Genealogy support group

Last night I went to my local genealogy group meeting.  It's a small group started by a lady that works at the library branch in are small town.  I have missed the last few meetings so I was excited to go.  Every time I go I learn something and my motivation comes back. 
The presentation was about occupations and how to find out more about them.
Did you know a "cooper" makes barrels?
Did you know that a "haberdasher" is a clothing salesman?
Records or Sources to find occupations:
Civilian Conservation Corps
City Directories
Sanborn Fire Maps
Marriage Records
Specialized Census Ex. 1927 Pennsylvania Farm Census
Draft Registrations
Old Photos might show occupations
Certificate of Death
Employee magazines - HathiTrust or Google Books
Railroad magazine search for "Railroad employee magazine"
World Cat
Licensed professions - hairdressers, nurse
patent records
family artifacts (watches, buttons, etc)

Learning Scanning Christmas

Tonight I signed up for my very first Family Tree University course.  It is called Newspapers 101.  It starts on January 14 which is my birthday but I read on the website that you can go to "class" anytime.  I hope that's true.

I decided it would be fun to scan some Christmas pictures from my childhood and my husbands.  We found these.

 Kim 1969 11 months

 Kim 1975 Iowa

 Kim 1975 Iowa

Kim 1975 Iowa

 Larry 1971 or 1972 in Littleton Colorado

Larry with his truck 1971 or 1972 in Littleton Colorado

Paper Organization

I have finally got my office set up the way I like it.  Slowly getting all my craft stuff, Girl Scout stuff, Genealogy stuff and kid stuff organized.  Today I wanted to work on my genealogy files and organization.  2 hours later I'm just getting started with it.  Why am I putting it off?  It's not that difficult.  I have color coded each family line in my hanging folders.  I created folders for forms, census records, research helps, etc. Now to clean up my other files I have laying around. 

Family vacation to Illinois

On July 14, Courtney, Averie, Shelby, Lacey and I took a plane ride to Illinois.  During this trip I have 2 genealogy goals. 
1. Interview my Grandpa Howard Nailer who was born July 24, 1929
2. To locate some homes that my family had lived in and take some pictures.

I accomplish both of those goals.  I really wanted to explore more but the girls had other things they wanted to do.  I didn't want to take away from their exploring.

Here's a picture of the house my parents lived in when I was born.  It's close to the fairgrounds.  They would park cars in the yard during the fair.

This is 3525 Betzer Ave, Decatur Illinois

Here's a picture of the house that Howard and Marie Nailer lived in about 1950.  The front is an add on but behind that is the peak of the original house.  Aunt Carolyn told me the kids had a hiding place in the basement to hide from Grandpa Galen.

2560 E. Olive, Decatur Illinois

Death Certificates

So interesting to get your grandparent's death certificates in the mail.  Grandpa Mckee died in 1979, I was ten, remember some but to find out more details just adds to my family history story.  Grandma McKee died in 1990 and I remember being so thankful that she was able to meet and spend time with my first born.  I'm having fun on my genealogy adventure.

I've been organizing my new office/craft room area for the last few weeks.  In between working and mom stuff I sneak in some time to clean up my family trees.  I've noticed several people have repeat or multiple sources.  I've been checking everyone for correct source and info. 

For the last month I've been trying to clean up my trees.  I seem to have lots of misinformation and people listed 2 or 3 times. 
Moved my office to the bigger spare room.  Should help me be more organized.