Welcome to the 2009 iGene Awards, spotlighting Tonia’s Roots.  We’ll be celebrating the best posts of 2009 and presenting awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Documentary, and Best Biography.

The nominees for Best Picture are. . .

• F. M. Kendrick
• Mariah (Langston) Roberts
• Mary Elizabeth (McEntire) Hemphill

And the winner is. . .

Mariah (Langston) Roberts!  I love this photo.  She is such a cute, little old lady.  With her sparkling eyes and apple cheeks, she looks like she would be a sweet, fun person to know.

The nominees for Best Screenplay are. . .

• Found!  POW Documentation for Francis M. Kendrick
• Captured by Indians
• Monteville Roberts and Great Locomotive Chase

And the winner is. . .

Captured by Indians!  Captured by Indians is the story of a plucky young woman in the early days of the United States, who endured an unspeakable ordeal, and her husband who would not give up the search.

The nominees for Best Documentary are. . .

• William Brookshire’s Revolutionary War Service
• Orphans and Orphans:  A Sad Bit of History
• The Devil Made Me Do It

And the winner is. . .

Orphans and Orphans: A Sad Bit of History!  Written for the 85th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, this tells the story of a terrible summer when a whole family suffered from typhoid and only a few survived.

The nominees for Best Biography are. . .

• James A. McEntire Military Records
• Fighting for a New Nation
• Tombstone Tuesday: Mariah Langston Roberts

And the winner is. . .

Tombstone Tuesday: Mariah Langston Roberts!  This is Mariah’s second award of the evening.  She was an amazing lady and this biographical sketch includes the story of one of her adventures during the Civil War.

I’d like to thank the Academy, and our hostess Jasia at Creative Gene, for creating this memorable event.

This post was written for the 90th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy:  The Third Annual iGene Awards, The Best of The Best! To see other posts I’ve written for the COG, click here.

There are many opportunities to volunteer within the genealogy community.  Whether it is working with a genealogical society, indexing records, performing “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness,” or fulfilling Find-a-Grave requests, opportunities large and small abound.  I would even venture to say that all us geneabloggers are volunteers every time we write a blog article; after all, we are sharing our knowledge, our expertise, and the fruits of our own labors and very few of us get paid for doing so.

I recently started indexing records for FamilySearch.  I had read about the project many months ago, on Dear Myrtle’s blog, and had even gone to the FamilySearch indexing site a few times, but I didn’t join until November.  The project appealed to me for several reasons.

1. I like the fact that FamilySearch records are provided to the public at no charge.  I subscribe to some of the “pay” sites and I think they are worth every penny, but if I’m going to volunteer my time, I would prefer to do so for a non-profit organization.
2. I can index as much or as little as I want, given the fluctuating demands on my time.  I’m not committed to anything, which means I don’t have to guilty when life gets in the way of genealogy.
3. I can index from the comforts of home, in my jammies, if I so choose.

My first experience was serendipitous.  I logged into the site and went to the download batch page.  As I looked over the list of projects, “US, Georgia – Deaths 1928-1929” jumped out at me.  I live in Georgia, as did many of my ancestors, and I use the Georgia online archives – Georgia’s Virtual Vault – all the time.  Several months ago, they put up a collection called “Georgia Non-Indexed Death Certificates, 1928-1930” with a note that indexing was in process.  I quickly realized that the indexing was being handled by FamilySearch volunteers.  Not only would I be helping the genealogy community at large, but my efforts also would help my own state improve its already excellent online archives.

I downloaded my first batch of ten death certificates.  The indexing instructions are very easy to follow and the software even highlights the field you are working on each time.  The first field to index was the county of death.  This was my second moment of serendipity.  The death certificate I was looking at was for Whitfield County, which is adjacent to the county where I live.

My third moment of serendipity came a few certificates later, when I saw that the deceased individual was buried in a cemetery where several of my ancestors are buried.  I then recognized the attending physician’s name, Dr. Morgan Bates – he was a boarder in my great-great-grandfather’s home in 1900.¹

The signs clearly told me that I had chosen the right volunteer project.  Since that first batch, I’ve indexed three more batches of Georgia death certificates, and I’m pleased to say that that project is completed.  I can’t wait for the results to be posted at both FamilySearch and Georgia’s Virtual Vault.

I’m currently working on a page from the 1910 census in Santa Clara County, California.  While I haven’t seen any names that I know and I’m not familiar with the locations, I’m having just as much fun with this batch, because it is so different from what I usually see on the census records of my ancestors.  My people all came to America before the mid-1700’s, so I’m not used to seeing immigration information on census records, since birthplaces weren’t recorded until 1850.  This California page that I’m working on has people who were born (or their parents were born) in England, Germany, and Ireland, as well as a wide variety of states.

1910 Census - Immigration Year highlighted

And I had no idea that the 1910 census recorded the year of immigration for individuals born outside our country.  I had never seen a 1910 census page that had anything recorded in that column, so I never paid any attention to it, until I began working on this batch.  Not only am I volunteering, but I’m also expanding my own knowledge of genealogy while I work.

I think we’ve all been helped by others as we’ve pursued our family histories, and we’ve helped others along the way.  If you are interested in volunteering with FamilySearch indexing, click here.

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anniversaries invite us to reflect, review, and plan for the future.  Today is the two-year anniversary of this blog, which combined with the year-end, puts me in a particularly reflective mood.  I’ve been thinking about what I’ve accomplished and what goals I want to set for the coming year.  The 87th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy invites us to share our resolutions for 2010, and since the COG inspired me to start this blog in the first place, I think it is apropos to turn what began as a blogiversary post into a COG submission.

Reflections

So, as of today, I’ve been writing about genealogy for two years.  Why do I do it?  There are really two parts to that question – why do I write and why do I blog?

Why do I write?

I write to remember.  The process of writing about my family, my discoveries, and my research synthesizes the raw facts and turns them into stories that stay with me.

I write to learn.  Writing about particular ancestors shows me what I know, helps me make connections between people and facts I already have, and points out holes where I need to do more research.

I write to share.  There are cousins – distant and not-so-distant – researching these family lines; there are family members who don’t do genealogy themselves, but are interested in the stories; and there are other researchers who are traveling the same path.

Why do I blog?

When I started doing genealogy again, just over two years ago, I considered my long-term goals and what sort of “product” I wanted to come out of all this research.  My first thought, of course, was a book.  I quickly discarded that idea for two main reasons – 1) I can’t imagine ever being “done” to the point that I would consider publishing something so permanent as a book, and 2) an effective book would require me to focus on specific family lines or geographic areas and that is just not what I want to do.  That’s when I decided that online publishing was the right format for me.  It’s ephemeral and immediate - as new information emerges, I make changes to the product.  Space is virtually unlimited, which means I can publish about ALL my family lines.  And, it’s searchable - readers can pick and choose which pages and people matter to them.

Resolutions

As my third year of blogging begins and a new calendar year approaches, I wanted to set some goals.  I’ve already written about my research goals for 2010, so I won’t repeat them here.

My goals for blogging are:

1. Write more.  My goal for the next year is 150 posts.  This is ambitious, considering that I’ve written  just over 150 total over the life of the blog, but 90 have been in the last year, so I think it is doable.
2. Avoid a dark period on the blog.  There was a three-month stretch this year without a single post.  I’m using the scheduling feature to keep that from happening in 2010 – just in case life gets in the way of my writing.
3. Participate in 12 blog carnivals, ideally one per month.
4. Write more.  Oh, did I say that already?

Other goals not related to specific research plans or writing include:

1. Attend a genealogy conference, probably the Family History Expo in Atlanta.
2. Take one of the NGS online genealogy courses.

Lastly, anniversaries are a time for thanks.  Thanks to all the people who have shared their research (and photos!) with me, either directly or by posting it on the web or writing about it in books or journals.  Thanks to my readers and genea-buddies for your encouraging words.  And, of course, thanks to all those pesky ancestors whose elusive roots, unknown migration trails, or mysterious tidbits of information keep me coming back to look for the rest of the story.

Dear Genea-Santa,

I have three genealogy wishes and if you could help me with any of them, I would really appreciate it.  I promise to be a good genealogist – to make a list of all avenues of research and check it twice, to document my sources, and share my findings.

1.  Barbara Baxter, my great-great-grandmother.  Oh, Genea-Santa, please help me find something, some small clue, about her parents.  I learned their names earlier this year, but the trail stopped cold after that.

2.  The Hemphill Family Bible.  You know the one I mean; it was referenced in Hemphills of North Carolina and records the vital records of Thomas Hemphill and Mary Ann Mackie’s descendants, all the way down to my grandfather’s siblings.  I don’t want to own the bible.  I just want to know that it hasn’t been lost or destroyed.  If you do locate the bible and could prod the person who has it to donate it to a repository where it could be accessed by others, that would be icing on the cake.

3.  Family photos.  Any family photos.  I’m not picky.

That’s it, Genea-Santa.  There will be brownies on the mantle on Christmas Eve.  And don’t be afraid of Chocolate when you stop by.  She just wants to play with the reindeer.

Chocolate

This post was written for the 86th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.  To see other posts I’ve written for the COG, click here.

The topic for 85th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Orphans and Orphans; we’re invited tell the story of traditional orphans – children who lost their parents, or “reverse orphans” – those who left no descendents of their own to tell their story.

A branch of my family that represents both kinds of “orphans” has haunted me ever since I first learned of their fate.

About ten years ago, my mother and I visited a cousin in Old Fort, North Carolina.  As she guided us through Old Siloam Church cemetery, where our relatives in that area were buried, she casually pointed to a row of six headstones, saying “That’s Tom Hemphill’s family.  They all died of typhoid.”

They all died of typhoid.¹

It was the summer of 1864, and the South was losing the war.  Sherman was marching through Georgia.  Disease was rampant; roughly two-thirds of Confederate fatalities were due to infectious diseases.² While no major battles took place in western North Carolina, soldiers coming home on leave would surely have spread disease to the civilian population.

When cousin Nina said “they all died of typhoid,” I thought she meant that the whole family died of typhoid.  I’ve since learned that there were children who did not perish in this epidemic.  The six gravestones represent Tom and Rebecca, and four of their younger children.

First to succumb was Thomas “Boot Tom” Hemphill, on July 24, at the age of 57.  Typhoid runs its course in about four weeks.  Tom must have caught the disease first; he may have brought it home to his family, for they began to die about three weeks after he did.

Mary, a daughter, died next on August 15.  She was twelve.³

Next to go was Samuel, the baby of the family.  He died on August 21, three weeks shy of his sixth birthday.⁴

Their mother, Rebecca (McEntire) died on August 22.  She was 51 years old.⁵

Three days later, the next-youngest son Columbus, age seven, died.⁶

Finally, on September 11, Joseph, died at the age of 14.⁷

Tom and Rebecca had eleven children living with them at the time of the 1860 census.⁸  Four died in the summer of 1864.  Of their remaining children, John Whitfield would have been 16 at the time of his parents’ deaths.  I don’t know if the other six were still alive, but if they were, they would have ranged in age from nine to twenty-three in 1864.

My mother and I revisited Old Siloam cemetery this summer and, even though it had been ten years, I immediately knew which row held this family.  As I’ve been working on processing my photos from that trip, I realized why it was so easy to identify the location of their graves.  The stones are all the same shape, with the same style of inscription.  I can only imagine the stonecutter, carving stone after stone to mark the passing of this family.

Hemphill Family Gravestones

• Interesting news. . .DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog: DAR: Online databases now available http://ow.ly/DylA #
• RT @footnote: Check out our new Native American Collection. Explore unique documents and share Native American heritage. http://bit.ly/sLNEk #
• Ditto. RT @rjseaver: highlighted the 84th Carnival of Gen., and Jasia, our carnival goddess, in http://tinyurl.com/COG84th Thanks, Jasia! #
• RT @23andMe: Blog Post- Introducing Relative Finder: The Newest Feature from 23andMe: Get ready — there’s a whole new http://bit.ly/3ckxTR #
• Abstracted 1900 census records for James Evan Butler household. #genealogy #surnames #
• Found and abstracted 1900 census record for Martha A. MCENTIRE 1833 – ?. She was a spinster and farmed her own land. http://ow.ly/EaEU #
• Found and abstracted 1900 census records for Thomas & Mattie Hemphill household.  Another cousin John Butler was a boarder #
• Uploaded 1900 census images for Ball Ground, Murray Co, GA, pp 6B and 7A. Butler, McEntire, Hemphill #surnames. http://ow.ly/Emxz #
• Had a good #genealogy day! #
• Scanned photo of great-aunt Annie Kate (Hemphill) Bryan, taken when they lived in Florida during WWII. http://ow.ly/EAFa #
• I’m in. RT @baysideresearch: I’m in! RT @SqueakyChu: For 2010, take the 1010 Reading Challenge. http://bit.ly/1jqy0e #LibraryThing #
• Uploaded headstone for Nina Melissa GREENLEE 1907 – 2004. She was a sergeant in WWII. http://ow.ly/EAH6 #
• Uploaded headstone photo for Joseph George HEMPHILL 1850 – 1864. http://ow.ly/EAJd #genealogy #surnames #
• Uploaded headstone photo for Columbus P. HEMPHILL 1857 – 1864. http://ow.ly/EALc #genealogy #surnames #
• Uploaded 1900 census image for Doolittle District, Murray, GA. Whitener, Patterson #surnames http://ow.ly/EAMW #genealogy #
• Reading: relatively curious about genealogy: Finding Family Stories in Online Digitized Books http://ow.ly/EG86 #
• Found death certificate for Edward Austin ROBERTS 1861 – 1930 http://ow.ly/Fn42 #genealogy #surnames #
• Finally registered to do Family Search indexing! #
• Coincidence? Working on first FS indexing batch. First item is a death cert. The attending Dr. boarded with my g-g-g-grandfather in 1900. #
• Finished my first indexing batch. Easy and fun! #
• Trying out Roots Magic. I may be in love. #

I began my blogging journey almost two years ago.  I had been reading a few blog posts about genealogy and those that were part of the Carnival of Genealogy always stood out.  The topics were interesting and fun and they seemed like such a great way to bring the genealogy to life.  As I pondered the idea of starting my own blog, I came back to the COG time and again, thinking “if I start a blog, I could do this.”

So I started the blog on December 27, 2008, just a few days before the deadline for the 39th edition, New Year’s Resolutions.  And yet, I didn’t post.  Days and weeks went by, COG calls for submissions were issued, and still I didn’t post.  Why not?

Partly, it was a timing issue.  It seemed like every time I checked the call for submissions, the deadline had just passed.  Or maybe the deadline was only a day or so away and I didn’t feel like I had enough time to devote to writing a quality post.  Sometimes, the topic didn’t appeal to me (Alzheimer’s Disease, for example – way to close to home), and that’s okay.  Not every topic is going to strike a chord with every writer.

I finally got it together this year and wrote my first post intended for the COG.  Unfortunately, I had the deadline date wrong and submitted it a day late, so it didn’t get included.  I made the deadline for the next edition, the 76th, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, with “Those Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer.” And there it stopped.  Until today.

Looking back, there are a number of topics that I wish I  had written about (some are the ones that inspired me at the beginning).  #20 – A Tribute to Women.  #31 – Proving or debunking family myths.  #32 – Family war stories.  #37 – Genealogy wish lists.  #39 – New Year’s Resolutions.  #56 – Essential Books in Your Genealogical Library.  #68 – Women’s History Month: One Woman.  #71 – Local History.

There is no reason I can’t write about these topics now, and maybe I will.    Jasia has said in her post for this edition that changes to the COG are coming; it will be interesting to see what 2010 holds.  There are two more editions in 2009, so that’s two more opportunities to participate this year.  Perhaps the COG and I will no longer speak in passing.   I could do this.

Written for the 84th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: What the COG means to me!

The topic for the 76th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is “How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Favorite Summer Memory from Your Youth.”  When I think of my favorite summer memories, I don’t think of the “big” events – vacations, trips, camp, etc.  It’s the soft, fuzzy memories that come to mind – the ones about family and traditions and the lazy summer days that only seem to happen when you are a kid.

My cousins and I spending the day at our maternal grandparents’ house and riding around the farm in the back of Papa’s truck.  He would take us out into the pasture and let us drive, one by one, even when we were nine or ten and could barely reach the pedals.  When we got hot, we’d go swimming in the creek, or if we were really lucky, Papa would take us up to the beach at Carter’s Lake.

Sunday afternoon softball games in the front yard at my grandparents’.  My grandmother always cooked Sunday dinner for the whole family when I was kid.  Back then, we couldn’t wait for the eating part to get over so that we could go out and play.  We would find good-sized rocks to use as base markers and set up the field while the women cleaned up the kitchen (who remembers what the men did?).

The sound of the electric ice cream maker churning on the back porch, waiting, waiting for that first sweet taste.

Sunday evenings at my paternal grandparents’ old house, watching in anticipation as my uncle sliced up a cold watermelon.  The kids would sit in the yard to eat, so that we could spit watermelon seeds in the grass.  It’s more than thirty years later and somebody else lives in that house.  I wonder if they ever have watermelon vines come up in the yard?

When I was kid, I thought those traditions would last – that I would continue to see aunts, uncles, and cousins every week.  But the pace is faster now and people are caught up in their own lives and families.  The lazy, hazy days of summer are gone and all that remains are the memories, like faded snapshots in an old album.