Ananias Jackson Booth

A date and place of birth for A.J. has been a brickwall for many a researcher. The few census entries that can be found for A.J. say he was born in 1833 in New York. However, Ancestry.com seems to have posted new millitary info and there's an entry of interest.

U. S. Army, register of Enlistments, 1798-1914
Booth, Ananias J., Hazel eyes, dark hair, fair complexion, b. 1829 Fishkill, (Duchess County) New York, Laborer, Registered 25 Nov 1850 (age 21) at Pokupsic (Poughkeepsie, NY) by Gibson, Infantry K, Deserted 12 Jul 1851, at camp in Fort ___________ (might be Fort Kaskaskia or Fort Washington).

Deserting the army would certainly be a good reason for A.J. to leave New York state.

I have A.J.'s military record from the Civil War. He deserted there too but returned in time for the Battle of Vicksburg. With the Civil War, getting away with deserting may not have been as easy as it would have beein in 1851.

The upshot is there's circumstantial evidence that would lead one to believe that the 1850 Army record is a good lead on A.J.'s birth.

I've written to Delta County, Texas (where A.J. died) to see if it's possible to find a death record. According to Delta County, death records weren't kept until the early 1900's. If I'm lucky, I'll find a probate or cemetery records. My next stop is the Delta County library to see what they can find. They ask for a small research fee. Not a problem. Any genealogist will tell you that genealogy ain't a cheap hobby.

Bomberg Turns out to be Broberg

I've been tracking down my D's; that is, dead people with no death date. I had an entry for Louise Marie Bomberg. I went looking for her husband Walter Roland McKinley. In a routine newspaper search, I found a Mrs. Walter McKinley as a survivor in the obituary of Mrs. Anna Josephine Broberg. The places were right--Loves Park and Cambridge, Illinois. So I started looking for the Broberg family. It turns out that my Louie Marie Bomberg was actually Marie Louise Broberg. I was able to locate census entries and a SSDI entry for Marie (327-40-2526). Now I'm on the hunt for obituaries for Marie and Walter to prove that I have the right person.

In a lull

I've exhaused every one of my pursuits for F (Find A Grave entry) and O (Obituary) combinations. Now I'm pursing Ds (deaths) info so that I can then look for Os and do Fs, and then ask for pictures.

I've got a small monument to the McKee family in the making on Find A Grave. The thing that is so nice about Find A Grave is that it's a free for users. Anyone who is looking for a family member will be able to follow all of the links (sometimes as many as four generations) back. I love Find A Grave...it's way beyond cool.

So wish me luck with chasing down all of my Ds...those death records are out there somewhere...

Jane (McKee) Campbell

Over the summer, a very kind soul sent me additional information on Jane. This additional information is going to cause me to revise not only Jane's story but also Robert's story. Based on this information, Jane stayed in New York City until about 1849 and I'm thinking that she stayed with her brother Robert and his family. So I have them in Randolph County too early. I'm going to have to take a critical look at Robert's story too.

Over the summer, I also fully implimented the user defined field with codes (F,O,D,L,-). F = Find a Grave; O = Obituary; D = Dead; L = Lurk; - = living person. I've added 248 memorials to Find A Grave. I've tracked down lots of obituaries; however, not all of them have burial locations. I need to work on that problem. I've also found additional death dates that I've never had before. The next step is locating obituaries. I have all of my lurks marked so that I can sweep through the database twice a year starting next year. With the coding, I'll know exactly who I should be looking for obituaries for, which will make searching more efficient. It's kinda goulish but death is a natural part of life I suppose.

Working on Tech-Tamers Blog

While working rather extensively with Google doc's, I decided it might be worth setting up a blog for Technology Tamers. Pattie agreed. So my researching and writing tasks are temporarily sidelined while I set up that blog. The advantage is that Pattie and I will both be able to edit the blog and neither of us will have to try to break into my Verizon account to update the website. Breaking in to my Verizon account is a surprising pain in the buttcuss. Anyway, back to my other task...Oh, and I'm doing the laundry too...

Writing, writing, writing

I've been pecking at three articles--general genealogy articles--and I've finished first drafts and submitted all three pieces to the Florida State quarterly. It will be interesting to see what gets accepted and what gets rejected. I completed two of the articles using Google Docs and was able to share them with the quarterly editor. Working this way is way cool. Now I'm trying to think of more to write about and more presentations to put together. After all, Pattie (presentation partner) and I have to support our habit.

Playing with this blog is so much easier than dealing with the website on Rootsweb. Speaking of which, I still need to fix the Index page and see if I can move the footer to the end of the page where it belongs. I just hate trying to deal with it.

Buried in Find A Grave

I've been doing a systematic search of Find A Grave for everyone in my database. So far, I've added 221 memorials...most with complete bios. If you want to see what I've been up to, my Find A Grave number is 47140371. You can look me up and see all of the memorials that I've added.

I've also been editing and writing. The June 2010 issue of the FSGS newsletter is finished and in the mail. I hope it's well received. And I've written a few articles to submit to various newsletters and quarterlies. We'll see how much of it gets published.