Just totally hit home AGAIN last night why I'm doing what I'm doing...

[fudge stripe cookays]

I recently began hooking my Wisconsin Smiths up with lines back in NY, and made contact with another lady who lives in Hornell to do more searching for both of our lines, and how they connect back to the main Pennsylvania Dutch Schmidts back in Pennsylvania.

We both found out about this cousin (about 3rd for both of us) who lives in Albany, and is going to turn 90 this year.

I took a chance and called her home, but there was an electronic mailbox. I always hesitate calling an leaving such an unusual message, but I had no choice. I had no idea what kind of health this woman is in, or even if she was still alive, but I had to try.

Get this, kids. Her husband called me back last night, and I'm arranging a visit for around Memorial Day.

She and her husband have no kids. They are both in their late 80s or early 90s, and her health is not the best. These pictures that I scan are probably going to be thrown out by neighbors or friends after they die. My going there may be the only thing that saves the images from being lost to the family forever. It would be nice to get the originals, but I'm not holding my breath. Scans will be enough to keep these precious photos from being resigned to the dustbin.

I am constantly reminded of why I love what I do so much. :D Come on, May!

[Dem2theMax]

1. BRAVO! And I'm jealous! LOL.

I have a link to a huge part of my family, and I wrote to him around Christmas time but he never replied. The man is 91 and I know he did a family history on his part of my line and I'm sure he has photos. He's still living in the "family" town. Never moved away. So I'm green with envy that you got someone to talk to you! And so happy for you too. I swear, photographs are my Holy Grail! LOL.

And since I'm here, I'm going to ask you a question cuz I know you'll know the answer. ;)

How many lines of a family tree should one do? I'm confused. I started by putting ALL of my family into one tree. And then I said, OOOPS. Shouldn't mix Mom and Dad's sides. Yes? Should have one tree for each of them. Then I thought, maybe I'm supposed to do four trees. Two for each side of the family. In other words, one for Dad's paternal side and one for his maternal side and then the same for my Mom's family. So HELP me FSC! LOL. I'm going nuts here and I don't want to put another name into my trees until I know what I should be doing. Now if only I had asked this BEFORE I named the tree. I can't figure out a way to rename the tree either. Stupid software! AAAARRRGGGGG! ;)

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Well, I don't want to confuse you further...

but it's completely personal. There is no SHOULD, there is only how you feel comfortable working. Hope I didn't sound like Yoda just then...

Everyone has their own system. So don't feel like you should HAVE to do something like someone else. When I first started, I had everything all in one (both sides of all mom's and dad's branches). But it got so HUGE and unmanageable, it was hard to work with.

Nowadays, I've completely shrugged off my mom's stuff, and someone else has traced my dad's mom's side, so the Smiths are my babies. They have their own tree. If I WAS still working with my other branches though, I'd probably do four. Just seems easier that way. If you divide it up too much, it seems like it would be a little TOO confusing.

I had to start over from scratch anyway because once I realized I needed to be completely serious about what I was doing, I wanted to input sources for every fact that I input. So that made it easy to make the decision to start over from scratch. I know it isn't easy, but it is far better for the verifiability of the data.

Help any?
:-)

[Dem2theMax]

5. Oh, now THAT helps. LOL!

So in other words, keep doing what I'm doing. Driving myself crazy trying to figure out what I should be doing! LMAO! ;)

OK, I'm going to keep my Dad's line separate from my Mom's line, but within those lines, I'll keep them together. Make sense? :crazy:

If I were doing what you are doing (a book,) I think I'd do multiple lines too. But I'm just trying to get this together for the family as best I can. I figure that when I'm dead and gone, someone else had better pick up where I leave off and continue the work. Or I'll come back and haunt all of them! ;)

(And you know what? I sort of hijacked your thread when I asked you this question...so sorry about that! I realized it later that night, when it was too late to edit it! Bad Dem! ;) )

I think I'll be going to Orange County sometime next month. PM me some more info when you get a chance and I'll do some lookups! :) :) :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. Sorry!

:-)

Hey...I may not need Orange County help. I'm going to a conference for work in Long Beach next week, so am going to be hitting as many libraries etc while I'm there, and I'm taking 2 personal days to help me get it done.

One of those days I have to make a quick jaunt out to Riverside for an obituary, then I have to hit the main library in downtown LA for some more research. If I have enough time, I'm going to try to find the old houses where some of the family lived and take pix of them.

Then, for the weekend, I'm driving down to San Diego to meet with another cousin who lives in El Cajon.

I'm staying at the Hyatt in Long Beach if you want to grab a coffee or something...if I can't make it to the cemetery in Fullerton I'll give you a ring!

:hi:
fsc

[Dem2theMax]

7. A PM is waiting for you!

:) :) :)

[sybylla]

8. I did both, by the way

I have what I label my master database and then I separated the families so that my mom's ancestors were in one, my dad's ancestors were in another and my husband's family in a third. That way I could print lists and reports that separated them if I needed/wanted it that way. Now, that meant you needed to enter all your information in two places, but you could keep the master more specific and documented while the separate lists could be more "theoretical" and more of a working copy.

Of course, I did this was under old versions of Family Tree Maker because it was the only way to get what I wanted from it. Perhaps now you can be more specific when you print lists and reports so that it will separate it for you. I use Master Genealogist now and it allows me to print all reports based on a particular person and their ancestors or descendents so the need for separate databases is gone.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. That's great!

I started doing genealogical research 28 years ago as a tribute to my grandmother, who had told me "family stories" since I was a small child. Happy to say that the "stories" have turned out to be 90% true--and I'm still working on the one that I'm not sure about!

Smiths, Wisconsin from New York, eh? Did they go there in the 1840s from Western New York? Curious, as mine did--and were the pioneers of Kenosha County.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. 1857

They went from Newfield, near the Finger Lakes, to Northern Illinois (Boone County), and then up to Rock County, Wisconsin.

One of the daughters lived in Kenosha for one census or so, but mostly lived in Racine, Wausau, and then down to Maryland.

[photogirl12]

9. Congrats!

I always love to find living relatives! I am still trying to find some from my dad's side. His last name is Baker, so I guess that I will be having quite a bit of trouble! I keep putting off doing that branch, but I guess that I will have to do it sometime!