Sounds: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Geneabloggers is hosting 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

This topic took me a little while to decide what was the most important sound of my childhood.  But once I found it I was on fire to write it.  I even got out of bed to start writing this post.  I added a little video but it made my typing work too slow, so I got frustrated and went to bed.  This morning I am ready to finish up.  



Mantel Clock

This is the item that made my favorite childhood and adult sound.  Even my kids like it.  Unfortunately the motor died for a second time and I haven't gotten it fixed.  But after thinking about this last night I am going to get it fixed one more time. 

Mary George 1952, Clock is on the TV

It was a wedding present to my parents.  It lived on top of the TV when I was a kid in Whitestone, New York. 

Mary 1965 Graduation

In Fort Lauderdale Florida it lived on a half hutch in the living room.  Here it is hidden behind my high school graduation cards.


I don't remember how it came to be mine or what year I received it from  my Dad.  I believe I have had it since I left home at 19. 

This picture shows the inside of that clock with the hammers that make the Westminster chimes.  I wish the label hadn't been riped off.  It chimed every 15 minutes.  This link actually shows the musical notes of the chime.

Manufacturer's Label

 The chimes start about 30 seconds after the start of the video. 

Technology: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Geneabloggers is hosting 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.


What are some of the technological advances that happened during your childhood? What types of technology to you enjoy using today, and which do you avoid?


I think the two things that stand out in my mind from my childhood are the changes in phones and washing machines. 

We had only one phone in our house in Whitestone New York, a black rotary phone.  Our # was FL-23863.  The FL stood for Flushing.  When we moved to Florida we had a party line for awhile.  We never had more than one phone in our home.  So as a teenager I had to sit in the kitchen to talk on the phone there was no privacy for teenage chatter. 

Both my husband & I like a phone in easy reach.  We have one by our computers, by my sewing machine and by his TV chair.  It took me a long time to talk him into cordless.  His phone by his desk is wired as is the one in the kitchen.  He doesn't like how they are never where they should be.  I of course like the freedom to move around and I use a head set at home so I can be doing things with my hands. 

We both like our cell phone but I didn't have one until 2005 when I started driving into Phoenix to work and my transportation was not the most reliable.   Now we both have Droids which are really like hand held computers. 

Now the washing machine, I really love the

improvement on those.  Yes my mother did our laundry in Whitestone on one of these.  The poor woman worked hard to do our laundry.  First she had to carry it from the top two floors to the basement.  Then she had to wash it in this tub with the soap, wring it out, I am not sure if there was a motor for the wringer or a crank.  I am sure she had watch the time for this since it didn't have cycles. Than she had to manually drain the tub, full it with rinse water to rinse the cloths, wring the cloths out again and carry them damp and heavy up to the second floor to hang them out on the cloths line. 

When we moved to Florida in 1959 she did have an automatic washer, that must have been a big improvement but she did not have a drier until 1962 or so.  She only had to carry the cloths from the car port in front of the house to the back of the house until she had her drier. 

The other big changes I have seen are as a nurse.  When I was first a nursing student in 1965 there were still glass syringes.  The needles had to be sent to Central supply to be sharpened and sterilized to be used again.  I can remember the plastic syringes and disposable needles when they came out.  IV fluids were always in glass bottles.  You were very careful not to drop on of those. 

But for the patient I think the torture item to beat all was the cold metal bed pan or urinal.  Most of the ones I used were stainless steel but I remember a few of these.  We tried to warm they up with hot water but that didn't always work.  And oh what a clatter they made if they were dropped in the middle of the night.

Toys: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Geneabloggers is hosting 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

I am four weeks behind on these posts but I am hoping to catch up.  I am making my own schedule here.  I decided to do Toys first.  



http://www.dollinfo.com/Default.htm





 I am going to start with the last toy I received.  It was a Ginny doll it came out a couple of years before the Barbie doll and I really wanted a Barbie doll.  My Mom told me I could not have one, as I was getting to old for dolls.  We were moving to Florida so I was 11 1/2 years old.  Of course she was right.  Ginny had her own little traveling case for her and her cloths.   

Some of the other toys I enjoyed included a bike, red rubber balls, jacks, Lego's, and roller skates with a key. 
The game we played with the red rubber ball was called 7 up.  You bounced it against a wall and as you counted up the ball had to bounce that many times.  We might have clapped for each bounce under our legs or something, not sure on that part. 

My Mom and I used to play jacks together sometimes.  We would sit on the kitchen floor or basement to play.  I learned how to roller skate in our finished basement in Whitestone, New York and the next day I went to a Brownie skating party and did the Hokie Pokie on roller skates. 


http://www.etsy.com/listing/43364601/fun-unique-dependable-childs-metal-toy

 One unusual toy I had was a toy typewriter very much like this one pictured here.  I am not sure if this one made it to Florida.

I also liked clay and Playdough, I remember when that came out.  It was fun and I still liked the smell of it. 

A new Trick I learned & I am Sharing it

While catching up on my reading of blogs.  I read a great tip on The Family Curator by Denise.  You do need to read her story about losing a flash drive and then finding it.  I did check with her about sharing her tip and she did give me the go ahead.

She used screen shots from a Mac but I use a PC so I thought I would share the same tip but using Screen shots from a PC. 

Got to your Start Menu > Computer > Removable Drive.

Right Click on the drive, on the fly out menu click on Rename.

If you are not sure what is in the drive you can click on the drive and you can view the contents. Then name is correctly.

Here it is with the new name.  Be careful with the name it only allows about 13 characters.

To add identifying information follow the steps below to add a text document and/or a contact card. I am using Windows 7, so you screens might look a little different.

You can double click on the pictures to see them larger.  You can also change the font style and size, I made mine big and bold since many of us have senior eyes. 

Well I hope you never lost your flash drive, but now you can be prepared and identify it first.  One more trick Denise suggested was to label it with an address label, so it is quickly identified from the out side.  I also have the one I use at the Family History Center on a lanyard so I can recognize it from the rest of the ones I have here at home. 

I return it to my research bag after I have downed loaded the new files to my computer.  I do that because I showed up at the Family History Center one day with out one and of course I had a good document I wanted to save. 

This Old Dog Learned New Tricks

The classes I attended at Arizona Family History Expo

I have been a sick this week so I have been resting instead of blogging. I did want to do a short high level review of the Expo. In a word it was great! I attended a class every hour and didn’t miss any. This was hard because I felt like I should stay in the Blog House a little but my main focus was to learn so I did. I did go to the Blog House about 3 times a day just to pop in.


I had a hard time deciding on classes before the expo, even the evening before I had two choices for most hours. So my final choice was let me do this one and off I went to class.

I printed out from the on-line syllabus the classes I was interested so I had a place to take notes. 

Friday’s Sessions:
Putting the Flesh on the Bones:
The story was fascinating and the presenter was very into his story, as he should be, it after all it is his family history story and it has opened many doors for him. It took me awhile to figure out his process he was using but I did and his handout had the information in it. By looking for the “Why” you find out more about the person and it might explain some of his actions.


Juicy Family History: 25 Ways to Write Compelling True Stories.
The presented M. Bridget Cook was very good, she was also the speak at the Friday night dinner. She has a way of drawing you in. She had some great ideas actually 25 of them to make a story more enjoyable. So keys words she used are Depth, Character, Choice, Legacy & Thrival. You’ll have to take her class to learn more.


Census Techniques and Strategies for Finding Elusive Ancestors.
This was a Family Search class and I felt that there was good material in the two Family Search classes I attended they lacked a little of the passion the private presenters had. Thought both presentation where based on their own results. It is hard to explain other than there was no fire in their eyes. And that is a personal opinion. Regardless I learned a few new tricks. I need to check out.


Easier Scanning for Great Results
One of the tricks I learn in class I used that night when I had to scan something. I still have to go back and try some more of the tips he taught. So many new things to learn and do and so little time.


Genetic Genealogy for Beginners: DNA is the “gene” in Genealogy.
It will take a couple of more classes on this before I fully understand it, but I do hope to do some testing one of these days. I have to save my pennies.


Friday Night Dinner: Speaker Excellent M. Bridget Cook, she spoke about her books and finding the miracle in everyone’s life. I am have read both of her books, well I am almost done reading the second one.


Saturday
How to Create an Awesome Family History Tour with Google Earth
Well we all know anything done by Lisa Louise Cooke is done very well. This was the premier of these new things you can do with Google Earth. I went right home and loaded Google Earth 6. I still have a lot to learn but I have started.


I Love Libraries! Using the Library for Your Genealogy.
An excellent class by Gena Philibert Ortega I learned a lot and took lots of notes. Now all I have to do is get organized to do my own library search.


When the Past meets the Present to Change the Future: Using Genograms
I had heard a previous lecture on Medical Genograms but this one had more depth and also included a social diagram beside just medical. I found this interesting and could see some of my own family dynamics in my head as well as some medical history. The speaker also had an activity handout which was fun to do.


The Value of Using Newspapers in Research.
This was the second Family Search presented lecture and it was the better of the two I attended. Lots of tips given I will dig out my notes to try them the next time I check out newspapers.


Photo Restoration Basics
This was helpful for me since I received Photoshop Elements for Christmas. Again, my to do list is very long and getting longer.
So that is my report in a nut shell. I would highly recommend going to an Expo near you or travel to one.  I need to go rest now, maybe latter I will add links. 

Blogger of Honor Prize

This cute little Dog Bone USB Hub was our little gift as a Blogger of Honor.

Thanks Family History Expo! 
 
 

Home: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Week 4: Home. Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today?

Hosted by Geneabloggers and developed by Amy at We Tree.

My first one was 15-19 Parsons Blvd, Whitestone, Queens, New York.  My grandfather George Joseph Hartmann and my Dad also George Joseph Hartmann built the house.  I am not sure if that means they had sweat equity in the house or if they had it built. 

This the only picture I have that shows the most of the front of the house.  It had three bed rooms, one and a half baths, a finished basement, and an attic.  I learned how to roller skate in that basement, with key skates.



Check out those dirty knees!

In this picture you can see the side of the house and our mud room and the path to the back yard is this way.  We had a split level front yard and back yard.  How I wish I had more pictures of this house.  I always thought it was a large house but when I went back and saw the outside of it when I was 21 or so, I thought it looked very small. 


My Dad & Me

This picture shows the maple tree we had in front of the house and the view down the street.  I have no idea why my parents didn't take front on pictures of the house.  I know that I do.  We moved out of this house in June of 1959.  I have no idea how much my parents sold it for. 

This is the picture I found of my first house on Google Earth.

Mary, George & Donald 1959






Here we are the summer of 1959 in front of our new home in Fort Lauderdale Florida, guess what we are facing the house, so you can't see it. Now we have a palm tree instead of a maple.

 

 



September 1964


This picture shows more of the front of the house. This is when I was a Senior in High School. This house has three bedrooms and two baths. While I was in high school my Dad had the swapped the location of the kitchen and the dinning room and added on a Florida room.







 
 
 
 

In May of 2009 my hubby and I went back to Florida for a vacation.  We drove by the old Florida house.  So it is still there also.  This address is
5148 NE 4 Ave
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Happy Blogiversary to Me!!

One year ago late in the night after attending the Family History Expo I started my blog.  I was trying to sleep and thinking about all the things I had learned and all the things I have had to do.  Since sleep was evading me, I got out of bed and started my blog.  I already had a quilting blog so it was easy for me to start.  It has been a great adventure.  You can read that first post here.

During the expo I had spoken to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers and Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems and they both encouraged me to start my blog.  I am grateful that I did listened to them.  They are both encouraging people.

Why am I grateful, I have learned a lot, I have started writing my personal history, I have made new friends and I learned from them.  I have shared with others thinks I have learned and even my cousin heard a story she didn't know about our family.  My blog has helped me grow as a Genealogist.  It gives me things to think about and a place to share my thoughts.  Some of my thoughts haven't been shared yet, but I need to save something for the next year.

I want to thank my 50 known followers and my unknown followers for your visits and your comments.  I actually have more followers on my Genealogy Blog than on my Quilting blog and it is a year older.  Thanks for all your comments and encouragement. 

Here is a snap shot of my stats since May when blogger started keeping them.  It is interesting to me to review the different tabs.

Well last year I was getting up late in the night to write a post this year I have to dash off to work.  

One small step for me and my ancestors! 

 

Arizona Family Histroy Expo Saturday

Vendor's Mall from the Blog House

The Expo is over, it has been over since yesterday.  When I have some more time I will write a little about some of the classes I took.  Today I am trying to decide what new trick I learned I should use first.  This evening I did use one of the new tricks already.  I learned when scanning you should place the picture at the top of the scanner where the arrows are, it saves time when the final scan is done so moving part doesn't go over the full bed again.  Or at least that is what I understood.  I scanned a quilt block tonight. 

Tomorrow my Blog will be one year old and I need to be thinking about my Blogiversary post.  Tonight I am plan worn out and I am heading to bed early.