I took a little time today to reexamine and transcribe into my RootsMagic notes some of my existing records and I noticed something very sweet.  My great-great grandparents, Moses Ogle and Mary Ann George, were married on Valentines Day in 1833 !   Here is the snippet in the Georgia Archives, Record of Marriages, Book A.  (Click on the image to see the full version.)

I found this example of a 1833 wedding dress:  

I wonder if she wore something like this?  How I wish I could find some details about their wedding somewhere.  Hmmm.  It appears that they were married by the Justice of the Peace?  Does that mean down at the courthouse?  More research to do!

We have reason to believe that the previous year, Moses was a 'winner' in the Georgia Cherokee Land Lottery of 1832.  At the time of their marriage, he was 25 and she was 24.   If he indeed did receive that 40 acres of land, then that was a very good start for them.  I'm off to research the area, check for newspapers or church records and see if I can find some land records!

Followup to my previous post.  I did some Internet searching and found a song entitled, "Little Jack Frost" that was published in a book called, "Songs and Games for Little Ones" by Gertrude Walker, publication date was 1887, which would fit the time period of my grandfather's participation in the town Christmas program.   The book is "Prepared by" Gertrude Walker, so she doesn't seem to be claiming to have written the contents.  Makes me wonder if it is a folk song... at any rate, it gives me joy to try to imagine my little ole Pappy reciting this when he was a gangly 11 year old... wondering if his momma was proud, and if his dad was in attendance or not (they were divorced in 1900).

I hope you enjoy this:

Little Jack Frost

Little Jack Frost went up the hill,
watching the stars and the moon so still.
Watching the stars and the moon so bright,
and laughing aloud with all his might.

Little Jack Frost ran down the hill,
Late in the night, when the winds were still,
Late in the Fall, when the leaves fell down,
Red and yellow and faded brown.

Little Jack Frost walked through the trees,
"Ah, sighed the flowers, "We freeze, we freeze
"Ah!" sighed the grasses, "We dle, we dle!"
Said Little Jack Frost, "Good-bye, good-bye!"

Little Jack Frost tripped 'round and 'round,
Spreading white snow on the frozen ground,
Nipping the breezes, icing the streams,
And chilling the warmth of the sun's bright beams.

But when Dame Nature brought back the Spring,
Brought back the birds to chirp and sing,
Melted the snow and warmed the sky,
Little Jack Frost went pouting by.

The flowers opened their eyes of blue,
Green buds peeped out and grasses grew,
It was so warm and it scorched him SO,
Little Jack Frost was glad to go!

Found this little article today, tucked into a stack of papers.  Really started me thinking about how awful my Research Workflow really is.  I've been considering a Genealogy Do-Over, and read through some really good blogs today, looked at some charts and been thinking alot about what I do and what I don't do when it comes to my research.  I started with The Organized Genealogist blog and facebook group.  I wonder how long it will take me to really feel like I'm organized? 

This is my Grandfather, Walter Edward Granath, in his hometown of Dolores, Colorado, newspaper, the Dolores Star, December 26, 1902.  He was 11 years old.  What I wouldn't give to have a time machine, to be able to travel back and hear his recitation of "Jack Frost" and "Star, Scepter and Crown".  Perhaps next I will conduct a websearch to see if I can find the words to those...

HINTS FOR A CLEAN TREE

Number 1:                                    Important Beginner's Tip!  

Before you start entering places in your Genealogy database, CAREFULLY consider the format that you are going to use.  STANDARDIZE your place names by using the following format:

city, county, state, country

Better yet, if your software has a standardized place name feature that includes GeoCoding, DO IT!  Save yourself and other researchers VALUABLE time.

How I wish that my younger self had heard and heeded this tip !

What a week I have had!  I've been cleaning up my databases.  Since RootsMagic released its integration of trees with Ancestry a short time ago, I have decided to get my data act together and see if I can't clean some stuff up.  What I started with, long ago in the early history of my genealogy research, was 3 RootsMagic trees, Ogle/Hawkins, Granath/Goodwin, and Bayang/Guileten.  I thought that it was a good idea at the time I created them.  Remember, this was in the late 1990s, and I didn't put much thought into data management at that time.  Over the years, I thought about merging them together, but decided it was just too much work.  Besides, sometimes it was easy to 'share' those trees with different branches of my families, or show them at family reunions. {read, "I was too lazy and actually researching ancestors was a lot more fun than dull database cleanup}...  So, then sometime later, I decided to dip my hand into Ancestry and became hooked on doing online research.  Wow - it was ALOT easier to just attach my sources and let Ancestry do the source citations in the background for me.  Oh, yeah, did I mention that at the same time, I researched and added my OWN sources offline into my RootsMagic database.  Oh yeah, and downloaded each Ancestry source and added it in manually, too... {well, OK, when I remembered to add it... I'll get around to it *someday* I told myself.}   I tried my hand at FamilySearch, too, but the concept of other people editing 'MY' data did not appeal to me.  It *was* pretty cool that FamilySearch and RootsMagic had automatic syncing though.  I played with it a little bit and I liked it, but I just didn't want to maintain yet another set of trees, so I didn't do much with FamilySearch.  I added a new RM tree when I inherited research of a direct ancestor branch from a cousin...

THEN, I heard some wonderful news.  RM was developing an integrated Treeshare with Ancestry!  Whoohoo!  So, I waited and just kept doing what I was doing.  A short time ago, it was released to the public!  I created a few small 'fake' databases to test its functionality about a few questions I had and think that I have it figured out...  time to begin my data cleanup and merge all of my trees into JUST ONE that is synced with my Ancestry tree (JUST ONE!)

So at the beginning of this week, I started with my 4 RM databases, and my 3 Ancestry trees.

I worked for 3 days and got all my RM trees combined into ONE!  Yay, me!!  This amounts to about 2400 individuals...

Then I spent some time thinking about what to do next...

RM's TreeShare has 2 options:

1)  download and link an existing Ancestry tree into a new RM database.

2)  upload and link an existing RM tree into a new Ancestry tree.

Wait.  What if I have TWO existing trees and I want to merge them TOGETHER?

Ok.  So what is my goal here?  I want to be able to have ONE TREE that has all my current research data and sources attached, that I can do research on and share data between, and NOT have to waste valuable research time maintaining 2 sets of databases...

So, I decided my best bet was to DOWNLOAD my Ancestry trees (and all the sources and media items)  into new RM trees, because then I can use the RM drag and drop feature to get them into my big tree.  Then use Merge to merge duplicate individuals and I should be ok, right?  So, I started after it.  WELL.  I wasn't very familiar with the Merge function.  Apparently, when you merge 2 individuals, if there are 2 facts, unless they are EXACTLY the same, you get a new fact created.  So, yes, I have to go through and check EVERY individual in my database to make sure I dont have an overabundance of the same facts.  I.E.  2 birth facts, 2 marriage facts, 2 death facts and 2 burials facts for MOST people in my database.  UGH.

THEN I realized that I also got TWICE as many Place names now in my Place name index, so I've had to go through and edit all of those.  And while I'm at it, I need to standardize ALL my places names so that they have United States on them, so the data will be clean BEFORE I upload it to Ancestry.  UGH AGAIN! 

Yes, its been a long week and a SLOW process to get all this done.  What have I learned here?

First, MAKE SURE to follow the best practices for entering place names.

City, County, State, Country.  ALL THE TIME.  I will try!

And I would HIGHLY suggest keeping ALL data in one database.  No matter how logically sound it would be to split them apart, think long and hard about it first.  It will be SO much easier in the long run to keep up with!

More updates later in the week, as I chronicle this data migration and linkage to Ancestry!  I got my Granath tree downloaded and merged.  Now the fact and place name cleanup begins...

One down, two to go!

And yes, I hope to post Family Reunion photos this week, too!  Busy, busy!

And for those of you who read to the end and are wondering, our St. Timothy's church workteams ARE still volunteering 3 days a week to help people muck out their homes after Hurricane Harvey here in Houston.  It will be a long time before its all cleaned up and ready to rebuild.  We thank you for your continued prayers.

With Love, About Mom

Veronica Ag-a Guitelen Bayang arrived to her eternal home with the Lord on Good Friday, April 14, 2017. She began her life on January 3, 1938 in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines, the second of eight children.

 

Veronica obtained her RN degree at St. Luke's School of Nursing in Quezon City, Philippines in 1961, and her BSN degree at the University of New Mexico.

Veronica’s career in nursing spanned over forty-four years. Her first eight years were spent at St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City, Philippines, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, French Hospital in New York City, NY and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA. The next thirty-one years she worked as a federal employee with the U.S. Public Health Service in the Dakotas, Boston, and Gallup, NM. Twenty-six years of her federal employment were at the Gallup Indian Medical Center. Here, she was promoted to Operating Room Supervisor, then Infection Control Practitioner. Veronica earned many awards, being widely recognized for both her clinical and managerial skills, and for setting high standards in patient care and infection control. After retiring from federal service, she worked another five years at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital in Gallup.

On June 10, 1965, Veronica married Martin Eugenio Bayang in Topsfield, Massachusetts, and together they loved and raised 5 children. 

Veronica worked hard, by diligently serving her Lord through All Saints' Episcopal Church, by being a great mother to the children and by working to help support their family.

  

 She was known throughout her life for her kind and caring nature, her eager smile and her love of laughter. She was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and loved Jesus with all of her heart and her life. 

She was well known for preparing amazing traditional Filipino feasts and baking her delicious banana bread. She loved reading cookbooks and trying out new recipes. 

She enjoyed traveling, quilting, crocheting, knitting and most of all, spending time with her children and grandchildren.

Veronica is survived by her husband Martin of 52 years; son Martin Knox and daughter-in-law Kyla Michelle and their children (Martin Kyle and Victoria Lynn) of Tomball, Texas; daughter Beverly Jean and son-in-law Paul Bert Huff and their children (Leah Elizabeth, Emma Maree, and Jacob Paul) of Merritt Island, Florida; son Charles Kim of Carrboro, North Carolina; daughter Rebecca Lynn of Bailey, Colorado, and daughter Josephine Faith and son-in-law Peter Elias Kubista and their children (Elias Alexander and Adam James) of Westminster, Colorado; four brothers, Edward, Alfredo, Pedro Jr and Joseph Guitelen, in the Philippines; and sister Elizabeth Arcinue of San Diego, California, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Pedro and Petra Aga Guitelen, son Ben, and two brothers, Peter and Benedict Guitelen.

A memorial service will be held at St. David's by The Sea Episcopal Church, 600 4th Street South, Cocoa Beach, Florida, on Saturday, June 3rd at 3:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to All Saints' Episcopal Church, P.0. Box 157, Grants, New Mexico 87020.

We love you Mom.

Goodbye for now, Sweet Mom

It is with heavy heart that I report that my Mom-in-love, Veronica Aga Guitelen Bayang, departed this life to spend eternity with our Lord on Good Friday, April 14, 2017.  She was such a sweet, kind, gentle soul.  She loved Jesus and her family more than any thing.  She was a true portrait of caring, serving and love.  We love you, Mom.  Until we joyfully see one another again.

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This past weekend, we visited a few antique shops in Fredricksburg and Llano, Texas.  I always look at the old photographs for sale, and imagine that there are families somewhere who would LOVE to have these precious photos.  I also try to imagine the stories that go with them, and what life was like for the photo subjects.  If they are inexpensive enough, I purchase them, with the intent of posting. I may post and send them off to deadfred.com, in hopes of reuniting them with their families.

Here is this week's purchase.  The front reads, "Sad Sacks" and "1st Platoon".  The back is a list of last names.  

If you recognize any of these guys and would like to have this photo, contact me or comment below.  The names are: Saindon, Carruthers, Allen, Brown, Taylor, Staley, Peck, Assael, Staska, Cubberly, Brandehoff, Hesselton, Conze, Whitaker, Schmitt, Kelly, Shephard, Federel, Argenko, Holmes, Clark, Culbertson, Anglin, Begley.

For Sunday ScanDay, I am working on scanning my Great Grandmother Ella Jane Rinker Crabill Goodwin's diary starting May 23, 1900 in Dolores, Colorado. Her penmanship is so gorgeous and flowery its almost calligraphy. She calls my grandmother "Babe" and her husband GHG (his initials). I'm forever grateful to those who cherished and passed along this priceless heirloom.  This is the first page: