The Welcoming Committee

"The James County Times"  Wednesday, January 13, 1915

New Residents

The property belonging to Mrs. W. F. Wells has been put into the hands of a contractor for complete repairing; the house is to be painted white and papered and painted throughout. With the beautiful lawn, it will make one of the prettiest little homes in Ooltewah. As soon as the repairing is completed, Mr. and Mrs. Aston will occupy the property. The young couple were in Chattanooga last Saturday purchasing furniture for their home, including a lovely Packard piano. Ooltewah citizens are much pleased to have Mr. and Mrs. Aston among us and extend wishes for a life of happiness and prosperity here.

 

 

There is just something about this that gives me the "warm-fuzzies". Here is a young couple moving into a new home, in a new town. They probably were a little anxious, maybe even a little terrified at such a new endeavor. However, a new home, the beginning of new traditions can be an exciting and exhilarating experience.They obviously were lucky and had neighbors who were excited to get to know them.  No matter which end of the emotional spectrum they found themselves at, I am sure it was bound to be a positive experience.
 

This reminds me of when I was young. We moved around alot. It was always a new town and a new school. Us kids would come home from our new school and my mother was there with a big basket of fun things. The Welcome Wagon had come by and introduced themselves and welcomed us to the neighborhood. Their were coupons, a nice home cooked meal and invitations to societies, bridge games, etc. It didn't take long to become entrenched into the community. Before you knew it, they were playing bridge, golf, had lunch dates, etc. It was as if they had been there their whole life.

 I believe that Mr and Mrs Aston did not stay in Ooltewah very long. Five years later, by the 1920 census, they are no longer in James County or Hamilton County. If you know of this couple and where they are located in 1920, please notify me and I will let the readers know of their whereabouts.




Delta Genealogy September Meeting

The workshop last month presented by Delta Genealogical Society and the Signal Mountain Genealogical Society welcomed many new people to our hobby. There were many of you that asked for information about the meetings of these other local societies.  I thought that I would make it a practice to notify you of all of the local meetings and activities, as well as, our James County meeting.

Delta Genealogy is meeting this Tuesday evening, September 11th at 7pm. The meeting is held at the Rossville Public Library, 504 McFarland Avenue, Rossville, Georgia. This is just off of Rossville Blvd. We will be discussing some of the issues that are needed to bring the society into the 21st century.

As I have stated before, this is a growing topic among all societies today. We, as James County Historical Society, have already taken the first steps to upgrade our society to a new technological community. The Facebook page and this blog are used to keep our members abreast of all activities and inform others about James County. I also went to Birmingham last month to take classes on these very same topics. You can read all about it here. Please come to Delta's meeting and share what you would like to see from a society. What kind of speakers would you like to hear, what kind of technology classes would you likely be interested in learning about, or what community projects would you like to be involved in? What does it take to be an active society with an active membership in today's world?  Many of these same questions will need to be addressed at a later date during one of our meetings, as well.

Delta members whole-heartily invite you to the meeting and want to hear what your ideas are.

My thoughts would be for all of the local genealogy and historical societies to work together to be one large community. A community that had one goal: to assist in the advancement of all genealogical and historical pursuits. Everyone working together in projects, presentations, and educational advancement. We have the ability to do this. What do you think? If you can't make the meeting, but would like to participate in the discussion, please leave a comment below or email me directly and I will pass your comments on.

And in the spirit of this larger community, I will always give you notice of any upcoming activities, workshops, speaking engagements, projects, etc that involve the genealogy and history fields within our local area. Please put any upcoming dates on your calender so that you may attend and become involved!

Neither Rain, Sleet, Snow or HURRICANE?

Well, here I am in Birmingham. There was nothing that was going to stop me from coming to this conference. No way, not a holiday or even a hurricane!





Here’s how my first day went.

We received our blogger beads from Thomas MacEntee, courtesy of Dear Myrtle. Thank You Pat! It is definitely the best conversation starter. Some people just stare and wonder; but most stop and ask what the beads represent. It is awesome to talk to all of these people that we may not have had the opportunity to talk with. Good Going! Thank you again Dear Myrtle for making our experience more pleasant. Someone had said to me that the "beaded ones" were obviously special. Now we are known as the "Beaded Ones." How cute is that!

Tuesday night, there was a wonderful dinner for the blogging world sponsored by Family Search. Before I go any further, I want to thank Family Search for their wonderful generosity. They really know how to make a person feel special. Family Search talked to us about the amazing consortium that was able to digitize and index the entire 1940 United States Census in just over 4 months.  WOW! Then they previewed their upcoming major projects. They are working on digitizing and indexing The US Immigration and Naturalization records and the Italian Ancestors Project. Hey folks, they need indexers very badly. This is a huge undertaking and since we are the end-users, maybe we, as a society, need to get together and index some of these records. Wouldn't that be wonderful to give back to our genealogical and historical community. It's not as hard as you may think. Here's how it's done.




Create and sign in with a Family Search ID, sign up to index and then follow the instructions. Within minutes you can be looking at the copies of the original documents and then filling in the form for it to be indexed. If you have questions about your accuracy, no need to worry. Two other persons are doing the same document and then a moderator will determine the accuracy before it goes on line. There are even instructions and helpful hints along the way. What could go wrong! Let's talk about this at our next meeting. I will be more specific and walk you through this, later. If we did this together, we could make a difference.

Then I went and listened to D. Joshua Taylor give the keynote speech. It was titled "Transforming Your Society into a Dynamic 21st Century Destination." Oh my goodness, this was so relevant to what is happening in our society and nearly all societies around the country. He did an excellent job discussing how to integrate new technologies, a new group of genealogists, and new developments into societies that want to survive and thrive in today's world. I have ordered an audio copy of the speech. If anyone is interested in listening to it, please contact me.

Afterwards, the classes began. My first class was a discussion of the cemetery preservation efforts in Alabama and how genealogical societies and their members can participate. Lee Ann Woffard, Martha Armstrong, and Joyce Nicoll tag-teamed this presentation. Joyce has recently moved to Chattanooga from Montgomery. Her and I will get together and talk about some possible projects for the future. I am looking forward to seeing what we can come up with.

Then I moved on. I took a class that reviewed a society that had nearly failed. Its process from near extinction to a vibrant and active society was the case study. It dealt with rising costs, declining membership, changing member demographics and the technological advances. These are the same challenges that most societies are dealing with today. Thank you Diane Richard for this eye-opening example.

Next, Daine VanSkiver Gagel talked about the preservation of society records. It covered the important aspect of preserving the records that deal with the society meetings. If these are handled properly, the next generation of officers will be able to follow the proper path. Societies are also recipients of other peoples research. There are many ways to handle this and they were discussed in-depth. I hope to talk to you about this and put some of these ideas into practice.

Lastly, I took a two hour workshop about publicizing. Paula Stuart-Warren, through group analysis, hands on exercises and class discussion went into detail about the publication of newsletters, brochures, pamphlets, etc. Wow! It was a Great class. Thanks Paula. She also shared her ticket to the Opening Social that night. It was amazing. I would not have been there if it was not for her generosity. Thank You Again Paula!

As soon as the day's classes were over, we hopped on a bus and went down a couple of blocks to the iconic Alabama Theater. It, along with a few others like The Tivoli in Chattanooga, are the only remaining true, Hollywood-Style Movie Palaces, left in the United States. We were treated to the entertainment of Bobby Horton. He combined music, history and comedy into an entertaining evening.












What a wonderful way to end a very long and educational day!

Genealogy Overload?

August has been a very busy month in the genealogy field for me. There has not been much time to do anything else. Here is what my month has looked like so far and it doesn't stop here.

As you all know, there was a wonderful presentation at the James County meeting in the beginning of the month by Steve Robinson. He presented the story of the first transcontinental airplane race.( You can read about it here.)

I have viewed 4 webinars this month concerning technology and societies. I learned about the Genealogy Cloud and which one is the right one for me and "Wiki's for Genealogists". Thomas MacEntee presented these webinars through Legacy Family Tree. Megan Smolenyak talked about the neglected history, also through Legacy Family Tree. I took another webinar that  explained the use of the Instagram app on my IPhone. "Dear Myrtle" and "Not Your Mother's Genealogy" presented this webinar.   WEBINAR'S- MY FAVORITE PASTIME!   I love them!

I spent a day at the library researching for an upcoming magazine article dealing with James County, Tennessee. I will go into more detail about this in another blog post later on,
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I am on the board of Tag Delta Genealogy Society and I had the presentation this month. We brainstormed about how to upgrade our society to meet the needs of new members, as well as, the established members. The internet and social media is changing how business is conducted these days. What do we need to do as a society to keep up with it?  These ideas will also be addressed at the FGS Conference next week. 

Also, I was a small part of a very excellent committee for the Chattanooga Area Workshop this past weekend. (You can read about that here.) Once again, Kudos to all of the speakers and the people behind the scenes.

I attended a lecture at the Chattanooga Library presented by the Chattanooga Area Historical Association. The speaker was Henry E. Simpson, from Birmingham, who spoke about General Streight's raids during the Civil War in the North Alabama area. The objective was cutting Bragg’s supply line by disrupting the Western & Atlantic Railroad which supplied Chattanooga. Streight and his Union troops were pursued by General Nathan Bedford Forrest during April of 1863.

I have been scanning documents and photos for this blog and another one that will be making its debut around the end of the year. Stay tuned!

I attended a family reunion and met some of my husband's family that I had not met before.

I have been trying to better organize my desk and filing system. Both, physical and digital. Unsuccessfully, I might add! I guess I just will have to come to terms that this will always be a "work in progress".

Lastly, I will be gone the last of August to go to the FGS Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. The Federation of Genealogical Societies' Conference deals with the issues that societies and archives face. I will taking classes about preserving and archiving the society's holdings, attracting new members, using social media to enhance the society's communication with its members, plus many more. I hope to implement some of these new ideas when I get back. I am still trying to read the enormous syllabus that I recieved to help me decide what classes that I want and/or need to take.

Whew!  With a massage, a nap and rehydration, I will be ready for the next busy genealogy-filled month.  Look out.....here I come!

* Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Workshop Review

The workshop is over and it was a booming success. We had approximately 120 people equally mixed between beginners and those who have had some experience with this hobby. Hope you all attended, learned something new and enjoyed our speakers. (Read about the schedule here.)  In case you did not make it, here is a review of our fun-filled, educational day.

After registration, people filtered into one of two classrooms. One for beginners and one for non-beginners. Each class was well attended. Jim Douthat and Linda Mines gave excellent and delightful presentations.  Jim Douthat, the James W. Livingood 2012 Award recipient for the Historian of the Year (read about this here), taught beginners how to start their family genealogy. Linda Mines, the Hamilton County Historian, gave an excellent presentation that followed the family through generational lines with the use of social and economic events. This is the class that I attended. She was awesome! She knows more about history and its effects on the lives of our ancestors than I can ever dream of. She's my hero! I want to be her when I grow up. If I ever get the opportunity to hear her speak again, I will be in the room on the front row,

Then the next classes began with Jim Douthat and Rufus Williamson. Jim Douthat discussed how to use the United States Federal Census's to extend your family history further down the generational lines. Rufus Williamson, the President of Delta Genealogical Society, conquered the hard topic of DNA. The science of DNA is the newest tool in the genealogical toolbox. If this topic was clear as mud before, I am sure you have some basic understanding of it now.

After a light lunch, we all congregated together for the day's highlight presentation. An entertaining speech from Dr. George Schweitzer.  He always comes dressed for the part. Can you Guess?  This presentation was entitled "Searching for our Ancestors Across the Ocean".  He is a nationally acclaimed genealogist, historian and longtime professor at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of 220 publications including 19 genealogical guidebooks and has lectured to more than 200 genealogical and historical societies in the U.S. and internationally. This man gives an informative, interesting and a very witty performance. AMAAAZING!

I sure am glad that I was one of the people sitting in this room. I can only speak for myself, but I believe that everyone else in these rooms felt the same way that I do about the workshop...................

When is the next one?

Congratulations to Delta Genealogical Society and Signal Mountain Genealogical Society. All of their hard work payed off.



Genealogy Workshop

The Chattanooga area is having a Genealogy and History workshop on Saturday, August 18, 2012. It will be held at the First Centenary Methodist Church, downtown Chattanooga at 418 Oak Street. It will begin with 2 sets of classes in the morning and then lunch. After lunch, there will be an amazing speaker, Dr. George Schweitzer.

The first set of classes will begin at 9 am in the morning. There will be two classes. One for beginners and one for intermediate researchers.  The beginner class will be taught by Jim Douthat. It is titled "Beginning Your Family History"  Do you or someone you know want to start learning how to find the information that is needed to start your own family genealogy? This class is for you! Or maybe you just need a refresher class! Yes, this class would be for you too!
The intermediate class is "The Times in Which They Lived." Linda Mines will talk about how the history of a certain time period and the location can impact your ancestors' lives. These historical events will help you understand the decisions that your ancestors might have made...maybe even help you break down a brick wall or two!

The second set of classes will begin at 10:30 and they will be handled in the same manner. The beginner class will be taught by Jim Douthat, as well. This one is "The Treasures Hidden in Census Records". Census records hold a amazing amount of  information, if you know how to decipher them properly. Allow Jim to unlock all of their secrets for you. This class would be informative for both the beginner and the intermediate genealogist. The class for the intermediate researcher is titled "DNA-Genealogy's Newest Tool". This class will be taught by Rufus Williamson. This definetly is the lastest, cutting edge tool  in our field of genealogy. Yes, it is hard to understand, but exactly why you need to take this class.

We will then break for lunch and then assemble to hear our esteemed speaker for the afternoon. Dr George Schweitzer will be helping us "Search for our European Ancestors". He is nationally known as a history and genealogy speaker. He will teach you and inform you in a very witty and humorous manner that you will walk away wanting to see and hear him speak again.

The entrance fee for a fun-filled and informative day that includes your lunch will be $20.00 at the door. You can't beat that! I look forward to seeing all of you on Satuday, the18th of August. If you can't do the entire day, I highly recommend that you try to attend the parts that fit into your schedule.

August Meeting 2012

We have a real treat for you this quarter!

Steve Robinson, a Signal Mountain resident and a member of the Signal Mountain Genealogical Society is our speaker. He will cover the interesting topic of the first transcontinental flight in 1911.
Mr. Robinson's presentation will detail the first flight from New York to Los Angeles known as "The Flight of the Vin Fiz". This was a race that had to be completed in 30 days. Today, we may do that in several hours, but in 1911, aircraft was very new. They would need every bit of the 30 days. The prize to the winner was $50,000.
Steve first heard this story from his grandfather, Frank M Quinn, who at the age of 23 became a member of the crew of the Vin Fiz. He had always been very fascinated with the family stories that put them in the middle of history. This story definitely does that.

The program is free and open to the public. I highly recommend that you not miss this one!

Join us Sunday, August 5, 2012 at 2:30 at the Ooltewah Methodist Church for this very entertaining presentation!

6131 Relocation Way, Ooltewah, TN