Tombstone Tuesday - Thanks to Kindness of others!

I wasn't going to post today, but then I was lucky enough to have someone stop by a gravesite and take some pictures for me.  So nice!

 *This ones are bit difficult to read, but you can on some of the others he took*

They are both in the Trinity Union Cemetery in Glanford, Wentworth County. 

Note the different spellings of the last name.

This first one is
Wilber Hendershott (July 12 1851 - July 30 1916) and his wife Elizabeth Matilda Neil (Dec 17 1857-June 2 1925)
Elizabeth M. Neil is my GG Grandfathers sister.

This second one is Wilbers parents
Philip Hendershot (1827 - 1906) and his wife Catharine Olphiant (1832 - 1908)

Some of the dates are a bit off, from what I have, so I will need to investigate that at some point.


Happy Tuesday!

52 weeks to better genealogy - Week 17

This is the assignment... From Geneabloggers and Wee Tree
Get out your family photos and label them. You’ve seen them a million tines because they’re YOUR photos, but what happens when they’re passed down to others? Will those people know the names of everyone in the pictures? Take some time and label your photos with pertinent information. If you’re working with old photos, take consideration with their age and condition. Devise an archival-friendly labeling system. For digital photos, you can use computer programs to tag the images with names or other identifying information. If that’s too confusing, you can at least save and/or re-name digital photos with details of your choosing. Don’t let another generation slip by without documenting your photos. Your ancestors will thank you. If you have a genealogy blog, share with your readers your system for identifying photos, and even share a photo if you like.

When I read this, I thought, OMG, I so need to do this.
I don't have time to actually complete it right now, but it will be on my mind when I look at my pictures in the future.

For the pictures I have on my computer that are "genealogy" related, (that is, not the hundreds I have of my new daughter), I have been getting good at labelling them.  This is how I have been labelling them so far.

LASTNAME_Firstname_Locationifknown_date if known

So far it seems to be working well for me, but I probably should do this for all the "recent' photos I have of my family as well.

So I didn't actually do any work for this weeks challenge, but here is a picture of my daughter...just because.
I'll label it Swinging fun! :)

Scanning Sunday

Here is a picture with my grandfather in it.  I wish I knew where, or when exactly it was taken, but I don't know exactly.  I do know he was part of the Canadian Dental corp in WWII, so I wonder if this is that group of guys?  In any event they all look they hare pretty happy here. :)
My grandpa, James Cahill, is the one is the back row, on the far right.

Wentworth County website

For those that are interested in Wentworth County, Ontario Canada check out my new site

Familyhistoryfun.webs.com

I just started it, so its under construction, but my plan is to add all the links and information I can find about this area.  I hope that people will use the forum provided to chat with others about their research, and submit pictures of relavent things.

Any feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!

Displaying genealogy - Part 2

I gave my thought about how to display some genealogy as mentioned in my previous post, and I remembered about PICNIK...a great photo editing site I haven't used in a long time.

So here are some things I did quickly.  Maybe they are something I could get printed off and framed?  I am sure with some more time invested I could get them looking pretty good.  My only concern would be about how they would print off, would the resolution be ok? They always look so much better on the computer!

Displaying your Genealogy

With all this work we put into researching our family history, we should be showing it off!
I'm just not sure how exactly I want to do it yet.  Everytime I see that Ancestry commercial I think about it.

I know I don't want to print off a "chart" because it is forever changing.  I was thinking of printing off some old records I have found, along with some black and white photos and putting them in frames. 

Do any of you out there have pictures of how you have displayed your genealogy?  I'd love to see them! Post a link if you'd like.

Book of Pictures

I wanted to pass along the name of another book about the Hamilton area, since I have to return it to the library today.  I can't summarize it because there is just too much in it!  It is full of old pictures of the area.  If you have family from that are you should check it out. Although it didn't have my family in there, maybe it has yours?



Hamilton - Panorama of our past 
A pictorial History of the Hamilton-Wentworth Region
The head-of the-lake Historical Society

Tombstone Tuesday

I just discovered this grave from this site.
It is from the Clunyhill Cemetery in Forres Scotland

It has my GG grandmother (Lexie McLean), her husband (Robert Dean) and their son (Alexander Dean).  What a great find!

Lexie was also the name of my G Grandmother.  My daughters name is Alexis...nickname Lexie. 

A light bulb moment!

I've decided on my next big task of orginization/spring cleaning.

I had been wondering how I could get the tons of records I have found on ancestry, onto my Rootsmagic family tree.  I didn't think it was possible.  My plan was to eventually print everything off.  But that would have been a LOT of ink, and paper!

Well with one simple question by me on Twitter...
Question? when U find records on Ancestry, do U print them all off? The background is always black so uses up lots of ink..any alternatives?

And the one simple answer from ACoffin...
@FunFamHistory Save Ancestry records as images.


I was like duh!  I didn't realize that I could do that.  I thought my only option was save on ancestry or print.  But with one quick look, I realized there was a button to click, and I can save it too my computer!

So now, I will need to do this methodically or I will get very overwhelmed.  I have a lot of records, some are for multiple people.  I will need to give this some thought before jumping in.  But knowing me, I'll end up jumping in with both feet!

A Town Called Hamilton 1814-1840

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.

First Chapter:  The Head of the Lake Beginnings to 1814

Second Chapter - 

A Town Called Hamilton 

1814-1840

• 1816 - March 22 - Hamilton became a community - named after George Hamilton (Modern day streets are named after his relatives - John, James, Hunter, Catharine)
• Courthouse and Jail brought people from all over (From the District of Gore - which includedWentworth, Halton, Brant, Haldimand counties and Puslinch Township) - This is how Hamilton initially began to grown
• Education was very important to the settlers.  1817 - there were 5 schools in Barton Township for 800 students
• 1832-1835 - Dundurn Castle built by Sir Alland MacNab and Robert Charles Wetherall

 See image at FlickR here

• 1832 - Cholera epidemic.  There was panic in the community, especially because of the immigrants coming on ships into the ports.  Even prisioners were released to avoid the epidemic.  There were lots of dead.
• 1830's - political conflict between Dundas and Hamilton, along with all of Upper Canada.
• Population then started to increase due to British immigration, and by 1835 the population of just Hamilton was 2,600.

The Head of the Lake - From Beginnings -1814

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.


First Chapter:

The Head of The Lake

From beginnings - 1814

• The first inhabitants of the "head of the lake", which is the western end of Lake Ontario was the native people about 6000 years ago.  
• 1638 - 1640 - The population decreases because of the small pox epidemic which was brought over by the Europeans
• 1650 - war that severely affected the native poupulation
• 1700 - The French had control of the area
• 1759 - British dominated after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham
• 1775-1783 - American war of Independence; 60,000 loyalists came to modern day Canada. About 10,000 of these went to upper Canada, and 2000 of those to the Niagara Peninsula (which included the Head of the Lake)
• 1787-1788 - "Hungry Years" because of a drought.  Most didn't use money but a barter system.
• 1791 - Barton and Saltfleet Townships were surveyed by Augustus Jones
• Most in this area were farmers.  Mos were given 200 acres and given clothes for 3 years, and basic tools.
• Most were members of the Church of England (Anglican), but Methodist became more popular in the rural areas.
• 1812 - Population of Upper Canada was about 77,000, 20,00 of these were loyalists, the rest were American settlers who were looking for cheap land (** This may be why my ancestors moved from the states to the area?**)
• 1812-1814 - War of 1812 (Battle of Stoney Creek - June 1813)

See image on FlickR here

Ontario - Local photos

Here are some pictures I took while we drove the country side this Easter on the way to my in laws in Niagara Falls.  During this trip, we were passing through lots of little townships where various relatives are known to have lived. I don't know if they lived along this road, but I thought I'd take some "drive by" pictures of some of the areas since it had me wondering where exactly they would have lived.

Some of the areas we drove through were Stoneycreek, Smithville, Gainsborough, Caistorville, Welland, Lincoln

It was such a beautiful spring day!

This last one is from a different weekend, but it is of the CN Tower in Toronto as we drove by on our way home. I don't believe I have any direct relatives from here, but I have seen York county on some marriage records, so who knows what some more digging will reveal.

52 Weeks to better Genealogy - Challenge #14

It's week 14 for the 52 weeks to better Genealogy.(Geneabloggers and Wee Tree)
 
Here is what we were asked to do:

 Use a different search engine for your online genealogy research. Google is quite popular, but other search engines may provide different results. Try Yahoo! Search (http://search.yahoo.com/), Bing (http://www.bing.com/), Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/), Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/), and even Clusty (http://clusty.com/). Pick an unusual surname and search it in different engines. Make note of the top 10 page returns for each. If you’re a genealogy blogger, share your observations on this experience.

I have become so accustomed to using Google as I am sure so many people have, that I forget about the other search enginges.  I tried various names and places in all of the above pages.  For the most part I the same results from all of them.

In my quick seach I cam across some pages I had forgotten I had found in the past.  So I quickly bookmarked them, they should provide me with some information when I have time to get back to them
.
I find that with google, while I get numerous "hits", some good sites often get lost in the crowd, so trying some of these different ones allowed them to float to the top so too speak.
I will be bookmarking these other search engines and will utilise them for sure when doing my searches.

This was a great exercise!

My First Award....Ancestor Approved!

 Just like a family tree, this award has been passed down a few "generations".  It started with Ancestors Live here, was passed down to 10 bloggers from there, one of which was MountainGenealogy. Then  handed down to 10 more.  I am very grateful to be one of the recipients from The Family Curator.  The links provided will give you the "sources"...so click away! :)

The Ancestor Approved Award asks that the recipient list ten things you have learned about any of your ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlighted you and pass the award along to ten other bloggers who you feel are doing their ancestors proud.



I have been humbled....

• by my relatives that have served in the military (WWI and WWII)
• by relatives that moved away from their families to North America to presumably achieve a better life.
• when learning about they way life was at different points in time
• to find so many hard working farmers in my family. 

I have been happy about....

• finding other relatives that enjoy genealogy research too
• being able to pass along more family history to my daughter when she is old enough
  
• being a detective and continuing on my search.

 I have been surprised....

• that so many of my relatives passed through the US at some point before or after being in Canada.
• that I ended up living in the same area where many ancestors lived in the past, without even knowing it until I moved here!
• how the spelling of surnames can change so many times

 So now I will pass this award onto 10 more bloggers..
Some have probably already recieved the award which probably proves how much they deserve it!


Wee Tree - Amy Coffin
Dr. Bill Tells Ancestors - Dr. Bill
Genealogy Canada - Elizabeth
Canada Genealogy - M. Diane Rogers
Ancestories -
Blame Grandma
Jacks Genealogy - Jack
The Family Griot
Turning of Generations - Michelle Goodrum
The Gene Gleaner  - Katie
  
 I think I only have the "twitter" of Canada Genealogy, if I'm already following you just let me know what your Twitter name is, or if I'm not let me know so I can!

Follow Friday -The Family Curator

I am pretty new to the world of blogging. I am still not so familiar with all of those wonderful genealogy blogs that are out there yet, but slowly I am finding some of my favourites.  One of them has to be The Family Curator.

 She really has motivated me to get organized.  To be honest, I haven't had the time to go through every old article she has on her site, since she has so many useful things.  But I sure plan to navigate my way through them at some point soon.

Here are just 3 posts that should help to motivate any new blogging genealogists!

• Time for Genealogy Spring Cleaning
• No Foolin’ - FREE April Blogger’s Almanac Now Available
• Scanning Tech Tips

Happy Searching!

Course Review - Descendency Research @FamilySearch

Thanks to someone posting on Twitter a while ago I found out that there are some FREE courses at Familysearch.org.

I decided to try one of them out today, and I was pleasantly surprised!

I did the Decendency research, Lesson #1 (of 3)

It was a video of someone talking, and explaing what decendency research is, why you may want to do it, and how to get started.  It was easy to listen to, and his stories kept my attention.  Now to those who are expert genealogists it will be way to basic for you, but for someone like me, I found it to be very informative.  It gave me some ideas of how I can change things up to try and work on decendents instead of ancestors.  I just might try that!

My only "complaint" was going to be that I couldn't print any of the information off from the video, but low and behold, I went back, and there are links to some written information I hadn't noticed.  Excellent!

So to anyone that hasn't looked there yet, I would highly recommend it.  I will be watching the rest of these for sure at time!

Data Backup Day

Thanks once again to Geneabloggers for a great idea!  Data Backup Day!

I'm guilty of not backing things up regularily.  This will be a great habit to get into.

So  I took their advice, and put my genealogy folder that I had recently organized and put a copy onto my external harddrive.  I then took a copy of my Rootsmagic file and put it on that harddrive too.

I also recently put all of my bookmarks onto delicious, so I'm not sure if I need to back that up or not, if anyone has advice about that, let me know.

So overall I am getting things organized, and it feels great!