"Weekend Chat" - All Members are Invited! (29 May 2015)

Question

This is an ongoing "Chat" post that can be added to throughout the weekend.  All members of WikiTree are encouraged to join in, especially first-timers!

 

 

Say Hello and introduce yourself... where are you from and what are your interests?

 

Leaders, Mentors, Greeters, Pilots - What tips can you share with us today?

 

What improvements can we make?

 

What do you enjoy most about WikiTree?

 

Do you have any stories to share about famous or notorius ancestors?

 

What projects are you involved in, and how are they going?

 

What's the weather been like in your neck-of-the-woods?

 

... anything that you want to talk about!

 

 

Post answers here, comment on answers, up-vote things you like or agree with and have fun!  To receive notice when future Chats are posted, add Weekend_Chat to the list of Tags you follow.  You can edit your list by clicking on "My Feed" on G2G, then click to "add or edit".  Seperate words with and underscore.

Comments

Super job hosting the Chat Dale... I met several new people and had a great time.  This will be on the G2G Hot List for a long time.  Thanks for a great event!

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Robert I must stop with the Weekend Chat at least for now.  My primary internet connection went down and I am using my backup connection with a limited amount of Data available so unless I can get the primary back up soon I will be offline.  Sorry.

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No worries Dale.  You ran a great show.  I'll say hi to people who stop in.  Thanks again!

Answer 1

Hello! This is my first time commenting in the weekend chat!  It has been hot and sunny here in the Lowcountry of South Carolina!  I noticed a lot of you have been praying for no more rain.  We on the other hand are very dry at the moment and would love to have a good Spring Shower right now!  

I have been a confirmed member of WikiTree since February of 2013.  I am part of the Cemetery Project, working on Cemeteries in Hampton, South Carolina and surrounding counties.

I am going to strive to participate in more weekend chats in the future!  Happy weekend everyone!

Comments

Liz, Glad that you are here and hope to hear more from you in the future.  My daughter lives in North Carolina, near Charlotte so when we visit we sometimes venture down th South Carolina and from what I have seen it is a nice area there.  I visited the Salisbury National Cemetery last year and started to do some work on that but my situation changed and I do not think I will be doing much more on that.

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I've skipped out of Vermont and made it to Fort Jackson South Carolina a few times, once for just shy of 3 months.  I know I didn't get to see all the sights but what I saw was pretty.  Asided from the humidity in August, I enjoyed the weather there.

Glad to hear from you Liz!

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I don't know if the chat is still going on, but I have a question about the Cemetery Project. Is that here on WikiTree and where can I get more information?

The first two generations of my family to settlle in Texas are buried in a tiny patch of land called Oliver Cemetery just southwest of Austin. Only a few months ago, I discovered that I'm actually related--by way of a cousin of my great-great-great grandmother--to the Joseph Oliver who had donated the land for the cemetery.

I think I ran across a WikiTree page for Joseph Oliver somewhere. I don't know who created it. It was designated as "orphaned."

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Michael, The chat is still on and thanks for checking in.  I was absent for a while due to a bad internet connection but I think it is fixed now. As for your question, at the top of any page on WikiTree there is a tab for Find, click on that and scroll down to Projects.  From there you should be able to find the project you are looking for and it should show a contact person.

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Thank you for the warm welcome!

 Yes, South Caroliina is the most beautiful place on earth!  Or so I think!  Although I have been to other places that could rival it!  But I am a Carolina Girl through and through!  The Humidity seems to never go away, Robert!  I think the only time that you do not step outside and not be drenched in sweat is maybe January and February!  The last few weeks, the gnats have been horrible!  They almost tote you off!

Michael, in case you haven't found the link to the Cemeteries Project here is a link for you.  I believe that Lisa Franklin or Tom Shaw can help you get started there!

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:United_States_Cemeteries

Answer 2

I'm not sure I'm doing this correctly, but what the hell. My name is Mike Geary. About a year ago a cousin of mine started a wiki family tree here and sort of abandoned it to me. I've been fumbling with it on and off ever since. 

 

I can't offer much in the way of tips or suggestions, since I have little or no idea of what I'm doing. 

 

To my disappointment, I have little in the way of notorious ancestors. My mother's side (the Texas side) had little in the way of gunfighters or cattle rustlers, and only one moonshiner. My Father's side (the Irish) offered no Irish gangsters or debauched poets, and only one uncle who died of drink.  

   

I have only a few vaguely famous ancestors. We have one World War II hero (John Cary "Red" Morgan, if you're into American military trivia) and an actress whose main claim to fame was marrying Hollywood's John Ritter. These two were always known in the family. One thing I discovered while researching the family tree was that another cousin (John Cary's younger sister, in fact) had become a lifelong friend and editor of the (American) southern gothic novelist Flannery O'Connor. This cousin--Sally Fitzgerald--had a son named Benedict who went on to co-write The Passion of the Christ with Mel Gibson. Talk about notorious. 

 

I live in north Texas. The weather has been a bit wet. 

 

Comments

Hello Mike

I think it's great that you are carrying on with the tree that your cousin left you with.  We all started off fumbling and not knowing what we were doing even it was before wiki. The great thing about this sort of research is that you can learn as you go along and you seem to have found some pretty interesting family so far.

I'd be willing to help if I can  and I'm sure there are others that would be too.

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MIKE, i am still fumbling at times but if we fumble along together and help each other we can make progress.

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Welcome to Wiki Mike,
There are a bunch of people here to help starting from our founder, and fearless leader Chris Whitten all the way down to me with over 150 active members answering tour questions, pointing you in the right direction, you could in no time have a well-sourced, well-narrated family tree to pass on to your family.

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Thank you, everyone.

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I always thought John Ritter was funny.  That's a cool connection.

Answer 3

Hi. It's cloudy this morning in Brenham, TX. I have been part of wikitree for two years, but I still feel like a beginner. My father introduced me to genealogy twenty years ago. My mother was adopted. I know her maternal line and DNA has given me strong clues about the paternal line. I have not added my mother to my wikitree. I want to link her to her birth mother, but haven't taken that step yet.

I work with the Hull DNA Project and I adopt orphaned Hull profiles. I try to supplement ancestry "sources" with sources from usgenweb, familysearch and Massachusetts Vital Records. I try to comment on ancestry "sources" which are contradictory or differ from other sources.

Comments

Thank you for the report from Texas Sheran, I enjoyed some time in San Antonio one hot summer.

Thank you for the work you do on sources and adding more supporting resources.  That is some of the most important work to be done here.

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Lightning & thunderstorm in Pinney' Woods North East Texas ATM.

 I went quartz & diamond cave mining spelunking in Arkansas first part of the week, a mini vacation. I needed it, has been awhile. We are going to try to go back yonder about Tuesday this coming week. Hope we don't see any bears, cougars or wild hogs... think i'll take my lil' ole pea shooter this trip. :)

Answer 4

Hello all,

This is my first weekend chat.  I joined WikiTree in November 2014.  I still am not well-versed with navigating here, but I am learning.  I haven't made any connections with anyone else's tree, which I still hope to do.  I think it is the greatest thing to find cousins!  I have not entered any narrative bios on anyone, I have just collected informtion.  It seems overwhelming to write about everyone in my tree.  I hope to learn more about how to use and contribute to WikiTree.

It is a very sad time for me right now, since my mom passed away three weeks ago.  I think I need a project to get my mind occupied.

My father's family is from southern Indiana/Kentucky and there are LOTS of relatives and ancestors there.  It seems everyone had big families.   My mother's family is from Western Pennsylvania.

The weather here in Western New York has been hot, but given the winter that we had, it is a welcome.  If anyone here complains about the warm weather just remember what it was like five months ago!

Comments

Cathy,

First I am sorry for your loss.  The death of a loved one is hard and you begin to think bout all of the information that they had that is lost so now would be a good time to think about interviewing any other relatives about any knowledge they may have about your past and then enter it here, or at least somewhere, so that it is not lost to future generations

There are a lot of projects on here that would love to have you.  I also would guide you to the Style Guide under the Help tab as it has a lot of useful information about formatting profiles and writing bio's.

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Thank you Dale,

I will check out the Style Guide.  Where do I look for the projects?

Cathy

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If you click on the find tab and scroll down there is a projects button.

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Cathy, your post could have come from me, it's so similar to what I might say. My mom passed away at the end of March. I dabbled my toes in WikiTree before (just looking for info), and just created my own profile the first week of May. I have been lucky in one respect -- I've been working the family genealogy for more than 15 years now, & I was always asking Mom questions...

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Hello Cathy, There is a lot of land on the southern part of Kentucky. I currently live in Hopkins County west side of Kentucky. Welcome to Wikitree.

Answer 5

Hello. My name is Galen. I'm in Alabama but am from Acadian origin. It's been interesting to see the conversations about what an Acadian is since it is one of the terms relating to people which does not represent a country. I've not spent much time on Wikitree so am still learning the ropes. Started working on my family tree after my mother had already gathered a great deal of info. I wish that I'd taken more interest in the family tree when I was younger because the older people still living at the time would remember the stories and possible have records that are impossible to now find. I wish that information concerning sources was better because I've learn that just because it says, ancestry.com, it doesn't mean it's correct. I have an accout with Myheritage and have found the same issue there. There may be some thing which I would change but at this point, I'm too new be concerned. The folks here have been really great and thanks for all the great help and advice I've seen. Have a great weekend!!

Comments

Galen,

Welcome to WikiTree.  One of the sites for information that I use is familysearch.org.  They are free and have a lot of records on there and they even list records that are on other sites, but with some of them you can not see the image unless you ay a fee, but they at least show a transcribed record.

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Thank you for posting Galen... nice to meet you.  You got me thinking and now I wonder, what does Acadian mean to you and your family?  (if you don't mind sharing :)

Answer 6

Hello WikiTree Genologists!

      It's cloudy and raining here in mid-Michigan! Those Great Lake fronts...

Anyways, I've always taken a particular interest in Science... It's my favorite subject, and Geneology is science (of us Humans). I'm a little egotistical here, mostly looking for my family and others related to me. So, most likely the person reading this is my 36th cousin or closer. I'd like to know more about you! So reply away...

My mother's side of the family have been in America since the early 1700's, coming from Germany in the Rhineland region. So far we've had 8 generations of Niccums born here (I believe). Unfortunately, I have not found too much information on my Father's side, Myers, but they may be Irish or Jewish.

I'd like to thank everyone involved in WikiTree! You're bringing humanity closer than ever before!

Comments

Hi Brendan, that was great!

Any chance you are going to the Global Family Reunion next weekend?

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I would if I could.

Answer 7

Gorgeous day here in Port Townsend, WA and even more fantastic than the weather, is that I just managed to add some distant relations and connect to a large orphaned familly.  And a plus to that, is it gives me another, back-up connection to AJ.

And it gets even better :D while going through my binders of data, to build the bridge to the orphans,  the brother of the link filled out a Civil War Quesionaire in 1922. Tells of what life was like in the mid 1800's and a story about  their struggles at Cumberland Gap and Sherman rescuing them in Knoxville. Will get it trascribed and added to his profile.

Now time to take a walk and enjoy life outdoors :D

Comments

I hope you did enjoy your time outdoors Patt.  My two sons and I all piled on the 4-wheeler and went down to bluff overlooking the water.  We sat there for about half an hour in the wind with the waves crashing the rocks.  It was like a mini-vacation.

Answer 8

My first "weekend chat", so I'll introduce myself a bit: I'm a grad student in Canada, so these days I don't get too much time for family history. Still, when I do take a bit of time, it's always fascinating what kinds of discoveries I make: Yesterday I discovered that a set of 3rd cousins 1x removed are living in the same city as me. I was editing some profiles on FamilySearch, and realized that a whole set of those profiles had also been edited by someone else. Turns out that they were more closely related than I'd originally thought.

Also, last week, via WikiTree, another 4th or 5th cousin got in touch when he proposed a profile merger & after we exchanged emails. He'd joined because of AJ's TED talk. So that's one thing that I appreciate about Wikitree: how it's facilitated interactions like that. I only joined a bit over a year ago, but that's, I think the 5th or 6th time that a cousin has contacted me because of WikiTree. I think that there are so manay small mysteries that will only get solved by sharing & comparing notes with cousins. 

I'll add that I'm fascinated by the "Relationship Finder" functionality here. Turns out that I'm actually related (although quite distantly!) to quite a few folks here thanks to the Québécois/French Canadian side of my family.

Comments

Welcome to our Weekend Chat here on WikiTree.  As time goes on and you make other connections I predict that you will find a lot more cousins on here from some very unexpected places.  I was always told thet we were distant cousins of Benedict Arnold on my mothers side and Daniel Boone on my fathers side.  Turns out that I am distantly related to both but the connection is on my fathers side for both.

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Great post JN, I hope you join us regularly.

I met some cousins through WikiTree too... I know just how you feel!

Answer 9

Hello, I've never participated in weekend chat before. I'm an archaeologist (so I'm pretty interested in dead people generally), and I come from a long line of avid genealogists. I found some materials from my great-aunt last summer, decided to put them into WikiTree, and haven't been able to break free of its orbit since. It really is an obsession, isn't it? But I've met some distant cousins and with their help have been able to expand our family tree. It's been a fascinating experience. Many of my family lines have been in the Americas for a long time (I had ancestors in Jamestown, Plymouth, and Quebec), so I look forward to learning more.

Comments

Wow! A real archaeologist on Wikitree! That is awesome! Have you been on any famous digs? Oops, better check profile first!

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I second what Chryse said, but want to add Welcome to our Weekend Chat and hope you keep returning with some interesting finds in the future chats, just an FYI we are 18th cousins.

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I'm afraid I mostly work in time periods that don't get a lot of publicity, so I doubt anyone outside of the field has heard of most of the places where I've worked. I did have a TV station in Fargo interview me last week on an excavation I'm doing in a pioneer cemetery in rural Minnesota, though! That's as close to fame as I come.

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Thanks, Dale! Nice to meet you, cousin!

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I'm glad you participated in the Chat Rebecca, great intro.  You sound like the exact kind of person we all like to work with :)

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Thanks Robert!

Answer 10

Here in Colorado, we still have a couple of hours left in the weekend.

I just got back from a week-long genealogy trip to upstate New York. My husband joined me, and helped a lot by meeting with the groundskeeper at a cemetery, searching through microfilm, etc. He took some great photos, too.

As a result of the trip, one of my brickwalls is down! We now know more than his great-grandmother's name. We know her parents' names, names of siblings, birthplace, estimated birth year, reported death place and date, etc. There's still more we have to get clear on about her, like verifying the newspaper report of her death.

I was also able to get more information on the family of my 2nd great-grandmother, who had been a brick wall until a few months ago.

Helpful places where we found info we hadn't found online: cemeteries, county clerks, town and county historical societies, county historians, local libraries.

My only regret is that the timing didn't allow for a detour to the GFR.

Comments

Carole, Glad to hear from you and very glad that you broke thru a brickwall.  That is always the best way to find information, I remember onetrip with my grandmother in the mountains of Pennslyvania where she took us to the house where she grew up and the best part is that we even got to go inside because it was owned at the time by one of her nephews.  Sorry about the delay but I live in Ohio and I went to bed about the time you werepoeting your answer, better late than never I guess.

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Congratulations on breaking down a brick-wall Carole, that has to feel super!

Answer 11

One of the things that I have been working on that I wanted to share is at  http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/152497/should-we-have-a-new-privacy-level-for-certain-profiles   I am hoping by posting this question here, I can get some more people to comment on the question (please do it on the question itself).   I would love to hear from the newer members, those of you who are just getting started.   I think this is an important question for all of us to think about and express our opinion.

Comments

I agree this is important.  Thank you for putting the link here; I hope it sends all of our viewers there to weigh in.  I up-voted you here and there.  I might chime in if I have anything useful to add.   Again, thanks!

Answer 12

Little late posting. Been a member since 2011 and spend far too much time on WikiTree (according to my awesome husband)

Interests- genealogy, web design, photography, Kayaking, military, walking around in graveyards, finding new family members

Tips- If in doubt don't be afraid to ask for help. Try and learn how wikitree works before diving in too quickly. Ask for a mentor to assist you if you need it.

Projects- Czech Roots, Dutch Roots, NNS, Templates, Apps, Arborists, ......

Rainy 2 weeks here in Oklahoma! Hopefully more sunlight here soon!

Spent the weekend inside working on improving Czech project pages, Adding links to parish records and creating pages for easier determination of correct parish, categories, adding ppp to profiles for several  projects & adding new parameters to the Czech template. (parameters not ready for use)

 

 

 

Comments

Better late than never I say. Thank you for all that you do here.

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Thank you for sharing Michelle.  That was perfect :)

Answer 13

Hello everyone.  Living in Florida right now but will be moving back to Oregon in a few weeks.  Can't wait til get back to the west coast!  I was raised in Alaska so this humidity is killing me. The thunder storms and sunsets are pretty amazing here in Florida though. But it will be nice to see mountains and the seasons change again.

My daughter graduates high school this weekend so I'm very excited about that. She and I are both very interested in genealogy. So far I've found out that we are a direct descendent of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower. So I'm working on sources for all that. Also found a direct line to King Edward III which will be fun to explore.

The thing I like about wikitree is the fact that it's free but more importantly the people here seem to be incredibly helpful and friendly.

Answer 14

Hi All,

Wet in North Yorkshire, England  today and we have had snow this week.

Just wanted to pass on some tips

www.lostcousins.com is free this weekend (its the sites birthday, this one works by putting census references for your ancestors and matching you to others who have done the same)

One month of www.findmypast.com world membership is half price with the code ONEW50 until tomorrow, making it cheaper  than a one month UK membership. Can also de-activate the auto renew at anytime in the month in the accounts details so i usually do it straight away after subscribing for a month so no chance of paying more than i intend to.

Also I connected my first couple of unconnected unrelated to me yesterday yippee :)

Answer 15

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I haven't been good for much today. My "partner in wine" friend, Sarah came over for as she put it a "food & wine marathon". LOL  We had a four course meal with four different wines that I received through my DirectCellars membership. :) Caeser salad, cream of roasted vegetable soup, salmon pizza and cheesecake. The last two courses we ate while watching "The Wine Show" on Hulu. Very fun show. Then I showed her an episode of William Shatner's Brown Bag Wine Tasting show! I love how he makes the person describe the wine in the descriptors of their profession.

Has anyone seen that Snapple commercial about the first spam telegraph in 1864? LOL One of the things that sticks out to me most is the "social security numbers" part, totally wasn't around in 1864. LOL

Ok, off I go to try to figure out where this one Speary possibly comes into my tree or is part of the Germany/Pennsylvania Sperry's.