Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Lucky 13th Blogiversary

Well, it's lucky 13!  Lisa Hork Gorrell and I started our blogs on January 15, 2011, and we're both still at it.  The past two years for me have been much skimpier on posts (and I didn't even manage to post for my blogiversary last year), but I'm still here, plugging along, writing about my family and family history in general.  I hit 2,000 posts sometime last year.

During the past couple of years most of my posts have been for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun and Wordless Wednesday, two memes I've followed for a while, but there hasn't been much else.

I fully intend that this year will be different.  I have so many things I want to write about!  I want to finish up my family events.  I have something like 6,000 photographs from the photo bonanza that I plan to identify and discuss.  Gotta track down my cousin who was given up for adoption, figure out my biological great-grandfather, find more documents for my family in the Maryland Motherlode and the New York City Historical Vital Records Project, write down more family stories . . . geez, I better get going!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Genealogy Goals for 2024

I'm going to be guardedly optimistic about accomplishing what I write about tonight for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, because I'm going to be cautious.

1.  What are your genealogy goals for 2024?  Consider genealogy research, education, organizing, service, writing, and whatever else you care to share.

2.  Tell us about your goals in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Okay, here are mine.

• Get back to posting regularly on my blog.  In 2023 I had 33 posts, and in 2022 only 25.  I'm going to shoot for at least 100 posts in 2024.  I should be able to do that with Wordless Wednesday and Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, plus I do have more I want to write about.

• Finish going through the scans of the photo bonanza that I received from my sister and make at least preliminary identifications of all of them.

• Figure out a way to pursue more research on the man who could be the son my aunt gave up for adoption in 1945, without alienating anyone.

• Finally finish posting to my blog about the family events (births, marriages, and deaths) that I was extracting from my family tree database.  I think I need to pick up again in mid-November.

• Get back to work on finding Mr. X, the biological father of my paternal grandfather.  I want to find a photograph of Bertram Mundy to see if he resembles my grandfather.

• Finish putting together a few new presentations that I've had ideas for.

Eek!  That doesn't look like as cautious of a list as I had intended.  But I think I'll stick with it.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Very Best Genealogy Finds in 2023

I didn't find much in 2023, but I did find a few things to write about for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. 

1.  Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted an interesting question last week in Best Genealogy Find of 2023.

2.  What were your very best genealogy finds in 2023?  Elusive ancestors?  Hard-to-find records?  Family photographs?  Family stories?  Family artifacts?  New cousins?  What else?

3. Tell us about one or more of them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status  post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

* Elusive Ancestor:  Not actually an elusive ancestor, but I may have come closer to finding an elusive relative.  I wrote on December 30 about someone having brought to my attention a person who could be the son my aunt gave up for adoption in 1945.  The man looks absolutely right and knew he was adopted, but he isn't the age expected.  I'm trying to pursue additional information about him to figure out what's going on.  I hope I'm able to determine what his connection is to our family.  Because of the very strong resemblance to one family member, I'm positive there has to be a connection.

* Hard-to-find Records:  I was able to take advantage of two new releases of digitized records:  The Maryland birth/marriage/death records (the Maryland Motherlode!) that were acquired by Reclaim the Records and placed online for free, and the New York City Historical Vital Records Project, a release of a lot of digitized birth/marriage/death records (but with some periods missing).  These weren't necessarily hard to find per se, but they're more easily searchable and accessed now, and I have found many records for my family.  There are still some that don't want to be found, of course, but great progress has been made!

* Family Photographs:  I didn't find the photographs, but my sister sent me scans of my father's photos that were in his house when he passed away.  I have been spending a lot of time trying to identify as many as possible.  I'm going to need help with all the photos of cars.

Wordless Wednesday