A Serendipity Day

This morning my first stop was reading emails, while forestalling the plan to go out of the house. The cloudy gray skies were not very inviting. My plan was to take a friend to the Genealogical Forum of Oregon, in Portland, about ten miles from where we live. While reading, there was a post shared by Randy Seaver that mentioned a blog post written by Dawn Watson entitled, "Perfecting Society Publications." As one of the editors for the GFO publication, The Bulletin, this intrigued me. The article is impressive, and it really speaks to the heart of an editor. Many editors not only compile publications, but also write articles or columns. This is a serendipity moment for me, as it validates the volunteer work that we do. The article can be found at:
Digging in the Roots - A Genealogical Odyssey
http://genealogical.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/perfecting-society-publications/#comment-1217

Animals in Our Family History

It is a rare person who has never had an animal play some part in their family history. Animals can bring us comfort and peace in our hectic lives. Other animals are raised for the purpose of providing food products to sustain our lives. In our family we have had both types of animals and they become a part of our family story. While we may not place them in our database as a family member, though some may very well have done so, we should include them in the stories that we write.

Understanding Family Relationships

A good friend of mine brought back some information on the Riggs Family when she visited NEHGS in April of 2011. You might wonder what has taken me so long to actually focus on the two files for this family. First of all, it is not one of my ancestral families and the clients I worked with moved out of state over a year ago. They are currently visiting here and wanted to have an update on their family database. So, for the last four days I worked to clean up the files with updated information from familysearch.org.

Valentine's Day for our Families

Today we celebrate the love of couples everywhere and this is often extended to other family members. My husband bought me some of my favorite flowers, a beautiful box of chocolates (on the one a day diet), a lovely card and took me out to lunch with my mother and her husband, our daughter and two granddaughters. We invited our three sons to come, but they had other plans and just wanted leftovers. They each have a box of chocolates waiting for them. Lunch was at Olive Garden, one of my top restaurants. We had a delightful time visiting and entertaining the two little girls.

Sleep Deprivation and Genealogy

Oh, it feels so good to sleep and the more we age the more important that shut-eye time is to us. As genealogists we often get involved in a research project and when we are on a roll of success in our work it is very hard to stop. This might mean that we end up working almost through the night until we come to a point where we can take a break without losing the momentum in the search. A late night person who is semi-retired can usually sleep in as needed, but others have obligations in the morning that require them to be alert and functioning adults.