My Mystery Monday to do list just keeps getting longer and longer. I’m currently scanning documents that pertain to my Great-Grandfather, William Lawrence Moore. Some I’d scanned before but could use a fresh scan. Others, I never scanned before so I’m getting my first look at them.
Perpetual Care
Cemetery Diagram
I know you guys must be getting sick of me saying what good record keepers my Great-Grandparents were. It bears repeating though since I just spent 20 minutes scanning correspondence between multiple family members about the family lot at Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. The above diagram was sent to William when he inquired in 1970 about keeping up the graves. From what I can tell Robert J. Moore Jr and his wife Gertrude were taking care of the graves until Gertrude’s death in 1970. Then Gertrude’s family and the Moores split the costs of perpetual care for the lot.
I had known the names of the people in the grave, but not in this detail. We called the cemetery back when we originally got the deed from my Grandfather. We just had the names, not the dates or anything like the detailed diagram above.
Figuring It Out
The List
Once again, I’m blessed that William wanted to make a list of the family members buried in the plot. He left it in the paperwork and correspondence for the perpetual care. The only one not on William’s list is “Baby Moore.”
Based on the burial date of 1909 and that the baby is in the same plot as Robert J. Moore Sr. and his wife, I would say the child would have been my Great-Grandfather’s sibling. I’ll have to look at birth and death records for Brooklyn to make sure.
The other interesting thing is that M. Moore or William’s mother, wasn’t buried until 1945. She last showed on census records with the family in 1910. In the 1915 State Census she is missing and in the 1920 United States Census, her husband is still listed as married. So where was Mary Johnson-Moore from 1910 to 1945?
Oops Moment
Looking at the paperwork from the cemetery, I know why New Jersey didn’t find a death record for my William H. Moore even after numerous attempts. He died in 1923, not 1928! Well that makes a big difference!
When I sat down to write a blog post for today, I was completely un-inspired. I couldn’t think of anything to write about. The great thing is I have an Excel spreadsheet for that problem. I opened my spreadsheet and was looking around, then I came to my website and decided to look through old posts to find one to update. That’s where I found true inspiration for today’s blog post.
Misadventures of a Genealogist has 81 categories on the blog
I never think about my categories except when I’m scrolling through them. I tell myself that it’s a lot of stuff to scroll through and that I need to remedy that. Then I go about my business and ignore it. The only problem I find myself in now is that 2017 seems to be the year I can no longer just walk away from things.
I want to fix it, and this is the week it’s happening. What I thought was funny when I started blogging in March of 2010 is no longer funny. I want to make things user friendly here on the website.
My inspiration comes from a genea-friend from when I started blogging.
Tonia Kendrick runs her blog Solopreneur Diaries and I’ve been following it since it’s launch. She has some great posts that have made me rethink my blog management. Two posts are of particular interest to me today. Using a Spreadsheet for your Content Ideas and When You Feel That Nagging Feeling. What I got from that page is that she has main categories and sub-categories for each one. It keeps the blog focused and on topic.
One issue can be solved right away. I don’t need “All Posts” or “Misadventures of a Genealogist” categories. This blog is Misadventures of a Genealogist, I don’t need a category to state that. With just a quick thought process, this is what I came up with.
Not every subcategory is shown
With 81 categories, I wasn’t going to add everything to a graphic. I really just wanted to have some basic categories to start with. Between my Index pages and these categories, I think it will really cover things I’ve posted on the blog. Anything that doesn’t fit into the four categories can fall into uncategorized.
Actually now that I’m studying it, I don’t even think Genealogy Do-Over needs its own category since I have an Index page for that. This will allow me to categorize those posts into Research, Identification, and Organization when it applies to those posts.
Do you have any ideas about categories that I am missing? Be sure to let me know!
Does this mean all your links are going to break?
They shouldn’t! My blog structure is set up to use the date in the URL. It’s not great for my SEO score for sure, but it also means changing categories isn’t going to effect my URL links.
I might change that setup one day but thankfully Tonia also has a post showing how to deal with that! You might be worried that this will distract me from my Do-Over. It won’t! I’m going to be doing this on the days that I’m not working on my Do-Over.
Disclaimer: I made no profit for mentioning Tonia’s post. There are no affiliate links on the post. Once you click over to her website, her disclosures about links and profit apply to her website.
It is a snowy Saturday here in Southern Maryland. What better way to spend it then going on a Google Earth Adventure! Since I’ve been in a nostalgic mood, I thought I would take a trip to my Grandma’s house. I haven’t made the full journey there since September 2005. I’ve made the partial journey to different destinations, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her house.
Let’s see our route!
Wow, I didn’t realize that we spent 11 hours, probably longer, going to Grandma’s house. I don’t remember it, but my parents tell me that before it took longer because the Interstate didn’t go through where it does now. They had to go into Pennsylvania and come back down from Columbus.
We also split our trip into two days. My Aunt Melinda lives in Southern Ohio and it takes about 8 hours to get to her house. We would usually stop and spend the night with her and then head out in the morning. Of course a trip to Ohio isn’t a trip to Ohio without visiting two more Aunts in New Richmond, Ohio. After that, it is a short trip to Indiana.
I’m cheating and starting in Indiana!
The Lawrenceburg Exit
There is something about that first exit off the Interstate. To get to Grandma’s we’d have to exit I-275. We are heading toward Lawrenceburg and Aurora, then onto Dillsboro. Even though it’s been over 10 years since I’ve taken it, this exit is as familiar as the trip I take to go grocery shopping today. There’s the relief of almost being to Grandma’s, and then the exhaustion when you realize you still have a half hour to go!
The Parking Lot
Is it cliche to say that this parking lot used to look so much bigger when I was younger! From the overhead view, there is a lot less visible from the street then there used to be. The parking lot was used for the customers on the Riverboat Casinos. From the looks of the street view, this parking lot is no longer in use.
Walmart – Oh the times I had in Walmart
You can’t tell from the street, but up that hill and around those trees is a Walmart. It’s a pretty big one. It’s also full of so many funny memories for our family. There were times we had to stop and stretch, so we walked around Walmart. There were times that as a cranky, teenage girl I couldn’t take those jeans one more second. That meant a stop at Walmart for some sweatpants.
Most times this Walmart was our last stop to pick up things to take to Grandma’s house. It could be soda/pop, food, or books. Whatever you think you might have needed in the days before the internet and smartphones. Grandma lived pretty far out in the woods, and even the small town of Dillsboro was a bit of a hike to get things. The fun part about Walmart was it was Grandma’s favorite place. More than once when we were stopping to pick things up, we’d run right in to her and Wayne! 🙂
The last familiar sight before our turn!
Nine miles from Walmart, you come across this! It’s that last familiar sight before you know you are almost there. I don’t know if anyone else does this, but we have a tradition in our family. On road trips, we designate landmarks to break up the trip. It’s not fun saying you will get there in 638 miles. Instead we’d say, oh Walmart is coming right up. Another favorite is, I know you’re tired but we’re almost to the silos! The silos meant we were about to make our turn into Dillsboro, Indiana!
Dillsboro!
Oh boy, we finally made it to the Dillsboro turn! Just don’t blink because you will miss the turn. That happened to us more than once after a long trip. Actually, that’s not the turn we take. This is the one that SAYS Dillsboro, but this isn’t the one we take. We take the next, super secret unmarked turn!
This is the entrance we always took into Dillsboro. This way we didn’t have to drive the whole length of the town. It’s a more straight forward route to Grandma’s house.
Genealogy Break: Since I’m a genealogist, I have to point out a few things before we turn into Dillsboro. You might be wondering how Grandma and Grandpa Wayne ended up all the way in Dillsboro (and you haven’t seen the trek to the house yet). Well, Wayne actually grew up in Dillsboro. It’s where his children grew up and live and probably where his parents grew up also. When he retired, he bought a house in his hometown. Dillsboro is also where Wayne is buried with his first wife. If you take a right turn instead of the left into Dillsboro, you’ll head straight into Oakdale Cemetery where Wayne is buried.
Technically this isn’t a town square. It’s more of the intersection at the heart of Dillsboro. It’s important to know the other ways into to Dillsboro because when they have their carnival, this intersection is closed off and you can’t drive through at all! Now you know why I mentioned the other entrance. You always have to know these kinds of things, because this was before GPS and Google Maps!
Through the intersection, to the intersection? Huh?
Another Intersection
When we come to this intersection, we have another choice to make. We can go right, or we can go left. If we go right, we can go to the IGA which is your closest source of groceries once you get to Grandma’s house. If you go left, we’re heading to Grandma’s but we still have a bit of a journey to go. Since this is my Google Earth Adventure and since there are no gas tanks to fill, I’m going to take a peak at the IGA!
The IGA
Oh man, that used to feel a lot bigger to me! That seems to be a running theme as I get older. Everything used to be so much bigger. I didn’t think it was possible to miss a grocery store, but I sure do miss that IGA. There are so many memories of it. Probably not as many as Walmart, but plenty of them all the same.
Over the river and through the Woods, To Grandmother’s House we Go!
It was always a running joke in our family that we literally had to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house. Once you finally got to Dillsboro, you thought your journey was over. It wasn’t though, it was just getting started! You still had 5 miles of twisting, turning road to go! This is because technically, Grandma and Wayne lived in a little borough called Farmer’s Retreat. It doesn’t have a post office that I’m aware of, just a Lutheran church and a small park that was our last “landmark” on the trip to Grandma’s house.
I finally made it to Grandma’s house! There it is! Except the trees are blocking the front of the house. Lucky for me, Street View has some older photos of the house.
Here’s the little house I remember from my childhood. It didn’t have internet, cable TV or video games. Grandpa Wayne would wake up with the sun, and then wake you up right along with it. There would be blackberry picking if you were there at the right time of year. There was a back porch that everyone loved and remembers. I don’t just remember my Grandma and Grandpa Wayne here, I remember our whole family here. Cousins, Uncles, Aunts, and Great Aunts. To this day I can remember the exact layout of the house. I can remember the furniture. I also remember the Grandfather Clock that Wayne made for my Mom that sat in the family room. Well, it did until Wayne told Mom she was to take it or he was selling it!
It sure has been bittersweet visiting Grandma and Grandpa Wayne’s house after all these years. I wonder if a house will ever make me feel the same way again. Or will this house always be that house from my childhood, the one I remember with nostalgic fondness.
I’m wishing all of you out there in blog land a very Happy New Year! I’ve never been one to make resolutions, but I’m going to make some right now.
Blogging Resolution
I want to make at least one blog entry a month! That doesn’t seem like a lot until I realized how spacey my blogging has been over the last few years. Once a week seemed a little too much to promise, so we’ll go with one a month. 🙂
Genealogy Resolution
Purchase one document a month. My success in genealogy started picking up speed when I put down the indexes. I bit the bullet and just started ordering records instead of saying I’d go on site some day. The reality is that it may be a long time before I’m able to make a genealogy trip and that’s okay. With my Genealogy Do-Over, I’m making a detailed list of records I need, how much they cost, and where they are in my priority list.
Personal Resolution
To finally conquer the corner where my desk sits. The top of my desk isn’t too bad on the clutter scale but underneath is another story! Those piles need to find homes and this is the year it’s going to happen.
Those are my resolutions for the year! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how I do. 🙂
I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! Time seems to be moving so quickly, I’m sure that in no time it will be New Year’s Eve.
You are probably wondering what I mean by format changes. Though my blogging has been sporadic over the last couple of years, you might have noticed recently I started to make a small change to my posts.
Oh, just say what you mean Kathleen!
There! Did you see it? My bolded funny phrase above this sentence. Okay, so sometimes I think I’m funny when no one else does. That little phrase did something behind the scenes that really helps me to keep on track with my posts.
That’s right, I’m trying to improve my readability after all these years! Breaking my paragraphs up with headings turns that red “Needs Improvement” to a very pretty shade of green!
You know that I don’t show up without picture evidence!
I’ve tried to get the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to also go green, but I found myself getting really frustrated with it. Deciding not to be discouraged, I put it down for awhile. I promised myself that I would come back to it once I’d gotten back into the groove of my blogging life. Don’t worry, I will tell you how it goes.
How do you know what turns it green?
I’m so glad you asked because I have a picture for that!
This box is right below the one I write my entries in. I also like to call this box the “Yells at me for Passive Voice Box.” That’s right, I am in constant battle with a plugin/app about passive voice. The battle even sent me to YouTube to try and improve my writing style. That didn’t go as well as I’d like, but I think we’re still doing okay over here!
Now you know why those funny(?) subheadings started showing up in my posts! If you’d like to try out the Yoast plugin on a WordPress installation, you can find it in the directory: Yoast SEO.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Yoast or WordPress except that I use their free products. No one has asked me to write this post. I certainly didn’t ask to be yelled at for passive voice in my blog entries. That’s just where we all ended up, at the same place, at the same time, wondering if I’ll every understand the laws of literature.
