My Library Adventure

Do you include libraries and archives in your genealogy toolbox?

For me, the use of a library or archive has always been part of my genealogy journey. Perhaps that is because I earned my Masters' in Library Science about the same time I started my genealogical journey.

Even though my emphasis was in school librarianship, my graduate classes exposed me to some of the very same tools like NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections) that I would use for genealogical research.

Two Degrees

 

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

My first thought was that I knew my great-grandmother, Josie Crawford.

Christmas 1953: Marcia, Winnie, Josie

Revelation

Have you ever tripped over a county line? I mean, have you ever not considered a family in the neighboring county just because they are in the neighboring county?

Well, I have -- for over thirty years.

As I've written about before, I have two James Crawford families living in Preble County, Ohio. One is my ancestor and one is his neighbor.

• James Crawford of Preble County, Ohio

My ancestor was married in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1799, while the other James was married in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1793. For all these years, I've thought that the records for Lincoln County, Kentucky were in relation to the 'other' James while the records in Garrard and Madison counties were for my James.

Moving Day Part 3

Have you ever copied some text and images (photos) from one source to another expecting everything to transfer without issue only to discover the images didn't quite make the transition?

That's what happened when I imported my WordPress blog content into Blogger. Instead of bringing the images along, the post links back to the images on WordPress.

I noticed something was amiss when I tried to use the icons to change the justification of the image. When that wasn't working, I dived into the HTML side to discover the A HREF code linking to my WordPress blog.

Jump Break

Have you ever found something extremely beneficial via Google but have no idea how you knew to search for it? That was my case today as I learned to use a 'Jump Break'.

I wanted to make my blog look similar to the 'Cleator' template where only part of each post appears on the front page. The partial post contains a 'Read More' link at the bottom taking the reader to the entier post.

Moving Day

When working on your genealogy, have you ever used a piece of software or web site that didn't quite do what you expected. Then, when you go searching for an alternative find that the alternative is relatively expensive and you want to preserve your precious genealogy funds for something else.

Well, that's the position I was in a couple of weeks ago with my WordPress blog. The one thing I wanted to include in a blog post either required HTML coding or a plug-in. The plug-in was easy to find - but, my WordPress blog doesn't allow plug-ins. In order for me to utilize plug-ins, I would have to upgrade my PERSONAL WordPress plan to a BUSINESS plan -- at a significant increase in cost.