Where were you?

The GenLady has asked the question — Where were you during each of the U.S. Censuses? 

U.S. CENSUS 1960 

I turned 7 years old on the official day of the census in 1960. I don't know what possessed the government to make April Fool's Day the official census day, but with me, it was just a matter of being late, as usual. You might say I “fooled around” until 18 minutes after midnight before deciding to make my first appearance into the world. My birthday and the official census have been linked ever since. My family lived in Fremont, Ohio, which is where you will find me each and every census. It was just my sister and I along with our parents. 

I was a first-grader at Hayes School. The first grade happened to be the year, and I might point out, the only year, that I threw up in front of the entire class. I had warned my teacher that I couldn't drink that whole bottle of milk, and I guess I proved my point. All of you did want to hear my throwing up story, right? Oh, and first grade was the year of my first mutual kiss, behind the bushes on the corner of June and Whittlesey streets. I'm not counting the kiss I was given by a certain someone in kindergarten, as we lay on our nap rugs, because 

1. I was HORRIFIED and 

2. Some little goodie two shoes tried to tell the teacher about it and I was DOUBLE HORRIFIED that I might actually get into trouble for something that wasn't my fault, unless of course, my being irresistible was considered a fault. 

You will be relieved to know that my promiscuity peaked along with my popularity in first grade. 

U.S. CENSUS 1970 

I turned 17, and of course, I knew everything. And I mean everything. I loved my parents but they were “square.” My siblings, two more had been added, were annoying. In that junior year of high school, my plan involved going to college to become an elementary school teacher and/or maybe saving the world. Important stuff to be sure, but my main goal in life that year was to have sleek, long straight hair ala Cher. 

I tried letting my hair dry naturally (as opposed to sitting under a bonnet dryer), rolling my hair into one huge jumbo roller on the top of my head, and ironing my hair — with an iron and an ironing board. If you think laying your head on an ironing board and ironing your hair yourself is easy, I suggest you try it. Thank goodness, it didn't work, or back surgery would have probably figured big in any future plans.

The summer of that year, I had my first non-babysitting job. I worked as a carhop at the A&W Root Beer stand. I got off to a rocky start when I spilled Black Cow down the side of one hapless customer's car. After that, things went well and I made good tips, on top of the whopping $.75 an hour that the job paid. I managed to save over $200 that summer, which my dad made sure, was deposited into the Credit Union — fiscal irresponsibility being akin to a deadly sin in my family. 

U.S. CENSUS 1980 

The 1980 census found me turning 27, married, with three children aged, 7, 3 and 1. A stay-at-home mother, those years are one long blur. I enjoyed being a mom, but the days went by too fast, and there were never enough hours in a day. I looked longingly at women who went to work and had an identity outside of mom. I didn't realize that they still had to take care of sick kids, buy groceries, run errands, wash clothes, pay bills and try to figure out how to stretch a dollar, IN ADDITION, to holding down a job and keeping another whole group of people happy. The grass is always greener, right?

U.S. CENSUS 1990 

In the 1990 census, we received the long form to fill out. I was really ticked at the time, because it was a pain to fill it all out. Al and I had been married less than a year, and all six of our children were living with us at the time. Between the two of us, we had six children, 5 boys and 1 girl, aged 10 to 17. We never had a table big enough to seat all of us at the same time, and in fact, the very first meal we had together was predictably noisy and chaotic. 

I had just doled out the last of the spaghetti, when the youngest one ran in the back door announcing, “I'm here!” Al and I looked at each other horrified. In all the confusion, neither one of us had realized that one of our little chickadees was missing. Oh yeah, we were going to be GREAT at this blended family thing! We still shake our head at those years with the whole crew. We always say

1. You have to truly love and like your partner to survive the stresses of a blended family. And, 

2. WHAT WERE WE THINKING? 

U.S. CENSUS 2000 

By this census, I was 47 years old and living in the country, half way between Fremont and Clyde, just my favorite fellow and me. I drove 45 minutes one way to work every day, and I would amuse myself by calculating how many weeks of my life I was spending on the road in a year. Ah, good times! 

I was working at a bank and my friend, a loan officer who shall remain nameless and shameless, pulled me into a corner the day of my birthday and said in a James Bond fashion, “Do you have your purse with you today?” My crazy nameless loan officer friend had me go get the purse. Then looking both ways and over her shoulders to make sure the coast was clear, she grabbed something out of her purse and shoved it into mine. I looked down, and saw what I would later learn was a Mike's Hard Lemonade. She had brought it for me as a birthday present. Mike and I have been good buddies ever since. Ah, Carole, I mean Nameless, I miss you! That's what I was doing during each census. How about you?

Until Next Time — Happy Ancestral Digging! 

Note this post first published online, February 6, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 6 February 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Carnival of Genealogy has arrived

The Carnival of Genealogy is in town! There are 32 entries for this edition of Carnival. I haven’t had a chance to read all of them yet (there were 32, after all), but you will find a variety of responses to the question: If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why? Some are guaranteed to make you laugh, some will make your mouth water, and some will make you think. Jasia, as usual, has played the gracious hostess, and gave a brief synopsis of each of the entries.

You can find the links to each at Jasia's Creative Gene: http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2008/02/carnival-of-genealogy-41st-edition.html So which four of YOUR ancestors would you have to dinner and why? Until Next Time – Happy Ancestral Digging! 

 Note this post first published online, February 5, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 5 February 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged,  Teresa L. Snyder 

Genealogy TV

Are you the kind of person who likes going to lectures on genealogy? Have you ever wished for family history programs to be available on TV? Well, since late 2006, Roots Television has been available for viewing on the Internet. The best part? Most of the videos are absolutely free! Posting about Roots Television has been on my “to do” list for quite a while, but like everything else lately, my intentions are good, but my follow through, not so much. Four, count them, four posts within the last week have tie-ins with this subject. 

First, Randy Seavers of Genea-Musings (http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/) posted “Genealogy video workshop survey” which talks about his participation in a Family Tree Magazine survey on the subject of Genealogy video workshops. Though the Roots Television videos themselves are not interactive, they are instructional and the survey itself raises some interesting questions and possibilities. Randy's previous post, “Tracing Immigrant Origins” (http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2008/02/tracing-immigrant-origins.html) gives links to some wonderful FREE lessons on Genealogy.com. I know that some of you have expressed an interest in researching your immigrant ancestors, so you will want to check out Randy's post.

By coincidence, one of the Roots Television videos that I liked is from the Ancestors Series and is titled, “Immigration Records.” Another video that I am spotlighting below is a two-part video also of the Ancestors Series, “African American Research.” In part two, Tony Burroughs is interviewed about the subject. According to Wally Huskonen of Ohio Genealogy Blog (http://ohiogenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/african-american-research-seminar-at.html), Mr. Burroughs will be conducting a seminar on February 9 at the Sandusky Library Program Room. The program will run from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information about the seminar and registration, see the Sandusky Library's own blog, and post at http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2008/01/program-announcement-african-american.html. Small world isn't it?

Below are links to just 10 of Roots Television's videos. These are just a sample of what is available and were chosen to given you a taste of the diversity of topics. 

1. “Allen County Public Library: Genealogy Center” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_libraries.php?bctid=1155088315 If you are planning a trip to the Allen County Public Library, this is a must see. Two parts - 9 min 18 sec, 7 min 31 sec

2. “Ancestor Series: Immigration Records” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_ancestors-series.php?bctid=1364182927 One part - 24 min 27 sec 

3. “Ancestor Series: Probate Records” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_ancestors-series.php?bctid=1363158562 I like this particular video because it also stresses the importance of land records along with the probate records One part - 24 min 24 sec 

4. “Ancestor Series: African American Research” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_ancestors-series.php?bctid=494613998 This is the video that includes an interview with Tony Burroughs who will be speaking this coming weekend at the Sandusky Library. Two parts - 11 min 8 sec, 13 min 08 

5. “Ancestor Series: Military Records” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_ancestors-series.php?bctid=296735389 Four parts - 4 min 8 sec, 7 min 17 sec, 7 min 22 sec, 5 min 41 sec 

6. “DNA and Your Roots by Gina Paige” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences.php?bctid=1109182279 While this video pertains to African American DNA, Gina uses diagrams to explain Y-DNA testing and Mitochondrial DNA testing in such a way that even I finally was able to say, “Oh, I get it!” and really mean it. Plus, Gina's perky personality is fun to watch. One part - 38 min, 17 sec 

7. “Using the Grid for Easier Photo Restoration: A tutorial for Adobe Photo Shop and Adobe Shop Element” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_preserving-the-past.php?bctid=1293602305 One part - 3 min, 16 sec 

8. “The Socks to America” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_rootsliving.php?bctid=1178173384 Who says genealogists don't have a sense of humor! One part - 3 min, 8 sec 

9. “Research Process” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_howto.php?bctid=232321301 Twenty-six parts! 

10. “Roots Book Series: Finding Your Hispanic Roots with George Ryskamp” http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_hispanic.php?bctid=281859724 After watching this video, I wish I had Hispanic roots! George Ryskamp gives some excellent tips on researching your Hispanic heritage. Four parts - 8 min 7 sec, 7 min 32 sec, 9 min 17 sec, 2 min 35 sec Until Next Time — Happy Ancestral Digging!

Note this post first published online, February 4, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 4 February 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Web sites to check out

Aaarrrggh!!!!! How in the world did it get to be February already? I'm feeling a little cheesy (do people still say that?) because it's been a while since I posted any links to other interesting blogs and posts that I have seen on the Internet. For the record, if I ever let you down again, make sure you head on over to Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings (you do read Randy every day, right?) and check out his best of the week's post that he usually runs Mondays or Tuesdays. 

This week's entry (http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2008/01/best-of-genea-blogs-january-20-26-2008.html) mentions Kimberly Powell's post at About.Genealogy.com entitled “10 Top Web Sites for African-American Genealogy” (http://genealogy.about.com/od/african_american/tp/best_sites.htm) which I had tapped as a must read also. Funny, I had actually just visited three of the Web sites she mentions in her post. Great minds?

As promised, Denise Olsen of “Family Matters” talks more about what a Skype account can do for the family genealogist — and anyone else who might be interested in talking with up to 10 people at once. Check this out at her post at http://moultriecreek.us/family/2008/01/26/research-toolbox-skype-account/. I want some time to play around with this one.

OK, this is an older post, going back to December 31, but I like it so much, I am printing it out and hanging it on my bulletin board as a reminder. On Juliana's “24/7 Family History Circle,” she posted “Avoiding Assumptions” by Michael John Neill at http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=2152. I won't tell you how many of these assumptions I would have to plead guilty to in the past, but I'm betting some of you will be shaking your heads in agreement when you read what Mr. Neill has to say. Good stuff! 

My friend, Terry Thornton, of “Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi” had a good week last week. It seems he broke an existing record for the number of readers and number of pages read in one day, which he blogged about of course, http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/2008/01/thanks-from-hill-country.html. You probably realize that I love a good Civil War story, and Terry linked us to two of them on his Martin Luther King Day post, “Hill Country Unionism: Civil War Revisited” http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/2008/01/hill-country-unionism-civil-war.html. OK, I don't usually do this, but there's a really good piece that Thomas MacEntee wrote for the 41st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I know. I know. I should wait until the Carnival is posted. But this entry is funny, it's touching and I loved it! 

If you don't want to wait until the Carnival either, you can read it here at “Destination: Austin Family,” http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/2008/01/dinner-of-remembrance.html. Thomas really writes some great pieces. He's on my must read list for sure.

Finally, I wanted to mention two local blogs that you should stop in and give a read. If, like most genealogists you also have a love of history, you will be interested in knowing that Sandusky Library Archives Research Center and Follett House Museum has a blog (http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/) devoted to Sandusky and Erie County History. Showcasing the material of their local history collections, the blog is rich in historical content. I have to admit I'm a little jealous of those working in a place with such an abundance of interesting treasures — it must be like having Christmas every day! (Thanks Dorene for the nice note and the link!) 

The last blog that I want to mention is Derek Davey's “Genealogy — Northwest Ohio.” Derek brings a lot of meat to the topic of Northwestern Ohio research. He has posted information helpful to researchers in various counties of Northwest, Ohio. He did a series of recent posts, for example, on resources in Williams County. He also, check this out, takes brick wall problems from readers, researches them and then posts his results, usually on his Saturday postings. If you have a brick wall you'd like some advice on, Mr. Davey is your man. You can read his blog at http://nwogenalogy.blogspot.com/. He also has blogs for northeast Ohio and southeast Michigan. 

As usual, there is more than enough good reading to go around. Until Next Time — Happy Ancestral Digging! 

Note this post first published online, February 1, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 1 February 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Of Mothers and Daughters and Dinner Parties — Part II

The 41st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy asks the question: If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why? 

When my great-grandmother, Emma Gleffe Schröder, first set sail for the United States in 1906, she knew that she would probably never see her father, brother and sister again. It's not known if Emma's mother, Pauline Gleffe, was alive at the time of Emma's departure, but in the German letters that were saved, Pauline is not mentioned. 

Emma arrived at Ellis Island with her husband, Leo, and their two sons, Wilhelm (Willy) and Max, on April 1, 1906. Speaking no English and being sponsored by Leo's brother-in-law, Karl Kollat, Emma and Leo settled on the outskirts of Clyde, Ohio. There they found other German-speaking families, and just as important to Emma, a Lutheran Church that she could walk to each week, to listen to the German service.

For my second dinner party, I would choose Emma and her mother, Pauline, as the last two ancestors to share a meal with me. Though I would love to see the land where Emma grew up and where Pauline lived her life, I know exactly when and where this dinner party would take place. There are very few things my grandmother told me about her mother, Emma. But the one thing she did say was that her mother was a good cook. My dad has also told me the same thing of the grandmother that he called, “his buddy.” 

So I am inviting myself to Sunday dinner at the Schröder house in Clyde, and Emma and her mother are doing the cooking. Once they get used to the idea of being together again, I can imagine the two of them clucking and speaking in German, with my great-grandmother translating for me. I would be madly scribbling down recipes and notes and helping with whatever menial chores the two women would assign me. 

 I WOULD ASK PAULINE (with Emma translating) 

What date were you born?

What are the names of your parents? 

What date were they born? 

What is your husband's full name and date of birth? 

What are the names of his parents?

When and where were you married? 

Do you remember your grandparents? 

What were there names? 

Tell me a story about your grandparents. 

Tell me a story about Emma when she was a little girl.

 I WOULD ASK EMMA 

Who were your paternal grandparents? 

What do you remember of them? 

What do you miss about your homeland? 

Who was Albert Tuschy and how are the Tuschys related to the Schröder family? 

Tell me about your in-laws, Wilhelm and Karoline Quetschke Schröder.

What was the trip to America like? 

What is a favorite memory you have of your mother? 

What is a favorite memory you have of your father? 

Tell me a story about your daughter Anna as a child. 

What is your recipe for your Christmas log roll? 

 I would give them some private time to talk, to cry and to laugh. Then later, sometime in the afternoon, Emma's daughter Anna would stop and drop off her 7-year-old son. For I have chosen to have my dinner party the exact summer that my father stayed with his grandparents during the week.

Pauline and I would fade into the shadows, as Emma, all smiles would go outside to greet her daughter and grandson. We would stand there, the two of us, peeking out the screen door, listening to the casual tones of conversation. Pauline would be watching intently the granddaughter and great-grandson she had never seen, and I would be watching just as intently a father and grandmother I have known so well. We would look up, she and I, our eyes meeting, and both smile in a way that would need no translation.

© 31 January 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Of Mothers and Daughters and Dinner Parties — Part I

The 41st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy asks the question: If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why?

I have been blessed in my life to be surrounded by wonderful people. I would like to tell you that it's because I am such a terrific human being that my karma attracts all these great individuals. But what is it they say? Better to be lucky than good. That pretty much sums it up. 

Part of my good luck happens to be that I sit in the generational middle ground of two extremely remarkable, gifted and capable women, my mother and my daughter. My mother I have known for 55 years and my daughter for almost 35. (Sorry kiddo, I hope that wasn't any kind of state secret.) Those are a lot of good years, a lot of shared joys, sorrow and laughter, and I am at least wise enough to realize what a rare blessing I have been bestowed. 

It is for this reason that my dinners would be with two sets of mother/daughter ancestors. I chose each set precisely because they were denied the blessing I have lived. Fanny Thacker Cope died at the age of 22 of consumption. Her eldest child, Elizabeth Cope Smathers, would die of the same disease when she was 30, leaving four children under the age of 7. Lizzie, as Elizabeth was called, must have been heartsick when the coughing, and the night sweats signaled to her that she would not be there to raise her children. If anyone would know how difficult the loss of a mother was, it was Lizzie. Lizzie was all of 5 when Fanny died. 

The years between her mother's death and 1900 are blank. And I wonder, after her mother's death did she live with her father or did she live with grandparents? Did they give the little girl the love and support that she lost with the death of her mother? When her father remarried, did she and her stepmother get along? Or did she feel like the extra cog in the hub of her father's new family? There would come a day when Lizzie's fear over leaving her children would seem too large a grief to bear and that is the day I would choose to whisk her away to my little dinner party.

Fanny, who was so young herself, must have also wondered what would happen to her children, Elizabeth and John. There would be a day when she felt that life had played a cruel joke on her, and that would be the day I would bring her to join Lizzie and me for dinner.

The first question I would ask would be what they would wish to eat. I'm confident whatever magic wand allowed me to arrange this meeting would also allow me to fill the dinner table with any foods that would delight the two of them. Being wives of coal miners, in the late 1880s and the early part of the 20th century, there would be novelty in being pampered guests of a dinner party.

 After they had accustomed themselves to the oddness of the meeting, and after Fanny and Lizzie had a few private moments to speak, I would ask them my questions.

 FOR FANNY: 

Can you tell me a story you remember about Lizzie as a little girl? 

Tell me about your mother, Clarinda.

What do you remember about your grandparents? 

Was your grandfather Nicholas Nimrod Thacker or Nimrod Nicholas Thacker?

What was your grandmother's name? 

Tell me a story about your grandparents.

Do you know the names of the parents of your grandmother and grandfather? 

Where did they come from in Louisa County, Virginia? 

FOR LIZZY: 

When and why did your branch of the family add an extra “e” to the name Cope?

Would you tell me how you met your husband, Elmer Smathers?

Would you tell me a story about your mother? 

Can you tell me what you remember about your mother's parents?

Can you tell me the names of your father's parents?

What do you remember about your paternal grandparents?

Can you tell me a story about your son, Walter? 

I would like to ask Fanny if she knows who her father is because I believe Fanny was born on the wrong side of the blanket. But as much as I would like to ask, I won't. It would seem rude and ungracious.

Then during dessert, I would sneak in another guest. I would bring in Lucille, Lizzie's eldest daughter. Lucille was not quite 7 when Lizzie died. She would later tell of being given a locket of her mother's red hair at the funeral. This would be the only memento she would have of her mother's. And many years later when she and her sister had finally been reunited, they would decide to look for their younger brother, Walter. 

Instead of finding their brother, they would find his eldest son. Lucille would recount the story of the locket of hair to her nephew and his wife. We would talk about what became of each of their children. I would offer pictures, and tell them they had not been forgotten. I would let the three women have their private moments, and then our time would be over.

Tomorrow, I will post about my second dinner party.

Until Next Time! - Happy Ancestral Digging! 

Note this post first published online, January 30, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 30 January 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

I'm Feeling Cranky!

I'm feeling cranky. Why you ask? Am I not getting enough bran in my morning cereal? No, that's not the problem. Has my panty hose finally become so tight that the circulation to my head has been substantially diminished, you query? Nope, but nice guess. Have they stopped producing Pepsi or Ballreich potato chips? No, thank goodness that's not it either. No, the crankiness started a few days ago when I first heard about the Presidential/Congressional rebate they want to send my way. 

Sure, at first, I was excited at the prospect of a bunch of Benjamin Franklin's making their way into my waiting palms. But then I got to thinking about the reason this wad of cash was coming my way. Both Washington and leading economists are worried about a recession (though the “experts” keep telling us that we have a fundamentally sound economy). The folks in Washington suddenly realized in an “I could have had a V-8 moment” that you and I were spending more on groceries, gas and utilities and were therefore no longer spending money on non-essential things. 

All this fiscal responsibility on our part has been affecting the fundamentally sound economy in a fundamentally unsound way. (Hey, aren't these the same people who keep telling us we need to save more for retirement? Gees, I wish they would make up their minds!)

And this led me to think about other items I am now spending more money on than I had in the past, like, for example, NARA reproductions. NARA imposed a 103% increase last October on reproductions of Civil War pension files, and a 131% increase on land entry files. All of which NARA said they needed in order to cover the cost of doing these reproductions. Except of course, initially they said they really, truly, absolutely needed a 238% increase on the Civil War pension files and I don't know, maybe it was just a case of somebody's calculator needing new batteries, because when all was said and done they only needed a 103% increase. (But that was only for the first 100 pages, anything after that they decided they needed an additional $.65 a page.)

So, the 26 pages that I received in great-great-grandpa's Civil War pension package, which cost $1.43 per page, would now cost me $2.88 a page. And the cost of GGGG grandpa Ezekial Anderson's compiled 1812 military record, which cost me $8.50 for each of the two pages it contained, and would now cost me $12.50 per page. The four pages in GGG grandpa Joseph Good's land entry file, which cost $4.44 per page, would now cost $10 a page. Well, you get the idea. (I did get a bargain of 160 pages for $37, which would now cost $ 114 — boy am I laughing myself silly over that one!) 

The joke is, of course, that you never know exactly what you are going to get when you order from NARA. Twenty-six pages or a hundred pages — it's all a mystery until you open up the nice little envelope. Of course, you are dealing with the government, so you can feel safe that they will charge you in an appropriate fair, what it cost them manner.

Anyway, the whole idea of the IRS, a governmental entity, sending me money so I could turn around and send the money back to NARA, another governmental entity, seemed kind of ironic — and irony very often makes me cranky. Maybe I SHOULD go check the bran content in my morning cereal. This is me ranting — Until Next Time! 

For a serious look at the valuable information to be gleaned from Civil War pension files, see a series of posts at “Genealogy — Diggin up Dirt” http://catrackgraphics.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?mkt=en-US&partner=Live.Spaces starting with the January 5th post “The Fat File” and running through the January 20th post “Clearing Up Facts.” 

Note this post first published online, January 28, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 28 January 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder