myHERITAGE HAPPENS

Eugene M. Lundberg headstone. Date June 4, 2006, Place Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette, California. Digital Image by Msteri , privately held by Msteri . [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 Eugene's date of birth was June 2, 1931. He had the special honor of being born a twin. His unfortunate death at the age of 34 was due to a fatal car accident on November 5, 1965. Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

(Notes from a study group I attended) When you see an annotation in the name column you would assume it always referred to the immigrants name. Many do, but many do not relate to the name directly. Sometimes the name may need to be corrected but there are times information is recorded there that refers to a question that the immigrant inquired about himself. Before 1924 there weren't any "Reentry Permits." So if an immigrant wanted to travel abroad, there wasn't any guarantee that he would be able to get back in this country. The immigrants would call the Immigration Service to try to receive a letter, pass or some sort of a guarantee they could reenter this country. When you see a "V/L" or " V L" annotated on a manifest, this refers to verification of landing. Sometimes there may be numbers following these letters and they refer to where the actual letters, requests, were filed. These files however no longer exist. These notations are very informa

Today was a busy one for me, although I really don't know to many days that aren't busy for me! It started with my wonderful grandson waking me up this morning. We were able to spend some time together before I headed out to my class at the Jr. College. Two hour classes just fly by, it amazes me still. Today the instructor covered censuses. She went through each Federal Census with us and shared what was available on each. She covered how the census takers took their census information, and where it went afterwards, and the copies that were made. We all know that the 1890 census information is extremely minimal, however we were displayed a census from this time period which showed a friend of the instructors whole family! Our instructor was with her at the National Archives when she found this. Must have been so very exciting! We were instructed to make sure we took note of the enumerator, actual dates the specific census was taken and where the family was from. Sometimes the e

Terry Thorton at Hill Country of Monroe County ~ http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/ put out a challenge to bloggers a few weeks ago. There are so many new bloggers that he decided it would be great to do a post about each of our blogs to help introduce everyone. With so many bloggers and so little time it is difficult to get to know the new bloggers, follow and keep up! I totally agree! I happen to be one of the newest bloggers, only started my blog a month ago. I have been following many wonderful blogs for about two years. I really enjoy the carnivals and memes and the Genea-Bloggers Games were fabulous! I decided I wanted to be in on the fun, and knew blogging would be a great way for me to organize and share my work. Terry asked us to share three posts that we feel are the " Brightest ", " Breeziest " and " Beautiful ". Now, for me, I do not have many posts to choose from so I will do my best to choose something for each category

The picture I posted yesterday was of my Harley Davidson Fat Boy. It is the 100 year anniversary model which I bought brand new in 2003. Yes, I ride a Harley. After seeing Sheri Fenley's post at The Educated Genealogist ( http://sherifenley.blogspot.com/2008/09/primer-on-setting-goals-and-reaching.html ) and her ride on the Harley (great post Sheri) I thought I would share some of my experience with Harley's and the fact that it is never to late to learn anything! My husband wanted a Harley back in 1998, so for Christmas I gave him the down payment to get one. He was stunned. I am a firm believer that you do things while you are able, who knows what tomorrow may bring? So he bought his Harley and we never expected I would ride with him. Never say never! I asked him after he had the bike for a bit to take me for a ride around the corner. He did and I never thought I would get on a bike again! When we turned the corner to go up the hill, I made the mistake of looking down at the

2003 Harley Davidson Fat Boy, Date May 11, 2008, Msteri's home, California. Digital Image by Msteri, privately held by Msteri. [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California, 2008

Among my searches through the internet a week or so ago, I ran across a post "Tombstone Tuesday". I liked this idea and later decided it was something I would like to follow suit with. I wish I knew who to give credit to on this initial find, but in all honesty I didn't make note of it at the time. I searched the net again last night to try to find who started "Tombstone Tuesday" and found Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog, http://familytrees.wordpress.com (or use the link in my blog list to the right) which contained postings with this heading. I am not sure if she was the originator or not, although I believe she stated she started this. I sure hope Amy, or whoever may have started this doesn't mind me following their great idea! (If it wasn't Amy and you know who it was, please inform me in the comment section so I can be sure to give credit where credit is due!) Amy if you started this, I LOVE the idea! Augusta McLean Memorial. Date, June 4, 2006. Oakm

Having now attended my second in this series of eight classes, I have more homework! Can you imagine that? I am still trying to complete homework from the first class, the scavenger hunt in the library. The library has been a bit intimidating to me. I assumed all my answers would be in the "genealogy section", and I have learned there is so much more in the library to assist us in genealogy research. Learning what resource you need and what is available is tough work! Although it is taking me awhile to do this assignment, I am bound and determined to complete the task. Sometimes I feel I can go on the internet and find the answers, but I am tying my hands and won't allow myself to "cheat". My second class was as rewarding as the first. Derivative evidence was a hot topic. I knew what derivative evidence was, but I didn't have a clue as to the vast amount of resources there are available to assist you in finding this evidence. Thanks to homework I now have tw

(Notes from a study group I attended) When an immigrant was detained or held for a special hearing there would be letters noted on the manifest prior to their names. Here are some of those letters you may see and what they mean. Take a look at a manifest and see if you notice any of these markings. "D" ~ In New York this would mean temporarily detained. In Philadelphia it would mean that the person was held for a Board of Special Inquiry. "X", "D" and the word "Held" ~ This could either mean they were temporarily detained or had a Special Inquiry Hearing. "S.I." and "B.S.I." ~ Meant that the immigrant was held for a hearing. Most passenger lists didn't give information regarding what happened at those hearings. The New York and Philadelphia ports do have some other records regarding these detentions and hearings, but they are limited. Philadelphia's records for hearings and detainment cover 1882-1909. New York has less

Yesterday's picture posting was of my grandmother. The date labeled on this picture was so far off it didn't make sense to me, therefore I left the date out. (I will be making a phone call to verify the time frame of this photo!) I could venture a guess as to when I think it was taken, but I chose to verify the actual time frame first. This is a perfect example why I am going to pick up a couple of books on dating photos, one at least will be a Maureen Taylor book. Grandma Lois lived out of state so we didn't see her often. I was blessed with having a close relationship with her, we wrote old fashioned "ink to paper" type letters to each other for many years. I believe I started writing to her when I was in middle school. By the time I was in high school we were sending letters every week. I often wonder what kept her writing back to me and what she must have thought of my letters. I seem to remember complaining a lot to her, but she always wrote back! I looked fo

Lois Marie McGuire, Age Unknown, Date 1944. Location Oklahoma or California. Digital Image. Privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

I attended my first genealogy class last Saturday that I am taking at the local community college. I assumed this first class would cover the basics of this field and it wouldn't be difficult. There again what do they say about assuming? The lesson did cover all the essentials on beginning genealogy, and I found I have so much to learn! This is why I am taking this class, I want to do everything genealogically correct. Discussion included organization, standards and guidelines, and how to research. I have worked hard over the years to be organized, and have redone my files and methods a few times. I discovered Saturday that how I am currently organized will eventually burden me with tons of paper duplication.........ho hum.....here we go again! The instructor actually gave me kudos though on my current organization method! I would not need to change my basic system. I was so thrilled thinking I didn't have to go through a whole reorganization process again! I am pretty proud of

I am in absolute amazement! I have been tagged by Sheri over at TwigTalk ! This is the first time I have been tagged. Many very well known genealogy bloggers have been tagged and it has been fun watching the process move along. I never expected this to come to me, especially since my blog is new. I am honored beyond belief that Sheri has thought enough of my blog to tag me! Many thanks over and over to you! The rules associated with this tag are as follows: 1. Can put the logo on his/her blog 2. Must link to the person who gave the award 3. Must nominate 7 other blogs and link to them 4. Must leave a comment on each of the nominated blogs I need to nominate seven other blogs, and here are my nominations ~ 1. Find Your Folks by Professor Dru 2. GenBlog by Julie Cahill Tarr 3. Elyse's Genealogy Blog by Elyse Doerflinger 4. Spence-Lowry Family History by A. Spence 5. The Chart Chick by Janet Horvorka 6. Genealogy Lines by Ruby Coleman 7. Bluebonnet Country Genealogy by Ruth Ste

I have to admit that there are many books I would like to add to my personal genealogy library. One of the next book purchases I plan to make will assist me in dating photos. I am anxious to read the posts for this Carnival, I know I will be adding to my wish list! I chose to list the first books I purchased when starting my genealogy research. Some are, in my eyes, mandatory books and others are for my personal research and may not be useful to others. For me these were essential (and not in any particular order) ~ 1. The Source ~ A Guidebook of American Genealogy, edited by Lorretto Dennis Szucs & Sandra Hargreaves Luebking 2. Evidence, Citation and Analyisis ~ Elizabeth Shown Mills 3. Red Book ~ 3rd edition ~ American State, County and Town Sources. Eichholz 4. How to do Everything with your Genealogy ~ George Morgan 5. Elaine ~ Marjorie Watson Bennett 6. Nell ~ Marjorie Watson Bennett 7. Swedish Roots ~ Clemensson, Andersson 8. Genealogy Online ~ 7th edition ~ Crowe 9. Genea

(Notes from a study group I attended.) Have you ever noticed the different ways passengers of ships were noted on a manifest if they did not board for travel? You may first think of the line drawn straight through the name, which would seem pretty apparent that this particular passenger wasn't aboard. There are records of passengers who did not board the ship and did not have a line drawn through their name however. Many times notations prior to a persons name may indicate also that the person did not board. A variety of notations could have been made regarding this. It may say "Cancelled", "Not Shipped", or "N.O.B.", meaning "not on board". It could also say "Did not sail", or be stamped with "Not shipped". And those straight lines, it didn't always mean the passenger wasn't aboard! A wavy line through the name may have been used instead. We need to be careful when we see a passenger's name with a line through

On my first real genealogical/vacation trip my husband and I went to Pennsylvania. I was looking for the home my ggrandparents settled in after they came to this country. In the blink of an eye we went through the small town I was looking for. Suddenly we came down a hill, hit a dead end, and noticed the old post office that clearly stated it was the "Rowland P.O." This P.O. wasn't being used any longer, I am sure they built a new one in the newer part of town. Rowland's population was 1,527 in 2007, and the town no doubt needed a bigger, better P.O.! Having missed the landmarks I was looking for from my directions, we needed to stop and ask for assistance. Across the way was a very old, small building we drove past as we were turning around at the end of the road. It was a fishing/bait shop. My husband suggested I stop and ask there. I was thinking out loud..."the man I saw in the window was quite old and he wouldn't know anything". My husband stated,

Bright Shop Fishing Supplies. Photo taken by Msteri, October 14, 2007. Location, Rowlands, Pennsylvania. Digital Image. Privately held by Msteri,[ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

Well I opened my e-mail this evening and there was my Thank You from Family Tree Maker along with my free upgrade for Family Tree Maker 2009! I was excited and surprised to see this so soon! I did receive a notice (as all registered FTM 2008 owners did) a couple weeks ago that this would be forthcoming, but seeing is believing! Personally, I have appreciated and enjoyed my FTM 2008. I am one of the lucky ones who didn't have issues with this version. I may not be as advanced within my tree as others and that could be a reasonable explanation as to why I haven't missed the items that disappeared. My needs at this time have been satisfied and I have been very pleased. Knowing the future would bring new advancements for FTM, it wasn't an issue for me to wait for upgrades. Although I am sure by now others must have already posted this information on their blogs, for those who have not seen the information I will list the improvements stated that were made, but won't go into

Source ~ Dagny Dulin, age unknown, date unknown, location unknown. Digital Image. Privately held by Msteri River, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California 2008 Dagny Dulin came from Norway We still don’t know her whole story. It is said she left a family of money Came to the states, which I find funny. If we knew when this picture was taken It would help, of that I am not mistaken. She looks young and I am sure is in the states But I hesitate to guess for any mistake I may make. This post though is for “Crowning Glory” So I won’t continue with this story. We will check out her hat decked in feathers Which I am sure is not made of leather. I wonder, did this hat came from her country Or did she get it in the U.S. upon her entry? A hat like this to take and travel Keeping it safe would be a marvel. The only picture I own of Dagny in a hat I treasure this and really think that Even though she may not be smiling Her hat gives her some real styling! Although this

I was so close in adding Creative Commons (which covers copyright issues) to my blog, but just couldn't quite get it there. Thanks to Thomas MacEntee over at Destination:Austin Family (link in my blog roll) for helping me get through the final stages! He was the bomb! Bear with me as I am still tweeking on this blog! Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

Upon checking out what could be added to my blog, I found the "Followers" gadget. I thought it would be a fun to have this one, but hesitated not knowing how big it would be (didn't want obtrusive!) and hadn't remembered seeing it on any other blogs. They may have been there, but I hadn't noticed. Later this evening I was reading others blogs and happened to notice it on Jessica's Genejournal, http://www.jessicagenejournal.blogspot.com, or click on the link in my blogroll. Not obtrusive at all, I liked it. After I joined her "followers" list and added the gadget to my blog. If you would like to be added as a follower of my blog you will find it below my blog archive on the right side. I would love to see you there! Thanks Jessica for the demonstration for me! Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

The picture posted was that of my great grandfather, Joseph John Fleming. He was brought into this world in Blaine, Pottawattomee, Kansas and was of Irish and Canadian heritage. Born 4 November 1875, he was the seventh child blessed to his parents. He eventually migrated to Payne County, Oklahoma and married 1 July 1900. Two daughters and a son were born from this union. He was a laborer and a fireman for an oil refinery. I remember him as a child. Funny how children perceive things. I remember thinking he was so special because he was so old! I just wanted to stare at him in amazement. He would sit in a chair at my grandfather's house, very observant to all his surroundings. I admired him as I had heard he was so sharp "for his age". The best part was when we talked to him, we got to "yell"! Actually, it was tough for us kids to talk to him as we really had to work at it, we weren't allowed to talk loudly like that to anyone else so it was out of characte

Joseph John Fleming, age 82 years, 1957. Location Unknown. Digital Image. Privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

I signed up today to take an eight week course on genealogy. It is actually two four week courses. The first class is more on the beginning level, I am not one to ever say I know it all, so I am sure there will be plenty I will learn! The second four week course is more advanced and I know I will be learning a lot from this segment. I am really interested in taking classes at the present time, so I am looking forward to this one. The class starts next Saturday, they are two hours classes. I will keep you up to date on how they go! I am hoping to accomplish more and more as time goes on, with my blog and my family tree. In order to do so, classes will be very helpful! Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

Apparently I never posted the first article in this series. It was written on September 1, 2008. I started this blog on August 25, 2008, and had only posted six times at that point. I was still learning the blogging world and never realized it wasn't actually posted. This evening I ran across the draft. So, with my apologies, I am posting it now, February 8, 2009. (Post #1 from study group I attended) Last week I attended a study group which was full of new information for me. The group was studying immigration passenger lists. How many manifests have we looked at? What have we noticed on them? Probably the ships name, peoples names, where the immigrant was coming from and where they were headed to. The date and other information depending on what manifest you are looking at. There are many different types of lists of manifests. I saw examples of "States Immigrant Inspector at Port of Arrival ," "List of United States Citizens," and "Record of Aliens Held f