Go to Revolutionary Voices on Kickstarter and learn more.  And maybe kick in a couple of bucks.  Every little bit helps!

Also, I’ve been ramping up a new blog for Ancestry.com called Ancestry Reference Desk (http://www.ancestry-reference-desk.com)  My goal, is to create a teaching blog/site to help people who use Ancestry.com and Fold3 in libraries how to be more effective.  But the posts and other links we put up will apply to anyone.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Here’s a few articles you may have missed lately:

• Sitting Down with the Madisons from Belle Grove Plantation Bed and Breakfast
• Letting the Newspapers Tell the Story from A Family Tapestry
• My Hopes, Dreams, Rainbows and Unicorns for RootsTech 2013  from The We Tree Genealogy Blog (I just met Amy Coffin, who write this blog, at Roots Tech!  She is as great in person as she is on her blog.)
• Twenty Mules, Grandpa and Me from A Southern Sleuth
• Will the Real Annie Moore Please Stand Up? from The Irish in America
• Ancestry.com’s City Directories from Genealogical Musings
• Looking back… and forwards from The Legal Genealogist (I was fortunate enough to hear Judy talk not once, but twice this week. She lectures as well as she writes. Oh, and she is a CGL now. )
• The Letter from The Legal Genealogist
• When the Courthouse Burns from Ancestoring’s Ask a Genealogist
• Archives.com Announces Weekly Livestream Videos from Archives.com

And From Ancestry Reference Desk

• Welcome to Ancestry Reference Desk
• Are You Ready To Do Some Research? Start with a Family Group Sheet
• Getting to Know Fold3
• Ancestry Day at Midwest Genealogy Center Presentations
• Tuesday’s Tip: Place Pages: Searching by Location
• Roots Tech 2013 is in full swing!

Try this one: https://www.rebelmouse.com/genealogy/

Rebel Mouse #genealogy tag

There is also one for #familyhistory: https://www.rebelmouse.com/familyhistory/

It’s a really interesting presentation of twitter #hash tags.

Here is something fun from my friends over at Archives.com for Women’s History Month.  I dare you not to find something inspiring in here.  Dare you.

• Swift Justice—Moonshiners in Court from A Southern Sleuth
• Going Up Rocket, Coming Down Stick from A Family Tapestry
• Photo Mysteries from Branch and Leaf
• Remembering Riverview from Gail Grunst Genealogy
• Researching Genealogy — Discovering Your Inventor Ancestors from The Ancestor Hunt
• Fredericksburg’s National Battlefield Museum – The Dr. William J. Chewning Collection, Part 1 from Mysteries and Conundrums
• Running Them Through the Sluice Box: Continuing to Filter the Records for Anna & Robert from Ancestral Breezes
• Two Cool Photos from Ancestoring’s Ask a Genealogist
• HeirloomRegistry: Saving memories in the cloud from Dear Myrtle
• Here Comes the Science! The Benefits of Family History Narratives from The We Tree Genealogy Blog
• Wednesday’s Child ~ Remembering Fred Lincoln Webster, Asbury’s Brother from Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
• Mollie Williams — Little Miss Mollie from Paul Rawlins on Ancestry.com
• What is your ancestor’s dollar worth today? from Poore Boys in Gray
• ACPL — Why Fort Wayne? from the FGS Conference News Blog

A couple of new blogs for me:

• Abandoned Houses from Always Backroads
• Tombstone Tuesday: Michael and Catherine from The Otter Lake Express
• Breaking Brickwall Tips in your Names from Bella Online

From the The Legal Genealogist:

• Affirming our rights
• Duty Came First

From Archives.com:

• Getting the Spark Back in Your Genealogy
• Dissecting Family Myths and Legends
• Slave Schedules Require a Strategy from J Mark Lowe

From my Ask Ancestry Anne column:

• How is Cousin Bait Working for You?
• I’m Bored! Give Me Something To Do!

Martha Spencer saw a post I made years ago on an Ancestry.com message board and responded.  I missed her original response (!) but she found me again and it turns out she went to high school with my father.  She sent me some of his yearbook pages as well as some newspaper clippings that pertained to my biggest brickwall, my g-g-g-grandfather Charlton Wallace.

This past week she sent me the relevant pages from my grandfather’s yearbook!  Gilbert McClung Gillespie graduated from Lexington High School in 1934.  My father attended Lexington High School until 1956 when he was a sophomore.

Gilbert McClung Gillespie from the 1934 Crystal, the yearbook of Lexington High School. Senior Picture.

His ambition is “To beat Thompson out of his job.” Thompson was Kenneth Thompson, whom according to Martha was a “cranky” math teacher who was still teaching when she and my father attended Lexington High.

Faculty at Lexington High School 1934, Lexington, Virginia

One has to believe that there is more to the story than that, but I don’t think the yearbook reveals any more.  Also, I know that my grandfather was chosen as the Most Dependable.  At least he wasn’t in the No Brains, but… category!

Hall of Fame 1934 in the Lexington High School Crystal

My dad’s mentions in his yearbooks are not that different.  His nickname was also Gilly.  I knew he was called that in High School, never knew my grandfather was.  My dad, was selected as the male with the Prettiest Eyes.  My dad and his brother and two sisters all had the same beautiful blue eyes.   I’m glad to know he wasn’t chosen as Most Gullible.

Gil Gillespie in Lexington Crystal

And here are both Martha Spencer and my father who served on the Honor Court in 1954.  Both are in the back row.

Honor Court, Lexington High School 1954, Martha Spencer and Gil Gillespie, in the back row

These photos and the rest that were sent to me, mean so very much.  If you keep your family private and hidden away, you may miss out on some amazing stuff.

And to Martha, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Every time I look at these I get a little misty.

But I was watching the Westminster Dog Show a week or so back and it hit me.  The way a dog show is judged is pretty smart and efficient.  And it’s not a bad methodology for what we are trying to do when we hunt for records when we search.

Stay with me.

Let me introduce you to Coco.  This picture was taken when she was about 3 months old.  She is a beautiful little chocolate lab.

Coco, a 3 month old chocolate lab

OK, now here is Frankie.  (He’s not mine.)  He’s a Leonberger puppy, about 4 months old.

Frankie, 4 month old Leonberger and Augusta an adult in the background.

Raise your hand if you had a brief moment where you wanted a puppy.

Frankie and Coco are similar.  They are both crazy puppies.  And they both are going to grow up to be big dogs, although the Leonberger is twice as big as a Lab.  One has a fluffy coat, one has a double coat.  They have similarities and differences.

But what does this have to do with genealogy?

On to the Dog Show!

So the purpose of a Dog Show is to find the best dog.   But they don’t take the hundreds, thousands of dogs and throw them all into the ring and walk around and pick one, do they?  They do not.

First, they start with each individual breed, and find the best of breed.  So they throw all the Labs into the ring with a judge who knows Labs.  And this judge in his infinite wisdom says, this is the best Lab.  And he picks the winner based on the characteristics a perfect Lab should have.

Same thing in genealogy.  Let’s your ancestor, John Labrador, lived from 1837 to 1911 and that he served in the Civil War.  You know he should be in the US 1850 through 1910 censuses. And various Civil War records. And Vital Records.  Now you can do a big old massive search and hope you pull everything out of it that you need.  What could possibly go wrong with that?

But you are the expert on John Labrador.  Doesn’t it make more sense to methodically go through the known record types.  And because you are the expert, you can pick out the best record in each record type.  So you’ve got the best “Lab” for each record type, whether it be census, military pension, local history or whatever.  And because you’ve gone through each record type one at a time, you know you’ve looked at everything.

Now what question are we trying to answer?

Back to the dog show.  The next round pulls dogs of similar breeds together. Our Lab would be in the Sporting Group.  And the judge for this group, knows she has the best of each breed, so she can start comparing the dogs to each other and pick the one she thinks is the best.  She answers the question which dog is the best sporting dog.

Once you have all of your records together, you can then start to ask and answer questions.  When was John born?  Who were his parents? You know, the questions we always ask.  You look at your records, and you select the documents and other records that are going to help you find the answer.  You find more records if you need to.  But you aren’t looking for the best 1880 census.  You have it.  Now you can focus on finding the answer.

And the winner is….

Now all the best of groups gather.  And the judge puts them through their paces.  He pokes and prods and watches.  And then he picks!  He has the answer!  The best dog.

And that is where you are in your research.  You’ve found the best documents and records.  You’ve selected the ones that help you answer a question.  And then you start to pull them all together and you have the answer.

So what did we learn?

I really like dogs.   Also, it’s probably not a good idea to do everything at once.  Find a record, find the right record.  Ask a question and select the right records for that question.  Then you can spend your time on careful analysis and find the right answer.  One step at a time.

Is it just me, or does anyone want to go watch Best in Show right now?

March 16, 2013: Ancestry Day, Blue Springs, Missouri

The Midwest Genealogy Center is sponsoring an Ancestry Day with Ancestry.com in Blue Springs, Missouri.

I will be doing two presentations:

• Find them Fast: Searching Secrets to Help You Find Your Ancestors Stories on Ancestry.com
• Putting Your Ancestors in Historical Perspective: Extracting Stories from Military Records on Ancestry.com and Fold3

Also, the ever amazing Lou Szucs will be there as well speaking on:

• Extraordinary Clues in Ordinary Records
• Hidden Treasures at Ancestry.com

March 21-23: RootsTech, Salt Lake City, Utah

I will be doing one lecture and participating in a panel at RootsTech this year:

• Panel: What Website Developers Need to Learn from Power Users, March 22, 1:45 – 2:45
• Class: Searching Successfully to Reveal Your Ancestor’s Story on Ancestry.com, March 23, 9:45 – 10:45

April 5 – 6: The Fairfax Genealogical Society’s Annual Spring Conference and Spring Expo

I do not have the schedule for the Fairfax Spring Conference yet, but will post them when I do.

Two on Archives.com

• What to Do if You Think Your Ancestors Came From Outer Space
• Keeping Track on the Road to Proof

Slavery-Related Court Petitions Online Database from Genealogy Decoded

Two from The Legal Genealogist

• California’s sole traders from The Legal Genealogist
• The boy who lived from The Legal Genealogist

That Was Constructive Criticism, You Fool! from Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog

Two stories continued:

• Ambush on a Revenuer from A Southern Sleuth
• Treasure Chest Thursday — The Big Reveal ~ What’s In the Old Metal Tube? from Jana’s Genealogy Blog

And a couple of my posts on Ancestry.com Sticky Notes

• How Do I Rename a Tree
• Want to Learn Something New?

• Philippina’s Choice from The Legal Genealogist
• This may be why your Civil War ancestor lost an arm or leg from Poore Boys in Gray
• Researching Newspapers for Genealogy for Free from The Ancestor Hunt
• You Don’t Always Have To Be There: Is That a Problem? from Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog
• Questions About the GPS from Ancestoring’s Ask a Genealogist
• The Death of Assassin Paul Roberts from Shiloh to Caanan
• Why they did it from Morning Coffee with John
• Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Grandpa Debs’ Black Briefcase  from Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
• In the Words of Women: The Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765 – 1799 from Our Heritage: 12th Century & Beyond

A couple of To Be Continued posts that you should start reading:

• Moonshining in Alabama from A Southern Sleuth
• Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Grandpa Debs’ Black Briefcase  from Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

And a little shameless self promotion, my 3 posts in Ancestry.com’s Sticky Notes this week:

• What Should I Do With A Census Image? from Sticky Notes
• How Can I Remove The Country from Places in Family Tree Maker
• How Do I Build A Family Census Table