Last Day For Live Streaming Sessions from RootsTech 2013

It's the last day for RootsTech.  Which  Sessions are you going to watch today on their live stream? 

Remember, if you miss the Live Stream you can catch the sessions later at http://rootstech.org

 Here are today's sessions for Live Streaming. I am determined to catch Denise Olsen's Digital Storytelling and hope to watch the others live too.

Saturday, March 23

 8:30 a.m.

Keynote speakers: David Pogue, Personal Technology Columnist, The New York Times, and Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO, MyHeritage

9:45 a.m.

Using Technology to Solve Research Problems-Karen Clifford

11:00 a.m.

Digital Storytelling: More Than Bullet Points-Denise Olson

Today's Live Stream Sessions on Rootstech

Which RootsTech Sessions are you going to watch today on their live stream? Yesterday I saw part of the Keynote speakers - excellent! And I managed to watch Jill Ball's panel on Genealogy Gadget Bags. The panelists did an excellent job, as did the panelists on Thomas MacEntee's Panel on the Future of Genealogy.

Here's the list of what's coming today!  I hope I can manage to watch Valerie Elkins session at the very least. Of course I'm going to try to watch as many as possible. If you can't watch them live, they are being archived so you can catch the sessions later. Just go to Rootstech.org and enjoy!

Friday, March 22

 8:30 a.m.

Keynote speakers: Jyl Pattee, Founder, Mom It Forward Media, and Tim Sullivan, President and CEO, Ancestry.com

9:45 a.m.

Researching Ancestors Online-Laura Prescott

11:00 a.m.

FamilySearch Family Tree-Ron Tanner

1:45 p.m.

Google Search... and Beyond-Dave Barney

3:00 p.m.

From Paper Piles to Digital Files-Valerie Elkins

Women's History Month: A Pioneer Female Pilot

My friend and fellow Blogger Lisa Alzo has a Meme for March - Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women's History Month

I encourage readers to join in. Lisa has some terrific blogging prompts for each day of Women's History Month.  

I will write my own stories each Friday from the 5 prompts I came up with at Celebrate Women's History Month! Time for Stories I hope you'll join in with your own:

This is my entry for my 4th prompt

4.  Do you have a  female relative (direct ancestor or collateral lineage) who played an active role in women's issues? Perhaps one who was a Suffragette or was a pioneer in a male-dominated role or occupation?  Perhaps she sailed to the New World to start a new life in the 1600s or was a refugee from a war-torn or religious-intolerant location. Tell her story in a blog post or comment here on this blog.

So many to choose from! There are my Palatine female ancestors who fled the Palatinate area of Germany over religious differences and sailed to New York in 1710.  Out of approximately 3,000 who fled to a new land, almost 500 died on the way. Once in New York their mistreatment continued, this time at the hands of the British who forced their husbands and sons to work on British Tar Ships in situations not unlike slave labour. Their children were taken from them and given into indentured servitude to wealthier families. 

Or my Irish female ancestors who left Ireland during the Potato Famine in the 1840s? My 2nd great grandmother Fanny McGinnis (nee Downey) was one of those women. The hardships many of my female ancestors endured is beyond imagination and I admire their courage and resilience.

But I'm going to talk about my cousin Eileen Vollick (1908-1968) who became the first Canadian woman to obtain a pilot's licence in March 1928. Yes she was just 20 years old. Eileen was related to me in two ways, and was also my 7th cousin twice removed.





Eileen received numerous honours over the years, including the Amelia Earhart medallion in 1975. In August 2008 over 250 people gathered to mark her contribution to aviation on the 100th anniversary of her birth in Wiarton. 

She also was honoured with a Canada Post stamp and the naming of an airport terminal after her. 

You can read more about Eileen and her historical contribution as a pioneer in a male-dominated world at Carnival of Genealogy: Famous Canadian Ancestor Eileen Vollick, first licenced female pilot in Canada

RootsTech Live Streaming Starts Today!

Which RootsTech Sessions are you going to watch today on their live stream? Here's the list of what's coming!  I am definitely watching The Genealogists Gadget Bag by my friend Jill Ball, because I was asked to be on that panel.

Sadly I could not attend RootsTech this year so had to decline but I'm excited to see what gadgets the panelists are bringing.

I also plan on watching my friend and fellow blogger Thomas MacEntee in The Future of Genealogy. If I can possibly do it, I'll watch them all.

Mountain Standard Time

"Best of RootsTech"

Live Stream on RootsTech.org

Thursday, March 21

 8:30 a.m.

Keynote speakers: Dennis Brimhall, President and CEO, FamilySearch International, Syd Lieberman, Nationally Acclaimed Storyteller, Author, and Teacher, and Josh Taylor, Lead Genealogist at findmypast.com and President, Federation of Genealogical Societies

11:00 a.m.

The Future of Genealogy-Thomas MacEntee and panel

1:45 p.m.

Tell It Again (Story@Home)-Kim Weitkamp

3:00 p.m.

The Genealogists Gadget Bag-Jill Ball and panel

4:15 p.m.

Finding the Obscure and Elusive: Geographic Information on the Web-James Tanner

Poland Genealogy - My First Venture

Recently a marriage record I ordered from the online Manitoba Vital Records website arrived.  I don't have ancestors in Manitoba but my two nieces do. Helping them find their Polish ancestry was something I wanted to do but it is proving very challenging.

The groom's name is misindexed as Wasyl Ludyjko in the online index but it is actually Wasyl Sudyjko. Mixing up upper case "S" and "L" is a common transcription error in records.

Immigration Records

I had previously found Wasyl in Ancestry.com records arriving in St. John, New Brunswick Canada on board the ship Mount Temple in 1905.  He has been misindexed as "Wasyl Sudefks" The ship sailed from London England and the passenger list recorded him as Wasyl Sudeyko, age 23, born Galicia and heading to Winnipeg (Manitoba)

Census Records

The next record that *may* be for Wasyl is the 1906 census for Manitoba where he is listed as "W. Suduk" age 25, single.

The 1911 census for Selkirk Manitoba confirmed Wasyl was married now:

Suedeyko Wasyl   M Head M Apr 1881 age 29 immigrated 1904, Naturalized, Greek Catholic, born Galicia
Suedeyko Jessie   F Wife M Jul 1886 age 24 immigrated 1906, born Galicia
Suedeyko Annie   F Daughter S Jun 1910 age 11 mos born Manitoba

I had one other clue about Wasyl. I knew that eventually the surname became Sedak and the family lived in Selkirk. Sure enough he was found in the 1916 census for Selkirk Manitoba. This was another example of a badly indexed record - the entire family was listed with the surname Wasil instead of Sedik!

Sedik Wasil     33
Jessie Wasil     31
Annie Wasil     6
Mike Wasil     4
John Wasil     2
Mary Wasil     0

Death Record 1922

The last record I was able to find was a death record for Wasyl in 1922. He was recorded as "William Sedit" born 5 Oct. 1882 [sic] Here his wife's name was given as "Josepha Scukie" We know this is the correct man from other confirmed details given by his daughter to her granddaughters (my nieces). His mother is name as "Mary" and there is no name recorded for his father.

Marriage January 21, 1909

So back to the marriage record I received recently. This record shows the parents of both bride and groom, plus ages and birth places. The challenging part is finding out where these towns are today and what their names are (if they have changed) I had sucess finding Wasyl's birth place which is recorded as "Bilcze Zolate Galicia" According to JewishGen it is now called Bil'che-Zolote, Ukraine and is in the Province of Ternopil Oblast, some 460 km SW of Kiev.

His parents are named as Michael Sydyjko and Dorka Lueyk or Cueyk. Perhaps one of my readers will have a better idea than I of Dorka's surname.

The bride is listed as Josepha Skurycka, 22 born Lycztiwi (?), Galicia. Her parents are Wajtko Skurycki and Kateryna Kaczrat. Again, help from my readers would be appreciated in the reading of their names and Josepha's birth location. It could be Lycytiwi or I may have misread the last bit "tiwi" but I do not find either listed on JewishGen.

Cemetery Records

I also found both William and Jessie buried in East Selkirk St Stanizlus Roman Catholic Cemetery, St Clements, Manitoba

Obituary Records 

I was lucky enough to find Jessie (Josepha's) obituary in the Winnipeg Free Press in 1963 but no clues as to her origins were found:

Obit Jessie Sedik, March 16, 1963. Winnipeg Free Press

Came to Canada from Austria in 1907 and lived Selkirk Manitoba until 1942, then moved to Toronto
Predeceased by husband Wasyl in 1922
4 daughters survive - Mrs Harry Zalenksy (Annie) of Prince Albert
Mrs Mary Wynyyk of Selkirk
Mrs. Kay Zaleski of Toronto
Mrs J. Robinson (Lena) of Toronto
2 sons - John and Michael of Selkirk
8 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren

Questions

One question I have is what would the Polish name be for "Michael" and what would the English name be for "Wajtko"? If anyone knows please enlighten me!

And so a marriage record has great information but leaves me still struggling. And I have not yet found Josepha (Josefa, Jessie) on a ship arriving in either Canada or USA. It's always fun and exciting to be exploring a new area of genealogy research but I confess to finding this very challenging indeed. 

Early Bird Registration for NGS Ends Today!

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends

 2013 Family History Conference

Las Vegas, Nevada, 8–11 May 2013

Building New Bridges

ARLINGTON, VA, 18 March 2013: The NGS 2013 Family History Conference will be held 8–11 May 2013 at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (LVH), Las Vegas, Nevada. The early bird registration discount ends  Tuesday, 19 March 2013. In addition to enjoying a $35 discount, only early birds have the opportunity to order a printed syllabus. (Everyone will receive a syllabus on flash drive.) NGS members get even deeper discounts, so this is a great time to join. 


Space is still available for most breakfasts and luncheons, the NGS Banquet, and Tuesday bus tours. The BCG Education Fund Workshop is sold out. To be placed on the wait list, e-mail the NGS conference registrar, Courtney Holmes, at cholmes@ngsgenealogy.org .


All full-conference registrants will be entered in a drawing to win a seven-night stay at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel at Temple Square, courtesy of the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. The prize will also include a free spot on one the Ancestor Seekers Salt Lake City research trips. Be sure to attend the opening session to find out if you are the winner. The winner must be present at the opening session to claim the prize.

To register online, visit the NGS website at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/attendee_registration and complete the registration form. 

List of RootsTech 2013 Sessions Being Live Streamed

RootsTech 2013 announced today which of its conference sessions would be streamed online for free. Over 5,000 people have already registered to attend the popular conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 21-23, 2013, where they plan to learn how to find, organize, tell, preserve, and share their family's history-and make new connections. The conference will broadcast 13 of its 250+ classes live at RootsTech.org , including the daily keynote speakers. The family history conference is the largest of its kind in the U.S.  "Not everyone can attend RootsTech in person," said Dan Martinez, RootsTech conference manager. "So we give them a chance to virtually attend a free sampling of some of our most popular sessions live online." Martinez added that the live webcasts in 2012 had 50,000 views during the show. For those living within travel distance of Salt Lake City, Martinez said it's still not too late to register for RootsTech 2013! From the Getting Started, Developer Day, and the Story@home tracks, the 3rd annual RootsTech conference has something for everyone, whether you are an avid genealogist, just beginning, or simply want to discover the latest technologies and solutions to better connect with your family. For registration details and costs, go to RootsTech.org.   Following are the RootsTech 2013 Streaming Sessions and when and where to find them.

Mountain Standard Time "Best of RootsTech" Live Stream on RootsTech.org Thursday, March 21  8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers: Dennis Brimhall, President and CEO, FamilySearch International, Syd Lieberman, Nationally Acclaimed Storyteller, Author, and Teacher, and Josh Taylor, Lead Genealogist at findmypast.com and President, Federation of Genealogical Societies 11:00 a.m. The Future of Genealogy-Thomas MacEntee and panel 1:45 p.m. Tell It Again (Story@Home)-Kim Weitkamp 3:00 p.m. The Genealogists Gadget Bag-Jill Ball and panel 4:15 p.m. Finding the Obscure and Elusive: Geographic Information on the Web-James Tanner Friday, March 22  8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers: Jyl Pattee, Founder, Mom It Forward Media, and Tim Sullivan, President and CEO, Ancestry.com 9:45 a.m. Researching Ancestors Online-Laura Prescott 11:00 a.m. FamilySearch Family Tree-Ron Tanner 1:45 p.m. Google Search... and Beyond-Dave Barney 3:00 p.m. From Paper Piles to Digital Files-Valerie Elkins Saturday, March 23  8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers: David Pogue, Personal Technology Columnist, The New York Times, and Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO, MyHeritage 9:45 a.m. Using Technology to Solve Research Problems-Karen Clifford 11:00 a.m. Digital Storytelling: More Than Bullet Points-Denise Olson

Possible Black Death Graves from 14th Century Found in London England

Archaeologists said on Friday they had discovered a lost burial ground during excavations for a massive new rail project in London which might hold the bodies of some 50,000 people who were killed by the "Black Death" plague more than 650 years ago.

Thirteen skeletons, laid out in two careful rows, were found 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) below the road in the Farringdon area of central London by researchers working on the 16 billion pound ($24 billion) Crossrail project.

Historical records had indicated the area, described as a "no man's land", had once housed a hastily established cemetery for victims of the bubonic plague which killed about the third of England's population following its outbreak in 1348.

Read Rail dig may have found London's lost 'Black Death' graves for more details

My Irish Greenlees Ancestors from Aghalurcher, Co. Fermanagh

Aghalurcher Church

Since it's St. Patrick's Day I thought I'd talk a little about two of my Irish ancestors. I don't have that many Irish in my ancestry but my maiden name (McGinnis) is Irish. Many of my readers know that I'm always looking for Joseph McGinnis and his wife Fanny Downey who came from Co. Down in 1846 and settled near Guelph Ontario Canada.

But today I want to share a bit about my Irish  3rd great grandparents John Greenlees and his wife Elizabeth Johnston.

John and his wife came from Ireland to Ontario sometime between 1819 when their daughter Jane (my 2nd great grandmother) was born, and 1822.  Unfortunately ships passenger lists to Canada before 1865 did not have to be archived and so they are few and far between. So far I have not found any record of their arrival but Ontario was a very young settlement in those years and the courage they had to make the journey with three young children astounds me.

I know a lot about John and Elizabeth during their years in Ontario. But I've never known where in Ireland they lived. And then came great news from a fellow researcher and descendant.

Two years ago  their marriage record was discovered. This was the first clue I had of where in Ireland they came from. They married in 1814 in Galloon Parish, Clogher Diocese in Co. Fermanagh Ireland. Their marriage record found in the Parish Record books by another descendant (who very kindly sent it to me) reads:

 John Greenlees of P'h of Aghalurcher & Eliz'th Johnston of Drumy.

I can't begin to describe how it feels to have not only a county but an actual parish in Ireland after years of only knowing "Ireland" as their place of origin.

Today I treated myself to doing more searching for John and Elizabeth Greenlees, and to reading about Aghalurcher. I am not sure what "Drumy." stands for except perhaps Drummally? If anyone knows I'd love to hear from you.

 Nothing turned up for John or Elizabeth but I did get sidetracked looking for some of hubs' Irish ancestors - and had great success! I'll blog about that another day.

Korean War Casualties now on Fold3

Records of U.S. Army officers and soldiers killed or wounded in the Korean War are now available on Fold3. Korean War Casualties is available free to any visitors to the site.

One quarter of the nearly 110,000 records in Korean War Casualties connects to information about Army personnel who died during the war, 1950-1953, including those who died while a prisoner of war or missing in action. The remaining three quarters are for nonfatal Army casualties.

The Korean War Casualties database is from the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1905-1981 (Record Group 407), at the National Archives (NARA). It was compiled between 1950 and 1970, and covers the period from the earliest casualty (February 13, 1950) to the latest date in the date of disposition field, December 31, 1953.

The information on each casualty may include: name, service prefix and number, grade, Army branch, place and date of casualty, state and county of residence, type of casualty, detail/previous casualty type, casualty group, place and date of disposition, year of birth (for deceased casualties only), military occupational specialty, organization troop program sequence number, element sequence, unit number, race, component, and disposition of evacuations.

Launch your search within the records from the Korean War Casualty title page or use the browse option and highlight the Korean War category. Records are ordered alphabetically. (NARA also provides a list of fatal casualties by state on its website.)

When you find a soldier in the Korean War Casualties records on Fold3, you’ll link directly to a memorial page for that soldier where we invite you to add stories, photos, documents, and other information relating to that individual. Examples of two pages to which newspaper articles were added include twice-wounded Purple Heart recipient Dwight L. Huston, of Mt. Vernon, IL; and Pittsfield, MA, native Arthur A. Boland.

When added to the memorial pages, your stories and photos help sustain the memories of United States heroes in the Korean War and allow others to connect with and honor them.

Conference: Russia and The Netherlands in the XVIIth – XXth centuries

15th-16th of May 2013 The Institute of World History of The Russian Academy of Sciences is organizing an international conference “Russia and The Netherlands in the XVII^th – XX^th centuries: new researches and actual problems”.

The conference will be held in conjunction of “The Year of The Russian Federation in The Netherlands” and “The Year of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in Russia” in 2013. 

As a part of the conference there will be a round table concerning the study of the history of The Netherlands. All the scholars who have a special interest in the history of this country and also authors of the relevant textbooks are welcome to take part in this round table.

It will take place in the Institute of World History, the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is in the main building of RAS.

The adresss: 32A Leninskiy prospect, 
Moscow, Russia, 119334 
Phone: +7(495)938-10-09
Fax: +7(495)938-22-88

Women's History Month: Have You Tested Your mtDNA?

My friend and fellow Blogger Lisa Alzo has a Meme for March - Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women's History Month

I encourage readers to join in. Lisa has some terrific blogging prompts for each day of Women's History Month.  

I will write my own stories each Friday from the 5 prompts I came up with at Celebrate Women's History Month! Time for Stories

I also plan to participate in as many of Lisa's 31 Prompts as I can! I hope you'll join in with your own:

This is my third prompt for Women's History Month:

3. Make a list of your direct female line ancestors starting with your mother.  Write about your mtDNA findings. If you haven't been tested yet, order an mtDNA kit!  There are several companies offering DNA tests - Family Tree DNA, Ancestry DNA, 23andMe.com

You can read about my mtDNA results at mtDNA Test Results Arrived!

I am still struggling to understand my mtDNA results and hope that when my 23andMe test results arrive I will have a better grasp on what it all means.

Say Goodbye to Google Reader

How do you read your favourite genealogy blogs? Via an RSS reader? By visiting each blog in turn? I use Pulse for most of my news and blog reads, and thank goodness I do, because the very popular Google Reader is being shut down. 

The shutoff date is July 2013. 

According to CNET there are five good alternative readers and if you have your genealogy blog feeds on Google Reader it's time to start switching. Here's CNET's list of five (and happy to see my favourite, Pulse, is on there)

1. Feedly
2. Taptu
3. Pulse
4. Flipboard
5. Google Currents

As for me, I'm going to have to transition the 316 blogs I now follow via Google Reader. I'm not having much luck getting Feedly to work on my laptop and don't want to bring them into Pulse so am not sure at this point what method I'm going to use.  I wanted to use Feedly for my blog news as it has an automatic transfer function from Google Reader. But so far it will not connect for me on my Firefox browser and I really dislike Safari and Chrome. Decisions, decisions...!

See Google Reader is dying, but we have five worthy alternatives for a detailed comparison of these five alternate readers.

ProQuest to Distribute NewspaperARCHIVE.com's Newspapers

March 11, 2013 (ANN ARBOR, MI) — ProQuest is significantly expanding its rich selection of historical news content as the global distributor to libraries and other institutions for NewspaperARCHIVE.com, a 130 million-page database that captures coverage from valuable local newspapers throughout North America, the U.K., and select countries from 1607 to the present. ProQuest will offer libraries the option to purchase a perpetual archive rather than just subscriptions. Further, there will be Academic and Public library versions that break NewspaperARCHIVE.com’s massive content into state level products and individual titles.

“NewspaperARCHIVE.com’s content is an extraordinary addition to ProQuest’s news product line, deepening the service that libraries of all kinds are able to provide to their patrons,” said Chris Cowan, Vice-President, ProQuest Information Solutions. “We’re particularly excited about the benefits libraries will be able to extend to family historians for genealogical research and to the academic community, where this service will be an excellent source for longitudinal and comparative analyses of events and people.”

“NewspaperARCHIVE.com focuses on small, local newspapers, providing an important complement to ProQuest Historical Newspapers’ selection of major world dailies,” said Erik Swierk, General Manager, NewspaperARCHIVE.com. “Like the ProQuest news databases, NewspaperARCHIVE.com is designed for researchers of all levels and includes intuitive tools for fast searching and browsing. Its pages are fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy to quickly explore historical content.”

To learn more, visit www.proquest.com or www.newspaperarchive.com.

Exciting Find Through FamilyTree DNA Find Dates Back 338,000 Years

A DNA test on an American hoping to trace his family tree has come up with a stunning result - the roots of the human tree date back much further than previously thought.

Researchers were shocked when they analysed the DNA of Albert Perry, a recently deceased African-American from South Carolina.

'This lineage diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 338,000 years ago, a time when anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved,' said Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona.

Either interbreeding with Neanderthals or other populations led to the unusual genetic makeup, he said, or humans evolved far earlier than the extant fossil record suggests.

The new divergent lineage - which was found when Mr Perry contacted Family Tree DNA, a company specializing in DNA analysis to trace family roots - branched from the Y chromosome tree before the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in the fossil record.

The DNA analysis proves last common Y chromosome ancestor lived 338,000 years ago, even though oldest fossil of modern man is only 200,000 years old

Read more at The family tree that rewrote human history: Researchers stunned to find DNA submitted to online project dates back 338,000 years 

Credits: Photo of Chromosomes by Victor Habbick on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends Soon For 2013 Family History Conference

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends Soon  2013 Family History Conference

Las Vegas, Nevada, 8–11 May 2013

Building New Bridges

ARLINGTON, VA, 11 March 2013: The NGS 2013 Family History Conference will be held 8–11 May 2013 at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (LVH), Las Vegas, Nevada. Register for the conference today! The early bird registration discount ends on Tuesday, 19 March 2013. In addition to enjoying a $35 discount, only early birds have the opportunity to order a printed syllabus. (Everyone will receive a syllabus on flash drive.) NGS members get even deeper discounts, so this is a great time to join. 


Space is still available for all conference social events including the Tuesday bus tours, luncheons, and breakfasts.

The opening session at this year's conference will be held on Wednesday morning, 8 May 2013, at 8:00 a.m. The keynote address will be presented by Marian Smith, Chief, Historical Research Branch, USCIS. Using immigration and naturalization as examples, this presentation will explore the importance of national policy changes to ancestors, their records, and your genealogical research.
All full-conference registrants will be entered in a drawing to win a seven-night stay at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel at Temple Square, courtesy of the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. The prize will also include a free spot on one the Ancestor Seekers Salt Lake City research trips. Be sure to attend the opening session to find out if you are the winner. The winner must be present at the opening session to claim the prize.

To register online, visit the NGS website at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/attendee_registration and complete the registration form. 

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records.  The Arlington, VA-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists.  Please visit the NGS Pressroom for further information.

Court Ledger Book 1883-1937 Wythe Co. Virginia online

AncestorsAtRest has a new Court Records ledger book online for Wytheville, Wythe County Virginia. This Court ledger book belonged to William C Pendleton.

At the top of the first page of court records we read Wm [William] C. Pendleton, Clerk Court of Appeals at Wytheville, The Commonwealth Of Virginia. 

William C. Pendleton was born in Marion, Virginia, in 1847 and served in the 8th Virginia Cavalry in Tazewell County. After the Civil War he studied law and practiced in Richmond, Virginia.

He was the author of the History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia 1748-1920 . This volume has long been recognized as the definitive history of Tazewell County Virginia.

This court ledger book is full of entries starting in 1883 and ending in 1937. From 1883 to 1897 the book contains a record of what appear to be court cases in the Court of Appeals at Wytheville.

The second part of the ledger is a list of several hundred people who purchased his book History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia 1748-1920. 

The Anticipation of Snail Mail!

There's something very satisfying about receiving genealogy info and documents via snail mail. You wait expectantly (and eagerly) for weeks. Then one day as you are shuffling through the half-dozen pieces of mail that arrived, the envelope you've been longing for appears.

That is SUCH an exciting moment! The records on great-grandmother Harriet that you've been waiting for is here at last! I'm such a nerdy geek that my heart starts racing a bit and my hands shake. The anticipation is overwhelming but I don't rip open the envelope. 

I make tea, sit down and open the envelope at my leisure. There's something so satisfying about the whole process! Prolonging it extends the enjoyment, just like Christmas. Some people rip the wrapping paper off a present in two seconds and dig right into the gift. Me, I like to unwrap it carefully, savouring every moment of anticipation, wondering what lies within. 

I admit that I miss the mounds of genealogy snail mail I used to get. Remember those days? Before there was so much data online? When we all wrote queries and answered queries in genealogy newsletters? When we ordered records from libraries and archives that were far afield? Don't get me wrong, I love that genealogy records are now at our fingertips! But I miss the buildup of excitement and anticipation one can only get with the sound of mail delivery, the clang of the mail slot on your front door or hearing the mail carrier's car at your mailbox.

And yes, I did receive  some exciting pieces of info over the last week. Documents and newspaper clippings I requested over a month ago finally arrived. The next stage is almost as much fun as the wait. First, a quick glance and read of all the documents. I can't force myself to read and analyze one at a time, that's too slow!

After I read them all quickly, I choose one and read it more carefully. At this stage I might open my genealogy program Family Tree Maker, and find the individual that goes with the document. But I don't enter the information yet. That comes later after I've slowly read and re-read all the documents in the pile. 

Then, and only then, do I enter the information in each document in my genealogy program. Next step is to scan every piece of paper and file it digitally as well as physically. That's where I fall down. I don't always get that paper filed right away. So what I've started doing is labeling it on the back with the name of the person and the source if it's not already noted. I've been burned too many times with finding a document in an old stack of papers on my desk, reading it, and not being quite sure why I have it! Lesson learned.

What about you? Do you have snail mail longings?