Tuesday, March 23, 2010

UpFront with NGS: Maine Bill May Close Vital Records

I don't have any Maine relatives, but wanted everyone know about this. I understand the fear of identity thief. But how many people that are stealing identities are actually using old vital records? I don't know but I don't think very many.

UpFront with NGS: Maine Bill May Close Vital Records

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Forwarding of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: NSDAR Genealogist Position Opening

Dick Eastman posted that NSDAR has an opening for a Full-Time Genealogist. I would love to be a full-time genealogist for NSDAR! Unfortunately that would mean buying & selling of houses, my husband finding another job, taking my kids away from their schools and friends.....blah, blah, blah you know all of the responsible adult reasons. :P

AHH to dream though! Any other takers?

Here's the link for the qualifications:
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: NSDAR Genealogist Position Opening

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

My day at Farmington

I thought I'd drop a quick follow up note about my volunteering shift today at Farmington. The nice, sunny, warm day today brought more people out today then we had in the whole month of February. We love being this busy!

Now as I sit typing this my feet are hurting and my voice is almost shot. But I love volunteering at the house. I love the face of the kids when you tell them that there wasn't any electricity in the house or that the spring-house was used because they didn't have a refrigerator.

So, I'll continue to volunteer, but I think I'm going to get better walking shoes so my feet won't hurt as much from now on.....Or maybe I could get my husband to give me a foot massage.......hmmmm maybe.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)


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Off to Farmington!

I wanted to drop a note and let everyone know that I volunteer for a local Historical Home here in Louisville - Farmington. I have been doing this since last November and have really enjoyed it so far. As a docent I give paying visitors a tour of the house, explaining about the history of the site and the people who owned it.

If any of you are ever in Louisville, please stop by and take a tour. It really is a cool site to visit.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)


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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Earlier Researchers

My Treasure Chest Thursday posting for this week is the following letter. This letter was found in some of maternal grandmother's papers that my mother's sister had kept. My aunt has allowed me to go through these papers on a number of occasions. It seems like every time that I go through them I found some else that I had not noticed before. Of course I had probably looked at it on a number of occasions but never really saw it. You know how that goes. ;)
Anyway, when I did find this letter I was having a hard time finding the name of John Twyman's wife. I can't remember why, but I do recall being excited to have found this letter because it was going to help me make the connection that I had not been able to make. I also distinctly remember holding the letter, looking at my aunt and feeling very excited knowing that when I flipped over the letter it would tell me the name of another ancestor of ours!

So when I flipped it over and read the name WAIT, I really didn't know what to think. I don't remember being disappointed, but I do remember having sort of an anti-climatic feeling. But then once I composed myself, I was able to formulate the next steps that I needed to take with this new piece of information. And I was eventually able to find her father, but that will be another post at a later date. ;)

But now onto the reason I am posting this for my Treasure Chest Thursday entry. Earlier Researchers!

If it hadn't been for an earlier researcher from the 1920's, Mary (Mrs. Paul A) Twyman Klayder, it would have taken me a lot longer to find out the maiden name of John Twyman. This being the same information that she had already found 70 years earlier.

I know that some earlier researchers had the information all wrong and have led us down wrong paths, but for the ones that were right we should really consider ourselves lucky! I know I do.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sentimental Sunday - A Thanks to my Followers

This isn't going to be a typical Sentimental Sunday posting, because rather than focusing on a story of one of my ancestors, I am focusing on the present. My followers.

I wanted to take a moment to make a posting thanking you all. Why you ask?

Well, I know from looking around the Internet that there are ALOT of blogs, and I am shocked at how many genealogy blogs are out there. You have many choices to pick, but you chose mine and I really cherish that!

I also appreciate how you have stuck with me through the constant changing of the look of this blog in the last month. I do believe that I have finally come to a design that I like thanks to the new Blogger Template Designer that I found at Blogger Buzz: Express yourself with the Blogger Template Designer

So again thanks SO much for being a follower of mine and giving me such wonderful feed back on the postings that I have made up til now.

And as always:
Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Robert W. Shofner's WW I Draft Reg. Card

Like most genealogists, I like to be able to put my ancestors in a particular place at a particular time. Most of my ancestors moved from time to time, so that have been pretty easy to track.

Robert W Shofner and Annie E Lile
However, my paternal grandmother's parents, Robert W. Shofner and Annie Elizabeth Liles, moved more than the rest. I remember when I first asked my grandmother where her siblings where born, she had a hard time remembering all the different places. She went on to explain that her father was a carpenter and moved to where ever the work was found. I have ran the census records on them and know where they was living in every census year from the time of their birth to their deaths.

So when I ran across this card I was glad to be able to pinpoint where they were living in a non-census year. Again it just adds to the information that I know about them, making it more personal then just a name and date on a tombstone.
Robert W Shofner WWI Draft Registration Card

This card was found on Ancestry.com - in the database World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Augustine Warder Royalty

As genealogists we have many "new" relatives that come in and out of our lives as we research. Cousins from different branches of the family and different parts of the country that we connect with through out our years of digging up ancestors. Some you may only contact once, while others may stay in contact off and on for the next couple of years or even decades. This was my cousin Augie.

I found Augie in my early years of researching my father's side of the family in Hart County, Kentucky. The Hart County, Kentucky Historical Society had information that Augie had submitted to a family file on one of my families. I noticed she lived in Louisville, so I contacted her. In our first meeting she was so welcoming, sharing and happy to find another long lost cousin. In addition to all of the cousinly (I just made that word up ;p )love she gave me, she also gave me what has since become one of my prized possessions, a picture of my great-great grandmother, Josephine O'Neal Self. I'm talking about her giving me the original picture, you know the one on the cardboard! Not just a copy of the picture. WOW!

This is the picture she gave me. It is of Josephine O'Neal Self and her son William Younger, called Bulgar, and his family. From left to right, Josephine, Hattie, William Younger "Bulgar", Floyd, Ollie Jaggers Self (Bulgar's wife) and Howard.

As so often happens, life interrupts our best laid plans. I had life changes that caused me to not be a full-time mom and researcher anymore so I lost touch with Augie. But ever so often I would call Augie to find out how she was doing and as before she was always so thoughtful and sweet when we talked. Even though we didn't talk on a regular basis I still thought of her frequently.


On Tuesday I found out that Augie passed away in January of this year. I will miss my cousin. Her obituary can be found at: Augustine Royalty’s Obituary by the The Courier-Journal.

I just thought I would share with you, my new "new" family, information about another one of my Treasure Chests.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - How cute! My dad at about 6 months old.

Minnie Shofner Tharp and Gordon Tharp as a baby
The cute little baby is my dad, Hearley Gordon Tharp, in the lap of his mother, Minnie Frances Shofner Tharp.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Mary T Raque


Mary T Raque tombstone
Mary T Raque is related to my children through their father. We found her grave years ago when we were researching their ancestors. I've always been drawn to how sweet it is that the parents wanted to mark her grave, even though she was only 3 days old when she died.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Not just a dress

Back in the 1990's, after I had a couple of years experience at doing research, my father, mother, son and I went to visit my father's 1st cousin, Deloris Tharp Bloxam, who lived in Grove City, Ohio. While there the topic of family research came up and Deloris, who was born in 1929, told me family information that she had heard and remembered. As always, I was extremely thankful to get more first hand knowledge on the family.

While we were talking Deloris asked me if I had anything from my great-grandmother, Rhoda Wagner Self Tharp. I told her no, that nothing had come down to me from that side of the family. She told me to come with her and proceeded to walk to another room in her house. After arriving in the room and several minutes of her getting stuff out of the closet, she hands me this dress.

She then tells me that it was a dress that Rhoda Wagner, "Wag" as she is known in our family, made this dress. Deloris' father, Royce Tharp, had bought and given Wag the material so that she could make a dress for herself.

Well of course I oohed and aahed over it and said how cool it was that she had something from her grandmother....she then tells me that I can have it.
"What? Stop the bus! You are letting me have it. Oh Deloris, I could never have this."
Or something like that was my response. But she insisted on me having it. She said that she had memories that would last her a lifetime of her grandmother but she wanted someone to have it that understood how special it was.

So now, thanks to my wonderful cousin, I am the owner of the dress that my great-grandmother made with own two hands and even wore.

Finding them and their family on the census....great
Knowing where they are buried or having a picture of them.....wonderful
Having something that they owned, made or used......Priceless.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;) 

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Martha Palina Jaggers Tharp


This is a picture of the tombstone Martha Palina Jaggers Tharp. She was the 1st wife of my great-grandfather, Simon Peter Tharp. She is buried in the Wilkerson Temple Methodist Church Cemetery at Kessinger in Hart County, Kentucky.

My grandfather's elderly cousin told me about how sweet Simon was to Paliney, as she called her. She said that Paliney came down with TB and couldn't walk, so Simon would pick her up and carry her wherever she needed to go. He also made her a wheelchair out of an old chair so that she could get around the house.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you can stop by again. ;)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Madness Monday - Can anyone tell me about this paper?

I think the title Madness Monday really fits this piece of paper.


We found this piece of paper, which measures only about 3 7/16" wide by 3 3/16" high, in some of the other papers that my aunt had inherited.

It says "1st class This is to certify that Miss Sarah B Munday left off head on friday evening November 30th 1860 H G W Bradley"  

LEFT OFF HEAD....what the heck! I thought at first it might be a train ticket, but then the word head comes in to play. I looked in the 1860 Barren County, Kentucky census and find that H G W Bradley looks to be listed as a farm laborer. So what is he doing that he is writing a "ticket?"


link to the above census is found on ancestry at
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7667&iid=4230633_00233&fn=Herbert+G+W&ln=Bradly&st=d&ssrc=&pid=39274494

Does anybody know what this is, or know what this wording means? It has caused me quite a bit of head scratching trying to figure out what this is for.

Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks for stopping by. ;)

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