Positive Post Fridays

That is Awesome Justin! Congrats, there are some good people left in the world!

That is a nice story!

[Eldon Lester Clark] - re unrelated profiles: I have, in the past, attached such profiles to an appropriate project which keeps them 'together' until such time as they may be brought into the Big Tree. Would this be of help to you?

Beautiful story Justin......

Geni has generated connections for more than just family.....I have had people contact me about some of the profiles.....because they have info or photos (in 1 case, the family Bible) for a particular profile....but to get something so personal is wonderful....

Perfect way to start a new, and improved, year...

::-)

Sheila Gordon They don't stay unrelated The one I added has about 20 family members now.

That really is lovely Justin. Post an image for us!

I had a similar thing (that is, involving artwork) just this past weekend, too.

Seems a guy in Utah bought a small watercolor painting for a pittance at a local thrift shop. Turns out it was a numbered painting by a cousin of my dad's that lived in Idaho and was a rather well-known local personage and artist. This guy found my name via Geni and called asking if any relatives wanted to buy it. (Not giving it away, in this case :-) )

He put the painting up on ebay, but it did prompt me to learn more about that cousin and extended her husbands' lineages (I had not researched them at all before). It seems she was quite the athlete, adventurer, and 'cookie baker' as well as a watercolor artist.

When I sent a note to other relatives in that 'clan' about availability of the painting, I got back a reply from one cousin that they had saved most of her (the artist-cousin's) hand-made Christmas cards and also had a couple of her paintings -- so at least some of 'her generation' recognized her artistic talents (and probably knew her before she moved away from her Tempe, Arizona birth place).

So Dan...did you bid for it?

I was just wondering the same thing.

Not yet ...

I want to see these ! A project for "talent in my family ?" So we can assemble these lesser notables?

It's been an usual genealogy week for me. Very different things than I normally work on.

A question came to me that leaves me wondering. Why is there an exact DNA match between (1) Dr. John Durand, a 17th century Huguenot from the Île de Ré who settled in Connecticut, and (2) his contemporary Miguel Durán, an orphan born in Santa Fe.

Is it really possible that this French family and this Spanish family have a common origin? It seems unlikely to me, but it just jumped to the top of my research schedule.

Now don't everyone faint now, but have something positive to say about Friday. i got a letter today in answer to a letter I wrote to a distant cousin on my grandmother Loubris's side. Are you ready for this one. I wrote it in 1998.Well the person is no longer with us but his daughter in law found it while cleaning some of her also late husbands things. She couldn't beleive she still had it and she is into genealogy . So this morning i get a letter from her. As usual it turns out I acturally have everything she need on the valequette /Hoy side of family that she can us. and she doesn't have that much for me but maybe some pictures. i called her back . we spent a couple hours on the phone. connected on facebook. She checked my pictures out. We were able between us to sort out some of the ones I wasn't sure of and we now will stay in contact. i am going to send her copies of everything I have.Now this put a smile on my face!

Yay! That's a great story, Judy. 1998? I guess we can all have hope that someday ...

Well done Judith (Judy).....Just goes to prove that your efforts often can bear fruit long after you think the 'plant' has died (no pun intended)......

You wrote a letter a long time ago.....and it essentially just got delivered to the right person....(I'm sure the original addressee intended on replying, but could not)..

Very happy for the connection you made.....

Enjoy your new relative....

Congratulations!!

Really a complete suprise! I called her and like I said we connected up on facebook while talking and I sent her some pictures.It's her husband's family but of course it's then there children's family.All French on their side. Not as mixed up as mine. She reads and speaks French too. Not me.Anyway we plan to meet each other in the spring when it finally thaws out around here.Down by the river this morning. Full of huge chunks if ice. Not frozen solid as it's a salt water river as well as frsh water. depends on which end you are one. Has a tide.

I hope my Friday actions will end up positive. I downloaded a Geni forest GEDCOM which only took a couple of hours, not the days Geni predicted. T then loaded it into My Heritage family tree builder. About 500 zombies which were easy to correct but there are about 3000 other issues. Death before birth, marriage at age 1 etc. Only 2 relationship (father of self) errors.
My plan is to clean everything up then sync to My History. Wish me luck :-)

Just remember to NOT allow family tree builder to upload the profiles again to MyHeritage, - it is on by default. That is the mistake most people do when they want a personal copy of their tree on their PC.

No, I turned it off

Likes talent @ erica

eldon.. what error correction software are you using? I plan to do the same thing but am worried about errors.. last time i tryed it it was a huge mess add to the fact that i had a 90 mb file I found a tester some where I can't remember where but it would require shrinking my 100 mb file in half so it could be checked for errors.. is there a program to check larger then 75 mb gedcom files for errors some where?

Private No error correction software, each error that My Heritage family tree builder finds must be checked and corrected manually. The possible duplicates need careful work. Try to find correct dates, places etc. The only exception I have found so far was zombies. They could all be done with one click. I know there will be a lot of empty birth name fields,the Geni default, they will need to be done manually.

I have only found one GEDCOM error checking program but all it does is give you a line # and description,. You would have to go through the GEDCOM file with a text editor and know what you are doing (I don't).

My Heritage family tree builder handled the import with no problem even with a couple of thousand pictures in under an hour but as Bjorn says, it defaults to uploading to My Heritage automaticly so you want to be sure and turn that off.

Happy birthday Elden

Late Happy Birthday Elden

It's not even Friday yet and I just received a message from a new user (Nov 2013)
"Wow, Eldon, a relative in a branch of the family I know nothing about! Thanks for contacting me."

Hello in the Round!!!

So, just in time for a punctual positive post!!!!
I don´t think, I´ve had such a ROLL in a year, as I´ve had the past week!!!

I´ve managed to add (and GENI externally and internally, locate information on...) some 30 new members, to the Delgado/Domenech/Acosta/Acevedo/Mejias/Lopez/Peraza/Ruiz/Plasencia braches (Begin week- Mid week) and I just discovered the Surnames Ruiz and Peraza in these branches, during this session.

PLUS, finding some 100 new members of the (Claud son of New)- Whitney branches in the form of Asay/Allphin/Michell-Mitchell/Dolbell/Riding/Pedrick/Borton/Brokaw/VanCleef/Venderbilt/Brouwer-Brower/Adams/Tebbs/VanNest branches, as well!!!!!

So, anyone with these names in your trees... I´d suggest, going to the Surname pages and checking out any new entries, for possible merges to connect these to their respective side branches and further backs.
(I managed to get to about 1700´s from the 1900´s!!!!)
*Feeling accomplished* ;-)
and there´s still way more findings on these, to add!!!!!
I just can´t seem to type fast enough! lol! (although, I can 10 finger..!)

All of your "hard core" GENI- alogists, know the feeling I am experiencing right now! (The High of the successful finds. The low of missing out on "life in the present" sitting for days on end... entering their data.)
It´s a rush, with the slight regret of one´s own life- time, sacrificed for the greater good of other searching souls, as well as, future generations, to come!
But we knew what we were getting into, when we began.... didn´t we... ? #TheNeverEndingStory

Oh, I guess, I didn´t, but I´m not turning back, now! hahaha!

Cheers and Great Finds, for ALL my Cousins!!!!!
;-)
xoxoxoxoxoxox Theresa Renée

That's great, Theresa! May your 'tree' continue to blossom into a beautiful, multi-branched bush.

Theresa, I can feel your excitement from here. Congrats!

For many years I have been searching for a copy of "A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bolles of Wells Maine" by George Williams. About a week ago I found one online at Abe Books and ordered it. Estimated 4 weeks for delivery. It just arrived. Copyright 1970 and looks almost unused. Looks like I will be busy as it has 743 pages plus indexes

Abebooks is good for a lot of very good used/hardly used items....

Congratulations Eldon...happy reading..