Thursday, December 31, 2020

Year End Post ~ 2020 - A Look Back–What were the highlights of my family research?

This blurry image is kind of how I will look back at 2020

None of us will ever forget this year, will we?  Nothing like we ever expected or ever thought of.  I have to say that I wish I’d have kept a journal.  If not a daily journal, at least a weekly one.  It would have made great reading for future generations.  Did any of you keep one?

As a blogger I have not written as many posts as I like to.  When all of this began, I couldn’t concentrate and had no desire to write at all.  I barely wanted to research.  I think many of us were disconcerted and unsettled as all of this unfolded.  At least I know I was.

Thus, I ended the year with my fewest posts since 2013.  Only 56. But, I must think of it as 56 stories that might never have been told.

The first part of this year (before we were all staying home), I had such fun at Rootstech.  My friend, Pam and I were in Salt Lake City for a week, from Feb 23 – Mar 1.  About 30,000 people attended this conference and just two weeks later, we were all told to stay home and isolate.  I’m so glad we got to go and cannot wait to go again.  

Here’s a link to my summary of Rootstech

Here I am writing on the Rootstech Story Board

This was the 10th anniversary of my blog, or as we call them blogiversaries.  I started the year by celebrating that milestone.  Celebrating my 10th Blogiversary

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS YEAR WERE:

  • Some very interesting FRIDAY FINDS – included was the ever so elusive marriage record of my great grandparents, William V. Gould and May E. Thorp,   The Hospital Register for Death of Volunteers in the Civil War,   The 6th child of Rev. George Hall & his wife Almira
  • My journey to join the Mayflower Society.  From FINALLY finding the record I needed for my 3rd great grandmother, Olive Doten Hart, linking her to her father, to my application process and finally receiving my certificate.  It was a longtime dream of mine and to have finally “made it” was incredibly rewarding.  My Mayflower Society Journey
  • And the final highlight from this year would be the incredible gift of receiving my husband Ron’s great grandmother’s scrapbook.  A cousin sent this treasure to me for safe keeping.  What a treasure it is.  Here are the posts I’ve written so far, with many more to come Cora's Scrapbook.  There are newspapers from 1800-1865, personal correspondence, a photo of a wedding cake from 1877 and so much more, so stay tuned.

I can see from writing this post, that, although it wasn’t my most prolific writing year, it was certainly one filled with many great finds and lots of family stories.

I hope you’ll all stay with me as we welcome 2021 and hope for a much better year for all of us.

THE VERY HAPPIEST AND HEALTHIEST OF NEW YEARS TO ALL OF YOU – Here’s to a great 2021!

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

TUESDAY’S TIPS ~ New cousin connections made from watching a 10 minute video


No matter how long we have been researching our ancestors, we are always learning something new.  Whether we attend classes at our local society, read any of the wonderful blogs by my fellow bloggers (there are over 3,000 of them), get a tip from a fellow genealogist, watch webinars, learn from Facebook groups,  or attend a conference in person (when that becomes possible again).  There is no shortage of learning opportunities.

I decided to watch a quick 10 minute video offered by Legacy (the software program I’ve used for years).  This was a short tutorial about how to make connections on the 23&Me website for DNA.

While my DNA and my mother’s are on that site, as we both tested there.  I’ll admit to not using the site very often (I use the Ancestry DNA site all the time).  All of us have our favorites.  I’ve tested or have results uploaded to all the major DNA sites.

The tutorial I watched was called Connection Requests at 23andMe by Michelle Leonard M.A., PgCert.  As I said before it is 10 minutes long and rated as Beginner.  Click here for a link to the video. 

After watching it, I went right to 23 & Me and began inviting some of my matches to share their DNA with me.  Now, we all know that sending any kind of message to someone on any of the sites is a “longshot.”  Will they respond?  Did they even receive my message? The chances of getting a response are low (I speak from experience and information from others).  But, I had not really sent requests for more than a handful of matches on 23 & Me over the past 7-8 years.

I wanted to try and make contact with some of the people in the DNA tree automatically built on the website.  Knowing that some of the suggestions I’ve seen on that tree are quite accurate and others are not.  I was going for the low hanging fruit.  These are the people at the bottom of the tree created using my DNA.  Here is an image showing how these people appear in the automatically created tree.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it) I have blurred the names for privacy 

I sent 9 requests to connect, using the suggestions from the video.  As suggested I kept it simple, no attached message, just a request to share DNA. This allows me to see the matches we share in common and to view the chromosome browser.  Viewing the chromosome browser allows me to paint that match into DNA Painter.

How many would you expect to hear back from?  I thought I’d be very fortunate if one person responded. 

SURPRISE!  I heard back from 3, accepting my invitation to share.  They all responded within a day. None of the other 6 have responded...yet.

In the past few days I’ve been communicating with all 3 of those matches and have new cousins to add to my tree, as a result. 

As a matter of fact I was so excited to figure out the match between me and a match named Cheryl, that I spent 4 hours building a tree on Ancestry, for her family.  She only gave me 2 names to go on, Edward Riggs and Audrey Gerkin.  No dates, no places.  Using Blaine Bettinger’s Quick & Dirty trees idea, I began building.  I used obituaries, census records, birth, marriage and death records to try and build this tree back several generations.  We’ve all seen CeCe Moore and others go through this process to find unknown parentage and criminal suspects.  I’ve built several of these kinds of trees before, but cannot claim much success. 

NOTE:  When you do build a Q&D tree it should be private AND UNsearchable. You don’t want anyone else to use it or take items from it since you are not conducting exhaustive research on each person and do not want to proliferate errors.

Within four hours of starting that Q&D tree, at 10:59 p.m. I located who I believed to be our Most Recent Common Ancestor!  WOW! I was excited and very proud of myself. 

Now what?  Time to go down the descendant line from that common ancestor and really look closely to make sure I’m correct.  This is where you slow down and look at all the records as in our regular, due diligence, research.

What was my conclusion?  I was right on the money.  Cheryl and I share my 3rd great grandparents, Monson THORP & Lany COOPER.  They are my 3rd and her 4th great grandparents.  She's a generation younger than I am.  I also share DNA with her mother, a woman who’s name I have seen numerous times on various DNA sites and had no idea how we connected…..until now. 

Here is an image of that Q&D tree


Now, Cheryl and I are talking back & forth and she told her mother about our discovery. There are things they didn’t know about some of the lines I have information about.  We will talk more after the new year and they may have some photos and other information for me.  I will gladly share anything I have with them.

On another note. One of the other matches and I have also been in touch and she actually lives in Detroit.  We are also connected through the Thorp line, but via another route.  She has all her parent’s family research and lots of information.  We also plan to talk after the new year.

ALL of this from a 10 minute video.  Never stop learning and never stop looking. 

If you have any comments or you’ve had a similar experience, I’d love to hear about it.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Friday, December 25, 2020

CHRISTMAS 2020 - What else is there to say? Let's look back at some Christmas Memories Past

 


This isn’t like any Christmas I’ve ever known.  Because it’s 2020, the year of the Covid Pandemic, people are not gathering as they usually do. 

But, to have some kind of Christmas post, I will share some pictures from previous Christmases.  Happier times are ahead of us.


Me, my brother Norm and our Mom - 2006

My nephew Joshua and niece Myriah

My stepson, Scott

Our granddaughter Lexi
AND A BLAST FROM THE PAST
 Me as a little girl, when we lived in Detroit


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Michigan Girl

 

Sunday, December 13, 2020

CEMETERY SUNDAY ~ East Monkton Cemetery, Monkton, Addison, Vermont


East Monkton Cemetery also know as Morgan Cemetery is in Addison County, Vermont.  You can go directly to the FindAGrave page for this cemetery here East Monkton.

According to the findagrave website there are 337 memorials added to this cemetery and 99% have been photographed. 

According to the Cemetery Registry the address is 41 Church Rd., in Monkton, Addison, Vermont.  Although I conducted some pretty thorough searches on Google trying to learn more about this cemetery, it’s history etc., I didn’t have much luck.  One site said it was established in 1812.

As to the area of Monkton, Vermont I did locate this information on Wikipedia:

“Monkton is located in northern Addison County at 44°15′14.5″N 73°7′26.13″W. It is situated on the eastern edge of the Champlain Valley, in the foothills of the Green Mountains. It is bordered by the town of Ferrisburgh to the west, New Haven and Bristol to the south, and Starksboro to the east. To the north are the towns of Charlotte and Hinesburg in Chittenden County.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Monkton has a total area of 36.3 square miles (93.9 km2), of which 35.9 square miles (92.9 km2) is land and 0.39 square miles (1.0 km2), or 1.04%, is water.[3] Monkton is home to Cedar Lake, located north of the center of town between the communities of "Monkton Boro" and Monkton Ridge.”

To find out who I have in my tree, buried at this cemetery is as easy as a few mouse click in Legay.  Master Locations>Find>type in the name and you get a list.  As long as you are consistent with your entries in any database, you should be able to easily use the “find” feature to create such lists.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

As you can see I have records of 12 ancestors being buried in the cemetery.  At least these are the burials I’m aware of at this time.

CHAMBERLIN, Emily (1815-1892) – wife of 2nd cousin 4 times removed (married to Ryland Doten)

DOTEN, Clarinda E. (1819-1898) – 1st cousin 4 times removed (married to Abisher Lawrence)

DOTEN, Daniel (1798-1812) – 3rd great granduncle

DOTEN, Emily M.(1869-1881) – 3rd cousin twice removed (died age 12)

DOTEN, Isaac Sr. (1768-1852) – 4th great grandfather (married to Sally Follett)

DOTEN, Isaac Jr.(1789-1866) – 3rd great granduncle (married to Artemesia Follett)

DOTEN, Julius H. (1845-1893) – 2nd cousin three times removed (married to Loretta D. Scott who is buried in Massachusetts)

DOTEN, Millison (1808-1868) – 3rd great grandaunt

DOTEN, Ryland (1812-1881) – 1st cousin four times removed (married to Emily Chamberlin)

FOLLETT, Artemesia (1791-1861) – wife of 3rd great granduncle (married to Isaac Doten, Jr.)

FOLLETT, Sally (1766-1849) – 4th great grandmother (married to Isaac Doten, Sr.)

LAWRENCE, Abisher (1818-1893) – husband of 1st cousin 4 times removed (married to Clarinda Doten)

How many of these do I have headstone pictures for?

Looks like I have photos for 11 of the 12.  I’m only missing Artemesia Follett Doten’s.

First row left to right - Emily Doten - Abisher & Clarinda Lawrence - Daniel Doten;  Second row - Sally & Isaac Doten, Sr., little Emily Mary Doten, Millison Doten; Third row - Julius Doten, Ryland Doten & Isaac Doten, Jr.

If you are descended from or connected with anyone mentioned here, I’d love to hear from you.  Let’s exchange information

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Thursday, December 3, 2020

CORA’S SCRAPBOOK ~ Episode 3–The obituary of her Aunt, Caroline Matilda Snyder Avery – 1841-1885


This obituary along with others, appear on various pages of Cora’s scrapbook.  I’m grateful she kept them because some of them are new to me.  I’m a newspaper hound and love to search the various websites for articles.  Some of the ones Cora kept are ones I have not been able to locate.  The only better thing would have been the names of the newspapers and dates.  Cora left that for me to figure out.

Cora’s mother Cemanthe AVERY has a sister named Mary, whom I know very little about and a brother named Calvin Montgomery Avery.  I knew he had married Caroline M. Snyder, and I have one child born to them, a daughter.  I don’t have a date of marriage for Calvin & Carolyn, but based on census records, they married between 1860 & 1865.  Will I find the marriage record in Cora’s scrapbook?  Or will some of her information lead me to finding it?

Here is a portion of the page from Cora's scrapbook, with the obituary toward the bottom.  I believe these were from two different newspapers.  I've tried finding them on newspapers.com, genealogy bank and Fulton postcards website (where I had located her husband's obituary).  No luck so far. As a result I can tell you the source.


Transcription:

AVERY - In Saratoga Springs, at No. 69 Lawrence street, Nov 23, 1885, of peritonitis.  Caroline Matilda Snyder, wife of Calvin M. Avery, in the 44th year of her life.
  Mrs. Caroline Matilda, wife of Calvin M. Avery, died at her residence, No. 69 Lawrence street at an early hour yesterday evening from peritonitis.  She was taken ill in August last but had nearly recovered.  On Tuesday afternoon last she was seized with the disease which carried her off.  On Saturday last she was more comfortable, but during the night a change for the worse, was observed and she gradually failed until death came to her relief.  Her husband and one child, Miss Gussie, survive her.  The funeral will be held on Thursday next at 12:30 o'clock at Bethesda Episcopal church.

I have located another record of Caroline’s death in the NY Death Index

New York, Death Index, 1880-1956
Name:    Caroline M. Avery
Death Date: 23 Nov 1885
Death Place: Saratoga Springs, New York, USA
Certificate Number: 26886

I have ordered other death records from Saratoga Springs, New York.  I expect I could request Caroline’s and may, in fact, do that.  I like to have as much documentation as I can.

Caroline’s life was fairly short, dying at age 44.  I do hope those years she had with her husband and daughter were happy ones.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Sunday, November 29, 2020

CENSUS SUNDAY ~ Finding 3 ancestor families on one page–GOFF, LUNSFORD, SOWARDS–1870 Missouri

Today I was researching part of my LUNSFORD family.  I got to the 1870 census and got a bonus.  As we know, it should be common practice to look at every name on a census page.  It’s also recommended that you look at the page before and after the record you have found.  I think that’s a great idea, but I don’t always practice it, although I should. In this case I did look at the page before and after and didn’t find any more families I recognized. 

I located 3 ancestor families, with familiar surnames, on one page of an 1870 census for Benton, Polk, Missouri.1 Actually there is a 4th, working as a laborer in one of the families and his surname, BIRD, is also familiar to me.

I've underlined the family names on this page

(Click on the image to enlarge it)


So, who have I found today?

Line 10-18 - My maternal 3rd great grandaunt, Elizabeth LUNSFORD and her husband James GOFF along with their children John, Sarah A., Dow, Elijah, James M, Reuben and Alice B.  James is a Farmer and Elizabeth is keeping house.  Sarah, Dow, Elijah and James all attend school.  The value of James’ real estate is $1,000 ($19,876 in today’s money) and his personal estate is valued at $393 ($7,812 in today’s money).  James was doing quite well for himself.  Sadly, Elizabeth died just 5 years later in 1875, age 47.

Line 19-25 – My maternal 3rd great granduncle, Reuben LUNSFORD (brother to Elizabeth Lunsford) and his wife Elizabeth B. nee PEYTON and their children Byron, Sarah B, Mary B. and Elizabeth’s mother Mary Lunsford nee HUDSON.  Also in this household is James M. BIRD working as a Farm laborer. The Bird family married into my Hudson family.  Reuben is listed as a farmer, Betsy is keeping house and Byron is a school teacher.  There is no real estate valued for Reuben, but there is a personal estate value of $1150 ($22,862 in today’s money).  I notice that Elizabeth’s mother, Mary does have real estate valued beside her name. I wonder if Reuben is working her land? The value is $1000 ($19,876 in today’s money).

Line 26-30 – My maternal 1st cousin 4 times removed, Archibald SOWARDS and his wife Zippora nee MARKEL.  Their children are Malissa, Maggie and Zula.  The surname is enumerated as Sowers, but the family name is known as Sowards.  Archibald doesn’t have a real estate value listed, but does have personal property valued at $100 ($1,988 in today’s money).  Archibald is the youngest of the 3 men who are farmers in this group.  He is 26 and just starting out, so it makes sense that he doesn’t yet have as much in personal property.

Another item I look at on these census records is the boxes on the right hand side.  In this case, let’s look at who is listed as “cannot read” and “cannot write.”

Cannot Read: James M. Bird, age 18, Zipora Sowards, age 23.

Cannot Write: Dow Goff, age 14, Elijah Goff, age 11, James Bird, age 18 and Zipora Sowards, age 23.

I wonder if those individuals learned to read and write later in their lives?

I also wonder what brought these three families to Missouri?  They were originally from Ohio and Virginia. Did one family go and the rest follow?  Or did they all go at once?  These are questions I always ask, knowing I will probably never find out.

If you are connected to anyone mentioned in this blog post, I’d love to hear from you and exchange information.

Source citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Benton, Polk, Missouri; Roll: M593_800; Page: 13A; Family History Library Film: 552299

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks–Week #10–This week’s theme is Large Family–Let’s look back at John & Mary Lunsford’s 16 children

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Saturday, November 28, 2020

ANCESTORS IN THE NEWS ~ Carl E. Lindhorst, age 17–Dead in a car crash, 1954, Illinois


Carl E. Lindhorst was the son of Edwin Lindhorst (1912-1996) & Helen Marian Hunter (1917-1994).  Carl is my maternal 2nd cousin once removed.

Carl was born 24 Jul 1937 in Illinois.  He is the only recorded child I have for Edwin & Helen.  How very difficult this must have been for them.  I had basic information in my database about Carl, until doing more research while writing this post.

First though, here is the article about Carl’s death in an accident between a car & a truck, on 12 Aug 1954.  Both Carl and another young man, Michael Mernick were killed in this tragic accident.

St. Louis Dispatch 13 Aug 1954, page 14A

Transcription:

2 Dupo Youths Killed as Auto, Truck Collide – Carl Lindhorst and Michael Mernick, Dupo(Ill) youths, were killed and two other persons were injured last night in a head-on collision between a truck and an automobile on Illinois Route 3 near Columbia, 15 miles south of St. Louis.

Lindhorst, 17 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lindhorst, was driving the automobile.  Mernick, 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Mernick, was a passenger. 

The injured – Stanley Hudson, 16, and DeWayne Davis, 17, both of Dupo also were riding in the dar driven by Lindhorst.  Hudson suffered injuries of the neck and wrist, Davis cuts.  They were taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis.

Paul R. Miller of Charleston, Mo., driver of the truck was not injured.

I was able to locate his high school annual on MyHeritage and found a photo of him with his basketball team in 1953.

Carl Lindhorst in the front row - 3rd from left

Then I located an entire page in the Dupo High School yearbook from 1955, dedicated to Carl and a bio about him.  He sounded like a promising young man with many friends.  Like the death of anyone at age 17, you wonder what his future would have been.

1955 Dupo High School yearbook - Honoring Carl Lindhorst

Transcription:

We, the members of the class of 1955 of D.C.H.S. dedicate this page of our yearbook in loving memory of Carl Edwin Lindhorst, who was a member of our class until his fatal accident near Columbia on August 12, 1954, had been chosen editor of the 1955 El Tigre. He had been on the annual staff for two years and took part in many other activities.  He played center on the football team, and was student manager in other sports.  Popular and well liked, Carl’s friendly smile is missed in the halls of D.C.H.S.

While Michael Mernick may not be one of my ancestors, I will still honor him today by posting the memorial page from Dupo High School in 1956, the year he would have graduated.

1956 Dupo High School yearbook - Honoring Michael Mernick

I have also located a court case that was filed on behalf of those young men who were killed.  The case alleges misconduct and negligence on the part of the truck driver.  You may read the article here Mernick vs Chiodini - 1956 court case

You may visit Carl’s memorial on FindAGrave here #104355292.

It’s always sad for me to share these stories from our ancestors lives. But, as in our own lives, not everything or everyday is all ice cream and cake.  I share all of their stories to honor & remember them. 

If you are connected with anyone mentioned in this post, please get in touch.  I’d love to hear from you. 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

CORA’S SCRAPBOOK ~ Episode 2 – Thomas C. Hall & Cora E. Brown marriage announcement, 1877


This is the story of my journey through Cora’s scrapbook.  I will give a link to all posts at the beginning of each new post.  Here’s that link My posts about Cora's Scrapbook

The very first piece of family history I find in this scrapbook is the wedding announcement of Cora to Thomas C. Hall.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I knew they had married 5 Feb 1877, based on information in his Civil War Pension file.  But, what other evidence did I have.  None! 

Thomas was 32 at the time of the marriage and Cora was 22.  Their only child, Charles Schuyler Hall was born 13 months after the marriage, on 5 Mar 1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York. I have no record of any other children born to this couple.

Here are the newspaper clippings from the scrapbook.  It doesn’t say what newspaper they are from, so I’m going to try and find that information.  It also looks like a portion of the article is missing.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it) 


TRANSCRIPTION:

HYMENEAL – Mr. Thos. C. Hall, a former resident of Saratoga, now a citizen of Poughkeepsie, came back to Saratoga yesterday and carried away with him one of those most attractive features of our village – a charming young lady, Miss Cora E. Brown.  Mr. Hall always had good sense and fine taste when he dwelt here, and we are glad that they cling to him.  Our best wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Thos. C. Hall

A nice package of wedding cake comes to our table accompanied by a notice of the marriage, on the 5th inst., at the residence of the bride’s father on Church street; by the Rev. Mr. Carey, of Miss Cora E. Brown, of Saratoga, to Thomas C. Hall, of Poughkeepsie.  The wedded pair, on return from their wedding tour, will make their home in Poughkeepsie.  The marriage service was attended by a large number of relatives and friends who manifested their regards for the wedded couple by a liberal bestowment of presents. Among these was a piano by father and……

Another of Saratoga’s fair daughters has left to make a house elsewhere.  Miss Cora E. Brown, daughter of Charles Brown the tobacconist, changed her name preparatory to making her home in Poughkeepsie, on Monday.  The best wishes of many friends attend her………..

Even with the missing portions of this article, we can learn something about our couple. 

  • Their wedding was well attended
  • There was a wedding cake
  • The marriage location was Cora’s father’s residence on Church St.
  • Cora was the daughter of Charles Brown, a tobacconist
  • The officiant was Rev. Mr. Carey (this can help us figure out which religion the couple may have been and lead to church records)
  • The couple was going on some kind of “tour” or trip after the wedding
  • They were going to make their home in Poughkeepsie

That’s quite a lot of genealogical leads to follow. Admittedly in my case, some of the items are facts I already know about.

Update: I cannot help but research as I write.  I have located a portion of the articles transcribed above, plus another small wedding announcement. The first place I go for any east coast newspapers is to Fulton History Postcards website where Tom Trynski has been scanning newspapers for years.  He’s a one man show and a blessing to us all.

Here is a cropped portion of the page from The Daily Saratogian from 6 Feb 1877. 

Cora & Thomas had moved from Poughkeepsie to Halfmoon, New York by the time of the 1880 census.  He was working as a baggage handler for the railroad.  I can’t wait to share more about this couple’s life.

If, while you are reading this post, you find you are connected to any family mentioned, I’d love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Sunday, November 22, 2020

CORA’S SCRAPBOOK ~ The BEGINNING of a new series– My husband’s great grandmother, Cora Emma Brown Hall (1854-1933)




BACKGROUND ~ I have been researching mine and my husband’s family for over 17 years now.  My husband’s paternal side was one of the first lines that brought me those jumping for joy moments in my genealogy research.  I know his lines, names, dates and places very well.

When I began blogging in 2010 I had no idea I would still be at it 10 years later.  I also had no idea how many new cousins and connections I would make because of my posts.

In Feb 2018, I was contacted by a lady named Kathy who said she was my husband, Ron’s cousin.  She was someone who was previously unknown to us.  She lives within an hour of us.  When her father passed away in 2019 she told me of a scrapbook that came into her possession.  Our goal was to try and get together so I could have a look at it.  She said she didn’t know who it had belonged to, but that it contained newspaper articles and perhaps other family memorabilia.  As happens, time went by and we were no closer to arranging a meeting.  Then add Covid to that and here we are.  Kathy contacted me a few weeks ago and said she’d like to mail the scrapbook to me as she felt I could make use of it better than she could.  Well, of course I was blown away and said “sure.” 

This box arrived a couple of days later.


I opened the box and found a very carefully wrapped, very old, falling apart scrapbook. 

WHAT WOULD I FIND INSIDE?  

WHO HAD CREATED THIS SCRAPBOOK?

I couldn’t wait to find out.

Of course I opened the box and ever so carefully removed the scrapbook.  I even peeked inside, just a little bit.

The cover

A view of the spine - you can see how torn apart it is

I had to proceed with due caution so as not to destroy any contents.  I already have the white gloves to handle the pages.  But, what I didn’t have was the archival tissue paper I knew I would want to put between each page.

I immediately went onto Amazon and ordered Acid Free Archival Tissue Paper.


While I waited for the tissue paper to arrive, I began thinking of what size box to order, to store this scrapbook.  I knew I had ordered some archival boxes several years ago.  I looked inside my office closet and lo and behold there was a box that might be just right.  The one and only box of this size.  The box is 13” x 13” x 3”.  IT WAS A PERFECT FIT!  Just a bit bigger than the scrapbook which allows for placing protective tissue paper around it.  And not allowing for any movement.  I was thrilled.


The box that was a perfect fit

I only had to wait 2 days for delivery of the tissue paper.  Now my work begins.

My next step is open this treasure page by page and take photos of each page. I use my Canon Sure Shot camera, which has served me well in many libraries and courthouses. 

TIP:  Why not use my iPhone 11, which has a great camera, to digitize these pages?  Believe me, I do love the cameras provided on smart phones these days.  But, I prefer the stability of a regular camera as well as the ease of transfer.  I just remove the SD card and transfer it right to my computer.  Once that’s done, I back the folder up to Dropbox and also store it on an external hard drive.  And….I have Carbonite cloud backup for my whole computer.  This is what works well for me.  I always keep that original order of the images.  When I begin to edit the images I will work from a copy and can arrange those copies in any order I choose.

I cannot wait to share all the wonderful genealogical treasures that I’ve found in this scrapbook.  Thank you Cora Brown Hall for creating it.  And thank you cousin Kathy for so kindly allowing me the privilege to be the caretaker of such a treasure.

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION