Facebook Group Changes

Do you belong to a Facebook group? Perhaps you’ve seen a post (or two or more) about getting ‘removed’ from the group if you don’t participate? I started seeing these posts yesterday and was concerned, not only about all the genealogy groups I belong to, but also about the family groups I administer.

Since I was unsure what this meant as a group administrator, I did some research. The following articles helped me understand what is happening.

• Is Facebook Removing Inactive Members from Groups
• Facebook Updates Group Invites, Removing Ability to Automatically Add Members

 I then turned to Facebook to see if I could figure out how this is affecting the family groups I administer. The first thing I saw when I went to one of those groups was an announcement from Facebook, “Changes to Your Members List.”

James Crawford of Preble County

One of my brick walls is also one of my same name challenges. In her Jan. 16, 2019 podcast, Can You Identify Your Ancestor, Amy Johnson Crowe talks about finding information to make sure one is tracking the right person.

I've used most of her tips in my research, but I have one case where almost all of the details are the same.

	James Crawford	James Crawford
Birth	1770	1772
Residence 1820	Preble County OH	Preble County OH
Marriage Year	1793	1799
Marriage Place	Lincoln County KY	Garrard County KY
Occupation	Farmer	Farmer
Wife's name	Martha	Sally

The easiest way for me to distinguish these two men (and several other James Crawford) is by their wife's name. Since the wife's name often appears on a deed where land has been sold, I have used land records to help separate these two families.

Pauline E. Briles

Emporia Gazette
Wednesday, July 18, 1984
page 2 column 4-5

Film E1506

KS State Historical Society

150 Years Ago

This weeks 'Saturday Night Genealogy Fun' challenge is to determine which ancestors were living 150 years ago (Jan 1869).

In order to figure this out, I had to look at the data I had for each likely ancestor. Working from the pedigree view in Roots Magic, I clicked on each potential ancestor to open their data.

Family Photographer

Do you have a family member who seems to be the one person who is always behind the camera?

Growing up, that person was my grandmother. She had an 8mm camera and filmed almost every family event. Later, we would have a family ‘movie’ night to watch the new movies and re-watch the older ones.

Well, my grandmother died over twenty years ago and the 8mm camera is ‘ancient’ technology. However, my brother has taken over the position as ‘family photographer’.

Not only does he set up the camera to capture our family group pictures but he captures ordinary moments.  One of my favorite pictures is one he took during our family weekend at the lake of his wife and their grandchildren.

What’s It Worth

Have you ever watched a video of your local meteorologist giving a weather update? Or, have you watched a video of a news clip? What about a comedy monologue - have you ever watched any of those on YouTube? Or maybe, you’ve read a news article in your Facebook or Twitter feed? I know I have and I appreciate that I can.

Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to viewing and reading content for free when none of it is free to produce.

The same is true with local history and genealogy. We love locating free resources. But these free resources also have ‘production’ costs.  My local historical society recently discussed whether to continue paying to have images and other information from their collection hosted online by Past Perfect.