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We’ve Moved
I have moved my blog to Finding Our Ancestors or http://www.FindingOurAncestors.net, I hope you will join me over there. The site is currently under construction and I hope to have it fully up and running soon. All information on this site will remain here and it will also be exported to the new site.
Thanks and don’t forget to follow my new site.
AncestryDNA Results
There has been a lot of talk on Twitter lately about the AncestryDNA testing and I thought it was well past the time that I put my results up. When I originally received the results, I posted the findings on my Facebook account and have not done a lot with them otherwise. Though, I did email with 2 different people who Ancestry states I have a 95 and 96% chance of being related to.
Results of my AncestryDNA test.
Basically, it states that my ethnicity is:
- 37% Scandanavian
- 33% British Isles
- 19% Southern European
- 10% Finnish/Volga-Ural
- 1% Uncertain
At first, I will say the Scandinavian threw me for a loop. But, after thinking about my Irish heritage, and my red-headed family members, that made sense. The British Isles made sense as well. There were a few lines that came through England and of course that also includes my Irish. Southern European though…which they consider modern-day Spain, Portugal and Italy. I do not know of anyone that came from any of those areas, so far. The Finnish/Volga-Ural they consider modern-day Russia or Finland. Well, no one I know from there either. But, I have been told that could be my Germans or the Hungarians.
The two people I have emailed with have not been able to connect with my lines at this point. But, never say never. As AncestryDNA compiles more data the percentages may change and from what I hear they may be giving more information out so that we can try to find where the connections may be. At this point, I am glad I took the test, but I wait for more data to come out of it. This is my first dip into the DNA waters and I know this was not a test specific to a family line, which I would like to do as well. I am still looking for an O’Connell male to do the Y-DNA test for me. If there are any takers in my specific family line, please contact me. I do plan to take the Mt-DNA in the future.
Did you take the AncestryDNA test? What were your results?
Motivation Monday: Summing Up June Goals
So, in the beginning of June I laid out my goals for the month. Which, was a big step considering I got off track for a few months (which is probably to norm for me). The good news is that I feel I did ok for the month. No big stellar steps taken, but baby steps are there.
My goals for June were:
Writing: Most of my time has been spent with writing or working at IDG, I want to get back to blogging here, on my personal blog at least once a week. I am working on a weekly calendar to keep my time divided for everything I need to do.
One of my goals is to write a book on one of my families this year, I have not started that at this point. But, it is still something I want to do. It might move to be a goal for next year. Jen Holik told me that I needed to read Sharan DeBartolo Carmack’s book, You Can Write Your Family History. I need to get a copy and move from there.
I have started a book project and have the chapters I want already in place, plus a few of the chapters have been started on. I need to put this in my weekly calendar so that I can move the project forward.
For the month of June, I wrote 4 posts for this blog. I also wrote 2 articles for my Examiner Column, an article for Irish Times Remembered and posted to my photo blog 2x (no writing there, lol).
So, I feel that I did very well this month with writing. Next month, I will be launching a new blog related to travel and photography and will probably spend a lot of time on that. I also have plans to redo this website in the very near future, so writing might be in the back seat for now as I plan all of the changes I am going to be making.
Organization: This seems to be the area that will never be complete! Just this past week I cleaned my desk off again. I made some file folders and got many things filed, now I just need to get a file box for all of them. I also still need to go through all of my family files and get them cleaned up and organized. I also might put together some files for the places I am researching to keep up on the history of that specific area (thanks to Pat Biallas of Geneajourneys for this great idea).
The good news here is that I went through a large pile of genealogy related papers and have them all filed (I still need a file cabinet for them) in folders. I need to go through the ones that are in a file box and make sure I have the files set up the way I did the new ones. The exciting part of this is, I have all of my records together that need to be transcribed. I figured it best to keep them away from the folder they belong in until I get this completed. I seem to work better when I have the certain steps I need to do completely mapped out in writing (or by different folders). So, I hope to move on that sometime this year.
Education: I am into month 4 (I believe) of ProGen 15. So far, I am loving the opportunity to have monthly discussions with my peer group. Second best is going over everyone’s assignments. Personally, I am a visual learner and I tend to learn more by looking at everyone’s assignment rather than the reading. I am trying to stay ahead on this, but it seems that I usually get my assignment in just in the nick of time. Need to get ahead of this, that way I can have the rest of the month to work on everything else.
ProGen goes well, still getting the assignment in within the last two days or so. But, the important part is that I am still in the game and working towards this. This is a long program to commit to and there are times when I ask myself why I did this and then I remember that it is to make me a better genealogist and to really take a look at the business aspect of genealogy. I am not 100% sure if I plan to be a for hire researcher, but if I do, I am prepared.
As for July, I am not setting any goals for the month. Personally, I have way too much going on for the month to try to commit to doing anything that needs to be done.
Also, I cannot believe it is July already. 2012 is going fast!!!
How did you do in the month of June with your goals?
Finding Ireland in Irish Lives Remembered
Today is a big day for me. A few weeks back, I received an email asking me if I would like to contribute to a new digi mag based on Irish research. I was super excited and honored to be asked to write for something that I was not a part of and for someone who I did not know.
I have written for myself on this blog a few years, I write over at The In-Depth Genealogist now and then and usually I have a monthly column as well. But, for someone to reach out and ask me to write about my Irish ancestors and my research, that truly touched me. So, I took a few days and compiled some of my posts here what information I have and wrote my article, which I titled Finding Ireland and sent it in to Irish Lives Remembered.
Today while reading my email, I read through my Y-IRL list and was excited to see that someone shared a new Irish digital magazine. Yep, for Irish Lives Remembered. I was super excited to see my words in print. So, while I was at a stop light I clicked through and found my article. Yay! It looked absolutely beautiful. The whole magazine does.
This month there is a 24 page section on Cork, which includes Irish genealogy resources. Those researching Irish ancestors can understand that any place that lists resources for your Irish ancestors, is a good thing to read. I cannot wait to dig into this.
Thanks again to Eileen, for asking me to write about my Irish ancestors and research. I was truly honored to do so.
To read the Irish Lives Remembered Magazine, click here. Make sure to read pages 37 – 39 for my article, Finding Ireland.
This Weeks Mystery Has Been Solved
Earlier in the week, I wrote a post about things I learned in the 1940 Census on my great-great uncle, John O’Connell. You can read the original post here. It seems for a few years, he owned a restaurant in Hudson Falls, NY and I wanted to find out the name and see if said restaurant was still open. Thanks to my friend Terri on Facebook, I know have the information.
Last night, Terri was kind enough to post on my Facebook wall that she had found the name of the restaurant and she also left me a link to where she found the information on Ancestry.
Here is a cropped version of the record.
Twin Acres was the name of his restaurant. I googled it and did not find a listing for it. I will however be setting an alert on Ebay to see if I can find anything there.
The next question is, who is the Mary listed under John? John had a sister Mary who married three different times. Could this be her, between husbands?
Thanks to Terri and all my friends on FB who take the time out to help each other with all the genealogy questions. If you are not on Facebook, I highly recommend any genealogist to open an account. It is a great way to network and get help with your research when you hit a block!
What Were your Ancestors Doing in 1940
With the release of the 1940 Census in April, most genealogists have been spending time mining the census for any information they can find on their family. We have spent many hours trying to locate each ancestor to see how they were living in 1940, how did the depression affect them?
I was excited this week when I found my great-great uncle John O’Connell in the 1940 Census (thanks to all who indexed the state of New York, I found this with a shaking leaf on Ancestry.com). Not only was he still living with his wife, they also had a boarder.
John’s wife Beatrice was a music teacher and worked all 52 weeks of the year. how exciting to read that, given the times and how tight money was, I am amazed that she still had work. According to the census information, she worked for a private company. So, she could have been self employed or worked for a company. She did not work for the public schools. She worked 8 hours per week. But, the important piece is that she is working.
John was lucky too! He worked all 52 weeks at a restaurant, that he owned at about 70 hours per week.
John O’Connell household, 1940 Census, Glens Falls, Warren, NY. Ancestry.com
John’s lived at 61 Sherman Ave. and his home was valued at $6,000 which is not so bad, it could definitely have been worse.
I would like to find out what restaurant John owned. I have already looked through the directory records on Ancestry and have not found any information on the restaurant. The only information that was given pertained to John, himself.
O’Connell, John. US City Directories, 1937 Glens Falls, NY. Ancestry.com
This tells me that John and Beatrice lived in a house at 61 Sherman Ave (same place as 1940 Census). John had business (bus) and it was in Hudson Falls (HF). I was able to determine the HF = Hudson Falls because another listing showed someone employed (emp) in Schndy (Schenectady).
So, do you have any thoughts how we can figure out what restaurant John owned? At this point, I have not looked at deeds or probate records for him.
*As a side not, I do know that by 1942 John was employed by Luzerne Villa from the US City Directory.*
NY State Census Records
Last week, Ancestry released the New York State Census records for 1892, 1915 and 1925. I had already looked through the 1892 on Family Search and have that document saved on my hard drive, but I was excited to add it to my online family tree, finally.
My hard to research, Irish, O’Connell line was in NY for many years and I was excited to be able to look at them through these newly available records. The most important thing I learned is that my great-great grandfather, John O’Connell told the census taker in 1925 that he was naturalized in Rutland, VT in 1874! I am excited to have another tidbit of his life and hope to be able to find the record.
Of course, with a name like John O’Connell it will probably take forever to flush him out!
Have you had any recent luck with new records online? Please share your stories!
Motivation Monday: June Goals
Here we are, the middle of 2012. How fast time flies. This year has been busier than I expected and because of this, I had to take a minor break from my genealogy goals. I have been busy in the genealogy world with The In-Depth Genealogist (IDG) and the planning for all we want to do there. But, I digress. The In-Depth Genealogist has nothing to do with what I want to do here on my personal blog and in my genealogy research.
June Goals:
Writing: Most of my time has been spent with writing or working at IDG, I want to get back to blogging here, on my personal blog at least once a week. I am working on a weekly calendar to keep my time divided for everything I need to do.
One of my goals is to write a book on one of my families this year, I have not started that at this point. But, it is still something I want to do. It might move to be a goal for next year. Jen Holik told me that I needed to read Sharan DeBartolo Carmack’s book, You Can Write Your Family History. I need to get a copy and move from there.
I have started a book project and have the chapters I want already in place, plus a few of the chapters have been started on. I need to put this in my weekly calendar so that I can move the project forward.
Organization: This seems to be the area that will never be complete! Just this past week I cleaned my desk off again. I made some file folders and got many things filed, now I just need to get a file box for all of them. I also still need to go through all of my family files and get them cleaned up and organized. I also might put together some files for the places I am researching to keep up on the history of that specific area (thanks to Pat Biallas of Geneajourneys for this great idea).
Education: I am into month 4 (I believe) of ProGen 15. So far, I am loving the opportunity to have monthly discussions with my peer group. Second best is going over everyone’s assignments. Personally, I am a visual learner and I tend to learn more by looking at everyone’s assignment rather than the reading. I am trying to stay ahead on this, but it seems that I usually get my assignment in just in the nick of time. Need to get ahead of this, that way I can have the rest of the month to work on everything else.
Where are you with your goals for the year?
Memorial Day
Just a quick note to all my readers to please stay safe this Memorial Weekend. Remember the reason for this holiday is about our soldiers who give their lives so that we may continue to enjoy our everyday freedoms.
I created a short video for this purpose which can be found at The In-Depth Genealogist. Please take a few minutes out of your day to watch this video and to remember all those that gave their lives for our country.
Finding Our Ancestors 