A Moment of Silence

You gotta love grandparents when they come rescue you from the kids to take them out on the boat! My two boys are with their Nana and Papa on the boat today and tomorrow. I only have Jamie here with me, but right now she is down for a nap. And the neighbor girls, well with the boys not around there is no reason for them to come around. I think this is the first break I have had all summer!

Okay now here is where I am going with this blog. Several months ago I discussed going in a genealogy direction with it. Some suggested I only put up information on "how to," But to do that it takes a lot of time to find new material. Then as I discussed yesterday someone found me through Googleing a name of our ancestor that brought her to my blog. So this is what I will do. When I can easily come up with ideas and suggestions for "how to" I will post it, but in between will be blogs of ancestors I am looking for, interesting stories of my ancestors, as well as my business. Yes that's right I am in the process of doing this professionally.

The name of my business will be Untangled Family Roots. I am almost done with UPS. Justin has his surgery (it's minor to remove his adnoids) in a few weeks, we got our glasses, and we are almost done with the dentist. So I should be quitting here in about one to two months. When I do I will start doing research not only for myself but for others who don't have the time and patients to set and do what I do all do. I also plan to ad on two other related pieces to my business. One will be photo restoration (when I get the software) and the other will be selling individual digitally printed books to people from things relating to family events, a person, or their genealogy.

Speaking of photos I have recently discovered a wonderful website, called DeadFred. One of the most rewarding things when doing your family research is when you find a photo. There are so many of my ancestors that I have all the facts about. I knew where they lived and in some rare, but wonderful, cases I know special details about their life that tell me more about who they were. But to find photos of your ancestors well that's just icing on the cake. For me I have obtained many of my photos through reaching out to other researching the same family lines I am. In the genealogy world, for the most part, it is filled with gracious and generous people always willing to share what they have found and always looking for more. It is because of several new cousins I have found in my online searches that I now have faces of those ancestors to cherish forever. With each one of them I have also been able to share the few cherished photos I had. But DeadFred is another wonderful place you just might find a photo of your ancestor. Check it out. Some photos are simply listed as a mystery photos while others do have details of names and places for one or all people in the photo. Maybe after years of building your cake, you'll finally find your icing.

Another must have for an serious genealogists is a subscription to Ancesrty.com. I know there are other website out there that have some of the same information for free, but if you spend hours looking for your ancestors and maybe helping other friends look for theirs you want access to as many records in one places conveniently searchable as possible. That's not to rule out the other site though, such as USGenWeb, Rootsweb.com, or any of the others listed in my side bar. They are all important for conducting a through search for your ancestor.

But it can't all be done online. At some point you need to take it on the road. I am at that point now. I have found about all I can on our family through online research. My next step is to hit the library, courthouses, and Family History Centers. At this time though I will just have to put it all on hold. Without a second vehicle, the kids home for the summer and still working it's just not possible to do. I hope to start going maybe by October. When I do I will tell you more about what you can find and expect at each place. Then by next summer I hope to load up the kids, maybe my husband, and my in-laws and take their motor home back to Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and at some point South Carolina where many of our ancestors come from. Until then I will post what information I have on my ancestors here in hopes that someone will see and offer or ask for more information, and keep searching online in the hopes that someone has posted something new.