This week Randy Seavers of the Geneamusings blog has challenged us with the following tasks:
1)If you have your family tree research in a Genealogy Management Program (GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure out how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database (hint: the Help button is your friend!)
2) Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.
This was more easily said than done for me, since (1) I don't have all of my families in a single tree and (2) I'm still using an older version of Family Tree Maker (2009). I could not find the number of places (just the number of unresolved places) nor the number of sources (just the number of source groups).
What I was able to generate for my THREE family files is shown below.
SWICEGOOD SHARP SOMMARSTROM
(my maternal lines) (my paternal lines) (husband's lines)
People 14,684 2,014 1,855
Marriages 4,868 734 558
Generations 14 14 11
Surnames 2,485 593 417
Source groups 596 156 9 (?)
Is there any doubt as to where I spend my research time?
It could have something to do with the fact that I have NEVER met ANYONE on my father's side of the family and that nobody in my husband's family has shown any interest in family history. On the other hand, I regularly correspond with a number of cousins on my mother's side (from 1st to 5th!) and several of them keep asking me questions about truly tangential lines (for me).
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
SNGF: Remembering Dad on Fathers' Day
Randy at Genea-Musings has given us this challenge this Father's Day weekend
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Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Sunday, 16 June, is Father's Day. Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about our Father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather).
2) What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.
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This is my Dad as I remember him, except for the suit and tie! I only remember seeing him in a tie ONE time after he retired from the Army in 1957.
Alva Curtis Sharp was born on Halloween in 1917 and died in September 1978, seven weeks short of his 61st birthday. One of the most important things about my Dad is that he never had any contact with his family after he ran off and joined the Army in 1925. And he was adamant that he didn't want any of his kids (meaning me) researching his family history. After his early death from cardiac arrest, my Mother continued that policy and would not listen to any of my findings about his family. In fact, it wasn't until after she died in 1996 that I learned his family had been in contact in 1979 and a brother had even come to meet her. Ah, the secrets we hide.....
My Dad was incredibly smart and, when he decided to take up a new hobby, did it whole-heartedly. In the early 1950s that hobby was photography. In the later 1950s and 60s, it was woodworking. He built much of our family's furniture. In the late 1960s he got into golf. In the 1970s he took up needlepoint. Thankfully, we have many mementos from his various hobbies.
My Dad was also very athletic. Neither of his sons had any interest in sports, but I did. He taught me how to pitch and hit and tried to sneak me into Little League as a kid (girls weren't allowed then). He was a semi-pro bowler at one time and supposedly made quite a lot of money hustling bowlers. He'd bowl right-handed until he hooked some poor guy, then switch to his natural left-handed style. He taught me to bowl starting when I was about 8 or 9 and insisted that I do it "right." That instruction finally paid off when we got Wii Bowling a few years ago; impressed the heck out of our kids that I could pick up spares! I spent hundreds of hours with my Dad at the local bowling alley, either be instructed, bowling in youth leagues that he ran, or keeping score for him, sometimes even in league play.
Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Sunday, 16 June, is Father's Day. Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about our Father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather).
2) What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.
================================================================
 |
| Curt and Nancy Sharp ca. 1977 |
Alva Curtis Sharp was born on Halloween in 1917 and died in September 1978, seven weeks short of his 61st birthday. One of the most important things about my Dad is that he never had any contact with his family after he ran off and joined the Army in 1925. And he was adamant that he didn't want any of his kids (meaning me) researching his family history. After his early death from cardiac arrest, my Mother continued that policy and would not listen to any of my findings about his family. In fact, it wasn't until after she died in 1996 that I learned his family had been in contact in 1979 and a brother had even come to meet her. Ah, the secrets we hide.....
My Dad was incredibly smart and, when he decided to take up a new hobby, did it whole-heartedly. In the early 1950s that hobby was photography. In the later 1950s and 60s, it was woodworking. He built much of our family's furniture. In the late 1960s he got into golf. In the 1970s he took up needlepoint. Thankfully, we have many mementos from his various hobbies.My Dad was also very athletic. Neither of his sons had any interest in sports, but I did. He taught me how to pitch and hit and tried to sneak me into Little League as a kid (girls weren't allowed then). He was a semi-pro bowler at one time and supposedly made quite a lot of money hustling bowlers. He'd bowl right-handed until he hooked some poor guy, then switch to his natural left-handed style. He taught me to bowl starting when I was about 8 or 9 and insisted that I do it "right." That instruction finally paid off when we got Wii Bowling a few years ago; impressed the heck out of our kids that I could pick up spares! I spent hundreds of hours with my Dad at the local bowling alley, either be instructed, bowling in youth leagues that he ran, or keeping score for him, sometimes even in league play.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
SNGF: Genealogy fun this week?
Since Randy Seaver, the originator of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, is having too much fun at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree this week, he posed the simple question in the title of this post as this week's SNGF challenge. Given how much truly useful and informative genealogy-related information Randy posts each week, I'm not complaining.
But as for genealogy fun this week, I don't have much to report.
As I write this I'm listening to the start of Jean Wilcox Hibben's presentation on "Creating Stories from Stats" at Jamboree via LiveStream. I can't thank SCGS enough for making some of their live presentations available to those of us who couldn't make it to Jamboree this year. I also watched/listened to Judy Russell yesterday and Craig Scott this morning. Both were great presentations and I'm hoping Jean's is equally as good.
Other than listening to these presentations, I haven't done much genealogy this week. I had a good time volunteering as the desk volunteer at the Seattle Genealogical Society Library yesterday. Several people came in (thank Goodness!) and I was able to steer them to some potential resources. Amazingly, the first person who came in--purportedly to renew his SGS membership--had Danish ancestors who settled in Hudson, Wisconsin. This was a Hank Jones serendipity moment. Our good friends from Hudson are arriving here on Tuesday for a short visit. Anyway, I was able to read some of his Danish and suggest some resources he hadn't tried to find out more about them. I also offered to check for records the next time we're in Hudson, probably this fall.
Unfortunately, I haven't made any progress on my own research this week. I did some dabbling in my COLLINS line and requested help from a friend, but that's about it.
Time to concentrate on Jean's talk.
But as for genealogy fun this week, I don't have much to report.
As I write this I'm listening to the start of Jean Wilcox Hibben's presentation on "Creating Stories from Stats" at Jamboree via LiveStream. I can't thank SCGS enough for making some of their live presentations available to those of us who couldn't make it to Jamboree this year. I also watched/listened to Judy Russell yesterday and Craig Scott this morning. Both were great presentations and I'm hoping Jean's is equally as good.
Other than listening to these presentations, I haven't done much genealogy this week. I had a good time volunteering as the desk volunteer at the Seattle Genealogical Society Library yesterday. Several people came in (thank Goodness!) and I was able to steer them to some potential resources. Amazingly, the first person who came in--purportedly to renew his SGS membership--had Danish ancestors who settled in Hudson, Wisconsin. This was a Hank Jones serendipity moment. Our good friends from Hudson are arriving here on Tuesday for a short visit. Anyway, I was able to read some of his Danish and suggest some resources he hadn't tried to find out more about them. I also offered to check for records the next time we're in Hudson, probably this fall.
Unfortunately, I haven't made any progress on my own research this week. I did some dabbling in my COLLINS line and requested help from a friend, but that's about it.
Time to concentrate on Jean's talk.
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