52 Weeks to a Better Genealogy, Challenge #3

I’m a wee bit late for WeTree’s Week 3 challenge: “Assess yourself! You’re great at researching everyone else’s history, but how much of your own have you recorded? Do an assessment of your personal records and timeline events to ensure your own life is as well-documented as that of your ancestors. If you have a genealogy blog, write about the status of your own research and steps you may take to fill gaps and document your own life.”

I jumped into my family’s genealogy about 5 years ago, whilst assembling a scrapbook about my father’s life. But I really do need to do a better job of organizing my personal documents, photos and other stuff.

The good news is that there is plenty of stuff to organize. One of the saddest things that a genealogist faces is a lack of artifacts and sources to work with. Not so with my life! I was quite the packrat in my childhood. Sure, I’ve purged a lot over the past decade or so, but there’s still plenty left to document my life thus far.

I’m slowly starting to take apart the old magnetic and other albums that store my childhood photos. These I’m organizing into photo-safe scrapbooks from Creative Memories. Some will be traditional scrapbooks and some will be digital (using scans of photos). Others are more like traditional photo albums (you slip the photos into individual sleeves rather than laying them out on 12×12 or 8×8 pages). This latter option can be put together much faster, but journaling boxes and other scrapbooking materials can also be incorporated to tell stories and add fun touches to the photo pages.

I still have items like my childhood medical records, my elementary school ephemera, my high school and college newspaper clippings and more. These will have to be stored carefully as many of the items are very fragile. Luckily, Creative Memories has many options to help me with this endeavor as well.

This organization and preservation process doesn’t happen overnight, but the results will be well-worth it years from now when my personal history is still in good shape. Some might see this type of project as a chore, but I enjoy stirring up old memories as I go through old photo albums and create new ones.

Still not convinced you want to take on a project like preserving your own history? Then I’m here to help you. Drop me a line!

Scrappy Saturday: Go Digital with CM’s Digi Challenges

I’m going to try a new blogging theme–Scrappy Saturday–to let you all know what’s out there for those interested in either digital or traditional scrapbooking. This week, my focus is getting into digital scrapbooking by participating in various online challenges being run by Creative Memories.

What you’ll need:

• A PC (or a Mac running Parallels)
• Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus 3.0*
• Recent photos (you can use Creative Memories Memory Manager software to organize/archive them)

* try it before you buy it by downloading a free version first!

You can find out about ongoing Digi Challenges by following the CM team on Facebook. Check out their Events tab for the current challenges.

I’m participating in the 365 Project: I take at least one photo everyday and then create a one- or two-page spread at the end of the week. At the end of the year, I’ll have all of the highlights of 2010 ready to publish as a Storybook.

If that sounds daunting, there are plent of mini challenges you can participate in to get the feel for digital scrapbooking. These challenges are a great way to get to know the software and the different capabilities that are there for designing your own pages and using existing designs.

My response to Digi Challenge #9

I recently completed Digi Challenge #9. A layout was provided and all I needed was to select two of my photos to include. I got to pick 4 different papers and 3 embellishments to complement the photos. Then, I needed to fill in one journaling box and I was done. It’s fun to see how others responded to the challenge as well.

If you’ve been thinking about trying digital scrapbooking, but don’t know where to start, try out one of these challenges and see where it takes you. Digital scrapbooking is fast and easy. You can more easily share the results of your digital creations with far-flung friends and relatives than you can with a traditional scrapbook.

One extra benefit to using CM’s digital scrapbooking software is that you create archived versions of your photos and designs with their system almost without having to think about it. By regularly backing up your CM files, you’ll ensure your memories are safe for years to come.

If you have questions about CM’s digital scrapbooking products, please drop me a note!

Wordy Wednesday: Genealogy Road Trip

As mentioned in this past weekend’s SNGF and yesterday’s Tombstone Tuesday post, my sister and I visited Elizabethton, Tenn., in the state’s northeast corner, during the holidays. Elizabethton is where my great-grandparents William E. HAYES and Della M. CROW raised my maternal grandmother and her siblings. The last time we were in Elizabethton, I was six years old. I have many memories of that trip and I was excited to revisit my great-grandmother’s home (since sold to a distant relation).

After meeting up with our great-uncle, Ben Hayes, he drove us to the old house on Poplar Branch Road. It was nothing like I remembered. First of all, everything seemed a lot smaller — of course, I was small myself the last time I was there. A creek passes through the front yard. Where once there was a wooden bridge (see below), there is now an asphalt walkway. We had always visited in the summer months, when everything was hot, green and thriving. When we visited last week, it was cold, gloomy and barren.

Sadly, the change in season is not the only reason the property seemed so different. It has fallen into disrepair. It desperately needs a new coat of paint and there was an accumulation of junk and vehicles in the back yard. The front porch, on which I remember playing in the shade during my visits to Grandma Hayes’ house, is blocked with a long piece of corrugated metal. The stone steps leading up to the porch appear to be crumbling. The attic window above the porch is busted.

Here is a photo of what the house looked like last week:

And here is photo taken of the house back in the 1980s:

I’m really sad to see the changes time and neglect have wrought on the property because I do have several fond memories from our visits there. I can still smell the aromas of bacon grease, green beans and biscuits that seemed to be ever-present in Grandma Hayes’ kitchen.

Grandma Grace, Me & (Great) Grandma Hayes (1981)

Back when my mom was working in miniatures, she created two tiny room boxes that were replicas of how Grandma Hayes’ kitchen looked, once upon a time. One is pictured below.

Despite the dilapidated state of the house, I was still glad to revisit Elizabethton and especially to catch up with our Uncle Ben. He drove us all over Carter County in search of good BBQ for lunch and filled us in on the history of the area. He drove us into the older section of downtown and showed us a preserved covered bridge and two of the town’s war memorials, including one where he’d purchased bricks to commemorate the service of some of our family members.

I still have more genealogical work to do in that area — I’d like to find the farm originally owned by William Hayes’ parents and also their grave sites. I’m also still trying to confirm the identities of William’s grandparents.

Luckily the FGS 2010 conference is in August in Knoxville, so I intend to turn that into a genealogy trip too.

SNGF: The Best 2009 Genealogy Moment

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to participate in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. This week’s mission from Randy Seaver:

1) “What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?” This could be a research find, a fabulous trip, a found family treasure, etc. Your choice!

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or a comment to the Twitter or Facebook status line for this post.

I have several moments just from this holiday season that I want to list here and all involve connecting with living family members to discover tidbits about the past. I’ll start with the most recent and work my way backward:

This past week, my sister and I drove from her home in Knoxville, Tenn., to the town of Elizabethton. There, we met up with our great-uncle Ben, whom I hadn’t seen since I was about 12 years old. He’s approaching 80 years old, but drove us all around town, stopping at the house where he grew up — my great-grandmother’s house — I plan to post pics in a separate blog post. I was six years old the last time I was there. We then drove to the cemetery where my great-grandparents are buried. Finally, we all went out for BBQ. It was great to reconnect with Uncle Ben.

Spending time with my sister this past week was fun too — it’s something we haven’t been able to do in several years due to our respective work and school schedules. She took me on the tour of downtown Knoxville, we shopped, we cooked, we ate, we drank, we watched movies, looked at photo albums and just plain ol’ reminisced. Genealogy is about family and therefore quality time with my sister definitely makes it on the list.

Before heading down to Knoxville, I spent Christmas and a couple of days after with one of my aunts. She indulged me and together we went through more than 2,000 family photos, sorting and organizing them into storage boxes. I got to see childhood pics of my mom and her sisters that I’d never seen before. We came across hilarious photos of me and my cousins. Best of all, we found the one scene that had eluded me the past couple of years as I put together scrapbooks about my mom and dad — a photo of just the two of them together. Among the hundreds of photos taken of our extended family trips to the beach, we finally came across a couple shots of them.

Thanksgiving weekend was significant in many ways for my family — my sister and I spent the holiday in Richmond, Va., with our half-brother and his wife. It was the longest amount of time we’d ever spent with them and we had a blast. Besides the wonderful experience of being able to connect with them and their daughter, we made a major genealogical discovery, which I blogged about previously — we discovered the burial locations for several relatives whose remains we feared had been lost. In addition, my sister and I got to see photos of still another half-brother who passed away many years before we were born. My half sister-in-law showed me a bedspread that my grandmother crocheted together with my half-brother’s mother. Several of us went on a slave-trail walk through much of downtown Richmond the day after Thanksgiving. And my half-brother took my sister and I to the Richmond Holocaust Museum, where we got to meet an individual whose family story is featured in an exhibit in the museum. It was a tremendous trip.

Thanks, Randy, for this SNGF prompt!

Christmas Eve

This is post #24 (last one!) in the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

Christmas Eve traditions have varied over the years in my family, depending on who was hosting, when we were traveling, etc.

One Christmas Eve that stands out in my mind was during my senior year of college. My sister flew to Washington, D.C., from Albuquerque and then we drove down to Norris, Tenn. (it’s near Knoxville), to see our mom. In a snow storm.

Our route took us down I-81 in Virginia — a truck route notorious for its two lanes in each direction through mountains and valleys. As I type this (on 12/19), I-81 is shut down during the current snowstorm due to a traffic accident last night. While it usually offers scenic views, the drive itself isn’t always pretty.

That particular Christmas Eve, the roads were so icy that drivers were taking each bridge one car at a time — there was no telling how your car was going to handle the road conditions. And there were a lot of bridges.

When we made it to Lexington, Va., we stopped for lunch at the Wendy’s there and then continued on our way. Two or three harrowing hours later, after many a dicey ice patch, my sister gasped. She had left her purse at the Wendy’s.

I thought about our options for a minute and said, “Carrie, I love you, but we’re not going back for that purse today.”

When we finally reached Mom’s house, 12 hours after we started the drive (it’s usually seven to eight hours from D.C. to Knoxville), my sister was able to call the Wendy’s. They had found her purse and had it stored behind the counter for when we made the drive back to D.C. a few days later.

Unfortunately, when we did make that drive and stopped by the Wendy’s, the manager with whom we had spoken was not there and the other employees couldn’t find my sister’s purse. Thankfully, she was able to fly back to Albuquerque without its contents (this was pre-2001 and I don’t think IDs were required to fly back then). The Wendy’s manager did mail the purse back to her (after taking the money needed for postage out of her wallet). Everything else seemed to still be there though.

Christmas and Deceased Relatives

This is post #22 for the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

I don’t have any traditions to report regarding formal remembrances of deceased family members during the holidays. However, just by being around family on Christmas, we often reminisce about Christmases past and those who are no longer with us. I have plenty of holiday memories of my mom, dad and grandma and I think of them often during this time of year.

This year, I’ll be taking several new scrapbooks I’ve made recently on my trips to see family — that will be a nice way to trigger memories to share.

Christmas Music

This is post #21 in the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

I admit it. When not listening to audiobooks on my commute during the Christmas season, I’m tuned in to one of the DC/Baltimore radio stations that play only Christmas music. Usually grinning as they play one of my faves.

I prefer the oldies-but-goodies — sung by the likes of Burl Ives and Nat King Cole. I also like the more recent, humorous ones like “Crabs for Christmas” and “The 12 Things at Christmas that are Such a Pain to Me.” However, I can only enjoy the latter in small doses.

My absolute favorite Christmas music is probably that performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio for the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” special.

Growing up, I had several Christmas records that I enjoyed listening to. One featured “Frosty the Snowman” and another that I remember clearly had songs sung by a boys’ choir. I have my mom’s four-CD set “Joy to the World” by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

I’ve never been caroling, but I do remember a group of neighbors doing so when I was little. It was neat when they visited our house.

Bonus Xmas Memories

I’m watching “Home Alone” as I write this. I remember going to see it in the theaters back in 1990 with my mom and my best friend, Heather. Heather and I were freshmen in high school at the time.

I love this movie for many reasons. It’s funny and clever; it includes all the fantasies (and fears) kids have about being on their own (eating junk, sledding down the stairs*, etc.). I also love this movie because it reminds me of my mom.

I don’t remember during which scene my mom pulled this (maybe Heather will), but at some point, my mom anticipated the climax of a particularly scary moment in the movie. Just at the right moment, she grabbed my arm and gasped, “Boo!”

Of course, I jumped and cried out, much to the amusement of Heather. I was embarassed at the time, but it’s a fun memory for me now.

*I did sled down the stairs of my house in either middle school or high school (Heather can probably confirm the timing on this too). I improvised a sled using a very slipper sleeping bag. And lived to tell about it.

Christmas Shopping

This is post #19 in the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

I’ve always loved Christmas shopping and always try to put thought into the gifts I buy for people. At my elementary school, they would hold a craft fair with many inexpensive gifts — I remember shopping for my grandma there one year. As I reached middle-school age, I remember being let loose in the mall with my best friend.

My mom was the consummate catalog shopper and many L.L. Bean, Land’s End and other catalog faves could be found under our tree each year.

I’ve had many an Amazon Christmas. I tried to scale back on that this year and shopped more locally — I even trekked to a local bison farm for bison wool yarn for one of my knitting friends. Of course, many friends and fam have or will receive scrapbooking and photo-related gifts from Creative Memories this year (no surprise there!).

Blog Caroling: Good King Wenceslas

“Good King Wenceslas” is one of the first tunes I learned to play on the piano — it’s not very popular on the radio, but it’s a sentimental favorite.

“Good King Wenceslas last looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath’ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know’st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

“Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage freeze thy blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.”