Don't Disturb - Author at Work!

This is what an author does at the cottage in the spring. Bundle up, sit outside and let the waves and wind be your muse.

Working on the second draft of my new genealogical mystery novel "A Grave Secret" Hoping to have it published this year as a second in the Janie Riley series.

My first book featuring Janie was "Death Finds a Way" where Janie was lucky enough to be in Salt Lake City on a research trip.  But being Janie, many more adventures awaited her beyond just looking for her 3rd great-grandmother.

This time Janie flies to the most haunted village in Kent England to search for her 4th great grandparents, John and Susanna Philpott. What will she stumble on this time? Ghosts? Murders?

Sorry but you'll have to read the book to find out!

Be sure to bookmark my author site LorineSchulze.com for updates.

Another Prompt For Writing Your Life Story

Last year a Meme hit Twitter called #FirstSevenJobs  As the hashtag suggests, folks posted a list of the first seven jobs they held. That made me think about what a great prompt that is for writing the stories of our lives. I already have a prompt about talking about your first job in my book "Sharing Family Stories and Memories: Prompts for Writing Your Memoirs for Future Generations" but making a list of all your paying jobs is a great addition.

Of course, with each job listed you would write a description of what year(s) you worked at that job, what you did, how much you made (if you remember), where it was, what your boss was like, whether you loved or hated it, and any other details you can remember.

To show what I mean, here is my list of all of my paying jobs - 18 of them, starting from age 14 with babysitting jobs. I would have included being a homemaker but I didn't get paid for that. I haven't included a description of them but in my personal journal of my life story I will. Why not try your hand at this? Here's mine:

1. Babysitting
2. Working as a page in the local Library
3. Waitress at a Lodge near Huntsville Ontario
4. Vending Machine company sorting and rolling coins
5. Assistant to Chief Accountant in Canada-wide Banking & Mortgage Company
6. IBM Keypunch Operator
7. Creating surveys for Survey Marketing company
8. Library Assistant
9. Nursery School Aide
10. Dental Office Receptionist
11. Bookkeeper in Ophthalmologist office
12. Child Care Worker Kinark Child and Family Care Services
13. Teacher Assistant
14. Teacher in Special Education
15. Math Tutor
16. Self-employed Genealogist
17. Affiliate Marketer
18. Author

2018 Goals and a Recap of 2017

2017 GOALS RECAP

My goals for 2017 were easy to formulate. I planned to focus even more on my writing. I was 3/4 of the way through a first draft of Janie Riley's second adventure which I hoped to publish in 2017. "A Grave Secret"  follows Janie's journey to the most haunted village in England as she searches for her 4th great-grandparents.

Of course I planned to continue my genealogy research as well.

2017 GOALS - HOW DID I DO?

I did finish the first draft of "A Grave Secret" but sadly was not able to publish it in 2017. I was laid up with quite a bit of pain for 6 weeks last year and that impacted my writing greatly. As well my health issues and physical issues continue to challenge me. But 2018 is around the corner - a new year and as always, I will continue to forge ahead as best I can.

2018 GOALS
 

We bought a cottage on an island last fall so I could have a writing retreat and I can hardly wait for Spring so I can get back full time to my writing! Yes, that's my main goal for 2018 - write, write, and do more writing.

My New Netherland Series of books on 17th century settlers in what is now New York is also going well so I plan to publish several more in that series in 2018.

You can see the list of New Netherland books I have published so far, on my New Netherland section of my Olive Tree Genealogy website.

And now it's your turn! What are your goals for 2018?

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Miss Mulligan's Girls

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Famiiy Stories 

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc. 

 

This is my last photo in this series

This is a photo of my beloved grandmother, Ruth Simpson, in Miss Mulligan's Girls, in the Ellington School in Ramsgate Kent England. It was taken circa 1902 when she was 8 years old. Grandma is the young girl in the middle of the back row.

I am lucky enough to have a few photos of Grandma in the dance group in other years. What surprises me is that she never mentioned this to me. Yet she was the story-teller.

As I a little girl I would listen, fascinated, to her stories of her childhood, of her parents and grandparents, and of leaving England for Canada at the age of 19.  

These photos came to me a few years ago from her youngest daughter, my 93 year old aunt.

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: 5 Sisters in Hats

My friend and fellow blogger Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

Here is my photo and story for today:

 

Cabinet Card taken ca 1905 St. Mary's Ontario Canada

This photograph is of four Purdue sisters - Margaret born 1875, Louise born 1881, Nellie born 1882 and Carolyn 1877. The sisters were milliners in Toronto Ontario, and these wonderful hats are their own creations.

I love the variations they created with two very flamboyant hats in the back, one on the right front much more restrained, and on the left front, one very simple hat. I've often wondered - do the different styles reflect their different personalities or was it simply due to inexperience versus experience in hat making! 

All in all this is one of my favorite photos. 

The gal standing on the right strikes a casual yet cocky pose with her arm resting on the chair and her head tilted slightly. She seems to be saying "Okay world, here I am. What are you going to do with me!" I find it significant that her hat is the most flamboyant. I suspect she was a very confident young lady. 

By contrast the sister seated on the left seems to almost disappear. She is rigid, her body seems so very tiny and insignificant. That simple and tiny hat on her head also adds to the idea that she may have been shy and timid.

 

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Ribbons and Bows

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc. 

This photo was taken in a studio in Guelph Ontario in 1923. Just look at the bows in my mother and aunt's hair! How on earth did my Grandmother find the time to make them look so sweet? And the ringlets are amazing. I wonder if they had electric curling irons back then or did Grandma have to heat the irons on the stovetop?

I wonder if Grandpa Fuller helped out or did he make himself scarce while Grandma was getting her three daughters ready for this photo? Grandma could get pretty stressed out so I suspect she was a tad irritable during the process. No doubt my mother had strenuous objections to being all dolled up and having her hair put in curls! Mother is the middle daughter sitting down and she's 7 years old in this picture.

Although photographers often had standing subjects pose with their hands on the person seated in front, I'm thinking that older sister Lily's hands on my mom's shoulders were to make sure my mother stayed in her seat!  

Do you think Grandpa took them all out for ice cream afterwards? I hope so but knowing Grandma I doubt it. No doubt she would not want their dresses to get messy. Maybe they got to go home and change. I imagine Grandma had a headache and would want to lie down so it's very possible Grandpa took Lily and my mom out for a treat. I never knew him but according to his daughters he was pretty laid back and easy-going. 

Do your ancestors have a story to tell? Maybe it's time to give them a voice through a photo.

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: An Engagement Outing

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

 

This is a photo of my mother and father, probably in the spring or summer of 1935. They aren't married yet and Dad is giving Mother a lovely bouquet of flowers. Look at her happy face! Mother rarely smiled or laughed as a parent, and this picture lets me know that she once had a life that made her happy. Dad looks like he's hamming it up! Dad was 23 years old and Mother was 19 in 1935. I love seeing them so young and obviously in love.

Standing next to my father is my Grandfather (Mother's dad). It looks like he's pinning  a flower on Uncle Joe's sweater and Uncle Joe looks pleased as can be. Uncle Joe was Dad's younger brother and he would have been 10 years old. The young girl on the far right is my mother's youngest sister Eileen. Auntie "I" as we call her, was 12 years old that year. I think how nice it is that the two families have gone on a picnic or an outing together. 

I bet Mom and Dad are newly engaged and the families are getting to know each other. I think my Grandmother (Mother's mother) must have taken the picture and even that is hard to imagine! But she is missing from the picture and should have been there if the families were on an outing. 

My Auntie "I" is the only person in that photo who is still alive and that makes me ponder life so this is my thinking photograph. There they all are - young and happy and enjoying the day, but time moves on, and as it must, it extracts its toll and ends for all of us. The poignancy of this moment, frozen forever in a snapshot, says so much more than it appears on first glance.  

It reminds me to embrace every moment with as much joy as possible for life is fragile and fleeting. This quote springs to mind:

"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” ― Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Two Little Girls in 1917

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

I'm going to start with this photo - one of my favourites for several reasons. It is a studio photo and was taken in Guelph Ontario in 1917.

My mother Joan sits on the left holding a large stuffed cat. Her older sister Lillian looks quite frightened and is clutching a doll in one hand and pulling at the hem of her dress in the other. It's a familiar habit isn't it? Children who are nervous or shy will often pull at their clothing when faced with something that causes that emotion in them.

I love the looks on their faces - so somber. I can just imagine my Grandmother Ruth dressing them that day. What an ordeal it must have been to iron those dresses and try to keep the girls clean until they reached the photography studio! But Grandma always dressed herself and her girls beautifully.

Joan's hair is neatly parted and slicked to the side. I can picture Grandma wetting a finger with spit and slicking that hair down.  It looks like she even managed to curl Lily's hair! I can't imagine trying to get a 3 year old to sit still long enough.

This photo makes me smile. It's also humorous in some ways because my mother was allergic to cats so seeing her hold a stuffed on strikes me as ironic. I wonder if the cat and doll were the studio's toys or Joan and Lily's favourite toys at home? I'll never know. 
 
Both my mother and aunt are gone now. I can't share this photo with them anymore. But I can share it with others in my family and perhaps they too will smile when they see it. 

20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family History

Recently I spotted an article in a friend's Facebook feed. It was published in February of this year on the New York Public Library's website. It's called 20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family History and I encourage my readers to have a look at it.  

The reason I like best, and the same reason I have been saying for years now is this one: 

"You are an important person. You have things to pass on, to your children, to your local history society, to unknown future generations"

That reason was the basis of my weekly Meme called Sharing Memories which I started in 2009. 

 Over  100 Sharing Memories prompts have now been published in an ebook Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories

PS You do not need a Kindle to read an ebook. Amazon has the free Kindle App. Download the app then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

 

Join the Chatter on My Article on Legacy Family Tree

There's a lot of chatter over on my most recent article for Legacy Family Tree. If you haven't seen it, please do take a look and leave your own comment! There are some very interesting stories from readers of my article and I'd love to hear yours.


Don’t Let Mythology Guide Your Genealogy Research!  

I have written other articles for Legacy Family Tree:
 
Have You Used this Unusual Genealogy Resource?    

I Found My Great Great Grandfather Online -- Now What!!??? (Verifying Records Found On Webpages)  

Find Ancestors in Upper Canada Land Records   

5 Tips to Help You Navigate the Confusing Maze of Surname Variations


Image credit: Image by stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have We Lost the Art of Writing Compelling Letters?

Take a look at some poignant letters written over 100 years ago.  Andrew Bass wrote to his wife from Camp Lee near Richmond Virginia in 1862 "Dear wife, don’t grieve for me it will do no good but let me say to you pray for me with all your heart that if we never meet on earth again that we may meet in heaven where parting will be no more."

John DeCamp wrote to his brother William about coming to Ohio in 1829 "Dear Brother at the last time we saw each other thee expressed a strong desire to come out here and I have frequently written to thee on the subject. Yet not withstanding I humbly desire that thee will not take up with my mind alone in this matter. But use thy own will herein. As I do not wish to over persuade thee or any of my friends."

Such beautiful writing! It is so expressive and for me it evokes strong emotions. But what would John or Andrew have said, and how would they have said it or sent it, if they were writing now?

Andrew might have sent an email "Hey sweetie, I'm okay. Keep your fingers crossed I make it home safe and sound but please don't worry."

John might have texted his brother William "Bro - r u coming 2 Ohio or not?"

They don't quite evoke the same emotions do they? And would they be saved? Would descendants of John or Andrew be able to read their words 100 years later?

Yes, I fear we've lost the art of letter writing. Don't get me wrong, I love technology. I love email and texting via smartphones. But I also love getting a letter by snail mail and prolonging the opening of the envelope. Anticipation builds while the kettle is put on to boil water for tea. It's almost a ritual.

But I don't get many snail mail letters anymore. In fact the last one I got was several months ago from my 89 year old auntie.

Have we lost letter writing forever? Is it too late to get it back? I often think of how our descendants won't have our words on paper to enjoy. How they may not have our photographs since most of us keep them in digital format.

I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done. But I sure love the sweetness of Andrew's words to his wife and the longing I can hear in John's note to his brother. And I hope we haven't lost that completely.