Packing for a trip

My mother's youngest sister is coming to visit and help me with some genealogy studies. My aunt has photos, documents, access to the LDS files etc. So as my aunt as gathering letters and documents to come visit she indicated she was planning to ship the genealogy resources before hand so she had less to carry on the plane. I went into an automatic panic!!! I suggested my aunt ship me her clothing and carry the documents. We discussed it and decided we knew what was much more valuable. We could always replace clothing. But to risk the documents to any carrier was just too frightening for us. We would not be able to breath the whole time the documents were in transit. So it is decided -- Aunt will ship the clothing and pack the documents as a carry-on. Phew!!! that was a close one!!!

Interpreting Passenger List Annotations

As I research my nephews Italian Ancestors I am fascinated to learn that many of the young men came to America first (about late 1890s) and sent for their families 2-4 years later. (Early 1900's) The place these young men arrive at is Bronx New York. All the stereotype of Hollywood Italian Young Thugs come to mind. I am fascinated to learn about the ships, the conditions of the travel, and arrival of these brothers and cousins coming to America.

But once the families arrive, These young families then migrated quite quickly across the USA through Ohio and end up in Santa Clara Valley, California. They become the orchard workers, cannery operators for which the Santa Clara Valley is so richly known for. These brothers were a BIG part of the developement and glory of the Santa Clara Valley and their story is worthy to be perserved.



But getting back to my research I am thankful for all the help genealogists are afforded in 2009. Believe me I started my research in 1970s and genealogy has changed a lot!!

I read the manifest and New York Newspapers for the arrival and condition of travel articles and was quite satisfied with my findings. Until I happened on the following resource just this week. WOW WOW I feel like a flood of information has been opened to me. I imagine in 10 or 20 years from now with all these findings and learning, I could maybe someday call myself a genealogist!!!



A Guide to Interpreting Passenger List Annotations
by Marian L. Smith
Historian, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

with the assistance of
Elise Friedman,
Flora Gursky, and Eleanor Bien


Passenger Lists or manifests. Every genealogist and his sister wants to find one. But after years of searching, many find a document that raises as many questions as it answers. This is especially true of passenger lists dating after 1892, which are frequently found to have a variety of markings, codes, and annotations squeezed into the margins and small blank spaces above and behind information written in the list form's columns




There continues to be pitfalls, and the need to double and triple your resources. There is still a need to verify the departure list, the arrival lists, the immigration list, oath of alligence lists etc. Yet with these new decoding of annotations some of this information gives you clues as to the next place to look. But it never ends ...... never .... I just hope to give a direction for those, whom are bitten by the genealogy bug, next to pick up the work.

Should have zigged when I zagged

Seems I have several errors in my family tree. I am going to have to go in trimming branches and appling tree tar. While fixing one branch I got involved with a siblings tree and now have duplicate fathers. So I have to go in and match up the "father" that matches my home person and delete the "cloned father" . Also according to my Aunt when I am documenting the Dearmans I picked the Dearman's that went to Florida but she has letters to prove me wrong. So I will have to trim and cut some more.
I do not mind cutting and editing and following up if I am able to do a better job.
I received a genealogy correction note from a relative and in closing he says
"have a great journey" That is just what it is a journey. A journey all over the world, in a time warp. So to all my fellow genealogist...I wish you a happy journey. Ruthless in Chula Vista

First Genealogy Research Trip---Silicon Valley CA

I am posting what I hope is the first of many Genealogy Travel Post. Before I leave for my 6 day genealogy research trip, I wanted to do some preparing.

I mapquested all my destinations,
verified days and hours open,
reviewed catalogues of the libraries and museums I wish to visit.
I have outlined the documents I want to obtain.


I will be traveling to Silicon Valley next week.
I plan to visit
Martin Luther King Libraries, California Room, Fifth floor,
Santa Clara Heritage Plaza Library,
Sunnyvale Library on Pastoria,
Sunnyvale Historical Society Room at the Old Murphy Building on California street. Superior Courts San Jose and Santa Clara,
County Records.
Cemeteries,
The old County Hospital.
and also:
Napa Cemetary and hospital
Napa Library


I am hoping the days and hours posted on their websites are current.
I plan to stop by to see old friends and see if they have old photos that I will be able to duplicate.

I plan to take photos: (need to add to list camera and battery charger)
of the old neighborhood.
previous residents of direct relatives
the hospital
and old friends.

I have made my plans. My plans may not be followed completely. Yet I think it is a good ideal to try to plan an effective and efficient trip to be as genealogically productive as possible.

Of course I need to factor in my possible obstacles,
grandkids
adult children
wanting to visit with friends too long
long lunch and dinner dates
fatigue
brain freezes
traffic
late nights

Wish me luck,

Family Interest and Blogging

I have blogged less than a week now. I make mistakes, I lose my blog page, I forget to spell check, I do not think I am doing it correctly.
Even so I want to thank the people who encouraged me to blog. I have already heard from two family members that I speak to but once a year to wish a Merry Christmas. They are curious and want to know more. They ask specfic questions. They talk about the desire to stay connected and read more.

I thought I was just blogging to get a set of pretty beads!!!! During the Jamboree it was pointed out there is really two parts to genealogy work (I will expand later in another blog that I believe there are many other parts).

The first part is recording, the documenting and researching the data and the second part
Sharing all this data with your family.

So it continues the never ending stories, research, honoring, loving, caring for those who have helped shape who we are, where we were born, and the color of our eyes.

Cemetary Visit

I will visit my mother's grave this week. It is ironic that my mother often asked me to record our (really she was more interested in "her" family) genealogy, and it is her records that need to be corrected. Constantly the dutiful daughter I am making the pilgrimage to Napa California next week to try to resolve my mother's misinformation. Her Social Security Index indicated she died in San Jose, she died in Napa. Correction: she was pronounced dead in Napa. I think she died in bed in her beloved room at Lake Berryessa. WE all miss her so much. After 5 years, my sister finally visited Mom's grave in 2005. It was so hard for my younger sister. How my heart ached when my sister called to tell me---The data on the gravestone is incorrect.......Mom's name spelt wrong!! Wrong dates.....

It was Mom and I who set up mom's resting place. Dad always procrastinated about making plans. After 3 years, of mother suffering with ovarian cancer, Dad still was surprised when Mom passed. He was so sure she would recover. Mom was very specific about what she wanted --- the home gave us an envelope to complete so decisions could be clear when the time would come. Mom dictated, I wrote, repeated to her what I wrote, exasperated Mother would correct me and have me rewrite and rewrite, then she would change her mind and have me rewrite or add things as she rolled the decisions over in her head again and again.
When the time came, Dad was distraught and totally taken off guard. He walked around in a daze. All official people called him, asked his desires. I quietly mentioned to Dad that I had an envelope of Mom's wishes. Dad looked at me blankly as though he was trying to understand what I said. When we went to the home, the officials brought us into a small neat office, Dad sat down and in his authoritative voice (one I was very familiar with) Dad said "This is what I want.........." Nothing he said slightly resembled the instructions in the sealed envelope. I said nothing. I realized this was now for him, Mom was gone, we needed to take care of Dad. I do remember telling my sister, when we made Dad's arrangement I planned to do a double ceremony with the music and flowers, mother had requested. So I released the responsibility----for the time being. But next week nearly 9 years later, I will try to the best of my ability to correct the Social Security Index, ask for a new gravestone, and place yellow roses on her grave.
CVGS President Gary, asked me how did I think all these mistakes were made. I did not know. I will try to find out what mishaps caused these errors. But most important, I will correct the records. Now I am a genealogist, the self-proclaimed family historian, it is my job to set the records straight. I understand how fustrating now how frustrating and crazy someone would need to go through to locate my mother. My fear is they would never find her. Each ancestor I find, I celebrate their lives, and attempt to share their lives with family. Yes, I need to set the records straight such that hundreds, and generations away family will find and cherish this remarkable woman, just as we do.

I Installed RootMagic 4

One of my objectives for attending the Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank California was to review and compare new genealogy software programs. There are about 4-5 popular programs out there and even some interesting "independents". But for reasons I may blog about at another time --- I chose to purchase, install and populate Root Magic 4 with my family information.

So far I am finding RootsMagic easy to learn and to apply to my trees. There was a convenient import ged.com button and zip there was my data. Of special interest for me was the "problems found" button. I used this feature in my old Legacy program. I used this feature often. I was so excited when I applied it to my current data. The results reported I had very few "problems". I was able to drop these "problems" in my (rootmagic provided) to-do list. With the problems residing on my rootmagic "to do list", these issues will be readily available to retrieve. This allows me to review and correct these issues when I can focus on them with more time.

My previous experiences have included working on one individual research subject and out of the corner of my eye noticing a questionable date/place/relationship. At that time I had several choices to make 1) I could stop what I was working on and resolve the issue immediately hoping to resolve it fast as not to lose my primary train of research or 2) jot down the discrepancy on a notebook, I keep close to the computer, to find and correct the concern later, 3) write something stupid in the spot like "silly silly" or "you gotta be kidding" hoping that when I get a chance I find all my "flags" to correct or 4) my favorite --- tell myself to just put that "problem" in my memory and KNOW I will be able to retrieve the issue in a day or two.

I will be taking classes and doing my own home experiencing on RootsMagic. Crunch Crunch back to work I go------

American History

Motivation for working on my genealogy. I have several reasons that my work on genealogy is important to me. My first and foremost reason is a desire to record my mother's family. My mother was always very proud of her heritage and she always asked me to research and record our family history. My mother loved her grandchildren. It was important to my mother that her grandchildren knew her family. In particular her grandmother, Armenita Clementine Chapin. Armenita was quite a character.

But there is a more compelling reason to motivate me to continue to record and share "our story". That reason is to educate our younger generation on American History!!

I am feeling very strongly about doing this genealogy work. I think my education and dedication to this work has led me to research and preserve this data. I feel so strongly about it because American History is being rewritten for the next generation of American children by people and interest groups that were not here!!
In order to preserve our country we must keep the ideals of America alive. If these special interest groups felt so strongly about Americas ideals why did they not try it in their own country. I will tell you why because it takes sacrifice, heroism, and a vision.

This country may not be perfect but it is the best country in the world. My personal profession at Working to move industry to China, India, Iraq, Israel --- reminds me of how much "growing" these countries are going to need. America went through our Industrial Revolution, the Great Reform and the establishment of public education.
Just like these countries are now-------Until the 1840s, school systems were localized and available only to wealthy people. The Great Reformers (mostly Protestant) who wanted all children to benefit the education process opposed this. These reformers fought for the case that public schooling could create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty. Seems to me those should be the goals of schools today. The efforts and work of the GREAT REFORMERS are not taught in school today). As a result of their efforts, free public education at the elementary level was available for all American children by the end of the nineteenth century. By 1918 all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary school (Great School Staff, 2003). The first publicly supported secondary school in the United States was founded in 1635. The attendance in secondary schools was very little because the curriculum was specialized and difficult. A demand for more intelligence and skills within the labor force (the industrial revolution which India, China, and so many other countries are experiencing now) led Benjamin Franklin to start a new kind of secondary school. Franklin established, the American Academy which was established in Philadelphia in 1751. American high schools eventually became more prominent. The rise in American high school attendance was one of the most shocking developments in the U.S. education system during the twentieth century. As the twentieth century progressed, high school was becoming more and more important to society. The effects that the history of public education took on shaping America in the early years of the twentieth century are often overlooked. Likewise, things like The Great Depression, wars with other countries, civil rights movement, student protests and the numerous political events within the country all had their effects on the education system. All of these, plus more were key ingredients to the efforts in shaping the American public school (Thattai, 1999). American public schools are built around the beliefs of everyone is welcome and no child will be left behind. Public schools are schools that are provided by state and federal funding. Ninety percent of the children in America attend a public school. Until 1951 the "Protestant" Lord's Prayer was said in Public schools each day.
As the world evolves, these lessons are going to help make better decisions in the future. Education is key to create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty.
Bringing that part of history to our grand kids is very important to me.

I do believe there is an anti-American wave of thinking being popularized. But for me and my family I will try to keep the story (or at least this side of it) straight.

So off to work on setting the records straight. More later, Ruth

Ok I will jump off my soap box and get focused on my research.