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.