Memorial May

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been a busy spring both at home and work. Anyways May is one of my favorite months, and with all the relatives I have found and mapped, I can't go see them all on Memorial day. I usually am able to fit in about a hand full of cemeteries before it's an all day event. So that being said I am declaring the month of May "Memorial May" because it will take me a month to go see most, not even all the known cemeteries.

Last year was the first Memorial day after I had met Mandi Brown with her knowledge of cemetery preservation, and the use of the chemical D2. You can learn more about my initial review of D2 in my blog post called "Preserving Family Memories... Making Stones Last Forever". Well its been almost a year now, I have already bought another gallon of D2, and getting excited to visit other cemeteries that I missed last year.

I have already been to three cemeteries so far, but revisiting Sugar Creek Cemetery was the first time since the family reunion last October. Wow was I surprised. I didn't imagine D2 would keep working through the winter, not that there is a reason to just didn't think about it. So here are some photos again of D2 at work. I did go ahead an re-spray the stones this year, I plan to do so each year to keep them clean and to help preserve them for future generations. Check out the captions of the photos I will leave some details there. Also thanks to Tom DeBerry who has done a great job through Find A Grave to make sure every memorial in Sugar Creek is documented.



Pre D2

Photo by Tom DeBerry 2011

12 Months after D2
Photo by Eric Stitt May 2014

5 Months after spray with D2

Photo by Eric Stitt Oct 2013



12 Months after D2
Photo by Eric Stitt May 2014

Pre D2
Photo by Tom DeBerry 2011

12 Months after D2
Photo by Eric Stitt May 2014





 









Keeping your Leaves in Order... File Naming 2

So I am been using this new file naming scheme, well new to me, for all my genealogy records. I use Family Tree Maker so that I have a offline version of my Ancestry.com Tree. I love how I can make changes at either location and my trees are synced and updated. I am only about a quarter of the way through my files but I'm making progress.

The reason I am writing about this again is its just so cool. Now that my files are all properly named, you almost don't even need the software, its so nicely organized from birth certificate to death certificate and every document in between. It's so easy to look at now to find each person, the only pitfall and why you need the software, is to be able to link files to multiple people unless you wanted to attach a file to each individual, in a census that could really take up some space. I know some of my census images are 2MBs and if you got sometimes 10 people living together on the same census that's a lot of images.

I will admit when I started I wasn't the best genealogist, shoot I wouldn't even say I was good but, I have learned from my mistakes and trying to make up for it. Now that I'm getting organized I have been able to find some new records and relatives with ease.

Hopefully I can get all my files renamed in the next few weeks and then I am really going to sit down and start tackling these genetic cousin hints I have got from my DNA kits. Then maybe I can find and discover some cool family mysteries and stories to share with everyone.

If you are wondering what I am talking about in reguards to file naming you can check out my previous blog post called, Keeping your leaves in order... File Naming

New Year, New Beginnings in Google Earth

This past year 2013 has been a great year for genealogy research, which has lead me to starting a new blog called Genealogy Through Google Earth.  I am creating this new blog to help my Google Earth audiance have a clear place to go for ideas and support, while this blog can stay more show & tell, story based.  I am still working on posting at both blogs biweekly.

Genealogy Through Google Earth, starting out I am explaining how I use Google Earth to find and share my family research.  Then I will go more indepth with how you can create these interactive projects with your family.

I really hope you have enjoyed my blog this year and will continue reading it as well as Genealogy Through Google Earth.  My first post will be Jan 1, 2014.

Thanks for a great year

Eric Stitt