RootsTech 2013 Here comes Genedocs!

     I am sick today (Arggh) but Finally!  I have managed the funding to attend this one of a kind meeting of genealogy users and application designers.  I am fortunate to be finishing up school and get the $39 student registration rate too!
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Priceline.com walluped regular posted air fare websites from $1,055 down to $394 also!
Sadly, with my focus on schoolwork, I missed the deadline to formally present.  I will be unofficially viewing on my laptop with all the Genedocs tools for others walking by to be in sheer awe of, but there is always next year for the formal stuff.  I will surely see what demand is generated from those seeing it to guage more innovative additions and business applications.

Unexpected War With Mexico Ancestor!

Just when you think you have Googled an ancestor to the ends of the earth and no more can be revealed about him or her...BAM!  You suddenly have a hit completely out of left field that astounds you entirely.

    Today I Googled 2nd great grandfather "Edward Alexander Gause" once again and my heart stopped as I found myself reading a never before seen entry about his service in the War with Mexico uder Captain Elmore, etc.  (screenshot below).  Why it is so astounding a discovery is detailed below the image.

           So Edward Gause had a 2nd wife Elmira, but the absolute last thing I ever expected was to find her application for a widow's pension for Edward's service in the War with Mexico under Captain Elmore out of AL detailed above in the fifty-ninth Congress' message.  This alone is a phenomenal find given Edward was not considered.    However, when combined with the previously discovered sources indicating 2nd great grandfather Edward A. Dawes who also served briefly during the War with Mexico out of IL.  The odds of these two men having practically the same full names and serving in the same war is astronomical and thus very important to note.

    Keep your eyes peeled and your Googling on the straight and narrow :-)

     I really do need to get in a blog more often, but with school, full time work, and Genedocs at facebook, I need to ensure I get some sleep and showers sometimes ;-).

    Anyway, I am back in today for my 15 followers to share a fascinating find on ancestry.com/institution found during break today at The National Archives.  Here are the images for starters...



At the left in the 1839 Sophomore class of Kenyon Theological Seminary College near Columbus, OH you will find great grandfather Edward Alexander Gause listed in his rightful place (alphabetical by last name). 

The Houston County TX mug book on Edward and family lore stated he was appointed Postmaster of Crockett,TX through the influence of his college classmate and later U.S. President James A Garfield  - today that was proven wrong after no luck finding Edward at Hiram where Garfield attended.  However, the page below of Freshmen Class for 1839 at Kenyon clearly lists Rutherford B Hays who was later elected as the 19th U.S Preesident and is likely the actual influence behind Edward and his son-on-law John's later appointment as postmasters in Crockett for several terms in the 1880's, 90's, and beyond.

This is a great research example where in less than 10 minutes on Ancestry )Searched full name OH and b 1819 only) and wikipedia (for Rutherford B Hays education details) can get you well past the speculation and even recorded errors in a County History book to the truth we genealogists crave so much! 

Thank you great Grandfather Gause (above) for attending this school, leaving record of it, and befriending a prominent official and notable man in much of susequent U.S. History.

Thank you President Rutherford B. Hays (above on his 1851 wedding day) for befriending my great grandfather and later finding him worthy of appointment to the postmaster position as did you for his son-in-law J.T. Dawes.

Most interesting are Hays words in retirement that reflect so much of present day sentiment:

"In retirement, Hayes was troubled by the disparity between the rich and the poor, saying in an 1886 speech that "free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age."^[203] The following year, Hayes recorded his thoughts on that subject in his diary:

"In church it occurred to me that it is time for the public to hear that the giant evil and danger in this country, the danger which transcends all others, is the vast wealth owned or controlled by a few persons. Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many. It is not yet time to debate about the remedy. The previous question is as to the danger—the evil. Let the people be fully informed and convinced as to the evil. Let them earnestly seek the remedy and it will be found. Fully to know the evil is the first step towards reaching its eradication. Henry George is strong when he portrays the rottenness of the present system. We are, to say the least, not yet ready for his remedy. We may reach and remove the difficulty by changes in the laws regulating corporations, descents of property, wills, trusts, taxation, and a host of other important interests, not omitting lands and other property.^[204] " "- Wikipedia

First My apologies to followers for a few quiet months here.  As promised, facebook gets more attention daily so please friend /subscribe to the Genedocs Wetpaint profile for up to date activities.

             "It is not that I haven't been inspired by family research
              discoveries so much lately as it is that I lack the eight
              tentacles only an octpus has to deal with it all in a
              timely maner."  - Founder of Genedocs

Today's Texas three day Genealogy Conference in Fort Worth is off to a great start!  This morning was spent with leaning more on familysearch.  So many of us delve only deeply into the search aspects of familysearch.org that we remain oblivious to the restof the sites awesome power to find, preserve, and network our amazing family tree.

Thank you so much for your patience!!

OK - I clearly took the summer off of blogging since it has been two months since the last post!

I blame statistics, personal family priorities taking the front seat, and moving tens of thousand of boxes at work.

     Anyway, I do apologize to my 14 followers sincerely and hope to get a bit more of a routine going as I do with facebook and my writing on genealogy related topics.

I also clearly need to get back into the lab for some neat new stuff!

Why is there a FREE Life Legacy Changing Forms Series among the Genedocs Featured Forms?

1. Death is as real as the life we live every day.  As surely as each breath we take occurs, one day it will all stop for every person on earth (and in space).

2. We really need tools to deal with the reality of death as it pertains to the most deeply impacting events on our family's life.

3.  I have used the emergency wallet card since death knocked on our door and welcomed our mother from this life to the next, followed by our father 4 months later, our maternal grand mother 2 months after that, and finally our maternal grandfather and last living ancestor 13 months later. 

.......In an emergency or after your next family member death, it is wise to have a card to help know who to call/notify, have key information that will be needed on hand, and have as identification for minor children not old enough to carry a driver's license.

4.  I have seen far too many people sitting in a funeral home without a clue about the vital statistics of a lost loved on that are required to get a death certificate which is the key to unlocking every much needed benefit after a death.

5.  I have drafted four family obituaries for my closest four ancestors and know the value of including pertinant genealogical data within that will apply to researchers generations from now.

6.  I have dealt with the pain of a lawsuit  and inheritance hijacking all stemming from when one family member over planned and their ancestor under planned and under communicated leaving your and your siblings a huge mess to try and straighten out on the worst days of your lives and know estate planning is about solutions not problems, financial planning is about future dreams not past bumblings, and your legacy is worrth fighting every day for whether it be millions of dollars or just one priceless ancestor's photo that dozens of cousins will be spending decades looking for.

7.  I know you love your family enough to want to leave the most loving an meaningful legacy you are able to.

IT is FREE so PLEASE USE IT AND SHARE IT!

8-)

Thanks to my Statistics Class, Planning a June Vacation, and a busy work schedule, I have clearly been a bit understandably derelect in my duty as a blogger.  I do apologize and now that Summer is here, I hope to manage a few more moments for this forum of Genedocs that several people really enjoy.

     Make no mistake, I took Genedocs and other projects with me on vacation and actually made some research headway like:


   - Locating my father and his family in the 1940 US Census covering Hot Springs, SD.

   - Working out new Genedocs Designs

   - Deciding on a long walk with my sister that it is about time Genedocs became a successful business(finally! - the time and effort invested in our best work needs to generate a worthwhile return on that investment) 

   - Playing my newer music on my brother-in-law's baby grand.


I also realize that the improvements made need collaboration with others to be brought to full fruition - like the necklace shared below by a female freind on facebook.  It is a great adaptation of the same concept the pocket photo pedigree was designed for - sharing generation of ancestors photos, yet, in necklace form, it clearly needs not be stored 95% of the time in your pocket, wallet or purse so bravo to the ladies helping me realize this legacy jewelry concept!

  

Oh - now I'm excited - animated GIFs now work here - moving right along!

Not all of the secrets of your family tree can be found by examining your DNA!

Try a new perspective once in a while ;-)



New Blogger - Really?

OK - So I leave for a few weeks to finish a final school paper and when I come back to post - a whole new format. WOW! It's not to hard to navigate so far, but I am not too happy about the limited view to new posts. What can you expect for FREE ? Anyway I decided to post on the oldest ancestor's portrait I have come by and have some good news for followers - it is a tie! You get to read the following two Ancestors' photo analyses:

First off is my birthday 2010 find of Samuel Cephus Pool.  His age in the photo puts it at abt 1840 -1860.

    

Finding the above image of Samuel even promted me to visit his gravesite in VanZandt County, TX in 2011!

Holly Springs Cemetery - Photo by Eric R Jelle.

Samuel (1808/SC - 1887/TX) is a fascinating ancestor to examine since he had more than one marriage, many children, and served as not only a Southern Civil War Veteran, but also as a POW. 

Q: How did I find a portrait of him?

A: A simple Google image search for his son Francis M Poole yielded a site for Samuel and his wife Nancy Pickens (sadly no portrait for her yet).  Yes - it was just that easy!

Next oldest photo: 

Hon. Dr. William "Ira" Roger Hall (1800/NC - 1864/AL) :

Yes Ira was both a NC Senator and Physician in AL.  This image clearly comes from his statesman days in the Wilminton area where he represented New Brunswick County residents to the best of his ability.  He and wife Anna C Laspeyre made a sizable family before moving to Monroe County, AL where he is listed as one of two physician's with the name William R Hall in that county (the reason I reckon he went by "Ira" as only family lore mentions him in this nick name regard.)

Q:  How did I find this portrait?

A:  I wrote a letter to a cousin who left evidence he had researched that branch of the tree.  Among my grandmother's worldly things, she had a copy of his shared family history paper.  I was beyond delighted to hear back from him and have this new nugget of family history in my own collection - a sketch passed down for generations wihtin a large locket.  Yes - it was that easy and fun!

   Now go have  some fun finding your next ancestor portrait!

Less Posts Here

My apologies go out to you my few but important followers here as I have been so busy with class requirements that I rarely make it from fb over here to post lately. I am sorry! If it is any consolation, the paper I am working on for Adv Composition is on Inheritance Hijacking. Mayby I will share it here in a bit. Anyway I need to wrap it up in the next 24 hours and get it from a 16 pager down to an 11 pager ;-)

See you soon!

Have you Found Your Family in the 1940 U.S. Census?

Well, it has been a week since my initial frustration with the U.S Census release for 1940 followed by complete elation the next day which provided the above image of my mother and her parents entries in Coalgate, OK as suspected (top 3 lines). Not all states are available just yet so it is important to be patient and the longer you wait - remember that will be much closer to when the census is name searchable too!

HUGE TIP: Use Steve Morse's one step Link here :

This is exactly how I found my first record. What is neat is it takes you right to the ED for that geographic area (no need for a street addr in most cases)and all you have to do is scroll through the pages untill you find your surnames in the Name colume (abt. the 3rd one over).

Now all I have to do is pic a photo of that timeframe to add to the census page to create a phenomenal heirloom!

Here are a few zoom shots of what I found for Mom and her folks:

Yes - them being on page 3 and the first three lines of that page in the main Coalgate, OK Ennumeration District (2 of 3)was of great help!

I also found interesting the fact that in 1935 they listed their residence as Ruston, LA where I visited recently for a work trip completely oblivious that my family had ever been there!

Good luck finding your family !

One week to 1940!

We are finally coming to our Census (pun diefinitely intended!)

The official release of the 1940 U.S. Census is nearly upon us after decades of waiting.

- Do you know where to look since enumeration districts will be the inital search parameters?

- Have you looked at all of your ancestors - not just your Dad's side?

- Do you have any sibling branches you are curious about? These can be gold you know for busting down a brick wall or two!

Remember the Genedocs Census Summary (CEN)? - NOW is great time to get it ready, keep it handy, and use it to its full powerful potential; be it name variants, place of birth variants, or just having each ancestor's entire census data in one convenient place.

Have a great hunt!

11 Days to 1940 U.S. Census Release !

WHile I post daily featured forms on facebook - most of us are getting ready to bombard the 1940 Census search capabilities (by enumeration district only at first) with our onslaught of queries about our folks, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives alive then and living in the United States. Good luck with your search and if you have time - remember to volunteer to index.

March - Upgrading from 3 forms a month to all 30 each month!

Now that to goal of 400 friends has been achived on facebook, I will share with my readers that starting today I will shoot to post on facebook not 3 featured forms a month, but instead post one per day - Yes! that's all 30 per month, every month! Even with taking a few college courses, I should be able to spread Genedocs most widely for all folks not on fb everyday and manage it well if my time on task is managed wisely.

Here are the first three forms for March:


Individual Information/Photographic Summary:

This template can preserve three images from three distict periods in any relatives life - young, adulthood, and elderly. It also has a great section below the photos for more personally telling detils of their life...see for yourself:

Eight Decades of Photos:

This template was originally designed for couples who live up to 80 years together. then I realized it could be used for siblings as well, and recently for an individual also as the example of my father shows below:

Pocket Photo Pedigree:

The third form is a very handy tool indeed. When you find yourself out in the boonies with no phoe reception, internet access, and/ofr a dead device battery, just break out this conversation starter and watch the hours fly by with discussions of family research and adventures.

Dual Portrait for Physical Similarity Tracking

Here is a key example why to use dual portrait descriptors on your charts:

Her Mother:

Do you notice the similarity of these two when little girl photos are compared?

You never know who you may look like. (Ilham Anas above resembles President Obama in many ways!)

Leisure Series Logo - Finally!

Nothing says Leisure more than taking two months to design it!


We all end up procrastinators either by nature or choice in some area or another although as we age we prefer to have that excuse as well. Some times you really just have to put everything else aside and kick your feet up and relax. This is the perfect time to sit on the porch or beach(if you can get near one)sip some of your favorite beverage and take some me time. Of course, if you are a die hard family researcher, you will sneak out some key items from your"to-do" list out with that favorite drink!

I myself have dozens of pending miscellanious creations yet to add and share so when work, school, and chores are done, I'll be right here, on facebook, or the wetpaint sites doing some much needed spring cleaning in the genealogy department - but only because it is effortless to me on most days. By the way I am very excited to announce I am keeping up that 4.0 GPA and onto Advanced Composition Class this week.
(for anyone following the EDU accomplishments in my own Genealogy File Folder. For someone who never had a 4.0 in high school, I like taking pride in being over 40 and still having what it takes to excel (MS Office pun intended for sure!)

Anyway, it is finally March and we are starting to open up our garage doors, mow lawns in the Southern U.S, and planning how many garage sales it will take to finally get the car a parking spot in the garage!

............- The Apr 2010 E-Magazine Cover.

For March Genedocs is ramping up for the wonderful 2012 of the 1940 Census, which, if you haven't heard, is not going to be immediately searchable by name, so you need to brush up on locating where your folks, granparends, or even great gradparents presumably resided on April 1st back then. This means thinking like an ennumerator - what state, what county, what district, heck, if you can even narrow it down to the AA # (just kidding - a little census clerk inside humor getting out from my 2010 experience).


The more you have it narrowed down, then the better off you will be for quickly finding all the relevant family members. FOr instance I will give you some insight into my game plan...

I have two parents and three grandparents who were living in 1940:

...........Richard, Dorothy holding Gyp, Pearl, Ray, and Gloria (abt 1931)


Father's side: Ray A Jelle - per my sister's 1985 interview with him, he should be in High School in Hot SPrings, Fall River County, SD living with his widowed mother Dorothy and two sisters Pearl and Gloria.
It should read something like this:

1940 South Dakota FallRivcver County City of Hot Springs
Last Name..First...Status..MStatus..Age...Where Born..Parents Birth
JELLE, Dorothy....Head...widowed...42....Denmark...Mo & Fa,..born.Denm
....."......Pearl......school...single......18....SD......Mo Denm fa MN
....."......Ray........school...single......17....SD......mo b Denm fa MN
....."......Gloria...school...single......15....SD......mo b Denm fa MN

Mother's side: Sandra Lynne Edlund - per my grandmother's journal in the red small notebook I posted a lttle about last year, she indicates they (her,m, husband Luke, and daughter Sandra)were on the 31st of March bording in a room at McKains in Coalgate Oklahoma. The next entry incicates Apr 20 they went to Athens and then home (presumably Crockett, TX. This superb detail at least allows me to map their travels and have several towns to choose from in that about 22 day period if they down't show up in Coalgate as boarders.

Once I have it narrowed as close to the town family members were said to be residing, then it is off to the FREE National Archives classes on 2012 searching by district of online at Familysearch.org depending on if I want /need another day off of work. I will likely be right on track with Dad and Dorothy with his sisters, but Mom and her folks were following Luke's very transient Oil rig carrer in the 40's (they didn't settle in Miles City, MT until abt. 1946 per Nana Kaye's journal. (Thank you Nana for this pocket sized outstanding legacy of love - what a goldmine!)
Again,this may cause some more deductive tools to be used if not found in Coalgate, OK like using her entries before and after Apr 1940, maps, and Googling old historical Oil field activity in that area of OK down toward Athens. Who knows!


I hope this is helpful for people who can't wait to see what the 1940 U.S. Census can reveal about their roots.

Last Form for February - Improved Family Group Sheet

Perhaps th oldest form in the Genedocs Innovative Library is the Improved Photographic Family Group Sheet designed in 2001 mainly to visually enhance what child branch our Norwegian ancestors came from who immigrated in the 1870's and 1880's to the U.S. settling in western Minnesota.

Everyone at our 2002 Reunion could really relate to at least one generation closer than Henrik, although explaining subsequent generations was far more challenging with brothers marrying widows of siblings, numerous Henry's, etc.

The obvious point of the form is to showcase images discovered once identities can be verified.

The not so obvious point is keeping all the children with their parents. It is an anti-orphan form in that, unlike other group sheets that use two or more sheets to list vitals for all the children in larger families, this template (2-sided) can handle any family group up to 26 people includigng the mother and father! If you look back one post you will note that 24 children is double what Ancestry.com's group sheet without photos maxed out at.

Note that this is a phenomenal tool to promote people to start researching as well. Here a few newer examples:

These can serve as a stand alone database since you can also make sets for ancestors siblings and their failies to whatever extent of cousinry you prefer.

To close I strongly recommend keeping these in clear protective plastic sleeves in a large binder for handy desk reference. Remember to freind Genedocs Wetpaint on facebook if you find these tools and tips useful.

See you in March!

2nd February Featured Form:

Finals are over for this session of college so now I can manage some time to share one of the highest points of innovation to date in the Featured Forms Series with you - The Genedocs Hybrid Chart.

Ancestry.com version

What began as a result of frustration from jumping back and forth between traditional pedigree charts and family group sheets has emerged a pioneering precedent in family tree charting that now can combine ancestry, sibling data, multiple portraits, embedded source document images, unlimited custom comments, three dimensional effects, and more using just one commonly available application - Microsoft Excel. I can't count the times about how people have posted on the internet where I have read they were seeking an all in one form. Little did I know five years ago that I'd be creating one!

FEATURES TO NOTE:

- Three Ancestors per page keep a simple family group view
- Up to 12 or more siblings can be listed in birth order per
ancestor!
(For up to 24 children in a family group use the Genedecs Improved FGS)
- You can choose to add one portrait per ancestor or a portrait of
each ancestor as adult and child if you have found and identified
such treasures in your research.
- Sibling portraits can be added too and even a spouse portrait if you
want.
- Actual source doc images can be viewed and enlarged plenty enough to read details!
- Unlimited custom comments with options to hover over cell to view, always view, print as displayed on sheet, etc.

Try the template at the following link - They are FREE!

http://gdinnovativeformslibrary.wetpaint.com/

I highly recommend that researchers become savvy practicing in MS Paint or other image editing software like GIMP (free) to be able combine images of ancestors as adult and child with vital statistics - you may alsosee in the image above how a filing system can be much more searcher friendly with these custom labels as mentioned last month.

RootsTech Winding Down / Updates

FEB NEWS: "Over 4,100 attend SLC Conference!"
Whether you went to the rootsTech 2012 Conference and got your t-shirt or not, Genedocs did not win any prizes this year, but is still proud to have competed with submitting a new data entry version of the Hybrid Chart (image example below).

Hybrid Chart with a few "related fellas" added for 3D effect.

The submissions that did win do seem to be impressive so be sure to visit the developers challenge page in the next day or two to check them out.

Anyway February is now officially on its way and my mission carries on to introduce y'all to this month's first Featured Form: The Genedocs Improved Research Log

Try it out for FREE at: http://gdinnovativeformslibrary.wetpaint.com/
(fourth attachment at the bottom of the linked page)

You may quickly notice many of the advantages of this form. For instance, it's simple check box/common life area format, the easy to use reminder columns for what to be sure to note about sources you find useful, and even they type of source identifiers per the legend at the bottom. This is a fourth generation improvment, but essentially has the same format as it did when originally designed nearly a decade ago in 2001. It also corresponds very nicely with last month's filing tools of folder cover sheet and file tabs. One thing to note is that you may want to have an additional line for AKAs and Nick names as well as sheets for various mispellings that we all come across from time to time in sur, maiden, and given names.

I hope it is helpful in both your hardcopy and digital research endeavors.

New Technologies and Dimensions of Genealogy

First it's good to see new members showing up to learn more about Genedocs! Thank you all!

As I completed submission of my Rootstech

Developers Challenge, I pondered what technologies are unfolding that will shape the future of our research, storage and preservation, and sharing of our precious trees...

There are many ways to view dimensions of genealogy as the image below portrays:

What new dimensions lay around the corner and via what new technologies?
Mostly we seek new ways to quickly sift information be it on the web, in other databases, or in paper archives waiting to be digitized. I think we all want a program or app that could sift like a burglar through every household's stacks of photos and albums sending us e-mailed hits for any of our relatives and an address to seek them out at;-)

Without busting down all of privacy's doors, however, we can only try to keep up with real and safer technologies and dimensions as they unfold while time presses on. Fingers crossed for new cousins and new information and imagery!

(image from National Archives employee training module.