52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Cemeteries

I'm behind in my Abundant Genealogy posts, so I'll be using this week to catch up...

Cemeteries: Genealogists understand the full value of cemeteries and appreciate them in ways most others can’t see. Share a cemetery or cemetery experience for which you are most thankful. What makes this place special? What does it mean to you and your family history?

Surprisingly, I’ve not really spent a lot of time in the cemeteries of my ancestors.  My local cemeteries don’t house anyone I know and I rarely get anywhere else.  But thanks to Find-a-Grave, I have seen the South Dakota cemetery of many of my ancestors and it has an odd draw to me.  I hope to visit in the next couple of years.

Midland Cemetery

Among those interned in the Midland Cemetery are my great, great grandparents, Anthony and Elizabeth Konst, their son Clemens and his wife Alice and my grandfather’s baby brother, Gerald.  There is also a mystery “James Howard Connor.”  My great grandfather’s brother was James Howard Conner.  But although he died in South Dakota, he’s buried in the Russell (Iowa) cemetery with his parents.  So who is this?  Something of a mystery...

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52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Local Societies

Local Societies: Local genealogical and historical societies are the lifeblood of genealogy. Members and volunteers give their time and money to preserve local history and promote family history. Tell us about a local society for which you are thankful.

Our local genealogical society, Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society, is a wonderful group.  When I rejoined a year or two ago (after taking a few years off to have babies), they welcomed me back so warmly.  Our Membership Chair invited me to the meetings and to the board meetings.  

I was offered the privilege of helping with the monthly eBulletin, which I absolutely love.  They are open to new ideas, such as a writing group to lead and a lunch-and-learn group to participate in.  They have people to share local history and un-local history.  They have docents in the library and brilliant people creating brilliant books.  The Program Chair lines up fantastic people to speak at our meetings- people that I would normally drive far and pay much to hear.

To those who tell me that they don’t belong to their society because they have no ancestors there, I say, “Get thee to a society meeting.”  Now.

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52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

Branching Out: Genealogy Textbooks for Children- BOOK REVIEW

Since we homeschool, our curriculum must fit into our needs or it will not get used.  Our needs are simple:  make it fun, easy to teach, make it fun, have a visual outcome, make it fun, and make sure it’s fun.  Now, for me, I didn’t see how genealogy could NOT be fun, but my children beg to differ with me on this…  However, if I have a really well-thought out curriculum that includes vocabulary words, small assignments, crafts, and activities and each lesson has focus and direction, I will have a much better chance of sharing my passion with the little ones.

The new Branching Out genealogy textbooks will turn my children right around.  I bought four books in PDF format:

Branching Out: Genealogy for 1st – 3rd Grade Students Lessons 1-15

Branching Out: Genealogy for 1st – 3rd Grade Students Lessons 16-30
Branching Out: Genealogy for 4th – 8th Grade Students Lessons 1-15

Branching Out: Genealogy for 4th – 8th Grade Students Lessons 16-30

Since I have a Kindergartner and a 4^th grader, I thought these would work well to supplement our history and writing for next year.  I’ve been waiting for the release with baited breath and jumped on them the day of the release.

I am beyond thrilled with the layout and quality of the lesson planning.  It’s as if the author knew my teaching style, my children, and my passion and created something tailored to us.  The lessons are different enough for each age level that it will be right for each of my children, but alike enough that, as a teacher, I won’t have to change much. 

Each lesson includes a goal, vocabulary words, a reading assignment, a lesson, an assignment, and something fun.   The older level has more writing and some way to make it personal.  The younger has more visual assignments.  I am so excited to get started that I may even start this over the summer…  

The books come in either PDF or PowerPoint.  I opted for PDF versions and have them on the iPad, which is where I may leave them, since the kids are in awe of any application they are allowed to use on the iPad.

Again, they are so nicely organized that if I’d spent time imagining what I wanted a genealogy curriculum to look like that was made just for me, it likely would have looked just like this (but never actually got completed…).  The author did a phenomenal job on these and I’m so glad that I purchased them.

Disclosure:  While I purchased my copies of Branching Out, I do feel like I know the author, Jennifer Holik.  She’s helped me from afar with my genealogy on several occasions and that’s how I knew she’d do a fabulous job on her textbooks.  The only reason I didn’t also purchase the high school editions is that I’m in denial that I will ever have high school aged children.  Should I ever decide to confront that issue, I will let you know what I think of the books for older ages.