Thursday, March 31, 2011

Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems - Part 5

We have been going through the Military Land Warrant File of William H. Ballenger to see what information this type of file contains and how it might help solve genealogical questions, particularly that of who are William's parents. If you would like to review or need to catch up, you can go to the Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium of William H. Ballenger for a list of links.

Today we look at the Land Warrant Certificate which is the next document in William's file. Today I'll start with what I learned from this document, then the transcription and finally an image of the original.

What I learned
  • William inspected his property on or about 6 April 1849. Then on the 10th he went in to the Iowa City land office and filed this particular certificate. This puts William in Iowa the first half of April 1849.
  • He requested his land patent to be sent to Oskaloosa, Iowa which is in Mahaska County where his property is located. It's probably the nearest post office.
Transcription:


LAND WARRANT CERTIFICATE, NO. 12,389


I William H Ballenger being desirous of locating
the South East quarter of Section No. fifteen West
5th Mer, in the District of lands subject to sale at the Land Office at Iowa City
Iowa with the attached Military Land Warrant Certificate, No. 12,389 issued under
the provisions of the ninth Section of the Act of Congress, approved February 11th, 1847,
do solemnly swear that from my own knowledge of the fact, after actual inspection of
the said tract of land, on or about the 6th day of April
A. D. 1849, there was not at that time, an actual settlement and cultivation upon any part
of said land, nor was there any person or persons
residing upon it; And I do
verily believe that there is no actual settlement and cultivation
or any person or persons residing upon any part of said land at this time.


Subscribed and sworn to before me, this
10th day of April A. D. 1849                     William H Ballenger [signature]


Register of the Land Office
Charles Nealley [signature]


I request my patent to be sent to Oskaloosa, Iowa
William H Ballenger [signature]




Tip: Click on the image to view a larger version and then click on the back arrow button to return to this post. If the larger version isn't big enough try this: Windows users: hold down the Control key (Mac users hold down the Command key) and press the plus key to make it even bigger (minus key makes it smaller).



© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Got a Foothold - Wordless Wednesday

It just amazes me how plants here in the Sonoran Desert can gain a foothold anywhere. These pictures are of a barrel cactus growing out of solid rock.


Taken during a mid-day hike.

Shortly before sunset on a separate day.


Yep, that's the moon in the background.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pinwheel Cookies - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

When I saw this weeks topic of Sweets, the first thing that popped into my mind was Nabisco's Pinwheel Cookies. I don't remember them being an all time childhood favorite but I did really enjoy them and still do on occassion.

I've tried purchasing them, a few times, in more recent years. The problem is there aren't very many in a package and we have a family member, who shall remain unidentified (but it's not me), that has a horrible sweet tooth. So a package just doesn't last long enough to make it worthwhile (for me) to buy them (unless I were to hide them away somewhere).

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts to encourage people to record memories and insights about their lives for future descendants. It's not necessary to be a blogger to join in. Just record your memories on your own if you wish.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Dick Eastman at the Family History Society of Arizona Seminar

Today was the Family History Society of Arizona’s seminar and annual meeting with Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter as our speaker. Dick is a wonderful presenter who can take a topic and make it seem very easy  I find myself enthralled, learning new things and being affirmed that at least I am on the right track with some of the things I am doing. He gives me clarity. Here’s the top things I learned from each of his three talks.

Genealogy Searches on Google

Google has special syntax searches. One in particular caught my attention. On the Google search page, type the word "info:" and then the url of the webpage you are interested in. For example, if I do the following search:

info:http://www.turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/

This search returns about the url that you put in after the term "info:" including pages that link to this particular url and web pages that contain the term or url that you searched. It struck me as one way of finding out who's talking about you out in the blogosphere.

The Organized Genealogist

This talk was completely different from the usual organizing lectures I have attended that usually go over organizing you paper files or the folders on your hard drive. Dick gave this topic a really different and useful twist. One of the points he covered was the program called Evernote which can remember everything for you.. Since I have recently begun using Evernote, I found some very useful ideas presented.

Dick also mentioned a new product that is due to come out on the market soon called the Ion Book Saver. This device will hold a book while you flip the pages and take pictures. I’ll be anxiously awaiting Dick’s review when the Book Saver becomes available.

Conservation-Keeping Up With Technology

A question from the audience caught my attention during this presentation. A lady brought up that she has many Word documents from very early versions of Word that she is unable to open now. This issue could really apply to any program that has been repeatedly upgraded over the years. This is something hadn’t occurred to me. I’ll need to find, open and resave really old Word (or whatever) files in a newer version. I just figured that a Word file, no matter how old, could be opened in the current version of Word forever. Apparently that is not so.

Another question that came up had to do with a topic that I have investigated in depth in the past because there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Dick's explanation was incredibly clear. I wish I had asked him this question a long time ago! Since it's become a bit of a pet peeve for me, I am going to save it for a future post so check back in a week or so.

I love seminars. I always learn new things and enjoy the opportunity to see friends and meet new people who share a common interest. Bloggers Mary of me and my ancestors and Carol of Reflections From the Fence also attended (Carol and I had a blast carpooling). I hope you check out their blogs and see what they had to say.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Movies - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

As a child I don't remember seeing very many movies at all. It wasn't until my teenage years that I began to hit the movie theatres on a regular basis. I do remember seeing two classics as a kid. The very first movie was Mary Poppins and the other one I remember (and I absolutely loved it) was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Both of those movies have turned out to be timeless classics. I can't even begin to count how many times our family has seen those two movies since we purchased them on video. We all still love Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts to encourage people to record memories and insights about their lives for future descendants. It's not necessary to be a blogger to join in. Just record your memories on your own if you wish.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Monday, March 21, 2011

Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium

Here is a list of posts in the series Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems in which I am going through the Military Land Warrant file of William H. Ballenger document by document to see what can be learned, particularly as it relates to my search for William's parents.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Summary

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems - Part 4

We have been going through the Military Land Warrant File of William H. Ballenger to see what information this type of file contains and how it might help solve genealogical questions, particularly that of who are William's parents. If you would like to review or need to catch up, you can go to the Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium of William H. Ballenger for a list of links.

Today we look at a receipt of sorts from the Iowa City Land Office in the case of William H. Ballenger's Military Bounty Land Warrant. The transcription is shown below. So let's take a look at the transcription and then review clues and what I learned from this document. (The image of the original is at the very bottom of this post.)


Register and Receiver's

No. [number is smudged]


                                                           10th
LAND OFFICE, Iowa City Iowa April [^] 1849
WE HEREBY CERTIFY that, the attached Military Bounty Land Warrant No. 12389 was on this day
received at this office, from William H Ballenger, of
Mahaska county, State of Iowa
Charles Nealley [signature] Register.
Enos Lowe [signature] Receiver.

I, William H Ballenger, of Mahaska county, State of
Iowa, hereby locate the South East quarter
of Section No. thirty four in Township No. Seventy Six N of Range No.
fifteen West 5th Mer in the District of Lands subject to sale at the Land Office at
Iowa City, Iowa containing 160 acres, in satis-
faction of the attached Warrant numbered 12,389
Witness my hand this 10th day of April A.D. 1849
Attest
Charles Nealley [signature] Register.
                                                              William H Ballenger [signature]
Enos Lowe [signature] Receiver.

Land Office Iowa City, Iowa May 10 1849

WE HEREBY CERTIFY that the above location is correct, being in accordance with law and instruction.
Enos Lowe Receiver.
Charles Nealley Register


Clues

  1. The statement, "I, William H Ballenger, of Mahaska county, State of Iowa..." indicates that William was at living in Mahaska County by 19 April 1849, the date of this document. This is interesting and could be important because his marriage return dated 8 November 1849 was recorded in Scott County, Illinois on 8 November 1849.
What I learned

  1. This particular parcel of land was 160 acres (although that could also have been inferred from the legal description of the land).
  2. William himself signed this document. In this particular case, obtaining his signature was helpful because it eliminated any question as to whether this William H. Ballenger is the same man who settled on land in Boulder County, Colorado in December 1864 and August 1869. I have the Land Cash Entry File and the Homestead File for those transactions which also contain his signature and they are a match.
Part 5 is coming up...

Tip: Click on the image to view a larger version and then click on the back arrow button to return to this post. If the larger version isn't big enough try this: Windows users: hold down the Control key (Mac users hold down the Command key) and press the plus key to make it even bigger (minus key makes it smaller).


For a full list of posts in this series, go to Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium.

 
© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Friday, March 18, 2011

Teenagers, Cars,Physics and... an Injury


Sometimes the best stories are also the most embarrassing. Teenagers can be quite creative. They can also be really dumb. It's embarrassing to admit but I was no different.

One evening a group of us went to the movies and on the way home, someone came up with a little "physics experiment" involving the car. On the way to our house, there are a number of hills and in the last little stretch approaching home, the road is flat. Someone wondered; if we started at the top of this one big hill, put the car in neutral, coast down and up the hills, and around the corners, if we could get all the way to my house using just the momentum of the car. We gave it a try.

Down the big hill we went, with the car in neutral, picking up speed. Then we started up the next hill, turned the corner, and proceeded to coast along a fairly flat area. Gradually the car slowed down and it quickly became apparent that we were not going to make it to that last hill where we would pick up speed again and coast along the last flat area to my house. This is where teenage ingenuity and stupidity kicked in. The driver and the person in the front passenger seat opened the car doors and proceeded to use their feet to paddle keeping the car moving. I was sitting in the backseat and decided to help. So I opened my door, stuck my foot out and started paddling. All of a sudden, I felt the tire grab my foot. Out of the car I came! The next thing I knew I was lying on the pavement with the car's tire ever so slowly rolling over my foot. Once my foot was free, I hopped up, said I was fine, and climbed back in the car. It wasn't a few but a few seconds later that my foot really began to hurt, and when I pulled down my sock. There was a hole in my ankle!

So we had to go home and explain to my parents. Everyone then piled into their car and off to the emergency room we went. An x-ray revealed no broken bones but I did have to get the hole in my ankle cleaned out and stitched up. The doctor said a stud from the tire probably punctured my ankle and that I must have really pliable bones to not have broken every bone in my foot. Then he took a look at the shoes I was wearing. You remember wedges? The shoes that were popular in the 1970s with the really thick rubber soles? That's what I was wearing. He said those shoes probably saved my foot.

I don’t really remember what my recuperation was like. I probably lay around with my foot elevated for at least a short while but as I’m not one to be kept down for long, I imagine that didn’t last. So that’s my stupid teenager injury story and I’m sticking to it!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts to encourage people to record memories and insights about their lives for future descendants. It's not necessary to be a blogger to join in. Just record your memories on your own if you wish.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Thursday, March 17, 2011

One Lovely Blog Award

I am surprised and humbed to be the recent recipient of The One Lovely Blog Award not once but four times in the past few days.

Thank you to the following blogs for thinking of The Turning of Generations:

This award was originally created by Sara of Works of Art by Sara.

According to Sara, these are the conditions of acceptance:

  1. Add the logo to your blog.
  2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.
  3. Nominate 7 or more blogs
  4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are "One Lovely Blog"!
The thing I love most about awards like these are that I always find wonderful new blogs to follow. So without further ado, here are my seven choices, in no particular order, that I think are just lovely:

  1. Reflections From the Fence
  2. Sassy Jane Genealogy
  3. Archives Info
  4. Family Trees May Contain Nuts
  5. The Shy Genealogist
  6. Tonia's Roots
  7. AK's Genealogy Research


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dick Eastman Speaking at Family History Society of Arizona

That's right. Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter will be presenting at the Family History Society of Arizona's seminar and annual meeting on Saturday, March 26th in Tempe, AZ

His topics include Genealogy Searches on Google, The Organized Genealogist and The Latest Technology for the Genealogist. For further details and registration information to go the Family History Society of Arizona website.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Love Birds - Wordless Wednesday

A couple of "love birds"
Taken on the pier in Huntington Beach, CA
November, 2010



© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems - Part 3

Today we begin to get into the meat and potatoes of William H. Ballenger's Iowa land file. We will be going through the file page by page, with one page per post. If you are just joining in, you can quickly catch up by reading Part 1 and Part 2.

In this post, we are going to look at the first page in the file along with a transcription. Then we will look at clues, questions raised and what was learned. Finally, we'll plot the property on Google Earth.

Here's the first page in the file, along with it's transcription. I'm really not sure what the 3 letters after "Wm H. Ballenger" are so if you have a suggestion, I would welcome it.


No 12389 //10
Christopher Rian
private in Capt Mont-
gomery's Compy 1st Reg
Illinois Vols.
Wm H. Ballenger afs[?] ass
of sd Christopher Rian
SE 1/4 34, 76N, 15W
5th P.M.
Iowa City
Iowa
the[?]
Patd. 1st June 1850
Recd. Vol 29 page 409 =
Oskaloosa Iowa








Clues
  1. The patent date of 1 June 1850 could turn out to be important. That was census day and I have been unable to locate William in any federal censuses during his life.
Questions Raised
  1. Who is Christopher Rian?
  2. Is William associated or related to Christopher Rian somehow?
  3. Why does William want property in Iowa? What's the push or pull factor?
What I learned

  1. The exact location of the property.
  2. The date of the patent (June 1, 1850).
  3. A quick online search for Christopher Rian in the 1850 census doesn't turn up Christopher but does reveal several Rians in Scott County, Illinois. This is important because that is where William Ballenger married Lucinda Campbell in 1849.
  4. Another quick online search for Christopher reveals a Christopher Rian in Scott County, Illinois in the Illinois Census of 1855. There are also a couple of Campbells on the same page. This could be important and is worth following up.
Let's put some perspective on this piece of land. Using Google Earth, you can see where William's property is located in relation to the surrounding counties. The orange box is the township and range. The pink box or dot is the section.

Tip: Click on the image to view a larger version and then click on the back arrow button to return to this post. If the larger version isn't big enough try this: Windows users: hold down the Control key (Mac users hold down the Command key) and press the plus key to make it even bigger (minus key makes it smaller).




Getting in a little closer, we are looking at the section. William's property is the SE 1/4 or in the lower right hand corner of the purple box.


As a side note, using MapQuest, I was able to determine that Oskaloosa, the county seat of Mahaska County, Iowa, where William's land was located is about 230 miles on today's roads from Winchester, the county seat of Scott County, Illinois. Scott County is where William Ballenger married Lucinda Campbell and where a Christopher Rian appeared in the 1855 Illinois Census. For now, we'll just file that little piece of information away.

Stay tuned for the next page in William Ballenger's Iowa land file.

For a full list of posts in this series, go to Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Generations & Reflections Meet On Genealogy Day

One of the great perks of blogging is getting to "know" other people who share the genealogy bug. It's even better when we get to meet our GeneaBlogger friends in person. That's what happened yesterday, on Genealogy Day no less. Husband and I had the pleasure of enjoying one of our beautiful Arizona sunsets and dinner with Reflections From the Fence author Carol and her husband Man. It was truly an enjoyable evening! I am still smiling today!




PS. Carol's brownies and peanut butter cookies are out of this world!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Saturday, March 12, 2011

When is it OK to Throw an Old Photo Away? - Sorting Saturday

Several days ago Nolichucky Roots called my attention to a fantastic article over at a blog that is new to me called ArchivesInfo. The title of the article is Culling Family Photographs and it has some wonderful tips on that subject.

One sentence really caught my attention because it's something I really struggle with.

If an old image sits around for years and nobody can be found who knows anything about it, do you really need to keep it? (No)

An accurate statement, in my opinion. But how many years does it take before you decide to toss an old photo? How hard to you look for that somebody, somewhere who knows about that old picture? How hard and long do you look for that piece of information, that tiny clue to open the story of the photo? The answer is going to vary from person to person. So what are some of the factors that play into answering this question? Here are a few that I came up with.

  1. How important is the picture to you? How important do you think it might be?
  2. What other items or photos are with the picture that you found that could potentially provide clues?
  3. Is there anyone living in your family who might know something or someone that could give you the answers you seek or at least some leads?
  4. How many items like this do you have?
  5. How much room do you have to store these types of items?
  6. How much time and effort do you want (or are able) to put into your search?
  7. How broadly do you want to search? Immediate family? Extended family? Message boards? Historical Societies?
  8. Is there anyother family member who would like to have the photos?
How have you handled the issue of orphan photos? What do you consider to be important considerations in decided what to keep and how long to keep it?

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Friday, March 11, 2011

Using Land Records To Solve Genealogical Problems - Part 2

In Part 1, I explained how I located and ordered a land record file for my ancestor William H. Ballenger in Mahaska County, Iowa. In the next several posts, we will go through the file page by page.

As a side note, NARA now gives the option of ordering files like this in paper form or on a CD. I opted for the CD version since I'm trying to keep get the piles of paper under control. I was pleased with how quickly I received it.

The first document explains the law under which William obtained his property. In a nutshell, William Ballenger got his Iowa land under the February 11, 1847: ScripWarrant Act of 1847 (9 Stat. 123). The portion of this act that applies here basically states those who served in the Mexican American War received a warrant or certificate for 160 acres.

You can read the entire document if you are so inclined. Click on the image to view a larger version and then click on the back arrow button to return to this post. If the larger version isn't big enough try this tip I learned from Dick Eastman's article, "Are You Still Printing Everything?" For Windows users: hold down the Control key (Mac users hold down the Command key) and press the plus key to make it even bigger (minus key makes it smaller).

In Part 3 we'll get into the meat and potatoes of William's file.



For a full list of posts in this series, go to Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium.
© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Congratulations to Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs 2011

The list of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011 is out online! Congratulations to all of the wonderful blogs who made the list this year.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mt. St. Helens Eruption - Disasters

   
West side of Mount St. Helens, looking up the South Fork
 Toutle River valley March 25, 1980. By WAstateDNR

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum The Eruption of Mount St. Helens is the only natural disaster that I have truly lived through. There isn't a May 18th that has gone by since 1980 that I don't think about that day. At the time, I was a student at Washington State University, in Pullman which is in eastern Washington, and experienced the ash fallout with its resulting aftermath first hand. The morning of the eruption, a Sunday, I woke up to what I can only describe as weird, greenish lighting outside. Slowly day turned into night as the ash coming our way covered the sun and began to fall from the sky. By mid afternoon it was as dark as midnight and we were being cautioned against going outside as there might be poisonous gasses in the ash.

May 18, 1980 eruption. Photo by WAstateDNR.

Students who lived in the surrounding dorms had to go outside to get to our dining hall in order to eat. I was fortunate in that my dorm was attached to the dining hall. Sudents coming into our dining hall from other dorms had to wear layers of clothing to protect against the ash. Some students dressed up like Star Wars storm troopers and even Darth Vader, complete with light sabers!

Surface of the debris flow in North Fork Toutle River valley,
looking southeast toward the volcano. May 24, 1980.
Photo by WAstateDNR.
The university was closed for several days; something that even snow couldn't do. People couldn't drive their cars without the engine being choked on ash. The state patrols had to put these huge filters on the front of their patrol cars to keep the ash out of the engine.

Unfortunately, that was one of the only times in my life that I had no film for my camera and no way to get any as the student store, the only store within walking distance, was closed. However, I did scoop up some ash in a plastic cup. I still have that container of ash after all these years.
 
In 1997, our family had the opportunity to visit Mt. St. Helens and the visitor center at Johnston Ridge where David Johnston was camped that fateful morning and radioed in the eruption to the USGS base in Vancouver. Seventeen years after the eruption life was returning to the once sterilized area but evidence of the eruption's power was still evident everywhere.

Mt. St. Helens from Johnston Ridge.
August 1997. Photo by Michelle Goodrum

From the Northwest, August 1997. Photo by Michelle Goodrum.
   52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts to encourage people to record memories and insights about their lives for future descendants. It's not necessary to be a blogger to join in. Just record your memories on your own if you wish.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems - Part 1

A while back my search into the earlier years of William H. Ballinger's life, in the hope of eventually identifying his parents, led me to the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office Records website. I love land records as they can be chock full of valuable and interesting information. What I discovered this time did not disappoint (although I'm still working on his parents). I thought I would share this particular land file with you as it is different from others I have used, and, well, we'll just see where this goes.

On this particular trip to the BLM website, I searched several spelling variations of Ballenger in Mahaska County, Iowa since that is where I have found William and family in several Iowa State censuses in the 1850s. Here are the results:





Using the information listed for William H. Ballenger, I was able to order this particular land file from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Next up, I'll present the contents of William's land file, lessons learned, and what questions came up. This particular file is different from others I have ordered in the past so it raises a whole new set of questions.

Later on, we will revisit this results list and see how some of these other Ballenger/Ballinger individuals might fit into the picture. One thing at a time...

For a full list of posts in this series, go to Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems Compendium.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Friday, March 4, 2011

I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too - Sounds


Photo by Michelle, ceramic witch by Mom

Week 9: Sounds. Describe any sounds that take you back to your childhood. These could be familiar songs, jingles, children playing, or something entirely different.

When I saw the prompt for this week, the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz immediately popped into my head! I'm not sure why because I'm completely over her and there are so many other interesting sounds that come to mind. But there she was so I'm going to work with it.

Like many other children, I was terrified by the Wicked Witch of the West and probably even more scared of the music that accompanied her. We would watch The Wizard of Oz every year on TV. Every year when either the music or Elba (as we now know her to be called) would enter, I would exit down the hall to my room where I would usually stick my head under a pillow until I was sure it was safe to come out. I was terrorized by her the rest of the year as well. My parents had the sound track album and Mom would occassionally play it. Off I would go in search of a pillow until that awful music was over!

I can even remember Dad making me sit through the scene when Dorothy threw the bucket of water on the witch and made her melt away. I still didn't want anything to do with that witch.

"Going so soon? I wouldn't hear of it. Why my little party's just beginning. ..." Listen here for a quick blast from the past my pretty.


52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin, of The We Tree Genealogy Blog, is a series of weekly blogging prompts in 2011to encourage you to record memories and insights about your life.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ancestor Approved Again


The Ancestor Approved Award, originally created by Leslie Ann Balou of Ancestors Live Here is still making the rounds in the blogging community. I am overdue to recognize and thank Jirene's Genealogy Tips for recently sending the Ancestor Approved Award this way again.

The Ancestor Approved Award asks that the recipient list ten things you have learned about any of your ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlighted you. Since I have already received this award, you can read about them here.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Day After Data Backup Day

Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog has a recent post titled, Digital Youth and Digital Preservation that caused me to look at Data Backup Day a little differently this month. It discussed an interesting film at the Library of Congress about youth and digital preservation and got me to thinking about the importance of digitally preserving information belonging to the young adults in our household.

The films refers to youth today as Digital Natives, having grown up in a digital world. Well, the Digital Natives in my household really haven't put much thought into how to digitally preserve and protect their own digital information.

Due to recent circumstances the time is right to approach the Natives about a solution. Younger Child is going to have to send the laptop in for repair. When I asked what information on the computer, if lost, would be devastating, the response was, "My pictures. I like to look back on my pictures." I then asked if there was a copy of those pictures anyplace else. Of course the answer was no. So we set Younger Child upwith an online backup service in the cloud. Younger Child was very open to this, so now it's a done deal.

Older Child recently experienced a broken pipe in her building after the recent freeze, which caused significant flooding. Older Child suddenly has a new appreciation for concepts like insurance and hopefully data backup, which we will be discussing in a few days.

I hope you, and your family, have backed up your data recently!


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Winter on the Beach - Wordless Wednesday


Winter on the beach.
© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum