31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 4

I really have been busy working on my special project mentioned in Day 1. So this my Day 4 is way out of sequence from the hints I am following by Amy Johnson Crow but it is the hint that I have been working on. In her book 31 Days to Better Genealogy this is Day 31. So I jumped to the end. Right, it is my project, I can do it anyway I want. This hint is to write something, any thing, even just a page on an ancestor. 

I watched a webinar about using Scivener to help organize your writing. It sounded like a good tool to use to help me with my project of writing about each one of my ancestors for the Chaplin line. I found some more videos on how to use the program and downloaded the free trial. 

What I like about it, I can make sections, or pages and have one main idea on each page. I can move them around to rearrange the order. It lays it out in a way that makes it easier to write than to put it in one long word document. I can add pictures and make side notes, like check for this. I even copied my timeline for Edith from excel and pasted it onto a page. I also can add footnotes.  The program also has the ability to change fonts.

I am writing this more in a story form instead of an official case report. I haven't figured out how to do an official case report. I have some ideas but I will save that for a later day. 

Cork Board

On the cork board it a place to hold your index cards for your project.

Top of First Page

This is the top of the first page that is just the beginning of Edith's life. With an image of her Birth Certificate. 

Bottom of Page 1 with Footnote

This is the bottom of the first page that shows the footnote I added.  Oh my gosh my memory is gone. I forgot how I add this. I am thinking I took it from my genealogy software. 

This is the page where I inserted my timeline from excel. I just copied and pasted. 

I did just print page one to see how it looks and it looks very nice and the foot note is at the bottom. Much easier to add than I think it would be in a word document. 

So I am learning lots and feeling like I have a good start to my project. Once I finish with my first draft of each page, I will have someone else proof it for me. Once I make those corrections it will be on the her father. 

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 3 or a Rabbit Hole

Well Monday, yesterday, September 9th, I was going to work on Day 3 and do that activity.  Which was to look closer at Census reports. But I had done that on 6th for my person of interest, Edith, my mother. So I began thinking that I really am working on this Big Project for a family reunion, so maybe I should start a new Genealogy file and make sure all my sources are correctly entered. I know they aren't correctly entered in my current file. So I started a new file and. I was adding pictures, since that is easy to complete and I couldn't find my mother's pictures. Not on my computer my hard drive or my cloud backup. I have no idea what cyber hole they fell into, but they are in it. Since I don't have that many pictures of Edith, I decided to scan them again, as TIFs which is another thing I had on my to do list. 

Now do all these steps correctly are important to do so others can follow what work you completed and how to find where you left off, but I still kind of feel like I went down a rabbit hole. 

I did think of two facts I can look for, her Christening as an infant and her Baptism as an adult. To marry my Dad she became Catholic. So now I have add those items to my to do list. So it wasn't wasted time, I learned some things, which is always good. I am also not as well organized as I think I am. 

Here is my favorite picture of Edith. 

Happenstance, Serendipitous Event

Yesterday, September 7th, while reviewing the Timeline on my mother Edith. I found a few things I wanted to check out. I wanted to find her on the New York State Census of 1925, and 1935. I was able to find her on the 1925 Census. There are no more New York State Census records after 1925. 

I also wanted to fine more marriage or divorcee records from her first marriage. I didn't find anything more on the first marriage or the divorcee. 

I was very surprised to find a hint for an obituary. It was a Beta: Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1940-1955. To see the imagine I had to sign into Newspaper.com. Luckily for me I won a year long subscription to the site from my local genealogy society. So I signed in and was able to see and read the obituary. 

I could share the imagine on Facebook from Newspapers.com but the copy I saved to my computer, what the call a clip is copyrighted. So I am not sure how to handle that.  So, I am going to use this imagine with all the information of where it came from. 

Here is the transcription:

HARTMANN - Edith (nee Chaplin), February 5, 1949, beloved wife of George Hartmann; devoted mother of Mary Elizabeth; dear sister of Beatrice Schaub and William Chaplin. Reposing at her late residence, 14-20 131st Street, College Point. Requiem Mass on Wednesday, 10 a.m., St. Fidelis R. C. Church, College Point. Interment St. Mary's Cemetery Flushing. 

It was a very sensitive moment for me. 

So I looked up the address of her last residence and this is the house I found. I have a vague memory of a house like this one. That my Dad's sister lived in when I was little. All I remember is it was in College Point and she had a very old fashion stove in it. Not a gas range like I had in my house. I wonder if this is the same house. 

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 2

I didn't say I was going to work on them daily, just do the 31 activities.

So Day 2 activity is to create a time line. Can be done in any format but it is to help you find missing details. So since I am working on the Chaplin Project I decided to start with my mother, Edith. I will be needing to do this for each person in my project, but she was the easiest to start with. I am using an Excel spreadsheet.

So I started my timeline.

It was interesting to me that I found a few things that I can look up that will just fill in some blanks, not necessarily add anything new. I noticed I didn't have any New York State Census records. I know she live only in Brooklyn, Manhattan and College Point, but it would be nice to show it in records. Something I can look for. 

There is one detail I can do some research on.  

My Mother was married before she married my Dad. I am not sure for how long. I all I know was that it was when she was young, he was older and the marriage was annulled. I have that information from my parents' marriage license. 

The close up of the marriage license with the previous marriage listed. 

She was also listed on the 1940 US Census as Married, using her maiden name, and no husband listed. Listed with mother as lodgers.

So then I decided to look at every file I have on Edith and look at what I found. Yes, it has been sitting in my folder, 

for I don't know how long. 

It looks like they were married for almost 9 years. I am concluding from the 1940 Census record that they did not live together for all those years. 

I will do some research but it isn't earth shatter if I don't know all the details. It is just an example of someone I thought the research was done for and I found more details I can look for with the help of filling in a timeline. 

So new tools can add new skills. And help you find forgotten items. If I had learned to write summaries as I did my research I might have remembered I had this information. I am already finding more things to improve. 

Upward and On-Ward to better Genealogy!

A Missionary Story: The voice of an Angel

Of course, I want to include some stories from my mission in my series of ME Stories. It was an amazing and hard experience but I love it and learned and grew a lot from my experience.

I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 17 July 1977, at the young age of 29. On 5 July 1979 I entered the MTC (Misionary Training Center) I went to the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission as a Welfare Sister (Hermaña de Bienestar). 

My companion and I were working with the Young Women and their leader ship, having a training meeting. We had an opening song, and I was conducting. Now you need to know, that I am not the best singer. I enjoy singing and I don't hesitate to sing, I know sometime I sound like a frog croaking but I have the spirit. And I know the power of sacred music.

We were singing the Hymn, Secret Prayer (There is an hour of peace and rest.) (Oracion Secreta). The sisters were just dragging the hymn. And I mean dragging it and it was painful to listen to. I made them stop, I told them to feel the words, read them and bring them into there hearts. This hymn teaches us about the importance of prayer and the peace it can give you. I testifies that hymns are like prayers to the Lord and He hears them. 

We started singing again. Suddenly my voice changes, it wasn't my voice any more. It was sweet and angelic and strong and confident. My companion looked up at me in wonder. She had also noticed the change. The group was singing with more feeling. I don't know which angel it was that helped my voice but I am grateful for the experience. 

It was a special experience for me, and even after all these years it still touches my heart.  Here is the link to the words of the hymn. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/text/hymns/secret-prayer?lang=eng

144
Secret Prayer

31243, Hymns, Secret Prayer, no. 144

1. There is an hour of peace and rest,
Unmarred by earthly care;
'Tis when before the Lord I go
And kneel in secret prayer.

[Chorus]
May my heart be turned to pray,
Pray in secret day by day,
That this boon to mortals giv'n
May unite my soul with heav'n.

2. The straight and narrow way to heav'n,
Where angels bright and fair
Are singing to God's praise, is found
Thru constant secret prayer.

3. When sailing on life's stormy sea,
'Mid billows of despair,
'Tis solace to my soul to know
God hears my secret prayer.

4. When thorns are strewn along my path,
And foes my feet ensnare,
My Savior to my aid will come,
If sought in secret prayer.

Text and music: Hans Henry Petersen, 1835-1909

Matthew 6:6

Alma 33:3-11

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 1

I have been thinking a lot about being more organized and making small changes in my life so I can make improvements. It might take a while to see the results but there will be results. The first thing I am doing is reducing my time on social media. Amazing how much time that frees up. Second I am making a schedule of how I will use my time. Not set in stone with school bells time to change class type schedule. But things like study scriptures in the morning. Do some genealogy, or scrapbooking or quilting everyday. Do some organizing, of a drawer or cabinet every day. Like I say it will take time.

So for my genealogy, I purchased the book 31 Days to Better Genealogy by Amy Johnson Crow. With the hopes of improving my skills. Recently my cousin Val invited me to go to England next summer to visit our second cousins there. I am thinking this is a perfect time to review and redo my Mom's line to share with all these cousins. They all do genealogy to varying degrees. I also when to give them a digital copy of the scrapbooking pages I made of the family I have pictures of. 

Long Term Goal: Finish scrapbook pages, add more info to the scrapbook. Fill in any blanks on the Chaplin line. Verify current information and fine and verify any new information encountered.

Short Term Goals: Notify English cousins of trip and plans. Ask them for any missing pictures they might have. Ask for any information I might be missing. Ask for fun tips or stories they might know of individuals. Make any new pages, scan all the pages to share. 

Here are some of the pages I have already completed. I have pictures of 3 of the missing four in group photos. I would like to have individual of all. Plus add more to the descending generations. 

I have less then a year to work on this but with good planing I should be able to get it finished. 

I Ran Over an Alligator

I have recently been thinking about different short and interesting stories of my life they don't fit anywhere special but they are interesting to me and I wanted to start sharing them. Here is my first one.

One Sunday night, while I was driving back to Miami, Florida after attending a singles conference in the middle of the state. This was about 1983 or so. I forget what road I was driving on but it was a two-lane road down the middle of the state by the Everglades. I had two friends in the car but they were sleeping. I suddenly saw the alligator laying in the middle of the road, across both lanes of traffic. He was a big one and his head was in my lane. I was also traveling a little above the speed limit. So, I quickly decided to go over his tail in the other lane. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic. I want to avoid hitting his head with all those teeth and I wanted to go over the thinnest part of the gator. Mostly, I didn't want any flat tires. My friends woke up when I drove over the tail, and the bump, bump woke them. I didn't stop I kept driving, I didn't want to find out how mad, hurt or anything else about that gator. I was very lucky and I didn't have any damage to my car or tires just a little acceleration in my heart rate and a story to share. This was before cell phone and if I had suffered any damage to my car I would have been stuck there until another car came along. And who knows how long that would have taken. Yup, I was lucky.

Picture is of me holding a baby gator many years later.