Veteran's Day 2011

Veteran's Day, good time to remember our Veterans and Active Troops, should remember them every day but it's nice to have a special day set aside to remember and give thanks to those that served and sacrificed for our freedom.
I have many Veteran relatives and ancestors and friends and I am proud of each and every one of them.  I spent last night going through fold3.com looking at all the military records of my many ancestors who served in one capacity or another.  I am very proud and thankful for their service.

My Uncles all served in the military.  Uncle Steve & Uncle Bob in Korea, Uncle Stoney & Uncle Farl in WWII, Uncle Don and Uncle Les were in the Navy and Army.  My Grandfather Ambrose M. Cannon was in WW 1.  That is his picture above, I don't know why this blog thingy decided to move it up there, but there he is.  The below is an article that he wrote a letter to the editor to his hometown newspaper.

To reflect on what my ancestors accomplished, I have to say that I don't think that I evolved well.  I think that if Darwin met me he would throw his papers up in the air, rip out some hair and start all over again on his theory of evolution.
I don't think that I would have the "fight" in me to walk to a war, let alone kill someone.  But they did for what they believed in and for the luxuries that we have today in our freedoms.  Men and Women continue to fight for our freedoms today and they are wonderful people!  The best of the best!

Miller Family Line

This is the other family line that I found needs very extensive work done to it and I'm on it.

The Robert Miller family lived in Vermont around the early 1800's.  I was going through the list of children that I have for this family and noticed that very few of most of them have no death dates.  I got checking and found some that died the first 10 years of their lives.  I thought that this is not possible till I remember reading about the 3-6,000 people that Malignant fever wiped out in the early 1800's.  Means my family members were some of them.  I wonder if this played a part of their decision to move out West?  Would be very devastating to have so many siblings pass away and watching friends and acquaintances pass away so quickly as well.  I will do further research on this and see what I can find and post my findings here.

Robison Family line

Got sidetracked, I started going through my family tree, sometimes when I am tired at night, that is what I do, just walk through the different family lines.  I found 2 that need some serious work done to it.  Lots of information on ancestry.com is wrong, places of birth/death.  Can make for finding absolutely nothing which is what it was doing till I changed it.  Very different findings I am finding for my cluster research of this family.  This is going to take some very intense work because I am finding dates and places both wrong on all accounts that I find people have already listed.

Pillsbury Family line

Just got started on the Pillsbury Family line, should be interesting.  I know that Hannah Pillsbury married Joseph Hoit and that was our beginning link to the Pillsbury family line.  I know I checked and found out that we are relatives of the founders of Pillsbury, Inc.  but of course, not a close tie but we share dna. That's about all I know currently, hope by the end of the week that I will know more. 

I just started and am finding a lot of our relatives were in the American Revolutionary War.  I love studying and learning about the American Revolutionary War.  It always amazes me about the war that was on the land that we currently lived on.  I like to imagine the spirit that they had fighting for their land and beliefs.  Sometimes it was neighbor against neighbor, some had uniforms, some didn't and NO SHOES.  I can't imagine going out in no shoes and in the snow.  I think if someone knocked on my door and I opened it and they told me I had to go out.........in the snow..........march, fight, kill or be killed that the door would swing shut real fast with me still inside the house!  I don't think I evolved well......there goes Darwin's theory right INSIDE the door!

Online Family Tree Databases credibility

hmmmmmmmmmmm....................... I always thought that I was in favor of online family tree databases.  When it was questioned, I questioned the person's credibility that brought the subject up.  But now I think I am on this person's side or at least I can see his reasoning for saying what he said.  There is 1 online datebase that I tried out, quit, went back and tried again and left it in 100% disgust.  I use another one but I am questioning the use of it now.  The information, census', vital records that I get is 100% worth the money that I pay.  But the information that is being put out there and shared without question by other people is what I question now.  I'm wondering if people are actually reading what they are putting on their family trees. 
I have found a lot of information that is not accurate even in the smallest of percentages and people just blindly put it on their family trees which means their tree is wrong.  I put what I find basically on the family tree, such as spouses & children.  Then I go through and put reasoning and logic into it back in their day, not current day and I go through a process of deletion which sometimes takes some time.  That is why I have my tree "private".  I have to at least attach a source to what is on my tree to make it even a little credible, then take it to as credible as I can get it. 
When working on genealogy you have to realize that you will never get it 100%.  For some reason some things are just not to be found till future generations.  With the internet, you can get it close or "completely drive the bus into the ditch".  Which if it's the later, you can still get it corrected as closely as you can at the time.  Sometimes things don't make sense to me, so I go and work on something else and think about it and then I go back and things usually will come together.  That is why when a person asks me to find information for them, they seem to think that it's instanteous and it's not always. 
You have to sort things out.  Sometimes things don't make sense to us in this current day.  Simple truth is that we don't think as they did 200 years ago.  In some ways we have hopefully evolved.  Or we have not, they had it right and we tried to overthink the outcome.  We do do that, ya know?
Be leary of online family tree databases but be appreciative at the same time.  Doesn't make sense but what I am talking about is be appreciative of the stories and pictures that you find.  Be appreciative of the records that you find.  I do indexing for both ancestry and familysearch and it takes a lot of time and a lot of people to get these records online to make your research easier.  Back when I started working on genealogy I never dreamed that we would have what we have today.  I keep thinking how my Grandmother would of been all over this happily! 
I have a GGG Grandfather that back in 1967 she told me that since we were Mormon that his family was Catholic and against that we had joined the church and getting records would not be possible.  I really didn't understand that because after all, we are the finest of people!  But I believed what she said.  30 years later when I found his family had not only provided his death date but a story about his life.  I just sat there and looked around after I found it wishing that my grandmother was around to tell her and I realized that since she had passed away she probably already knew.  But he lived to be 97 years old and the 95 year grace period after his death, we would not of been able to get his death dates.  So mission compleat!
Also be leary of what you find on the various websites.  A lot of stories are cut, copied and pasted and you would not believe how many falsehoods I have found about my ancestors.  Too many to count and the stories just keep getting told over and over and over and over and over again.  Check your facts, get into the detail of the stories and research the time period that they lived in.  When I need a break or know I should be taking a break I read history books of that area and that time period and I learn more about how they thought, what life practices they had, what religions were being practiced in their areas and what people that lived there thought of the different religions.  Religion definitely played a MAJOR part in people's lives.  Question everything, get detailed, nit-pick every word and you will get the true story that should be told for generations.
So in this respect, I love what the internet has given to the world of Genealogy!

Things are not as they seem.............

Sometimes you see something and experience some shock & awe.  I found this grave marker:

I could not believe that someone would put something like this on a grave marker.  My husband refused to take the picture so I did.  Mainly because Churchill is a name that I descend from.  I came home and just had to tell my father about it, I figured that it was their hateful children because he had died around the time of WW1 and she died in 1946.  But that wasn't the case I found out, they didn't have any children.  Come to find out after researching the couple.  The husband & wife were very much a big part of their community and well liked.  He was a judge, town moderator and had no affiliation with Germany, Hitler or Nazism at all.  But him and his wife did live for awhile in an Indian community and I have been told that there are some Indians that use to use this "symbol" so maybe that is why it is there.  I am not listing where this grave marker is because the people are highly respected in their town and I would like it to stay that way.  But my concern and disgust turned to admiration for the couple and the high standards they held in their community.  Definitely 2 people that wanted the best for the town that they lived in, loving, caring people!!
See, things are not always as they seem, a little bit of research can turn a shock into admiration of 2 people!  I think this is why if something I feared, I would get books and research the subject and release all my fears, this good practice that I enstilled in my life at a young age became a good experience for me in my latter years!

Webinars, Cemeteries & Research

seems to be what my life has turned into.  I have been very busy researching the Kimball & Colby family lines.  I also went to Lebanon, New Hampshire to search for family at cemeteries.  It was really nice, I had never been there before.  It was interesting to look around and try to envision the people that were my ancestors and where they might of been, living and working in the area.  It is a very nice place to visit!  I do plan on going back, they are fixing up the old church on Main St. behind it is a cemetery that we spent some time taking pictures.  Very interesting!! 

We went to Grafton, New Hampshire, found a few cemeteries and we stopped and took pictures but didn't find the cemeteries with my family in it.  Maybe they don't have headstones now or then?????  Don't know but I will do some more research and see what I can come up with!  I need to find ONE gravestone to prove that he was buried there and that is Jedidiah Hoit's son John and anyone in his family.  It just doesn't seem logical that he lived in Grafton, New Hampshire and everyone has him listed as dying and being buried in Utica, NY.  Doesn't make sense to me at all.  I am sure he is buried at Grafton, New Hampshire, just have to prove it.

I have been listening to a lot of webinars online and learning some really valuable information.  They have been of BIG help to me and my research and work that I am doing with the Bridgton Historical Society.