Artifacts: Flow Ware Tea Set

Last Tuesday, during the Book Club at Second Life, we all began to mention items we had inherited. It was suggested that we post a picture and a story about these special items from our family history. This is the first such post from my household.

This is the remains of a tea set in a pattern which is called "Flow Ware;" a mistake in an early firing lead to a blurring of the pattern. You can see this on the side of the sugar bowl and the open bowl next to in in the back row.

This tea set belonged to Mary Seitner Lautzenheiser who was aunt-by-marriage to my paternal grandmother on her mother's side and also her second cousin on her father's side. Whenever I visited North Manchester her granddaughters and also my Grandmother referred to Mary as "Grandma Seitner." I am curious about this naming pattern. I do understand why "Grandma" would become the family name, even among relatives who were in reality nieces or cousins; I believe that such use names are still common in the United States in our century.


It is the use of Mary Seitner's maiden name that interests me. My best guess it that there were several "Grandma Lautzenheisers" around town; and that "Grandma Seither" was a way of distinguishing between them. Alas, I shall probably never know why because I didn't think to ask when I was young.

My grandmother inherited these dishes from her aunt and in turn designated that they were to become mine. (She left a piece of paper in one of the teacups that read "for Sue.") They remained in North Manchester until after my aunt died; then Mary Seitner's granddaughters gathered up the tea set and saved it for me.

They told me that my grandmother had inherited the set because she had saved them from a fire. She was visiting the Elias Lautzenheiser farm when a fire broke out. Grandma placed the tea set in a pillow case, then lowered them through a first floor window to the ground. I wasn't told when this happened or how old my grandmother was at the time. Mary Seitner and Elias Lautzenheiser were married in 1852; my grandmother was born in 1858. My guess is that the fire took place after the Civil War, but that is just a guess.

None of the dishes were broken at the time of the rescue, but the set was not complete by the time it came to me. Some of the pieces are chipped and some of the glaze is crazed and discolored. I do not use these dishes; they are on display in a glass fronted case in my dining room. My family and I cherish these artifacts from my "forerunners."

Poem for Bill West's poetry "collection"

This is my entry into Bill West’s contest. Whenever I think about Lide’s childhood after her mother’s death, I think of this poem. Lide DID have family when she and her siblings returned to Wabash County, but she and her siblings moved from house to house (often separately); they seemed to feel a need to contribute to the family work while living with each family. (I believe that in the 1860s and 1870s children on farms and in the homes in farm support towns like North Manchester all did chores, but I sense that “earning her place” was important to Lide.)

So here is a poem from the appropriately named “Hoosier Poet” James Whitcomb Riley

LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--
An' when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wuzn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,
An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'-wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found wuz thist his pants an' roundabout:--
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;
An' wunst, when they was 'company,' an' ole folks wuz there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

The Search Log

Chapter 7 in The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy is about record keeping. Among other topics it discusses the Research Log or Research Calendar.

I have been attempting to keep a Research Log since before I knew they existed.  I started my serious attempts at genealogy four years ago, when I got my genealogy software as an early Christmas present. As I entered  family data from a text-based descendant chart sent to me by a distant cousin, I began to have many questions about the information. This was the cousin's research. I realized that I would need to check at least some of it, both for verification and in order to answer the questions. But how was I going to be able to remember those questions?

I am a database thinker (as opposed to a spreadsheet thinker) so I quickly prepared a simple database: five identifying fields plus four expanding fields where I could store my questions and my comments. As the number of entries in my software program grew, the number of records in the database kept pace.

During my studies about genealogy, I learned about the research log. My computer holds various attempts to build a log (including the log that my software provides). None of these forms have felt comfortable to me; the attempts sit in the nooks and crannies of my computer, holding information about where and when I searched for or entered data, what questions I had (and roughly when in the search process those questions occurred) and what answers I may have found. But this is not a log. The information remains scattered and would be meaningless to anyone but myself. My instincts had been on track, but my techniques were lamentable.

Greenwood states that there are two purposes for a Search Log* a) to keep yourself in touch with your progress at all times and b) to aid people who might follow you to understand and to verify what you have done. I believe that the information that fulfills these purposes is hidden in my computer: hidden, but not available to me or to anyone who follows me in this project. (* Since the log contains records of Preliminary Survey work as well as true research, I choose to call this a "Search" Log.)

My next step should be to provide me with a log form I am comfortable with; and then to go back over my work for the past four years and see if I can create a Search Log for every person and every supporting document in my software program.

Luckily for me this isn't as large a task as it may appear to be. Although I have 3377 entries in my database, the names were supplied by some half-dozen cousins and those initial suppliers are noted in those scattered early documents. My active work has been concentrated on about 300 names and I have about 100 source citations (or 100 documents) to incorporate into this rebuilt log.

The first sets of entries into my software were the descendants chart I mentioned above and another descendant chart printed in a 1942 book, The Stricklers of Pennsylvania. Since the descendant chart which came from the cousin also involves correspondence, I decided to do my first work with the entries from the book. This resulted in 27 logs, one for each surname which has a family group sheet showing children.

The elements of this log came from those on the Greenwood sample; from elements found on similar published logs, and from some sample logs GeneJ shared with me in 2009. The log is in database format, which means that the field spaces are rigidly defined. If I need more space, I must add another record to this log.

This is a screen shot of part of one of these 27 logs. It shows record 1 and part of record 2 with the "constant" portion of the log showing on both records. The comments show some references to additional logs which grew out of this one.

Please help me. Take on the guise of a genealogist who is following my work. Study this sample. Can you follow my trail? Where do I need to improve this model? Please leave a comment for me with any suggestions you might have about the format for my Search Log.

There is another important "to-be-developed" record discussed in Chapter 7: the research report. But that is another blog.

Here's to facing our frustrations and to learning to conquer them.

FrustratedSue

Halloween Came Early This Year

Yesterday, as I was working my way through three days of accumulated blog posts, I came across a very funny short piece about what truly scares that blogger. She said (I think it was a she) that if she met a zombie or a vampire, she would simply request genealogical knowledge and move on. What truly scares her is something like opening her genealogy files and finding that all her citations have vanished. I laughed, agreed with her, and read the next blog.

And I humbly apologize to my fellow blogger that I cannot provide a link to that blog. If any of my readers recognizes this blog, please post the link in the comments section.

Well, Halloween came early this year and I have had a scare that will do — thank you — for the rest of my life! I was running the program that scans my hard disk for potential problems and got a message about duplicates of my genealogy software file, followed immediately by a message that the software had unexpectedly quit. Since I was shutting things down, I brushed this off and continued with the weekly maintenance.

Everything checked out OK, and I began to reopen programs in order to get back to work. The file was GONE from my desktop Dropbox folder. Worse, opening Dropbox online I found a statement that the file was DELETED! No problem — I'll just go to Time Machine and restore it from there. It wasn't there either! I went into complete panic mode; 3377 names and accompanying data had vanished into thin air. Gone — completely gone!

I must have yelled or moaned or … because my husband hurried in — to find me staring wildly at my computer screen. I showed him the "non-existence" of both backups and than stared at the appearance of doom again.

Now my husband and I have somehow developed a mood balancing act; the deeper one of us sinks into panic, the calmer and more constructive the other becomes. He thought a bit and began to suggest things to try. Fearing that my entire hard disk was contaminated, I wouldn't let him do anything.

He moved to his computer, opened Dropbox, and sure enough, it reported that the file had been deleted. But he also found that Dropbox offered "restore file." Which he did. Back to my machine. Dropbox showed the recovered file in the cloud AND it also showed the file safely returned to my desktop dropbox folder. I opened the file, which then followed to usual procedures to return me to my last working location. I did the next job of data entry, and everything stayed normal. Dropbox and cloud storage had saved my files just as they were supposed to do.

But what about the failure of Time Machine to make a backup? Well, as it turns out, I was wrong about that; Time Machine has been backing up these vital files just as I had instructed it to do. In my panic, I had looked for the backups in the wrong folder. When I did look in the correct location, everything was in place.

And the moral of this story is "you can't have too many backups" OR "Dropbox works." I hope you never have a scare like mine; but if you do, I hope your files have been backed up on your computer by your equivalent of my Time Machine backup program and that you also have a backup in Dropbox or an equivalent cloud storage site.

Here's to facing our Frustrations and enjoying our successes.

FrustratedSue

Lide's Blog – Part 4

This is the final installment of “Lide’s papers.” The continuity of these posts was broken because I had two items of more immediacy to blog about. For other aspects concerning the delay of this fourth post, see my notes at the end of this blog.

March 22, 1938.
    Our Great Grandfather Schaeffer was a Hessian soldier, hired by the English King George the third to help the English Army put down the Revolution in the United States or rather the New America. (Cousin Claron Shafer says he was not a Hessian soldier.C.E.S.) In this way he did cross the ocean three times. (I had it from my father that his grandfather Shafer crossed the ocean three times. It is to this that she refers. C.E.S.) These soldiers were brought over and then the survivors were returned to their native land and it is supposed he returned to the U.S. of his own accord. Grandma Shafer, my mother’s stepmother told me that this grandfather Shaeffer performed a feat during the Revolutionary war equal to Putnam’s famous ride down the stone stairway and told me to try to remember it. She lived in the same neighborhood as our grandfather Henry Shafer.
    Aunt Sarah’s maiden name is Rummel. When we lived for a year or two in Auburn Indiana and went from there to Montana Aunt Sarah told me to go out to visit her brother living out of that town. He was then County Commissioner of that County. So you see he was our mother’s and your father’s cousin and too Uncle Christ is a cousin to Aunt Sarah. Aunt Sarah was married before she married Uncle Christ. Aunt Sarah’s married name first time was Fornay. One daughter to this marriage who died in early womanhood. AMary Laautzenhiser’s mother was a Rummel And yes I meant to tell you one time in the early sixties Aunt Catherine and Hannah and I went with Grandpa Shafer to visit his brother Jake Shafer in Fulton County. (This brother died in 1854 but his descendants still lives there and in Marshall county and hold a reunion annually at or near Argos. C.E.S.) He had several boys, one I remember was named Philetus. We staid several days. This was in the early sixties. I may have been eleven years old, maybe twelve. Please excuse my repeating. I am also very forgetful too.
    One thing in your writing and publishing your book the name Shafer is not correct. Scheaffer.
    I told Emma Kate there was one brother of yours named Shirley, an infant maybe a year or more old. (His name was Grant and called Bubby. C.E.S) I lived with your parents and washed his didies and loved him, the baby, very much. I was not there at his birth nor when he died. At that time your mother looked so much like you did in 1920. And was Lulu your sister or Emma Kate’s child? She certainly was a lovely child. I had a picture of her but that and many others burned in the house in 1926. During the life of little (Shirley) Uncle John lived in Laketon. My brother Joseph no doubt lived there at the same time. I went to school to Uncle John there too. One winter he taught at a country school called Center school. Five miles from Laketon west. That year I went to your Uncle Darius Lautzenhiser in Laketon. My sister Bi lived with Darius’ and went to school. It was Ida (Lautzenhiser) who called her Bi instead of Abi so she kept the nickname. One year 1861 or 1862 Uncle John taught at “Sherman’s College” in the Butterbaugh neighborhood cross roads one mile from grandpa’s house were Bi and I lived. Uncle John taught singing too. Those days they were called singing masters and school masters. He always corrected us in our English and did much for our welfare as well as your washing and ironing and cooking for us. We helped with the children and dishes and errands. When Uncle John was away Bie carried water a quarter of a mile at their farm that Emma later owned. And I was there the day that your father and mother and Emma and Elva moved on this place. Your Grandfather Lautzenhiser was along and as they were out of matches he, Grandfather Lautzenhiser, took off his spectacles, gathered up a small bit of paper and a little shavings and made a fire in the yard to cook the coffee for our lunch. Grandfather held his spectacles in the sun and started the fire. Old folks knew a few things young folks learned from them. That was a long time ago. My room was up in the attic of that one or two room log house. Yes I must tell you too that your mother had twins. I do not remember what sex. They died almost immediately. (Edna and Edgar. C.E.S)
    The Shafers are or were all great riders and dared many things: for instance our grandfather volunteered to carry a rope across a stream no younger man would do. It was to carry a rope across the stream walking a pole laid across the stream. Then larger timber could be taken across to build a bridge. This was in the neighborhood of his farm between North Manchester and Laketon. His farm was one mile off the Laketon and Manchester road and one mile from Laketon. We could hear the church bells from both places. I love the bells. Now here in Okanagan they have gongs and how we miss the school bell. We live on Rose Street two blocks long and a High School and a Jr.High School building face down this street. So we have a drove of students coming and going in front of our house. Our daughter Katherine is building the house as we live in it. Just now we have a new permanent floor and kitchen cupboard and sink all built in. Will soon send the data you wish.
    Lide Wantz

        Correction to the above record.
    Since Lide went in the early sixties with our grandfather to Fulton County it could not have been to visit his brother Jake for Jake died in 1854 when Lide was only four years old. She speaks of his having several boys; one of them Phyletus. Now Phyletus was a grandson of Jakes, a son of Jake’s oldest son John. So it is evident that she with our grandfather at that time visited with John instead of his father Jake.
                            C.E.S.


    A LETTER WRITTEN TO HER COUSIN CHAS. E. SHAFER BUT NOT MAILED.
    Mary Lautzenhizer told me the German Bible she had was her mother’s and of course it is then the sister of our Grandmother Susan Rummel, and Sarah (we called her Sally) Harmon’s mother was a sister too. Her name was Catherine, my mother’s Aunt Catherine. Mary Eli told me my mother took Hannah and visited their Aunt Catherine Seitner, and Hannah cried and my mother cried. I visited them too at about the age of seventeen with Elis’ on their visits to Miami county visiting Mary’s sisters and brothers. Laura may have this bible. I am going to tell you how I came to live at Eli’s. I had been at George Stevensons of Wabash a second time and told Mrs.Stevenson I would like to go over to Manchester and try to teach school some time, so when I came to Aunt Mary’s, your mother, (some of the time we said Uncle John) but as I told your sister when we visited in 1920 she long mothered and advised us. As we grew on older we went to her with our troubles and especially on questions of etiquette. She would get out her book on such articles and soon settled all questions. My, she often got tired of taking care of us, wetting the bed and making her use her pretty quilts,and, well everything, but I was so disappointed not to see her at her big living room. Of course I knew they were both gone. I guess the girls thought it strange I thought only of Aunt Mary but your father did much for us; saw to our going to school, all he as able to do for us. He even let Joseph stay with them and go to summer school six weeks when he was about 16 or 17 years old, and Emma, sister Emma, was there often too. Joe had been to live at Ridgley’s at the age of 12 years to about 16 or 17. Well I would write more but want to tell you of Aunt Mary and when I came from Wabash always coming directly to Uncle John’s. Aunt Mary told me she just could not take me. I had not arrived at womanhood so of course there was a question and might be lots of trouble and I not knowing the why of all this question until later. Mary Eli said she would take me. I was going on seventeen and I staid there and went to school until I was nineteen and what they then called “Quituated” school.
    No one was ever treated better than I was there and made welcome always. Uncle John and Aunt Mary fixed up their house, the old one, and papered and calcimined so as to have that house nice as I had asked to be married there, but they and Eli’s were not on good terms on account of his brother Joe Lautzenhiser and I wanted Eli to be there and then after all he went to Miami and was not there.

NOTES from Frustrated Sue
    Although the family relationships that are continued in this final blog are a treasure trove of research leads for a family genealogist, I fear they will not be very meaningful to the casual reader. It took me a bit of thought before I decided to go ahead and post this final part.

    Two factors brought me to the decision to do so. The first is the integrity of the papers. Lide’s character shows in these passages as well as in the narratives that have been previously posted. Lide deserves to have her complete work shared.

[A reminder that I did some slight editing for the purpose of these blogs. I rearranged some of the materials so that the narrative would flow more smoothly. Also, I “corrected spelling” as far a possible in connection with the smudged typewritten words. All other spelling and grammar is as Lide and Charley wrote these papers.]

The second reason for posting these last entries is that ALL the genealogy clues have now been placed into the blog. A total of 72 individuals of possible genealogical interest to me have been named in these papers. (I am excluding names such as Frank Stockton and Gene Stratton Porter and her brother; they are of historical interest, but they do not enter into my genealogy researches even as connections of in-laws.) 5 of these 72 people are listed with the “surname” UNKNOWN; the remaining 67 people have 14 surnames between them; and one of these “Schaeffer” is a spelling variation of another “Shafer.” So I have from 13 to 18 surnames to be looked into as I work to chart my family and my family’s relations and to write their stories in the context of history.

I can foresee many blogs about these people sometime in the future. As for today, Lide’s papers have been placed “in the cloud” where other researchers may find her if they are interested. And I need to return to my 21st century genealogy concerns — which may be the subject of one or more future blogs.

Here’s to facing the frustrations and celebrating the joys of genealogy,
Frustrated Sue

The Just Genealogy Book Club and “Real Genealogy”

Those of us who gather on Sundays and Tuesdays at the Family History Center and the Just Genealogy Fire Pit at Second Life decided to have a book club. We also decided to study and discuss Val Greenwood’s The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy. Last Tuesday (August 23, 2011) we met to discuss Chapters 1 and 2 of the book. (At our next meeting, on Tuesday September 20, we will discuss Chapters 3 and 4.)

I own the Greenwood book. When I first bought it, I pretty much read it from cover to cover. Since then, I have used it to look up specific topics, such as land records or military records. And, indeed, this is a valid use of the book. But as I study it in preparation for the book club meetings, I am discovering that I have been fairly casual in applying some aspects of genealogical practice as described by Val Greenwood.

In Chapter 1 the author makes a comparison of the research techniques employed by a research chemist with those to be employed by a genealogist. He describes five stages (or steps) of the research process and shows a chart of this research cycle. At MoSGA, early in August, Patricia Walls Stamm showed this cycle and discussed it. And I smugly thought that I agree with the concept and all was well.

Reading Chapter 1 pulled me up short. Yes, I agree with this idea, but I have not been carefully following these stages. It is true that I had already stared my research when I first read the book, so (perhaps) I can be excused that I had ommitted the first stage, the “preliminary survey;” after all, I didn’t KNOW I should have done this, so that’s OK, isn’t it?

Well, NO. Once I became aware of this step, I should have made a preliminary survey before I continued any research. What is out there about me, about my father, and about my mother? A Google search, a Mocavo search, and a search of public trees on Ancestry and on RootsWeb doesn’t take a lot of time. Searching WikiTree and Geni.com might also yield other research.

So I did this for any mention of research about me and any research about my father (other people on my tree are still lacking a preliminary survey, but it will come). I was lucky, the sources that I found in this search were already known to me. Most were unsourced; most with sources get their sources from me. So on the date of this blog, the preliminary survey shows me that I am breaking new ground.

But this does not ensure that this particular preliminary survey will remain true as I continue to locate family members and to document their lives. When I plan additional research on anyone in my database, I will remember to repeat the preliminary survey. Otherwise, how will I know that a cousin or cousin-in-law has begun research on this line and has brought to light new information on the subject of my research?

Stage 2 is to evaluate any research that I found. You probably noticed that I had taken this step. The research that I located in the preliminary survey step was already known to me and I was aware of the amount of source references suppled in each instance. I do not count unsourced data as reliable data. It is useful in pointing the way to research but it doesn’t provide answers. So these found instances of research did not provide me with reliable data which could be used in connection with or instead of my own research.

Stage 3: Yes, I can be excused for not having done this step as yet. Stage 3 is the stage where you plan your research. I have spent as much time during the past three years in learning how to plan research and to record my research as I have spent in actual research. I consider this as an affirmative situation. I have been learning instead of rushing ahead toward a huge list of unsourced names.

The class at Second Life which studied Dr. Jones’ course on Inferential Genealogy was the final instruction necessary in order for my to learn how to create a focused goal. Other lessons have begun to help me create records of my research that will be meaningful to me today and will remain meaningful in the future. I took the time to to print out and examine a set of more than 30 forms which I have gathered from four different sources over these past years. After examining these forms, I have selected a dozen which I hope will enable me to keep meaningful logs.

So far my problem with logs is that I haven’t found a way to keep records that are instinctive to me. A week later my records don’t mean much to me, so I forget to review them, and then I forget to create them. There is overlap among these twelve forms. Like Goldilocks, I’ll try they all. Perhaps one form will be “just right.” If not, I hope these forms lead me to the creation of my own instinctive research log formats.

Wednesday at supper I was lamenting  to my husband that I hadn’t done any “real genealogy” this past week. The words echoed from my initial blog and I realized that I was wrong. True, I had not carried out any new research; no data, evidence, or proof had been created for anyone in any of my lines. But I HAD been doing “real genealogy;” I had been learning how to do effective research, and I had been learning to apply it to an individual record already in my database. Perhaps when I have reviewed my focused goal, I will find I have met Genealogical Proof Standards for one entry for one person in my database. And if I don’t meet G. P. S., I will know where my next research step should lead.

Now that’s “real genealogy.”

I hope we all learn by facing our frustrations and moving forward.
FrustratedSue

Genealogy Conferences

Lide’s story is complete, although the final materials have not yet been posted. I am interrupting the flow of that series to discuss my recent experiences with attending genealogy conferences.

On July 29 and 30 we were in Overland Park, Kansas (part of the greater Kansas City area) to attend the MidWest Family History Expo, a seven-track two-day conference with three all-conference meetings.

The following weekend, on August 5 and 6 we stayed home and attended the MoSGA conference, a two-track two-day event with four all-conference meetings.

We had never attended a genealogy conference before, so this was a very intense first exposure. I do not recommend scheduling conferences this closely together. We should have allowed ourselves time to unwind, to allow our learning to become assimilated, and to resume our “regular” existence for a bit before we attended a second conference. Our impressions are somewhat jumbled and our minds and bodies are a bit overtired.

Both conferences were exhilarating. Being together with fellow genealogists, catching their enthusiasms, learning from experts has sent me home planning to try harder to follow my ancestors’ trails and to follow those trails using careful scholarship techniques.

Holly Hanson of Family History Expos put together an outstanding event with presentations to stimulate the experienced researcher and with information to help the beginner. FamilySearch.org and NARA were there to introduce their new online faces. We were taught how to take advantage of the “new look” at both these sites.

Other presentations were “how-tos” for specific programs such as Geni.org, RootsMagic, and Ages Online. Still other classes involved techniques such as creating and using captions, using photographs, and preserving the same. The “star” of this conference was Lisa Louise Cooke, who led several classes exploring her knowledge of Google and GoogleEarth. She was so popular that it was necessary to move all her presentations to the largest meeting room.

There were vendors there: book sellers, software vendors, people offering products not specific to genealogy. I learned from talking to the vendors as well as from attending classes. I was befriended by the lady who organized the “ask the pros” booth. She gave me some good advice as to “where-to-go next” after I finish my line-by-line study of the military records for William T. Dorrance. Unfortunately, I cannot thank her by name because I lost that note (her name, not the advice). I only hope she finds this blog and learns how grateful I am.

The conference held the next weekend by the Missouri State Genealogical Association was much smaller in scale; the presentations were just as knowledgeable and the vendors just as exciting. And the interchange with fellow genealogists was as refreshing and renewing. A complete stranger gave me a suggestion which will simplify how I frame a request for baptismal records. A lecturer from Jefferson County took home a brief family outline about my elusive William T. Dorrance. The following Tuesday and Wednesday brought me information from her co-worker that has opened up new records for my use!

The “star” of this conference was Hank Jones, who gave four talks at all-conference meetings. When the fun of these presentations focusing on his “poor Palatine” studies “wears away,” you find that Hank has given you advice on sound research principles.

So I am overtired, “over-educated,” and probably over-stimulated; but I am also very excited and very happy. When and WHERE is the next conference?

Back home, I was so tired from the Kansas City trip that I slept through a Webinar that I had wished to attend. I did attend a meeting in Second Life where we marked out several weeks worth of community discussion and learning plans. After the local conference I attended a Webinar on NARA’s online presence and then hurried off to attend a meeting in Second Life where newbies are learning to handle our avatars.

As we left Kansas City, I asked my husband if the conference was worth the physical expense and budget expense as compared to what I experience in Webinars, Scanfest, BlogTalk radio, Second Life, and the entire internet genealogical experience. Now that I have completed my two weekends of conferences, I have come up with the answer that fits me.

YES, I need to attend conferences. There is a connection at conferences that I do not find at other genealogical meetings. I find that I enjoyed the smaller meeting slightly better. I believe that I will go to one or two smaller meetings each year. But the larger meeting was so very exciting that I look forward to attending more. Probably not as often as the smaller meetings, but often enough.

And YES, in many ways the online meetings teach me more. In the online environment, I learn about a specific topic, then take time to assimilate this knowledge before I tackle another subject. The various activities in Second Life combine some of the give-and-take of a conference with the slower pace I appreciate with online studies.

So my personal learning plan will be based upon online studies enriched by at least 1 regional conference each year and further spiced by the occasional larger conference.

Here’s to facing our frustrations while embracing our opportunities to learn.
Frustrated Sue