Research Diary, no. 5

My Research Diary:
Part to-do list...
Part dear diary...
Part Nosy-Nellie...

Weekly events, plans (and a question or two) from my oh-so exciting genealogy (and sometimes non-genealogy) life...

"History is neither written nor made without love or hate."
- Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903)

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

What happened this week:

Blog housekeeping...

• Changed my Blogger Profile picture to an actual "me" picture ;) and added the profile widget to the blog's sidebar.
• I separated out two more lists from the main label gadget:: Locations (other than those covered in "Ontario Counties & Districts") and Cemeteries & Churches.
• I've added 24 new-to-me blogs to my reading lists - see below (though I'm sure there will be more, as always!)
• I started charting out a rough draft of a blog schedule - as per one of my goals for the new year...
• More new followers! Who knew I'd have something interesting to say ;-)   Hello to everyone (new and old) and thanks for reading!  I think I've followed everyone in turn, but if I haven't please let me know!
• I edited the About page and added a header pic [though it may change, something just isn't sitting right...]

Genealogy:

• I finished the "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy" challenge for week 10 (Family Search Pilot) and posted the challenge for week 11 (Transitional Genealogists Forum)...
• Regular features included Tombstone Tuesday (Oshawa Union), Wordless Wednesday (a second Valcartier postcard), Tabloid Thursday (1911 fashion), and a 2nd (and just for fun!) Blog Carol (with Bob and Doug McKenzie)...
• My Brick Walls page is posted (though it's only bare bones at the moment...)
• More housekeeping: began (or rather, continued...) indexing and properly labelling documents (currently on births); also still working on FGSs...

• I'm currently reading Alison Gernsheim's classic Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Dover Publications, 1981 (originally published as Fashion and Reality (1840-1914) by Faber and Faber, 1963).  And of course, all of my ILLO's have come in at the same time, so I'll be doing a lot of reading in the next 3 weeks...

New-to-me blogs:

• Canadian genealogy blogs
• Footsteps Into the Past
• Lewismen in Canadian Service
• History blogs:
  • Centuries Past in North-East Scotland
  • Daily Genealogy Transcriber
  • A Linguist's Guide to Genealogy
  • The New England House Historian
  • Social History in the Touraine - Central France
• Cemetery blogs:
  • The Symbolic Past
• General genealogy blogs:
  • a'spaidsearachd agus a'meòrachadh
  • Build a Better GEDCOM
  • Destination: Austin Family
  • Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
  • The Family Archaeologist
  • Family Matters
  • Genealogy's Star
  • Geniaus
  • GenWestUK
  • In My Life
  • Kith and Kin Research
  • On a Flesh and Bone Foundation
  • Roots and Rambles
  • Rootsmithing
  • Voice of FGS

What's coming up:

• I was thinking of becoming a FamilySearch Indexer - does anyone else do this? What do you think?
• Tombstone Tuesday and Tabloid Thursday make an appearance...
• ...and in the middle, Wordless Wednesday continues with my "mini-series" of Valcartier picture postcards.
• My results for Week 10 (Transitional Genealogists Forum) of "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy" and a new challenge post for Week 12 (Archive & Library Sites).
• Still mulling over ideas for Military Monday, as well as another personal regular feature inspired by The Wandering Genealogist's Ancestral Profiles... [I like schedules, can't you tell? ;-) ]

• Barely a week after I posted my Research Plan, the newest CoG edition (due January 1, 2011) was announced - about genealogy plans!  I would like to take part, and I'll probably expand (and add!) to my goals section...
• Haven't started (and probably won't start until the holidays when I'm off work) working on my planned Resources page...

Weekly Question ('cuz I'm nosy! ;-)

How do you tag/label your blog posts (if you blog) and how do you (if you do) showcase them on the sidebar/bottom of your blog (list vs. cloud, number vs. not numbered, alphabetically vs. most popular, one long list vs. specialized lists, etc.)? 

Whenever I find a new blog, one of first things I do (beside read the posts!) is to see how everything is set up - I'm always on the look-out for ideas!  There's always something different, which is good!

Thanks for reading!
Jenn

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy : Week 10 Results

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (and hosted by GeneaBloggers) presents "52 Weeks To Better Genealogy", a series of weekly genealogy prompts / suggestions / exercises that (hopefully) will help anyone to become a better researcher.

The challenge for week 10:

Investigate Family Search Pilot, which is part of FamilySearch.org. This is a wonderful collection of records which literally grows every day. In the middle left of the page is a link that says “Browse our record collections.” Click it and pick a region. Search collections outside your research interest. Investigate the types of records collected all over the world and see how they differ from those with which you are familiar. If you are a genealogy blogger, pick a type of record from another country and share your observations about it.

Confession time:  I've never really used the Family Search site.  (Bad genealogist, I know ;-)

My excuses include having access to various other websites (LAC, Ancestry, automatedgenealogy, Canada GenWeb, etc.) as well as a close proximity to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto.

So before the change to the beta site, I decided to pick (somewhat randomly) two different records to poke around in:

Louisiana War of 1812 Pension Lists

This is was quite interesting as I've never had a chance to look at pension records - and for the War of 1812! 

Louisiana, War of 1812 Pension Lists, Lists of Pensioners - Pensions to Veterans, 1878-1879 database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/); accessed 18 December 2010.
Click to Enlarge

There are three record groups:

• List of Pensioners - Pensions to Veterans, 1878-1879 (42 images)

Names of soldiers (and, more usually, their widows) are included along with the pension they received every quarter (6.75 or 7.00 for the first, second and third quarters, and 14.20 or 15.00 for the fourth quarter). Little snippets of extra information are sometimes also included under the "Attorney" column, including a representative's name or the notation "death"/"dead" (presumably when the pension would then cease or move to someone else).

• List of Pensioners paid by State Auditor, 1876-1877 (52 images)

Includes names of soldiers (and/or their widows) and organized alphabetically by surname and then subsequently by quarter.

• List of Pensioners under acts of 1873 and 1876 (55 images)

Includes names of soldiers (some widows and other dependants as well, but usually "Wid Solder's Name") and other interesting notations including "Dead", "Doubtful" or "No Doubt" (in regards to a claim?), "Ok" (they got paid?), a question mark, and "Fraud".

The helpful "About this collection" link to the FamilySearch wiki is also included.

New Brunswick Provincial Return of Deaths, 1815-1919

Canada, New Brunswick Provincial Return of Deaths 1815-1919 database from FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org/: accessed 18 December 2010).
Death of Mrs. John (Mary O'Callaghan) Mahoney, 1815, Campbelltown, New Brunswick, image no. 84.
Click to enlarge.

Having become quite used to the layout and formats (which has varied over the years) of Ontario Vital Registration, I was interested to see how another province handled their civil registrations.  The first thing I noticed was that the form was quite static and even over the course of 40-plus years, remained virtually the same.  Fields included:

• County of registration
• Name of deceased
• When and where died
• Sex and age
• Occupation
• Where born
• Religious demonination
• Cause of death
• Duration of illness
• Physician attending (if any)
• Signature of party making return

The database itself is divided by years, beginning with a blanket category of "1815-1887" and then yearly from 1888 to 1919 (with no records listed for 1893).  Though the initial group (1815-1887) gives an impression of quite early records, the majority are from the 1880s, with quite a few from the 1870s, and 1860s, a smattering of 1850s, and one (pictured above) from 1815 (a return completed many, many years after the fact, no doubt).

There is also the usual About this collection link to the FamilySearch wiki.

Please Note: This challenge was originally published the week of 6 March 2010. I'm continuing the series on my own after a lengthy (cough, cough) break from genealogy...

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy : Week 10 - the Challenge...

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (and hosted by GeneaBloggers) presents "52 Weeks To Better Genealogy", a series of weekly genealogy prompts / suggestions / exercises that (hopefully) will help anyone to become a better researcher.

The challenge for week 10:

Investigate Family Search Pilot, which is part of FamilySearch.org. This is a wonderful collection of records which literally grows every day. In the middle left of the page is a link that says “Browse our record collections.” Click it and pick a region. Search collections outside your research interest. Investigate the types of records collected all over the world and see how they differ from those with which you are familiar. If you are a genealogy blogger, pick a type of record from another country and share your observations about it.

I'll post my results later this week...

Please Note: This challenge was originally published the week of 6 March 2010. I'm continuing the series on my own after a lengthy (cough, cough) break from genealogy...