How To Do Genealogy When You Eyesight is Failing You?

I received my first pair of glasses at age 3.

Recently, I had my first eye surgery, a cataract removed, and a new lens was put in. I had a few days of doing almost nothing because I couldn't see out of the bandaged eye and the other eye had poor eyesight. The second operation will be done in a few weeks, then my vision will be clearer, but not good enough to read, so I'll have to get new glasses. So how can I do genealogy with limited eyesight until I get new glasses in about six weeks? (If you want more information on how my genealogy volunteering has been affected in the past, see the end of the article.)

Like so many genealogists, my genealogy world consists of a lot of research, reading genealogy books and magazines, doing data entry, corresponding through emails, and some online contact with Facebook genealogy friends. All those are easy when you can see, but what if you can't? Fortunately, I know my situation is temporary, but what can I do in the meantime?

The other night, I got my answer when I listened to Drew Smith's excellent webinar Organizing Your Genealogy Research Process presented by the Illinois State Genealogical Society. My takeaway was, I should be thinking of projects and how to do them. For me, that is a lot of thinking. Like so many other genealogists, I jump from one thing to another. Anyway, during the past two days, I've thought of things I can work on, once the vision improves and I get new glasses. My list consists of things I must do to make my genealogy life easier and I will report my progress in December 2016.

1. Learn Evernote. Drew Smith mentioned Kerry Scott's book in his webinar (see #9), "How to Use Evernote for Genealogy." I plan on ordering her book in a few days. Update: I already ordered it. Reading will begin in over a month.

2. Delete many photos, 26,000 is too many on my computer and I don't need them because many are on my blogs. However,  I'm not sure what my grand total should be. Decide which ones to print, which ones to use for my Lowell posts, and which ones to use for future genealogy posts. The same goes for my iPad photos, which number over 6,000. I can begin now because the photos are large enough to see.

3. Read and delete almost all 1,300 Gmail messages. Most have been glanced at, and need a second read. There is lots of good information to save.

4. Do a better job at understanding Dropbox. I just don't get it yet, probably because of my difficulty in reading, I rarely read more than a paragraph, and even then, with macular degeneration, I miss words. So I will try hard with this. However, I did manage to "get" saving my RootsMagic7 to my iPad via the app and Dropbox. I believe it took about five hours!

5. Plan another trip to Canada for late summer. It won't be to do research, but to bring some items to the Missisquoi Museum and Archives. I'll revisit the six cemeteries where my ancestors were buried. This should be an easy plan, but fun and I look forward to it. On the last trip in 1999, I took limited photos as I didn't have a digital camera.

6. Write fewer blog posts. Most people want to write more, but I learned from doing almost a post a day for several years, it consumed so much time, good time that could have been used for learning some of the above things, like Evernote and Dropbox. My last post in December was one of my better ones, and I was quite pleased when Randy Seaver chose it to be included in his list of  Best of the Genea-Blogs - 13 to 19 December 2015. So in the future, I'll try to do more of that type of post, along with whatever comes along.

7. Less time on Facebook, boy that will be hard. When I'm not on Facebook, I gain so much free time. I'll skim or read blogs but will unfollow all blogs that have light or small print. Sometimes the font is so small or is in grey color, it's impossible for me to read with macular degeneration. Sorry writers, but I must leave you.

8. I will not try to find new ancestors, I have enough. However, I will continue to review my sources, make corrections, and try to solve my major "Brick Walls." In addition, I'll add and/or correct my past blog post entries dealing with surnames or add additional findings or photos.

9. In December I started thinking about what I would I do, and the first thing that came to mind was listen to Webinars, so I signed up for quite a few. For two years, I was a subscriber to the Legacy Family Tree Webinars, but was so busy with other things, I rarely listened. I plan on renewing so I can listen to many of the old ones I've missed. This will help me spend my time, and learn. To date, I've heard the following webinars:

"Tap Into Your Inner Private Eye - 9 Strategies for Finding Living Relatives" by Lisa Louise Cooke, January 9th.

"Organizing Your Genealogy Research Process" by Drew Smith, January 12th.

"Technology and Techniques for Differentiating Two People with the Same Name" by Geoff Rasmussen, January 13th.

Tomorrow, it will be: "Snagit Software for Genealogists by Michael" by Michael Brophy, January 15th.

10. In conclusion, I'll be doing fewer blogs, looking for new ancestors and checking Facebook. I need my "free" time to do all of the above, along with taking cemetery trips, corresponding with my wonderful cousins, cleaning off the desk occasionally, buying a Flip-Pal scanner (which Thomas MacEntee first showed me in 2011, now I know I need it for my trip to Canada), backing up everything on a monthly basis, and whatever else I may have forgotten.

Background...
Ever since I was a young child, I had to wear glasses and in the beginning in grade school, I always had to sit in the front row. Throughout my schooling years, that was always the case, but later the reason included poor hearing. As a matter of fact, in my baby book, my mother wrote I got my first pair of glasses at age 3, and poor hearing was noted at age 7. And, at age 4 I had six cavities filled! Ouch. Much later in life, these problems affected my life with work and outside activities. About eight years ago, I was volunteering at five places for over five years, and working and I thought everything was fine, until...

The eyes got really bad and it was discovered I have macular degeneration. I thought I would soon be blind in one eye, so I stopped my volunteer jobs at the American Textile History Museum and the Lowell Repertory Theater (did both for about four years). I also stopped helping three genealogy societies. New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), as a proofreader and typist; the Essex Society of Genealogists (ESOG) as an index proofreader for the TEG and the Greater Lowell Genealogy Society (several positions) for many years. In addition, I taught beginning genealogy for about four years (13 total classes) at the Chelmsford Library in Massachusetts, and a Google class about 8 years ago to the Chelmsford Genealogy Club. With the last two, I stopped because of the eye and hearing problems. Now, I have a hearing aid and soon two new lenses...I can't wait to get back to my former genealogy world of reading wills, and censuses, finding and reading cemetery stones, and traveling to new places without my husband (whose eyes I used).

I learned to Swim at Walden Pond Before Thoreau was Cool

How many people can say they learned to swim on Walden Pond? Looking back, I guess I was quite lucky.
The above photo shows where the road was to the parking lot of "Camp Hart," a former day camp, located between Lincoln and Concord. In the late 50s, I attended that camp, right across the road from the Pond, and all the campers had their swimming lessons there. John thought it was interesting that I learned there, and that is how I decided to write about both. Recently, my husband and I drove 40 minutes to my old camp and to check out the area. We don't go often because of the crowds of tourists, so we chose a very overcast day when we knew it would be quiet. There were no original buildings on the private land.

An article in the Boston Globe stated, "The reservation will open for swimmers this year starting May 24." It seems there was a possibility of banning open-water swimming this year. Often, people have their strong opinions about swimming in the well-known Pond. They also have strong thoughts on water, as in drinking water. A little over a year ago, the town of Concord banned the sale of plastic bottles of water! So, when I went into their gift shop, I wasn't surprised to see water, but it was in a square box. I really should go back and take a photo of it. They don't mind you drinking water, just don't want plastic containers thrown around their town.

There is so much I don't remember about the camp. Was it co-ed, I doubt it. How many weeks did I go, no idea. The sad thing is, I don't remember any of the other camper's names. However, I do remember walking around the left side of the Pond to the railroad tracks and picking up bottles, cigarette butts, and other trash. A happier thing was picking raspberries on the property. We never went to Thoreau's now famous hut site.

WALDEN POND STATE RESERVATION

ESTABLISHED 1922

To preserve the Walden of Emerson and

Thoreau. About eighty acres of land were

given the commonwealth by deeds from

Edith E. Forbes et. al. and C. Fay Heywood et. al.

Other purposes of the gift was to allow

the public to enjoy the woods and nature

including bathing, boating, and fishing.

The Middlesex County Commissioners

constitute the reservation Commission

and expenses of care and improvement

are borne by the county.

As we walked down the hill, we saw the same old bathhouse. Now used for staff and lifeguards. Below, there is sand on two sides, however, it wasn't always like that. During the camp, the only beach was in front of the bathhouse.

Yes, it did rain on our parade. Below, you can see how easy it is to get to Thoreau's hut site.

We decided to walk around the Pond, a little over a mile. They have made nice improvements to the walkway, as it used to be very hilly, with rocks and tree roots everywhere.

 The Pond from the opposite side of the Bathhouse.

Plenty of students, having a history lesson. Yes, we had Walden to ourselves, except for a large group of students who surprised us at Thoreau's hut.

"I went to the woods  because

I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential

facts of life

and see if I could

not learn what it had to teach

and not, when I came to die,

 discover that I had not lived." Thoreau

(Note: During this time, he walked home, ate there, washed his clothes and met with friends.)

The large stones show the outline of where the hut was, and the smaller ones in the back were where the shed was.

  Raindrops and a few seconds of sunlight changed the color of the water to this lovely shade.

 Near the parking lot is a reconstructed hut, and his wood shed.

DAR Calendar and Covers -- My Photos

The NSDAR (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution) used to print a yearly calendar to sell. Because of my interest of photography, I soon became an unofficial photographer for the Society. The above was a page for the month of May 1995 (I believe), and I took all the photos. Number 5 was used for a DAR Magazine cover, one of 8 that I had during my years of working there.

The Life of a Girl Scout in Alameda, California and Lexington, Massachusetts

My mother wrote on the back, Barbie Brownie

October 17, 1950

Alameda, California

Years later I'm working on a scout project in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Both of my Scout leaders loved to camp, so my Lexington, MA troop camped often. The above was at my leader's summer home in Rowe, MA (taken in April 1959).

Names on the backs of my photos above: Mrs. Marthe Osborne, Marsha Cameron, Mary Bea Lingane, Jane Connell, Judy Anthony, Ellen Fitzgerald, Nancy Collins, and Sally Warren.

The below photo was taken at a Girl Scout round-up in New Hampshire (Aug. 1960).

I have no memory of my Brownie days, except I received a pin. When I moved from California to Massachusetts, I was in the Lexington Scout group for about 7 years and had the best Scout leaders, only two of whom I remember their names, a Mrs. Anthony and the other (shown above with the cap) was Marthe Osborne. In the early days, we worked on badges, all the normal things each scout did. I especially enjoyed learning to cook Spanish rice and penuche. Our big trip was to New York City, and although I had already been there, this was extra fun because I was with friends and not my parents.

Our troop sold cookies every year, the first price I remember was $.35 a box. My neighbors bought boxes and boxes. The other annual thing we did was to march in the Patriot's Day Parade every April 19th in Lexington. Although it was a two-mile walk, I loved being waved at. Those two things are such nice memories.

Recently (August 2017) I returned to Lexington and drove around my old neighborhood. Here is the house where one of my leaders lived, and where we had many meetings. Thank you, troop leader, Mrs. Anthony. 

5

I continued on in Scouting when I moved to Chelmsford, MA going into my Senior year, and do remember my mother forcing me to wear my uniform to Church one Sunday. During several summers in Lexington, I went to a day camp, Camp Cedar Hill in Waltham, MA to help my mother who was a leader there. Prior to that, I went to two different Girl Scout summer camps, one was Camp Four Winds in Plymouth, MA., and Camp Helen Storrow also in that area, each was a two-week camp. Before these overnight Scout camps, I went to a day camp in Concord, called Camp Hart located at Walden Pond. My boating and swimming lessons were in Walden Pond!

All my experiences with Scout camping helped me get my first job. I clearly remember acting as an "adult" when I went to their headquarters on Joy Street in Boston and applied for a counselor position at Camp Runels in Pelham, New Hampshire for the summer of 1962. I got the job and worked there for 9 weeks for a salary of $400. Nice memories there, met a lot of friends and I grew up a little that summer. Also, remember being on the dock with my transistor radio hearing that Marilyn Monroe had died.

Almost 60 years after working at Camp Runels, I drove through the entrance and took a few photos. Sharing these brought back good memories.

Route 38 in Pelham is on the right.

I took this on the way out and didn't realize I was on private property until I was almost to the lake, then I turned back.

In front and behind my car. It was a beautiful cool morning.

Update of information: Recently, I discovered several entries in my baby book and am sharing them here.

1.  Brownies at age 7-Installation and Troop 120 meeting on Mon. P.M.'s. (Alameda, California)

2.  New Brownie troop - 20 at Mrs. Hamacher's. (Lexington, MA, 1954)  Anybody remember her daughter Susan?