myHERITAGE HAPPENS

Well Randy Seaver came up with this little tidbit for us to play. We are to go into our family tree and look up who is the 1000th person that was entered. I figured I wanted to play! So off I went earlier this evening, thinking this would be fun and easy information to find out, and half an hour later I gave up. I waste so much time on things I can't figure out! I have Family Tree Maker 2009. I went to Edit, Find Individual, entered Reference ID in the first box and 1000 and clicked on find. Guess what I got, nothing! Ok, so then I went and tried it for 100 and guess what I got? Nothing. Same thnig when I tried ten. So then I went to help and tried to figure out why they weren't coming up. It shows in my index how many people I have in my tree, so why doesn't it come up when I search this way for them? Ok, I poked around and around and finally said oh well. Seems I come across so many things that should be so simple to do or figure out and it never works out that way for me...

CHRISTMAS THEN~ As a child I believe my family made it's own traditions. I really don't know of any that were truly passed down. Christmas Eve was always spent at my maternal grandfather's house. They had an artificial flocked tree that they never took down! Each season when Christmas was over they moved the tree into a spare bedroom and threw a sheet over it. Then the following Christmas out it came and the sheet disappeared. My grandmother did most of the shopping and my grandfather wrapped all of the presents. I actually have a package of bows that my grandfather wrote on that has never been opened. He passed away in 1979. Usually there would be my family, my aunt and her family and my grandparents for Christmas Eve. Maybe between eight to thirteen of us. I always was very excited about going there, they got us the best presents! Grandpa played Santa and enjoyed handing out the presents. After gifts were opened we normally had a ham dinner. Grandma cooked so much food an...

As promised I wanted to show off my new paint job on my baby, the Harley. I received the bike back with the new paint, seat, motor and diamond cuts about two weeks ago. Spent a good five hours the following day spit shining. I enjoy cleaning the bike, I tend to be meticulous and love seeing the shine when I am finished. I waited for a day when the sun was out a bit to take a few pictures, however the pictures do not do justice to the bike. Without the sun actually beating on the paint and getting a close up shot, it is difficult to really see what it does. Anyway, here is an all around shot. The paint looks so subtle, but you can see the chrome fairly well. The new seat is slicker and flows with the bike. My rims I bought a few years ago, and after the spit shining, they were shining nicely. Here is a close up where you can see the color a bit and the style of the paint. The basic colors are purple and green, however the colored paint is cameleon paint, which changes colors in the su...

Julie Cahill Tarr at Gen Blog, http://genblogjulie.blogspot.com/ , started a meme naming two things you are thankful for. I am late in getting this done for her time table, for this I apologise! However, I still would like to participate. It is the season to be grateful, and I think Julie had a wonderful idea! Because I am late in my posting, (by one day I believe) I won't be tagging another, but feel free if you haven't already done so, to post your own thanks! First, I want to say I am very grateful for "all" of my family. The family I have spent my life with and all the "new" family members I have met or been re-acquainted with. The last couple of years my family has really grown! The support, love and affection I receive from each and every one of them makes my life complete! Second, I would like to thank all of my friends, online friends and geneabloggers who have supported me in all aspects of my life. Again, the support is unbelievable! What would we...

Paul and Dagny Harding Tombstone. Date October 27, 2007. Location Rowlands, Pennsylvania. Digital Image. Privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 My trip to Pennsylvania last year was primarily to see the house and area where my ancestors settled in this country. Paul and Dagny were both born in Norway. They came to this country at different times in their lives, met here, married and had 8 children. Paul's birth name was Paul Hardin Gustavsen. When he came to this country he dropped the Gustavsen and went by Paul Harding. I have heard that he wasn't happy in his homeland as there was a blended marriage and lots of children in a small house. Dagny Dulin on the other hand supposedly came from a family of wealth and therefore makes it more intriguing to me to find out why she left her home in Norway. Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

Looks as if a new game of tag has been going around and I have been tagged, twice. Once from Sheri at Family Twigs and again by Linda from Lancaster at From Axer to Ziegler. So here we go! Rules~ *Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. *Write a blog post about these eight things and post these rules. *At the end of the blog post, list eight people to get tagged. *Leave a comment on their blogs telling them they have been tagged. Eight things about me~ 1. I do not like to shop. Never have, never will. The only shopping I enjoy is Christmas shopping/and or buying for other people. My husband loves that I hate to shop, saves money that way! 2. I do not watch TV. I do not find there is much that interests me on TV. If there is something on rare occasion I do want to watch, I am usually doing something else as I am watching/listening. 3. I enjoy working Soduko puzzles. They are relaxing to me. 4. I use to do scrap booking and would love to start doing it online....

Brick Walls. Seems I have been hearing a lot about them this week. Many have been fortunate and been able to break through those brick walls recently. I congratulate you if you are one of those who are so fortunate! I can't say I have a brick wall at this point. I have a relative who is making me work hard, but not a brick wall, at least not yet. I haven't been able to find a birth certificate for this relative. Where she was born and when, happened to be around the time it wasn't mandatory to keep birth records. It is possible there is a delayed birth certificate, which I haven't tried for as of yet. Of course, this being a female only makes researching slightly more difficult. The real confusion is that she has been married at least four times and possibly five. I have found and know of four of these marriages. I do not have the actual marriage or divorce dates. I know there are two children, their names and their fathers names. I know she lived in at least 5 states, ...

White Faced Monkey. Date April 2008. Location Jungle in Costa Rica. Digital Image by Msteri. Privately held by Msteri [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008

I have been a little side tracked this past week. Some new adventures and some old. The old is an ongoing illness I have had for quite some time that I can't seem to shake (it has been a couple years) but I am working hard as possible to clear this up. One of the new adventures, I attended was an event by Sylvia Browne. I was invited by a friend. Fifteen of us went in three cars. We had a great amount of fun! The speaker before Sylvia Browne was Colette Baron-Reid, with whom I had connections! As far as psychics go, I had never had any personal affiliation with one, but I know they have been helpful on cold cases and such. I also went to my first ever meditation class. I didn't get to the point of total relaxation as I know you should, but I enjoyed the meditation time non the less. My daughter asked me to join her as she has been taking yoga and meditation for awhile now and believes it would all be good for me too. My hesitation is the monthly fee. My husband and I did a PGR ...

Mono Lake. Date 2006. Location California. Digital Image by Msteri. Privately held by Msteri [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008

George Milton Harding. Date June 2006. Location Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette, California. Digital Image by Msteri. Privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 My last post was of my grandfather as an infant. Here is his final resting place. B.1912 D.1979. Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

George Clarence Milton Harding. Date 1913. Location Rowland, Pike, Pennsylvania. Scanned copy. Original privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008 This is my maternal grandfather I believe a little over a year of age. He was the seventh born of eight children, and was the second of two sons. I found this photo in my mother's photo album. The lower right corner apparently had been ripped, you can see the tape if you look closely. The first born child was a son and then there were five daughters, my grandfather and then another daughter. I am very happy to have this photo in my collection and just love the outfit! Submitted for the 7th edition of "Smile for the Camera" carnival. Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Msteri

This final class was on Immigration and Naturalization records. It covered how to do your homework to help find immigration records and the types of records that may give you clues. There was a bit of history given on Naturalization Records. Naturalization Records are divided into two categories because of the Steerage Act of 1819. The Steerage Act stated that all passenger lists of all arriving vessels to the United States were required to be given to the local Collector of Customs. The categories are divided as prior 1820 and after 1820. Each category was discussed regarding searching for these records, what you can expect, and what information you will find. Points of interest include~ Passage of the first Naturalization Law was in 1790. The Naturalization Service was created in 1906. Ideas of places to search~ Filby's index Visa Files Passports Alien Registration Records Certificates of Registry As a bonus we received information on "Genealogy in the 21st Century" whi...

Laura Fleming (nee Hohimer). Date Unknown. Location Oklahoma. Digital Copy. Privately held by Msteri, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] California. 2008

Today we attended the funeral of my friend's father. It was a nice service, as nice as a service can be. It was interesting for me though as the service was held at a mortuary I had never attended before. It just so happened to be the mortuary my ex-husband worked at maybe 40 years ago. He was actually married to one of owners daughters when he worked there. I can remember him talking about it, but darn if I remember much. I remember him saying it was an emotionally tough job and he wasn't cut out for it. He did the embalming. I never could picture him doing this job. Being at this mortuary though made my mind jump back to the past to try to imagine what my ex must have gone through with a job such as this. He had told me when we were first married that he still had "the kit" and I told him I never wanted to see it. The stories he has, I wish I could remember, but maybe that was my way of not dealing with what his job in the past had been. He didn't work at this j...

Backing up your genealogy as we all know is extremely important. The first of the month has been what seems to be the reminder to make sure you are on top of this! It is the beginning of a new month, so as others say, time to back up! I wanted to suggest another thought to this. I have been working on organizing photos on my laptop and need to make backups of these also, along with my other work. Upon doing this, I pulled out my DVD case and noticed that several of my copies are hitting or have hit the five year mark of having been made. Now is the time also to think about updating any of those CD's or DVD's that may have been made several years ago. The information, documents and pictures I have backed up on these I would sure hate to loose due to a CD or DVD having gone bad. I have heard that after 5 years the quality starts to deteriorate. I am not sure if this is still holds true, but I think I will be safe and make sure mine are updated! Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you...