Family Time!

I haven't had time to blog these last few weeks because I had family come in from California to visit my mom and I for six days. We visit many places and done a lot together. One of the most memorable was when my mom and I decided to take my cousins on a picnic at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  I wasn't expecting to see my 5x great grandpa name on the memorial monument, so this was pretty exciting! Hair Conrad was my 5x great grandfather on my mother's side.

It had been a year since I had seen my cousins and it had been an awesome visit.  They left this morning to go back home. It was sad to see the visit end so soon!  I can't believe I have been in Oklahoma for a year already and have no desires to go back to California other than to see my family.
Go figure that one lol! I had never wanted to live in Oklahoma. My grandfather (mom's dad) wanted me to come out here and go to Northeastern State University and I used to tell him no grandpa I don't want to live in Oklahoma. I think it was because I had used to the key word: NEVER
The old saying is never say never. I had forgot I had said never to him.

What was I Thinking?!

I can not believe the hot mess my files are in!.... What was I thinking? Apparently I wasn't when it came to making notes after notes and lets just say I am still finding notes. Most of these notes are just re-written on an index cards.  The pre-internet day notes are not source cited and not in order {sighs}

Lets go back in time when it was the pre-internet age:

I didn't have a way to scan my notes to save on a "Floppy" and fast-forward by 10 years later.. Life  was in the way of my genealogy life and it didn't occur to me that I should be scanning my genealogy notes!

I felt the need to make "extra" copies of some records I copied from the "Index" book at my local library.
Please keep in mind I was only 20ish and not even 2 yrs in my genealogical career path with no guidance but my instincts =)

What I know now... I wish I can go back a create good organizational among my files BUT the good news is that all is not really lost nor is my sanity when I see my files in heaps of stacks ready to be looked at and filed correctly with a fresh new look!

I just have to find a good organizational method that will work for me and not look like I have totally lost my mind =) 

A lot of Paper Files!

Oh boy! I never realized how much paper I have accumulated until I began to unpack my Genealogy Box added to the files I had "brought" with me on my journey to Oklahoma from California.  

I certainly have my work cut out for me as I continue to "organize" my paper files. Once I have it all organize, then the next step is to digitize them. 

Here I am in mid-June and barely half way in.  Not bad. I am still in the process of learning how to create database in Access 2013.  Don't ask how this is going =) but I will say this... it is a lot harder to learn than Excel if that will give you any inkling as to how it is going.


So far I have:

• Got rid of duplicate files on my laptop and re-named the ones that needed them. Upload my file folder to my OneDrive. 
• Watch countless youtube videos on how to create a database in Access 2013. Found one that seems to be easy enough to follow. I watched one that was 5 hours long, but only got to the 3 hr and decided whoa! All I wanted to know was how to connect the files based on my system, so I can understand it. There were moments I could see how it would work in my system, and then other things got clouded and I was lost again. So, I searched for another video. The one I chose next really helped me, but now I just got to figure out how to tweak it to suit my genealogy needs.

• Began to go through each paper file I have and sort through the notes, charts, maps, etc.

Next on the agenda besides digitize the paper file:

•   Hopefully I will have my database in working status so I can begin to enter the data I need.
• Once that is done comb through my paternal maternal line and see what else I have missed or don't have. I will blogging about my great grandmother Clara- my dad's grandma at a later date. She was quite the character! I love and miss her so much.

I am involved in a Facebook group called Genealogy Do Over: Which is why I am re-doing everything... With a specific goal in mind and it involves my great grandma Clara.

MS Access 2013

I have been watching youtube videos of how to begin creating a database using MS Access 2013 to use not only for keeping track of my genealogy research but to create forms for my future online business. I think I have the fundamentals down to create the research forms to suite my needs.

As I was watching the video, my mind floated else where to how I wanted the design to look. I am one of those that cares about what is going on under the hood as well as how the design will look once I am working the data.  I couldn't help but wondered if I am just wasting time with this learning process or will it at the end of the day, be all worth it?

I have heard many different views on using Access for Genealogy and thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a try... When I get a chance I am going to be creating a database that will host many different aspect to my research. One of the problems I have is creating duplicate files, which prompted this whole thing in the first place! So, I was thinking if I could create a database that would not only store the information but tell me where it is located and what ancestor has the record.


Think I will begin to sort through my paper file next while I contemplate the design of the form and the tables, queries, and forms... I am sure something will pop up =)

Time Out

I have been in Time Out... Time Out from doing any Researching which will almost always saving records if I find them! Why did I put myself in Time Out?

Well... here's the thing... I, like my mother (*cough*) tend to collect things and one of my favorite things to do as a researcher is to collect maps, records-birth, marriage, etc.. I have been on a reading blogs kick these last few months and thought to myself... hmm do I have my records in my genealogy files organize? how many of the same records have I downloaded do I have? how many files have I started for the same ancestors? If I can honestly answer these questions I am good to go because I know where all my records are.  Well I miserably failed to answer any of the questions... So on June 6, 2015, I decided it was time to sit down on my genealogy hands and get to work organizing instead!

The task of gathering all my genealogy files on my laptop and backup drive and putting them all in ONE folder on the desktop.  I then created a new folder labeled Genealogy- with sub-folders labeled Mothers Family Line and Fathers Family line.

I begin to comb through the mountainous pile on my desktop and sort through one folder at a time. There were NUMEROUS duplicate files <smh> at the end of the day.. I kept telling myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.. It took nearly 3 days to do this and 2,494 deleted files later... I now have a newly Genealogy folder that only contains one birth record for the particular ancestor and not 3.

Am I off the hook now? Can I go back to researching? My little fingers are itching to look up more ancestors... BUT I am on a mission now... I need to back up my newly filing system and create a database to prevent any more duplicates in the future. This will probably take the rest of June because I also want to go digital on my paper file... oh geez don't even get my started on this one!  I am one of those people who rather gather information and not store them in an organize fashion..

However, I am slowly retraining myself to think smarter not work harder =)

Times Have Changed Since 1987

So, I gathered my information of what I did know.. I knew my grandfather's name and my great grandmother's name but aside from that I was clueless so I called my dad and asked a bunch of questions about his paternal side of the family. The results was a big fat zippo.. nada except only a few clues... He was from Georgia and the family is from the Macon area... Why not start with my mom's side of the family branch?

It would seem like a logical family line to begin with since I grew up knowing my maternal paternal side all my 19 years old life.... I didn't search because I honestly didn't think my Cherokee ancestors would have fought in the Civil War (boy was I wrong!) and I have a tendency to do things the hard way! and because I am nosy =) I wanted to know what was the big secret why my father never kept in touch with his family in Georgia all that much.

I spent all my summer researching at the local library:

• Pouring over many Census "Books"
• The Telephone Book (GA- Savannah, Macon, Atlanta areas)- writing down all the Amerson's phone numbers I could find
• Locating many books I can find pertaining to Civil War soldiers with the surname Amerson not really knowing if any of them were related to me. 

I spent several days calling long distance calling all the Amerson that I had numbers for .. I began with Savannah and Atlanta because they had they least names.  Got to Macon and about the 6th one down the list I had a hit on my fishing line... He turned out to be my Great Uncle! My grandfather's brother.  I also hit a Mother Lode too because he open a whole new world for me.  I now knew who was who....

So did I get that grant? no, I completely abandon the idea because by this time my college classes had began and college life begin then... When I had a chance I picked up the hunt again and again... years later.. Ancestry.com happen and I was able to see all the cool new ways to do research... still from the library or from my brother's house.  I didn't have access to the "net" nor did I had a computer that was capable of gaining access.

All this sounds ancient huh? ... Even Dino looks good lol....

Yep A lot has changed since 1987... I am so glad too! I wouldn't know a lot of the things I do now about both sides of the branches!