August 2025

I've spent the summer creating content over on Substack.   You can find that content here:

Kyla's Rootsquad Roundup newsletter

You don't have to subscribe; you can click on "No thanks" and then just read my content for a while.  I do hope that you subscribe though - its free OR paid, your choice.  And if you subscribe, you will get my new posts directly into your inbox.

What I've found there is a wonderful community of genealogists and writers that are so supportive and just plain fun.

However, since it isn't good (for the ratings and bots) to post the same articles on a blog like here, and then again on Substack.  I can manage it there on a mobile version, and I love the flexibility of scheduling and more visibility of that community.   And the interaction with some really really great folks is just phenomenal.

I'll still post here occasionally, and definitely will refer to my posts here too, so I'm not abandoning this blog and you readers here!   But, I would totally love for you to join me there, too!

Have fun roundin' up your ancestors!

A few things going on in my little Texas corner of the genealogy world.  

I am working on creating a Rootsquad blog and newsletter over on Substack.  I really like that platform, it will help me because all my content will live in one area, but be easily shared over all the other platforms.

It also has greater newsletter-type functionality, which I have found to be easier for most genealogists.  So many in our realm are not on any social media site, and quite frankly, are tired of technology.  Plus, who has time to read alot ABOUT genealogy when we want to be busy doing it, right?  

And I can add things there, like a premium content area and genealogy merch.  I've been wanting to branch out into creating fun products for those of us who want to advertise that we're doing genealogy.  Yes, I want to create merch for myself!

Today, February 9, 2025

What I'm Watching

A couple of weeks ago, Allen County Public Library posted a video on their YouTube channel called, "Ancestry.com - Beyond the Basics" by speaker Susan Kim.   Fantastic talk, great information, check it out!   We can always count on very quality content from ACPL.  This is the first time I have heard Susan speak; she was excellent and I learned alot that I can't wait to put into my regular process for searching on ancestry.

What I'm Reading

Just completed a fabulous book written by a friend of mine, Rhonda Lauritzen called "A Child in Berlin".  Here is my very brief Amazon review:

"I could not put this book down! Beautifully crafted, with such wonderful descriptions and stories. Every scene with such vivid accuracy that I felt like I was there, and enough explanations to draw in this modern day American and make me realize that Heidi’s memory is fantastic. I truly was not ready for it to end. What an amazing life. What a fabulous gift this author has given to the world by capturing this sweet lady’s experiences."

What I had a hard time verbalizing was that I was totally immersed in this story.   Great details, great storytelling, great research to add information when necessary, and above all, a highly recommend.

The crazy thing is, Rhonda has ANOTHER book that came out at exactly the same time.  I haven't read it yet, but I will keep you posted.  What an amazing author and lovely, fantastic lady.

What I'm Working On

RELATIVES AT ROOTSTECH IS LIVE !!!

That's what I'm working on - sorting, contacting and saving down all those relatives as fast as I can!

My plan is to try to meet as many in person this year as possible.  I also plan to create family groups on FamilySearch for each 'branch' and try to stay in touch this year.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Have you signed up for RootsTech yet?  If not, DO IT NOW!  Its free!

And check if we're related!

 Nation-wide Search for Granath Relatives

I am trying to collect and compile any information that I can find about the various Granath/Granat families in the United States.   This project started trying to figure out all the points on the life timeline of my great-grandfather, Alfred Granath and also trying to keep track of my cousins by the dozens!   There are lots of us!

A few notes about the mysteries of Alfred:

1) Aunt Ruth mentioned several times that she thought his name was either Oscar Alfred or Alfred Oscar.   I didn't ever hear her say why she thought that was the case, she did not elaborate on the statement and I'm sorry to say I didn't ask.   In my research, I have not ever found any document to support this.   Please if you have some ideas, let me know!  I do have a document that his son, Walter Edward Granath, made with his son, Patrick Ivan Granath in 1960, that clearly says, "Alfred G. Granath".    It is my speculation (without any proof whatsover!!) that if his middle initial *was* G, it might have been George, because George is a Granath family name.   At one point, I thought it might be Gene, because it, too, is found in our family, but I believe it came from another family line.)

2) His death and burial place are still unknown.   There is an "A. Granath" who is the right age, who was buried in a pauper's grave in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 14, 1913.   I have collected the death certificate, sexton's report (burial) and death notice (no obituary), published record books and city burial cards.  I have searched for hospital records, doctor records, coroner's reports, city directories, funeral home records and any kind of notice in the Colorado newspapers.   His death certificate is marked "state pauper" and "non-resident".   I have emails from the Genealogy librarian, Joe Slattery at the Shreveport Library, where he and I have talked through every other method of finding any records.  I've looked for coroner's reports at the LSU Shreveport Archives.   I have researched his cause of death.   There is no informant listed on the death certificate, other than the doctor, so who knew his name and age?  It did have "Arcadia, LA", what did that mean?   Why was he there, if this is our Alfred?   There are NO other Granaths that I have found in Louisiana at that time, although there were a few "Granat"s in New Orleans.

If you have any thoughts or want to see any of these records (or hear about the search) drop me an email.   Or I will consider a followup blog post and just post them here. :)

 THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

I am busy preparing for Rootstech 2024 - scheduling, contact Relatives, making friendship bracelets and yes, even laundry and packing.   Once again, I am going to Salt Lake City in person and once again, I am soooooooo excited!   I have some fantastic projects that are happening at the library that I will be following up and learning about while I'm there, too, and just the excitement of "What's new?" is electric.

Now, why am I posting?   Because I want to encourage YOU to get ready for Rootstech also!   

Yes, you can attend online again this year FOR FREE!

If you are new to this, here are my suggested steps:

1) Create a free familysearch account and enter a SMALL amount of your family data.  Just you, your parents and grandparents.   Very quickly you will likely find that your people are already in the FamilyTree (this is a collaborative world tree of everyone), so I would suggest you do NOT add anyone else right now until you get the hang of it.  Its a little tricky to get everyone correctly connected, please get help with this if you are new to familysearch.

2) Once you have that done, register for Rootstech online for free:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/registration/

3) Download the phone app.

4)  Take a look at the classes available.  I HIGHLY suggest that if you can, you set aside the entire day just to watch and learn when it is live.   Almost everything is recorded to watch later if you need to, but its just so much more fun watching it broadcast live.   You can select classes and build your watch schedule online.

5) Download the syllabus for each class this week and print it so you can take notes on it.  It also gives you a good idea of what they will talk about, so you can switch to another session if its not that helpful to you.

5) Click on Relatives at Rootstech.   Tips:   Use the phone app, click on Contact to add them to your contact list so that they will stay there after Relatives is closed for the year.  Also, click on each persons relationship to you and screenshot it.   I create a spreadsheet with a tab for each ancestor, and add their contact info into it.  I'm sending a short mesage to each one, asking if they are going in person (if so I ask to meet and take a pic) and give them my email address and intro of myself and my family.  I sure hope everyone responds!   My goal this year is 100 new 'cousins' befriended!   Plus follow up with those from last year that I never heard from again LOL...

I've been watching all the social channels for podcasts and video information about it before I go.  Let me know if you watch or see anything exciting!   And send me a message through relatives if we are related, please!!!

So stay tuned for more of my Rootstech updates!!

Happy National Family History Month!   I have SOOOOO much planned for this month, here is my very first tip of the month:

I also recently read on the MyHeritage blog that we can upload DNA data to MyHeritage this week and enjoy free access to all DNA features.   So, if you haven't already done this, I'd say, hop to it!

Genealogy Sharing - Kyla Style

I have long been concerned with how to share all I find out about my family lines with my living relatives.   

In case you haven't noticed, I pretty much do genealogy 24x7, especially now that my littles have become big peeps making their own way in the world.  Not to mention that I now get paid to help other families research and grow their family trees and all my training hours help me do my job better... you get the idea.   I love this stuff.  

I do realize, however, that the things that I know about genealogy are sometimes not common knowledge and not all the things I find will be of interest to all of my family lines.   

I call almost everyone 'cousin', because in some way they are.   That whole 2nd, 3rd, 4th, removed thing is something that still gets a bit confusing to me, so DON'T worry if you (or I) don't always get our relationships explained right.   Family is complicated, yall!  ITS OK to mess it up sometimes.  You have my permission!

My idea:  a Sunday evening zoom call where I will be giving little explanations about interesting family stuff.   Right now, its on zoom and recorded to post to youtube.   For now, its going to be my Granath/Goodwin/Covington/Rinker family, because I have recently been given an incredible gift - my cousin Joe has sent me 11 boxes of photos, negatives, slides and other priceless family heirloom items.  As I scan, process and document them, I want to share them with my cousins by the dozens all over the world, so this is my best idea for now.   If it doesn't work, we'll "drop, kick and punt" and try something new.  Another reason is because I researched those lines quite a bit on my Utah trip and want to share that juicy new stuff.  Don't worry Ogle/Hawkins/Rue family, if it works out, I'll do an afternoon call for yall once I get a routine going!

If you would like an invite to the zoom call to hear it live, let me know, otherwise please watch the recording on youtube.   Thanks!!

Click here to watch:

Kyla's Granath DNA comparision video

Wild and Crazy Texas Woman is Related to Half of Rootstech

 Hi, cousins and everyone!   Randy Seaver on his Genea-Musings blog, gave a challenge: 

"What is the most wild, crazy, off-the-wall, or really stupid thing you have done in pursuit of your ancestral families and their family history?".   Here's what might be mine... yall be the judges...

A couple of weeks ago, I did something most of my people considered a bit crazy.  I decided that this was the year I would attend "Rootstech".  In person, by myself, knowing no one, flew from Texas to Utah, just for genealogy. Ok, not JUST genealogy.   THE largest genealogy conference IN THE WORLD.  So, what was crazy?  You see, this was the very first vacation in my entire life that I went by myself anywhere fun, just for me.   It felt wild and crazy and off-the-wall, and some might even say really stupid.  But, yall, I grinned from ear-to-ear for 5 days straight, every waking moment.

You see, my 'alone' vacation wasn't alone at all.   I was in a town full of like-minded genea-nuts, and I was at a convention with almost 7,000 of my closest friends, a bunch of whom I was convinced were my 'cousins'.

The conference is hosted by FamilySearch and before I left, I downloaded this nifty app they created called, "Relatives at Rootstech".  So, through the app, FamilySearch said that online and worldwide, there were 26,468 of my relatives 'attending' the conference that were registered.  I wasn't surprised.   I have a LOT of family, yall.

Walking down the tunnel to get on the plane at 5:10 am, I turned to the lady beside me and said, "I wonder how many of us are going to Rootstech?" and she actually squealed!  "ARE YOU?" and I said, "Yes, my first time!", to which she replied, "ME TOO!" and we sat together and talked and talked all the entire flight.   She had done about 10 years of research with lots of dead ends, and was hoping to advance her research skills.   She hadn't learned much about Rootstech before she left, so I told her about the app, how to pick sessions and make the most of her time, all the suggestions I had read by the veterans and what to expect.   When I told her about "Relatives at Rootstech", she said she didn't think she would have many because she didn't have much of her family added to FamilySearch Family Tree, which is the collaborative shared world tree that powered the app.   Nevertheless, as SOON as the plane stopped rolling, she pulled out her phone, turned it off airplane and looked me up.   YEP!   You guessed it.  We were 10th cousins...

And that is how my entire week went.   EVERYWHERE I went, I was checking the app and collecting cousins.   Wednesday, when I went to check in, I found out there is a little toggle to view only "Relatives in person at Rootstech".  It said I had 653 coming to Salt Lake.  By the end of the evening, I had found 7 of them!   They were each SO surprised!  (Hint:  I really wasn't at all surprised, although I was tickled every time.  I often say I'm related to 1/2 of Texas, most of Georgia and any other place big enough for a dot on a map.)  

Thursday, I started messaging cousins through the app, asking if they wanted to meet up.   There was a special area called, "Cousin Corner" with photo opps and props for this purpose!  I found 11 cousins that day! 

Friday, I found out a fun app search feature called "Relatives Near Me".   It would show me people standing or sitting around me!!!!   Mind blown!   That day, I logged and met 23 more new relatives!  Three of them were 4th cousins!  So close!

Saturday was a short day, and I was concentrating on making it to all of the vendors I had yet to visit.  And I still managed to locate 7 more new cousins!

There were so many, I forgot to take photos with about half of them.  There's always next year, I guess.

And yes, I exchanged contact info with all of them, and have emailed them now to share research.  And I am still messaging all of them through the amazing app!

So, perhaps talking to all of these 'new' cousins was a crazy thing, but man it was so fun!

I'll be blogging more in the coming weeks about the classes, the booths, the speakers, the music, the walking, the Lehi city archives and the FamilySearch History Library.  What, did you think all I did was find cousins all week? :)  Stay tuned for more of this grand adventure...

Me and my kin:

Celebrating My Mom, November 2022

This past Saturday was my mother's birthday.   She was born Dolores Peggy Jane Granath on November 12, 1930 in Dolores, Colorado.   Yes, named after the small Colorado mining town that was the birthplace of both her mother, Blanche Ella Goodwin and her father, Walter Edward Granath, where they had married in 1916.   They moved around the mountains a bit, having children almost every two years like clockwork.   Walter worked at whatever jobs he could find, and they lived off of much of what they could grow or raise.   In spring of 1930, times were very tough.   Blanche's half-sister, Leda Crabill and her husband Bob White, had a 'successful' trucking business in the oil boomtown of Hobbs, New Mexico, and told them the oil patch was hiring.   That summer, Walter and Blanche made the difficult decision to move their family to Hobbs before school started in the fall, and when the time came, Bob drove up with one of his trucks to bring the entire brood down south.   Their first 8 children ranged in age from 12 to 18 months old. However, Blanche was pregnant with baby #9.  So, she stayed in Dolores with BOTH her parents and in-laws keeping watchful eye, and a few months later, Peggy entered the world.   When this little joy was only 2 weeks old, she and her Momma traveled on the train to finally join the rest in Hobbs.

My mom, Peggy has been gone from this earth 16 years.   I feel like it was a lifetime ago, and yet, only yesterday.  I still miss her every day, still talk to her every day in my head and prayers, and many of her traits I see in both of my children.   They have her kind spirit, her tough stamina.  Might we say stubbornness? Yes, I have that trait, too.   And both were also gifted with her beautiful, quick laughter and her absolutely unbelievable musical talent.   She would break out in a song at the drop of a hat, constantly all day long, and she knew all the words to thousands of songs.  Life had a soundtrack and my mom hummed along.  Yes, both of my children are thus gifted AND unable to live without music playing.

I wanted to write this post to celebrate my favorite memories of her, but there are just too many to process, even now.  So, I'm going to add a favorite photo and close.    This one is so classic, because she LOVED Christmas and the holidays.  I'm going to celebrate extra this year, just for her.  I am so thankful that she was my mother and that we will be together again someday in His glory.  I love her so much.

Mom loves the holidays!

Now, for my Granath cousins.  A little further back for today's post. This is Pappy (Walter Edward Granath)'s WW1 draft registration card. June 2, 1917. Two interesting facts. He put his birthdate as 1892, when I'm fairly certain it was 1891 (maybe he was supposed to register before turning 25, so he 'miswrote' it? very commonly done!!!) and also, they were about 4 months pregnant with Ruby. Another thing that I know. His oldest brother, John Preston Granath, was unsure of his own birth year, as he says on an oral history tape, "I was there, but I don't remember the exact year, ya know!"

Ogle and Hawkins cousins, check out this article that was in the Crosbyton, Texas, Review  newspaper on Nov. 3, 1922.  It helps us further narrow down the date when our Ogles moved from Denton, Texas to the Crosbyton area. We know the move was between March 31, 1920 (Teds birth in Denton) and Dec 4 1921 (Wesley's birth in Crosby county).  This may be as close as possible to the actual date.  Next, I'm going to see if I can research and find out when my Hawkins relatives moved from Denton to Crosbyton.  They might be easier to figure out, because they owned some land.

 

Blanche Ella Goodwin Granath

I have spent the past few months really focused on a project that I'd like to share.  In taking an Art Appreciation class for my Master's degree entry program, I created this tribute to my Grandmother Blanche Ella Goodwin Granath.  2019 has been a very difficult year.   My heart hurts with our family losses of JoAnn Granath Helfin (Jody) earlier this year, and very recently this month, Juanda Kay Granath Edmondson and Patrick Ivan Granath.  All three of these were dearly, dearly loved by me and my siblings and cousins.   We Granaths (and Ogles and Edmondsons and Heflins) are a close-knit family, and spent our entire lives visiting and loving each other.   My cousins from these lines are loved like siblings.   I am so grateful for the lives these Aunts and Uncle lived, and the influence they had on me.  I did not know Grandma Blanche, she died before I was born, but I experienced her influence through her children, also especially my sweet mother, Dolores Peggy Jane Granath Ogle. I am certain Grandma and my mom welcomed them as they entered Heaven.  Our family will continue together, as those who have gone before us would want.  We will love them and each other, until we are all joined again.   Here is the completed project I made in honor of Grandma Blanche, Aunt Jody, Uncle Pat and Aunt Kay.  Love them so very much. Tell me what you think. By the way, I got an A.

I found some of my Rue cousins !

I've recently been chasing down a new branch of my tree... or maybe its up a branch?  Anyway!  It is the Rue family line. Here's what I knew prior to this bit of research:

Not a lot of data there.  So, I contacted a few of my DNA matches on Ancestry and got replies !!  One lives very close to me and one lives in Colorado.  Both were very sweet and graciously shared their genealogy data and some photos with me.  One REALLY filled out some holes in this line and added several ancestors to another, all the while telling me to be sure to check out his sources and make sure his conclusions are correct.  I seriously love how supportive and helpful most genealogists are to one another, freely sharing information and themselves with their new-found cousins!  It does a heart good to be part of this family of researchers!  Now, I'm off to verify the information and start adding it to my tree.  I will update with a new tree graphic post as soon as I get that done.

I realized this morning that I never posted anything about my dad's going to Heaven this past January.  Perhaps its still too hard to realize that he's not with us anymore.  We've even had an Ogle reunion without him now.  It was hard, but we hugged each other and did it.  It was good to be together again.  We lost several very special Ogles in the past few years.  We missed the Strauss family, who had a schedule conflict.  Anyway.  Here is my dad's obituary content, except I corrected the typos and mistakes that newspapers always end up making.  I will post more about him in a few days.  When I can.

Oma Ogle, 89, went to be with the love of his life, Peggy Ogle, on Jan. 19, 2018.

Visitation is 5-7 p.m. Jan. 22 and a service is 10 a.m. Jan. 23, both at Waldrope-Hatfield-Hawthorne Funeral Home, 307 E. Sandstone in Llano, (325) 247-4300. The Rev. Richard Dye, pastor of First Christian Church of Plainview, will officiate. Interment will follow at Llano City Cemetery.

He was born Oct. 28, 1928, to Charlie Clinton Ogle and Ollie Lena Hawkins in East Grand Plains in Crosby County, Texas, and raised in Crosbyton. 

He married Dolores Peggy Jane Granath on Feb. 24, 1948, in Levelland. He started his life long career with Pan American Oil in 1949, which later became Stanolind Oil, Standard of Indiana, and Amoco Oil, from which he retired in 1984.

He and Peggy lived in Hobbs, Artesia, and Tatum, New Mexico, before moving to Llano in 1997, bringing with them their lifelong love for square dancing.

His career was only a small part of his life. While they lived in Tatum, he was a member for 18 years of the Tatum Board of Education and served in all the board offices; a lifelong Lions Club member; and a fire department volunteer fighting raging grass fires across eastern New Mexico.

When they came to Llano, they joined First Christian Church of Llano, where he was a deacon, board member, and longtime treasurer. Oma and Peggy were also founding members of the Llano Food Pantry.

After Peggy’s passing, he also became an active volunteer for Special Opportunities. He was a regular worker at the Llano Crawfish Open benefiting Llano charities, including his beloved Food Pantry and Special Opportunities, and, of course, a charter member of the morning donut shop club.

Oma was preceded in death by his dear wife, Peggy, and was the last survivor of the four daughters and seven sons of Charlie and Ollie. 

He is survived by all of his children, Douglas Clinton Ogle of Fritch, Debra Kay Strauss of Midland, Melba Jholene Olsen of Plainview, and Kyla Michelle Bayang of Tomball; grandchildren, Scott Alan Strauss, Gregg Patrick Strauss, Sara Katrina Olsen Wall, Richard “Eric” Leif Olsen III, Stephanie Michelle Strauss Watty, Martin Kyle Bayang, and Victoria “Vicki” Lynn Bayang; great-grandchildren, Aiden Kane Strauss, Nathan Goodwin Strauss, Natalie Paige Wall, and Carter Colby Strauss; sisters-in-law Billie Jo Fields Granath of Odessa, Juanda Kay Granath Edmondson of Llano, Myrna Lea Granath Brown Stark of Hobbs, and JoAnn Granath Heflin of Llano; brother-in-law Patrick Ivan Granath of Lovington, New Mexico; and countless nieces, nephews, and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make memorial contributions to the Llano Food Pantry, 8203 Texas 29 West, or First Christian Church, 1105 Oatman, Llano, TX 78643.

The family would also like to send out a thank-you to Velma and Michelle.

Found another fun record today that made me do a happy dance.  Then I made myself use my newly created "Document management system" and spent a couple hours making sure its properly sourced and attached where it needs to be.  I realized that I could probably work about 4 months on my Rinker line and barely make a dent in it.  I've got some real work to do there, thanks to finding some really awesome genealogy buff Rinker cousins.  They sent me ALOT of stuff to process and attach.  I also received an entire large envelope of Rinker photos that I know fit in my tree somewhere, but I haven't exactly figured out where yet.  But I will start on it!  Anyway.  Here is the cool record I found.  First, who is it?  This marriage record belongs to my great-great-grandparents.

Kyla Ogle - Dolores Peggy Jane Granath my mom - Blanche Ella Goodwin  my grandma - Ella Jane Rinker my great-grandma-  then the 2 in this record are Ella Jane's parents:

It reads:

"To the Judge of the Probate Court of the County of Champaige, Ohio.  Married on the 6th day of October A.D. 1853 Samuel H Rinker and Mary Ann Pinkerton by me, Enos French, M.G. "

(Minister of the Gospel)

From the Marriage Records of the Probate Court of Champaign County, Urbana, Ohio, 1849 to 1856, Book E.  Found on FamilySearch.org:  "Early Marriage Bonds of Ohio, copied by the DAR"

More on this family branch soon!

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.