Sunday, October 7, 2018

A Pink Boots Weekend

My calendar declared that this weekend was LAKE WEEKEND. 'Lake Weekend' is when my family gets together at Acorn Resorts on Lake Milford. A typical 'lake weekend' involves food, fire, football, and puzzles.


Our weekend typically begins with a shared meal Friday evening followed by gathering around the fire to visit. Even with the light from the fire, the view of the night sky can be amazing. With clouds moving overhead we were able to see a few stars peaking out from behind the clouds. Unfortunately, the youngest member of our party was disappointed in that she couldn't find her favorite night sky object -- the MOON. (Even without clouds, she wouldn't have found her 'moon', since it was a new moon.)

As the evening progresses, we have to convince the fire bosses to let the fire die down to coals so we can have dessert. Then the marshmallow sticks and pudgy pie makers come out and the contest to see who can roast the best marshmallows or make the best pudgy pie begins. (For dessert, our pudgy pies are white bread and pie filling.)

In the past, most of our Saturday has been spent outside whether going for a walk, being on the lake, playing outdoor games or just sitting around the patio visiting. Unfortunately, this weekend we woke up to light rain. We had expected a rainy weekend, but the original forecasts had indicated that the rain would mostly be overnight. With breakfast over and everyone's desire to be outside, the conversation often turned to the radar. The words, 'It should end in xx minutes.' were heard throughout the morning.

The puzzle crowd was content as they finished the National Park puzzle and started a new one. The book crowd was also content as they pulled out their favorite book and found a corner to read.

The youngest of the group decided to go play in the rain. She put on her pink rain boots, hat and coat and headed outside. For her, it was pure joy to get to stomp around in the grass or to find a water puddle and stomp in it.




Not to be outdone by her younger cousin (first cousin once removed), the youth in the group elected to take her dog, Duke, to the lake to play. Duke's joy of playing in the water was captured by Acorn Resorts and posted on their Facebook page.

Those predictions of the rain ending finally came true that afternoon and the fire was quickly lit. The party moved to the fire pit for conversation and of course listening to the football game on the radio. Although we are divided as to our favorite college team, we all enjoy listening to the K-State game. As the game came to a disappointing end, so did our time around the fire as the rain returned.

Our evening in the cabin was spent in a variety of ways. Some sat around the coffee table working the puzzle, some watched the Sporting KC game on TV while others played a game of Phase 10. Although we couldn't spend the evening around the fire, we had an enjoyable evening in the cabin.

Even though it was cool and rainy, we had a great time at the lake and have put it on our calendars for again next year!

Monday, October 1, 2018

Pets

I recently watched a video that included a Golden Retriever puppy going down a slide. This brought back memories of our family dog, Peppy. Peppy joined the family while we were living on P street in Lincoln, Nebraska. When Peppy was a puppy, we would take him to Woods Park for him to go down a short children's slide. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Peppy going down the slide.




Sunday, September 30, 2018

Source Templates

This morning, I watched part of the Wacky Wednesday episode: The Source Is Gone and hope to finish it watching it later today. During this presentation, Cousin Russ discusses how he is rethinking how he cites memorials on Find A Grave.

During the presentation, Cousin Russ compared the suggested citation for a Find a Grave memorial to how he was citing the memorial in his software. This made me curious about my own citations and how they compare.

Below is the suggested citation for the memorial of my second great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford.



When I looked at the footnote for the Find a Grave source in my software (RootsMagic), I found that the footnote was similar to the suggested footnote.



My footnote is 'created' using a template to enter the information.



The above template is a 'custom' template that I created. I often copy a built-in template and then customize the copy. I like using templates. They make it easy for me to remember to include the important elements in a citation. However, I had heard that templates don't work well when data is exported - particularly via GedCom. This issue is discussed on the RootsMagic forum: 'Templated Sources in GEDCOM and Data Exchange' and 'Extreme Source Splitting and RM's Source Templates'.

To date, I have ignored the issue around how GEDCOM handles my sources created with the templates. Today, I decided to investigate what is happening to my sources when they are exported. One of the ways I export data on a regular basis is by uploading events and sources to Ancestry via RM's TreeShare. Looking at the same citation on Ancestry, I discovered that whatever I put in Source Details is split from whatever is in the Master Source section of my template.



I also noticed that the words 'created by' or 'photographed by' were dropped. These words were not entered by me in the source details section of the template but part of the citation template.



Wondering how the citation would transfer using GEDCOM, I created a small GEDCOM file. I then imported that GEDCOM file into a different genealogy program: Legacy. Once I figured out how to view the source, I found that words 'created by' and 'photographed by' were also dropped.



After comparing the citation from the other software program to the citations from Find a Grave and from RootsMagic, I discovered that the order of the Source Details text in the Legacy footnote was in order entered in my template (top to bottom).

From this study of my citations and what happens during the export, I believe there are some things that I can do to improve the exported citations:

  • enter 'created by' and 'photographed by' in the Source Details instead of using the footnote template to add that text

  • change the order of the Source Details components in my Source Template to match the order that I would like the text to appear in a footnote
If I attempt either of the above changes, every individual in my RM program with a Find A Grave citation would be marked as 'changed' for TreeShare. Thus, I need to be willing to spend considerable time to make these changes and work thru the TreeShare list. At this point, I'm not going to make the changes to existing citations. However, I will likely create a new template to use for any new citations.

Friday, September 28, 2018

Thompson Deeds

As mentioned in a previous post, my John Thompson ancestor and another John Thompson of a similar age are both living in Warrick County, Indiana at the same time. I'm hoping that land records for Warrick County, Indiana will help me separate these two families. Buried in my paper files were some notes I took from the deed index books for Warrick County. Since there are additional notes in the margins of these notes, I'm assuming I looked at the deeds while on a research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake.



Monday, September 24, 2018

Thompson Will

Last week, I stumbled upon a hint that the father of my ancestor, John B Thompson, was David Thompson of Barren County, KY. Following that hint, I found the will of a David Thompson in Barren county, KY. Among his children was a John B. Thompson.


Saturday, September 22, 2018

Which One

I descend from John Thompson -- the John Thompson who married Sarah Iglehart in Ohio County, Kentucky, lived in Warrick County, Indiana, Wapello County, Iowa and Adams County, Iowa.

The 1830 and 1840 census records for Warrick County, Indiana include two men named John B Thompson.

1840 Census

1830 Census

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

THOMPSON Query

I am researching John Thompson who married Sarah Iglehart in 1820 in Ohio county, Kentucky. According to cemetery records, John was born in Kentucky. According to a history of Adams County, Iowa, John resided in Warrick county, Indiana before migrating to Wapella County, Iowa and then to Adams County, Iowa.

John and Sarah's children include
  • William Taylor Thompson (1820-1898) md Mary Ann Evans
  • Jacob Thompson (1822-1905) md Rhoda Evans
  • Benjamin Franklin Thompson (1824-1875) md Catherine Black
  • Levi Thompson (1826-1828)
  • Martha Jane Thompson (1828-1848) md Alexander Van Winkle
  • Andrew J Thompson (1832-?)
  • Mary Elizabeth Thompson (1834-1917) md Henry Evans
  • John Lowe Thompson (1836-1917) md Martha Ingersoll
  • Francis Marion Thompson (1838-1921) md Martha Schooling
  • Sarah Ellen Thompson (1841-1844)
  • James Allen Thompson (1841-1868) md Margaret Scott