My Retirement Task - Puzzling It Out

The number one question I've been asked in the last month has been, "How do you like retirement?" Quickly following that question is one wondering what I do with all my time. My answers to the 2 questions are 'loving it' and 'researching my family'. Since they rarely understand that I could spend all of my time working on my family history, I quickly follow my answer up with the fact that I'm volunteering at the Nemaha County Historical Society.

For me, researching my family history is like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Finding My FAN Club

Lately, there has been an emphasis on using the FAN club to help break down brick walls. Evidence of this interest is the recent Legacy Family Tree Webinar by Elizabeth Shown Mills titled "FAN + GPS + DNA". Tonight's "Wacky Wednesday" DearMyrtle Hangout is scheduled to discuss this same topic.

I've previously used the FAN club principle in my research. However, I did not branch out as much as Ms. Mills suggested in her presentation. Since I have a brick wall in Kentucky prior to 1800, I want to revisit my research and see if I can apply a broader FAN club along with DNA to make some headway on my CRAWFORD line.

Crawford Puzzle - One Piece at a Time

My Crawford lineage has always been like putting together a jigsaw puzzle -- trying to figure out how hundreds of pieces fit together. Many years ago, I wrote about dissecting these pieces in order to identify my line. At the time, I identified four James Crawford families that were in the same region of Kentucky prior to 1800.

• Rev. James Crawford (1752-1803) who married Rebecca McPheeters


• James Crawford who married Rebecca Anderson


• James Crawford (1772-1854) who married Sally Duggins in 1799 in Garrard County, KY


• James Crawford (1770-1833) who married Martha Knight in 1793 in Lincoln County, KY

Hey 'Cuz' - Where's Your Tree?

Have you had your DNA tested? Do you have a family tree linked to your DNA test?

If not, please, please, please post a tree!

Over half of the 4th-6th cousin matches on my first page of matches either don't have a tree or have a very small (<10 people) tree. Thus, I can't begin to figure out how we are related.

I would love to work with you to research our common ancestor -- so please post a tree

Shaky Leaf Progress

They're Gone

(At least on the surface)

Even though I already had many of these in my RootsMagic database, I elected to tackle these leaves. Some might ask why I am spending so much time on this versus locating new information. As I was doing this I found that I could

• double-check my data (i.e. a Go Over)
• convert my citations from the format I used in Master Genealogist to current standards
• add images to the citations

Besides updating my data, I found that several of these 'shaky leaves' actually led to sources that I didn't realize existed. 

Unfortunately, I probably have quite a few more shaky leaves to tackle since I have descendants for at least a generation or two for each of my ancestors. Thus, there are a lot of people waiting for me to look at their screen and confirm or ignore each 'shaky leaf'.

Don't Be Deceived

There's a picture floating around Facebook that is labeled as Stull, Kansas showing damage from this morning's earthquake.

According to comments on FB, this is not a picture from Stull, Kansas since the community is too small to have the buildings and roadways in the picture. A quick Wikipedia search verifies that Stull is indeed a very small community.

Just remember -- not everything is true! 

Check it out thru valid sources!