For a while, I have been toying with the idea of putting my family tree online for my family to view. There are several issues that I have to contend with, the main one being privacy. It is not right to put the information of my living relatives online as that will put them in harms way with identity thieves. There are also technical issues that I have to contend with as well.
Well last week I found a genealogy program that allows me to create my family history without listing the living relatives. I originally wanted a website that will allow the public to see the family history without the living relatives AND allow the family to login and see the family history with the living relatives, but that is too expensive and requires more technical knowledge that I do not have. So, for now, I will no longer be blogging on my One Crafty Mom blog about my family history or my search for my family history. I will be posting about my search of my family history at my new blog, http://mygenealogyobsession.wordpress.com/. If you want to be updated on when the new blog will be up and running, click on the link and subscribe. It should be up and running hopefully by the end of January, but at the latest, the end of February.
If MyGenalogyObsession blog works out and is easy to maintain, I will eventually switch my OneCraftyMom blog to wordpress. It allows me to be more creative with my blog and so far, seems easy to use. Only time will tell.
Have a great day everyone!!
Showing posts with label family tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family tree. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Friday, April 30, 2010
Timelines are a Genealogist's Best Friend
In my last post on searching for a family for Simona, I needed to interview my dad to gain more information on some of the questions that my last research endeavor left me with. However, before I could set an appointment with my Dad, I felt that I needed a better grip on my research as I was starting to feel confused with the amount and content of my research results.
The solution? A timeline. I prepared a timeline for my Grandfather Tiburcio. This timeline is just a listing of all of the events that happened in my Grandfathers life. Right now it just includes personal events, but later I will be adding some world events that would have had an impact on my Grandfather's life. This timeline helped to but my grandfather's life in perspective and helped me to understand a bit better.
I have included all of the births of his children, his three marriages, his immigration/naturalization paperwork and when they were filed, his required WWI Draft Registration, the census records and showed where he lived during those years. This helped me focus to the task of interviewing my Dad again. I found that my grandfather first married at 25 and had his first child at 27. I also found that he had my father when he was 49 years old and was 52 when his last child, my uncle was born. He worked most of his life until he decided to retire at 73 and at 74 applied for his Naturalization to be a citizen of the United States. He then died at 90. In his long life, he had 13 children, numerous grandchildren, and 3 wives with marrying his last wife when he was 64 and she was 46. He had a long, well lived, life. I pray that I am as lucky as he was. :-)
So when your researching your family tree and find yourself a bit overwhelmed, put things in perspective and try using a timeline. Happy Ancestor Hunting!!!!
The solution? A timeline. I prepared a timeline for my Grandfather Tiburcio. This timeline is just a listing of all of the events that happened in my Grandfathers life. Right now it just includes personal events, but later I will be adding some world events that would have had an impact on my Grandfather's life. This timeline helped to but my grandfather's life in perspective and helped me to understand a bit better.
I have included all of the births of his children, his three marriages, his immigration/naturalization paperwork and when they were filed, his required WWI Draft Registration, the census records and showed where he lived during those years. This helped me focus to the task of interviewing my Dad again. I found that my grandfather first married at 25 and had his first child at 27. I also found that he had my father when he was 49 years old and was 52 when his last child, my uncle was born. He worked most of his life until he decided to retire at 73 and at 74 applied for his Naturalization to be a citizen of the United States. He then died at 90. In his long life, he had 13 children, numerous grandchildren, and 3 wives with marrying his last wife when he was 64 and she was 46. He had a long, well lived, life. I pray that I am as lucky as he was. :-)
So when your researching your family tree and find yourself a bit overwhelmed, put things in perspective and try using a timeline. Happy Ancestor Hunting!!!!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
More on searching for a family for Simona.
In my search for finding a family for Simona, I found a pilot site for FamilySearch.org. At this site, I searched for my Grandfather Tiburcio Luna and his brothers, Lino, Miguel and Martin. Well I found them and a couple surprises too!
In searching this pilot site, I found the Baptismal Records for my grandfather and his brothers but one surprise was that my grandfather was listed as Jose Tiburcio De Luna. His brothers also had Jose before their name and were also De Luna. It even listed my great-grandfather as Salome de Luna. At first I was estatic to finally find the documents I needed to place my grandfather in Mexico but then that turned to an identity crisis. For all of my life, my maiden name was Luna, but now I find out that I am De Luna. It has an enormous affect on me for a day or two. I wondered why my Grandfather changed his name. It was on all of the documents that I had from the time he entered into the U.S., he always put down on his Immigration Manifest, the 1920 & 1930 Census and on his Petition for Naturalization and supporting documents that he was Tiburcio Luna. Even on the WWI Draft registration that was required in 1918, he put his name down as Tiburcio Luna. Why did he drop the De??? I wish I knew.
The other surprise I found was that in doing the search on the pilot site, I found not only Simona's Baptismal Registration, but also a daughter named Euphemia. Now I was puzzled! I had never heard of this name in any genealogical discussions with my dad or with any of my aunts and cousins that I have interviewed. I am still puzzled. My one logical solution is to interview my dad about this and to gain more information about the family. Hopefully this will shed some light on this puzzle and I will be able to unravel it. I also want to note that on both Euphemia and Simona's Baptismal Record, it shows my grandfather, their father, as Tiburcio Luna. This tells me that he presented himself as Tiburcio Luna and not Jose Tiburcio De Luna. Again....why?
So, my next step is to schedule a mutually agreeable time with my dad to ask him about Simona and Euphemia. Maybe Euphemia is my Aunt Jessies real name and "Jessie" is a nickname??? We will see.
In searching this pilot site, I found the Baptismal Records for my grandfather and his brothers but one surprise was that my grandfather was listed as Jose Tiburcio De Luna. His brothers also had Jose before their name and were also De Luna. It even listed my great-grandfather as Salome de Luna. At first I was estatic to finally find the documents I needed to place my grandfather in Mexico but then that turned to an identity crisis. For all of my life, my maiden name was Luna, but now I find out that I am De Luna. It has an enormous affect on me for a day or two. I wondered why my Grandfather changed his name. It was on all of the documents that I had from the time he entered into the U.S., he always put down on his Immigration Manifest, the 1920 & 1930 Census and on his Petition for Naturalization and supporting documents that he was Tiburcio Luna. Even on the WWI Draft registration that was required in 1918, he put his name down as Tiburcio Luna. Why did he drop the De??? I wish I knew.
The other surprise I found was that in doing the search on the pilot site, I found not only Simona's Baptismal Registration, but also a daughter named Euphemia. Now I was puzzled! I had never heard of this name in any genealogical discussions with my dad or with any of my aunts and cousins that I have interviewed. I am still puzzled. My one logical solution is to interview my dad about this and to gain more information about the family. Hopefully this will shed some light on this puzzle and I will be able to unravel it. I also want to note that on both Euphemia and Simona's Baptismal Record, it shows my grandfather, their father, as Tiburcio Luna. This tells me that he presented himself as Tiburcio Luna and not Jose Tiburcio De Luna. Again....why?
So, my next step is to schedule a mutually agreeable time with my dad to ask him about Simona and Euphemia. Maybe Euphemia is my Aunt Jessies real name and "Jessie" is a nickname??? We will see.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A family for Simona Luna
Several years ago, ok, more like 15 or so years ago, I was attending my dad's family reunion. Back in the day, the family reunion was held every year. My dad was one of 10 living kids so it was normal to have close to 100 family members attending the reunion. It was very easy for me to not remember who was who because for all of my growing up life, I lived with my mom. I knew my mom's family like the back of my hand. We usually visited them every weekend and in the summer, we has several sleepovers at my Uncle Charlie's house. At this Luna (My dad's family) Family reunion, my dad was re-introducing me to my Aunts. After the introductions, as we were walking away, my dad asked me if I remember my aunts. I told him no and for the next few weeks after I felt sad. Sad because I knew so little about my dad, how he grew up, and who his family really was. So this sadness spurned me into action and I started learning what I could about genealogy and started researching my Dad's family tree.
I found out a lot of things that I never knew about my Dad's family tree. When I first interviewed my Dad, I found out that my dad was not one of 10 kids, but one of 12 kids!!! From the very beginning he told me that the other two kids died very young. With my Dad being the second youngest, he really didn't have a lot of memories or details, but he told me that one died when they were a baby and the other was a boy who passed away around 12 years old from appendicitis. So for the last 12 years or so, I had no clue who these other two kids were but they always had a spot on our family tree.
Last week, after paying for and using Ancestry.com, I found who I believe is the young boy. His name is Marcelino who shows up in the 1930 Census as a 5 year old. He was 10 years old when my Dad was born but I don't have proof of that because the 1940 Census won't be available until sometime in 2012. But I was still wondering who the other child was. During the research that I did last week when I found Marcelino, I found other pieces of information that helped me truly understand my family immigration to this country. I had several years ago found that my Grandfather Tiburcio had immigrated in 1918 with my Grandmother, two daughters named Jesus & Jucua and my Great-Grandmother (Tiburcio's mom) Monica Fernandez from my Grandfather's Application for Naturalization records. What I found out last week was that my Grandfather didn not come with my Great-Grandmother, she came with his brother Lino almost a month later. I found this by getting a copy of the Immigration Manifest that everyone immigrating to the US had to fill out. It wasn't until the day after finding this document, that I found the other child.
The document that I looked at was the front of the Manifest, I didn't scroll down to see the back side of the form which list my Grandmother Vicenta, My aunt Jesus "Jessie" who was 6 years old, and my new aunt Simona who was 5. Well finding this information made me sad again, because I knew that I found several years ago, my Grandfather in the 1920 Census and Simona was not listed with his family. So that leads me to conclude that she passed away sometime between the time they immigrated to the US through El Paso, Tx in July 1918 and the day the 1920 Census was taken.
So for the rest of my genealogy research, I will be finding a family for Simona. I feel a need to bring all of this together for her so that all of my family, both near and far will know of our long lost Aunt Simona.
I found out a lot of things that I never knew about my Dad's family tree. When I first interviewed my Dad, I found out that my dad was not one of 10 kids, but one of 12 kids!!! From the very beginning he told me that the other two kids died very young. With my Dad being the second youngest, he really didn't have a lot of memories or details, but he told me that one died when they were a baby and the other was a boy who passed away around 12 years old from appendicitis. So for the last 12 years or so, I had no clue who these other two kids were but they always had a spot on our family tree.
Last week, after paying for and using Ancestry.com, I found who I believe is the young boy. His name is Marcelino who shows up in the 1930 Census as a 5 year old. He was 10 years old when my Dad was born but I don't have proof of that because the 1940 Census won't be available until sometime in 2012. But I was still wondering who the other child was. During the research that I did last week when I found Marcelino, I found other pieces of information that helped me truly understand my family immigration to this country. I had several years ago found that my Grandfather Tiburcio had immigrated in 1918 with my Grandmother, two daughters named Jesus & Jucua and my Great-Grandmother (Tiburcio's mom) Monica Fernandez from my Grandfather's Application for Naturalization records. What I found out last week was that my Grandfather didn not come with my Great-Grandmother, she came with his brother Lino almost a month later. I found this by getting a copy of the Immigration Manifest that everyone immigrating to the US had to fill out. It wasn't until the day after finding this document, that I found the other child.
The document that I looked at was the front of the Manifest, I didn't scroll down to see the back side of the form which list my Grandmother Vicenta, My aunt Jesus "Jessie" who was 6 years old, and my new aunt Simona who was 5. Well finding this information made me sad again, because I knew that I found several years ago, my Grandfather in the 1920 Census and Simona was not listed with his family. So that leads me to conclude that she passed away sometime between the time they immigrated to the US through El Paso, Tx in July 1918 and the day the 1920 Census was taken.
So for the rest of my genealogy research, I will be finding a family for Simona. I feel a need to bring all of this together for her so that all of my family, both near and far will know of our long lost Aunt Simona.
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