper, your notebook, a computer or a tablet, and make a list of stuff you remember as a child. People, places, things. These will all help you to understand who you are, where and what you come from, and a bit more about the era in which you lived, live now and will grow into.
Your list will be added to, and change as you work on it. Don’t do details, just thoughts, one or two words is sufficient to jog your memories. To help you to remember what your life was all about.
Family History is just that – history – it is so much more than names and dates to be listed in a chronological order. There are people, and stories, personalities, and memories to be had. These are all so important to your heritage that follows you. Stories and legends is what makes up our history.
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Grandma Lillian Kuykendall left this earthly world some time ago. I was a teenager, who was very close to her. She was my great grandmother to be exact. She was small, petite, harsh, farming, honest and faithful person. One of the favorite pictures I have in my family books is of me sitting on her lap when I was around one or so, and she is actually smiling pretty big. My grandmother and my mom used to tell me “that moment is when she fell in love with you.” I loved to hear them say that, it was said at her funeral, and it brings tears to my eyes as I think about it now. Grandma was from Texas and Oklahoma, had raised a family during the Great Depression and worked and toiled on a farm with her husband James. James died about eight years before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to meet him. Grandma lived up in Santa Barbara, California in a special wing of the house my great uncle and aunt had built on for her. It was perfect for her. The room was huge; she had a sliding glass door out to the patio where she had some of her potted plants and flowers.
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