Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Dear Genea-Santa

On Saturday, December 5, 2009, Randy Seaver decided to play Genea-Santa.  He wrote (in red) my replies (in green).

"Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music), is to write a nice letter to Genea-Santa Here are the directions:


1) Write a letter to Genea-Santa and ask for only ONE thing. It could be hardware, software, a missing family Bible, a record that you desperately want, etc.

Dear Genea-Santa,

How nice of you to give us an extra day to prepare our reply.  My mind has changed many times while trying to decide on One Thing.  Where was your sympathy?  It is like having one M & M or one chip.  Still it has been fun dreaming of something, even if the wish doesn't come true.  However, it was easy to eliminate all the material items, as they could be attainable.  I want all "brick walls' solved, so I can't just single out one to discuss.  So after a lot of thought Genea-Santa, I would love to have lots of free time to do my research, perhaps an additional six hours a day.

2) Tell Genea-Santa what a good genea-girl or genea-boy you've been this past year and give examples.

Genea-Santa, you already know how good I have been, even tho others might go on and on about how good they were, I was the best.  You already know I don't like competing or hooting my own horn, but I have helped about 100 people this year with their genealogy research, And, I love reading your genealogy posts.  What other qualifications do you want to hear about?  Isn't that enough?  In closing, please grant me my wish for an additional six hours of free time, after all, it is free.

3) Exhibit your posts on your own blog, in a Facebook post commenting on this note, or in a Comment to this blog post." 

Genea-Santa, this was posted on my blog, "Life From the Roots."

Thank you, your little genealogy angel.

Christmas Card -- 1930s

My grandfather absolutely loved England, and went many times.

Christmas Card -- 1928

This card is also a birth announcement for another child.  The sisters are shown with their brother.  My grandfather probably had the cards completed before the birth, and wrote in the name and date.

Advent Calendar - December 3 - Christmas Tree Ornaments

I don't have any memories of the ornaments on my parent's tree. Back in the mid-60s I became interested in the ornament kits I saw in a catalogue. After making a few, I ventured out on my own and did my own designs. Even made frequent trips to NYC to buy a large supply of sequins and beads. I made so many, that I eventually sold some at a craft sale and gave them away as gifts.  My goal was to stop doing them in 2002, during the Olympics at Salt Lake City, and I did. Each of the mid-size ones took three hours, and my largest a little over four hours.

The tree, not the best picture, but I am sure it was up straight. We always got a real tree, and once cut one down.

Christmas Card -- 1926

There are now two children in the family, see in upper window.  I would have loved to have seen 1923, 1924 and 1925, but they weren't in the collection.

Christmas Card -- 1922

The Christmas card shows a picture of my mother, born 1919.  I like the garland spelling the word MOM with my mother's photo inside.

Tombstone Tuesday -- James Bishop

James Bishop, my 4th great-grandfather

Born July 12, 1744
Died April 16, 1803
His wife was Hannah Dickerman

Old Burying Ground aka East St. Cemetery, Plainville, Connecticut
The plaque says Olde, but everything and everybody says Old.
Cemetery is usually locked, but we were so lucky that somebody forgot to lock up!
Cemetery plots below, in two parts

As indicated by the yellow (done by the Historical Society), I have others in this cemetery.

Christmas Card -- 1921

I found an article which appeared in The Hartford Courant, Dec. 14, 1976. "The Peck Memorial Library (Berlin, CT) announced Monday the opening of a new exhibit of more than 40 Christmas cards. The exhibit, titled 'Christmas From the Bishops,' will feature cards sent by the Earle K. Bishops of Kensington section from 1921 to 1976." This month, I will be posting several of my grandfather's cards.


This was made in 1921, three years after they married.

Looking Back

First I want to publically thank the seven people who awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award, their first names and blog sites are below.  Please check them out.
Gini at http://ginisology.blogspot.com/
Sharon at http://kindredfootprints.blogspot.com/
Jenna at http://desperatelyseekingsurnames.blogspot.com/
Bill at http://westinnewengland.blogspot.com/
Earline at http://ancestralnotes.ebradt.org/
Hummer at http://branchingoutthroughtheyears.blogspot.com/
Dru at http://findyourfolks.blogspot.com/

The first six of the above names are new friends, I didn't know them prior to October.   The awards came via a commet to my site, or email.  I am not sure if the senders ever read my replies, so I am doing it publically here.  When each award was given, I was really shocked, and didn't know what to do.  So I did what comes naturally, I declined for several reasons.  First, I am hoping to have clean and clutter free blog, and second, I don't want to be in the position of awarding it to others, as there are so many good Blogs out there.  Each and everyone is deserving, we are all spending lots of time on them, both in the thinking, typing and editing phases of their creation.  I don't think I will ever single out a blog as being one of the best, as I already like many.


Sometimes, I feel like I am living in the editing phase.  There hasn't been a single blog that, even tho I use the Preview option, I haven't had to go back to change something.  Yesterday's blog was set in error for 12/29/09 because I was working on December blogs, and did the entire month.  But, in reality, I wanted the cemetery article shown for yesterday, Nov. 29.  I began to wonder where it was on the dashboard.  A quick check showed it was set for December 29!


This new time-consuming part of my life has forced me to be a bit more organized and plan ahead about the subject matter.  I think that yesterday's blog is a good example.  I decided when I posted my cemetery list, (see November 18, 2009, Cemetery List in Google Spreadsheet) that I would scan and enter all those photos into http://www.findagrave.com/ in the order of that cemetery list. I was going to post some Bishop photos for Tuesday, then in going through my stuff, found the plot information, cemetery map and my old photo from 1981.  That did it, I had my article, and decided it was good for a Sunday read.


Thank you too to the people who have helped me:  Gini and Dru for recent help and Cheryl for her early encouragement.  Apple sent me a detailed explanation of how to make my links smaller (I am still having problems, but maybe it due to our different programs).  I appreciate you all.


And a special thank you to Les, who quickly emailed me after my yesterday blog of Nov. 29th appeared.  He said he would go three miles to the cemetery to take pictures for me.  Within hours, I had new pictures of the monument with the names of my grandparents, great grandparents, gg grandparents and ggg grandparents!


I hope to make this Looking Back segment a monthy piece, and will cover just a few things, mostly follow-ups during the current month.

I Did Everything Right, but Couldn't Take a Photo!

Prior to April 1999, I obtained the plot card and diagram of the cemetery where my grandparents and others in my family were buried. In addition, I located the microfilm page of the Hale Collection for the listing of all those buried in this West Cemetery, Plainville, Connecticut. Since I had been there before, in 1981, I had the memory of what the Bishop monument looked like; it was the tallest in the cemetery.  But, when I returned in 1999, I learned a valuable lesson. You are only as good and prepared as your camera allows you to be.  My 35mm took great pictures, but not so if you couldn't read the inscription, and Not when you completely forget to take close ups of the opposite side, where there were additional names, and not writing down what is inscribed!

Plot card above, there is an error, as my grandmother, Sarah, is not listed.

Diagram of the Cemetery, with plots I was interested in seeing shown in circles.

Page from the Hale Collection, copied from microfilm.

August 1981, my grandfather was buried here, and this is the family monument.  At least I could read the names.  I took this photo, so maybe I had an interest in the family back then.

My horrible shot.  And, why didn't I move my car?

The opposite side clearly reads Lowrey, also my direct line.  Fortunately, their names are listed in the Hale Collection, see 3rd photo above, so I know who is buried there.  But a close-up would have been nice.


Follow-up.  Within hours of posting this, I received an email.  My NBF wrote, "Barbara, I will try to get some good pictures of the Bishop monument for you. I live about 3 mi from it.  I enjoy your blog."  Talk about a happy dance.  And true to his word.  When I got home from a walk, there were the pictures waiting for me!  Thank you Les Larrabee.