Reflections of 2016

The New Year is fast approaching and we will be soon writing 2017. This has been a good year for me. Here are some highlights for 2016. This year there have been several clients whose families came from the south. It is fascinating putting together their family history from the point of online records. Those families with African American backgrounds demonstrate the tenacity with which they moved forward after the Civil War. They were ambitious and strongly focused on providing for the advancement of their families. While many were farmers of some form or another, others were teachers or held other professional positions. As the pedigree charts filled in it became obvious that research beyond the Civil War would provide more challenges.

Christmas Memories - 2016

This Christmas seems very different. For the last couple of days I read through two collections of Christmas stories compiled by my sister over twenty years ago. At the time we were given these we were busy raising children and involved in many activities. The first little booklet was done with a children's book for each our three older children. The second is a notebook meant for our family. Between the books which are filled with twenty-five plus stories, meant to be read one story a night leading up to Christmas Day, there were only eight repeat stories.

24 Days of Gratitude for 2016

November 2016 Days of Gratitude

Day 1 of Gratitude. I am so thankful for our family. Having children and grandchildren to share our lives with is wonderful. Each one is so unique. They help to lift me up when I am feeling down. They distract me from my worries and concerns. I treasure every minute that we get to spend together.  13

Day 2 of Gratitude. Friends, neighbors, associates all find a place in our lives. They share with us many talents and gifts that enrich our lives. Most gifts are not physical, but from within. Thank you for being a part of my life. I am very grateful for each and every one of you! 11

This is what has been keeping me busy for the last month.

This is what has been keeping me busy for the last month. These are posts from facebook.

August 28, 2016 ·

We are about half-way done with the first phase of sorting boxes of mixed documents, photos, etc. for the Scappoose Historical Society. We hope to finish it by the second week in September. We began on August 23, 2016. It is great to work with some very nice people. It helps me to get out and learn new things. Now I am also working on some family history research about the Watts family and their relatives. I always love a new challenge!

DNA - Just what does that mean?

DNA, just what does that mean to you and how will it help you in understanding your family tree?
To me it is diagnosing possible family connections, negotiating the information provided, and applying that information to your compiled family tree.

Since the first of the year our family has participated in two autosomal tests through ancestry.com and then transferred the results to FTDNA to attain more possible matches. It has been exciting to find people we match to in our family connections, comparing the information provided and then applying the information to our compiled family tree. The tests are for my husband and myself and we hope to soon have the results for a third test. These tests provide ethnicity estimates and matches from all lines of our family tree. While we have no compiled family tree at ancestry.com or FTDNA, our family tree for those who are deceased is available at familysearch.org.

Verla Jean Zollman LeBlanc Rametes

My mother-in-law, Verla Jean Zollman LeBlanc Rametes, passed away a year ago. For almost thirty six years she was a powerful influence in my life. She demonstrated what it means to be tough and determined. It takes a super woman to raise five sons, who grew to become honorable men. She was patient, understanding and considerate of all. Many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren received a quilt at birth and other treasures throughout their lives. Having new babies in the family was a great occasion for Jean. Her life was filled with family, friends, church acquaintances, and fellow workers, etc. She had pluck and was not feint hearted when work was required of her. We loved watching her humming birds and the squirrels that came to visit. Her greatest wish was granted in that she lived out her life in her own home. Now she is off to her eternal home and no longer is bound by her earthly infirmities. We all look forward to receiving a warm hug from Jean when we see her again.

Celebrating Five Years of Blogging

After five years I believe writing a blog is one of the most rewarding aspects of doing family history and genealogy work. To celebrate here are some current statistics as of today, 24 April 2016.

Pageviews for all-time 67,406
Pageviews for today, April 24, 2016 - 72, last post February 28, 2016
Months with the most pageviews
April 2103 - 1764
March 2014 - 1747
January 2016 - 1503

Blog Archive, posts per year
2016 - 3
2015 - 12
2014 - 37
2013 - 56
2012 - 105
2011 - 80

Comments - 100

Fascinating Connections through DNA

When my friend read about our recent AncestryDNA results, she mentioned how interesting it would be to see how many connections were made for someone who had well researched family tree. Being an adoptee, her research for her birth family has been a struggle. While my personal database still has much work to done on it, our online information at familysearch.org is the result of forty years of work. As mentioned in the last post our family tree database has not been placed on ancestry.com. Now that we are finally jumping into the DNA tool for advanced genealogy and family tree work, there are very few copies of my work for our family posted online. Finding DNA connections is fascinating and many of the people matching our results are found in my personal database. Viewing their family trees present some very similar links, but some have been totally different than our known ancestors.

Tasks to Be Done and Bucket List Accomplishments

Today is February 18, 2016, six weeks since my last post. One might wonder what I have been up to in all that time. Several genealogy tasks and bucket list items have been accomplished. The first major step was going through all the boxes of books and finding a place for them in our home. There are still five boxes holding books, but they are sorted and will move into the space that will come as I continue organizing our home. My mother had a huge collection of books and they were culled to those that had her name, a relative's name or a friend's name in them. Beyond those there were a few that out of curiosity will be read and then donated. Some books went to family members, friends and relatives. It feels so good to be past that task.

Genealogy Books and a Happy New Year

It has been two months since my last post. During that time my focus has been on genealogy books. Our local society, the Genealogical Forum of Oregon, had a book sale that was irresistible. The email announcement notifying of a sale of 50% off the list price certainly caught my attention. The accessible list of books in PDF format was 41 pages. When I finally got around to looking at the list I was up most of the night. Using a copy and paste system a list of 42 books, some multiple sets, was created as a word document.