The itch to write has been bugging me for too, too long. So here I am once again blogging about my family history research after a break of over 3 years.. Plus it's my 200th post, so why not?
The biggest news recently is that my WikiTree profile of my great-grandfather William Frederick Ogden (mapapa) was awarded "Gold Standard: Genealogically Complete and Peer Reviewed." Yay for me! His profile was one that I did for the Profile Improvement Project in WikiTree. (A great and rewarding experience. Highly recommend.) I chose him for that project because I didn't feel I had enough info on him. Now I obviously have more than enough.
I still have profiles for my paternal grandparents and my other 7 great-grandparents that are ready for Gold Standard review. I've gotten some feedback on a couple of them. It appears that the best thing for me to do is join the monthly "Go for Gold" challenge on WikiTree, submit one for the month, and see if I can get one profile accepted each month.
Here the other family history projects I have on my plate right now:
- Application for Certificate of Canadian Citizenship. My great-grandfather William Ogden (see above) was born in Ontario. His parents were born in New Brunswick and Ontario. His paternal grandparents were born in New Brunswick. His other ancestors were born in Scotland or were Loyalists who moved to New Brunswick after the revolution. I think 5 ancestors born in Canada should be enough to qualify me.
- Everard Huigen's (papapapa) military records. I recently discovered a Dutch military record for my 2xgreat-grandfather. I had no idea he had served. This opens up a whole new chapter in his life for me. I posted the record to the Dutch Genealogy Facebook Group and was rewarded with 2 more military records of his and some explanation of what they say in Dutch. He was drafted and served from 1846 to 1851 in the Artillery and Horse Artillery. I think I will need to hire someone to transcribe and translate the records for me. I also want to find out if there are more military records for him.
- Resolve duplicate WikiTree profiles. During the last WikiTree Connect-a-Thon, I came across duplicate profiles for a pair of my 3xgreat-grandparents in WikiTree: Johann Toemmes and Maria Schmitt (papapamapa and papapamama). I need to determine all the sources for these two from my records and from the duplicate profiles and merge them into a single, well sourced pair of profiles.
- Photos. After my brother's death two years ago, I took possession of his photo collection and my parents' collection, which he had.There is a lot to do on thousands of these photos. Some are duplicates, triplicates, and beyond, Some I have already scanned and processed. Some have when, who, and where on them; others do not. It is very overwhelming and hard to figure out an efficient process for working through them.
If all that seems like a lot, I agree. Overwhelming at times.
I also have many stories to share about my ancestors and I created this blog for that purpose. Here are some of those that I'd like to get around to posting:
- My great-grandfather who was hit over the head with a bottle at a 4th of July party
- The same great-grandfather whose house burnt down
- My Dutch 3xg-grandfather who served in the French National Guard during the Napoleonic Wars
- My 2xg-grandfather who fell to his death off of a bridge down to the river 30' below
- My 11xg-grandfather who lived in Haworth, Yorkshire, England 300 years before the Bronte family
- The Orphan Train adoption of my dad's Uncle Charlie
- My parents' first date
Please let me know if any of those stories sound like something you'd like to know more about.
