Follow Friday - A Brief Edition

Blogging has been a bit sparse as the Holidays grow near.  I'm enjoying family and hope you all are as well!

I've seen so many great posts in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, but this one by Amy Coffin, I just had to share.  I love the idea!  Check out a great idea by her mom for what to do with all those Christmas cards and Holiday photos!

Jen Woods over at Climbing My Family Tree had a great post idea.  It was simple, but brilliant.  She posted a signature from an ancestor she found in a probate packet.  It's really the little things that make you feel great about a find.  Do you have any ancestor's signatures? Did they give you an extra special feeling when you saw them?

At Renee's Genealogy Blog a cute poem was posted about grandma and her genealogy addiction.  In my case it would be mommy!

An excellent point (and one that is still valid today).  I always find it amazing how the story changes depending on the outcome of a war/conflict.  A perfect illustration of that in this post by Donald Shaffer on the Civil War Emancipation blog.  While I agree that we may never know if this exchange took place, we can most likely check newspapers for all the blustering opinions of the day!

Save A Grave shared a post from the Archdiocese of Washington about the oddest mausoleum, I've ever seen.  When space is at a premium...build up!  I agree with the concern of upkeep.  We've all seen what happens to old cemeteries and the thought of a 32-story deteriorating mausoleum is scary!

I hate knee-jerk reactions.  I hate jerks two and this has them both!  Legislators trying to take away the Social Security Death Index because it will help stop fraud/identity theft.  Just shows the ignorance of many of those that make our laws.  Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak makes some excellent points.  Maybe she should run for office!

Until next post, have fun tending those roots!

Follow Friday - So Much to Do So Little Time!

It's another Friday and I finally got to my mom's house on Thursday evening.  It's good to be with family, but there are never enough hours in the day.  Tomorrow I'll be spending the day relaxing and heading to the theater to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and I'll be seeing it twice.  A matinee and once in the evening after my sister gets off work.  And yes...I'm excited about seeing it twice in one day!  I'm a bit of a Harry Potter dork.

So if you're not heading out to see this epic finale (and it better be good!) then check out some of the posts that caught my attention.  If you are heading out, well, enjoy the day and squeeze these in anyway!

Jenn Woods at Climbing My Family Tree One Branch at a Time just keeps turning out those wonderful genealogy worksheets for kids!  Two additional worksheets since the last time I blogged about her Genealogy for Kids series (unless I blinked and there's a third addition!).  One of the new worksheets is called "My Family History Interview".  A very simple concept...get the kids to write down some questions that they want to ask grandma, grandpa, etc and then send them in!  Jen's got the psyops down in getting through to those difficult family members.  Send in the cute kiddos!  I love it!  Her other worksheet is "My Ancestors in the Civil War".  Jen has a very rich family history with ancestors that fought on both sides.  I'm insanely jealous.  I haven't found one direct line ancestor that participated in the Civil War.  The sheet is a wonderful way for the kids to put on paper a bit of what they know about their Civil War ancestors.  There is room for their name, state they were from and an interesting fact on each.  With the 150th anniversary this is a great time to use her Civil War sheet!

Scott at Onward To Our Past is giving tips on "real world" genealogy and I like it!  All the tips we see everyone sharing are fabulous, but Scott has shown some pretty practical thinking in this series and I would expect that we could all learn something from his ingenuity!  I won't spoil the post, but let's just say that he's got a new use for that ice scraper you aren't using much this time of year!  Sound intriguing?  Head on over and check it out!

Got an invite to Google+ yet?  I'm still stumbling around it, but am forever grateful to Genealogy Tip of the Day's Michael John Neill for sending an invite so I could finally get on Google+.  Since I've been traveling I haven't been able to get on as much as I'd like, but I'll be playing around now that I'm not in a car for 4-10 hours a day.  Still stumbling around it too?  Want to find people on Google+  that share your interests?  Randymajors.com created a search tool to help you find just that!  It's called GPlusSearch.  Give it a whirl!

Thanks to Dick Eastman and Joan Miller for directing me to a very interesting article in PC World called "9 Reasons to Switch from Facebook to Google+"  I can't say that I'm going to "switch".  I have too many friends on Facebook that may not want to head on over so I can see myself trying to straddle both, but hey, we're genealogists...we embrace technology, right!?!?!  The article illustrates some pretty significant differences/improvements that Google+ has.  If nothing else, I'm sure Facebook is going to have to do some pretty fancy footwork if they want to keep up and not fall to the wayside like MySpace.  Time will tell. 

So much more to follow, but it's getting late and it simply won't do to be falling asleep during HP7 so off to bed I must go.  Enjoy these posts and all the other wonderful ones out there.  Until next time, have fun tending those roots!

Follow Friday - She Just Leaves Me Amazed

Jenn Woods from Climbing My Family Tree: One Branch at a Time has the most wonderful series of Genealogy for Kids!  If you haven't checked out her series and you've got kids or grandkids that you'd like to get interested in genealogy, you really need to head on over to her blog!

Her first in the series "Family Notebooking Page" has an adorable family tree that your kids can fill in.

The second post "Cemetery Scavenger Hunt" has a wonderful scavenger hunt that can occupy their attention whether they've started reading yet or not!  I can't wait to have my boys use these while we are traipsing around cemeteries in Pennsylvania over the next few weeks.

The third "My Ancestor Notebooking Page" which has spaces for the little ones to fill in dates the ancestor lived, where they lived, historical events they lived through and more.  Really puts your ancestor's live into historical perspective for the kids and is sure to get them asking questions!

And the last is "Jobs of My Ancestors" which has boxes for the kids to draw a pictures of various jobs their ancestors had and label them.  I know I'll have to dig deep for this one in educating my kids...Soldier, teacher, farmer, coal miner...that pretty much sums up the majority of our ancestors!  I'd like to see them draw genealogist though! :)


I can't wait to see what Jenn's going to come up with next!

On the Road!

I'm very excited. 

I'll be on the road this weekend on my way to Charleston, SC for the NGS conference.  My first genealogy conference! 

I've never been to Charleston before so it truly will be an adventure!  I'm excited that I'll be seeing two friends from my college days as I drive out and will be seeing a dear friend from Army days (and fellow blogger), Jenn Woods from Climbing My Family Tree at the conference!  Lots of stuff to look forward to, but my boys are very sad to see momma go.  This will really be the first time I've been away without them in years.  It'll be nice to have time to myself, but there's been lots of extra hugs and kisses given to me this evening and it does make it harder to go.  They asked for me to wake them up before I get int he car so I can give final hugs and kisses...not caring at all that it will be 5:00am. 

Thank goodness for cell phones.  I'm sure they'll start enjoying time with daddy shortly after I leave.  I just hope that daddy has the stamina to play single dad for the next 9 days!

I'll be back to blogging come Sunday night or Monday morning so everyone have a beautiful weekend!

Following Friday - She Makes Me So Jealous!

I've got a few blogs that I need to do a "Following Friday" on and 2 of them have already been kind enough to do one on me.  I've been distracted and should have done this much sooner. So I'll start at the very beginning...I hear it's a very good place to start...

Jennifer Woods is the goddess divine behind the blog, "Climbing My Family Tree" and she is the reason I've been introduced to you all.  I wanted to start my way down this genealogical path and when I started my blog she told me about Geneabloggers and told me to get my butt over there and recommend my blog.  What wonderful advice that was and I will forever be thankful.

Jenn is more than another genea-blogger to me.  We go back to 1997-ish when we were both stationed in San Antonio, TX.  She was in the Air Force and I was in the Army but I was still lucky enough to work with her.  San Antonio was great for the both of us.  It's where she married her hubby and where I met mine.  Great times, great friends!  Gosh time flies as we get older.  It seems like yesterday!

She makes me so jealous!  Her blog is not only informative and fun to read, but so creative and beautifully laid out!  When I grow up, I want to be more like her :)

I know many of my followers have also been following Jenn's "Climbing My Family Tree", but if you haven't I suggest you head on over and check her out.  You will not be disappointed!

Next week another excellent blog by another dear friend that just started blogging!