Monday 10 February 2014

Three Finds and Getting Organized

Several people have been writing about how they are getting organized, or are already organized, this month. Apparently, I need to take this to heart. I completely forgot that the 10th of the month was my day to post on this blog. I just realized it yesterday. My first step toward being organized will be putting a big "10" on the bulletin board in front of this computer. 

Albert B. Cleage, Sr. about 1909
Since February 14, I have received 3 genealogical gifts. My cousin, Jan, emailed me to let me know she had located the letters my Grandfather Cleage wrote to my Grandmother when they were courting. This collection includes over 100 letters and postcards dating from 1907 to 1912. I read these letters over 15 years ago, before I had a scanner so maybe even earlier than that. 

She emailed them all to me over the weekend and I printed them out.  My plan is to read through the letters, this time with the knowledge of who the people and events mentioned in the letters are.  There are hints in the letters about life beyond my Grandfather complaining that he wants more letters and he's lonely. I look forward to going through them with a fine tooth comb.

The second thing that happened was that I received a comment on my blog for the post She was owned before the war by the late Colonel Edmund Harrison of this county. In the comment, he said that he was a descendent of Edmund Harrison's brother and that he would be happy to help me find information about my ancestors, if he could. He said Edmund's father had left a will naming some slaves and had given his son's both money and slaves before his death. I was looking forward to being able to take my 2 X great grandmother, Eliza back another generation or two. Unfortunately, after we exchanged a bit more information we realized that we were talking about two different Edmund Harrisons.  He did give me a name for my Harrison's father, which I didn't have. I will have to look into that and if it is indeed his father, perhaps I'll find a Will in that direction eventually.

Third, I got an message from a cousin through Ancestry DNA.  I just realized that although he wishes to remain a mystery at this time, he can do that and still help me by giving me his Ydna results!  I will be writing him back and asking him to share.

My record organization consists of putting things into folders within folders on my computer, in my genealogy program (Reunion) and on my Ancestry.com trees. Finally, I keep hard copies of some important documents in binders so that I can work with them off of the computer. 

Update: Went to Ancestry.com intending to ask my cousin about sharing his ydna with me only to discover that ancestry.com does not include mtdna or ydna with the autosomal test! I am so disgusted.



10 comments:

  1. YAY! forward progress! Glad I could help! :-)

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  2. Love Grandpa Albert's picture and the thought of Organization. I better get to it. Look forward to reading more on your 'Finds'. Way to go Kris!

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  3. I need to get more organized too. Thanks for posting this. It will give me the nudge to get going on this.

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  4. Congratulations on receiving the letters, look forward to your sharing.

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  5. Thanks all. I will be sharing. Right now digesting.

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  6. Wow, what wonderful blessings you received. I am very happy for you on all the good things that came your way. Love the picture of your grandfather, especially the look on his face.

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  7. Awesome about the letters from your family! That is such a treasure. I also was a little disappointed with the AncestryDNA and how I can not determine between paternal and maternal. I will have to get someone from my paternal side to take the test as well to rule out some things. But, the good thing about it is that it opened a lot of leads for me on some of the many brick walls.

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  8. What a wonderful photo of your grandfather. I am in the process of organizing too. I don't even know where to begin, but know it has to be done. I am so excited that you received all those letters. It is going to be more understandable this second time around reading them..Kudos to you. Looking forward to hearing more about it all!

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  9. What wonderful finds! All those letters are going to take some time to work through, but what a great source for future postings. I look forward to reading them online.

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  10. I can't wait to hear more about the letters. What a fabulous gift!

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