..GOD BLESS..
Recently I attended a meeting about DAR. I had originally talked to someone about this a few years ago, but did nothing more. Now, elsewhere I mention making genealogy fun, but if you have any intentions of applying for a group such as this, you need proof.
I am going to take a large envelope, write the name lines on the front, note that the envelope contains DAR documentation. At this time I can not even find our birth certificates. So, as they said start with yourself, work back. As I find items, I will add them to the envelope. Then if my daughter or granddaughter want to apply, I have this for them. There is a local children's group. One thing was mentioned, if you copy pages from a book, copy the bookplate too.
..My Family History..Roots...
These books are about the size of a magazine with around 100 pages. You fill in all the pages with your personal information. This is how I started all of this. My daughter Wendy, wrote in a lot of the information. We keep track of weddings, births, deaths, graduations, pets, trips. In the back I have made a little chart to keep track of where we spend holidays. I wrote in little stories about my being on television, in a country and western video. About me, my Aunt Marge and some birds.
These books are hard to find, so if you see one. Grab it. I tried for years to find one for my daughter after she married. All at once there one was, wrong color, but I grabbed it. Good thing I did, as it was years before I saw any again. I even wrote the companies with no luck. In the past year I have seen two different ones. You see them, go back a week later, they are gone. Check for these at..
Harriet Carter
Dept 37
North Wales, PA 19455
they had one of these books personalized for $9.98...again...I urge you if you want one to write today.
If you are able to locate a newsletter for your family, that is a big help. All at once you may have so much information you do not know what to do with it! The Spark's Newsletter has been put out quarterly since 1953. So, I was lucky to find this. I sent for some old copies, by doing this I was able to read about the Sparkses and the Boones. See Newsletter No 3 September 1953..Daniel Boone and the Sparks Family.. 13--16.
Another issue had a rather sad letter my husband's gr, gr, gr grandfather Robert Sparks had written.**If you are real inquisitive about this, I will gladly send you a copy. I do not think I will put it on here. There were other stories, maps showing where the Sparkses settled when they first came to America.
The Sparks Family Association
1709 Cherokee Rd
Ann Arbor MI 48104
For pictures I use Eckerd Drugs. I have been using them for many, many years. I have never lost a picture. I do put an address label on the back of my pictures. They take my old photos or negatives, make a 4x6 copy for around 70 cents. You sure can not beat that. They have always done a good job.
Last summer my friend had some copies of old photos made for her family. You may want to specify if you want the 4x6 photos. I find I like these the best.
One is of my grandparents, their 7 children. I've had quite a few copies made for the family, they especially look good in the old type frames.
For my mother's 80th birthday I made her an album, I went to the library, got information about the day she was born, who was president, popular songs, etc. There are some Day by Day books available. I did the same for when my sister, brother and I were born. I copied articles about things that had happened back then. I took a bunch of old photos, got them copied. Everyone really liked this a lot. I put all of it in a binder with sheet protectors, I even had them for the photos.
Last Christmas I had photo mousepads made at Eckerds for both my daughter and son in law. One was of me at the Nixon Library in Pat Nixon's Rose Garden, where my daughter and I visited. The other was of a beautful lake we all visited. They really came out great, they were a much apprecated gift and have stood up really good. **At this time these mouse pads have been in constant use for over a year, I could not believe how they have held up!
***Now it is 3 years and still going. The baby did have this in her play pen. I come back and the mouse pad is once again in use! My daughter says..well...I like it..I did buy 3 of the gel ones at Eckerds for Christmas, we all liked them.
My mother in law got interested in this too. She had told me someone in the family had written a book, a copy was being saved for her. Sure enough she came back from vacation with probably one of the last copies of Log Cabin Families of Stone Mountain, North Carolina by Hardin and Virginia Royall. I called the authors trying to find out if more were available, they told me no, there were no more. Finally, my mother in law gave the book to me.
We had to laugh Fred came in and was looking at this book. He says I remember her, she birthed me. Someone was laughing, I said well he was there.
You just never know where you may find information. Last summer I ran across a copy of Reel Carolina**see May 1996-Volume 2, No.3**From The Archives** the magazine put out by the North Carolina film industry. In it I see this article about a movie made in North Carolina in 1915. The movie was re-issued in 1917 under the name of The Savage Instinct. The movie is about the Blue Ridge novel written about my husband's family! I wrote the author of the article telling her this is my husband's family! She called me. I then sent her the info I had copied from the book. She told me that she is told there are two copies of the movie, they want $200 for each. She has had contact with the author Waldron Baily's grandson..how interesting!! Robert Cummings starred in this movie.
There is another book written about my husband's family too, Spicers of Wilkes County, by Bernard Frederick Spicer, I have been unable to locate this book, the author died, I was told there are no more copies. So, I need to follow my own advice, see if I can get it through inter-library loan. The log cabin one may be available this way too. Someone later contacted me to say this book was available.
One last bit of advice! We hear a lot of controversy concerning computers and genealogy. Recently there was an article in our local paper where someone mentioned they had been told to get with it, get into computer genealogy. Yes, I agree, however, think of this. Does everyone know how to use a computer? No, they do not. If something were to happen to me, the only one that could even begin to access my information would be my daughter.
Christmas 1996 I lost everything I had. So, I had over 150 pages of information I could not get to. Yes, I saved this on disks, but I could not open them, and I have been at this a while. Everyone said yes, you can convert them, no one knew how. It literally took me 6 months plus a class (even the instructor said yes, but did not tell me how) to figure out how to do this!! So, try to keep written copies, I could not even piece together my 80+ pages of family history I had done. I was so upset. I had thrown away the bits and pieces of paper I had.
I think we need to make it a happy mixture, write your stories, back them up on several disks, keep a written copy of this information..it might even be a good idea for someone else to have a copy..Good Luck...
This should be enough to get you started.....
Back to the first page of..Roots...
I have made every effort to use correct spellings of names, keep only working links, at times I find two spellings of a name, like with Waldron Baily. I am using the spelling that is shown in the book he wrote.
contact..Mudfacemarge@Aol.com...Peace..