Week End Chat...All Members Invited!!! October 21-23, 2016

Question

This is an ongoing "Chat" post that can be added to throughout the weekend.  All members of WikiTree are encouraged to join in, especially first-timers!

 

Hi Gang!

 

Say Hello and introduce yourself... where are you from and what are your interests?

 

Leaders, Mentors, Greeters, Pilots - What tips can you share with us today?

 

What improvements can we make?

 

What do you enjoy most about WikiTree?

 

Do you have any stories to share about famous or notorius ancestors?

 

What projects are you involved in, and how are they going?

 

What's the weather been like in your neck-of-the-woods?

 

... anything that you want to talk about!

 

 

Post answers here, comment on answers, up-vote things you like or agree with and have fun!  To receive notice when future Chats are posted, add Weekend_Chat to the list of Tags you follow.  You can edit your list by clicking on "My Feed" on G2G, then click to "add or edit". 

Answer 1

Good Week End to All!

Not much Wikitree for me this week, but the southern Outer Banks have been fabulous this week.

What's new with you?

Comments

Fantastic photo! :-)

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Great photo......

Answer 2

OY VEY!!! I sent for and received my deceased father's DD-214s ( He enlisted in the Navy four times) and WWII data. Unfortunately the WWII data burned up in 1974. I do know that he served in the Northern Apennines campaign and three other campaigns I haven't figured out yet. His medals reflect that he served in four campaigns. I just have to dig around to find out which campaigns the 168th Infantry Regiment was in. My Dad served in the Regular Army from August 8, 1943 to January 9, 1946 and he attained the rank of Private First Class. Medals awarded to my father are European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal with three bronze stars, Navy Occupation Service Medal with Europe Clasp, Bronze Star Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge, National Defense Medal, European Occupation Medal.

And I didn't even know he was in the war.

 

Sigh.

Betty

Answer 3

Hi All,

I've been working a lot on the Weddington Name Study recently.

Some earlier posts got me thinking about clarifying the goals of the study which I have now stated in the first section.

I've been thinking a lot about "connecting family members", and what that means genealogically.

It's a fact of life that I'm white. I've known for a long time that there are black / African-American families with the last name Weddington. This always leads to the question of how did they get this last name? Unfortunately the answer usually points back to Slavery in America. Many times slaves took the last name of their owners.

So, how could I, in good conscience, do a One Name Study and leave out this whole area of genealogy? I'm trying to gather all genealogical resources and provide connections for anyone with the last name Weddington. This needs to be for anyone that is a Weddington, white or black.

I already knew about the 1850 US Census Slave Schedule, and ran across it on FamilySearch.

I also discovered that the Categorization project here has categories for Slave Owners in America.

So I've been spending a lot of time in this area recently

• Trying to match up Weddington slave owners in the 1850 US Census Slave Schedule with specific Weddington profiles.
• Categorizing Weddington slave owners
• Documenting slaves in the owners profiles per the project

Some things that I've discovered:

Matching up owners is not always easy. Many times there are just first initials with a last name. Sometimes just a last name only. Matching of slave owners depends a lot on knowing the County and State they lived in at 1850. Which leads you to the conclusion that it comes across that the people at the time didn't want to make this easy. Of course.

There were some owners that had mostly male slaves. Other slave owners had mostly female slaves. There are a lot of children. There are listings where there is an adult black female, and mulatto children.

One can know the history intellectually, but facing the actual records and documents and recording them makes it visceral. Doing genealogy makes you understand this.

If you're interested in Civil War history and genealogy, then you need to do this too.

I've been very lucky in that I might have connected one black Weddington family back to a slave of a Weddington. Conclusive proof may never be found. But the Weddington Name Study is nowhere complete yet.

I encourage anyone who is working on a One Name Study in the United States to include this kind of work. Or include this in your family genealogy where you discover it.

You never know who you may help. Hopefully what I've been doing helps someone.

Please take a look:

Weddington Name Study - 1850 US Census Slave Schedule

Answer 4

What a beautiful scene Doug, thanks for sharing!!! For us in the mid south, we have the beautiful fall foliage to enjoy!! But within the last few days temperatures went from highs in the 90's to just 60 degrees today. And now our leaves are piling up on the ground lol. 

I have been working on the database errors report which seemed to increase my responsibility to generations beyond my watch list. I am on generation #11 with people and surnames I have not heard of before. They stem from my Canada and French connection. 

And lastly I, for one, will be glad when the presidential elections are over with here in the states.The debates and viewpoints are mostly all that is in the news lately. I am not going to say much more then that!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Answer 5

Wikitree genealogy related: bouncing around, in an effort to make a few improvements to profiles, for the general good of the website, and also tending to a few of the profiles on my watch list.

Non WikiTree or genealogy time suckers: Last week, in an effort to scurry home, from a house/doggie sitting gig, before a wind storm closed the floating bridge, that I needed to cross, I left a few items behind.  Most inconvenient item, being my french press coffee maker :( This has resulting in my spending way too much time devising ways to make a cup of coffee, without purchasing a new french press.

With Christmas arriving way too soon, have been busy dyeing wool to spin yarn, and knitting socks for Christmas gifts.  Two down - three to go :/

Answer 6

Hello Y’all,

I’m Peggy and I live in North Alabama.  I’m from Tennessee (born in Oak Ridge, mostly grew up in Chattanooga).  It’s really challenging for a TN fan to live in AL…especially during football season!  TN doesn’t play this week, so I’ll have extra computer time.  My time during the week is limited due to that thing called a job…and the husband too…both are demanding of my time!

My main interests are genealogy (big surprise there) and nature photography.  It’s been a hot summer and a hot fall…but cooler temps moved in yesterday.  It’s supposed to be cool and crisp out this weekend.  We don’t get a lot of fall color until the end of October, early November.  This year, it’s been so DRY the past 2 months, I’m afraid we’ll mostly get brown.  Though, some of my hickory trees are turning yellow.

What improvements can we make?  I still find it confusing making my way around the message boards…and I feel there are probably assets to this site that I haven’t discovered yet.

What do I enjoy the most about WikiTree?  I enjoy that there is one page for each individual.  I don’t like duplication of effort.  I also enjoy that sources for information is stressed.  In the past, I didn’t care so much about sources, but I’ve come to find many mistakes, and sources help clear things up.  And I LOVE reading old Census records…

Stories to share:  I’ve been doing some searching on my husband’s line.  I’m wanting to find information on his grandfather, who was adopted.  The story is that there were 3 brothers left orphaned when their parents were killed in Nashville ~1900.  His grandfather is a twin and the twins were adopted together when they were ~3.  They had an older brother and I don’t know if he was adopted.  We have the original names of the boys and their parents.  Well, in my research, it seems that the father died and the mother put the boys in an orphanage…then remarried and had another family.  Made me sad for my husband’s grandfather, who was an evil man who mistreated women.  I suppose being abandoned by his mother shaped him.  But then, I don’t want to judge…maybe that was the only choice she could make…but her mother was also alive.  So far, I haven’t found anything about the father’s family.  The father is said to be a descendant of William Clark.  I don’t think so, George Clark maybe…but a lot more time needs to be spent there and I put more time into my own family.  I didn’t share what I found with my husband…he would not like it…just as he didn’t appreciate it when I told him his Southern relatives joined the Union Army during the Civil War.  One of my husband’s cousins is also doing the research, so I’ll keep in touch with her and hope she finds some answers.

Projects I’m currently working on:  I just finished getting detailed information on my great great grandparents, Nathan and Malinda (Bennett) Lawson and each of their children.  I had adopted their profiles and added biographies and timelines with lots of sources.  I enjoyed doing that a lot and am now moving to another set of great great grandparents to do the same.

Answer 7

We had a very, very dry summer and it was predicted that the leaves would be a dull contrast from the usual coloring.  However we had a warm spell that induced the trees to green up with the fall rains and it delayed the fall
colors by about two weeks, but everyone agrees they are more spectacular than usual.  So much for predictions from nature.  I hope that one about this being a viscous snow winter is just as far off.
I am busy turning apples from our son's trees into apple sauce for the freezer and apple crisp for suppers.  With two teenage boys living with
their dad, it goes a long way to help the budget and add to the supper
menu.  I can count on the cake pan to come back pretty quick to be refilled.
We had two and a half inches of rain last night and forecasts for three more days of it so I am glad I picked up the apples just before the front moved in.  It gives me an excuse to spend time on genealogy instead of  raking leaves that the rain is knocking off so fast.

Answer 8

Hello from Brightlingsea, Essex, England....                                                   our local museum in Brightlingsea had an open morning with a focus on Yachting. In past years - up to 1939 local mariners were often employed as crew  on the "big yachts"  In my family my grandfather Albert Jefferies (Jefferies-354) was foreign yachting from around 1920 to 1940. From 1927 he worked for the Singer family on their yachts - Xarifa.as a steward. He travelled extensively and was on Xarifa when it was cruising to Japan, when he had to go into hospital in Djakarta, then Dutch east Indies, to have his appendix removed - and never got to Japan.Later in his life he travelled infrequently only to visit family in Great Yarmiouth, Norfolk,  and Hatfield Peveril, Essex.

Keeping on a nautical theme - tonight  our branch of the Royal Naval Association has its Trafalgar Dinner - am going with my Dad, he is the President.

Lots to do on Wikitree and everywhere else......................

Have a good weekend everyone....................

Answer 9

Morning everyone!!!

Stayed up an extra couple of hours greeting last night and thought about sleeping in but then couldn't. LoL

I'm still working on cleaning up my Dyess database as the reunion is a week from today and I'll be leaving after work on Friday to head to Semmes, AL. Just wish things would stop running a little slow for some reason so I can work faster. :(

Late this afternoon - evening one of my cousin's is coming over as my hometown, Harlem, GA is having a Ladies Night Out which will involve shopping, music and wine! Can't wait then afterwards she's staying the night for us to have a great night of more wine and genealogy! :) Think you guys can get the gist of my evening with wine tonight. HAHAHA

Hope everyone else has a great weekend!

Answer 10

Well, Friday was my 70th birthday, so I was too busy to post here.  Then Our church had a service day helping so widows near our church get painting and landscaping done which also continues tomorrow morning.  On Friday we had about 30 guests come to our townhouse in an open-house for my  birthday which was a lot of fun.  Anyway tomorrow will also be short on time for Genealogy.

Comments

Happy belated 70th birthday Dave!! Wow, you sure do keep yourself busy, young at heart. Glad you had a great open house birthday celebration!! 

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70 is the new 50 or is it 40!

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Happy Birthday Dave!

Answer 11

Hello from Ontario!

There's a frost warning for Tuesday night in my area, so I'll be working in the garden today rinsing out pots and raking leaves (why did we plant a Honey Locust all those years ago - the leaves are so small!).

When that's all done, I'll be singing "Ontari-ari-ari-o" (our unofficial provincial anthem) and working with Mags on today's launch of the Ontario Project.

I hope some of you with Ontario ancestors will join us! Please see the invitation here.

Hope you all are having a great weekend.

Answer 12

I really have gotten sucked in to Wikitree. The Sourcethon helped, it got me into more sourcing, connecting. Now I am chasing down error reports which leads to all sorts of things. The DNA test got me onto Ancestry. I am finding that they have a lot of sources, but quoting them is easier on FamilySearch. I even found out that Googling leads to interesting sources, a lot of Family Books from the 1800, early 1900's. That helps suggest connections to be made, especially 1600-1700. I am still working ongoing a good cleanup after merge. I probably leave too much ancestry tree info, but I am still sorting out what to delete and err on the side of caution. At least I combine Biography, Source sections and eliminate duplicate tags.

Outside, yes some. It was like summer and then yesterday turned cold and rainy. I do something called Waymarking and Geocaching which gets me outside. I take pictures of a lot of old buildings and cemeteries. It gets you into researching the history of the small towns around the area. This area was settled when they gave the Revolutionary soldiers land grants, so lots of Revolutionary soldier graves. There was a campaign during the Revolution called the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign where they went through burning Indian villages. It had been Indian Territory by treaty with the British, the war change that. Some tribes allied with the British, others with the Americans. The ones that sided with the Americans got reservations. The others went to Canada or died at their forts in the winter. The whole area thrived during the 1800's but has been in decline in the 1900's. Some really nice buildings from the 1800's. There were also a lot of fires, and now there are firehouses everywhere.

Answer 13

Hey all! Saw Lindsey Stirling in NYC on Friday night... let me just say... wow.

According to my dad and uncles, it was the equivalent of Mystere (Cirque du Soleil) in quality but far easier on the wallet. All I know is that it was amazing and I was really glad that I got to see it. Actually gave me some perspective on life. This week on things you don't expect when you go to a Lindsey Stirling concert.

I've been working on the Drozda Name Study. Pretty much whenever I come across a deceased Drozda I've been adding them to the name study, whose project page is currently a mess of my own making (... nailed it?) but it's serving its purpose of being organized enough for me to follow it. I made it to help me find where my Drozda ancestors are from.

So naturally I've gone through well over 200 individual parish registers from the Czech Republic and haven't found my ancestors yet.

It's driving me crazy. None of their records say where they're from. The closest I've gotten is "Bohemia," which is about as much a clue as telling someone you're from the East Coast of the US. All those red marks you see on that map are places where the Drozda surname isn't even located. Of the placed I have found with the Drozda surname in the Czech Republic - a whopping 15 so far - none of them have my Drozda family.