A Lovely if Surreal Conversation

Thank you!  Had a lovely if surreal conversation earlier this evening…

This day I was blessed to witness serendipity at it’s finest. A birth mother who gave up a precious daughter over forty years ago had a lovely if surreal conversation with her child. It actually was surreal for both of them. The first conversation though, was between the daughter and me, to set up the phone call between the birth mother and her daughter. Their phone call was a private conversation between the two of them, so they could become acquainted and establish the beginning of a relationship that will enhance each of their lives. I anxiously waited for my friend to call me with the details of how it went.

BobBoston Fills a Findagrave Request for Joshua Tedd

Less than twenty-four hours is all it took for BobBoston of Findagrave.com to fulfill my request for a picture of the grave marker for Joshua Tedd. The original information on findagrave was limited. It showed: his birth as unknown, his death Sep. 15, 1678, buried in Phipps Street Burying Ground in Charlestown, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA, in plot 4L47, created by BobBoston, record added Apr. 15, 2010, findagrave memorial number 51164287.

Fascinated by Charlestown, MA and the Tidd Family

When studying the Tidd family, who seem to have first come to the colonies in about 1637, I reviewed the works of many authors. Recently I purchased two books relative to the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts where they are known to have first inhabited. The first book is From Deference to Defiance, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692 by Roger Thompson, published by the New England Historical Genealogical Society, Boston, 2012, 593 pages. The second book is Charlestown, Mass. Vol. 1Vital Records to 1850 by Roger D. Joslyn, published by the New England Historical Genealogical Society, Boston, 1984, 919 pages.

A Beautiful Fall Day at Rose City Cemetery

Back on Memorial Day I visited the Milwaukie Pioneer Cemetery with my friend Teena. Since then I helped her to organize her collection of family history into a notebook and computer database. She shared the notebook at a recent family reunion. While the family compared notes, they came to an agreement that the family had been linked to the wrong brother in New Zealand. To further corroborate this link required a visit to Rose City Cemetery in Portland, Oregon where her grandparents and great grandparents on her paternal line are buried. There is also another great grandfather on her maternal line.

John Philip Olsen Family Reunion Sherwood, Oregon

Yesterday, September 15, 2012, the descendants of John Philip and Julia (Brown) Olsen met in Snyder Park in Sherwood, Oregon for the annual family reunion. For this couple, both of immigrant families from Norway, this would be an honor and acknowledgement of their valiant efforts to raise a family. All of the children were born on the family farm, Oak Leaf Farm, in Orenco, Oregon. Of the close to two hundred descendants and extended family, there are at least one hundred and six living. Twenty-five direct descendants attended this event, along with fifteen extended family members, for a total of forty people. Of the family groups (in bold below), three were represented and three were not.

Reaching Out to Newly Discovered Birth Family

In the process of helping clients find their living relatives there are many serendipity moments. This is how my latest adoption research project began on August 2, 2012. As always, I am a little hesitant to get involved, but this felt like something that I should do. The following is posted with the client’s permission, while protecting the confidential information for those involved.

First email:

My friend forwarded to me your name from the Genealogical Forum of Oregon

I am interested in tracing my birth mother from her birth in North Dakota, _____

I was born in Houston, Texas.  I know details of my adoption.

I have lots of info on her, including an engagement listing in ______ with picture.

l would like to know if she is alive, sibs etc.

I do not know the name of my father.

If you are interested email me or call

Living Life Fully in Old Age as a Genealogist

Today it has been one year since I broke my arm. While it took only four months to heal, the impact of the fall has lasted much longer. It was a very long process, from extreme pain and unable to fend for myself, to the ability to once again use my arm freely. A challenging part of recovery was I had to type one-handed with my left hand, as I am right handed. Seven years earlier, in 2004, I injured the same arm in a car accident and went through rotator cuff surgery. The blessing with the surgery is that I had a morphine drip for the first few days, followed with some other major painkillers. As fate would have it I do not respond well to the stronger painkillers and can only tolerate them for a short time.

Phase Two: Updating and Comparing Your Family History Research

My research brief case has not left my office for a long time. It has been gathering dust and papers that need to be reviewed, discarded or filed in the right notebook. Now that the computer database has been updated, I am moving on to family group records (FGR). For the Tidd family there were printouts for four generations, Daniel Tidd Jr. 1824-1913, Daniel Tidd Sr. 1799-1869, Daniel Tidd R.W.1760- 1806, and Amos Tidd 1729-abt. 1800. Amos lived through the Revolutionary War and probably moved to New Hampshire. His death and that of his wife remain one of the unsolved mysteries in this family.

Interesting Blog Statistics

On June 25, 2011 I wrote a blog post entitled, "Genealogy Education - Enhance Your Research." That post has been the most viewed for some time and today it reached 500 views. That is more than double of any other post and more than the next two combined, which are, "Genealogists- How Our Brains Assimilate Information" with 231 views and "Genealogy Serendipity Moments - The Unvarnished Truth" with 205 views. The other two with more than a hundred views are, "Genealogists Shopping List" with 163 views and "Genealogy Serendipity Moments - The Rigg Family" with 153 views. These five out of 154 total written posts continue to be popular.

Updating and Comparing Your Family History Research

Back before computers made it so easy to have a database of my family history work, I relied upon a 15 Generation Pedigree Chart for researching away from home. This chart allowed me to have a quick reference of the work on my various family lines. Over the years I have gone through at least three of these, as I literally wore them out and taped them together. Today I usually just use the standard 6 Generation Pedigree Chart that I print from my database for the family line I am currently working on. Traveling with a flash drive makes that an easier task. One thing I like about the larger chart is I could see where my lines intersect and I color-coded each family group by country of origin. My ancestry is about 1/4 Norwegian, 1/8 German, 1/4 English, and 1/8 Danish.