Missing Pictures

I can't remember the last time I used my scanner. The software wasn't installed on this computer. It took me a very long time to find the right driver and get it to work. Before I got to work on that I had to clear it off. Things are looking a bit neater now. I scanned a few things but couldn't find several things I was looking for.


This is the only one of at least three pictures of my Grandmother's Rebekah Lodge, #52 Evening Star, Syracuse, NY, that I could find today. I also found the document below naming her District Deputy President in 1940. I have no idea if this picture is from 1940 or not. My grandmother, Mary L. (Kelly) Berry, is seated on the far left. I have no idea who the other women are. She and the woman standing to her left are each holding some type of wand. Did this mean they were officers at the time? Does she look like she's 39 years old here? I know she was with the Rebekah's for many years. Hopefully I'll locate the other pictures soon so that I can compare them.

What Do You Keep?

How do you manage the tons of paper that genealogy can generate? At New Years almost everyone had papers to file, desks to clean and papers to organize. I've seen many great tips on how to organize but very few on what to keep.

Documentation has always been a struggle for me. I try to add a source for everything I add to my file but do I need to have all of that info on paper?

My cousin who is just starting out made tons of copies while on her trip and is diligently sorting through all of it now. After she gets everything entered / recorded in her file what does she do with it all? I want to get her off to a good start so help me out here!

Do you keep every copy, every scrap of paper that you've come across? How do you decide what to keep and what to recycle?

Do you print out every record that you find online? Do you simply save an image to your hard drive? Or do you just record the location url as part of your source notes?

Does it matter how close a relation is?

After filing away what you do keep, do you ever go back and look at it again? Can you find it again?

Do you scan all of / part of the paper files you bring home? Do you attach an electronic copy of everything right in your file. TMG has a place to do this and you could use FTM's scrapbook feature. If you do this do you save census records just to the head of the household or do you save a copy in each family members file?

If you transcribe a page of a book or some such, do you also keep a photocopy of that page?

If I had kept a paper copy of everything I've found I would have to my own small library to house it in. I spent quite awhile looking at my files this morning and while they are fairly organized they are full of things I don't think I'll ever look at or need again.

Remember the Excitement?

Do you remember how exciting it was when you were first starting on your ancestral quest? How every new discovery was exciting. That's where my cousin, Pittsburgh, is right now.

Pittsburgh first contacted me back in the fall after finding my tree at rootsweb. We both descend from Henry & Hannah Glover who were born about 1640 or so, making us seventh cousins once removed! But hey, a cousin's a cousin right?

Her 4th great-grandfather, Alexander Glover 1756-1826, and my 3rd great-grandfather, David Glover 1775-1848, second cousins, both started out from Conway, MA and settled in Phelps, NY. Alexander's son, Philander and his 1st wife Polly Melvin had a daughter, Lamira (my 4th cousin, 3x removed), who married Othniel Hall (my 1st cousin, 4x removed.) Philander later married, as his 2nd wife, my 3rd great-grandaunt, Ruhamah Hall.

Whew! Have you got all that? Even though Pittsburgh and I are very distant cousins I have had a fascination with her Glover branch of the tree and the way it intersects with my Glover / Hall line. I'm also fascinated by the whole group that left Conway for Phelps.

Pittsburgh is just starting out on her quest, she doesn't even have genealogy software yet, but she has already made her first research trip. She has been emailing me with details about her trip, how kind and helpful everyone in Howell, MI were to her and how much information she found. Her excitement is contagious! I have put my Kelly line aside, for now, and I'm back to sorting out Glover's. She came across several Glover's that I don't have in my file and I have found some others that I'm trying to fit into the puzzle. Will they fit in her line? My line? Another line? Let the sorting begin!