Gratitude Day #16 - Modern Technology -- 16 Nov 2017

Today I am grateful for technology.

Sometimes I like to think about what my parents saw during their lifetime. They were both born during the days of mules and buckboards, yet lived to see men walk on the moon.

And then, I look at my own lifetime, only to see even more rapid advancements than they did!

It doesn't seem all that long ago that I was listening in on a party line, waiting for neighbors to finish so I could call my best friend Alice Graves.

It wasn't that long ago that my father, a wonderful amateur photographer, had my sisters stepping back a little bit further, a little bit further, right into a riptide...so he could get a better shot, having no telephoto lens.

I thought only rich people had "car phones". They looked so important as they lugged an extra briefcase with them that housed their "car phone".

Our first VCR cost over $400! Again, I thought only rich people had those. We rented one off and on for $12/weekend until we could buy our own with a tax refund.

Now, I can talk to grandchildren, and see them while we're talking!

Now, I can immediately look at photos I have just taken! If it doesn't look right, I can take it again...all without having to wait to have it developed.

I can teach using LDS-produced videos made especially for that purpose. I can even make my own videos. I can make my own slides.

I can send an email in seconds, and include pictures!

I can research any subject without leaving my home.

I can look at old records that were written in the 1200's, and be taken back in history. I can also see scientists' studies about the future, and I am taken there, too.

I can teach a class that will be heard around the world in a closet in a hotel in Ontario, CA.

I can take 450 books with me when I travel.

I can see news as it is happening. I can mourn with those experiencing tragedies.

I can write a blog, and it will be there for my posterity to find...and, perhaps a relative, too!

I'm telling you...I can do almost anything!!!

Occasionally, I whine. Only occasionally. But, when I look at all of the modern devices that are here for me to enjoy, I hang my head in embarrassment, for I am living a better life than many kings and queens of this world have lived.

I can only imagine what is yet to come in my future.

Peggy speaking at OGS 2015 Conference

Peggy giving a webinar heard around the world...all from my living room.

Peggy using computer and PowerPoint technology.

Don't Forget Me!

Several years ago, my sister Betty found a death certificate on FamilySearch that she had not been aware of before.  It was a death certificate for her mother-in-law's little sister, who was born at 5 1/2 months into her mother's pregnancy, and died the same day.

"Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-21234-1412-86?cc=1307272 : 21 May 2014), 1911 > 33211-35940 > image 2018 of 3256.

Betty kept asking me to help her get it into the computer and onto FamilySearch, but time kept slipping away.  It turned into a "one of these days things".  I was partly at fault, for this was my brother-in-law's family, and it wasn't at the top of my list of things to do.

Then, my brother-in-law passed away in Oct 2015.  

Sister Betty became immersed in all that is required around the death of a spouse, but continually kept running across this certificate.  One evening, she called me and asked me to help her again.  I responded, "Let's do it right now!"

Me:  Where did you find the certificate?
Betty:  On FamilySearch
Me:  What name is it listed under?
Betty:  Baby Schueneman
Me:  What year did this happen?
Betty:  1911

That was all I needed at the time to arm myself for a search.  And, I found the certificate in no time.

"Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-21234-1429-94?cc=1307272 : 21 May 2014), 1911 > 33211-35940 > image 2019 of 3256.

Or, so I thought.  

Because of the advent of modern technology, we have the capability to magnify and enlarge our screen images.  I saw a word after the cause of death that "looked" like it said "twin".  

I quickly called Betty, and told her to get her hard copy of the certificate out, along with her magnifying glass.  I waited while she located them, then told her to look very carefully at the copy that she had.

There was no question that these were two separate and distinct certificates, with Baby Schueneman's certificate numbers being 34908 and 34909.  And, until it was enlarged, I actually thought the word in parenthesis was "Irwin".

These babies had no entry on www.findagrave.com or on www.BillionGraves.com.  Betty contacted the cemetery where the babies' grandparents were buried, and found they were buried in the same plot with the grandparents, but had no headstone.  

Their parents were buried many years later in a cemetery approximately fifteen miles away.  I have since made entries on FindAGrave that connect the babies with their parents.  

Thanks to the persistence of an older sister who was trying to do the best she could with her husband's family, she kept after me until I finally gave in and found the time to help her.  

Otherwise, Baby Schueneman might never have been included in the family records.  

Lessons learned:
1.  When something is pressing on your mind concerning your ancestors, pay attention to it.  This was not pressing on my mind, but it had always been in the back of my sister's mind.

2.  Learn to examine every record carefully.  Use magnification tools to enlarge and enhance.

3.  Make an effort to find a burial site, and connect them on FindAGrave.  In this case, these two babies were buried alongside grandparents.

4.  And, most of all, don't forget them!  One of these babies would have been left out and forgotten if there hadn't been followthrough.

Migration Trails of Our Ancestors

I LOVE traveling to the areas where my ancestors lived!


When I am preparing for a research trip, I bring along all of the necessities:  my laptop, my Flip-pal scanner, a magnifying glass, little colored Post-it flags, a change purse for copies, my digital camera, you know what you need to bring.  Oh!  And my glasses!  I forgot those one time and paid a dear price.


I also take along my 15-generation pedigree chart.  I still use a paper copy of a pedigree chart, for it serves as my road map for research.  Plus, if I happen to step away for a moment while in the library, I almost always come back to see other researchers looking at it!  They want to see if we connect.  I also take a few extra to give out, for people are always asking me where I get them.


http://www.sgenealogy.com/cart/charts-forms/oversize-charts/15-generation-pedigree-chart-10-pack

But, I love looking around the areas where I research.  The hills and hollers of Kentucky with the fields of tobacco waiting to go into the tobacco barns.  I love looking at the rolling green hills of Virginia, with the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains and their beauty.  The grandeur of all of this wonderful land takes my breath away.

I have also visited and photographed a few of the homes of my ancestors.  One that stands out in my memory is that of Zachariah Johnston in Lexington, Virginia and has been on the market for awhile.  It was built in 1797.  

The price tag is $1,500,000.00.  I want it.

.

But, my people didn't stay in one place, and neither did yours.  They moved on to other areas that were considered "the west".  That would have included Kentucky, and also the Northwest Territory, which included Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a portion of Minnesota.  


People moved for many reasons:  in Virginia, it might have been because the land had been "burned" by raising tobacco year after year.  They may have received land for military service.  There may have been extreme climate conditions.  Do a google search on "the year without a summer 1816" and you will be astounded at the effects of volcanic ash from Mount Tamboro, which erupted in Indonesia.  It snowed through the summer, creating ice on ponds from New England to North Carolina.  Crops were destroyed and people didn't know how they would feed their families through the winter.


There was also the promise of bigger and better things.  Young people left New England to come to Ohio and they rarely went back.  After that devastating year without a summer, the word went out that in Ohio, you could raise 3 foot turnips and 14 foot tall cornstalks.  Let's go!


Perhaps there had been the death of the patriarch of the family.  The oldest son received the land, so as a younger son you knew that whatever you may have received was all that you were going to receive.  We'll just move on.  And, they did.


Most migrating New Englanders went to the Western Reserve.  Those in the mid-South went on to Kentucky, Tennesse, Southern Ohio.  I have seen entire neighborhoods in Virginia move to the area along the Ohio River.  What brought them there?  Industry.  Promise of a brighter future for their families.


In a few cases, where a lot of land was received for military service, the taxes could not be paid and they lost the land.  Lots of it.  They packed up what they could and moved on into southeast Kentucky, farmed out some of the kids and tried to make a living.  


All of the above reasons were taken from personal examples from my own family research.  And, even my very own immediate family.  My father was a coal miner in West Virginia.  There were three little girls to feed.  There didn't seem to be much of a future for him or his little family. After a trip to north-central Ohio, he came back to tell my mother of a place where:  #1 - He could get a better job.  #2 - There would be a better chance for his girls' education.  #3 - There was no Mormon Church.


They moved on a freezing cold New Year's Day in 1950.  Dad was eventually able to get a good job at Westinghouse.  My three sisters went into Junior and Senior High School.  And...the area opened up for the Mormon Missionaries.  (Mom and my three sisters had been baptized in West Virginia)  Five years later, I was born.


Sometimes I wish my ancestors would have just been still and stayed in one place.  It would be a lot easier for me to find them.  But, I'm grateful to be able to go see where they lived in this gorgeous land called America.  


To research, we must look at the roads and trails that were most popular at the time our ancestors lived.  We must look at the social customs and trends, the possibility of military service, the congregations and neighbors they associated with, the trends of modes of travel, the histories of their towns and villages.  We must not use "presentism" - which is placing our current modes of thinking and tradition back to the time they lived in.  


And, if possible, travel along the same road they did.  See what they saw..and learn to appreciate them even more.