myHERITAGE HAPPENS

During the last couple of months I have taken and completed three classes through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies . Receiving a gift certificate for a free class in my GeneaBlogger swag bag at Jamboree this past June, definitely played a part in my participation. I have taken many online courses over the years through Family Tree and Gen Class. Lisa Alzo, and George Morgan are just a couple of names you may recognize that I have taken a class or two from. I also enrolled and attended a two part series of classes at our local college, taught by Sue Johnston. Sue is a graduate of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies as well as a variety of other genealogical training courses. I enjoyed Sue's two series of classes very much and love to hear her speak at genealogy meetings and conferences when I can. Lisa and George are always wonderful to receive a lecture from also, please keep this in mind if you ever have an opportunity to attend one of their lectures! ...

I am following  Tonia's Roots  as she brings several GeneaBloggers through 31 weeks of working towards a better blog, prompts written by Darren Rowse.  The following is an (altered) excerpt from the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook ~ Last week our challenge was to come up with a list of at least 10 post ideas for our blog. The idea was to spend time, before you needed posts, coming up with ideas. Doing this can release you later on to just write instead of having to brainstorm ideas every day. How to Develop a Weekly Editorial Calendar [or at least how I do it] This weeks task is to take the list you created last week and to plan your posting schedule (or editorial calendar) for next week. 1. Calculate how many posts you want to post in the coming week on your blog. 2. Set up a spreadsheet or table in a word document that has a slot for each post and the date and time that the post needs to go live on the blog. 3. Take the list of ideas that you’ve previ...

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! Copyright © 2011 By Cheryl Palmer All Rights Reserved

I am following  Tonia's Roots  as she brings several GeneaBloggers through 31 weeks of working towards a better blog, prompts written by Darren Rowse.  Here is this weeks challenge adapted from Darren Rowse's daily challenges which Tonia is doing as weekly challenges: Ever run out of things to write about on your blog? If your answer is yes – you’re not alone. This weeks's task is to do an exercise that will identify a range of post ideas that you can use when stuck for an idea in future. The key with this process is not to put yourself under pressure to come up with completely new and out of the blue ideas for every post you write. Instead – this process taps into what you’ve recently written on your blog and helps you to identify ways to extend those ideas. Here’s the mind mapping method that I’ve used (note: I’ve talked about this previously so it could be familiar to some). 1. The Set Up Get a whiteboard, piece of paper, note book, tablet pc or some...

My paternal grandparents ~ Hjalmer Lundberg and Thina Westby. Married November 29, 1930. Scanned image 2010 by Cheryl Palmer.  Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!  Copyright © 2011 By Cheryl Palmer All Rights Reserved

In January 2009, with the help of the genealogy blogging community, Becky Wiseman created  The 99+ Genealogy Things Meme , which lists some things that you, as a genealogist, might have done or might like to do in/for/with your research. I added my own personal post here . Now the list is going around again, and sometimes being adjusted a bit to suit an individuals preferences. I have chosen to play along again so I can see how much I can add to the list. In 2009 I completed 37 items. Let's see what 2011 brings! The list should be annotated in the following manner: Things you have already done or found: bold face type Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional) Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type Belong to a genealogical society. Researched records onsite at a court house. Transcribed records. Uploaded tombstone pictures to Find-A-Grave. Documented ancestors for four generations (self, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents). ...

In three plus years of blogging I am surprised I haven't ever written a post in remembrance of that tragic day in September of 2001. There could be many reasons for this but I surmise one of the main reasons is because my mother passed away that year also. It was a very emotional year. I have found when the anniversary of this day comes around I have difficulty facing it. I never want to relive it or that year. I was in bed, sleeping, when this tragic attack occurred. I awoke with the TV on. My husband had already left for work. When I first saw the devastation and heard the news, I was in denial. I could not, would not, believe it really happened to us, here in the United States. I do not wake bright eyed and bushy tailed, it takes awhile for the fog to leave my brain. I led myself to believe I was watching a movie. As time went on it became apparent I was not watching a movie, this was minute by minute coverage of a terrorist attack! I gasped. I went numb and couldn't m...

I am following  Tonia's Roots  as she brings several GeneaBloggers through 31 weeks of working towards a better blog, prompts written by Darren Rowse.  Tonia's blog states~ "Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!  Our topic for week 10 is setting up alerts to monitor what is happening in our areas of genealogy.  Alerts are useful for both blogging and for genealogy research, so they are a great addition to any geneablogger’s toolbox. Reasons to Use Alerts Alerts let you stay on top of what is being said in blogs and in the news about certain topics.  There are quite a few reasons that geneabloggers would want to do this: Ideas for posts  – keeping abreast of what others are writing about can give you lots of ideas for topics. Tracking research interests  – do you have time to read every blog post written to see if it mentions your surnames or locales?  Probably not.  Alerts will scour the internet for...

                                                                                                                                                                                                               The Next Generations......                                                                      ...

A couple weeks ago my aunt from Texas came to California to spend her 75th birthday with her brother, my dad. I thought it was pretty darn wonderful that she wanted to spend the time with her brother. I suppose she felt she could see her children at any time, but not her brother! I drove the couple hours north to my father's "bed and breakfast" as I like to call his home. I looked forward to seeing my aunt and wanted to make sure to be at the house for her birthday. To me, this was the closest thing to a family reunion there is on this side of the family. I have no idea how long it has been since I have seen any of my cousins, but it has been years...back in the day, when they lived in California. We don't even know each other. It has been three years since the last time my aunt came to visit. That visit she brought her husband with her (the only time I met  him) but unfortunately, he has since passed away. We shared many laughs, I took lots of pictures, and h...