Genealogical Gems: Hiding in Plain Sight

picture originally found on www.vgs.org for the conference.  

This post is part of the November Genealogy Blog Party on My Descendant's Ancestors. Check it out today!

 I attended my first Genealogy conference a few weeks ago here in Virginia.  My family and I were at the local library when I noticed a poster for the poster for the VGS annual conference, Genealogical Gems:  Hiding in Plain Sight.  I don't normally get to spend a day on myself so I jumped at the opportunity to attend!  I figured why not?  It was practically in my backyard.


I spent the day on Track 2 which featured Sharon Cook MacInnes, PhD, CG from www.ancestortracks.com Her presentations included:

• Researching State Land Records for the 20 State-Land States: Deeds & Tax Records

• Researching Federal Land Records for the 30 Federal-Land States, Including Military Grants.

• Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.

• Using the FAN Club to Tear Down Brick Walls.

Now I have to say, I thought I had done pretty well following my family history in New Jersey.  There were some ancestors who I thought I had "finished" (finished as I thought I would ever get with them ;) ) and boy was I wrong!  Now granted it will be a bit before I can get up to the NJ archives to start digging again, however, I'm excited to make another trip up to Jersey to tackle more land records!   

In the meantime, I will be searching Virginia land grants.  I already found the original land grant for my neighborhood!  It's so neat to see the land exchange hands between the crown and the original owners.  Plus I now know how some roads got its name.

Stay tuned for what I find thanks to my new found knowledge!  

Don't forget to like my fb page!

Finding that missing signature

I have 2 tattoos with plans of getting more, one of which is my mother's signature.  The problem with that, I have nothing with her signature on it.  I have searched all of my school papers from before she passed away, asked family members if they have cards she may have signed from years past, anything at all but i have always come up short.
Last night I fell down the genealogy rabbit hole, land deeds.  I found a search full of deeds, mortgages etc from my hometown.  It started with a simple Google search of my ancestor, Samuel Rysdyk, that led to property he once owned, which then led to the original search database.   I entered my maiden name thinking I may be able to see deeds for the old family farm (I did! more on that later!)  but I also found the deed and mortgage to my parents first house that they bought when the were married back in 1972!  after going through a few files I found it!

I seriously could not believe what I was seeing.  My mother's signature was right in front of my eyes!  I had to save it to my computer as fast as I could because I felt like if I didn't, it may disappear.   I can't wait until I have the time (and figure out the location) to get the tattoo that I've been wanting to get.
Of course I couldn't stop looking at the land deeds after I found this.  There was a wealth of information right there at my finger tips.  I stayed up much later than I should have and still haven't touched 1/2 the information.  I have so much to do and no time to do it!  I will posting more of my findings however once I have it organized.

I couldn't leave without posting this as well.  It's the signatures of my grandparents (one I've never met) and my great grandparents (both deceased before I was born).

Geneaology Book Ideas?

Summer is quickly approaching and once my classes are done I will be hitting the geneaology trail!
My question for you all is:

What genealogy books do you recommend?

I would love to get a list started.  Summer is the only chance I have to read non school related books so I try to fit in as much as I can!

Thanks so much!

Listening to the past...Part 2

Here's the follow up post to the Listening to the Past try-it my daughter earned on our last trip up to NJ.

We had a blast and it was so fun to share stories of the family and visit landmarks with my daughter and niece.

The activities we accomplished while we were there:

1) Community Stories 4) Tell Stories of the Past 2)If these Buildings Could Talk - While in NJ, my father and I shared stories of with the girls, both my mother's side and my father's side.  Starting from when they came over to the United states, the wars they fought in and up thru the current members.  It was so much fun and they had great questions.  Just driving thru my hometown I was able to show my daughter where the family used to have farms and where their legacies still remain.

3) Visit the Oldest Cemetery - This may not be the absolute oldest cemetery in the town however it is definitely one of the oldest.  I gave the girls the task of finding the oldest grave and off they went!  We paid respect to both revolutionary war, civil war, and WWI soldiers in our family.

Off searching for the oldest grave

Dubois Swezy - GAR - Civil War

Gilbert and Sarah Drew - Revolutionary War

I had so much fun with my father and the girls.  I can't wait to go back home to NJ to do more research and take more pictures.  Thanks for sharing this experience with me!

Using Excel as a family tree program.

Has anyone ever used a simple excel spreadsheet to organize your genealogy information?  I purchased Family Tree Maker and it's not loading on my computer.  I'm getting error after error. 

Genealogy Software

I have a question for fellow genealogists.

When I started pursuing our family history, I really wasn't serious so I just used ancestry.com.  I'm now looking to move my information from ancestry.com to my personal hard drive.  What software do you all recommend?  I'm willing to pay for it, within reason of course :)

Thanks so much

Genealogy Grumps?

Have you come across any Genealogy Grumps? 

I have come across two so far in my research.  Thankfully there are so many more out there who are more than willing to help you as well as some long lost family members who are excited to find someone in the family. 

One of the grumps is a family member who has kept her research hidden from me even after I approached her.  Thankfully I have gotten around it to get information I need and my focus is on a different branch however it definitely stings when someone in your family treats the family history like this.  

The second grump is a member of www.findagrave.com .  Like I said above, the majority of genealogists that I have come across are awesome but this particular member seems to be more focused on her numbers than on actually helping others.  I asked to have management of a few graves transfered to me.  I have the rest of the family members in the plot and it is my father's family who he lived with growing up.  She flat out refused it to me!  She's not even family! 

Sigh, I hate hitting these speed bumps but I'm trying to keep a happy face on.

So, have you come across any Genealogy Grumps?