Digitizing Project Attempt Number ???

Over the years I have stated I am going to digitize my paper files over and over again. I am trying again this year. I have so many reasons to get this done but just have not been able to complete the task.

The ultimate irony is I am a very organized person in my home (except for the genealogy closet!). I have plastic bins in all of my kitchen cabinets to organize all the tools. I have a cabinet for my daughter’s legos, a charging station for the electronics, and organized cleaning supplies in the closet under the stairs. Even my bathroom drawers have organizers in them.

I have to ask myself why I cannot finish a digitizing project to clean up all the paper in my genealogy closet. The best I can answer is I am overwhelmed by the size of the project. When I committed to organizing and digitizing at the beginning of the pandemic, I pulled everything out of the closet and told myself it cannot go back in until it had been handled. What occurred is my dining room being taken over by all the stuff and a week later I put it back because I could not deal with the clutter in the room.

There is also shame I have not stayed organized over the years. I can hear Brene Brown in my head. I also hear Elsa from Frozen. I agree. It is time to Let It Go! Both the shame and piles of paper in plastic bins.

What am I going to do differently this time? Hopefully it looks more like taking a document or two out each day. Scan and process them so they reside in my Dropbox files, my Ancestry.com tree, and FamilySearch Family Tree. No big boxes left out to sabotage the process.

Today I used the Clear Scanner app on my phone to digitize the probate file and lawsuit for my 3rd great grandfather, a death certificate for my husband’s great uncle, and the Celebration of Life cards for my Uncle’s memorial. It was extremely difficult to put half of this in the recycle bin when I was finished. The other papers, I filed into my 3 ring binders.

I just considered writing “Wish me luck.” I need to end with something else because there is no luck involved in this project. Just baby steps and keeping at it!

Fires and Genealogy

Just under three years ago, a wind event in Northern California started at least 12 fires. These fires devastated large portions of Sonoma and Napa counties. The Tubbs fire, just to the north of my home, ravaged the city of Santa Rosa in just hours. Everyone knew one or more people who lost their home in the fires.

Just a year later in 2018, the Mendocino Complex Fire became the largest fire in California history with just under a half million acres burned. Sadly, just months later, the Camp Fire claimed the title of most deadly in California when 85 people lost their lives as the towns of Paradise and Concow were destroyed.

Once again a wind event wreaked havoc in October 2019. The Kincade fire was not deadly or quite as destructive as the previous years. The threat was large enough over 180,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Now in 2020, Northern California is facing fire again. Just over a week ago, we experienced a crazy thunderstorm which saw over 10,000 lightning bolts light up the sky. Unfortunately, this led to many small fires that have merged into several massive fires. Every Bay Area county except San Francisco has a major fire burning in it.

Screenshot from AlertWildfire Black Mountain Marin camera. The 747 Supertanker is getting ready to approach for a fire retardant drop on the Woodward fire in Point Reyes National Seashore.

So what does this have to do with genealogy?

First, those of us in California need to be documenting our history for future generations. How were we impacted, what did we do to help, how did we feel, how has fire changed the way we live? These stories will personalize history for our descendants.

Second, as a genealogist, I want to protect the research I have done. I find there are two components to this plan. A specific evacuation plan including identifying genealogy materials and where on the list they fall for packing the car is super important. Next is digitizing all paper materials to make the evacuation plan more manageable.

My family reviewed our evacuation plan this past weekend. We checked our emergency go boxes for what needed to be updated (first aid, food, toothpaste, etc). We also checked our evacuation go list. The list is in order of importance for packing the car. This is to help determine what gets grabbed depending on the amount of time we have. We also figured out that my genealogy treasures will fit in the car (along with kids, dog, etc.)

Every year as fire season takes it toll, I say I am going to digitize everything. Every year I have made small gains before becoming distracted and not completing the project. I am determined to tackle and FINISH digitizing a couple boxes of paper this year. I have started by reviewing my scan, cite, save process. I have a box out and using a phone scanning app, a few items have already been crossed off the list. Some of these items will start to appear as blog posts.

Have you thought about what will happen to your genealogy treasures in the event of an emergency or natural disaster? What have you done to prepare?

Another Year, Another Blog Post

I may not have been the most prolific blog writer in the last year but I have made it to another blog anniversary. Looking back to when I started this blog, I was 8 months pregnant and temporarily living in my in-law’s house. I had taken nesting to another level and had to move while some renovations were being completed. I wrote those initial blog posts while my 2 year old napped.

Fast forward nine years and my situation does not feel too different. While I am in my own home, we are under a shelter in place order for the Covid-19 pandemic. My kids, now 11 and almost 9, have been home for almost 3 weeks. I am writing this blogpost while they are in online learning.

Here in Northern California, we received the notice that schools would be closing on a Friday. That weekend was filled with Facebook dreams of color coded schedules by parents who had not a clue what the coming days would actually turn out to be. I too was enthusiastic but in a genealogy way. I had a plan to use all that school time to work on research and write blog posts.

Of course my color coded genealogy dream needed some major shelter in place adjustments also. Just like the start of online schooling, within 24 hours my plan was turned sideways and flipped upside down. I quickly realized you cannot write blog posts without a healthy website. Since I have not been writing regularly, I was not logging into the website to deal with maintenance issues. With some help, I am now up and running again. In a way it feels appropriate that all the issues were resolved today. A mini-rebirth of the blog is way more meaningful when it happens on the anniversary of my first blog post.

So here is to another year and good health for all (including this blog)!!

Best Laid Plans

This spring has been an exciting time for me. After years of planning, our house remodel got underway. We moved temporarily while the bulk of the work was quickly finished. Most of our belongings got boxed and stored in our bedrooms. I boxed up all of my genealogy items with a grand plan. I was going to work each morning for an hour to sort, organize, catalog, and properly store my genealogy related items. I even brought a Gaylord Archival catalog for easy ordering. I would move all my genealogy stuff back to our home beautifully boxed and cataloged.

Unfortunately, this is not what happened. I grossly underestimated what was involved with our construction project. Instead of my genealogy project, most mornings were spent at my house making decisions or running to different vendors for orders/pickups. I will not lie – I am completely okay with my project failure. We were able to move back in quickly (in construction time) and I absolutely love everything we have done to our home. From a genealogy prospective, it is time to just pick up and try again .

Genealogist Janine Adams has a great blog (The Organized Genealogist) and a great podcast (Getting to Good Enough). I am an avid podcast listener and subscribe to Janine’s podcast. There have been several episodes I have completely identified with. The theme of these episodes usually deals with getting back on track after falling off a habit or backsliding. It is like Janine and Shannon are speaking directly to me. It is great to be reminded the most important thing is to keep trying when things do not work out. Good enough includes letting go of the guilt.

Where does that leave me? Well, the 7 boxes of genealogy that left my house got moved back in the exact way they left. Brown moving boxes. Some reorganizing as we unpacked our home has led to a dedicated genealogy bookshelf in our office closet. Most of the items in the boxes have been moved to the new shelving. I still plan on cataloging and properly storing everything I have. I am carefully planning this time so I can be successful in completing my project. If I tried to start now, my attempt would be interrupted by kids, dogs, and vacation since school is out for summer. Being honest with myself about time management puts my project off until late August when my girls go back to school.

The follow up to this post will not be “Try, Try, Again” but instead read “Mission Accomplished.”

Another Year To Celebrate

I was surprised to see today is the 8th anniversary of this genealogy blog! It seems like just last year I started writing about my family history. I guess I should not be too surprised since I was pregnant with my 2nd child when this blog started. Note to self – #2’s birthday is coming up.

I do not write as often as the first few years of my genealogy blog. I still keep trying and that is what makes fewer posts okay for me. I have more stories to tell and I look forward to getting them out in the universe!

Aloha 2019!

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season! To start the New Year I decided to update my WordPress blog to the new 5.0 update. There is a completely new editor in this version that works very differently than the prior versions. Think moving from Word to something totally not Word.

I am up for the challenge and in some ways the new format makes sense. I will be spending the rest of the week trying to find some how to videos to make sure I am using the new editor correctly. I also need to learn how the plugins work with this new setup because I already see that my spell checker seems to be missing.

In the near future, if you see something that looks funky, not to worry, I will figure it out soon enough. Mahalo!! (I am full of Hawaiian spirit because we just got home from a great trip to Maui!)

A Renewed Effort To Digitize My Archive

I live in Northern California.  Our geographic area has seen several disastrous fires in the last year.  The land my husband’s family has in Hopland had a near miss this past summer.  The entire other side of the valley burned as part of the Mendocino Complex Fire.  The  western side of the valley has burned before and it will again sometime in the future.

One of the biggest lessons in the last year is urban/suburban areas are not immune to fire.  Both Santa Rosa and Redding saw how fire does not discriminate cities from rural areas.  My family has created a fire evacuation plan.  We have boxes ready to load and go with supplies.  I also have a list inside one of my kitchen cabinets of other items to grab if I have time  when evacuating.

While I would love my genealogy archive to be at the top of that list -realistically my kids, dogs, and husband need to come first.  Within my genealogy treasures I have a mental list of how to prioritize what to take.  Physical items need to be cataloged and kept in one area so they are easy to grab.  Paper items will be at the bottom of the list.

The good news is there is a way to lower my risk of losing my genealogy treasures.  I can digitize all of my paper records and keep them in the cloud.  I can also photograph all the physical items.

Over the years I have talked about getting this project accomplished.  Sadly, I always started and never finished.  Instead the pile has slowly grown.

I have been listening to Janine Adams, The Organized Genealogist, new podcast, Getting To Good Enough.  I have identified with sooo (yes, all the o’s are needed) many of the episodes.  I feel that having a better understanding of why my attempts at my digitization project have not worked will hopefully help me to complete the project this time.  My personal favorite episode is about rewarding yourself as you go.  I will definitely be implementing this concept!

I will be using a “Treasure” tag at the front of my digitizing blog post names to identify what I am trying to accomplish.  I am also using the ClearScanner app on my Android phone to speed up the process.  It allows you to identify the edges of a document before you save.  Also, I am creating citations but will not be focusing on perfection for each one.  Instead my goal is to get enough information included so someone else can follow my research.  The punctuation may not be perfect but again, not my goal.

So please, sit back and enjoy all the digitized images coming your way!

An Important Checkbox

2017 was a year of highs and low for my family.  We created many incredible memories.  Traveling to Finland and meeting family is something none of us will ever forget.

2017 was also the year my husband and I lost our remaining grandparents.  Between August and December, my paternal grandmother and my husband’s paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother all passed away.

Both of us have commented how lucky we were to have grandparents who lived such long lives.  Our children who are 9 and 6 were able to grow and form relationships with their great-grandparents.  I only have a couple of memories of one great-grandparent from my childhood.

Today was the day I went to FamilySearch Family Tree and made an important change to my husband’s grandfather’s profile.  I unchecked the living box and added a death date for the last of a generation in our family.  I took a few minutes to digest this.  For our  branches of the family, an entire generation is no longer with us.  My family had a run of 9 years with 4 living generations. I am so thankful for each and everyone one of those years for adding to our story.

I am working on life sketches for each our grandparents who passed last year.  All three grandparents lived long lives so there is a lot of history to cover for each of them.  As I finish each sketch, I will publish it here on my blog.

 

Wait…. Are My Kids Russian?

Our trip to Finland this summer was incredible for so many reasons.  My favorite being connecting with extended family on my husband’s side. Another important part of the trip was learning more about Scandinavian history. Specifically, this year is the 100 year anniversary of Finland as a country.  The Republic of Finland, as we know it today, gained independence from Russia in December 1917.

History of Finland from Wikipedia

The area has a long history though.  After the middle ages, Finland became part of Sweden.  It remained this way until the early 1700’s when Sweden and Russia began to take turns controlling the area.  Russian forces occupied Finland twice in the first half of the 1700’s.  Sweden once again regained control of the area by 1743.  Also by this time the area was called Finland by both the Swedish and the Russians.

The Finnish war of 1808-1809 ended with Finland being taken over by Russia once again.  It was declared the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1918.  This was an autonomous part of Russia.  Finland was okay with this arrangement until Alexander III took the Russian throne in 1881.  He began a period of “Russification.”  My husband’s relatives explained this time as Russia remembering they owned Finland and began to exploit it.  Men were required to spend time in the Russian Army, the Finnish economy was overtaken by Russians, towns were renamed after Russians, etc.  The worst of it came in 1899 when Russia declared Russian Law as the law of the land.

The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917.  Finland took the opportunity to declare their independence and create the Republic of Finland.

So what does this history have to do with my children?  A lot.  My husband’s 2nd great grandparents, Charles Mattson and Wendla Batmaster, both immigrated to the San Francisco area from Ostrobothnia at the turn of the century. Both left Finland due to hard economic times under Russian rule. Both were born in the 1880’s and both identified as Finnish.

So are my kids Russian or Finnish?

When looking at history, technically they were Russian since Finland was part of Russia.  Deep history would indicate they were Swedish.  Sweden had control of the land area first.  So maybe my kids are Finnish Russian Swedes? Haha! Just kidding.

The answer is no. Your identity is not always rooted in the dates of history.  My kid’s immigrant ancestors came from families who had lived in Finland for hundreds of years.  We know Finland was referred to as Finland and the people as Finnish since the late 1600’s.  The families identified as Finnish even during Russian rule.  My kids are part Finnish.

Blog Birthday Fail

OOPS!!  I missed my own blogiversary this month.  The bad news is the anniversary was two weeks ago. The good news is I was in Virginia talking all things family history with my Mom and her cousins when I missed the big day.

My mom’s cousins flew to Virginia for a visit.  I had been in town the few days before their arrival so I stayed an extra day for some family time.  We spent the day traveling to Page County, Virginia.  I was able to show them the area my ancestors helped found in the mid-1700’s.  The highlight was driving to the Strickler-Louderback house.

The Strickler-Louderback house is on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Page County, Virginia.  My 3rd great-grandfather, David Strickler, built the brick home that stands today.  The Strickler’s owned the home for many years and then sold it to the Louderback family.  It was so fun to share this history with family!

Happy 6 Years to my blog!!