Heads up

Goodness...where is this year going?? I thought about saying where is this summer going but really the year is almost half over...crazy!! I just wanted to give my loyal readers a heads up, that I am leaving on Thursday for about a week.  My (insert whoo hoo) Adamson family reunion is on Saturday.  I love going to these every year.  Over the last few years, we have talked a couple of distant relatives to join our crazy group.  And it has been wonderful!!  I am not sure who all is coming this year but I am looking forward to seeing everyone that comes.  Then after the family reunion we are headed back to Gabbs, where the kids will take part in the G.R.E.A.T. program.  This is Ahren's first year and he is quite excited.  Whew...I am tired.  But I am not done.  We are thinking of taking a trip to Montana to visit with Theron's parents.  Then home, where we will have a couple weeks to prepare for the start of school.  Both my kids will be in school, all day.  Loads of time for me to work on my work.  So don't worry that I am stopping my research, just as soon as I get time I will be back at it.  And most likely, I will start when we get back from Montana (if we go).

On a side note, last March I gave a short 3 week course on family history to my Young Women from church.  It was very fun and exciting for me.  I love sharing my well "love" of genealogy.  And these girls really shocked me with how some of them embraced the work.  They were really interested.  One of those nights, my Bishop from my church came to see what we were learning.  And I must have made an impression because the next month he asked me to get something together to teach the members of my church.  My really good friend and I came up with a game plan to teach the basics of genealogy.  Two weeks ago, we gave our first class starting with vital records, with my friend teaching the class.  Tomorrow is class 2 of an 8 week course.  And I am teaching! I am teaching about census records.  I am again so excited.   I am not normally an outgoing person but if I get the chance to talk about genealogy then it's like I become a different person.  Not sure why this is but I will chalk it up to one of my many different quirks. :) 

So while I have been busy the last week or so with family being here and then my taking a couple days to rest (which really didn't happen), and then with us leaving for the next couple of weeks...it feels like I haven't worked in forever.  I can't wait to get home and get back in the groove and put this brand spanking new printer my hubby bought me to use.  Hope all is having a good, crazy, fun-filled summer like I am. :D

Grandma Bev's Pictures!!!

So I have been MIA lately...and I know it BUT it's been for a good cause.  One my brain needed to rest from all the research so that I could come back with fresh eyes. :)  And two, I have been working on and finished two huge projects.  YAY!!! Ok, well I finished one and made it through the hard part of the second. ;)

I finished going through all the records I got from Mahaska Co., IA.  I separated them by last name.  Now, as I am working on these families, I can just pull out that family name and voila!! Yay!!

This is what it looks like as I am working.... messy.

After I finished all these records, I put a rush on finishing Grandma Bev's pictures.  I knew that they were going to have to go back to her soon and I procrastinated long enough.  For the last week and a half I have been scanning photo's.  And since I scan at a higher dpi it takes longer to scan each picture.  But now I am done scanning and will have to work on the picture index that goes with it, and I also have to straighten and fix each photo....one by one.  I love this time with each photo, it gives me a chance to really get a good look at the photo.  Grandma Bev's photo collection is huge there was just no way for me to scan every picture.  So I picked through them and scanned the ones that were important, ending up with over 1000 pictures.  Love it!!

Whenever someone gives me the oppurtunity to scan their photos or genealogy work, I always like to give it back in better shape than I got it or add to it in some way.  For instance, I was lucky enough to get a distant cousin's work and bring it home with me, in order to make copies.  Since I had it here for the winter I took the time to make copies of each page and scan it all making it a digital file.  Very wonderful.  With Grandma Bev's pictures, when I got them they were all stuffed into two, huge bags.  I started by sorting out all the stuff that wasn't pictures and then got to work on sorting the pictures themselves.  This project took me over a year to finish but only because I took the winter off....really though I don't know why I waited, so many wonderful, great finds.  I have thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to see and copy this great addition to my work.  And am very grateful that I am half way done with the project. I finished the hard part, anyways. :)

This is what I started with.

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This was the first sort, I did two more after this one.

And this is the finished result. :D