The Annual iGene Awards on the 102nd Edition of CoG

I vaguely remember the iGene Awards last year as they were going on about the time The Turning of Generations was born. I had no idea what a Carnival of Genealogy was much less who was giving out these iGene Awards! The timing for the iGene Awards is perfect however. Since starting The Turning of Generations last January, I now have nearly a full year of posts to choose from.

Best Picture: This one is easy. While it is not genealogy related, there is no doubt this award goes to A National Geographic Moment where I managed to catch an osprey flying along with a fresh catch in his talons. Taking a photograph like this has been a dream of mine for many, many years.

Best Screen Play:  This would be about Roy Bindon's WWI service in Russia. The casting committee has selected Liam Neeson to play Roy, Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee from The Andy Griffith Show) to play Roy's wife Caroline, and Katharine Hepburn to play his daughter.

Best Documentary: The Time Capsule series is the winner of the Best Documentary award. Now if I can just get Ken Burns to make it into a film!

Best Biography: In March, one of the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges was to feature an ancestor on WDYTYA. My subject was my great grandfather the baker, John Eugene Roos and the recipient of the Best Biography award.

Best Comedy: I can't help but chuckle when I think of the conversation with Teenager over the Emergency Drinking Water. It highlights the generational differences we often experience.

Before signing off for the 2011 iGene Awards, I would like to thank Jasia of the Academy of Genealogy and Family History for her tireless work in putting on the annual iGene Awards and for graciously allowing participants to include her graphic.

Well that's it for this year, here at The Turning of Generations. It's time to roll up the red carpet until next year.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

101st Carnival of Genealogy - Genealogy Research/Writing Plan for 2011

The topic for the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011. Figure out what you think you can accomplish in 2011 and write it up on your blog.




Thanks to fM for the poster.


My plan is to find and prove the identify of the parents of my gg grandfather, William H. Ballinger, who was living with his wife Lucinda and their children in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa in 1856.

I've been struggling with this for several years now and I've finally got enough information together to come up with a hypothesis. So 2011 is going to be the year I answer the question. Here's the plan.

Condensed version of known facts

1. Living in Adams Twp., Mahaska Co, IA 1854 (IA State Census).
2. Living in Black Oak, Mahaska Co., IA 1856 (IA State Census).
3. Associated with John F., Samuel and Jeremiah Ballinger by proximity and business/land transactions (deeds, land maps, census records).

This is quite literally the kindergarten condensed version. I have lots more specific information and sources. if you are researching this line, please contact me.

Working Hypothesis

John F. and Catherine Ballinger were William's parents.

Research Strategy

1. Investigate Ballingers in Mahaska County, Iowa will and probate records. I will be pulling all Ballingers that show up in order to identify or eliminate people.
2. Finish transcribing, plotting and analyzing land records for Ballingers in Mahaska County.

Identified Sources

I have prepared a list of films that will need to be ordered from the Family History Library in order to carry out my research strategy.

This should keep me busy for quite a while. Thanks Jasia for prompting me to come up with a formal plan to accomplish this goal that has been in the works for a long time!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

There's One In Every Family - 100th Edition of COG

Every family has that someone who is "special." We all define special in slightly different ways. In my case the special someone was my dad. He played many roles including that of teacher, the one who always made time for those he loved, a maker of memories, a recorder of memories, and a keeper of memories.

We are all teachers. We teach by just doing what we do every day. Someone is always watching and learning, especially children. Dad had this concept dialed in. When I was about nine, Dad was building a deck on our place. I was hanging around watching him lay the boards and nail them down. So he showed me how to hammer nails and straighten out the ones that were a little bent so they could still be used. I spent quite a bit of time straightening out my bent nails so occasionally he had me straighten out the ones he had bent a little too.

Not only did Dad teach me a skill and how to solve a problem, he did it in such a way that he was able to continue with his project and actually make some progress while keeping a little kid busy at the same time! Looking back, I think he knew exactly what he was doing. The deck got built and I helped.

Dad was the same way with his grandkids too. Dad loved to garden and when it was time to weed, he would take the grandkids kids along to "help".

He would give them their own can to put weeds in. Then he would go along, pull weeds and leave them for the kids to pick up. The grandkids would even pull a few weeds themselves, until they got bored...

When it was time to pull carrots, he taught them how to break the tops off and rinse them. Then it would be snack time. I'm sure there were  a lot of carrots that never made it into the house.

To this day my children have fond memories of gardening with Grandpa. I even recently found out that one day he decided to take a nap under his tomato plants!

Dad would also make time for just about anything. On one visit, Husband and I decided to take the kids to Port Townsend for a picnic. I was looking for a place called Chetzamoka Park. It was one of those spur of the moment "just because" types of adventures. We asked Dad if he wanted to come along even though he had mentioned earlier he was going to fix something around the house. Being one not to miss out on something potentially fun, he jumped at the chance. We found the park and had a lovely picnic. At one point he asked what the point was in coming all the way to Port Townsend for a picnic so I reminded him of the ferry we used to ride when we were little kids named the Chetzamoka. I just wanted to find the park with the same name.

Being an avid photographer, Dad was also a recorder of memories. Unfortunately, that meant he was behind the camera way more often than he was in front of it. Now it's hard to find him in any pictures.

As it turns out, Dad wasn't just the maker and recorder of memories; he was also the keeper of memories. I mostly have him to thank for all of the family history we have right at our fingertips. I suspect there are a number of our family lines that essentially would have turned out to be dead ends if it wasn't for the various letters, postcard, photos, and other documents that he saved.

Thank you Jasia for this opportunity to share my someone special in the 100th Carnival of Genealogy and congratulations on making it to 100! I’m looking forward to many more.


© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

There's one in every family! - 100th Carnival of Genealogy

When Husband was growing up, his mother used to make Sweet Potato Casserole for the holidays. It was a dish he savored. So after we were married, his mother gave him the recipe and we continued the family tradition of making the Sweet Potato Casserole.

When I was growing up, I was not particularly fond of sweet potato anything but I must admit to being quickly converted into a sweet potato lover; or at least a lover of this particular dish.

One year, after moving to Arizona, some friends invited us over for Thanksgiving. Everyone was to bring a dish so Husband brought his sweet potatoes. This was a fairly large gathering and several in attendance were not fans of sweet potatoes. After everyone made their first pass through the buffet style line, the word started to get around that those sweet potatoes were delicious. Even some of the non-believers, who had taken a very small helping to be polite, were commenting on how good they were. People started going back for seconds.

This family has become a second family of sorts to us. We often join them for holiday meals and Husband is always asked to bring his Sweet Potato Casserole. If we aren't able to attend, someone else is assigned the duty of making it but everyone says it's just not the same as Husband's.

Within our own immediate family, this dish is always on the table for the holidays and Oldest Child makes a point of requesting Dad's Sweet Potato Casserole.

I hope you will try and enjoy this dish sometime during your holiday season. Bon appétit!

Sweet Potato Casserole


2 cans sweet potatoes (drained)
  As an alternate you can use fresh sweet potatoes or fresh yams. Cook, peel and mash them first.
1 c. sugar- with fresh sweet potatoes (use only ½ cup with canned sweet potatoes)
½ c. butter melted
2 eggs beaten
1 t. vanilla
1/3 c. milk

Mash the potatoes. Mix in sugar. Next mix in melted butter. Separately mix the eggs, vanilla and milk. Add these to the potato mix.

Meanwhile to prepare topping, combine the following and spread over the casserole:

½ packed light brown sugar
¼ c. flour
2 ½ T. melted butter
½ c. chopped pecans

Cook casserole at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

 
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

98th Edition of COG - Document Analysis! - Bessie Maud Passmore Birth Certificate

The topic for the 98th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Document Analysis!

Show us a document that helped you break down a brick wall on your family tree. Discuss the information that appears on the document and how it contributes to your family history.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum When I think of breaking down a brick wall in family history research, I have this vision of what's on the other side of that wall: a Genealogy Garden of Eden of sorts. Beautiful green fields with babbling brooks and cute wooden bridges, peaceful little cemeteries where my ancestor's headstones are prominently displayed, family homesteads overflowing with family photos, stories, old documents and maybe even a curator to show them to some curious soul who happens by. All the answers to any question I ever had on that family line are there for the picking. For most of us the reality of what's on the other side of that brick wall is quite different.

Earlier this summer, I discovered among my parent's papers, a Certificate of Birth for my great grandmother Bessie Maud Passmore. Actually it's a delayed birth certificate as it was issued when Bessie was about 56 years old and applying for her Social Security card.

We are dealing with an original source (the best kind) which is full of both primary and secondary information. What's so great is that due to the credibility of the informant (Bessie's older sister Cora), I consider both the primary and the secondary information to be high quality and reliable.

Much of the information in the birth certificate is supported by other evidence I have: Bessie's full name, date of birth, place of birth, father's name, and residence of her parents. What I want to focus on is some key new information in this document and how it helped me chip a hole in my brick wall large enough to wriggle through.

Let's start with the father, Thomas Passmore, analyze the information and see where it leads in relation to a question I wanted to answer: Who were Thomas Passmore's parents?

Age and Birthplace:  Now armed with a specific birthplace of Mt. Vernon, [Knox Co.,] Ohio and an age of 28, which translates into a birth year of about 1854, I was quickly able to locate 6 year old Thomas and his family in the 1860 Census in the 5th Ward, Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio. Having a specific birthplace was particularly helpful since there is at least one other Thomas Passmore in Ohio who is about the same age as my Thomas.

So now I at least have his parents initials, ages and birthplaces. I feel like I've crossed the bridge over the babbling brook in the Genealogy Garden of Eden.

The next bridge I had to cross was a little rickety so I had to be careful. I located Thomas and his family in the 1870 Census living in Keithsburg, Mercer County, Illinois. I had to do some additional research to be certain that I had the correct family. Here's a summary of the household:

I carefully made my way across the somewhat rickety bridge in the Garden of Eden after noticing that Edith Gladmon in 1870 might have been Edith Passmore in 1860. The 2 children listed under Rueben and Edith were born in Illinois so I checked the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index for Edith Passmore. Edith Passmore married Rueben Gladman on 29 March 1866 in Mercer County. I had the correct family.

So now I have a first name for Thomas' mother - Eliza. Unfortunately, RJ Passmore is missing and possibly dead. However, I've got a bonus, the names of two additional sisters, Mary and Cora. After tracing them through the census records, it turns out they never married and Eliza continued to live with them. This information allowed me to stop at a beautiful rest area in the Genealogy Garden of Eden and order death records for the three women. Hopefully, the death certificates will allow me to connect Eliza and "RJ" to each other and their daughter's Mary and Cora. If I am unable to eventually find a death certificate or other document connecting Thomas to his parents, I will need to connect Thomas to his sisters to "prove" who his parents were.

The same process will be used to answer the question, "Who were Jeanettie Poor's parents?" once I figure out the name of that village that is her birthplace on Bessie's Birth Certificate (hopefully this is just a little gate I need to figure out how to open and not another brick wall).

There is much, much more information that can be gleaned from Bessie Maud Passmore's birth certificate, especially when taken in context with some of the other information I have on the family:

1. The number of children born to the mother (6) and how many are now alive (3) has helped me to make a tentative identification of a second sister to Bessie.
2. Since Bessie's sister, Cora, was the informant, I now have additional information on Cora that I can use to lead me down yet another path should I choose to follow it.
3. Then there is the plate my mother has with the name Cora Passmore written on the back and a letter from one of Bessie's son's to Mom that discusses "...the two hand painted plates (painted by an Aunt, or Great Aunt of ours)..." I am wondering if the plate Mom has one of the plates referred to in the letter. If it is, which Cora did it belong to? In my Genealogy Garden of Eden I see this as a little path with a patch of woods that I might want to wander down someday.

I know my continuing journey through the Genealogy Garden of Eden will be pleasant, fun and at times frustrating. Hopefully I will encounter navigable fences, hills and streams rather be stopped in my tracks by brick walls.

COG, 96th Edition, Scrapbook Your Family History! Is Out

There were 17 fabulous submissions to this month's Carnival of Genealogy. You can read them here.

© 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

Bathing Beauty

Mom - Colleen in August 1951.

Submitted for the Carnival of Genealogy's Family Swimsuit Edition.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Dance! - The 92nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

The 92nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is out.  This edition's topic is Dance!  There are 10 delightful articles that I hope you will read and enjoy.

Dance!

The 92nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Dance!

My mother, Colleen, started dancing in the 1930's when she was in third grade. She had problems with her feet so her doctor recommended to her parents that she take dancing lessons, particularly ballet, to help strengthen them.

Initially, she took lessons in the basement of a lady's home and eventually started taking ballet, tap, acrobatics and baton at Ruth Doherty's School of Dance located at the corner of Broadway and East Pine in Seattle. Ruth Doherty's was in the Odd Fellows Temple.

They were a one car family so there was no toting and fetching to and from activities like there is today.  When the family lived in Ballard and later Victory Heights, Colleen's mother would take Colleen and her brother to the studio for lessons on a trolley car (from Ballard) or take the bus. Afterward, they might ride the bus to downtown Seattle and go to the Bon or Frederick and Nelson's. Other days they would go to the Security Market (a farmer's market) and buy groceries and maybe some lunch. Then they would walk to the Yellow Cab Company where Colleen's dad worked as a mechanic and he would take them home.

At Christmas, the dance studio would put on a program for the Shriners at their Shrine Temple. In later years, the Christmas program was held in the Civic Auditorium at what is now the Seattle Center (later the auditorium was remodeled and named the Seattle Opera House and after a more recent renovation Marion Oliver McCaw Hall). The first year their dance program was in their new location, at Civic Auditorium, ended up being a bit of a slippery slope! The dance floor having just been waxed was like ice. The girls had to dance the Can Can and perform cartwheels and flips. They were slipping and sliding all over!

Ruth Doherty's studio also did a program for the Moose Lodge every year. One year they had a horse in the program of which Colleen was the front. She and her partner wore tap shoes and danced a sort of comedy routine.

During World War II, Ruth Doherty would get requests to do programs for service men. Ruth would always give the girls a talk, in front of their parents, that they were not to dance and socialize with the servicemen.  The men loved the programs, especially the little kids, as many had children of their own and were missing them.
 
Colleen danced and assisted with Ruth's classes until her second year in college. Working for Ruth Doherty's School of Dance was Colleen's first job and was how she earned her dance lessons. She would help keep the little girls in their lines, work one on one with some of them in learning their steps and work the front desk.

All those years of dancing while growing up had a significant impact on Colleen. After she enrolled at the University of Washington, Colleen was accepted into Orchesis (a dance honorary) where she did Interpretive Dance. She chose Physical Education as her major and went on to teach PE at West Seattle High School and other schools.

I don't recall my parents going out to dance on Friday or Saturday nights but ever since I can remember, they had season tickets to the Seattle Repertory Theatre. It was always a big deal because they would get all dressed up and we kids got to have a babysitter and sometimes even TV Dinners. Mom and Dad would have seen many fabulous performances by top artists at Seattle Rep over the years.

As a child, I had no interest in dancing and took no dance lessons. However, once disco dancing became popular all that changed. I took my first dance class with a high school friend where we learned The Hustle. Once I was in college, I signed up for Ballroom Dancing. Mom was really happy about that. I can remember her telling me that you never know when it will come in handy. She was right, of course, and the class was so much fun that the next semester I signed up for another dance class. I don't remember what it was called but we learned all the really popular disco type dances of the time.

So in the end, somehow, either Mom passed on her love of dancing to me or I came down with Disco Fever.

Source:
[Mom]. Interviews by Michelle Goodrum. 19 July 1997 and March 2010. Notes. Privately held by Goodrum, [address for private use].

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum