Monday This 'n That

Articles in this post: MIA, It's A Matter Of Faith, Nebraska's Best (Decendents News), Upcoming Nebraska Genealogy Events and Meetings

MIA
Yes, I've been missing in action of late. We've been having lots of babies here on the farm. Plus the garden has kept me from being infront of the computer plus the scanner portion of my printer went on the fritz so I had no way of sharing photos with you like I wanted.

I am now the proud owner of a wand type portable scanner and will be scanning pictures this week. Soooooo..............we are on a role again! I've got some great projects going!

Nebraska's Best (Decendents News)

The Monday's This 'n That post every week will include important information on the site, a DECENDENTS NEWS section where the family can make announcements, etc on current news. Does anyone remember what Decendent means?

Decendent: Proceeding from an Ancestor.................WHAT? Basically when working on your family history you choose a starting point. Generally that point is you. Everyone behind you are ancestors and everyone going forward (your children, grandchildren, etc) are decendents. However, in the instance of your decentents, you are an ancestor. There have we gone in a perfect circle now?

Basically we'd like to hear from the family about what is going on with you and your children. Keep it general and basic please since we're on the net but do keep us a bit updated. From the perspective of this BLOG the decendents of Michael and Jean Slocum are:

Billie Jean (Slocum) Hansen (5 children), Sean Michael Slocum (4 children plus caring for/adopted Kimberly's), Christopher Gene Slocum (2 children), Kimberly Jean (Slocum) Coffman (4 children) and Katrina Marie (Slocum) Shlick (2 children).

We would like to hear from the cousins of Michael Slocum and Jean (Gesch) Slocum. This means we want to know more about your families and discuss the possiblility of getting together with you for some kind of Cousins Event. It also means that we want to hear from the children of the Children of Chester A. Cunningham and Onieta Mae (Hall) Cunningham, George W. Slocum and Etta Mae (Sinclair) Slocum, August F. Gesch and Mary Elizabeth "Marie" (Rebensdorf) Gesch and Stephen J. Shavlik and Jennie Phoebe (Gunter) Shavlik.

If you are 'cousins' as described above can you let us know more about you and your children? You can EMAIL us or post on this message. We can't wait to hear from you!

It's A Matter Of Faith

I am also gathering information for an article about the faith of our fathers. What do you know about the religious life of your ancestors. If you are part of our families please EMAIL me with what you know.

Sometimes an apparent lack of faith in one of our ancestor's can give us a clue of many things. Are they hiding their faith? Were they persecuted for their faith? What do you know about your ancestors faith? Did they have a favorite Hymn or Song? How did they live out their faith?

Watch for my progress in this area. REMEMBER our goal is to make these people 'real' and not forgotten and not just names on a Family History Genealogy sheet.

Upcoming Nebraska Genealogy Activities and Meetings

Nebraska Educational Television's (NET) documentary of the OCGS "Tombstone Tour" can be found at: Tombstone tour: Finding the value in Nebraska cemeteries

Sunday, June 3, 2012:  2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Walt Branch Library,  6701 South 14th St., Lincoln.  Rayma Shrader will be at Walt Branch Library from 2-4 PM to assist LLCGS members and anyone else interested in genealogical research.  Bring your questions about 1940 census, puzzles related to where to search next, etc. Invite folks who are curious about genealogy and they can learn how to begin using library resources. 

5 June 2012: Family History Library (Latter Day Saints) 8:30 pm 3000 Old Cheney Road, Lincoln. IMMIGRATION

7 June 2012: Tri-State Corners Genealogical Society (includes Richardson County) Meetings are 7:30 p.m. the first Thursday of each month at the Pioneer Plaza Meeting Room, 1820 Barada Street, Falls City, NE.


16 June 2012: Family History Library (Latter Day Saints) 8:30 pm 3000 Old Cheney Road, Lincoln. EMIGRATION

16 Jun 2012: The Otoe County Genealogical Society will be hosting a presentation on "Witching Unmarked Graves" from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. at the Unadilla Cemetery in Unadilla, Nebraska, and afterwards at the Park Hill Cemetery in Syracuse. Cost is $5.00, which includes a witching rod and presentation material. Checks need to be made out to "OCGS" and mailed in along with your name and contact information by June 1st to P.O. Box 465, Syracuse, NE 68446. If you would like more information regarding this event, please contact OCGS president, Mary Hanke at hankemary@cox.net.


16 Jun 2012: The Greater Omaha Genealogical Society will be hosting a FREE gernealogy class, titled, Part I: "Finding Family on the Internet—Is It Accurate?" Once thought to be primarily the tool of business and science, the internet is being taken over by genealogists. What’s out there? Part II: "There’s More in the Courthouse than Vital Records." Learn what helpful records can be found in the courthouse to document your family history. This class will be held from 9:15 a.m. to 12:00pm at the Mormon Trail Center, 3215 State Street in Omaha. Classes are free, but pre-registration is requested. Please call (402) 706-1453 or email at genclass@aol.com.


23 June 2012: Extra! Extra! Read All About It – using newspapers for genealogy research.
Presented by Susan Petersen of LongLostRelatives.net  11:00 am W. Dale Clark Library, 215 S. 15th St, Omaha, NE 

Monday This n That

Organizing the Search

I have two hobbies (sewing and geneaology) that share the same room/office.  Most of you know that it is not the most organized room but I'm working on it.  This is also where my desk is for bill paying and the like and most everything is all mixed together.  Most of the time I know where things are at so if you ask me for something I usually know which pile to go to.  I ALWAYS have a desire to be organized so I started searching the web for ideas on the best way to organize my genealogy so that I could work on it effectivly.  Recently I found that I had paid for a few birth and death certificates that I already had so something HAS to be done.

As  you progress in your family history research you'll find that you have numerous paper documents to file for the individucals that you are researching.  These documents will include; birth records, census records, newspaper articles, wills, correspondence.  You'll find that you need some type of filing system that will keep these documents accessable.

Commonly used genealogical filing systems include:

• Surname - All papers for an individual surname are filed together
• By Couple or Family - All papers related to a husband and wife or family unit are filed together.
• By Family Line - All papers related to a specific family ine are filed together.
• By Event - All papers related to a specific event type are filed together.

After breaking the system down as above you can then further organize your papers into categories:

• By Location - Break it down by country, state, county or town.
• By Record Type - Birt Records, Census Records, wills, etc

Filing Systems

Once you get started organizing your genealogical clutter, you'll probably find that a combinatio of storage methods work best for you.  I find the binder methods works when I am working on a current family or line.  This keeps my research easily accessible and portable.  I also use a combination of compter and paper files. 

• Filing Cabinet & Folders - This is probably the most popular organizational tool.  They are inexpensive, somewhat portable and easily hold papers of different shapes and sizes.
• Binders - Binders are portable and don't require a filing cabinet.  If you don't wish to punch holes i your documents you can put them in polypropelene sleeves. 
• Computer Disks, CD's and DVD's - This method can save a lot of time and space.  It greatly speeds up sorting and cross-referencig. Keep the future generations in mind. As fast as technology is changing in 50 years will your descendents be able to access the files on your disc or will yor technology be so outdated that it will be unusable.  If you use this methos consider making and preservig copies or printouts of important documents.

Next Monday we'll discuss how to set up a filing system.

Saturday, May 5 through Sunday, May 6

Nebraska State Genealogical Society
Annual Meeting and Conference 

Have you registered yet?

The 2012 NESGS Annual Membership Meeting and Conference will be held in Grand Island, Nebraska on May 5th and 6th at the Midtown Holiday Inn. The featured speaker is Laura Prescott, professional researcher,writer and speaker. Additional sessions wil be presented by Gary Zaborketsky, Kim Verrell, Cateherine Renschler, and others.

This is the 35th anniversary of NSGS. Cost for the conference is $85.00 for both days and includes lunch and the syllabus. A one day conference registraion is $50.00.

LLCGS will have a table at the conference.

For more info visit http://NESGS.org

One of Nebraska's Finest

New Nebraska State Trooper Christopher Slocum, his wife Kandi, and children Danny and Jenny
They will be moving to Chris' new post in Fillmore County, Nebraska in the next couple of weeks. Please pray for them!!