Treasure Chest Thursday - You Are My Treasures

Today I want to pay tribute to numerous the treasures that have come into my life in the form of GeneaBloggers. When I first started the Time Capsule series I really wasn't sure if anyone would be all that interested. Instead the many comments and helpful suggestions have been an encouragement to me. Thank you.

In no particular order, here are the commentors of the Time Capsule series and links to their blogs where appropriate. You are now part of the Time Capsule as well since I printed out all the posts, including everyone's comments and suggestions.

Carol of Reflections From the Fence and Reflection's Flora and Fauna
Lindalee at Flipside
Kerry of The Clue Wagon
Amy Urman who writes The Genealogy Search
Gini over at Ginisology
Barbara who writes Life From the Roots
Tonia of Tonia's Roots
Lisa at Are You My Cousin?
Mary of Mary's Musings
Miriam at Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors and several other blogs
Denise Levenick The Family Curator
A Rootdigger
Doreen from Ohio of the Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay blog
Julie Cahill Tarr at GenBlog
Astrid Of Trolls and Lemons
The Shy Genealogist
Finding Our Ancestors
Dr. Bill Smith who writes Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories among other blogs
Nan (I'm sorry but I wasn't able to access a profile and provide a link :(
IrishEyes at 'On a flesh and bone foundation': An Irish History

Thank you again for your kind comments, suggestions and encouragement!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

COG- Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe.

This edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Scrapbooking Your Family History! Our mission, should we choose to accept it is to:

Create a scrapbook page on any theme that suits one or more of your vintage photos.

For this month’s Carnival of Genealogy, I decided to make a scrapbook page of my great grandmother Frances Lowe. I’ve been writing for the past couple of months about the small suitcase containing some of Frances' belongings. It was found in the family home and dubbed the Time Capsule. You can read the most recent post here. At the end of the article are links for the preceding posts.

I'm not much of a scrapbook person. I like to do photo albums more of the style of "Just the Facts Ma'am." But I'm always up for learning something new and thought a digital scrapbook page would be fun. I used Photoshop Elements and had a great time putting this together since I had never used any of these Photoshop features before.


I am proud to present to you Frances Lowe:

Starting in the upper left corner and going clockwise:

• Frances pictured with her oldest son, Milton and his wife Viola (my grandparents). Probably in the mid 1920's.
• Frances in the the early 1890's around the time her first Teacher's Certificate was issued.
• In their Sunday best at 16 years young, Frances is pictured on the left with her aunt, Lucinda Catherine Ballinger whom she refers to as Louie. Both girls were born in 1871. Louie is the youngest sister of Frances' mother Nancy Ballinger Robinson.
• Frances and her husband Milton Clark Lowe circa 1950 near Mt. Si, Washington State.
• Last, in the center, Frances is pictured with her chum, Carrie Hyde.

Frances made it really easy to write the above captions as she was good about identifying people in her pictures. I wish we were all so lucky!

I greatly admire my great grandmother and wish I could have known her. I do remember Frances but  was very young when she died so the memories are a bit fuzzy, warm, but fuzzy. She lived in 3 states during her life: Colorado, Montana, and Washington; witnessing huge changes in technology and how it affected our lives. Born 6 years before Colorado became a state, Frances experienced the arrival of the telegraph, telephone and a water system in her home town of Boulder, Colorado. Later she would have enjoyed the arrival of the automobile and electricity. All things we take for granted in our everyday lives.

I often wonder what she thought when JFK made his address to Congress in 1961 and said:

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

And I wish I could have been with her to see her reaction when John Glenn orbited the earth aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. Oh, to have witnessed such societal changes from the eyes of a girl born in a small town where cows roamed the streets and one travelled by horse and buggy!

Hopefully you have enjoyed this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I certainly have. It's always fun to step out of the box and do something you enjoy in a different way.


Bibliography:
1. Schoolland, John B. A Pioneer Church. Johnson Publishing Company, Boulder, Colorado. 1972.
2. Kennedy, John F. "Man on the Moon Address." Home of the Heros. http://www.homeofheroes.com/presidents/speeches/kennedy_space.html : accessed 27 July 2010, para 5.
3. "John Glenn." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn : accessed 27 July 2010, para 1.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wordless Wednesday

Santa Fe, New Mexico

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Free Wi-Fi On An Airplane?

This weekend I had one of those first in a lifetime experiences. Hopefully it wasn't a once in a lifetime experience! After settling in for my Alaska Airlines flight, an announcement was made that went something like this:

...we hope you enjoy complementary wi-fi on your flight today. I'll tell you how to use it once we're airborn.

Did I hear correctly? Free wi-fi on an airplane? For once, I actually listened to the flight attendant's announcements! Sure enough I had heard correctly. Out came the laptop. I checked email, read some blogs, wrote a blog post, and started working on an assignment for my latest course with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. Then suddently it happened, the battery died...

That's Murphy's Law for you. The one time I get on a flight without a fully charged battery...

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I Learned.

Alas, it's time for the Time Capsule project to come to an end for now. This has been a fun project which has given me a glimpse into the life of my great grandmother Frances Lowe who lived from 1871 to 1964.

I have learned a little more about Frances as a person. Namely that she was a certified school teacher in both her birth state of Colorado and in Montana. Her teacher certificates must have been very important to her, to keep them (and in such good condition!) from the early to mid 1890s until her death in 1964. (Click here and here to see them).

Frances loved to work with her hands and I've been blessed with several of her creations: her crocheted doilies, the hand sewn and beautifully embroidered dress.

Due to Frances' love of her family, I've learned and obtained several genealogically valuable documents. There are the numerous birth announcements of her grandchildren and great grandchildren (they even still are in the envelope they arrived in); original sources containing primary information and direct evidence of birth and parentage. Also the family photos, graduation announcements, letters from friends and family, and the list goes on.

Frances' belongings and these posts are now safely preserved so that hopefully someone in the future can enjoy them too. I imagine the Time Capsule will be revisited from time to time as we learn more about Frances and her family.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Treasure Chest Thursday - Preserving the Time Capsule

For the past several weeks, I've been going through my great grandmother, Frances Lowe's small suitcase of belongings that the family has dubbed the Time Capsule. It's been a fun voyage back in time, clear back to the late 1800's and then forward to the early 1960's. Now that I've sorted through the entire suitcase, I've realized the importance of properly preserving these items for another generation or more.

The photos, booklets and other paper items were easy to store in two appropriately sized document and photo boxes.

The precious little leather shoes were a bit more of a challenge. I want to thank Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist for some great advice on storing and displaying them (as well as storing some of the other items). Sally truly is practical in her approach to archiving.

The shoes were in excellent condition for being way over 100 years old. The leather was still soft and supple so I was able to gently stuff them with acid free tissue paper and place them in this special box with a clear lid.

The other artifacts went into this acid free box that is also buffered, so a couple of items like the leather wallet were padded with unbuffered acid free tissue paper.  Apparently leather doesn't do so well if it's in contact with buffering agents (thanks again Sally!). The same goes with the wooden letters.

I may have to put the wonderful smelling Bottle of ??? in the box with Frances' dress just to be able to enjoy the smell when we open the box with the dress.

Finally, I've printed off all of these posts, including everyone's wonderfully helpful comments and the emails to and from family members regarding the photographs that needed identifying. They will also be placed with this collection. After all, what would be the point of this entire project if what I've learned isn't passed on?

Next, it's time to wrap up with some comments about what I've learned from this project.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wordless Wednesday

Whidbey Island, Washington

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Festival of Postcards 8th Edition - Geography Is Out

You can check out the Festival of Postcards 8th Edition - Geography here.

The theme for the next edition is Locomotion. You can read about it here.

Enjoy!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sorting Saturday - Time Capsule - Pictures, Announcements, etc.

Last Saturday, I wrote about all the the photographs, birth, marriage, graduation and other announcements in great grandmother, Frances Lowe's Time Capsule. I was in a bit over my head with some of them since I didn't have a clue who some of those folks were. Happily, I had great results this week from some of the older members of the family who were able to not only identify most of those people, but also add some interesting stories and tidbits.

So I've been busy this week with scanning, emailing and entering data into my genealogy data base (stories too). The pictures and other items are all in acid free, lignin free and PAT passed envelopes. The envelopes are appropriately labelled and filed in a similar quality box.

Now I'm printing off the emails and trying to figure out a way to get them saved on my computer (all of my emails are "in the cloud").

Next week, I'll write about properly storing the physical items from the Time Capsule. That has been a more challenging part of this project.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

I Write Like...

I was reading Destination: Austin Family this afternoon. Thomas read a post over at Karen About Genealogy talking about a writing style analyzer called I Write Like... What you do is copy and paste text from something you have written, like your blog, in the analyzer. It then tells you who your writing style is similar to. Being a bit of a sucker for fun stuff like this, I gave it a try. The result was a bit of a surprise:

I write like
Margaret Mitchell

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Why is this a surprise? My grandmother's maiden name was Margaret Mitchell. Dad used to love to tell people his mother was Margaret Mitchell (of course he left off the fact that it was her maiden name). I think Dad and Grandma are chuckling right now.

Who do you write like?


© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Treasure Chest Thursday - Time Capsule - Dress

At the very bottom of Frances Lowe's Time Capsule was a neatly folded dress with embroidered butterflies.

After being packed away with the bottle for several decades the dress smells wonderful. You hear of certain aromas evoking memories? My personal memories of Frances are fuzzy since I was very young when she died. This wonderful aroma will forever evoke those warm, fuzzy memories of my great grandmother Frances Lowe.

I am trying to decide if Frances sewed the entire dress.

What do you think?

Next up, results of the family inquiries about that box of pictures and other "correspondence."

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures


© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wordless Wednesday

Mesa, AZ

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sorting Saturday - Time Capsule Pictures, Announcements, etc.

This week I went through the box of photos and announcements that were in Frances Lowe's Time Capsule. It quickly became obvious that there was no particular order to the items so I decided there was no need to worry about the original order. I suspect that they had been gone through and looked at repeatedly over the years.

Frances saved baby and school pictures of her grandchildren and great grandchildren along with graduation, wedding announcements and photos, and a few newspaper clippings. They cover the years from 1925 when her first grandchild was born until her death in 1964.

Here's how I went about the sorting process:

1. First a quick pass to lay out the items in order from the box, quickly grouping things by family that obviously went together.
2. Printed out Descendancy Charts for Frances Lowe and her grandfather William Ballinger.
3. Put family groupings of photos and announcements on Frances' Descendancy Chart and the same for William Ballinger's so I could visually get an idea of where the groupings fit within the family.

I am still left with several piles of photos and announcements that I don't know what to do with; it looks like I have a new project. I'll be scanning a selection of them and sending them out to some of the older family members in hopes that someone will be able to identify some of the individuals. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, all of these piles will be placed into some photo envelopes (they have passed the Photo Activity Test) with labels on the outside that I can update as I figure out who some of these folks are.

Next up, another artifact. Think sewing and embroidery.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Free Genealogy Forms over at Elyse's Genealogy Blog

If you are a fan of forms like I am (what genealogist isn't?), you need to head over to Elyse's Genealogy Blog and check under her Freebies tab for her 6 pack of genealogy forms that she uses.

Here's what's included:
•Internet Research Log and Calendar

•Microfilm to Order
•Google Book Search
•Census Tracker Worksheet
•Ancestor Timeline
•Research Goals Brainstorm Sheet

I particularly like the Internet Research Log and Calendar as I am terrible about keeping track of where I have surfed in my genealogical travels. The Google Book Search Form is also a fantastic idea. I’ll be using that one for sure.

Check it out.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

What I Use Technology Wise for What I do Genealogy Wise

Thomas MacEntee over at GeneaBloggers has a meme called What I Do. Thomas says,

you basically list what you use in terms of technology to either run your genealogy business or pursue your family history as a hobby.

I am still a hobbyist but thinking of going the "professional" route in the not too distant future.  Here's my list:

* Hardware: HP Pavillion dv3500

* External storage: Western Digital MyBookWorld 1Terabyte

* Online storage: Dropbox

* Backup: Backblaze, Dropbox (really important stuff), Norton 360 Premier (important stuff)
* Firewall: Norton 360 Premier

* Virus protection: Norton 360 Premier

* Spyware: Norton 360 Premier

* Printer: HP Photosmart 3210 All-In-One

* Phone: Envy 2, Skype for the computer

* Mobile media: iPod Touch

* Music player: iPod Touch

* Car audio: Whatever has the On/Off button

* eBook Reader: Kindle

* Browser: Internet Explorer

* Blog: Blogger

* RSS: Reader is Google Reader, burner is Feedburner

* Text editor: Microsoft Word 2007

* Graphics:  Adobe Photoshop Elements (I really need to get a newer version!)

* Screen capture: I use the old PrtScrn key and paste into Word or something

* Social media: Facebook

* Social bookmarking: Uh, I'm not that sophisticated yet.

* Social profile: Hmm

* URL shortener: Haven't used one yet.

* Office suite: Microsoft Office 2007

* E-mail: web based provided by internet service provider

* Calendar: Outlook 2007

* Accounting: Quicken 2010, Excel

* PDF generator: http://www.pdfmyurl.com/

* Genealogy database: The Master Genealogist

* Genealogy tools: Clooz, Transcript, Microsoft OneNote, Excel

* Other tech stuff: VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand for scanning books and papers (in libraries, etc-it's a handheld scanner), Canon Rebel T1i.

Now that I've completed this list and read some of the other ones, I've come to realize a few things:
1. There are some technology items out there that I want.
2. This could be a helpful list to have in the future.
3. What a great reference for ideas as others post their lists!

I encourage you to give it a go, if you haven't already. Thanks Thomas!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Treasure Chest Thursday-Time Capsule-Doilies

There is a set of six of these cute doilies that Frances made. It appears she had started working on something else as well. I can't imagine doing this!

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wordless Wednesday

Whidbey Island, Washington

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sorting Saturday-Time Capsule-More Stuff To Sort

The Lowe family loved to keep pictures and such in small boxes like these. I'll be sorting through this for a couple of weeks so we will revisit the contents later. 

There was a special gem on top which removed any questions from my mind that may have been lingering as to whether these were Frances Lowe's belongings.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Treasure Chest Thursday-Time Capsule-Embroidery

Apparently Frances enjoyed embroidery. More on that in a future post. There is also a bag of various colored embroidery thread which I haven't included here.

Unfortunately there is no published or copyright date so I have no idea how old this little book is, other than that it is older than 1964 when Frances died.

 

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum