Treasure Chest Thursday - Say Cheese!

When I was little, my dad loved making toys for us.  He'd use wood and other garage accoutrements.  He carved a doll for me, a bus that fit the old fashioned Fisher Price Little People, and this camera:

Which my children now play with just as I did.

Wisdom Wednesday - My Grandfather and the CCCs

“Our greatest task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our national resources.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 4 March 1933

Franklin Roosevelt at CCC camp, Shenandoah National Park, 1933

From the spring of 1939 to the summer of 1941, at the age of 20, my grandfather, Pierre Conner, was in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCCs), working in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The CCCs were part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) New Deal.  The most popular of all New Deal programs.   The CCCs provided jobs to conserve and develop natural resources in rural government lands.  The CCCs began in 1933 and ended in 1942, providing nearly 3 million unemployed men, age 18 to 25, with $30 a month ($25 went to their parents).

Two weekends ago, I got a bug up my you-know-what and had to know more about Grampa and the CCCs.  Here is the result of that Butt Bug:

My Grampa and the CCCs.

It was fun to pick his brain, write up the information, and then send it to him along with a book that I found, titled, "Civilian Conservation Corps: In and Around the Black Hills," by Peggy Sanders.  There is a Thanksgiving menu in the book that lists my grandfather and his best friend, who my dad is named for.

Tuesday's Tip: Find a Process

Whenever I find a new name for my family database, I immediately begin the chicken-with-its-head-cut-off syndrome.  I gallop from Google to Ancestry to FamilySearch to USGenWeb.  And then back again because I notice something new and have to re-look.  And then again.  And then back again months later because I didn’t document anything during my manic romp through New-Name-Ville.

One day, in my workplace, I realized that I had the same reaction when I was given a particular kind of new project.  Since at work I’m process-oriented, I quickly analyzed why I had this reaction and I realized it’s because we didn’t have a process in place.  I created a process and now it’s all a piece of cake.  Cake without a lot of re-work.

So I made a process for genealogy, too.

I begin by printing a family group sheet (FGS), checklist and notes pages.  I find that I need to do it the old fashioned way- pen and paper; I just can’t do it on the computer.  It’s much easier for me to enter it all later, when I have everything at hand.

I gather the three printed sheets (mine are attached at GoogleDocs here), my Stuck-On-Sources (SOS) from www.svcgg.org, blank sheets of paper, and a pen (not pencil).  I begin by putting the surname at the top of the FGS.  I have binders for each of the main surnames I am researching, so this surname may not be the surname of the person I’m newly working on.

That main surname is the only item that I don’t have an SOS for.  For anything else that I write on the FGS, I have an SOS that I label at the top with the item (i.e. DOB), a number, and then I detail the source.  If more than one item is from this source, I still make an SOS for it, but I just number it the same as the other and skip all the other source crap writing.

Once I document what I just found, I then get to collect new stuff.  Rather than frolic through the internet, flippantly gathering cookies and bookmarks, I use the checklist and keep tabs, SOS-ing and jotting down as I go. 

When I’m bored of my new ancestor, I enter the data into my database and make a list of what else I can check on later on down the road.

I like to keep the original SOS and FGS all penned up and messy, though, as about 10 out of 5 times, I do forget to notice something really important when I enter it into the database…

Motivation Monday: Check on Goals

1. Write up what I know of John Shelton.- Not done yet. 
2. Write up what I know about Laura Wilkinson.- Check.
3. Write up what I know about William Mason Conner.- Still working on it.
4. Fill in some blanks about Thomas Conner.- Still working on it.
5. Write the Mariani history as I know it.- Still working on it.  Heavily.  This is my focus right now.  I have 2 chapters of book 2 done.
6. Source all of the above.- I’m sourcing as I go.  Easier that way.
7. Begin a family newsletter for descendents of William Mason Conner.- Began a Facebook page and designed the format of the newsletter, but I won’t do the first newsletter until the book is done. (see #3)
8. Find descendents of William Mason Conner.- found some on Facebook and sent emails on others.  Next is regular mail.
9. Teach a home school class on family history for young children.- planned out and just waiting for the Fall.
10. Toss all of the above to 2012's list when I find something really exciting on some other line that wasn't on The List.- Check!  Exactly what I did when I spent the weekend learning and writing about my grandfather and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Sunday's Obituary - Neva Coschina Fisher

August 22, 1987, San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, California

Fisher, Neva O, 89, of San Jose, retired secretary for Rosicrucian Order.  Private service.  Arrangements by Lima Family-Erickson, San Jose.

Neva was my husband's grandmother who he met only once.  The Rosicrucian Museum is a family favorite place to visit (we like it almost as much as Disneyland), so it's interesting that there is a different tie there, too.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Clothing

Week 24. Clothes.

It’s amazing how styles have changed since I was born in 1967.  I remember rompers and granny dresses.  Lot’s of flow-ey garments and big flowery patterns.  I particularly remember a special pair of bell bottom pants.  They were white with big flowers all over them. 

Sadly, bell bottoms + bike spokes = cut-off shorts.  I can still picture that that sad day with Mom coming at me with giant scissors as I cried and whined, while pinned to my bicycle by the enormous pieces of material at the bottom of my pants.

I also remember the long granny dresses with patterns and bows.  I think they were easy to sew, as I had many of them that my family made for me.  My cousin and I would frolic around on holidays in granny dresses that didn’t exactly match, but were granny enough so that we were sure we were attired in coordinating high fashion.

As I came to my pre-teen years, the fashion turned to Ditto jeans with satin jackets and gaucho pants with butterfly tops.  I dabbled in those fashions briefly before finding my niche in the punk rock realm of fashion.  I remained dressed by thrift stores and found clothing (almost everything black) until suddenly I found myself working a professional job wearing professional clothing. 

And now I sport what I deem 40-something Mom Wear.  Pants, a shirt and some comfortable shoes.  Details don’t matter as long as I’m:  a) adequately covered; b) comfortable.  Not necessarily in that order.  No clue how it happened.

Here are some Snapshots Through the Ages:

You know it's the '70s when you are excited about the poncho you got for Christmas.

Granny dress example.  I believe this was first day of Kindergarten.

Cindy and I posing in our Fancy Pants

Overalls?  Really?  Come on...

Bandana around the neck?  Really?  Come on...

Graduation from high school.  Wore a hat to cover up the shaved head.

Soon after we met.  (how can it be almost 30 years ago???)

Our 1 year anniversary.  August 1989.

2010 Christmas at Disneyland

Surname Saturday - Felt

My Felt family came from Sweden, so Felt wasn't carried back very far.  In fact, my great, great grandfather was the first Felt.  He took the name from his wife's side and changed it from Falt to Felt before coming to America.  Here is the line up THROUGH Felt, though, starting with me:

Debbie Conner Mascot
Harry James Conner
Signa Viola Felt
Petter Eriksson (Peter Felt)
Erik Erson
Erik Larson
Lars Person
Par Parson
Par Jonsson
Jon

They lived in Rot, Sweden: