Okie Sister

Count On Me

   

Speaking of genealogists, one of our most informative tools is the census record. Starting in 1790, the Constitution states that a census of the US population be taken every 10 years. The 1850 census is the first one where all the names of the family members are listed, not just the head of household. The 1890 census was destroyed in a fire at the Commerce Building in Washington DC in 1921. The 1930 census is the last one made available to the public. There is this code called the 72-year privacy law, so the 1940 census won’t be available until 2012.

The 2010 census will be taken on April 1st. Thousands of workers are needed to enumerate their fellow citizens. If you are interested in a temporary job, with flexible hours and paid training, check it out here. They are hiring in February, at $10 to $22 an hour depending on the region. Ability to speak other languages is a plus.

Being able to spell, write legibly, add and subtract, and put dittos in the correct place would also be helpful. Just look at my grandparents, Bert and Grace Adams, 1910 census record. Everything about it is wrong. They were 28 and 20 years old by the way, not in their 70's. The last entry was indexed as "Baby Birt."

Fathers

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there!

As a general rule, I don’t think guys really care too much about these made up holidays, except for the gifts. Guys like getting presents: watches, wallets, car stuff, grill equipment, and sports whatnot. So, I hope you dad’s all get that new gadget you’ve had your eye on.

Today, I wished my father-in-law a happy day. He’s the only parent I have left and he’s an outstanding one. Luckily, I get to see him most every day because we work together at the family business. We share a lot of laughs, mostly at my husband’s expense. Pop is full of great stories and loves to tell them. I love to hear them. I don’t need a special holiday to tell him how much I care about him and enjoy his company.

 

I spent most of yesterday working on my family tree. Have I told you today how time consuming and addictive genealogy is? No wonder it’s a hobby of many retired folks. Geez, I sit down at my computer for a few minutes and the next thing I know, it’s tomorrow.

Good thing my oldest brother is helping me, or I would go nuts trying to figure out all the various branches. I refer to my Dad’s side of the family as the double helix because so many families are intertwined through marriage. Two sisters from one family married two brothers from another family with the same last name and another sister married a cousin to the brothers. Confused yet? Welcome to my world. This sort of thing happened in several generations, too. Now that I think of it, all of this makes it more like a Hoberman sphere than a helix. That, or a slinky!

 

So, here’s to you Robert Addams; who came from Wales to Virginia aboard the Bona Nova in 1622 to re-establish Martha’s Hundred into what later was known as Jamestown Colony. I don’t know if it’s true that you’re my forefather or not. An older family tree had us connected, but there was a large age span in one generation; which makes me think a generation was skipped. Your family is well documented down to a certain point in the 1700’s. My own family is now documented back six generations to an unknown grandfather from South Carolina, who married a woman from Virginia. Their children were born 1796 to 1820. This is just one generation away from the above Robert Addams family descendents. I refer to this as the search for the missing link. Appropriate, don’t you think? So the search continues for that one elusive name...the last piece of the puzzle.

Update

Yes, I’m still alive. I had an unannounced intermission there, didn‘t I?

I’ve been at work more than usual this week. I almost wrote...I’ve been working more...but that would be untrue. Except for cleaning the office last weekend when we were closed; that was a lot of hard work. I even broke a couple of vacuum cleaners in the process. With the phone ringing every five minutes, it’s hard to get any actual work done. So I’ve been at work more, but my actual work is piled up around me now.

 

What little spare time I did have lately, I used emailing family and updating my family tree. I scanned several old pictures from an album; mostly on my mom's side of the family, like this picture of my mom when she was young. 

My oldest brother and I are contacted fairly often from distant cousins who see our genealogy information online. We exchange emails with them and learn interesting facts about our ancestors. It's all very addictive and time consuming.

Sorry

My husband has every reason to hate me now. Here’s why…

Last summer he found this new online program where you could build your family tree and invite your family members to logon and help grow the tree with names. He added his immediate family and grandparents and some aunt and uncles. Eventually he had about a hundred names on his tree.

Then, he made the mistake of sending me a link to it and my life has not been the same since. Little did he know that I would become completely obsessed with genealogy from that point on. I have spend hours and hours on my computer researching my family lineage. I started with papers that I brought home from my mom’s house. Then I emailed my brothers for more information. My oldest brother also became obsessed with the quest for missing names. We quickly took over the online family tree and built it up five or more generations on all sides of our family until we had over 1000 names. I’ve also been in touch through email with distant cousins all over the state in my quest for knowledge. Bewildered and abandoned by my online work, my husband lost interest in his own side of the tree.

"Sorry honey, but here’s something you may not realize. My oldest brother and I first started emailing each other about genealogy but quickly developed a very deep and meaningful friendship. So in a way you are responsible for bringing us together. That relationship has multiplied and brought several members of my family closer now."

Towards the end of last year my husband started blogging. He is a very good writer, sometime serious, sometimes sad, often times completely ridiculous. Now with his new fancy camera he can become quite the photojournalist too; as he has always enjoyed added photos to his witty stories. At the beginning of the year, he made a vow to blog once a day for 365 days. He was off to a good start and then I got sick. He had to take over the care of the dogs, and the care of the house and the care of me while I recuperated. Needless to say, doing my job as well as his, wore him completely out and he didn’t really have time to sit down and pen (keyboard) something meaningful each night.

Well, then I started blogging. Not sure if anyone in my family noticed the significance of the date of my first blog 2-4-08 (my parent’s street number). Blogging came easily for me, the ideas just flow out of me at an alarming rate. I actually write several a day most days and have to decide which one to post. The knowledge of that must really sit well with my husband who had to abandon his once a day blogging goal.

"Sorry again honey, but here’s something else you may not realize. You inspired me to express myself and I feel it’s really a good way to get me to come out of my shell. So that’s a good thing, right?

Seriously, I am sorry that I have taken all your fun ideas and ran down to the other end of the field with them, and spiked them in the end zone, and then done a little happy dance around them.

Wow, sorry I ate the hotdogs you brought home last night too; they were really good.

And you didn’t really want to eat that chocolate Valentine’s candy that somebody gave you, right?"