Sherlock's Genealogical Adventures

Rootstech is coming up next week. This Conference is a new type of conference to bring together technology and genealogists.During the 3 days of this event there are over 130 sessions to select from. I am overwhelmed by the selection. Narrowing down my choices is not going to be easy as...

How is a portable laptop desk a great tool for the genealogist? Many of us doing genealogy research, work at strange hours and places and the portable laptop desk gives us the ability to be more flexible where and how we work. One of the gifts I received for Christmas has proven invaluable and now I would not want to do without it.

The most common use I have for the laptop stand is right on the desk. The position I have it set at in this photo allows for better positioning of the hands for typing. The rubber bar across the front gives a comfortable place to rest the wrist and hands. (No, my desk is not normally this clean!)

Have you ever wondered what life was like for your ancestors during the course of your research? It is easy to get wrapped up in the document research for your ancestors. Take a moment to examine how they lived. This will giive you a new persepective on their lives and may help your research.

While visiting with my distant cousin Tadeusz in Słupsk, Poland this summer I had the opportunity to see many places around Słupsk. One of the places that fascinated me the most was a historic polish village musem in Kluki. I think I took about 400 photos that examined all the details of the construction of each building.

Today is the day I will go to the dump and bring in the trash and the recyclables that have accumulated. During the course of working researching family histories, I can generate a lot of paper and I recycle the bad printed copies or any other paper I accumulate. So I wondered how many others researchers out there recycle also.  I welcome comments from others and through those comments we might all learn ways to be better at recycling.

I recycle almost everything possible, so when I do go to bring the trash, at least 50% or more of what I take is  recyclable. It does not take much to do this. There is a large plastic trash bucket set up for each type of recyclable... tin cans, glass, aluminum cans, cardboard, plastic & I use the cardboard box from a case of paper I purchase as a place to throw all the waste paper I have. Anything I get in the mail that is unwanted and has my information on it gets put through the shredder.

I was visiting my cousin Adam in Wroclaw at the end of August during my stay in Poland this summer. Adam took me to the Wroclaw Community Cemetery to show me graves of some family members. Adam prepared ahead of time by calling the cemetery office and found out the location of the graves we were interested in. A smart move!

The person in the office surprised both of us with some information we were not expecting. There were two children that had the family name, but neither of us were aware of these children.

The Community Cemetery in Wrocław is VERY Beautiful, and also very large. This is not a cemetery that you want to just wander through to locate graves of your ancestors.

This Thanksgiving while visiting with your family, take the time to discuss your ancestors. What better time to talk about the history of your family than this time of year when everyone is gathered together.

Take the time to listen to the stories of your elders. Gather the family together and let the stories flow. The youngest in the family may become fascinated with hearing these stories. you may want to document the stories somehow to keep as a part of your family legacy. These stories can then be passed down for generations to come. 

Many people have asked me where I was when I visited Poland this summer, especially my genealogical colleagues, so I thought I would answer that question with a map.

I had the opportunity to do some research in the Diocesan Archives of Tarnów when I was in Poland.

The process is simple... you must sign in the "guest book" and then if you have not been to the archives before, you will need to purchase a researchers id card which is good for that calendar year. Of course you must present some identification which for the foreigner would be your passport.

If I recall correctly it cost about 15 złoty which is roughly about $5 give or take depending on the exchange rate. Research time costs 6 złoty per hour.

The Archive is open Monday thru Friday 9 am to 3pm with a break for lunch from noon to 1pm. On Saturdays it is open for only 3 hours from 9am to noon.

I had to go to Szewna, Poland to do some research for a client. The project is filled with many mysteries. I had a short time to at least go through the cemetery before I had to continue my journey to the southeast part of Poland. 

There was one mystery that kept bothering me. The name of the parish is św. Mikołaj (St. Nicolas) but the name św. Roch (St. Roch) was remembered by a family member. I was unable to find a parish with this name that was nearby and I was left puzzled.

I finally learned that the parish had two patron saints, those two being St. Nicolas and St. Roch. St. Nicolas is the most known name for this parish.

It may sound like a small thing if you know you have the right church, but since it has been difficult finding records, St. Roch may have been another church where the family records I needed were. That did not turn out to be the case but at least I finally solved that small puzzle.

On the 9th of August I was walking around Warsaw with my cousin from Brwinow and I came across the most popular State Archive in Warsaw. This archive holds the oldest records. I had no plans for any genealogy research there that day, but I had to take a photo.

I had been in this area of Warsaw twice before, but failed to recognize it as one of the State archive buildings.

 

I was looking for a new digital camera to take with me on my upcoming research / vacation trip to Poland for 2 months. I will be at repositories and churches and graveyards, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get a digital camera that has a Geo-tagging function. After shopping around I purchased the 16.2 MP Sony DSC-HX7V. 

Being a previous Sony owner, it was relatively easy to maneuver through the menus. I was amazed at all the features... HD video, 3D photography (viewable on 3D TVs), Auto panorama photography, GPS & compass function & the list goes on. The unit is light and feels very sturdy, the back display is easy to see in the sunlight. 

This camera is going to be the perfect match for a genealogist. I will be able to mark the latitude and longitude of those gravestones I find. Never again will I return from touring and wonder where I was when that photo was taken. 

Mix this with Google maps tools and the world belongs to me!
 

Many of my genealogy colleagues have created their own blogs & I have found many of them interesting and informative. When I was young, if I ever told my mother that I did something just because my friends did, she would ask me "If your friends would jump off a bridge, would you?" So now this poses the question... Am I now jumping off the hypothetical bridge or jumping on the bandwagon?