Genealogy Serendipity Moments - What a Genealogy Week

Yesterday my blog reached the 4,000 mark in views. On October 21, I will have been blogging for six months. Now this might not seem like much to some of you, but for me it is wonderful. This will be my 53rd  post and I have 52 followers. Many of you have commented and shared your enjoyment of reading the posts. Thank you for taking the time to comment. For me the greatest benefit is that I am writing, on a consistent basis, about what I love doing most. Sharing stories that are stored in my memories is as important as any of the research that I do. So, for this week I am going to share some of my highlights, as I have finally been spending time with others.

On Friday, my good friend came to my home and gave me a pedicure. She is a trained professional and does a fantastic job. She even brought breakfast from McDonalds, which was very tasty. We have worked on her genealogy and when we finished we went to the computer to do a few things on her family.

On Saturday, my son drove me to Albany, Oregon so I could give a presentation on Genealogy Education to the Linn Genealogy Society. They have a very nice room at the Albany Public Library, which is in a fairly new building. The room was locked for the day, but some day I need to go back and use their resources.

On Monday, my mother and stepfather drove me to get my haircut. My beautician works out of a shop at her home. The fun thing is we have worked on her family genealogy, so we always have plenty to talk about. Before they took me back home we stopped for some lunch. Roast beef, vegetables, potatoes and gravy may not be so good for the diet, but it felt very nourishing.

On Tuesday, I sorted through some more of my grandmother's papers. This has been a very long project and I still have more to do. I shared the blog post about what I found in the big tub with my mother and she then told me she had a box of my grandfather's papers, which I have not seen. I can hardly wait to get my hands on that box.

On Wednesday, I met with a friend to help her check over her genealogy work at new.familysearch.org. She very generously brought me lunch of homemade soup, a roll and a chicken salad. We worked for a couple of hours and she now has some further work to do. After she left I noticed that the Civil War Widow's Pension we ordered from Jon Deiss was available at Drop Box. I called the client to let her know and she came over a short time later. We downloaded the 117 pages to a CD for her so she can go home and read it. It was very interesting as the soldier used at least three alias and papers from his service in the Mexican War were included. Her task is to go over each page and make an abstract of the pertinent information.

On Thursday, I spent six hours at the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. My niece, who I have helped with her genealogy, generously offered to drive me to the GFO, as I am still restricted from driving. She stayed long enough for a tour and then she had to leave. I met with a friend to offer advice on future research on her ancestors. She emailed me a connection to her ancestry account so I can review it more at home. Then I met with a new client to get two stacks of papers to review so we can make a research plan. At one I taught a genealogy class on German Research, as it was German Day at GFO. It was a first time presentation and it was fun to create. I learn so much in the process of putting together lecture materials. The last hour I picked out some books I need for my work as a co-editor of one of their publications. My husband picked my up on his way home from work. As we drove home we decided to go out for Chinese food for dinner. By the time I got home I lay down on the couch and took a long nap.

On Friday, I met with a friend who is anxious to work on his family history. We spent three hours examining what has been done on new.familysearch.org. Then I showed him how to use several Internet resources to add to his information. His first project is to put the information he has into an electronic database and put his documents in acid free sheet protectors in a notebook. After he left my granddaughter came to spend the night. When she comes my time is dedicated to her. If I have to briefly use the computer, she has supplies in my office with which to entertain herself.

The actual serendipity moment of the week for me was when we went to pick grapes at my mother's home on Friday night. We took our granddaughter, who is four, for the first time. This is an annual family activity and all of our children have participated at one time or another. Hannah had so much fun helping those who were picking. I was not any help with a broken arm, but I did take pictures, which is something I don't think we have ever done before. This year between the grapes from our house and these, my husband made 57 quarts of grape juice. It is a staple for our family and costs us nothing but our labor and the jar seals. This is what making family memories is all about.

On Saturday, I went back to GFO for a short visit, as I had neglected to drop off flyers for an upcoming Family History Center Fair on Thursday. That day they had several groups coming and the fair is only a month away. We were then off to go grocery shopping, as our household was growing short on supplies with me being laid up for the past month. It was odd to return to where I had the fall and I can only say how grateful I am to be getting better every day. I can even type two handed again, which makes it much easier to write this blog. 

I hope your weeks are as fun filled as mine are. Every day seems like a new adventure and every family I work on brings new discoveries. At the rate new records are being made available it seems to be a challenge just to keep up.  

Motivating each other in our work is so critical to doing family history research. Look for someone to mentor you or to team up with so you have someone to do the happy dance with when you make a discovery.