Introducing Janet's Genealogy Blog

Hello there. Welcome to my genealogy den! I've just recently acquired the genealogy bug after a brief flirtation eight years ago. I'm really into it. This isn't my first blog - it's my fourth. Maybe you've seen my Tech Ronin blog.

This whole new bout of genealogy passion started shortly after I bought my Zire 72 in May. I was looking around for cool software to put on my Zire and found a little program called MyRoots. I promptly downloaded the demo, tried it and then bought the full version. I have never had my genealogy data in my hand - always with me - before. How fun!

I dug out some of my old files and entered a lot of my genealogy data into my Zire, person by person. I probably entered 50 people over the next few days. I could enter a lot of it by memory whenever I had a few minutes here and there waiting for something else to happen.

I started searching the Net for family members and information and hit upon a Frakes (my Mom's maiden name) who is a major Frakes researcher and had posted 5000 Frakes census records online. Well, being a database expert, I couldn't resist copying the text file, massaging it and importing it into FileMaker. What a bonanza of information!!! I'll be writing soon about the little FileMaker database I made out of it to help me browse through the data quickly. But I digress...

Getting the 5000 Frakes census records and connecting with George Frakes was just the shot in the arm I needed to take things to the next level with my budding genealogy hobby. George subsequently sent me a great big family tree print out showing me what he knew about my Frakes ancestors.

Entering this abundance of data on my Zire wasn't going to work and I wanted to work with photos. I needed to buy a desktop genealogy program. I had used Reunion 4 and 5 back in the 90's, so upgraded to Reunion 8 which runs on OS X for about $70. I downloaded a free utility for MyRoots that let me export the data in MyRoots into a GED file - the standard data format for genealogy programs. I imported my existing data and have been entering data like crazy since then. Right now I have a total of 289 people in there.

I got my old photos out and started scanning and putting some of them into Reunion. I printed some family trees and sent one plus some scanned photos to my 82-year-old uncle, Roy Frakes whose already told me a juicy story about my great grandmother. I've bought about 5 books on genealogy and am generally having a great time. This hobby is a great one to share with my 88-year-old father who loves to look at old family photos and reminisce about herding cattle while riding his horse Rex on his family farm in Montana.

Here's what I think about genealogy so far. For someone like me who likes to learn, *collect* things and play with computers, it's awesome. To do genealogy *right*, you've got to learn a lot of geography and history. I'm collecting maps and local histories of the various places my ancestors have lived. That's a lot of places when you've got 289 and counting spread over three centuries.

If that weren't enough, this all ties in with my interest in social networking. This hobby gives me instant and very interesting conversation material for all my living relatives plus every amateur and professional genealogist out there. I'm hoping you'll join me and start by writing a little comment to say hi, ask a question or express your thoughts.

Comments

[Sylvie]

Hi Janet. Good luck with your research.

I've also been thinking more seriously about researching my family's roots, so it's nice to see other people's efforts in that direction. Should be interesting to read about the whole process.

[Janet Tokerud]

Hey Sylvie- Thanks for being the first one to post to my new genealogy blog. I should be posting again in the next day or so. One reason I started this is because I had found some things I wanted to write about. So, stayed tuned.

[George Frakes]

Janet

This looks like it will be a great site. The information out there is unlimited it's just the time necessary to seek it out that is limited. Thanks for the atta-boy. Welcome to the ranks of the addicted.

[Janet Tokerud]

You got that right about the time needed. I'm sitting here with 4 new photo albums with maybe 25 more photos of the Tokerud line to scan in, insert into my genealogy files and print so I can show them to my Dad. Had em since Thursday morning and still haven't felt like I could take the time to scan them even though I really want those photos in there.

[Jarrod Walters]

Family historians tend to overlook the importance of old maps in their search. Completely forgotten about is the existence of early county maps that contain a wealth of information. Known as Land Ownership maps they represented a very detailed picture of the population of a given area. A large volume of these rare and sometimes valuable maps were produced in the mid 19th century for publicity purposes, property assessment and to attract new migrants A dedicated genealogist should research this wonderful item, for they continue to be a great asset in researching ones ancestors. The original cartographers and engravers produced these giant wall maps, that could average a 6 foot tall image and that clearly defined different survey zones. These maps focused on tax land assessment, supervisory boards, land deeds, political and voter districts. They would show the name of the resident, possible occupation, acreage owned and other notable ancestry interests. Outside of the libraries and government institutions that have a limited staff to assist you with your project. One should look for on-line map libraries for all your needs. These entities are quick to respond to inquiries and can offer a large library of premium priced images of outstanding quality. Browsing the Internet the ever growing entourage of genealogists, should be aware of two map libraries who have a reputation for quality reproductions. Either business has the professional staff and time to help you with your research. Http://www.historicmapsrestored.com is both a commercial enterprise and a non-profit organization that has for sale, sharp digitally remastered prints. In addition is http://www.maps-of-the-past.com. Both map libraries have a wide selection of land ownership maps, ideal for the family ancestral search.

[Jim Seaman]

Thanks for the urls - the one for MyRoots I found particularly helpful!

[Deborah Panetta]

Hi Janet,
Would like to know if you would consider doing a review of our family history website product offering at http://www.mygreatbigfamily.com

Debbie