Today is 2nd Blogoversary of Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail! Yep, the blog is 2 years old today. I'd like to thank my faithful readers who have made it possible for it to continue and hope that you'll all be here next year when Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail celebrates its 3rd Blogoversary.
3 Comments
Have you heard about Family History Daily, the new online genealogy newsletter? I will be one of the regular writers on it. Melanie Mayo, the brains behind Family History Daily, hope to bring together family historians from diverse backgrounds to showcase a range of genealogical articles and blog posts. Anyone who'd like to share a tip or strategy or family story is welcome to post on the blog. Check out it out!
Charles E. Carder, 1931-2002 My dad was a great man. Not in the sense like Washington or Lincoln or because he was my dad, but because of the kind of person he was. He was the kind of guy that liked everyone and everyone liked him. I don't ever remember anyone who didn't like him. Dad could talk to anybody about anything. He made whoever he was talking with feel like what they had to say mattered. He cared about people and it showed. My dad had a zest for living. He made the best of every day and lived life to the fullest. He was interested in so many things and in what mattered to others. He was once asked by a former co-worker what his secret was. Dad replied, "Always have something to look forward to, to make it worth getting out of bed." And he did. He always had a project or two or three. Whether it was fixing something around the house or helping someone with theirs, going out to the range and practice shooting for a match, working on one of the six books he authored, writing the newsletter for one of the clubs he belonged to or serving the clubs' needs as an officer, or the city as a councilman and council president. When our town was having a lot of problems, he ran for office because he cared about his friends and neighbors and wanted this to be a great place to live. Everyone saw how much he cared by how hard he worked, spending his own time and money trying to work for the good of everyone. Everyone said what a smart man he was, but Dad always claimed that he wasn't very smart. He always said, "It's not what you've got, but how you use it." I learned so much from my dad. His self-made set of standards that he believed-have something to look forward to, a reason to get up in the morning, and use the brain God gave you for something other than a hat rack and apply yourself. Find things you enjoy and do them. Think of someone other than yourself and do something for others. Fame and fortune do not make a great man. These are the differences between an average man and a great man. And he was. He moved on to a better place 11 years ago, February 1, 2002. I still hear his laugh and see his smile. Someone once said they were sure he's up there doing Heaven's newsletter and he probably is. My mom's sometimes said, "You're just like your dad." which translates into "Why do you have to always be taking on something else? Why can't somebody else do it? You're going to get too many irons in the fire." She didn't mean it in a complimentary way but that's how I took it. Proud to be your daughter and call you my daddy, miss you, and love you always. I'm so excited! I've been selected as a new columnist at The In-Depth Genealogist, the popular online genealogy magazine. My column will be called Beyond the Obituaries. It will be about alternative resources that can be used when you can't find an obituary or death certificate, they don't exist, or don't contain the information you need. it will discuss nearly 100 other resources that you can search for as alternatives to obits and death certificates or use iin addition to them for extra information. Each resource will be discussed in-depth in an individual article. Of course, obituaries and death certificates will be discussed, too. I hope that readers will learn to think outside the box and search for these alternative resources if they can't find the most commonly used sources or information they need in them. You can follow my column and my blog posts at The In-Depth Genealogist and here at Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail. Have you heard about the Family History Writing Challenge? It is the creation of Lynn Palermo, better known as The Armchair Genealogist. Lynn created the challenge to help family historians stop procrastinating and start writing their family history. During the challenge, participants commit to writing a minimum of 250 words about their family history. By the end of the 30 day challenge, participants should have a good start on writing up stories on much of that research they've done and be in the habit of taking the time to consistently write their findings up. Lynn helps participants overcome their biggest writing challenges and guides them on the writing process with weekly messages. There is also a forum for participants to ask questions, share their experiences, and help each other. 2013 will be the third year for the challenge.
I'm excited to be a part of the challenge this year. I'm hoping to make some progress on the book I started writing a couple of years ago on my dad's family history. For more information, go to The Armchair Genealogist or click on the badge on my sidebar. Maybe I'll actually get that book finished and my family will be able to quit asking when it will be ready for them to read! I love obituaries from old, small town newspapers. They gave more detail and plenty of info to write a good story about the ancestor in you family history. This obituary for my 2nd great grandfather, Jacob Copus, gives the details of the day he died and a biographical sketch of his entire life. This is what I'd consider the perfect obituary. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they all contained this much information? In 2001, I received a note with this picture enclosed from my aunt Betty. In the note, she tells that her parents would get dressed up every Saturday to go to the Lyric Movie Theater in Lima, Ohio. Their favorite movies were the westerns. On the way to the theater, they would stop at Nesbitt's Candy Shoppe and get peanuts and candy to snack on during the movie. My aunt remembered the day this picture was taken because when Grandma and Grandpa Cheney went to the movies that evening, Grandma won a basket of groceries, which tickled her to no end. Grandma didn't have to go grocery shopping that week! Today, I want to talk a little about the blogging community. Since starting my blog, I've learn that there's a whole community of genealogical bloggers who give encouragement, insight, and support to each other.
One of the benefits of the blogging community is that many bloggers make the public aware of other blogs they find and enjoy. One blogger who does this is Jana Last who writes Jana's Genealogy and Family History blog. Every Friday, Jana lists blogs she has recently found and recommends those she's enjoyed to others. This benefits blog readers as they will discover new blogs they'll like and it benefits blog writers as it helps people find their blogs and become followers. If you enjoy discovering new blogs, then you'll want to check Jana's blog each week for her Follow Friday–Fab Finds and New Blog Discoveries. Jana listed me as a New Blog Discovery on December 21, 2012. Big thaks to you, Jana! I hope I can help pass the word about blogs I find that I think others will find as worthwhile reading, too. When I was newbie, I had barely heard of genealogy and had little idea what I was doing. I knew no one who was doing genealogy and nothing about books existing on the subject. I didn't know about genealogical societies, workshops, or conferences. I knew nothing!
I surfed the internet searching for "how to" articles and online lessons. One of the first websites I found was Leland Meitzler's now retired Heritage Quest which featured a writer named William Dollarhide. I devoured his articles! I loved his down to Earth, sometimes humorous style. I barely knew how to use a computer and didn't know how to save articles or bookmark websites so I printed out all of his articles. I still have them. Heritage Quest was taken off the internet and Dollarhide's articles were no longer being regularly published online. I was happy when Leland Meitzler started a new blog (GenealogyBlog) featuring articles by his friend, William Dollarhide. I want to thank Leland and Bill for being my first teachers and mentors and for continuing to share their knowledge online so that the rest of us may learn and enjoy what they share. Thanks, Leland and Bill. You're still the greatest! In the 1950's, my grandpa, Wilbur Silas Carder was awarded "Safe Driver of the Year" twice by the National Transit Company, the trucking firm that he worked for. The awards were engraved Zippo lighters, which were inherited by his sons, Charles and Harold. Wilbur's son, Charles was my dad. Before he passed away, Dad gave me Grandpa's Zippo and my uncle, Harold still has the other one. I was Wilbur's oldest grandchild and the only one who ever knew him. He passed away before my cousins were born. I have very few items that belonged to my grandpa or items that were gifts from him so the Zippo lighter with his name and "Safe Driver of the Year" is a special treasure to me.
|
Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail
******************** AuthorDeborah A. Carder Mayes is a genealogist, speaker, and writer in Ohio and Eastern Indiana. She has been researching her family history and actively involved in the genealogy community since 1998. SUBCRIBE
by E-mail or RSS Archives
November 2019
Categories
All
Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail by Deborah A. Carder Mayes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2024 Deborah A. Carder Mayes
All posts, information, and photos are exclusively owned by the author or submitter. Please do not copy any information or photos from this website without explicit permission of the owner. Contact me to obtain permission. |
Rambling Along the Ancestral Trail
Ramblings about my family history and tidbits about genealogy