The Book of Me, Written by You: Looking in the mirror

This week’s prompt was to describe yourself, in agonizing detail, in your journal.  I went on for pages, since most of you know that I over share and talk, a lot.  Well, just so you know, below is the edited version.  I only share the choicest bits with my followers you know. Plus, there are only some bits that I feel comfortable letting the WHOLE world know.  There you have it; I censored myself just for you.

First off, if you can’t tell from the pictures on this site and my profile page, I am a pale girl.  I have not always been this pale, but my times of lying around the pool, running around in the sun, and in general going outside without sunscreen plastered all over came to an end a while ago.  Kids have made my life a bit crazy so I have not had a tan in nearing on a decade.  In addition you may notice that I have reddish hair, kind of a dark auburn.  I like it, and we will call it my color of choice. 

As for height I am on the petite side, just under 5’5” and fall in between my parents.  My feet used to be a 7, and then I had kids. Now they are an 8 ½ or 9 depending on the style.  Not something I would ever have dreamed of when I had kids you know.  I also have 2 beauty marks on the left side of my face.  One is on the curve of my jaw below my ear and the other next to my nose.

This was the best close up I could
get of my eyes. Yep, no makeup
on either...

If you are really good you would also have noticed that I have brown eyes in my pictures.  My brown eyes are not really brown.  My mom and I have the same type of eyes: light brown with gold rings in them. They are very unique.  When I went to the school of optometry in college they always had the students come in and look at my eyes, which always boggled my mind until I asked what was going on.  It also happened to my mom when she was in school.  You see, we have what are known as amber eyes.  This refers to the fact that our eyes appear brown but they actually have a golden hue to them, like amber and are among the rarest of eye colors in the world.  Mine have gold rings and a copper overtone and are not like a lot of the pictures you see of the near yellow eyes. The optometrist told me it is due to the fact that I have a higher concentration of lipochrome then others with brown eyes.  

I do have piercings, 2 in each ear. The first set my Grandmother Combs took me to get for my 11^th birthday, against the wishes of my parents.  The second piercing was done when I was 17 (I lied and told the lady I was 18), again against the wishes of my parents.  Yeah, I thought they were so old school, it was just an ear piercing you know. My mom didn’t get hers done until she was in her 20s so I guess I can see why the thought I should wait. Those are the only ones I have, by the way, and as of today I have no tattoos.

I have three scars on my face located on my chin, forehead, and right ear.  Since you can see them in pictures, I thought I would be best to talk about them.  They were all “fixed” when I was 13.  Talk about a wonderful time to have sutures on your face, 8^th grade, sigh. However, here are the stories behind them.

First off, I was born with a Preauricular pit on my left ear.  This is a congenital defect of the ear that occurs when the ear does not fuse correctly during formation.  No big deal really, most people never notice it and live their whole lives with no problems. I however had frequent infections.  The “pit” is a tube that goes into your ear and because of this can become infected. The surgeon closed it up and I have not had a problem since. I read recently that this may be an inherited trait, which I can believe as my first cousins daughter had one too.  She had hers operated on when she was 15.

On my forehead I had a particularly large chicken pox scar from when I was 5. It was very large, round, and deep. When I was in elementary school I was teased by many kids that I was actually Indian and not from Indiana because I already had my “mark.” One of my best friends at the time was Indian and she would always just yell back how she would take me as a sister.  They took out the scar and now I have a small thin line on my forehead.  Most people now do not notice that there is anything there.

Lastly, and the most impressive, is the scar on my chin.  It is my badge of honor for what happens when you goof off and don’t listen to your soccer coach dad.  When I was 5 we were dismissed for a water break during soccer practice. Well, you see the playground was on the way to the water fountain, and I just HAD to go down the slide on the way.  All I can remember is that someone yelled to me, I kept running turning my head to yell over my shoulder, turned my head back around, and BAM! I hit the steel support leg for the slide and slit my chin open to the bone.  My mother was the lucky one who took the crying, snotty, screaming me to the ER for stitches.  Of course what I remember from the ER was my mom (who was 25) spinning on the stool next to me because she was bored. I kept thinking that it looked like fun.

The stitches were bad, 15 in total, and they left a deep highly notable scar across the point of my chin.  The surgeon who fixed the other 2 repaired this one at the same time.  He did some fancy plastic surgery stuff on it that made it less sunk and more blended.  Yes, you can still see it, but it’s just not as noticeable like before.  In picture I no longer have a shadow cast by my scar on my chin.

I wear a wedding band and my replacement engagement ring on my left hand.  The band is gold with a braid decoration in the center.  The other is white gold with my favorite stone as the focal, a sapphire.  I tend to

wear a ring on my other ring finger as well.  Usually it is my Indiana University class ring, but I do change it to others when dressing up.  

To the side here is a picture of my right hand with my class ring on it.  It was a bit painful to put my hand into that position as I have developed swelling and stiffness in my fingers over the last several years.  My hands are tiny too. XXS men's gloves fit me just about right.  From the palm of my hand to the tip of my middle finger is about 6.5 inches.

Well, I think that is about it.  If you want to know more, or see the rest, you'll have to come over or see me around sometimes. 

See you next week for post 4!

Two books to read and no time to do it!

I am still processing, reading, and organizing all the information that I gathered in Indiana last month. It is going to be a while before I can do any posts with significant information in them about what I discovered.  However, there were a couple things I found and I wanted to highlight them, mostly because they are so awesome.

While in Vincennes at the McGrady Brockman House I found and replicated the typed notes of my 2^nd great aunt Eliza Jane Combs Emmons Kinman.  On the front cover was a very nice memorial to the woman who put it together.  Since she is still living, and it gives her lineage I do not feel comfortable placing it here on line.  The compiler, Jean, is of my father’s generation and is the granddaughter of Eliza’s next oldest brother George Washington Combs.

This book is the typed record of all her research notes and diaries.  Jean does not state how she came to possess this information or where the originals were located at the time of transcription.  I would give anything to see the originals as I am already finding transcription mistakes like reversing of numbers when typed or hitting the 9 and not the 8 in the years.  You know, people weren't born 100 years after they died type of things.

Spanning the years 1966 to 1980 these not only gave me the opportunity to read along with how and when she made discoveries but also what was going on in the community and her family.  It was a little shocking at times to run across names of members of my family, but I knew that was to be expected.  After all, she was my great grandfather’s baby sister.  To keep all the information organized and flowing I purchased a notebook that I placed inside the three ring binder the photocopies are in.  I write facts, addresses (there are tons of correspondence notes), draw trees, and make comments about what I want to do to prove if the statement was true or not.

On a separate trip to the Carnegie Public Library in Washington, Indiana I made the amazing discovery of a family book that took one of my female brick wall lines back another four generations.  My 2^nd great grandmother was Rose Ann Brothers.  From records I have found I knew her parents were Jerome Brothers and Elizabeth Minerva Cissell.  That is all I knew.  I didn’t even know very much about her parents, it was a big wall.

Sitting on the shelf in the complied family history section of the genealogy library I discovered a binder about Cornelius Brothers and his descendants. I am sure you can imagine my excitement, and my father’s amused grinning, as I squealed and clapped my hands together.  It was an amazing, well researched, footnoted, and cited collection of information on this family. Of course at this rate my colonial Maryland ancestors are quickly outnumbering all the other colonial ancestors I have.

I have only skimmed it and it is next on the list of things to read after Eliza’s notes.  Fingers crossed I get to it by next spring since until then I am swamped with the BU course.  However, I did glean the following things:

•  Jerome Brothers was the son of Samuel S. Brothers and Catherine Gates.  Samuel was born about 1797 in Kentucky and Catherine about 1793 in Maryland.  They had 8 children from 1816-1834 and died in Indiana. 
• Samuel was the son of Jeremiah Brothers and Elizabeth Henry (widow of Basil Booth). Jeremiah was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland in the 1770s.  They only had one child, Samuel Brothers.
• Jeremiah was the son of Cornelius Brothers and Elizabeth Thompson.  He is the earliest known ancestor for this line according to this report and was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland in the 1740s.  They had seven children and died in Washington County, Kentucky.

As you can see, these two tomes of knowledge will have me busy for a long while.  It is going to be so much fun!

The family gardens of stone

Old Union Cemetery Alfordsville, Daviess County, Indiana

Cemeteries are great places and I have thought so since childhood. In past blogs have told you how my grandmothers took me to lay flowers on many of the family graves and how I used to play around the headstones waiting for them.  To me they are my link to the past in a real and tangible way.  I can touch the stone, feel the letters, see the images, remember stories, and know that I am here because of the link I share with them.

Before FGS my family and I made a side trip home for a few days. It was a planned excursion, what was not planned was the death of my dad’s sister-in-law.  I did not want to add a sad entry to my family tree on that trip but I was prepared for it due to her illness. It is not an understatement to say I am thankful that she is now at peace and no longer in pain.

While I would have loved to see my cousins, aunt, and uncle under better circumstances it was still wonderful to visit with everyone.  My family is not one to sit around and stew or fret over things that are out of our control.  I was told not to sit around but that I should continue on to do my research like I had planned.

Part of my visit was dedicated to visiting family burial grounds over 2 counties. There were 4 more counties I skipped on this trip. This errand took on new meaning to me and my parents with the death of my aunt. Walking among the garden of stones and wondering about those who came before us.  Wondering about what is next for us too.

On the other hand it was a great scavenger hunt for my boys.  They love hearing about our military ancestors and when I informed them who we were searching for they were all in.  It quickly became a game to see who could find a family surname first and a fist pumping find when they located the magical ancestor first. My parents and husband were than a little amused.  Of course it leads to a lot of discussions even leading us to read the memorials for people who were not our relatives but had interesting information on their headstones.

I took images of many, many family members on those two days. Nine Cemeteries made for long, hot, sticky days but it was worth it. Below are a few that I wanted to share with you; the memorials for men and women that I have talked about here on the blog and who I have spent a lot of time researching and writing about.

Brothers Henry and Elias Arvin

Henry and Elias were born in Charles County, Maryland and eventually landed in Daviess and Martin Counties, Indiana via Washington County, Kentucky.  Both fought in the War of 1812 and lead what appeared to be full and active lives.  Henry and his wife Theresa Montgomery are buried at St. Rose Cemetery, Martin County while Elias and his wife Catherine Tinsh are buried at Old Union Cemetery, Daviess County. 

The two places cannot be any more different. Old Union is a beautifully up kept area with a white church and scenic farmland as the backdrop.  On the other hand St. Rose is on an off road wide spot off the side of a person driveway which unless you specifically went looking for it you would never know it was there. No church and no burials for almost 100 years.  Both, however, are still amazing places that are still being looked after. There were signs of restoration to the old stones that I was very happy to see.

Read more about them here and here 

Henry Arvin

Theresa (Montgomery) Arvin

In Memory of
Elias Arvin
Born
Mar 25, 1790
Died Apr 23, 1875
Aged

In Memory of
Cath Arvin
Wife of Elias Arvin
Died
Apr, 23, 1877
Aged
80 years

Father and Son James and William Cannon

James Cannon is one of my Revolutionary War soldiers. I have written about him and his service in South Carolina in the past. His son William is my direct line ancestor and I am lucky enough that they and William’s wife Mary Margret Smith were in the same row.  Even better, they were only a few plots down from Elias and his wife Catherine in Old Union Cemetery.

James Cannon
PVT
South Carolina
Troops
Rev. War

Gone Home
In Memory of
William
Cannon,
Born Oct. 15, 1797
Died Aug. 15, 1875
Aged
77 Yeart, 10 Mos

Mary Cannon
Wife of
Wm Cannon

Berthena Cannon Morris

Berthena was William Cannon’s daughter and the wife of Robert Morris and is interred at Truelove Cemetery, Martin County.  Many of you may remember that she is the “HauntedTombstone” story.  It took me a while to find her monument.  Longer than I anticipated actually for the pure simple reason that I was looking for a monument taller than me.  Well, it seems that nearly 30 years later I am taller than it now! Who would have guessed?

Berthena
Daughter of
Wm. & Mary
Cannon
Wife of
Robert
Morris
Born June 4, 1838
Died Mar. 22, 1909

Everett and Sylvia (Freeman) Combs

These are my great grandparents who are interred at Oak Grove Cemetery, Daviess County.  I wanted to post this picture since she was the subject my post about infant mortality.  The 6 tiny stones behind the main marker were very moving for my father and me.  These were siblings that according to my father, his father didn’t know about or remember. 

Dad told me about his father discovering them for the first time.  Can you imagine coming to visit your parent’s grave and discovering that you had brothers and sisters?  My grandfather was 5 when the first baby died.  He was 18 when the last one died, I just can’t imagine how he didn’t know.  Part of me wonders if they just didn’t tell people they were expecting after the first loss.

The dates are what I have uncovered in my research from death certificates, cemetery books, and family information.

Everett and Sylvia (Freeman) Combs with 6 children

Everett F.

Mar. 29, 1886

Nov. 7, 1970

Sylvia A. 

Oct. 5, 1891

Nov. 15, 1964

Back Row, left to right:

Kenneth 1928-1928

Gladys 11 April 1921 – 5 May 1921

Ruth 1920-1920

Front Row, left to right:

Robert 30 Sept 1933 – 16 October 1933

Infant 1927-1927

Pauline 12 June 1929 – 12 June 1929

The story of me prompt 2: your birth

Young woman kissing baby in bassinet from the 
Library of Congress

The Prompt for week 2 is your birth:

Do you have any baby photos?

Where were you born?

Who was present at your birth?

Dimensions?

What day was it? Time?

Did you have hair? Eye colour

Are you a twin?

The story of my birth is not a very exciting one but has been recounted to me many, many times. My mother had taken the year off from school. She married my dad immediately following the end of her 2^nd semester her freshman year.  14 months later she had me, and she went back to school 6 weeks after that. However, that is another story, for another day.

My family is a storytelling one. In fact, we will repeat the same ones over, and over, and over again much to the annoyance of those who have married into it. I think it is because we honestly don’t remember that we have told the story and because good stories never go bad.  I am sure you can relate.

Prior to my birth, my mom was on a very good regionally known women’s softball team and my dad was the Coach.  They were The Washington Stars.  Dad still talks about how mom could really hit the ball out of the park at 8 months pregnant but unfortunately running the bases was a bit difficult.  She waddled too much to be effective.  When you talk to my mom about it, she is still upset; she could never hit the ball like that again thanks to physics.

On the day of my birth my mom and dad went to work like normal.  Dad owned a sporting goods store and mom was his main (i.e. only) employee.  She spent all morning scrubbing floors on her hands and knees because she wanted to stay busy.  Finally, about lunch time, mom announced that it was time to go and off they went to the hospital.

It was hot, muggy, and horribly sticky that day.  You guessed it, summer in the Midwest.  A make your potato chips go soggy kind of day with and no air conditioning. My grandmother told me one time I was born in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures in the high 90s.  The part my mom remembers: no AC in the delivery ward and giant rotating fans pointed at her to try and keep her comfortable. Let me just tell you, it didn’t.

I was born in the same hospital that my dad was born in.  Several generations of my family, on both sides were born in this town, just not all in the hospital. My mom had 2 nurses with her as no one else was allowed in the room and dad says he sat and read a novel in the waiting room.  If you ask their versions of how the time passed it really is an interesting testament to how times have changed.

My hospital  picture (aka baby mugshot)

In my mom’s room she has 2 women she didn’t know nor by the end of it liked very much.  Unfortunately there were consequences to my birth that were not fixed for over 30 years due to the doctor’s incompetence in stitching.  I don’t use those words lightly, those are the words my mother (the MD) uses to describe her care by this man. While my mother was in labor dad sat and watched, amused, the other nervous father’s pacing and chain smoking.  He sat in a corner, watching, reading, and drinking a coffee.  You see there’s a large age gap between my parents.  My father was in his mid-30s at the time and not like the young fathers in that room who couldn’t calm down and were in near states of panic.

At 4pm that hot summer Friday afternoon I was born, screaming the whole time. I weighted 7lbs 12oz and was 21 inches long. My dad talks about how he could hold my head is in hand and my feet would curl around his elbow. I guess this “football” hold was one of my favorites.  Of course I had the dark blue eyes that babies are born with.  In my case they would not stay blue and turn eventually to match my mother’s brown and gold fleck colored eyes.  On my head was a mop of dark brown hair with the glimpse of the widow’s peak that I inherited from my maternal grandmother.

We only stayed in the hospital overnight and by the next evening we were at my maternal grandmother’s house.  Then my story really begins…

Oh my... is that how a transcription works?!

I am not sure which I prefer: being totally wrong about something or only being partially wrong.  It may be one of those hard to answer questions. Being totally wrong is embarrassing, but at least you can start over and try again from scratch. On the other hand, being only partially wrong can be more work since you need to relearn the task and sort through what to remember and what to get rid of.

Recently I was reading up on how to do transcriptions. I was pretty confident that I knew the basics, in fact, I have several items on this blog and my computer that I have transcribed.  As with any historical field I knew that I needed to type everything exactly as I found it.  There was no room for interpretations, substitutions, or modern conclusions. So far so good, right? However, I found  it was not nearly enough.

I am now considering going through nearly 40 documents in my files and recreating the transcripts of these documents.   They are not 100% wrong, which is what makes it painful.  If I am going to leave good records for my ancestors, and prove my mettle as a genealogist I need to take the steps now to correct these mistakes.  Besides, practice makes perfect, right?  Even if it is 40+ times in short succession.

Below are a few of things that I found interesting in reading about transcripts.  In most cases they are also things I need to correct. These are in no particular order but a check list for my notes.  Plus, I thought you might have some input for me too.

Reproducing diacritical marks is critical. I left out a lot of these thinking that they were not important as the letters.  Now I know they may have specific meanings and leaving them out could change the word.

I need to use the square brackets more and not the parenthesis with italic words inside to denote a question mark or comment from me.  The usage of square brackets, I have to admit, has always eluded me. I mean, they are on the keyboard who really uses them and why?

The “y” used in “ye olde” is actually a “th” sound and called a thorn.  I knew that the “ff” was “F” and that the long “f” is actually an “s” but the thorn was a new one to me.

The word “jurat” had been plaguing me in several documents.  Yes, I should use Google more.  I learned that when it is written next to a witness's name it means that the witness verified the document was authentic before signing.  One more reason I need to get Black’s law dictionary. Plus I need it to help understand the law lingo I have come across in the past, and will most likely see more of it in the future.

For style, I did find it intriguing to learn of the two major camps on naming styles.  One uses all caps for names while the other does not.  I have come across both styles, and frankly while it is easier to spot names with the all caps I find it annoying.  Mainly because I can’t tell what the actual name is supposed to be.  An example from Chapter 16 of Professional Genealogy shows that when the surname DEVILLE is written in all caps you don’t know whether it was DeVille or Deville.  The text points out that by changing the point value for the typeset you can eliminate this confusion by making lowercase letters smaller caps. To me if it was not in caps in the original it should not be in caps in the transcript.  Perhaps, just perhaps, in personal notes you use for yourself but not for something you put in print for others.  Do you think I am off base on this?

One of the more embarrassing things I learned, because I really should have known this, is that [sic] is a transcribers notation meaning the previous anomaly shows in the original document. I had this general idea that it referred to something being not totally right in the document, but silly me never really delved into what it actually meant.  Well, that is now rectified and will be used more often.

Finally, for some reason I never thought about making an abstract of the transcription.  Why I don’t know, but I will be making abstracts after I fix my transcriptions.  Mainly because I think having the abstract to work with will be so much easier than working off the full transcription if I just need to see it as a reference.

Like I said lots of little things that I only gave a cursory glance to in the past or which took me completely by surprise.  So, if you know anyone out there who thinks “they know it all” or that they don’t periodically need to do some reading, shy away from them slowly, very slowly, and then throw them a book.

If you want to read further on the subject, here are some links to recent articles about transcribing and abstracting:

Abstracting & Transcribing Genealogical Documents: Transcription Rules & Techniques

By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide

 

Extract or Abstract? Both Are Vital Skills

By Michelle Goodrum,  IDG

Is That Genealogy Record Abstract Correct?

By Paula Stuart-Warren, Paula's Genealogical Eclectica 

Back to school today!

Today is the first day of school around here.  7 hours of child free bliss for me.  Not that I didn't almost breakdown, again, when my "babies" were leaving but a mom has to have some space too.

Today also starts the session of the Boston University Online Genealogical Research Program that I signed up for.  In a nutshell, I am really, really, nervous.  Most of you have told me I will be fine, and I am sure that I will be, but that overwhelming fear of the unknown is what is killing me.  Class starts at 10 am EST, just have to kill time until that happens.

Many of you spoke to me about blogging my experiences with the course.  I will do my best to give you my impression of the course; however I need to let everyone know about the Student Ethics Code that applies to what I can, or cannot, say here.

“Being an ethical genealogist means adhering to guidelines. Students should not create Internet profiles, trees, or post questions or answers in email lists or blogs concerning any course material, course assignments, or course case studies. This helps preserve the integrity of the course for all participants, current and future. Those violating this will be asked to remove or block the material immediately. Be aware that in some cases you are creating a permanent record which cannot be removed. Failure to observe this guideline may result in removal from the course. This policy is known as the "What goes on in Online Campus stays in Online Campus" student conduct clause.”

With this in mind I hope you all will understand why I do not post about the class in as much detail as some of you would like.  However, the textbooks for the course are available to everyone and I know many of you already have them.  I want to post my thoughts and conclusions after reading the various chapters from these books.  Feel free to post your thoughts on them as well.

The textbooks for this class, as listed on their website, are the following:

Board for Certification of Genealogists.

The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual.

Orem, Utah: Ancestry, 2000.

ISBN: 0-916-489-92-2.

Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Evidence Explained:

Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 2nd Edition.

Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2009.

ISBN-13: 978-0806318066

Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Professional Genealogy:

A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians.

Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2001

ISBN-13: 978-0-8063-16482

Thomas W. Jones

Mastering Genealogical Proof, 1st Edition

Arlington: National Genealogical Society, 2013.

ISBN: 1935815075

Thankfully I purchased Tom Jones's book back in May when it first came out. The books are now on back order though Amazon and some students are scrambling for a copy. If you do not have it already I would pick it up. I am about halfway through it and there have been some real duh moments for me while reading it. In fact so many that I am seriously considering restarting my family tree program from scratch so I can redo it all correctly.

Have you read these books or participated in the BU program?  I would love to hear from you and know what you think!

Are you writing a book of me?

Image by Meg Rosoff

Every so often I participate in blogging prompts or series.  These help to stimulate my thinking, writing, and push me in ways that most often really surprise me.  You can find the various blogging prompts here on my site as well as on various author’s websites.  For example, Fearless Females that runs every March during Women's History Month and created by The Accidental Genealogist, Lisa Alzo.

Starting this past Saturday on the Anglers Rest blog by Julie Goucher a new 15 month series of blogging prompts titled “The Book of Me, Written by You.”  Designed from a workshop format, this series of prompts encourage you write and explore yourself.  Think of it as an opportunity for you to take time, once a week, to write about yourself and not your ancestors.  Creating in a short time a book that you can hand down reflecting you, your thoughts, your personality, in a word YOU!

I plan on participating in this here, and on my laptop.  If the prompt for the week is a bit too personal for me to post on the internet I hope you understand.  I will still post the prompt for those playing along at home so you can keep up. 

My next step is to see how many of my family I can get to follow along as well. Wouldn't it be fantastic to have several of these to hand down?

So...what are you waiting for? 

Prompt 1:  Ask yourself 20 times “Who are you?”

1              Funny

2              Smart

3              Geeky

Taken from an exhibition of Jean-Michel Folon

4              Foodie

5              Day dreamer

6              Investigator

7              Chocolate eater

8              Wine appreciator

9              Writer

10           Scientist

11           Wife

12           Mother

13           Daughter

14           Historian

15           Plant Killer

16           Reader

17           Music lover

18           Creative

19           Artistic

20           Giggly

Does this give you an idea of the type of person I am in my head at least?