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.

My First Childhood Memories

The first memories I have are not very happy.  My parents divorced when I was 3 or 4.  I have several memories of fights and  police.  But I do remember one good thing.  We lived on a dead end street in Hanna City, Illinois.  The house was at the very end at the bottom of a hill.  The house was small.  I remember having a bedroom that was located kind of behind the living room.  One nice thing I remember about that house is my Grandpa John Clifton McKee making peanut butter fudge.  We would sit at the kitchen table and eat the fudge. I can still smell that fudge.  I loved my grandpa so much.  He died when I was 10.  I also remember visiting a house that was located a few houses from our house on the same street.  An older lady that I can't remember her name (I should ask my dad) made me a quilt that was black and blue.  All I can remember about her house was that it was white and had a silver metal screen door.  Hopefully in 2012 I can take a trip back to Illinois and visit this street.  It would be nice to see if my memories are accurate.  Sometimes I wonder if my memories are actual memories or from pictures that I've seen.

My New Years Day

 Yesterday I spent most of the day backing up my photos and organizing my genealogy "stuff".  I'm still working on my photo back up today because we have over 30 gigs of photos plus we are scanning every week.  I made my genealogy 2012 resolution list in my new "My family tree Research Planner" that I bought from shop family tree. Let's see if I use it all year long.  I'm setting up a little genealogy space in my basement so I will have all my things in one place.  Let's hope it works and I get all my goals accomplished.

My 2012 Genealogy Resolutions!