Genealogy of Today

Genealogy of today is varied and interesting in ways it has not presented it self so much in the past. At least it seems to me that there is a greater awareness of
genealogy in the community.

Sure we can say the programs on Television has helped to create this but I still think it has more to do with the events that Genealogists and Societies are doing.

I am a firm believer that the blogging concept created by whom ever, has a much larger impact on genealogy than many people thought would happen. I read an article that blogging is becoming blasse'. Maybe for the youth and business world but I do not think so for the genealogical community.

I agree that writing a blog story on your ancestor if you reiterate your information in a concise manner, better helps the search engines to pick up the data.
I think the more we blog properly and the more we encourage blogging the more
information we are going to garner.

Barbara Renick made a good point about cousin connections and family groupings.

I doubt if there is a blogger on line unless new that has not had some degree success with their blog since it's conception.

Hank Jones mentioned the being aware of the other than normal methods of locating kin. Sometimes our kin come hunting for us in a subtle way.

Randy Seaver this morning wrote about a blogger on the east coast in NY. I read this man's blog and somehow I knew what was coming and the thrill of his discovery by
accident, is a lot of how my genealogy develops.

I have a talk I presented a couple times about what I call my backwards genealogy.

There are times when we have to step outside the box to get into the box. At the many events I have recently attended it was interesting how many speakers, quietly eluded to the concept. I have found more information chatting to people than digging on the computer, I have located more kin with information I was so anxiously seeking right up the road and down the street so to speak than in a library.

Now this does not apply every day but I have learned the co mingling of genealogists can promote your genealogy ever bit as much if not more than going to
a library or meeting and then immediately leaving with out the community interaction that takss place by many.

I remember joining, many years ago a Genealogy Society in the San Diego area that did awesome presentations and great bits of information. But the person setting next to me had no idea who was searching for what name where in the society and they
had neglected themselves for information. I remember it clearly because one
presenter got up and gave a talk about his ancestor and I kept shaking my head. I had not heard that story from anyone but family all the years of my research. I asked him afterwards if his story true and he said, "yes" and I said then we share kin because that man was also my ancestor.

It amazes me how some stories are carried down with nary a beat being missed and others get all tangled and disorientated over a period of time. Stories are a vital
part of genealogy. If you have a memory or a story write it down. You can always go back and add tidbits as the brain recalls them. You do not need to share them but
I suspect over time you will. But it saves the story from being lost and the information that is garnered from the story there in is not lost forever.

Indians and Blacks( I don't like that word) but they carried their family history down only by stories for many generations. As the ancestors are tracking today they are finding the data to be most accurate in their research.

Maybe we should also start a story night once a week to share family events for the younger generations to remember. I look at blogging as a way of story telling and it is growing so we are doing it non oral but electronically verbal.

Library Resources for Genealogists

Library Resources for Genealogists

1. Magazines, Newspapers

2. CD's, Video's, DVD's

3. Resource Area, Encylcopedia's, Who's Who's, Maps, and Gazeteers, Phone Books, etc

4. History Section History of USA, Other Region's of the World

5. Genealogy Check Out normally near the History Section

6. Children's Section Interesting information to be used here

7. Genealogy Section Non Check out normally in or near the Reference Area

8. Computer access for usgenweb.org and rootsweb.com sites, plus other free sites.

At our library we have large non check out section that our society donates books to all year long. We set funds aside for new books to be purchased for this library every year. One year we bought the Library of Congress, Index set, very expensive. Members and Non Members donate books to our society which we in turn
give to the library for the communities and our needs. We also have periodicals, newsletters, and quarterlies from various societies through out the USA.

These are all there to assist the local community in their research. We
have a librarian team that comes in and works the shelves and accesses our books.
We have a person that if contacted with a need for a book will attempt to add this book to the library collection when and if it can be purchased.

We have genealogy members that come in to assist the library staff with helping
genealogy researchers with their needs. We have done this many years on Monday's every week for two hours. We have in the past had members there in the evenings for two hours and on weekends to assist people doing research so the staff can attend other needs.

We recently have gone back to being in the library and more visible to help the community with their research.

Our hours are 11 a m to 1 p m on Monday's in the corner by the window to help
researchers. We do talk but try to keep it low and encourage the patrons to come back
and enjoy the library more often.

Our hours on Wednesday's are 5:30 to 7:30 p m and in the same area.

We are attempting to set up some steady hours for Sunday's since our library is not open on Saturday's due to budget cuts. Library staff indicated they get a lot
of requests on Sunday's.

If our members would consider 1 hour every two weeks we could more than cover
the other hours so that people are there to help when needed. This is a great way to
meet other researchers, potentially meet new relatives of distance and work your
genealogy needs without interruptions like what happens at home.

Our Society is at 90 strong at this point of near it. So come on members give John F a call and sign up to learn how to share the library with potential future
genealogists. Signing off on behalf of being an active member of the Chula Vista Genealogy Society.

We invest a sizable sum into this community with our efforts and donations.
Come visit us or visit your library and learn the things that will help your
research that you have not used before.

Sentimental Sunday Just Quaking

Sunday was sentimentally interesting. We shook, we rattled and we rolled then we did it all over again and again. About 3:50 in the afternoon, this happened. EASTER at that, yes it did.

I recall being in the commissary in the 60's when the freezer walked all the way over and pinned me with the grocery buggy to the cereal shelf. The cereal was falling every where. I had my children with me and I got them into the buggy for protection.

Some people were injured that day. I am not sure if the boys remember it or not.
They were probably 4 1/2 and 6 years of age.

Then in the 70's Alan cut his eye at school I had to leave hi rise in down town to come home pick him up take him to Coronado to DR at the base. As we were driving down the Silver Strand to come home around 2 something in the afternoon if I remember right. He suddenly says to me, " Mom what are those cars doing?" Well an earthquake was shaking, rattling and rolling. As I said to him it was an earthquake we zipped across the ground that was making a z pattern on the highway and also we moved from inside lane to out side lane and back to inside lane and I never moved the steering wheel. That was the day they (downtown) thought the two hi rises were going to collide on the top. My boss said he looked out his window, pinned against it with desk and was looking down on the sidewalk on the other side of the street on passenger side of the car. I have never overly liked a hi rise for that reason. It is an awful long way up to have to come down.

I have lived through many at my MOM's and in Sunnyvale and others here but those all stand out in my mind. Yes the shaking was longer than a minute I watch that type of thing. The sharp crack at 4:14 this am was a different type of quake it was a sharp shifting jolt, almost head snapping in nature. Yesterday we rolled and rolled and intensely rolled and the ceiling rolled and the air felt magnetic.

Genealogy Ancestor Award

I wish to say Thank You to Jean Hibben's of CircleMending for this award.

As a recipient of this award I’m supposed to list ten things I have learned about any of my ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlightened me and pass along the award to ten other bloggers whom I feel are doing their ancestors proud.


1. Henry Huffman who fought so hard and worked diligently to keep his family safe when settling the Virginia and sw Pennsylvania area.b Maryland b abt 1740 Dcd Dec 1810-Jan 811 WILL Probated. Rev War Vet from VA and a Sw PA Frontier Ranger. I could write a book about this man's adventures and courage. Yes he humbled me with his actions.

2. Henry Huffman ie HOFFMAN, son of above who worked hard, helped build the community with a church or two, some bridges, homes, a unique spiral stair case and raised his
children with integrity b 1803 d 1879 Greene Co. PA. He lost his father at a young age
and succeeded to raise excellent children with a great wife. He was definitely an architect more than a farmer though he excelled in both. Which amazed and thrilled me.

3. Sanford HOFFMAN son who served in CW, with a brother as a HUFFMAN/HOFFMAN and was a lay chaplain to assist his comrades after the war also a farmer who raised several children and made the move from PA to IOWA by wagon train after the War when son
Franklin was about 11 years old. He raised trees and his wife is a story unto herself.

3.a Rachel Plants HOFFMAN, his wife, she was a gardener, a hat maker, a dress maker, she loved canaries and was well respected by family. She was a task master but had a warm heart and helped until she was near death. She did not allow Sanford to work on Sunday's she felt he needed that day to rest. She didn't allow anyone to work on Sunday other than daily need chores. I have many awesome stories written by family members about this remarkable woman. She rode a wagon and walked beside it moving from Greene Co, PA to IOWA. She left her first born deceased child in the grave in Pennsylvania. The baby is buried next to Sanford's parents at Aleppo's Windy Gap Cemetery and we have a picture of her in album.

4. Alexander Duvall 11 for his courage and fortitude to make a better place for his
family, for his service to his country in the Rev War and raising children that were
respected in the community. Maryland, and Pennsylvania, Fayette and Washington Counties, children many came to IOWA.

5, John Scott for serving in the Rev War in more than one unit and moving west to Kentucky from VA and having support for his family members over the years after
his fathers death in 1767 in VA. b 1761 - d 1843

6. John FOLK for serving in Rev War from Bucks Co PA and later moving to Greenwich Berks Co where resided at death. PA ARchives data. His character amazed me.

7. Calvin Fay JONES Civil War veteran and father of 6 children, raised horses and
had a strong moral value. He was rescued from the trenches in Murphysboro Tenn
when given up for dead and walked (after nursed back to health by a black family )to ILL. Alas given pension and rejoined service and 3 months later declared unfit for duty and fought for 25 years to regain back his pension. He finally received it.
Family said he seldom complained of his losses and had a deep respect for human kind.
He left his brother there dead and he is buried in cemetery in Tenn. I was told he was soft spoken and a very loved human being. I wish I had gotten to know him but the children all shared some poignant thoughts on this man and his CW packet was full of information about him.

8. Katherine Myers, was a remarkable woman who helped the family in many wonderful ways. She taught her Grandaughter (Grandma) the ways of the Indian family she descended from and she in turn passed many of them down to me, her Grandaughter.



9. Cecil Lee Hoffman, my grandfather whom I adored and loved very much. He shared stories of his grandfather and Great Grandfather's with me and my two cousins. He gave my Mom the picture book that had been given to him for the family to remember those great people before him. He had several children and lost two, one infant and one about age 15 from a fall off couch at age 3. Family was important to him and keeping contact and remembering was a key to our future he felt. I may do a book on him one day if God gives me the time. It seems the Hoffman HUFFMAN line has so many awesome stories to share. I find that the stories only get better as I meet more Hoffman / Huffman kin. Yes Grandad, you do descend from Pocahantus. Who would have believed it?



10. Ray Dee Jones Sr, my father who was a bronco rider, cattle man, who gave up
what he loved living in Wyoming to care for my MOM when her health went bad at a young age and moved from Wyoming to California for a chance for MOM to be able to walk and live longer. He loved her with a passion that could be felt if you were in the room with them. He was a very sensitive man even if he tried not to show it.
She had Scarlet Fever at a young age that affected her body for all time. When they moved to California she had trouble moving due to the arthritic condition the disease
caused her. He worked at his sister's husband's ranch and raised four children in California. He managed to put away enough money to acquire a mini ranch of his own.
He always said he was a rancher not a farmer. We always had cattle and animals, of
course we plowed and planted but it was for our use, not to sell.

He helped to raise his brother and sisters when his family fell apart when he was about 10 years old. He told of killing jackrabbits bringing them home to clean and fix for food. They ate lots of beans. He was raised on bean broth because he could not have milk. Milk almost did him in as infant. Grandma's Indian related Grandmother
told her to use bean both and mashed beans and it worked.

Amazing it was bean broth that saved his first grandson from the same fate and all the male boys of my family line could not use milk, nor could other male members of his family including his brother. Dad also felt Family was a very strong key to our past and future.

All of these people were amazing people in their own right. Some did things no one knew of until I started meeting cousins and learning facts. Alas it comes from moving away from kin and being in a different place to grow up. I think what I have learned the most interesting is that though we moved away from PA to ILL, IA to WYO then for DAD and MOM to come to California. We retained more stories and facts about the family than many of those in PA had lived and forgotten. So be aware write down the
stories of your adventures now before they get lost in the vapors of time and confused in our elders minds.

Jean again thanks, this makes one really think about ones family.

Harriet LEWIS wife of Shadrack SCOTT

Harriet LEWIS b 1 May 1798 Virginia m 1815 in KY to Shadrack SCOTT b 22 Feb 1790 Pittsylvania Co. VA and died 11 Nov 1850 Henry Co. IA.

I suspect marriage in Cumberland Co KY, I also think she was from Pittsylvania Co VA as he was.

Thanks cousin for sharing.

Friday's Following of Dr. Bill's site

Another of my favorite place sites is this one.


http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/

Come here and enjoy a great blog.

Treasures for Thursday Margaret Mae EASTMAN

Thursday's treasure is a single found photo of my Great Grandmother and her last husband. I am blessed her daughter had one in her album of her Mom.

Does anyone else have EASTMAN in IOWA near Cedar Rapids, Washburn, Waterloo, IA area.?

I know she had a brother I believe his name was Roderick? Last year as I was traveling a cousin called me from Fresno area saying he was down line from Roderick.
But he was on my cell phone, it died and when they transferred data I lost his phone number.

I have Margaret back to Roger EASTMAN and beyond but have not dug for her siblings etc.
The lady with a interesting past, and a husband that disappeared.

I even found a EASTMAN bought some of the JONES land at one point up in Chickasaw area.

Wordless Wednesday's Night time