Jessica's Genejournal

A Blog Change …

jesshistory2 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:51:52 +0000

As you might have already noticed, I have removed the image of the writing pen with the book, and I have put a new image on my blog. I created a yahoo avatar for myself, and you can find it below the blog post archives. Of course, I don’t really look anything like that image. (Although I wish I was that pretty.)

Originally posted on April 18, 2008.

So, What Punctuation Mark Am I?

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:41:24 +0000

Earlier today, Lori Thornton started this quiz meme, and I’ve decided to take this quiz as well. So here are my results:

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven.

You aren’t concerned much with theories or dreams… only what’s true or untrue.

You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched.

You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren’t subject to whim or emotions.

Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice.

(But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!)

You excel in: Leadership positions

You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Originally posted on April 7, 2008.

Another Personality Quiz …

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:37:39 +0000

Since the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be on traits and other genealogy bloggers are posting on personality quizzes, I thought I would do another one. This one is on thinking, and here are my results:

Your Thinking is Abstract and Sequential

You like to do research and collect lots of information.

The more facts you have, the easier it is for you to learn.

You need to figure things out for yourself and consider all possibilities.

You tend to become an expert in the subjects that you study.

It’s difficult for you to work with people who know less than you do.

You aren’t a very patient teacher, and you don’t like convincing people that you’re right.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

So, what kind of thinker are you? Take the quiz and let me know what your results are!

Originally posted on April 8, 2008.

Things Handed Down: Traits and Characteristics

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:35:55 +0000

The topic for this edition of the carnival of genealogy is on family traits. I’ve written briefly about genetic traits before, but I have not posted very much on this topic. Nor have I posted very much on personality traits of my family members, other than mentioning my grandfather’s interest in history. Instead of focusing on both characteristics and genetic traits, I thought I would just focus on genetic traits passed down that I have noticed from photographs of family members and ancestors.

Until I started doing genealogy research, I had not seen very many pictures of my ancestors. I had seen pictures of my great-grandparents and my grandfather in uniform, but outside of that, I really hadn’t seen very many old pictures. I was curious as a little girl, but I don’t think I was as interested in old family photographs until I began to do genealogy research.

One of the first photographs that I began to notice similar traits between different generations was when I saw my maternal grandparents’ wedding pictures. Both my father and I immediately recognized facial features that were similar in both my mother and grandma. (At least it is easier for me to be able to recognize the facial features when looking at the picture.) Since that time, I have seen other old family pictures, and have recognized facial features in family members that came from ancestors.

A few years ago I was able to view some old pictures from my maternal side of my family. My grandma showed me a picture of her maternal grandparents, and I recognized facial features that both my grandma and her grandma shared. Another picture that my grandma showed me was of her parents when they were young. Both of my brother and I looked at the picture and came to the conclusion that I looked very much like my great-grandmother. (Well, I don’t look exactly like her, but the resemblance is quite close. Of course, this was not the first time in my life that I heard from a family member that I inherited a certain trait from an ancestor. When I was little, my mom told me that I supposedly had the same hair color as this great-grandmother. Supposedly, the hair color of female ancestors on my mother side of the family skips generations and shows up in every other generation of descendants. For example, if I had a daughter, her hair color would likely be the same or very similar to the hair color of my maternal grandma.) Of course, I did not just inherit all of traits from my mother’s side. From my father’s side, I inherited my dad’s smile with the dimple, and when I looked at a picture of my paternal grandma as a young woman, I realized that both my dad and I inherited our smile from her.

Another instance where I recognized facial features was when one of my distant cousins e-mailed me a few images of old family pictures that she had. One of the pictures appeared to be a Civil War Era photograph of a young woman, of whom my cousin did not know the name of. I noticed that this woman had a long face, and from looking at pictures of other family members that my cousin e-mailed me and that I had (from my great-great-grandfather to my father and uncles), I determined that this woman was probably the wife of my Civil War veteran ancestor. I believe that is who the woman is as several of my paternal relatives and ancestors after the Civil War, have long faces. Could I be wrong? Probably, but this is my best guess as the picture of my paternal great-great-grandmother (e-mailed to me by my cousin) does not resemble the Civil War Era woman.

Of course, I wish I had more old family pictures of ancestors. Most of the old family pictures are of ancestors who lived in the late-1800s and early-1900s, and only increase in number with my great-grandparents. I think that is the case because many of my ancestors were poor and couldn’t afford to have their picture taken. Maybe they were able to afford a couple of pictures, but I suspect that those pictures were luxuries and for special occasions. As I stated before, one of my ancestors was a Civil War veteran, and I wish I had a picture of him in his uniform. Maybe another one of his descendants has his picture. I don’t know. One thing that I like about viewing old pictures is that the pictures give me an idea what my ancestors looked like and what they wore. I guess viewing these old pictures help satisfy my curiosity over what my ancestors look like.

Originally posted on April 8, 2008.

What Kind of American Am I?

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:34:20 +0000

A few days ago, Terry Thornton asked, “Which type of American are you?,” and I feel that footnoteMaven’s response is very close to what I believe. I don’t believe I could write better or more eloquent post than hers. (I too was raised to respect the laws of other nations in addition to the laws of my own country. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking the laws of other nations that one may visit.)

What else can I say, but say, “I love my country.”

Originally posted on April 8, 2008.

3rd Edition of Where Were You? Carnival Posted!

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:32:33 +0000

The third edition of the Where Were You? Carnival has been posted! You can read it here, and read the additional entry here. The topic for this carnival was on where ancestors were during the Civil War. The topic for the next edition is on where people were on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked. Enjoy!

Originally posted on April 11, 2008.

Did Anyone See These Two Articles?

jesshistory2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:30:54 +0000

I was just wondering if anyone had seen Ancestry’s post on fraudulent websites and Ancestry Insider’s post on the article? I find it quite interesting that Ancestry is warning genealogists about fraudulent websites. I don’t know how others might feel, but I feel this article was posted more to protect ancestry’s image than it was to protect fellow genealogists. (Of course, that is not necessarily wrong, especially if another website is using their copyrighted images.) I guess I just have some mixed feelings about the news that they posted.

Of course, I have to agree with the two comments on Ancestry Insiders’ post. Websites with genealogy links are almost always to Ancestry databases, and I think it makes it difficult for genealogists to differentiate between fraudulent and real sites since Ancestry owns most of the genealogy databases that are online.

Either way, I think it is sad that there are people out there who would use fraudulent means and steal images or formats to make money off of the interest in genealogy.

Originally posted on April 11, 2008.

More Genealogy Blogs Added!

jesshistory2 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:15:03 +0000

Today I have added a few more genealogy blogs. The blogs added are:

Winging It
Ahnenforschung Genealogy – My Time In History (Note: auf Deutsch/ in German)
Genealogy Works & Fun Blog

You can find these and other blogs on the lower left side of the blog. Any suggestions for other history or genealogy blogs are welcome.

Originally posted on March 31, 2008.

So It’s April Fool’s Day …

jesshistory2 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:13:47 +0000

Yes, this is another one of those random posts. As a child, I always wondered if someone was going to pull off a prank on me on that day, and sometimes, I wonder how my ancestors reacted to this day. Did children pull off pranks on this day, or did my ancestors pay little attention to this day? I’m not sure. It is always interesting to read about how people celebrated certain holidays.

Originally posted on April 1, 2008.

Records Being Indexed At FamilySearch – An Update

jesshistory2 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:12:20 +0000

In case anyone is wondering which records are currently being indexed at FamilySearch Indexing, here is a list of a few records:

1870 U. S. Census
1930 Mexico Census
State censuses of South Dakota and Wisconsin
Irish bmds
Philadelphia marriage indexes

As you can see, several records are being indexed. A few of these records have been indexed for a while. You can find out more information here.

Originally posted on April 3, 2008.