Happy Easter!

Now that my daughter is grown, I don't really get to do the Easter basket thing anymore (at least as far as anyone knows).  I miss Easter.  I miss Easter baskets.  Okay, it's really the candy I miss.  Sue me.

Since I was reminiscing about candy Easter, I figured I'd share one of my absolute favorite photos of my daughter in her Easter bonnet.  This is one of the few photos I have taken that actually turned out normal.  This was taken (I think) Easter 1994.

Check out those dimples!

As you can tell, she hated having her picture taken! :)

Follow Friday ... or How To Lose 3 Hours of Your Life In One Sitting

Thanks to Greta for leading me to d kay s days' "Tuesday's Tip" blog post Build a Research Toolbox and Include Cornell’s Making of America, and Apple's comments on the same post, pointing me to another Making of America website at The University of Michigan.  I decided to check them out.  Wow.  Just wow.  Turns out Cornell and U of M collaborated to get the whole project done.  Each site has links to the other.


First, I started browsing the Cornell site ... not looking for anything in particular, just wondering what was there.  I spent at least 45 minutes reading The United States Democratic Review, of all things.  Then I noticed a link that said "browse civil war documents."  Hmmm.  Goodbye, hour and a half.


Then I looked at the U of M site.  The next time I looked at the clock, another 45 minutes had passed.  Seriously, I could spend the rest of the month between these two sites and still not be bored.  They are that fascinating ... even when the information isn't relevant to anything you're researching.


Both sites have the option of searching, or browsing by title, author, or subject.  You can even save stuff to your "bookbag" to email or download later.  Way cool.


So ... my sincere thanks to Greta, dkaysdays, and Apple for giving me yet another excuse for not being able to do my homework! :)


Disclaimer:  Don't claim that you haven't been warned of the addiction potential here.  

2011 Genealogy Goals - update #2

So, here it is the middle of April and I haven't updated my goals for the year since February.  I figured I might as well face the music ... 

1.  Plan (and execute) a trip to the National Archives in D.C. (to coincide with my visit with my mom! I'll be dragging her along with me so we can play with my new Flip-Pal that she got me for Christmas).
Check.  You can see the "results" of my efforts here.

2.  Request pension files for my military ancestors.
Still working on which ancestors actually served in the military before I can request these records.  I've decided to break it down by war (starting with the Civil War), then look into peacetime enlistments.  In addition to the one ancestor I knew for sure was in the Civil War (which I wrote the other day about here), I have found four others, and I'm still looking.  I have been able to find quite a bit on each of them between Ancestry, Footnote, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History.  I've also posted on a few message boards once I discovered their regiment, etc.

3.  Break down the brick wall that we call my grandfather's biological parents!
Still no movement on this one.

4.  Scan and organize all of my photos.  I may have to become a regular at the ScanFests!
I have continued to scan some photos, although I've had some scheduling conflicts with the Scanfests for the past 2 months.  I have been able to scan roughly 50 or so more since my last update.

5.  Re-source all of my research ... well, some of it is sourcing for the first time, but I just need to make sure everything has a source!  I guess before I do this, I really need to pick a program and stick with it.  I'm bouncing around between 3 or 4 different ones right now ... mainly because I don't have access to the new FamilySearch yet, so RootsMagic has kind of taken a back seat, and I like the layout of Family Tree Maker, but sourcing is confusing to me.  Ugh.  So many decisions!
I have managed to transfer between 4 and 7 generations of data (by hand) in RootsMagic (depending on the branch) and add sources and media to everyone.  I continue to coordinate those efforts with my new filing system and trying to keep up with DearMYRTLE's Organization Checklists.  Slow down, Myrt!  I'm still working on January!

6.  Keep a to-do list in ONE place, and actually work on it!  (Thanks to all you folks who have posted some great ideas on how to do that)
I continue to transfer my to-do list to RootsMagic as I transfer all of my data.  I've actually been able to check off a couple of things on that to-do list, which is definitely a plus!

7.  Increase my FamilySearch Indexing output by at least twofold.
Check.  As planned, I attended the Super Indexing Sunday bash that Ken Sisler started on Facebook and managed to meet, and exceed, this goal.  I will continue to index, but it has been put on the back burner for now, with finals looming and graduation coming up!


8.  Finally take a trip to the Family History Library in Ooltewah, TN (yes, it's only about 15 minutes away, I just keep forgetting to go!)
Still need to do this.  Again, it may have to wait until after graduation.

9.  Transcribe all the documents I have obtained (and will obtain).
I continue to work on this goal while transferring my data to RM4.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?

10.  Last but not least ... start writing my family history!  Note: it will probably be 2064 before I actually FINISH it, but at least I can start writing it.
I am missing a key piece of source information before I can call John Charles Slowey's bio complete (namely, his &*%$&%*$% birth certificate).  Otherwise, I have started bios on 3 other ancestors.  It's still a work in progress with no end in sight, but at least it's in progress!


I'm glad to see that I actually managed to check two of these goals off my list!  Maybe I'm not doing as horribly as I thought.  Well, I've been working my butt off in school for the past 3 years, but it finally paid off.  I received my Summa Cum Laude award last week (3.9 GPA or higher), along with an award for Outstanding Leadership while serving as President of the Paralegal Association at school for 2010-2011.  Three more weeks and school will be over ... HOORAY!!

Cpl. John W. Crow, 10th Alabama Infantry, Company A, 1841-1865

I haven't really been concentrating on the Crow side of my family lately, but since Bill West issued his Civil War challenge here, I thought I'd go ahead and put together what I know about my 3rd cousin (5x removed) who perished in the war.

John W. Crow was born March 8, 1841 in Ashville, St. Clair County, Alabama.  He was the third of 10 children born to Roland Bryant and Elizabeth (Lankford) Crow.  I know very little about his childhood at this point, except that his father was a farmer.  I have been able to get my hands on some of his military documents from Footnote and Ancestry, and I am hoping to obtain some additional documents from the archives in Alabama when I make the 4-hour drive to Montgomery in a few weeks.

On June 4, 1861, at the age of 20, John enlisted with the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment (Company A) of the Confederate Army.  During his enlistment, he participated in the following battles:

Dranesville (20 Dec 1861)
Yorktown (5 Apr - 3 May 1862)
*absent at Williamsburg (5 May 1862)
Seven Pines (31 May - 1 Jun 1862)
Richmond/Frazier's Farm (30 Jun 1862)
Second Manassas (30 Aug 1862)
Harper's Ferry (12 Sept - 15 Sept 1862)
Sharpsburg (17 Sept 1862)
Fredericksburg (13 Dec 1862)
Chancellorsville
Salem Church (3 May 1863)
Gettysburg (1 Jul - 3 Jul 1863)
Bristoe Station (Oct - Nov 1863)
Mine Run (27 Nov - 2 Dec 1863)
Wilderness (5 May - 7 May 1864)
Spotsylvania Courthouse (8 May - 26 May 1864)
Hanover Junction (23 May - 26 May 1864)
Atley's Station
Siege of Turkey Ridge
Wilcox Farm
Courtesy of Civil War Service Database found at Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

John W. Crow was appointed the rank of Corporal on April 1, 1864.  He was captured at Ream’s Station on June 29, 1864 and taken to the POW camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, where he died on April 22, 1865 from dysentery and was buried.

I found a record of him at Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery at Find-A-Grave, which gives a bit of history of the cemetery:

Originally, the soldiers were buried in two cemeteries near the prison camp. However, because the cemetery land started to erode into the Chesapeake, in 1870 the state of Maryland removed the remains. In 1910 they were moved again and re-interred in a burial trench one mile inland, near where a federal monument was constructed that year. The 80-foot granite obelisk marks the site, just outside Point Lookout State Park, but the actual boundaries of the pit are not marked.

Point Lookout POW Camp (Camp Hoffman) was established after the Battle of Gettysburg to incarcerate Confederate prisoners.  It was in operation from August 1863 through June 1865. Being only 5' above sea level, it was located on approximately 30 acres of leveled land. It was the largest Union prison camp for Confederates.  Point Lookout was one of the most secure POW camps, being surrounded on three sides by water from the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, with Union cannons pointed toward the prisoners from Ft. Lincoln and guns of Union ships anchored in nearby waters.  Only an estimated 50 escapes were successful.  A more in-depth history of the prison camp can be found here.  Warning: the website also contains stories from some of the survivors of Point Lookout.  They are quite graphic.

The records that I have been able to review show that John was absent at the battle of Williamsburg in May 1862.  It is possible that he was in the hospital during that battle, and I hope to find out for sure if I am able to find additional records in Alabama to fill in the blanks.