In the mid to late 19th century every region of America boasted of one or
more poets whose works reflected local history and folklore. Chances are that our
had read some of those poems during the course of their lives.

So, my challenge to my readers is this:

1. Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region one of
your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a
person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local animal.

2. Post the poem to your blog (remembering to cite the source where you found it.)

3. Did it inspire you to research the subject of the poem and how it relates to your
ancestor?

4.Submit your post’s link here to me by November 22nd and I’ll publish all the entries
on Thanksgiving Day!

My poem I chose was written by Patricia Neely-Dorsey.  Her thoughts about the South brought back many memories to me. She is from the Tupelo area where I was born, next door in Booneville, MS.  She has also lived in Memphis, where I am now.  I would like to share her poem,

Southern Life

If you want a glimpse of Southern life,
Come close and walk with me;
I’ll tell you all the simple things,
That you are sure to see.
You’ll see mockingbirds and bumblebees,
Magnolia blossoms and dogwood trees;
Caterpillars on the step,
Wooden porches cleanly swept;
Watermelons on the vine,

Strong majestic Georgia pines

Rocking chairs and front yard swings

Junebugs flying on a string

Turnip greens and hotcornbread,
Coleslaw and barbecue
Fried okra, fried corn,fried green tomatoes,
Fried pies and pickles too.
There’s ice cold tea that ’s syrupy sweet,
And cool, green grass beneath your feet;
Catfish nipping in the lake,
And fresh young boys on the make.
You’ll see all these things
And much, much more,
In a way of life, that I adore.

Copyright 2008 Patricia Neely-Dorsey

Learn more about her works HERE

The word prompt for the 19th Edition of Smile For The Camera is “Gift.” It is the holiday season and a time for giving. So give Smile readers the gift of sharing, sharing a family photograph. It can be a gift given or received, it can be the gift of talent, it can be the gift of having the photograph itself. The interpretation of gift is yours. Admission is free with every photograph!  Here is mine…..

My daughter is expecting my first grandchild anytime. We are all so excited. MacKenzie is growing everyday, and Marcy is really “feeling” it. We cannot wait until her arrival. I want to share my first picture of my first grandchild with you. It is amazing the technology they have now. When my kids were born, not THAT long ago, the ultrasounds were so hard to dicipher. Now you can see the babies smiling, waving and almost dancing around. I introduce to you, MacKenzie Jordan Cox, due anytime.  This is during her first trimester. 

Casefile Clues is Michael John Neill’s weekly how-to genealogy column. Casefile Clues is not copied and pasted text from other articles or press-releases. Rather, it is fresh material drawn from Michael’s own research experiences in nearly twenty states and seven foreign countries. Casefile Clues discusses the thought process of how to analyze and interpret documents; how to problem-solve; and how to decide “where to go next.” Michael has been actively involved in genealogy research since the mid-1980s.

What is a case study? George C. Morgan writes in his article, Study a Case Study, “Genealogical case studies can be fascinating, educational glimpses into other researchers’ perspectives. You gain the experience of the writer and can apply it to your own research.” Some of you may be thinking that you have your plate full with your research. Can subscribing to Casefile Clues help you in your genealogical endeavors? I decided to seek this answer out for myself. I had some experience in doing case studies by participating in a genealogy study group; we read a monthly case study and met monthly as a group to review and discuss the case studies merit. I wondered how Casefile Clues would compare in terms of readability, knowledge and value.

I read and studied Casefile Clue, Volume 1, Number 2 named Framing a Passport Application. It quickly got my attention as my husband’s side is from Sicily and immigrated to the United States. While I had occasionally glanced at the passport applications, I had not given them serious reflection. He wrote about discovering a passport for the brother of his wife’s great-grandfather. While there were few records on the grandfather, what he learned with the information taken from the passport gave him insight into this side of the family. He learned places, dates, physical description, and employment for this brother which led him to clues for his wife’s side of the family. While every passport is not the same, depending on the time period and the place, valuable information can be learned if passport applications are studied as part of our research plan.

I decided to give what I learned a try. I went to Ancestry.com to do a quick search on the U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 site. I entered Termini, where my husband’s side is from in Sicily and Memphis, where most of this family came to live. There was a Salvatore Mascari listed who was the grandfather of my husband’s second cousin’s wife. We live in the same city of this cousin and I have actively done his genealogy for him. I had very little on his wife’s line and had set her family research aside for the last couple years. Now, prompted by Michael John Neill’s Casefile Clue’s Case Study, in less than 15 minutes this is what I learned form a simple passport lookup.

Salvatore Mascari was born September 15, 1858 in Termini, Sicily. He was 5 foot, 10 ½ inches with dark brown eyes. He had a large nose, black hair, long face with an olive complexion. The passport gave the name of the ship, although a little fuzzy to read, along with his naturalization date of March 15, 1905. His witness was R. F. Arata of Memphis (someone I need to do some research on to see if a relation) and it was signed with Salvatore’s signature and his address. While this particular passport did not have a photo, I came across many that did. To my husband’s side of the family, to learn this of her grandfather was a goldmine.

Learning this information, based on just reading one Casefile Clues, was definitely worth the price I paid! But, I still have many more Casefile Clues to study and I am looking forward to the new ones I will receive. The subscription is only $15 that can be done quarterly or annually.

In conclusion, here is Michael John Neill in his own words: “For over the past ten years, I have written over 600 weekly genealogy columns, first for Ancestry.com and then for Dick Eastman. My new columns are now distributed through “Casefile Clues.” Additionally I have lectured at local, regional, and national genealogical society seminars and workshops and have presented numerous hands-on computer genealogy classes as well. I was formerly on the board of directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and have served on FGS conference committees in a variety of functions. I have a master’s degree in mathematics and have been on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois, since the early 1980s. I have done additional graduate work in education.

My writing style is not overly formal, but focuses on sound methodology, practice, and readability. I write about problems and families I am working on, or interesting records I have discovered in my own research–with the intent of showing how the record could be used, what it means, and why it was created. Every family I write about is one I am researching and every record is one I have actually used.”

Tina Sansone, Bellaonline’s Genealogy Editor is a subscriber to Casefile Clues and recommends taking advantage of this great subscription. I look forward to hearing comments about your success story as a result of Michael John Neill’s case studies. I was not compensated for this review; it was written based on my reading and applying the lessons I learned.

Laptops are portable, sort of. They are heavy, most weighing in about six pounds. They don’t go very long without power. And what do you do in a library when you have a laptop but need to go get another book?

Netbooks are small laptops, generally with 9-10″ screens. They weigh under three pounds. They aren’t new. Gateway made tiny laptops in the early 90s but they just didn’t sell. Others have made them since. After 17 years their time has finally come.

Mine fits in my purse. Ok, I tend to carry a large purse when I am traveling. The first day after I got mine I shoved it in my purse and carried it around all day, shopping, to lunch, to the library, to the grocery store, etc. It’s doable.

The battery keeps going and going and going. The reason is you close the lid and it hibernates. Some manufacturers claim the battery lasts nine hours. Mine does BUT I don’t use it steadily for those nine hours.

Two weeks later I went on a two week trip with the netbook as my only computer. Mine has a camera, wi-fi, bluetooth, a 160 GB hard drive and 2 MB of memory. I loaded up my programs, my work files, my pictures, my music [the sound isn't bad] and my genealogy files.

With cloud computing through programs such as Gmail and Evernote, your data is available to you wherever you are. More and more storage is available that way. My netbook came with 10 GB cloud file storage. Windows Live provides free cloud file storage. Cloud computing is the future.

There is no CD drive. To add a program you need to download it, install it from an external CD drive, copy it to the netbook across your network or copy it to a flash drive and then use that as your installation disk.

Some come with wireless cards. In fact, you can get a pretty inexpensive netbook with a built in wireless card if you sign a two year wireless contract. For about $30 a month you can “tether” your netbook to your smartphone to connect — which sounds cumbersome to me. Or you can connect when you are at one of an ever growing number of places with free wi-fi access, places from city parks to fast food outlets. It’s a great excuse to go to Dairy Queen.

The screen IS small for reading long documents but that’s what scrolling is for. I wouldn’t want to do eight hours of work on it. That’s really the only downside. My biggest gripe is the inability to disable the built in touchpad to use a wireless mouse. There is a way to do it but it just doesn’t work. I finally cut a piece of lightweight cardboard and taped it over the touchpad. That effectively eliminated about 85% of the problem. If you use the touchpad you don’t have this problem.

I think a netbook is the perfect tool for research trips.

Cheryl Rothwell, Guest Author, is the web coordinator of IlGenWeb. She uses the netbook Asus EeePC 1000HE. Please visit her other sites:

Logan County Genealogy
Ancestor Hunting
Graveyard of South Logan County
IlGenWeb Project

One of our stories in World Literature we are reading are discussings sins and punishment. For fun, our teacher told us in our discussion (this is an online class) to lists some things we feel should maybe be sins and the appropriate punishment. Here are some of my ideas. What are yours? [This is entirely meant for fun, not to offend anyone.]

Tina Sansone

Randy, over at Genea-Musings just posted his Saturday Night Fun blog:

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1) Think about your most memorable Hallowe’en – was it when you were a child (candy, games, carnivals), a teenager (tricks and treats), or an adult (perhaps a party)?

3) Have fun!

The thing about my early Halloween years I recall is deciding what costume to wear. Rarely did me and my brothers and sisters buy one. We came up with unique ideas to make our own. I recall one of my brothers usually was a girl, and a cute one at that. We would dress up as the 50’s, zombies, ghosts, western, witches and all other sorts of things our imaginations led us to.

Then I remember the funny things we would say: “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me somthing good to eat”! Why did we think that was so funny. We would walk for miles getting bags and bags of candy. And who needed to purchase a bag: we would just grab the largest pillowcase we could find.

Of course, even then, which was not that long ago, we had to be safe on what we ate. We were told by our parents to wait til we got home to eat the candy. We spread our catch across our floor separating the good stuff from the yucky candy. I hated that “orange & black” wrapped stuff, but loved the candy bars, candy corn and popcorn balls.

As I got older we had dances to attend and dressed up. Was lots of fun. We also hosted “trunk or treats” for the smaller kids. We would decorate our car trunks and back up to the sidewalk. We gave out candy to the kids and it was fun to see their costumes and excited faces (the ones without the masks, that is).

Now that I am a mom, my Halloween consists of handing out candy or driving my kids to their activities. Every now and then I’ll attend an event, but usually I am content staying home handing out the goodies and seeing the kids come knock on the door and tell me “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give them something good to eat”!

The International Black Genealogy Summit (IBGS) is meeting this week (October 29-31, 2009) at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Even though I could not attend, just visiting the conference website educated me in some African American resources I had not been aware of. I wanted to learn more about the IBGS and share these resources with you.

Their websites states:

“This momentous event signifies the first time that all of the black historical and genealogical societies in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean will come together to celebrate the joys and challenges of black genealogy.”

Cultural and Genealogical Society 314 N. Main Street Decatur, IL 62523-1102 African American Family History Association PO Box 280786 Memphis, TN 38168 AAGG of Miami Valley PO Box 485 Yellow Spring, OH 45387-1224 AAGG of Philadelphia PO Box 27356 Philadelphia, PA 19118-0356 AAGHS of Chicago PO Box 37-7651 Chicago, IL 60637 (312) 458-0837 AAGS of Cleveland PO Box 201476 Cleveland, OH 44120-1476 AAHGS National PO Box 73086 Washington, DC 20056-3086 AAHGS – Arkansas PO Box 4294 Little Rock, AR 72214-4294 AAHGS – Central Florida PO Box 1347 Orlando, FL 32802-1347 AAHGS of Charlottesville/Albemarle County PO Box 7492 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7492 AAHGS – Landon Creek PO Box 32116 St. Louis, MO 63132-8116 (314) 306-0975 AAHGS – Metro Atlanta PO Box 54063 Atlanta, GA 30308-0063 AAHGS – New England 42 Laurelwood Drive Stroughton, MA 02072-4961 AAHGS–New Jersey 1841 Kennedy Blvd, 2nd Floor Jersey City, NJ 07305 AAHGS – North Carolina Piedmont-Triad PO Box 36254 Greensboro, NC 27416-6254 AAHGS – Pittsburgh PO Box 5707 Pittsburgh, PA 15208 AAHGS – Prince George’s County Maryland PO Box 44252 Fort Washington, MD 20744-4252 AAHGS – Willie Lee Gay – H-Town T.S.U Box 1100 3100 Cleburne Houston, TX 77004 AAHS of Portsmouth, VA Attn: Mae Breckinridge-Haywood PO Box 2468 Portsmouth, VA 23702 (757) 487-0431 African Atlantic Genealogical Society PO Box 7385 Freeport, NY 11520 African Canadian Heritage Association PO Box 99576 1095 O’Connor Drive Toronto, ON M4B 3M9 AfriGeneas c/o Valencia King Nelson 1496 Soaring Pointe NE Marietta, GA 30062-3268 Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County 4249 Loudoun Ave The Plains, VA 20198-2237 (540) 253-7488 Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier PO Box 63 Buffalo, NY 14207-0061 Association of Black Genealogists of Alabama 6208 Crest Green Rd., #202 Birmingham, AL 35212-3834 Association of Caribbean Historians Verene Shepherd, President Department of History and Archaeology UWI-Mona Kingston 7, Jamaica Barbados Museum & Historical Society St. Ann’s Garrison St. Michael Barbados BB14038 Birmingham African-American Genealogy Study Group (205) 901-6387 Black Belt AAGHS PO Box 971 Selma, AL 36702-0971 Black Family Genealogy & History Society PO Box 90683 Phoenix, AZ 85066-0683 Black Genealogy Search Group P.O. Box 40701 Denver, CO 80204-0701 President Edward Walton Black Heritage Society of Washington State PO Box 22961 Seattle, WA 98122-0961 (206) 551-3278 Black Historical and Cultural Society of British Columbia Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia 00 Clay Street Richmond, VA Mailing address: PO Box 61052 Richmond, VA 23261 (804) 780-9093 Black Liberated Arts Center (BLAC) PO Box 11014 Oklahoma City, OK 73136 (405) 524-3800 Black Loyalist Heritage Society POBox 1194, 104 Birchtown Rd Shelburne, NS B0T 1W0 British Columbia Black History Awareness Society 201-390 Waterfront Crescent Victoria, BC V8T 5K3 (250) 360-9032

California AAGS PO Box 8442 Los Angeles, CA 90008-0442 (310) 202-1647 Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society 177 King Street East Chatham, ON N7M 3N1 (519) 354-5248 Choctaw Chickasaw Freedmen Association of Oklahoma 16358 Lock and Dam Road Spiro, OK 74959-4922 Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society 5201 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 48202-4007 (313) 438-3233 Gaslamp Black Historcal Society PO Box 1122469 San Diego, CA 92112-2469 Haitian American Historical Society 9822 N.E. 2nd Avenue, Ste. 3A Miami Shores, FL 33138-2347 Harriet Tubman Historical Society PO Box 832127 Stone Mountain, GA 30083 Indiana African American Genealogy Group PO Box 1811 Indianapolis, IN 46206 International Sons & Daughters of Slave Ancestry PO Box 436937 Chicago, IL 60643-6937 Jamaican Historical Society Richmond Park Great House 58 Half Way Tree Road Kingston 10, Jamaica Lee County Black History Society 1936 Henderson Avenue Fort Myers, FL 33902 Mailing address: PO Box 489 Fort Myers, FL 33902-0489 (239) 332-8778 Louisiana Creole Research Association PO Box 791845 New Orleans, LA 70179-1845 Middle Peninsula AAGHS of VA Essex Public Library 117 North Church Lane Tappahannock, VA 22560 (804) 321-1206 Midwest Afro-American Genealogical Interest Coalition PO Box 300972 Kansas City, MO 64130-0972 Nevada AAGS 8475 Green Mesa Court, Las Vegas, NV 89147 Nevis Historical and Conservation Society PO Box 563 Charlestown, Nevis, WI Oberlin AAGHG MPO Box 0374 Oberlin, OH 44074-0374 (440) 935-0201 Ontario Black History Society 10 Adelaide St. E., Ste. 2020 Toronto, ON M5C 1J3 (416) 867-9420 Orange County AAHS 130 Caroline Street Orange, VA 22960 Rhode Island Black Heritage Society The Arcade 65 Weybosset, Ste 29 Providence, RI 02903-2827 (401) 751-3490 San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society 762 Fulton San Francisco, CA 94102-4119 (415) 292-6172 Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society 612 N. Park Street Kalamazoo, MI 49007 (269) 873-2327 St. Louis African American History & Genealogy Society P.O. Box 18754 St. Louis, MO 63118 (314) 306-0975 sparky8232003@yahoo.com St. Louis Genealogical Society African-American Special Interest Group PO Box 43010 St. Louis, MO 63143-0010 Tarrant County Black Historical & Genealogical Society PO Boc 50483 Fort Worth, TX 76105-0483 Tony Burroughs PO Box 53091 Chicago, IL 60653-0091 Toussaint L’ouverture Historical Society PO Box 4115 Silver Spring, MD 20904-4115 Wisconsin Black Historical Society 2620 W. Center Street Milwaukee, WI 53206 (414) 372-7677

The FamilySearch Record group has been a great addition to FREE online research records. You can search millions of indexed records for your ancestors. Records are frequently being updated. When you go to the FamilySearch site, new and/or updated records to the site are noted by a red *.

Would you like to be a part of indexing records to be added to this FamilySearch site? Why not volunteer to be an Indexer? Help create free public access to the U.S. census indexes and other records!

The key life events of billions of people are being preserved and shared through the efforts of people like you. Using our online indexing system, volunteers from around the world are able to quickly and easily transcribe the records — all from the convenience of their homes. The indexes are then posted for FREE at familysearch.org. Millions of rolls of microfilm provide census, vital, probate, and church records from over 100 countries for indexing projects. Governments, churches, societies, and commercial companies are also working to make more records available.

YOU CAN HELP by volunteering to index one of the current United States census projects or the upcoming England and Wales census projects. FamilySearch indexing projects span the world. Current projects are active in the United States, England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and elsewhere!

Here are some of the records that have recently been added to the records already provided. I encourage you to frequently visit this site for their new updates.

United States
Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers 1871-1915 (43% Complete)
Indiana Marriages 1811-1959 (11% Complete)
Massachusetts State Census, 1865
United States Census, 1920 (51% Complete)
Wisconsin State Census, 1855

Mexico
Mexico Census, 1930 (20% Complete)
Mexico, Coahuila, Catholic Church Records 1627-1978

United Kingdom
England, Cheshire School Records, 1796-1950

France
France, Protestant church records, 1612-1906 (11% Complete)

Netherlands
Netherlands, Limburg Parish Register Transcripts, 1600-1822

Italy
Italy, Palermo Province, Monreale Diocese Church Records, 1530-1919

Argentina
Argentina National Census, 1869 (37% Complete)
Argentina National Census, 1895

A family history gift is a special way to tell someone how much you care for them. Sometimes finding that unique gift is hard to do. There are gifts you can get for the “genealogy addict” that will make them smile. They will appreciate your thinking of them and their passion in doing their family history.

Some of us have family members who do not do genealogy. But, they may really enjoy receiving a family history gift. You can do the research yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Here are some ideas for gifts for that special person:

Framed pictures or collage of family
Binded copy of their family history (Kinko’s can do this from CD)
Subscription to their favorite genealogical site
CD/DVD’s
Research forms (Pedigrees, Family Group Sheets, Research Logs)
Generation Charts
“How To” books on Genealogy
Books of the Country they are researching
Pillows/crafts with genealogy sayings
Genealogy cross stitch charts
T Shirts
Office Supplies
Disposable Camera and/or Film
Archival storage boxes
Magazine Subscription
Cassette Recorder
Donation to favorite genealogy organization
Go on a Cemetery Hunt with them
Atlas and Maps
Child Care
Pet Sitting
Digital Frames

Most of us have a collection of photographs and documents. Take time to arrange them by family and make copies of them or scan them to a CD. This would make a great gift to other members of the family. Seeing a document with their ancestor’s signature might just make their day. Seeing a photograph with a face looking back at them with similar attributes that they or their children have would be a wonderful gift.

The most special gift I can receive, and you might consider, is to sit and listen to their stories. Call them often and ask them how their research is going. Show an interest in what they are doing, even though it may not be something you are interested in at that time. When they need to go on a research trip or even a local trip to the library, see if they might need your assistance. This is a free, but much appreciated gift, the gift of yourself!

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings got his idea for SNF from Leland Meitzler’s post on his most satisfying genealogical moments

For today’s SNGF, if you choose to participate (cue the Mission Impossible music!), please:

1) Tell us about one (or more) “Satisfying Genealogy Moments” from your family history and genealogy research. What was it, and how did it make you feel? You can make a Top Ten list if you want to!

2) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on this post, or make a comment on Facebook, and tell us about your “moment in time.”

Here is my top ten (in no order), would love to hear yours:

1. Solving part of my Fralick Brick Wall
2. Solving several generation on my Smith Brick Wall
3. Joining DAR and helping others join too
4. Solving my African American friends’ genealogy when a name change was involved between census
5. Being asked to lecture at the Bartlett Senior Group, and then being asked to return again
6. Being asked to be the Genealogy Editor for Bellaonline.com almost 4 years ago
7. Sharing Genealogy with a family member who is really is interested
8. Serving on the TN Genealogical Society board
9. Getting pictures of ancestors and actually learning who some of them were
10. Surviving Samford 4 years and making great friends