Monday, January 14, 2013

Dedicated to all Geneabloggers everywhere .......

award-wonderful-team-member-readership-award 

I have to confess that I am more of a blog reader than a writer. Michelle of http://gulfcoastlagniappe.blogspot.com/ nominated the http://www.hungarianfamilyrecord.org/ and http://www.genealogyworks2.blogspot.com/ blogs for the "Wonderful Team Member Readership Award " on 4 Jan 2013.

Thank you, Michelle, as I surely do not blog as well as you. Nor have I been steadfast at it so your vote of confidence will hold me to share more in 2013. I am so impressed at the caliber of people out there who research and write so beautifully that I had difficulty in deciding which of the bloggers to nominate. And only 14 is a tough call!

So to narrow down my choices, I then decided to select blogs from the main tenet of Rule #4

RULES:

#1 Don’t forget to thank the nominator and link back to their site as well.

#2 Display the award logo on your blog.


#3 Nominate no more than fourteen readers of your blog you appreciate and
leave a comment on their blogs to let them know about the award.


#4 Finish this sentence: “A great reader is…”

My definition of a great reader is: “A great reader is a colleague blogger who helps you or let you know that they learned something from your articles"

I can't nominate Michelle back again so my nominations for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award are:
(1)   Theresa -http://tangledtrees.blogspot.com/
(2)   Susan Clark – http://nolichuckyroots.blogspot.com/
(3)   Cassie Sanford – http://misfitgenealogy.blogspot.com/ and http://sanfordfamilymisfit.com/
(4)   Kathy Reed  – http://jonesfamilymatters.blogspot.com/ and http://ohioriverways.blogspot.com/
(5)   Jacquie – http://afamilytapestry.blogspot.com/
(6)   Grant Davis – http://thestephensherwoodletters.blogspot.com/
(7)   Jim – http://www.hiddengenealogynuggets.com/genealogyblog/
(8)   Nick - http://thehungaryexchange.blogspot.com/
(9)   History Chick - http://genealogical-musings.blogspot.com/
(10) Lisa - http://100inamerica.blogspot.com/
(11) Doreen -http://graveyardrabbitofsanduskybay.blogspot.com/
(12) Donna - http://hangingwithdonna.blogspot.com/
(13) Marian - http://rootsandrambles.blogspot.com/
(14) Elizabeth - http://frommainetokentucky.blogspot.com/ and http://jewishgenealogyjourney.blogspot.com/p/about-me.htm
and a big thank you for Thomas MacEntee, who helps all geneabloggers, and also has his own family blog : http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/





Monday, January 7, 2013

Problem-Solving at "Mondays with Myrtle"


This afternoon, on the "Mondays with Myrt "(http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2012/10/mondays-with-myrt.html), they had an interactive problem - solving session about a grave that was found by someone at the Iowa graveyard site. This is a glimpse of the actual gravestone where a father and three children perished in the span of twenty days in the year of 1879. Here is the actual stone at : http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=473341.

What happened to them ? What happened to the family left behind ? Myrtle and Russ Worthington asked the other listeners to work on the problem using online resources. Of course, the mystery require deeper sleuthing after the webinar to solve the problem but there were many helpful ideas. During this webinar, it rang a vibe of familiarity to me. I could not help but think about my find in an old Catholic cemetery looking for Müllers years ago when I stopped at the old stone written in German. My Dad was alive then and no one alive knew how they were related. Like the Iowa stone, it also mentioned a father and children dying but all on the same day which was such a horrible thought to a 14 years old genealogist!  I ended up getting the cemetery records to locate the church easily and then read the church records which solved my mystery. The cause of death in my family was cholera. I was further rewarded with an obituary for the mother who died in 1901 which mentioned that episode of sadness in her life.

image057

The link to the original story is at : http://www.genealogyworks2.blogspot.com/search/label/Cholera%20Outbreak

Thursday, January 3, 2013

I dreamed of genealogy ~ in Slovakia at Family Search.


Looking for George, John, Paul but not Ringo .
          This is a glimpse of what I dreamed last night!  As any genealogist knows, they mostly live, eat, sleep and breathe around the timing of when Family Search will "update" their digital images of records from their archives. For many months, I have not had the urgency to check the digital archives online as I knew (by heart) when their last updates surfaced and already mined what I needed.

Digital images online are a godsend. I still order many, many films and wait the proper 4-8 weeks at our library to read them at scheduled intervals but there is no doubt that as life gets more complicated with schedules, online research is a lifesaver. There is no thrill like seeing these hand-written books online .

Late last night, when I was resigning to an early bedtime, a colleague sent out the crucial alert on our forum that the LDS updated the Slovakia Churches and Synagogues collection ! Not only did I not sleep, but a blizzard pulled in to keep me working ! 

So if anyone is working on their Hungarian, Slovakian, Croatian records, the website is :
And if you not sure of the locations of the records, check the locations table at :