Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Friday, June 15, 2012

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for June 15, 2012

My Fabulous Finds for this week (in no particular order) -

A recipe for storytelling in genealogy blogging by Blogging Genealogy
Tweets from 2012 Jamboree and Book Review: Hey America, Your Roots Are Showing by Ancestral Breezes
Immigration in Brazil II by My Portuguese Gen
Dear Genealogical Educators - This is What We Need! by Marian’s Roots and Rambles
Great Writers Start Ugly by Jeff Goins
They came from Øyer by Branch and Leaf…a family history blog
Finding Historical Maps for Genealogy by A Sense of Family
Live-Streaming from Genealogy Conferences – What does the future hold? by The Armchair Genealogist
Those Places Thursday: The College Dorm by Jollette etc.
FamilySearch Source Box and Ancestry.com Shoebox by The Ancestry Insider

New Blog Discoveries

A Great Webinar worth watching. It was like watching an episode of WDYTYA.

Putting Flesh on the Bones - free webinar now online by Ron Arons

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thankful Thursday–Rootstech: 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy Week #24 - Genealogy Events

Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers posed the following challenge for this week’s 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy blog prompt: “When it comes to genealogy events, our cup runneth over lately. There are so many fabulous family history events being held across the globe. For which one are you most grateful? Is it an annual event or a one-time thrill? Who runs the event? Why is it special?”

While I haven’t actually attended any genealogy conferences in person yet, I did attend Rootstech 2012 via the Internet earlier this year. I watched some of their virtual classes online and it was great! I learned a lot and found it very worthwhile.

One of the classes I watched was Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 by Lisa Louise Cooke. I was one of those genealogists who had never heard of Genealogy Blogs before. I'm so glad that through this class I discovered the genealogy blogosphere! I know there are more genealogists out there who are unaware of genealogy blogs. I found this out firsthand. I was speaking to our local genealogical society the other night (my topic was Indexing) and I brought up genealogy blogs. I asked how many of them had heard of genealogy blogs and it was crickets! I saw one lady nod her head. So, what did I do? Why, I took the opportunity to spread the word about genealogy blogs! In fact, in my handouts I included a couple pages of links to various genealogy blogs, webinars and podcasts (no, mine wasn't on the list, ha ha! I listed some of the "heavy hitters" in the genealogy blogosphere). I've also started including the topic of webinars, podcasts and genealogy blogs in my Family History Class that I teach at my church.

So, why am I most grateful for Rootstech? It was because of Rootstech that I discovered genealogy blogs and webinars, which have helped me to expand my knowledge of various genealogy topics. And now I've even started my own genealogy blog, which I never thought I would do. But it's been a fun experience so far, if not a bit intimidating. I mean hey, I'm not a writer or genealogist by profession, so the self-doubt can start creeping in (what can I say that hasn't been said before, what if it's not good enough or well-written enough, etc.). But hey, my mom and brothers appreciate my little family history blog, so it's all good! And maybe someday my husband and kids will become regular readers too. (One can dream, right?)

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wednesday’s Child x 2–Lewis Asher and Frederick G. Engle

I feel for my maternal 2nd great-grand aunt Sarah Amanda Waterman. Two of her children died at a very young age:

Lewis Asher Engle – Born 10 February 1861, Died 7 February 1862.
Frederick G. Engle – Born 20 February 1876, Died the same day.

I can’t even imagine how painful this must have been for her. She and her husband, Richard Engle, were the parents of seven children, all of whom were born in Ohio:

Ella Eliza Engle (16 Jun 1858 – 10 December 1951)
Lewis Asher Engle (10 February 1861 – 7 February 1862)
Charles Albert Engle (20 June 1864 – 20 September 1946)
Mary Albertina Engle ( 20 June 1864 – 13 January 1885)
William Barker Engle (23 September 1867 – 1 Jun 1950)
Edwin Caleb Engle (8 November 1869 – 18 May 1943)
Frederick G. Engle (20 February 1876 – 20 February 1876)

Richard Engle served in the U.S. Civil War. I have his pension file (I love pension files, by the way! They are amazing genealogical resources.) Here's a page from Richard’s pension file listing his children. Surprisingly I found a child from a previous marriage that I didn’t know anything about.

I was also unaware of Richard's first marriage. His first wife, Eliza Dunbar, and daughter, Morandia Jane Engle, both died in November of 1855 within days of each other. So very sad!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Sepia Saturday 129–Dining Alfresco

This is part of a series of posts dedicated to the immigration story of Debs Webster and his family.

Sepia Saturday provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.

Click to Enlarge

This isn’t a group of people having tea, but they are having a meal together. And while this is a rustic setting in contrast with the refined and elegant style in the photo prompt for this week’s Sepia Saturday challenge, it is nonetheless a compelling photo when you discover the story behind this scene.

This is a photo of my mom (the young girl standing on the left) with her brothers, stepmother, and grandma. I’m assuming my grandpa, Debs Webster, was taking the picture, since he’s not in the photo.

Now imagine that you have just left the country where you were born, boarded a ship, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. You have left most of your family behind in Brazil. Thankfully someone in your family speaks English, but the rest of you do not, or are not fluent in the language. The year is 1952. You buy a car after you arrive and some sleeping bags and camping equipment to help you on your journey. This is what my mom and her family did. They emigrated from Brazil to the United States of America and subsequently became citizens of this great nation. This is a photo of one of their stops while they were traveling across the United States by car from New York City, where they arrived in the U.S., to their final destination of Southern California.

In previous posts I have explained how my grandfather Debs, while still living in Brazil, was able to make contact with his uncle Rollin Webster, who lived in Chicago, Illinois. And if you’ve read about Debs’ father, Watson Emory (Frederick) Webster, a.k.a. The Traveling Dentist, then you understand how this branch of the Webster tree ended up in Brazil.

I will be continuing the story of my Webster family coming full circle from the U.S.A. to Brazil and back again in future posts. I’m looking forward to sharing with you some early ‘50s postcards that were purchased along the way as my mom and her family traveled across the United States.

What about your family? Do you have any emigration/immigration stories you would like to share?

For more Sepia Saturday posts, click here.

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for June 8, 2012