Follow Friday - MapMaker

I stumbled across another website that I had saved quite some time ago and decided to dust it off and see what it could do.  That website is MapMaker.


MapMaker is a product of BigHugeLabs, which has some other pretty neat tools - though I haven't really played with any of them yet.


The maps include the entire world, or specific regions (U.S., Europe, Asia, etc.), and all you have to do is check the boxes of the places you want identified on the map, and (as the website says) the map "automagically" updates.  There are options to change colors and stuff, but I didn't mess with that -- mainly because I had no idea what I was doing.  There's some of that newfangled HTML stuff on there for you high-techies.


The site says that you can "Create a map of places you've visited (or want to visit or dream about or know people from) and get HTML code that you can embed in your profile on Flickr, Facebook, My Space, your blog or any other web page."  I thought to myself ... "self, why can't you make a map of where all the people in your tree have been born?"  Self answered, "no reason."  So I did.  Here's what it looks like:

Areas of Research

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com


I see no reason why you couldn't do a map of the migration patterns of families within your tree, or any other kind of map you can think of.


It may not be as useful as say ... census records ... but it's still pretty nifty.

Do we share any ancestors? 

 Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Motivation Monday - First Month Goal Update

So, it's a month into the new year, and I thought I'd do a quick update just to see where I am with my goals so far.

My Geneabuddy and I are trying something new this year (totally Laura's idea), and we're assigning the items on our weekly to-do list the corresponding number of the goal it works toward.  I like this because it helps me keep my eye on the prize.  I tend to get all tangential when I'm making my list of weekly goals, which is never a good thing.

The moment of truth:

1.  Obtain the addresses, birth dates, and anniversary dates for all of my first cousins on both sides of my family … and names and birth dates of spouses and children. Oh and all my half siblings’ spouses and kids too.
Working on this one. I've mailed out three letters and sent one Facebook message (didn't have a mailing address). I have another planned for mailing this week.

2.  Attend at least five (5) Scanfests (or equivalent) this year - and actually scan stuff.

Well, I wasn't able to attend January's Scanfest because I was spending time with one of my living family members (which is probably more important anyway), but I'm going to try to attend February's.  In the meantime, I'm going to keep scanning on my own (see #3)

3.  Scan and label at least 15 photos and/or negatives each week, or until they are done, whichever happens first.

So far, so good.  I've managed to get 58 photos/negatives scanned, labeled, and put in their appropriate folders so far this month.

4.  Attend at least two (2) genealogy conferences.

Hoping to attend FGS in Birmingham (which will depend on (1) a successful mediation of one of our cases, and (2) the federal trial calendar for the same case.  Keeping my fingers crossed nonetheless.  Also planning on attending the Family History Expo in Atlanta in November.

5.  Give at least two (2) presentations to my genealogical society.

One down, one to go.  I gave my "Online Genealogy Collaboration" presentation during our January 10th meeting.  Still trying to decide on my next topic.

6.  Index at least 200 records per month at FamilySearch Indexing.

I've done 100 records so far this month, so I've made progress, but I'm slacking on my goal a little.  I'll have to make up for it in February.

7.  Add at least five (5) individual ancestor stories to my website.

Hmm ... I haven't added any, but I made the ones already on there look really nice!  Okay, I'll get to work on those - which should be a little easier now that I'm participating in the Write Your Family History Challenge for February.

8.  Blog at least twice per week.

I have a total of 19 blog posts for the month of January (including this one) ... I'd say I blew this goal out of the water this month!

9.  Finish reading Greenwood's "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy."

Currently re-reading Chapters 13 and 14 to present to the Genealogists in Second Life Book Club at the end of February.

10.  Add at least three (3) website links per week to my online toolbox.

I have added 19 links to my toolbox, which has significantly whittled down my list of "pending" links to add.  So this goal ... check.

All told, not too shabby.  I'm hoping that a lot of these will become routine and it won't be so hard to remember to put them on my weekly lists (and actually do them).  A couple more will hopefully get reached in the next several weeks and I can put that energy toward some of the other, more intimidating goals.

I couldn't have done it without Laura.  Each of us is capable of motivating ourselves and we do okay, but working together we're AWESOMESAUCE!

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Sunday's Obituary - Mary Alice Egan Schneider

MARY ALICE SCHNEIDER

Yankton Press & Dakotan,
Yankton, South Dakota,
14 June 1947, p. 4, col. 5.

Mary Alice Egan was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, June 14, 1859.  After living in several other states for short periods she came to Yankton with her mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick McDonald, March 20, 1870.  Her parents filed on a claim in Bon Homme county about three miles from the old county seat of Bon Homme where she spent her girlhood with the exception of a year spent in old Fort Randall where she was employed.

She was united in marriage Nov. 18, 1877, to Louis Schneider who had homesteaded a mile from her parents’ home.  They lived on this farm, with the exception of the two years spent in Yankton, until 1899 when they moved to a farm near Utica, residing there till 1914 when they retired, building the home in which she lifed until her death June 5, 1947, nine days before her 88th birthd. [sic]

Mrs. Schneider had been in failing health since falling and fracturing her hip over four years ago.  Preceding her in death were her husband, Louis Schneider, 13 years ago, a son Edward, in May 1946 and a son Joseph, who died in infancy.  Surviving are two daughters and three sons, Mrs. Alice Lanctot, Yankton; Mrs. R. J. Tester, (Margaret) Sioux City, Ia.; Robert of Minneapolis, Minn.; Martin of Beresford; and Charles of Casper, Wyo., who was unable to be present for the funeral, also one brother, Peter McDonald of Sturgis.  Twenty-three grand-children and one great, great grand-child also survive.

The following out of town relatives and friends attended the funeral services held June 9, from Sacred Heart church with burial in Yankton cemetery: Peter McDonald, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Limbo and son Wesley, and Mrs. Emma Lettau, Sturgis; Mr. and Mrs. Robt. Schneider and daughter Mary, Minneapolis, Minn.; Mrs. Lee Rardin and son Glen, Portland, Ore.; Mrs. O. B. Thompson, Sioux Falls; Mrs. Hannah Lucid, Mitchell; Mr. and Mrs. Ira Beecher, Mrs. Frank Gunn, and daughter, Marguerite, Scotland; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Schneider, Mrs. Frank Balvin, Mrs. Henry Marek, Tyndall; Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Tester and Mrs. Frank Skidmore, Sioux City, Ia., Martin Schneider, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Klasi, Mrs. Eileen Frank and son Carlyle, of Beresford; and Sgt. And Mrs. Thos. Rogers of Ft. Dix, New Jersey.

Pallbearers were Clarence Courtney, Joe Adrian, Francis Bride, Lewis Tackle, Ray Vogus, and Wm. Cummingham.

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Follow Friday - TimeToast

While I love the fact that my RootsMagic 5 will do a very nice timeline, I have been looking for a way to do one that is a little more visual (pictures and pretty colors work better for some reason).  So when I stumbled across a link I saved some time ago for TimeToast, I decided to play with it a bit.


You can view timelines for pretty much any period or person in history (here's one for the Space Race), but you can also make your own timelines!


It's not comprehensive, but I added enough stuff to see how all the bells and whistles worked.  Here's my end result:



First (and most important), it's FREE.  Second, it's incredibly easy to use.  Granted, I would love to be able to export my timeline from RM5 to this website (hint hint TimeToast and RM5), but alas, I cannot.


There are a couple of options for creating the timeline.  You can add individual dates or a span of dates.  One drawback I found is that for a span of dates, a day and month are required, which is kinda crappy if all you have are years.


You can add images to your individual entries, but they have to be in .jpg, .jpeg, or .png format.  No PDFs allowed, which is kind of a bummer.  Images cannot be added to time spans.


The timeline can also be viewed in "Timeline" view or "Text" view.  Above is the timeline view.  You can look at the Text view for this timeline here, click on "Text" in the upper right corner of the visual.  I would love to figure out how to embed the text view and the timeline view.  They sure would be nice together on my website.


All in all, it's a neat little website.  Your timelines are public, unless you keep them in "draft" version but then you can't share them.  


For a free site, I don't have a problem allowing my timelines to be public - I just won't put any living people's information up there.  I haven't figured out if you can embed them on WikiTree yet, but I hope that's a possibility.  It certainly would add some visual interest to MY pages (which are incredibly boring right now).  Maybe Chris Whitten is reading ... ??

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Wisdom Wednesday - What I Learned This Week

I decided this would be the week I start working on my book - in preparation for the February "Write Your Family History in 29 Days" challenge.  It was just supposed to be an outline.  That's it.  This is how far I got:


1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Dedication Page
5. Table of Contents


Then I was like, "well, what now?"  In my mind, I had always thought about how I wanted my book to be.  It was crystal clear ... until I tried to put it on paper.  My brain locked up and all I could think about was whether I had any new posts on Facebook, or maybe I got a new email that needed my immediate attention (at 10:00 at night).


I was even prepared for it taking a long time to get the whole thing put together (I'm not even close to filling in all the blanks for the people I want to include in this book).  I knew I would be working on little bits at a time and filling in the information as I confirmed it.  But come on, this is just an outline!  Surely that would be the easiest part.  HA!


I knew what I wanted my book to be, but I hadn't really given much thought as to HOW I was going to get it that way.  Layout?  Never even crossed my mind.  Format?  Nope.  I guess I just thought that I would sit down at the computer and the story would magically go from my brain through my fingertips and onto the page.


This week's lesson:  I need more wine.  Maybe therapy.


Okay, the REAL lesson:  One step at a time.  Get the basics down before you move on to the advanced stuff (like an outline!)


I'm going to have to give some serious thought about how I'm going to lay out my book and roughly what each chapter will contain.  I already know that I want it to be a sort of narrative - written mostly for my family or whoever wants to read it - but I also want to make sure it's properly sourced and has the appropriate historical background (in case a future genealogist gets hold of it).  I probably should also give some thought as to whether I'm going to publish it as an ebook or in hard copy.  That decision will likely determine the direction of the other decisions.


For now, I'm going to see if I can get any inspiration from Monday night's episode of Castle.

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week #4 - Free Offline Genealogy Tools

Week 4 – Free Offline Genealogy Tools: For which free offline genealogy tool are you most grateful?  How did you find this tool and how has it benefited your genealogy?  Describe to others how to access this tool and spread the genealogy love.

This is an easy one.  Without a doubt, hands-down, I am the most grateful for The Librarian.


Librarians are a different breed of human.  I have yet to walk into a library, archive, or Family History Center and ask for help and not get well taken care of.  Librarians are to libraries what the concierge is to a 5-star hotel ... at least all the ones with whom I've had dealings.


Librarians know their collections inside and out.  They know what sort of information you can get from any given resource.  Best of all?  They ENJOY telling you all about it!  And when you leave, you will have learned something that will help you in the future.


Librarians are also teachers.  They will not hesitate to sit with you and make sure you know how to utilize any tool in the library - whether it's a computer, a book, or an old-school card catalog.  (That being said, I also think librarians have more patience than a saint).


Librarians also understand the research you are doing.  They get it.  When they have a hand in leading you along the path to successfully complete your quest, they are as excited as you are!  And they don't even care who knows!


It just doesn't get any better than that.  Have you hugged a librarian today?

Do we share any ancestors? 

 Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Sunday's Obituary - Elizabeth Bourke Lanctot

Mrs. Lanctot “Goes Home.”

Armour Lady Passes to the Great Beyond

Armour Herald, Armour, South Dakota,
26 December 1930, p. 4, col. 2

One of Douglas County’s best known pioneer women – Mrs. Eliza Lanctot – passed away on Monday, December 22, 1930, at her home in Armour.  She had suddenly contracted pneumonia and because of her advanced age, was unable to withstand the ravages of the illness.

Mrs. Lanctot was born on February 2, 1861, and died at the age of 69 years, 10 months and 20 days.

Her birthplace was Greenbush, Mich.  Fifty-one years ago she was married to Zenophile Lanctot at Fremond, Neb.  To this union six sons and two daughters were born, of whom two sons and two daughters survive.  The sons are Elmer of Chicago, and Art of Armour, the daughters, Mrs. Josephine Luchsinger of St. Paul and Mrs. Marie Barnes of Armour.

Mr. and Mrs. Lanctot homesteaded in Charles Mix county [sic] in 1883 and came to Armour in 1900.  For the past thirty years Mrs. Lanctot was in the same location, owning and operating the Armour house, still in operation.  Mr. Lanctot died in 1913.

Practically everyone in Douglas county and many in other nearby sections knew Mrs. Lanctot, who was one of the state’s few women to own and manage a hotel by herself.  She was highly esteemed by neighbors and friends and she will be greatly missed in Armour.

Mrs. Lanctot was a fine Christian woman, and always had a good word and pleasant greeting for everyone.  Mrs. Lanctot for many years had been a neighbor of the Herald force and during that time we entertained the highest regard for her sterling qualities.  We but wish we could pay an adequate tribute to her memory.  We are saddened, with many others, in the loss of a genuine friend.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at St. George’s Catholic church, Rev. Father Carey officiating, and burial was made in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery.

Mrs. Luchsinger of St Paul and Elmer Lanctot of Chicago came to Armour for the last rites.




Do we share any ancestors? Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com