1950 Census - Another Milestone

Back in 2012, I was really excited about the release of the 1940 US Census - I called it once in a lifetime and it was. But lo and behold, these past 10 years have gone by fast and another 'once' is happening. The 1950 census data has been released.

72 years ago, census takers were going around the country gathering information about the population. My mom was 12 years old and growing up in small-town Wisconsin. As a matter of fact, her hometown (and mine) had a population that was less than a quarter of its size today. 1950 ushered in an era of prosperity and growth for much of the country. World War II was in the rear view mirror and the future looked bright. In my own family search, many of the boys and girls from the 1940 census are adults and starting families of their own by 1950 and there are new names in the lists - new children who were not yet born in 1940. There are also those that have disappeared from the record, yes, some have died in the intervening years. The census brings home the full circle of life in cold, hard facts.

In Search of David Hollister

One of the joys of family research is discovering lines of ancestors that you had never heard of. In my search, there have been a few of these, mostly from my paternal grandmother’s family. I did not have much information on her and so a lot was waiting to be found. One of these families, the Hollisters, started out in colonial Connecticut and ended up, via New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in far western Iowa.


The Town of Dansville, Stuben County, New York;
where David Hollister spent his youth?

Six Years of Blogging about Genealogy

“My Other Blog - Family History and Genealogy" celebrated its 6th anniversary yesterday, September 30, 2016. On that same day in 2010, the very first post, just under 400 words and titled “Yet Another Blog” was published.

Well, six years is technically correct but it is also true that I did not publish a post for almost three years between November 2013 and September 2016. After working diligently for the first three years, I began to slow down in 2013 and only delivered five posts that year. Then I stopped. Was I burned out or maybe just needed a break? Not sure, but I was running out of big ideas for new posts. 

Farms at Hafslo, Sogn og Fjorde, Norway. Home of my
ancestors; connection found, thanks in part to this blog.

Two Years of Blogging about Genealogy

“My Other Blog - Family History and Genealogy" celebrated its 2nd anniversary yesterday, September 30, 2012. On that same day in 2010, the very first post, just under 400 words and titled “Yet Another Blog” was published.

At the time, I wasn’t sure exactly what this blog was going to focus on but writing about my ancestry was certainly one of the options I was entertaining. The decision to move in that direction didn't take long, however. The next two posts, both in October of 2010 were about my family history quest and once I started down the road toward genealogy, I never looked back.

Before I started learning about my Genealogy, I had never
heard of Granby, Connecticut. Now I know that it played
an important role in my own family history.

With a total of 36 posts (including this one), the website has grown at a slow but steady pace. In addition to the output that comes out of this blog (writing and posting), there has also been some worthwhile input. I have received more than a handful of connections to distant cousins. Prior to being contacted, I did not know any of them and they have contributed a lot of great information about my family history. Hopefully, I have also been able to provide them with some good information as well.

9/30/10 - 9/30/12: Two Years of Blogging About My Family History - 36 posts, 10,000 visitors and some great new connections.

In addition to the two-year anniversary, another milestone . . . 10,000 visitors . . . was also reached in September. This is a small blog, very focused and with no marketing or advertising so I do not expect much traffic. I now receive anywhere from 600 - 900 visitors per month, which has far exceeded my expectations. Here are some highlights of the first two years:

• September 2010 - First Post: Yet Another Blog
• February 2011 - First Family Post: The Goldners of Chicago - Finding a Lost Family
• May 2011 - First Full Family Biography: David Herman - Arrived 1862
• June 2011 - First Contact with Other Researchers - Peterson/Moe Family
• August 2011 - First Short Biography: Lars P. Moe - Short Biography
• April 2012 - Accessed 1940 U.S. Census
• May 2012 - History Page Added
• September 2012 - 10,000 Visitor Mark

Right now, I am in the middle of writing about the Holcombe Family, the ancestry that first got me really excited about my own genealogy. I have two articles published with a couple more to go. I look forward to continuing with the blog and sharing my information with others for some time to come.

Related Reading:
History Page Added
The Flow of Information
The Genealogy Mother Load

History Page Added - More Stuff

I've been thinking about ways to add more information to this website; specifically, more photos and some of the many documents that reside in my archive. The goal was to add a page (or pages) to display these images. I also wanted to do it in a way that was not too difficult and would not require too much serious HTML work. Blogger can be a powerful tool but when it comes to plugins and widgets, it is not as well developed as WordPress or some other platforms (not that I am complaining). I like things "out of the box" and am not really interested in changing the template, so I needed to look around for some help. Specifically, I was interested in creating a "thumbnail page" that would show many images at a glance. This would contrast with the slide shows that reside at the bottom of the page. After looking around a bit, and reading a lot of "how to" topics, I finally found a way to add a table - of sorts - in a new page. The method looked like something I could handle and the page appearance was "good enough" at least for now.

1940 Census - Once in a Lifetime

Something is about to take place that only happens once and takes 72 years; truly a "once in a lifetime event." In just a few days, on April 2nd of 2012, the individual family records of the 1940 census will be unveiled and made available to the public. It will also be the first census to go almost immediately into digital format.

The Flow of Information

A little over a year ago, in a post titled New Discoveries are Delightful, I wrote the following: "my genealogy research is pretty casual these days." I went on to say how I was running out of information and was content to sit back and take it slow. I also acknowledged that "new stuff shows-up." Those thoughts were all pretty genuine but what I did not realize was that just around the corner, a massive amount of family history was waiting for me. First, some background information,

When I wrote that post, in January of 2011, this blog was only about three months old and I had yet to write any posts on individual family members. It would not be until February of 2011 that I would write my first post on one of those family members - the Goldner Family.  That was followed a couple of months later with a post on the Peterson / Moe Family. Both of those two talked as much about the process as the families themselves.

Green County Historical Society

A Big Peterson Family Reunion

Finding New Sources, the Website Helps!

I do not get a lot of comments or even that much traffic to this site but that does not mean that having the website has not paid-off. In fact, I have received a number of high quality contacts who stumbled onto this blog and realized a connection. The most significant of these has been on the Peterson/Moe side of my family. A few months ago, not long after I posted: Peterson - Moe . . . What's in a Name?, I was contacted by three different individuals on that side of the family, including one from Norway. That was really exciting for me.



Peterson, Moe and others families gather at Wisconsin Dells in 2011.
They brought with them a wealth of resources to share.

Ode to the Genealogist

"No evil-minded person ever felt any interest in his ancestors, or made any efforts to rescue their History from oblivion."

That is a pretty powerful and somewhat provocative statement! The quote is part of a tribute to the genealogist I came across a few years ago. I re-read it recently and decided to share it with whoever might look at this blog. The tribute was in the introduction to a book about the Buell Family. This was (is) an ancient family that settled in New England as part of the Puritan migration in the 1630s. The book is typical of the family histories and genealogies written by a family researcher (or other party) in the late 19th century. In this case, the book was compiled by Albert Welles, the President of something called the 'American College for Genealogy Registry, Family History and Heraldry' and was published by the society in New York in 1881.

New Discoveries are Delightful

My genealogy research is pretty casual these days. A couple of years ago I was really gung-ho and eating up the information as fast as I could find it. You might say I was in serious discovery mode. Things started off slow, floundered for a few years, then the flood gates broke open again and I went crazy once more. At some point, you start running out of information . . . or at least information that is easy to find. So now it has become slower. There are certainly many things I could do to fill in some of the missing information, close some of the gaps and get more detail but right now, I am content to sit back and take it slow. Too many other things going on that are consuming my time. But I still find new discoveries delightful and when I find one, I still get that tingly feeling from head to toe.

Genealogy and the Internet

There is a standing joke: "I read it on the internet, it must be true!" The reality, of course, is that you cannot trust anything you read on the Internet, right? Well, that is not exactly true either. What you cannot trust on the Internet are things said by ordinary people who may sound factual (and think they are) but are just expressing their opinion. Then there are those who, from the beginning, are intent on being fraudulent.

The Genealogy Mother Load

My family research started about 10 years ago. Using the Internet as my primary research tool, I was able to find some modest information on some of my ancestors. It was about that time that a searchable version of the 1900 U.S. Census became available. Back then, my collection of data included census pages of my family from Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as some photographs and snippets of written history that I had collected from family members. It was a fairly small collection. The most significant discovery was on my paternal grandmother's side of the family.

History and Genealogy

I like history! I know that there are others out there like me, but most people do not care much about history, don't like it or don't understand it. To some, it is boring; to others, it is just not cool. After all, pop culture and history are really on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. Our society is totally enthralled with the latest cultural phenomenon . . . whatever that might be. Check out any browser's front page and other places on the web and you will find lots of space devoted to popular culture, celebrities, sports, gossip (you might even find some actual news) but if you want history, you need to go find it.

 

Was Thomas Holcombe on the Ship Mary and John
that arrived in the New World in 1630? Maybe.

Yet Another Blog

This is my second blog site but I am not sure exactly what it wants to be. I may have gone about this backwards as my first blog was a stand-alone site with Blue Host using Wordpress. I had been very happy with that format and had been posting for a few months. I decided to start another blog just to spread myself out a bit and also to get a full-time link back to my other blog. Maybe this will get me some exposure as I do not have much right now. I am not too worried about that, however, as my main goal right now is to just write and see what happens.

That other blog was all over the place . . . talking about making money online, architecture, genealogy, family life and other things. As it is new, it is in a constant state of change; really an experimentation at this point. I think it will settle down as some point and become more focused. My goal for this site is to be focused from the start so I am thinking about blogging about either Genealogy (my family research) or Architecture (my impoverished profession). Both of these topics have had pages on my other blog. In addition to the pages I also have a few posts on those topics and some links. I may continue to post there as well as here. I have more information about my family history and genealogy so I am leaning in that general direction . . . but I could change my mind, you never know.

If you look at both of my sites you will notice that I have chosen a very different look for this one. I really want them to contrast and have a completely different feel. Also, I do have ads on my other site and hope that someday that may generate a little income. This site will not have any of that (at least in the beginning), which is another thing that will set them apart.

Postscript (2017): I have abandoned some of my early blog sites - these were always evolving experiments, but I found it hard to consistently keep up with them. I would lose interest and often found it hard to stay focused. Even with this site, which has become very focused, I can have trouble keeping motivated.