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A death in the family...
It is always a sad time when family members pass away. As time goes on in our lives, we lose family members and we struggle to learn how to handle each death. We reflect upon their lives and our interactions. Generally, memories of other family come to mind. This is normal for all of us; however, genealogists often think about that person's family line and the missing data & brick walls that exist for that line.
Recently, my Aunt Doris [West] Brophy passed away at age 88. Although she lived a long way from where I have lived all during my life, I do remember being with her in person on 3 or 4 occasions. The last time was when she asked me to take her to where her father and other family members were buried in Christian County, Kentucky. She wanted to know a little more about her family she just barely knew or remembered. Aunt Doris was my father's sister and her family is the half of my family that I have been researching for over 50 years. I gave her a print out of her line from my database. Her father's line has been filled in fairly well, but her mother's line was not as well known. Over the years, much could not be found on the Phipps or Flatt lines that belong to her mother's side. It was always difficult to learn anything new... over the years, I would find just a little more, but it was never easy! Aunt Doris asked me to see what I could learn about these families for her. I tried searching on the Internet, Ancestry.com, USGenWeb & others. I checked county records & cemeteries. Mostly only finding small bits of information that did not advance my research.
This week after her death, I thought about her line some more. I went to my Family Tree Maker program that is now owned by Ancestry.com using its search the web function. I was able to find several new items on her Uncle Samuel Lee Phipps & Great Uncle Robert Phipps... found several documents that gave me additional information on others in the Phipps line. My Ancestry.com subscription is starting to pay off, especially when I come back to siblings of my ancestors. The search engine at Ancestry looks for all possibilities & variations. I found each of these uncles by checking the variations and then I knew where to look for more. Both moved to other places and I found where they had been hiding from me! I have found a lot of missing data and I have removed a couple of bricks from that brick wall in my Phipps family. I need to go for now, found a few more loose bricks!
- Written by JGWest
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
"Uncle Dudley dies at 86"
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Chet Behrman...
Evansville Local TV Pioneer,
died Tuesday 25 Jan 2011.
He was one of my heroes growing up with that new thing called TV back in the days when everything was still black & white. Behrman played a noon, lunch time character to cover for the non-existent national shows during that time of day. He was Uncle Dudley to every kid from 1956 thru the early 1960's. He had a metal polka-dotted lunch bucket and between cartoons, he would announce birthdays of kids. Really cool to hear Uncle Dudley wish you a happy birthday on Television!!! Of course what we remember most were his miniature-sized toys of a worm & a giraffe (& others): Juan Worm & Jerry Giraffe. I remember as an adult working on the J. Jeff Hays campaign for Evansville Mayor. Jeff asked me to deliver a press release for that day to the TV & radio stations. I walked into NBC-WFIE Channel 14 and Chet Behrman took the news package... all I could say was "you are Uncle Dudley!!!" He was both pleased & embarrassed, but he was my hero and he knew it.
- written by JGWest
Chet Behrman...
Evansville Local TV Pioneer,
died Tuesday 25 Jan 2011.
He was one of my heroes growing up with that new thing called TV back in the days when everything was still black & white. Behrman played a noon, lunch time character to cover for the non-existent national shows during that time of day. He was Uncle Dudley to every kid from 1956 thru the early 1960's. He had a metal polka-dotted lunch bucket and between cartoons, he would announce birthdays of kids. Really cool to hear Uncle Dudley wish you a happy birthday on Television!!! Of course what we remember most were his miniature-sized toys of a worm & a giraffe (& others): Juan Worm & Jerry Giraffe. I remember as an adult working on the J. Jeff Hays campaign for Evansville Mayor. Jeff asked me to deliver a press release for that day to the TV & radio stations. I walked into NBC-WFIE Channel 14 and Chet Behrman took the news package... all I could say was "you are Uncle Dudley!!!" He was both pleased & embarrassed, but he was my hero and he knew it.
- written by JGWest
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
"Historic Evansville Newspaper Online!"
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The Evansville Argus...
... an excellent local African-American newspaper that was published for about 5-6 years from 1938 to 1943. It is a very interesting paper that should be of great help to historians & genealogists. It can be found on the David Rice Library at the University of Southern Indiana.
My good friend, Taneya Koonce, sent me a "heads-up" on this new data online. She has a great blog that she calls - "Taneya's Genealogy Blog" that you can visit to learn more about this great news. I met with Taneya a couple years ago at Willard Library. She is a medical librarian with 1 0+ years in information management & organization. She holds a Masters of Science in Library Science – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC – 1999 and a Masters of Public Health – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine – 2010. Taneya applies her professional experience in the identification, selection, evaluation, & critical analysis of information resources to her genealogy hobby pursuits. Her own quest in family history research started in 2006 after rediscovering family tree notes taken during interviews with her grandmothers approximately 10 years earlier. Already an active volunteer with the national USGenWeb Project and dedicated to helping others locate additional information to enrich their own family history knowledge, she is also an active blogger and participant in the Internet genealogy community. Her particular interests lie heavily in technology and historical newspaper research. Taneya has contributed a lot of great blogs & information to the TSGS Cruiser Blog! Thanks, Taneya!
- Compiled by JGWest
The Evansville Argus...
... an excellent local African-American newspaper that was published for about 5-6 years from 1938 to 1943. It is a very interesting paper that should be of great help to historians & genealogists. It can be found on the David Rice Library at the University of Southern Indiana.
My good friend, Taneya Koonce, sent me a "heads-up" on this new data online. She has a great blog that she calls - "Taneya's Genealogy Blog" that you can visit to learn more about this great news. I met with Taneya a couple years ago at Willard Library. She is a medical librarian with 1 0+ years in information management & organization. She holds a Masters of Science in Library Science – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC – 1999 and a Masters of Public Health – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine – 2010. Taneya applies her professional experience in the identification, selection, evaluation, & critical analysis of information resources to her genealogy hobby pursuits. Her own quest in family history research started in 2006 after rediscovering family tree notes taken during interviews with her grandmothers approximately 10 years earlier. Already an active volunteer with the national USGenWeb Project and dedicated to helping others locate additional information to enrich their own family history knowledge, she is also an active blogger and participant in the Internet genealogy community. Her particular interests lie heavily in technology and historical newspaper research. Taneya has contributed a lot of great blogs & information to the TSGS Cruiser Blog! Thanks, Taneya!- Compiled by JGWest
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Dock at the Library - TSGS Meeting Notice
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Announcing...
the 1st. TSGS Meeting in 2011!
When: 7:00PM 11 Jan 2011 Tuesday (we always meet on the 2nd. Tuesday of the month).
Where: 2nd. Floor of Willard Library (First Avenue, Evansville, IN).
Agenda: Adopt Annual Budget, Exchange Genealogical News/Information, Enjoy Connie Conrad's Slide Presentation of Cemetery Tombstones.
TSGS members & non-members are always welcome!
ATTENDANCE/DOOR PRIZE
will be awarded at end of meeting.
Connie Conrad's program will be entertaining, interesting and educational. Some grave markers are beautiful works of art; some are actually humorous; some are unique or odd; some are mysterious, intriguing, worthy of researching! Come see her presentation... you will be glad you did.
The entire meeting should be over no later than 8:30PM. If there is inclement weather check this blog for cancellation or other information. You may call Willard Library as well.
John G. West, TSGS President
Announcing...
the 1st. TSGS Meeting in 2011!
When: 7:00PM 11 Jan 2011 Tuesday (we always meet on the 2nd. Tuesday of the month).
Where: 2nd. Floor of Willard Library (First Avenue, Evansville, IN).
Agenda: Adopt Annual Budget, Exchange Genealogical News/Information, Enjoy Connie Conrad's Slide Presentation of Cemetery Tombstones.
TSGS members & non-members are always welcome!
ATTENDANCE/DOOR PRIZE
will be awarded at end of meeting.
Connie Conrad's program will be entertaining, interesting and educational. Some grave markers are beautiful works of art; some are actually humorous; some are unique or odd; some are mysterious, intriguing, worthy of researching! Come see her presentation... you will be glad you did.
The entire meeting should be over no later than 8:30PM. If there is inclement weather check this blog for cancellation or other information. You may call Willard Library as well.
John G. West, TSGS President
Sunday, December 26, 2010
"Every Photo Tells A Story"
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Below is a picture of our little dog... Ollie!
He is very hard to photograph because he is super hyperactive! They say that Terriers are naturally very active dogs and they say West Highland White Terriers (WESTIES) are exceptionally feisty! So, what does this have to do with genealogy and where is the story?
In this case it is hard to know what the story is since it is just a photo taken at some unknown time somewhere with only the dog. If you know much about digital pics, you would be able to tell it is a modified digital photo, probably taken in the last 10 years or less (it could be older, but not likely). You have good enough features to realize that it is a Westie, which is generally an expensive dog to obtain and to some extent to maintain. You might think the owners had a little bit of money... but not in this case. Ollie was a gift from friends that had too many other dogs to maintain (someone gave Ollie to them). One thing is for sure, the owners took this photo because they loved the dog or they wanted to find it another home by showing the photo to others. In this case the owners loved the little dog.
Why did I select this picture for this blog? Well, I just told you that we love our dog... just like all pet owners. We are all proud to show off our pets. How many pets do you see in the photo Christmas greeting cards with the whole family & the pets? We would have been in the photo with Ollie, but it is almost impossible to catch him not moving. Ok, again what is my point? All of us, including our ancestors, are/were proud of our pets, cars/trucks, horses, pistols, rifles, farm animals, homes, etc. You know someone was a hunter or fisherman because they took pictures of themselves with the "catch" which was so important to them and a source of pride!
Just take a look at the older pictures in your family and you will see these items in most of the photos... it tells you about the person and what was important to them. You may not be able to know what the story is behind a lot of these photos, but you can learn a little more about the people in them. I will say that people did not have digital cameras until just the last 10-15 years - which means they were using film that cost money to buy it & develop it. You did not always have film for the camera without going somewhere to buy it. Which the genealogical detective in me suggests that they had film because there will be a special event to take photos or there was still film in the camera after such a special event. More often than not, people took photos to finish out the roll to take it in to get it developed. They would pick things that had some value to them or to ensure they had a recent photo of everyone.
Like most of us that take photos, we generally make sure what is in the background is appropriate or has some meaning to it. On the farm, you will see the tractor, the barn, cows, horses, chickens or other animals. You might see crops, flowers, a wagon of hay, or other items signifying pride in the farm like a basket of eggs! There is a story in those photos about these people. You may not know what kind of farmers they were, until you see the tobacco leaves hanging in the barn.
During your Christmas Holiday & New Years, it might be a good time to look through some old photos to see what stories you can learn from them. Look at the people you know well to see how they told you a lot about themselves in their photos and then apply what you have seen to the ones that you did not know as well. Anyway, it should be a good time to reflect on your family.
Happy Holidays, looking forward to a great new genealogical year!
- Written by JGWest
Below is a picture of our little dog... Ollie!
He is very hard to photograph because he is super hyperactive! They say that Terriers are naturally very active dogs and they say West Highland White Terriers (WESTIES) are exceptionally feisty! So, what does this have to do with genealogy and where is the story?
In this case it is hard to know what the story is since it is just a photo taken at some unknown time somewhere with only the dog. If you know much about digital pics, you would be able to tell it is a modified digital photo, probably taken in the last 10 years or less (it could be older, but not likely). You have good enough features to realize that it is a Westie, which is generally an expensive dog to obtain and to some extent to maintain. You might think the owners had a little bit of money... but not in this case. Ollie was a gift from friends that had too many other dogs to maintain (someone gave Ollie to them). One thing is for sure, the owners took this photo because they loved the dog or they wanted to find it another home by showing the photo to others. In this case the owners loved the little dog.Why did I select this picture for this blog? Well, I just told you that we love our dog... just like all pet owners. We are all proud to show off our pets. How many pets do you see in the photo Christmas greeting cards with the whole family & the pets? We would have been in the photo with Ollie, but it is almost impossible to catch him not moving. Ok, again what is my point? All of us, including our ancestors, are/were proud of our pets, cars/trucks, horses, pistols, rifles, farm animals, homes, etc. You know someone was a hunter or fisherman because they took pictures of themselves with the "catch" which was so important to them and a source of pride!
Just take a look at the older pictures in your family and you will see these items in most of the photos... it tells you about the person and what was important to them. You may not be able to know what the story is behind a lot of these photos, but you can learn a little more about the people in them. I will say that people did not have digital cameras until just the last 10-15 years - which means they were using film that cost money to buy it & develop it. You did not always have film for the camera without going somewhere to buy it. Which the genealogical detective in me suggests that they had film because there will be a special event to take photos or there was still film in the camera after such a special event. More often than not, people took photos to finish out the roll to take it in to get it developed. They would pick things that had some value to them or to ensure they had a recent photo of everyone.
Like most of us that take photos, we generally make sure what is in the background is appropriate or has some meaning to it. On the farm, you will see the tractor, the barn, cows, horses, chickens or other animals. You might see crops, flowers, a wagon of hay, or other items signifying pride in the farm like a basket of eggs! There is a story in those photos about these people. You may not know what kind of farmers they were, until you see the tobacco leaves hanging in the barn.
During your Christmas Holiday & New Years, it might be a good time to look through some old photos to see what stories you can learn from them. Look at the people you know well to see how they told you a lot about themselves in their photos and then apply what you have seen to the ones that you did not know as well. Anyway, it should be a good time to reflect on your family.
Happy Holidays, looking forward to a great new genealogical year!
- Written by JGWest
Saturday, December 25, 2010
"Jesus is the Reason & Christmas Trees are in Season!"
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A few Christmas Trees I have seen this year...
My photos do not do them justice for they were far more beautiful!
Photos taken by JGWest Click on the image to enlarge it.
Merry Christmas to all family historians
and the members of the Tri-State Genealogical Society
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