I'm Ancestor Approved!

A pleasant way to finish up the year 2010 was being notified that I've received the “Ancestor Approved" award from Kelly (Coghan) Holderbaum, author of Sunny Ancestry (http://sunnyancestry.blogspot.com/). Thank you, Kelly! I hadn't read Kelly's blog before, and am glad to have discovered it, it's really good!

The “Ancestor Approved Award” was created by Leslie Ann of "Ancestors Live Here" in March 2010, and has been passed along to many genealogical bloggers. Recipients are asked to make a list of ten things they have learned about their ancestors that have humbled, surprised, or enlightened them. Then they are to pass on the award to ten other bloggers who are doing their ancestors proud. 

Being a professional genie and all, I'd like to extend the criteria for the "Things I've Learned" list to include clients' ancestors as well!

1. I had a hard time letting go of Cotton Kimball as the father of Elizabeth Kimball wife of Nicholas Colby of Haverhill. Cotton has some great people in his line, especially fearless Hannah Duston, of scalping fame. But this year I replaced him with John and Mary (Kimball) Kimball, so now I have twice as many Kimballs as I thought.

2. I've learned how to say no when asked to help with volunteer activities. I already do too much and though I want to help all of the societies to which I belong, there just ain't enough of me to go around! To remedy this dilemma I just switch around from society to society. This is good for networking, also.

3. When working as a consulting genealogist at Ancestors Roadshows, etc., I've learned that most people don't have questions they want to ask me. Almost everyone simply wants to tell me what they've done and who their ancestors were. A little validation of their research techniques goes a long way! 

4. Tom Jones (Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL) taught me that just because you write as you go along doesn't mean you're not going to have to write the whole danged thing over again because of something you discover towards the end of your journey. One little piece of evidence can make you have to reorganize the presentation of your data, and if you don't do it, you're not able to prove your point effectively. Thank you, Tom! 

5. I keep thinking of a trip we took to England when I was 6 months pregnant and my eldest child was 18 months old. The flight was delayed, he got completely hyped from being overtired and cried (screamed) his way across the Atlantic Ocean. We were mortified at the horrible experience we were providing for our dagger-eyed fellow passengers. We were seated in the middle of the 5-seat row and the hostesses totally ignored us, even when he threw up while we were landing. This took all of 18 hours from start to finish, I had my husband and good friend to help, and still I think of the trauma! Recently, I was researching a lady from the Azores who came over with her 2-year old and a 9-month old in 1907 by ship. Who knows if she may have been pregnant? I keep thinking of her now and being awfully glad we were able to fly to England rather than take a ship! What a whiner I am!

6. I've learned that it is much better to just hand over a not-quite ready gedcom file to a friend than to make her wait another ten years because I've almost discovered something else. This is humbling.

7. It makes me feel centered and calm to study the past. Researching ancestors and reading about the history of countless localities has an effect on you after a while. You see patterns in behavior, in the ways that people react to certain situations and it makes you feel like the past is not so distant. You feel like you can predict the outcome of so many events based on whether or not people are paying attention to the past.

8. Plenty of people know very, very little about their ancestors, even as close as their own grandparents. Most people cannot name their eight great-grandparents. While not beneficial to those people, it is good for the professional genealogist because it brings more clients our way, but more important, gives us the gift of telling people about their own families and seeing their happiness as a result. I love this!

9. Having a family reunion is a great way to get the entire extended family interested in genealogy. It brings out photos (Essie, I haven't forgotten your album!), introduces people with different political beliefs, or from different parts of the country to the concept that they have much in common with each other, starting with 99 percent of their ancestors, and makes for great deviled egg consumption!

My nephew John Kemmett, cousin, Esther (page) Klaiber
and brother Tim FitzGerald
Barnes Family Reunion 2010

10. Twentieth century research is tough! The completely new dimension of dealing with live people is introduced and suddenly we have to be conscious of people's feelings and sensitivities! This is scary, but worthwhile in that we get to bring families together!

Blogger awards are a great way to get to know my fellow bloggers because they usually have a requirement that you pass along the admiration, so below you will find my top ten favorite blogs. The challenge lies in winnowing down my list to just ten. I just can't believe how many great writers there are out there! And how fascinating the variation in people's approaches to genealogy. Some of them encourage me by their own dogged research, others keep me up to date on technological issues,  a few make me want to call them and enjoy a loooooong cup of coffee together discussing life and ancestors, and the rest are just plain entertaining! I hope you enjoy them all as much as I do!  I hereby pass the "Ancestors Approved" award to the following geneabloggers (in no particular order)!

1. Heather Rojo's Nutfield Genealogy

2. Bill West's West in New England

3. Marian Pierre-Louis's Marian's Root & Rambles

4. Anne Morddel's The French Genealogy Blog

5. Paula Stuart-Warren's Paula's Genealogical Eclectica

6. Mel Wolfgang's Mnemosyne's Magic

7. Stefania [unknown]'s L'origine della famiglia Basaba

8. Miriam Robbins' AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors

9. Susan Petersen's Long Lost Relatives

10. Caitlin GD Hopkins' Vast Public Indifference

Looking Ahead on My One-Year Blogoversary

Photo on Display at the Museum of Appalachia

I've been blogging for a whole year! I'm glad I've been able to stick with it because it has introduced me to new friends, relatives and concepts, and it's a wonderful way to jot down fleeting thoughts. I will continue to blog because it spurs me to think outside the box and it gives me an outlet to express my views.

I've been thinking about my recent "media blitz": I'm quite uncomfortable with it! At the annual Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference in Knoxville, Tennessee I was honored to receive a certificate of appreciation from the Assocation of Professional Genealogists (APG) for my leadership of the New England chapter last year. After having attended so many talks on marketing I felt obliged to announce to the four corners of the earth my humble achievement. So why do I feel uneasy?

The problem is my achievement is not genealogical in nature. Rather it lies in more of an organizational/motivational arena. It has virtually nothing to do with my skills as a genealogist. Instead it called heavily upon talents first learned in my days as an executive secretary long ago, and later finely tuned as a mother. Oh sure, some of the skills overlap with genealogy, but so do some of my skills as a knitter, chorus singer, blogger, and graphic designer. All it proves is that I was able to take advantage of being in the right place at the right time. My predecessors had prepared a solid groundwork and chapter members were instrumental in carrying out the tasks. I just facilitated.

Immediately upon receiving my award I intensified my thinking about writing an article. I've been contemplating this for quite a while, but just never seem to focus long enough to do it. As of yesterday, my blog is a year old. While I enjoy writing it, the style is off-the-cuff, casual in nature, inconsistent and fun. But because of this I don't feel it reveals much about my abilities as a genealogist. Though I make a point to mention my sources in narrative format while blogging, I do not use formal citations. I don't have to assemble vast amounts of information. No complicated analysis or corroboration is necessary. There is a lot of nostalgia and talk of my own opinions about things. It's like looking at the world through a magnifying glass, up close and personal, but with no perspective.

But an article! An article published in one of our field's top journals would make me feel very proud of myself. About that I would gloat! With an article I would stand high on a hill and survey the horizon. My eye would scan the view, and perform a reasonably exhaustive search of my surroundings. I wouldn't be able to leave out inconvenient conflicting evidence. I'd have to search for things I couldn't see. I'd have to tell a story, convincing readers that they had all the information necessary on the subject. I'd have to go somewhere no one has been or revisit a spot where the first visitor was blinded by something, and correct the story. I'd be contributing something to the community. And most frightening/exhilarating of all, I'd be edited by the best genealogists in the country. I'd receive their precious feedback, and that would enhance my skills. Investing a lot of energy into creating a logo, brochure, website and conference booth presence is helpful, but doesn't improve the genealogical community in quite the same way.

Blogging has been so rewarding! I've met a whole line of family that had been invisible to many of us for fifty years! We held a family reunion in the summer and my kin seemed really excited about genealogy for the first time. I've made lots of geneablogger friends, and read others' fascinating and entertaining blogs. I have even gained a few clients this way. So while I will continue to blog, I am content knowing I have a New Year's resolution ready to go.

2011––Year of the Article! Now, anyone got any good ideas?

In the Event of My ... Silence?

Genea-Bloggers
52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #30 

Image via Wikipedia

Week 30: Create an emergency chain. Select someone you trust to handle duties should you be unable to access your research, blog or other genealogy projects. Chances are that you have an online presence and genealogy friend with whom you are in regular contact. If you are unable to get online for a significant period of time, how will you let everyone know? Use this week to give your contact information to at least one genealogy friend so he or she could check in with you or your family in case of unexplained absence. The genealogy community is pretty tight, and we worry when one of our own hasn’t been heard from in a while. This challenge was inspired by Hurricane Ike and 14 days without power. Bloggers: describe the steps you take to establish an emergency chain to help your readers      do the same.

OK, I've been stuck on this one for a few minutes. I could select someone close by, like my lovely friend, neighbor and quickly rising genealogy prodigy, whom I shall call KK. But if it were a natural disaster, power outage or something local, and my communication were to fail, then so would KK's fail. On the other hand, if I delegate someone far away, how the heck would I get word to them? As for someone I trust, that would be my dependable and technologically gifted husband, Myles. But he isn't a genealogist.

Image via Wikipedia

I am left with devising a chain, or an endless loop, I'm not sure which it is. Therefore, know all men by these presents that I declare Myles as the provider of personal information and KK as my link to the genealogical world. Myles has the key to my heart and my house, along with the password for my computer, our local area network, home video camera and bank accounts, amongst other things. KK is a great genealogist and communicator, and she is efficient, empathetic, and lives right across the street. AND, get this! If the power is out, Myles is a licensed ham radio operator and could send radio messages! How cool is that! What a team they would make. KK could dictate and Myles could transmit the old fashioned way. He even knows Morse Code. Very Sci-Fi. dit dit dit, daaaaaah daaaaah daaaaaaah dit dit dit. And no, that's not a dit name.

I'm wondering, however, if all this would really be necessary. "If you are unable to get online for a significant period of time, how will you let everyone know?" Believe me, they'll know it. I'm so obnoxiously present on the web (updating Facebook, emailing, texting, phoning, skyping, using the new iPhone's face-to-face feature) that if something goes wrong it will be clear. I have enough real life friends that are also FB friends that they could easily post something on my page.

What is more concerning though is, should I fall ill, go insane or die, who would tell my clients? I have customized folders for my current clients, both in Safari (email) and in my Clients folder on my hard drive. I also use Bento database software to keep track of my projects. In Bento you can see the status of each project since I update it with notes as I go along. I usually don't have more than five clients at any one time. Of course I always have hard copy files accompanying the digital data. That is usually splayed across my desk. The other thing to check would be my very lengthy work to-do list. Since I have a brain the size of a pea, I update that list daily. It's a great means to be pseudo me during my unfortunate incapacitation. The work to-do list (not to be confused with my regular to-do list) works in tandem with my calendar. And my address book has any phone number or email address you should need.

Image via Wikipedia

Personal research and family papers have been left to a local society in my will, so I'm not worried about that problem. It is mainly cyber-info that could be lost. And what is out there? Not much really: just this blog, Facebook, my simple webpage at kimmittgenealogy.com and my personal webpage. I've put a
 tree up on Ancestry that is only for my own convenience and that of relatives. Once I'm gone, hey, make it public, I don't mind! Relatives would want to keep the personal website, though, because that is where I store family photos. My Facebook page can be retired. Well. If I'm dead, I mean. Don't go sneaking around just because I'm in a coma and delete all of my fun stuff! At least hold a mirror up to my mouth first. And while we're at it, I'd like a string down in the coffin attached to a bell in the graveyard. Just in case. Oh wait, I want to be cremated...

"Funnily enough" (my mother-in-law used to say that) a friend of mine suggested to me today that one way to preserve my blog posts would be to print them out and keep them in a binder. Nothing like good old paper. It's just there, doesn't need a password, no media conversions, no file formats to worry about. Just open the cover and you're off. How refreshingly simple. Of course, then links don't work, but, eh, too bad. I hardly use them. There is a way to back up the information in your blog, but I think I tried it and it was too complicated, so I abandoned it. And I could place this blog post at the very begininning. It would be out of chronological order, but could prove useful some day.

In the meantime, as the post shows, I'm still blabbing away. The weather is fine and electricity is pouring into our house. I feel better already, though, knowing that cyber me will be looked after.

Image via Wikipedia