Being The Bridge.

I have considered this before back in 2014, but due to circumstances of age, losing loved ones, and time, it has come to the forefront of my mind again.  My mom and her twin sister who are the last of their core family of 13 children are nearing 90 and in ill health.

My mother on the left. 

My mother had been the bridge for years in her family reaching out to her nieces and nephews as well as siblings. Now she can't communicate because of health; this caused me to look around and realize that a fractionated family would soon to lose all connection if intervention didn't happen. My first cousins, I was not so much worried about, but the future generations, yes, that concerned me.
Part of the awareness was, I had been pulling my father's family back together reaching back to descendants of my great great great grandfather because they had all lost contact up to the present generation. I started with one cousin and built upon that.
One of the ways I have taken action,was to begin by making private family groups on Facebook and adding the cousins to the family group as I found and collected them.  By sharing pictures and stories, I have been able to reach down to 3rd and 4th cousins that have felt the call to learn of their origins. Below is examples of my journey. I have shared before, but I am sharing it again in the hopes to see others find inspiration to reach out and be the bridge to hold their families together.
When I first began my genealogy blog Branching Out Through The Years, my purpose was to preserve the memories of my husband known on the blog as "The Hero"for our grandchildren.  He really wanted to know them and wanted them to know him.  His choice was taken from him by cancer.

The Hero and I with oldest daughter's first son.

After that, I decided to write the stories of my associations with my relatives, aunts, uncles, grandparents for my children and grandchildren because for the most part they never met or really knew any of them.  This grew to posts about ancestors I wanted to know about and sharing findings with those who were also interested.

Old letters scrapbooked are loved by future generation seeking to know about an individual

When I started on my mother-in-law's family, it was very exciting for her.  She shared her personal stories.  Many times I sat on the floor at her feet and wrote down as she told me.  My sister-in-law also had her write down her personal history so now we have it in her writing.  There is something special about seeing their story in their handwriting as opposed to a transcription or memory by someone else.

Every time I find a book, story, document about an ancestor, I will connect it to the FamilySearch Family Tree , which is a collaborative effort, as a source for others and myself to go back and read to learn more about that ancestor. Their stories make them real, not just a name.
I have used my blog and memes to writing some of my stories. I know, if you don't tell the stories, they are lost and if you find a story you need to share. I can't tell you how many times I look at at family name and wish I knew something of their story.  I have envy that I have to fuss at myself about, when others talk about their family journals.  My dad's family was closed mouth, and now I am recreating their stories.

A great grandfather and one of his sons belonged to the Anti Horse Thief Association. At least they weren't horse thieves. 

There has been research and studies done that shows how sharing your family history and stories shores up your family members when they have challenges, or even national trauma. It is called The Stories That Bind Us.
 I ask you to join in saving the stories for future generations, Be the catalyst in your extended families for sharing, caring, and reaching out to pull cousins together.

as a footnote: I apologize for missing a couple of months. I have an excuse, we had our first core family reunion, first time some of the family had met new members, and first time some had seen each other in 8 years. It was an awesome happening... The other excuse was my mother was sick. Hope that things are back on an even keel again and I will see you next month. Blessings wished for all ya'all from Texas, United States of America.

Family Associations

I am working on a project to identify and add Family Associations on a FamilySearch Wiki page Click here to view.  It would be awesome if it was found and added to by those organizations/associations that would like to find new members.  
The reason for the project is to support and encourage families to continue with their associations and organization.  
I have been saddened to find many associations struggling or not active any longer.  I would have to say though, I have also been a bit surprised that with the resurgence of interest in family history and family trees, that the associations have not been revitalized.  
The existence of family associations serve to bond families and assist, as well as facilitate collaboration of researching surnames. Sometimes a family will drift apart because of family disagreements, sometimes it was distances, and other times it was disinterest in making the effort on the part of one generation. Then a new generation will pop up that begins to wonder about their ancestors and who their family was or if anyone knew stories or had pictures of them.  
I had this experience.  My father's generation seemed to have the attitude, "let the dead bury the dead"... just take care of the living.  That translated into, I don't share stories about my life nor did I know anything about my grandparents, no one talked about them. 
One day, I decided I had enough, I needed to know about the family and better yet if there were any still living I needed to know them.  At the same time a cousin called and said we haven't seen each other in 30 years we need to visit.  Well... that was an invitation I was looking for.  We collaborated on research some, but it was another ten years before we were able to start reaching out to others.  I will say Facebook has been very helpful in the development of a loosely formed family group.  We formed a Family Group labeled the ancestor's name and emphasized we were searching for descendants. While we have not been able to make it to a formal organization yet, we have found and pulled three generations of descendants from all six of the children of my great grandfather and five of the eight children of my grandparents.

Benedict and Sarah Jane Hankins Langley family portrait.

The young adults are hungry for the information, but don't seem to be either willing or comfortable sharing their questions or memories.  They want to sit back and watch, in our case that semi works because the rift in the family left a void, and just developing personal relationships and a sense of family seem to be the order of the day.  My cousin and I are hoping to develop something that will last after we are gone.  Which takes me back to my project...
The early developers of  many Associations had hoped they were building a lasting organization, only to find there weren't any young adults willing to spend the extra time in making the organizations last and the older ones were not able to travel to reunions or meetings to continue to work together.  I know of a few that are struggling to continue but have and air of quiet desperation.
When I come across a healthy Family Association I want to cheer and do a happy dance.  It always feels like the family had over come that pain and challenge of when the pioneers had moved away to come back together, and there is a mother in heaven doing a happy dance.  
I have up to this point worked on mostly United States organizations, but I am now trying to identify international and foreign association / organizations, because the possibilities of families reuniting and learning as well as bonding are great.
If you know of an association and it is not on the pages, it is a wiki, you can add to it.  
'Til next month... Did your family have a reunion,or at least a get together?  Know of any associations... can always use help. 

Of Graduations, Weddings & Family Reunions

Wedding & Reception in Seattle, and a Family Get-Together
(get a large house with a huge yard for the day after party!)

Are you exhausted yet? Or are your big family events somewhere on the horizon? Between graduations, weddings and family reunions, the summer months are always eventful. And many of us try to fit in a big of genealogy or family history research if our summer travels take us back to our ancestors' places.

This past weekend (not quite summer so we all had school and work schedules to negotiate) our extended family combined several of these events and hosted a family get-together (our reunion is in August) all out of town. Between the packing, driving, flying, pick-ups at the airport, unpacking, assigning rooms at our rental house and various hotels, meals, wedding service, reception (great food and music!), late night snacks and chats, big family get-together (early morning ice and beer run, food and drink setup, and the infamous "can opener" presentation to the lucky couple) plus a free day for sightseeing and an evening boat trip - this was an eventful long weekend.

I had great hopes of cornering a few of the elders to get answers to some questions or ask for additional information. I was also hoping to stop by the central library while the others were sightseeing to get a bit of family history research in. Did it happen? No - there was way too much going on with way too little time to visit, let alone research. But I am proud of myself for taking scads of photos and getting the newest email addresses and cell phone numbers. I am going to have to try for those chats again during the family reunion in August and will take advantage of some interview apps for our smart phones that have recently been introduced.

Do you have any research plans for the summer? If those plans involve family members, how do you stay on track with all those people and so little time at reunions and get-togethers?

Back in the Stream of Blogging With A Hook

Fishing for Family - You Might Have A Great Catch!
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-100165715

I am so impressed with people who seem to be able to publish blog posts about all aspects of their family history - from stories about their ancestors, reviews of the software and apps, travel to their ancestral homelands, cemetery visits, research trips and conferences, to in-depth discussions of their methodology. I even have two genealogy friends who have outlined their A-Z Challenge blog posts (thematically) for 2015!

On the other hand, I am one of those bloggers who has the best of intentions, but not the best follow-through. That is one of the reasons that I jumped on this Worldwide Genealogy blogging bandwagon. Although I am busy with a variety of genealogy/family history related projects, I did want to get back into blogging (as that is where most of my personal family history research is found). When Julie Goucher first mentioned the idea, I thought I can post once a month in 2014 and Julie knows where to find me if I don't. I also hoped that the commitment to Worldwide Genealogy would get me back on track with my own blogs (hey it is always a little bit about self-interest). So I signed on and started with baby steps.

I wrote my first four blog posts here as the spirit moved me. All it took was a bit of thought (walking is a great activity to clear your mind and get ideas for blog topics) and a bit of discipline (calendar the publish date, write up the post at least a few days early, and give myself a day to review before hitting the publish button).

Now it was time to take a look at my own blogs (oh, the horror and all those cobwebs!) and see if they could be saved. I have one blog for my paternal side The Keough Corner and one blog for my maternal side Scandia Musings. The first decision was whether to invest the time and effort in updating the layout, cleaning up (actually pruning) the pages, and committing to posting on a regular basis. I spent some time in April doing just that - reading a variety of blogs, playing with colors, fonts, sidebars and widgets - spring cleaning the layout, tweaking the content, and checking out the results. Now I needed a hook - something that would nudge me to post at least once a week.

Enter Cheri Hudson Passey who publishes her blog at least weekly using the meme of writing about her family history calendar - she uses the calendar creator/list feature in Legacy to note the birthdays and anniversaries of people in her family tree. She borrowed this meme from Linda McCauley (one of my partners in crime over at the Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community on Google+). This looked like a great plan to get me back in the blogging stream with baby steps.

Using Legacy (most of the genealogy database programs have this same feature) - I print to PDF the calendar list for any given month - in my case, one for my Murphy-Keough direct line (tag 1) and one for my Zagradisnik-Lidman direct line (tag 2). Then I go to my Legacy database and check out the family members whose names are in the upcoming week to get a bit more of their back story. The first time I did this I spent a few hours doing a bit of research to fill in some blanks. This is a great way to focus on family members you might miss otherwise - and who should not be remembered on their birthday or anniversary? It is also interesting to see who had a birthday in any given month (if you are into astrology at all  you will find those family members who share a sign - as in "oh, that explains it, he was an Aries").

If you are getting back into the blogging habit or thinking about blogging for the first time, why not try a meme (simply a hook) to get you started. And nothing could be easier or more rewarding than to focus on your own family. An added benefit - if you use the names, dates, places, and a bit of their story, you might just get a nibble on that cousin bait hook you put in the internet stream. I have already heard from two potential connections this past month.

Cousin Bait Anyone?
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-100224539

So, why not try fishing for ancestors. Do you have suggestions for topics that make blogging a bit easier and/or more fun for you? Please share them with the rest of us in the comments section. Now it's time to bait those hooks (I fish on Sundays).

Gone Fishing!
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-10028030

Hook. Line. Sinker. Reel ‘em in!

I’ll come clean right off, I am addicted to my techy toys.  I do have an ongoing love/hate relationship with them, no matter - - I.  AM.  ADDICTED.

Traveling the way we do, living the life of a nomad for months on end, my addiction to my techy toys continues, and (hopefully) enhances our life style.  My techy tool chest contains, my lap top, my internet connection device (an air card), my digital camera(s), iPhone, iPad, scanners (flat bed and sheet scanner too), printer, I even have a projector for the computer.

Since the iPad came into my life, I use the lap top as some would use a desk top, meaning it rarely gets used out of the stick built home or the RV (Tana).  The iPad is my go to town, in the truck, rolling again, toy of choice. I use it to stay in touch, email, social media, I can surf the web.  I have a war chest of apps that are specific to our nomadic life, there are apps for everything (of course there are, as we all giggle).  Campgrounds, national parks, weather, and navigation.  I use my iPad every time we leave home or the campground.  I depend on my navigation app.  Really depend on it!

Ah, but, we are a genealogy/researching blog, so, how does this relate?

Easy, and it is called FAMILIES.  The app for iToys and Android.  There are different versions, no, they do not cross platforms, if you change from the iToy to the Android system, you will need to repurchase for your new device.  There it is, up in the right hand top corner - - Families, the app.

Families is an app developed to work with the computer data base Legacy.  Now, for transparency, there are quite a few genealogy/family history apps that will take your data from Legacy (or RootsMagic and/or other data bases you may use).  I have tried some of them.  The data base transferred and was useable in several of the apps I tried.  However, for me, and this is HUGE for me, many of the other apps did not treat multimedia well.  Many times I only had access to one image per person in my data base.  Some people in my data base have a lot more than one image.  I love to tell stories and a person’s life story by images.  Yep, I am addicted to images too.

Families allows me to have the majority of my images and multimedia files available on my iPad.  There are a few, very few, files that have not transferred, I believe these are due to the size of those files.  I have a list to review, and I will, eventually (so much to do, so little time, how wonderful is that?)

Families will allow you to input on your iPad and then transfer back to Legacy on your computer.  I don’t do that, I only do input on my computer. I made a rule for myself many years ago to do input only on one device or one computer, no matter how many devices held copies of my data base..  I’ll fess up, keeping them in sync is not my strong point.  Yes, I know about Dropbox and other great cloud capabilities.  I just personally feel safer with this rule in place and following it always.  It is what works for me.

So, how do I use Families?

Families is great for spur of the moment research, like when I am miles from home and realize I am very near the cemetery where ggggguncle John is buried and I have no photo of his headstone, or I just want to pay a visit. I can use the data base to help refresh my memory on the specifics.  I try to have maps of cemeteries attached to the data base. Oh, has this been a boon.  I don’t know why, but, so many of the rural cemeteries, I seem to lose connectivity - wink wink.  I don’t need an internet connection to show me where the cemetery is, IF I have a map attached as multimedia.

I use Families for spur of the moment library research.  Say I find myself in a small town where ancestors lived and died and I desire their obituaries, Families has the information.  I can walk into a library, pull up my family tree on the app and reference what data I do have on the family, checking and rechecking as I pull microfilm, find obituaries and make copies (sometimes I even make those copies WITH the iPad).

Yes I do research this way. Our nomadic life style has a way of providing some wonderful surprising opportunities for research. We broke down in Seaside Oregon last year.  During our unplanned extended stay there I was able to visit the local cemetery, photograph a number of headstones and go to the local library and find 6 obituaries.  Research on the fly, err, roll.

Below an obituary, Walter Stuart, I found and captured with the iPad while we were broken down in Seaside Oregon last summer.

However, the most useful purpose for Families for me is the ability to pull up the data base and the thousands of images I have attached. You want cousin bate. This. Is. It. You want a way to quietly HOOK the next generation. This. Is. It. Pull up gggrampas multimedia events and show them photos of gggrampa as a baby. Hook. Line. Sinker. This. Is. It.  My hubs, aka Man, knows I have the data bases and images on the iToys and he will lead a family discussion right back to Families and the iToys.  Many times we have been enjoying a discussion with cousins or grandchildren and we find ourselves pulling out the iToys and “showing” images.  The iPad size is perfect. Pass it around. The images look soooo good.

Hook.  The family, father and parents, mother and parents, child.  A glimpse of the multimedia, one photo of each.

Line. Looking at the individual, the facts and a image icon row.

Sinker. Open the image line row and here are SOME of the photos for Lorena.  I have more for her than will fit on the screen (what a shame, eh??)

Reel em in!  This. Is. It. Just one of the photos in Lorena's multimedia collection.  Even those with very little interest in "research" LOVE photos!  Everyone LOVES photos!

The last time I showed off Families to extended family I had the undivided attention of some young teens.  They were fascinated by the photos I showed them of their mom and grandmother.  They were equally as fascinated by the notes I could share with them, stories, if you will, of their heritage.

Yep, I set the hook, line and sinker and I reeled them in.  It was so much fun!

How do you use your techy toys and apps?  Do you reel em in?  Tell us how you do - -




* The required disclaimers:  I am a patron of both Legacy and Families.  I paid for my copies.  Neither has asked me to review their products.  I will receive nothing in return for my review.  I did recently win a copy of Legacy 8 and the downloadable PDF book file from a Legacy Webinar.  I ran a contest on Reflections and gave the free copy away, as I had already paid for my upgrade to Legacy 8.

** This post came about as an offshoot of several social media discussions I have participated in.

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