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About this blog

My Journey in genealogy research, family finds, and travel adventures with Ron!

Entries in this blog

 

These Are The Stories

Genealogy is a passion that many people share across the globe. Just as technology has made the world smaller and brought us all closer, so does the research of finding our family, near and far. And sometimes circumstances arise that give us an opportunity to help others who are seeking their loved ones.      This story starts with a spring walk on the beautiful holiday-island of Langeoog. While taking a sunny stroll on the beach, Mr. Björn Rys, a guest found an object along the water
Diane

Diane

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Who Are They?

I'm just getting started on scanning in some of the old photographs I received from my Dad. Four moving boxes full: labeled Robinson/Dipert, History Old Robinson, Robinson/Dulgar, and Old Robinson. Before I noticed the labels on the boxes, I looked through a couple and, once I found the box that had photographs of people I recognized (namely the Dulgar girls), I grabbed a small stack to scan. I immediately found that the photographs spanned decades and family names. Although I'm not certain
Diane

Diane

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Finally Doing Research in Maryland

I was reminded of the following quote as I put together a template for my Research and Calendar Plans:           "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." - Unknown For anyone who has a desire to read about this quote (with attempts to assign attribution) feel free to check that research out here. The template itself did not remind me of this quote; it was the reason for making the template. I am certain that I have
Diane

Diane

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The Things You Learn from Yearbooks...

A while ago, Ancestry was advertising all the Yearbook digitizing and indexing that they have completed. And their advertising of these updates is spot-on! I have noticed over the last six months that many of my searches on individuals were returning results that included Yearbooks. For genealogists, these documents do not hold great value in tracing a family lineage but they do tell a story about your family members. One of these searches found a treasure trove of photographs of both my pa
Diane

Diane

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Alta's Biological Parents...Found!

Last year when we celebrated my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, my Mom excitedly shared with  family members that we had found Alta May's (her Grandmother) biological parents. My Mom was very close to her grandparents (Alta and Warner) and they still hold a special place in her heart which is why she started a book about their life and artistic passions. This book is now complete and is such a treasure that is being shared with current generations and can always be shared with future generati
Diane

Diane

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Catching Up!

I'm getting ready to do some research on my Hoy (de la Hoye), Schaurer, Petillion, and Wolff families; all emigrating to America from the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. Getting back to looking at the old German church records has me a bit nervous. So, when I am uncertain about something, I seek out information. Check out the latest topic additions to the German Ancestral Studies Research Group forum; pinned for convenience so they always stay on top! There is: Assistance with Rea
Diane

Diane

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England, Ireland, or Scotland...

Photo courtesy of Michele Jones I spent part of this morning reading through some of my favorite Blogs to find one for #weddingWednesday. Well, Myrtle is off gallivanting around in Australia, with no apologies which I love. The Armchair Genealogist is giving us insight to the Cloud and what that means for storing our research. Fold3 is highlighting another battle which makes sense, of course. FamilySearch is giving some great tips on labeling your research; I think I may have to store that
Diane

Diane

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Books, Books, and More Books!

I am up-to-date on cataloging and shelving the reference and historical books in our library. I have to say that this exercise, over the last couple years, has given me a new appreciation for librarians. And, unlike them, I am absolutely certain that I have some errors in my cataloging. I also haven't input some of the journals; just have them set aside on their own shelf. However, I will find the errors and correct them and add the journals as I take the time to go back and validate each shelf.
Diane

Diane

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Events, Events, Events!

I spent a bit of time this morning updating our Calendar with annual genealogy conferences coming up and some local DAR and historical/genealogical events as well. These are obviously not GoAncestry sponsored events but felt it would be great to have a way to view all on one calendar. I will continue to update this as new events come up. Check out the details of each event for where to find more information. The standard Rootstech, Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and National Gen
Diane

Diane

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Creating Timelines

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash I've been doing a lot of reading about genealogical/historical timelines recently, basically checking to see if there are more details I can or should add to my timeline template. This template makes use of Excel's rows and columns and I added colorized categories of Birth, Marriage, Residence, and Death to document my ancestor's life history. This method of tracing my ancestor enabled me to solve some mysteries that had been eluding me for some tim
Diane

Diane

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"Pay It Forward" for Genealogists

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash There has been a lot of activity recently on transcribing genealogical records. Whether it is blogging about helping with the indexing to incite more interest or setting and cheering on team goals virtually to gain momentum, I have read so much on this topic in the past six months or so. Perhaps I am just more observant of the advancements in digitizing records because of the decision by FamilySearch to discontinue microfilm distribution. There is a ne
Diane

Diane

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A Day at the Archives

I visited the Maryland State Archives yesterday. See this post with a few insights on the trip. My initial thought was to simply browse, become familiar with their processes and holdings. And I did browse, a lot, 3 hours to be exact. But what surprised me was that the reference librarian assisting me specifically asked who I was looking for in my family tree. I had been hesitant to ask for tips on searching for a family member because their website states that the reference librarians do not hav
Diane

Diane

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Organizing in 2018

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash It seems that a large number of people must have organizing their genealogy files as a New Year's Resolution, at least for 2018 anyway. I have received many emails, read many articles, and observed many classes that are devoted to organizing. This is no small feat for genealogists as we accumulate a variety of types of artifacts and these all come in one or both formats of hard-copy and digital. I consider myself to be organized but admit to being overwh
Diane

Diane

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Fold3

Unfortunately the title may make it seem like I am advertising Fold3...and in a way I guess that is true. Why is this a bad thing? Because it is a paid site for genealogy research. Can people do research without these paid sites? Absolutely. Ron and I have often spoken about removing some of our subscriptions and we analyze on a yearly basis those organizations to which we join. This genealogy hobby can get a bit pricey and because it is so popular now (and has been for a while), there are many
Diane

Diane

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With the Coming Cold Weather...

I hope to spend more time at genealogy research. This summer, I was able to devote quite a bit of time working with my Mother on a book about her Grandmother, Alta May Thomas. I am truly thankful, both to spend the time with parents (as my Dad is also assisting) and to hear all the wonderful stories, the memories that Mom has of her Grandmother. I cannot wait to see the finished product. Part of my assistance was providing research support to validate facts and also find new information on Alta.
Diane

Diane

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The Search Is Half the Fun

Photo by Raphael Schaller on Unsplash We received a request, via the GoAncestry Facebook page, to search for an obituary for Shirley M. Albea. She was born 5 June 1941 and died on 15 December 2004. There are obvious places to search such as Ancestry.com or other paid online sources. Ancestry.com does not have obituaries (original or transcribed) available. The U.S. Obituary Collection at Ancestry notes only the Name, Death Age: 63, Birth Date: 1941, Death Date: 15 Dec 2004, Obituary Da
Diane

Diane

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Radios and My Grandpa

In the 1930 Blue and Gold, my Grandfather was listed as a member of the Radio Club at Findlay High School in Ohio. My Grandfather, Frank Hoy, graduated just one year later in 1931 so this membership would have been in his Junior year. It is unknown whether he was a part of the first year for this Club. Attached is a picture of the members; my Grandfather is in the first row to the far left. The club had a station and their call letters were W 8 A R M. "The purpose of the club is to teach it
Diane

Diane

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Artists from Germany

I bet from that title you thought I was going to produce grand information on the multitude of artists from Germany. Well, that is partly correct but only two; my third Great Grandfather (Hermann Groenland) and his brother (Theude Grönland). I have been searching for artwork made by Hermann Groenland/Henry Greenland for quite a while now. While I haven’t been successful with him yet, I have found vast quantities of his brother's artwork which have been auctioned at Southeby's and Christie's
Diane

Diane

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Or Should I Say Weird Wedding Wednesday...?

Recently, Ron and I both have found some, shall I say odd, information regarding our ancestors' wedding certificates. I posted something on Facebook recently about how much I enjoyed all the new Marriage Records that have been digitized and made available recently. This is directly related to those records. I found my Dad's parents, Josephine Dulgar and Milton Robinson married in Baltimore, Wood County, Ohio at the Church of Christ. Why is this unusual? Well, because I never imagined my Grandfat
Diane

Diane

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Home

If I had blogged yesterday, it would have simply stated "We are home." Secondarily, I would have mentioned that we found a lot of Bennetts in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. And I mean a lot, pages and pages. Ron insisted that they must have owned the whole town. We first focused on the Wills, making copies of Bennetts prior to 1900, with a focus on 1800-1860. I have Martha's! Next, we took pictures of early Bennett Land Deeds. I'm not even certain the exact time-period for this because, whil
Diane

Diane

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Long Day. Short Blog.

The title says it all. We didn't get back until after 9 pm and I have been prepping for tomorrow until now. A good experience at the Tinsman Farm. We went back to the Sunset Christmas Tree Farm today and the owner, Tim, kindly showed us around. Beautiful old wood floors, a huge stone fireplace in the basement with old crockpot on swing-arm, and a beam with the date William Tinsman put up the barn were the highlights of the tour. Ron was able to take a few bricks with him that came out of th
Diane

Diane

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Busy Day in Bucks County

We started our day with a 2-hour drive south to the area of Lumberville, Bucks County. We were meeting a couple who live at Temora Farms, an historic farm built in 1732. We had originally met this couple in Germany when touring during the 2014 Christmas season. At that time, we had exchanged contact information and decided to call them about one week ago to see if they would be interested in a luncheon out. They offered to give us a tour of their farm. Their homestead is beautifully decorated an
Diane

Diane

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News in Newton!

Our theme for this trip has been "good day, bad day". I do not mean this in the context of experiences, it is purely a reference to finding new information on the TInsman family. Yesterday we had wonderful experiences with the folks at the Warren County Historical & Genealogical Society but there was nothing new discovered. Today, well today was a totally different beast. We started our day with grabbing some travel mugs with coffee to go. A beautiful 45-minute drive on the east side of
Diane

Diane

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Warren Wandering

We had another beautiful morning, with sunrise, coffee, and genealogy discussions. We ate breakfast in and spent the morning in genealogy research. We left our home base to meet up with a contact from the Warren County Historical & Genealogical Society for lunch. The Belvidere Diner was a nice spot and I tried a sloppy joe club; Megan said it is called a New Jersey sloppy joe. It was good. The Warren County Historical & Genealogical Society opens from 2 to 4 pm on Sundays. The books
Diane

Diane

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Finding Hints in Flemington

Started our day (actually mine as Ron had been up for a while already) with a beautiful sunrise over the lake, a cup of coffee, and a conversation about the elusive Tinsmans. Now we are grabbing some breakfast at Friendly's and I suppose it must still be fairly early as we are the only customers currently. The crowds were picking up as we left, on our way to the Hunterdon County Historical Society in Flemington, New Jersey. Not sure what to expect as it seems like they have lots of resources but
Diane

Diane

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