Genealogy Blog 80 - Beginning the New Year

This is blog post #80, and for my first year of having a blog, I feel this is one huge goal that I accomplished this year. Tonight we turn the page on 2011 and head straight into 2012. I like even numbers, maybe based on my birth date, so I expect this New Year to hold lots of wonderful experiences. I do have a few simple genealogy related goals, but they are more just reminders of the tasks that are on my to do lists. This year I made some progress with many of these, but then I had some setbacks that slowed me down a bit. They go more by order of what needs doing most, not necessarily what I will complete first.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - The Dash Between the Years

Yesterday I attended the funeral of a dear friend, Marv Giles. His wife Mary Ann and I have spent many hours working together to research the family history of her family. His family has been researched pretty extensively. In the course of the remarks at the service, one person spoke of the significance of the Dash between the years of our lives and referenced the following poem. It has been referenced in many blogs and read by millions. I share it again for those who have not read it before.

Family and the Christmas Experience

This has been a wonderful Christmas for our family. This signifies the culmination of week number one for our holidays. We had a birthday party on Friday night for our daughter born Christmas Day. It was held at her church and was a surprise party attended by family and friends. Everyone brought food and we played various games. The children had a blast running in the gym and playing with each other. Then on Saturday night we had our celebration at their Great Grandparents home. This is a time for eating good food, doing a fun gift exchange and visiting with each other. When we all work together it makes these get-togethers easier to do.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Ordering Records for the Gates Family

The second blog post I wrote, on April 27, was on the experience of being sent information on the Gates Family, a vital resource for one of my husband's lines. Up until the past year I always said I would not work on his family history, as I have plenty of my own work to do. Then on my fourth post, on May 4, I wrote about an experience of connecting with another family genealogist for the LeBlanc line. These two contacts provided a great deal of documentation on the family research that saved us a considerable amount of time and financial costs.

It's A Wonderful Life - Three Years Later

LeBlanc family about 1996.

Three years ago at about this time I received the diagnosis of needing two brain surgeries, one on each side for repair of my ears, which were leaking spinal fluid. At the time my main focus was on all the things I have enjoyed in my lifetime and appreciating living in the moments of the Christmas season that year. I did not explain much to my family until after the New Year, as I did not want to dampen the spirit of our time together. Today I am a different person for those experiences. Recovery was good, but it has been slow. It had been just two years since our car accident that resulted in my having a rotator cuff surgery, which was another difficult recovery. Then in September when I fell, it felt like going through the recovery process all over again. It is strange how these events impact our lives and cause us to slow down and reflect on what is most important.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Dreams and Visions

This morning Hannah was awake again at 7am. When a four year old is awake there is only one thing to do, get up! That is how it is at times when I am resting in bed after a long day and an impression comes to me about something that needs to be done, I have to just get up and write it down or I usually do not remember the thought later. To do lists in genealogy are a must for those of us who have memory issues. When one is researching several families at one time it is even more challenging.

Go For the Gold Day - Digging Deep in Hidden Sources

Yesterday I went back to work on the Post Office Ledger Books located at the Sherwood Heritage Center in Sherwood, Oregon. In the past few weeks I shared some of what happened in the process of discovering the books, organizing them and meticulously reading them for information on my ancestral family and the ancestors of Vicki Bonagofski. There had to be a limit of people being searched for, as there are eighty-four books, fifty-four of them with only postal tallies of the business and some loose papers, and thirty of them with lists of people as they conducted business with the Post Office.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Christmas Cards, Emails and Phone Calls

Part of our collection from over thirty years.

The beaded Mr. and Mrs. Santa my husband and I made together

during an ice storm the Christmas before we married.

The day after Thanksgiving our first Christmas card arrived from my aunt Lois. Her's is always the first card that we receive. On the front were four festive penguins ready to start celebrating. My cards always seem to go out late, as I put off writing the family newsletter. It seems I need to be in a particular mood to write. I realize that not everyone enjoys the letters, but most people comment on how much they like ours. With six children and now four grand children, there will be plenty of news about the events of the year. The letter becomes the next page in our family album, now covering over thirty years. I will not send out a letter to all of my email or facebook friends, but if you want to read it let me know. My family pre-screens the letter before it goes public as a security check.

Heritage Center, Historical Society or Historical Museum

Recently I have been spending time in the Heritage Center of Sherwood, Oregon. The group that oversees this wonderful facility is the Sherwood Historical Society. In Oregon the term Heritage Center has become the socially correct way of identifying local facilities that collect and display community artifacts. It is truly a museum showcasing the early time periods of the city. The mission statement of this group is, ""The Sherwood Historical Society is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of Sherwood and Oregon, linking past events to an enhanced understanding of the present, and presenting it in diverse educational formats."