I Took a Day Off

Last night was my final night in KC. I got a car yesterday around noon, so I went out after the conference ended and saw some of the city. I went to Country Club Plaza. What a great place! The architecture was fantastic and I swear there were thousands of people milling about. From what I've read about it, it was the first shopping center specifically designed for those travelling by automobile. It started in 1923 and is modelled after the buildings in Seville Spain. At Christmastime, all the building are decorated with lights.

So I got me a Ford Focus...a sardine can car! The metal is so thin.... It holds all my stuff and gets me to where I am going, so I'm happy!

So yesterday I had great sessions too! I thought two of them were going to be crappy, but they turned out full of information. I started the morning off with Tips on Family Tree Maker, the software I use for my research storage. Fortunately, they were using a new version, which I haven't upgraded to yet. So it gave me a good preview as to whether I want it or not. It has good features and some ehh ones. The second and third sessions were on DNA testing, their usage in the genealogy research process and how to manage a DNA project. It was really interesting. There are two types of tests...a Y-chromosome test and a mtDNA (mitochondrial) test. The Y test traces paternal lines and the mt maternal. It is the numbers of repeat patterns in certain DNA markers which are counted. The 67 marker test is the most advanced at this time. A father passes his Y-chromosome DNA down to his sons as this is nuclear, stored in the cell nucleus, DNA. The mutations occur very rarely. A mother passes her DNA to her sons as well, but this mitochondrial DNA is stored in the sperm tail, which drops off immediately after fertilization and does not enter the egg. Hence, the mothers DNA is not passed on to grandsons. But a mothers DNA can be used to trace the female ancestral lines through mothers, aunts, cousins, etc.

Immediately after lunch was Research in Kansas. It gave me some ideas for some new angles on Kansas records. I can try them out Tuesday at the Kansas State Historical Society here in Topeka. I found out they are closed tomorrow, so I may go to the Topeka Public library and check it out. Plus I have to do some laundry!!

The conference ended with Pushing Up Daisies: Cemetery Research. It was great in that I knew a lot already, but she took it one step further with additional record types and some new ways to find what isn't obvious.

So NGS Conference in the States 2008 is history. It was a great learning experience; no crosswalks collapsed while we were at the KC Hyatt...remember 1981 when they did collapse and killed a few hundred people?

I went out and had a great ham steak and potatoes last night. Chatted with some of the locals and with one guy from St. Joe. I made it back to the hotel at an early hour, but just chilled for awhile reading and trying out some new things from the week.

I am still pretty ecstatic about finding John Taylor's birthplace. I need to follow-up on it as soon as I get home. I am going to write to the parish in Kudirkos Naumiestis and see if they have the records back that far. From the info I found on the church, it seems it goes back to the late 1500's.

This morning I slept in a bit...to 8 am! I found a church to go to last night when I was riding around. It was only a few blocks from the hotel, and I remember from the genealogy that one of the cousins was married there....but I don't remember which one. It is Redemptorist-Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It's on Linwood Blvd and Broadway. It is a great old church! Reminds me of Assumption with the white marble altars. It was Communion Sunday, so Mass lasted from 9:30 until about 10:45. I got back to the hotel and checked out. Then I hit the road around KC again. I really didn't have any idea of what to do, so I just went riding a bit. I saw signs for the Kansas City Zoo and I decided to check it out. WOW!!

It is a great zoo. There are sections on Africa, Australia and Sumatran Tigers. I saw elephants, rhino, lions, flamingos, chimps, kangaroos, dogs, tigers, leopards...a lot!! I'll put some pics on the pic blog soon. There was a lot of walking and at one point, you have to walk across a suspension bridge. Going over it was ok, but when leaving Africa, you have to walk over it again and some of the kids on it had it swaying pretty good. It took a good strong leg to keep one standing!!

After spending 3 1/2 hours at the zoo, I headed here to Topeka. It was simple...I-435 to I-70!! And it cost $2.15! I-70 from the I-435 interchange to outside Topeka is the Kansas Turnpike and a toll road.

The Best Western here is just a shot down from the History Society. I drove around a bit tonight for a place to eat and found a good steakhouse...yep--more sirloin!

So now I fat, sleepy and happy! Now if I could cool down, I'll be good. It was 83 here today.

So tomorrow I get to play tourist and washerman! Hope everyone had a good weekend! Sorry for you that it's back to work!

Thanks for reading and I'll keep writing!

Mark

Today made the week!!

Hello readers!

I want to wish you all a great weekend!

My NGS Conference is quickly coming to a close. Tomorrow is the final day. I'm going to miss learning all those great things!!

During the session on National Archives databases, mentioned was made that WWII draft registration cards were listed. I remembered seeing them on Ancestry.com as well. So when I got back to the room tonight I decided to take a look and see what they contained. Ancestry doesn't have all states added yet, but they did have some of Indiana. My maternal grandmother's family settled in Terre Haute from Lithuania in the 1900's. I looked up my great-grandfather, John Taylor, and he was listed!! Listed as John Krawcomas Taylor. The original surname in Lithuanian is Kriauciunas, pronounced CROW-CHEW-NAS. So it was close. But the most amazing thing and that which has made this whole trip a success is the birthplace!! No one has known where he was born, except Lithuania. I have been looking for this since 1978...yes, 1978, when I first started a family tree. So the card lists his birthplace as Blodislawo Slavico Lithuania. Unfortunately, this is not Lithuanian! I did surmise that they were from the Suvalkija area of current Lithuania, which is in part of Poland as well. So in this birthplace, I imagine the Slavico is Suvalkija or Suwalki (in Polish). So what is Blodislawo?? There is nothing close to that on the map and Google has nothing. I figured I would write to the Lithuanian Genealogy Society at the Balzekas Museum in Chicago, but then I remembered that JewishGen was supposed to have a good Eastern European place finder. Since the borders changed so much, they tracked the changes. So I pulled up the site and popped it in...and there it came up!!! The name is Vladislovov in Suwalki. And it also gives the current name...Kudirkos Naumiestis. The name changed after WWI. It is on the Sesupe river north of Kybartai. The story I heard from one of mom's cousins was that when asked where they came from, the answer was that were they lived in Lithuania, they could look across the field and see the bridge over the river to Germany. So, a river and the border is with current Kaliningrad section of Russia, which was East Prussia (German) territory prior to WWI. So...I found the town!!!

White Sox just won their game tonight 2-0 over the Giants...watching it on WGN. Inter-league play.

The sessions were great today. The two certification workshops were only for one type of certification--the AG Accredited Genealogist. There are about 150 of them. I guess they were trying to compete with the CG--Certified Genealogist. The morning rounded out the Access to Archival databases. That was interesting and I need to get in there. There are so many different records with general access.

Went to lunch at Crown Center to the Chinese place and had an eggroll, lo mein, sesame chicken and broccoli beef. The weather was so nice I decided to sit in Washington Park and watched the birds and people. A little sparrow was eating his lunch as well. He was pulling the seeds out of a not-yet-opened seed head of a dandelion. He really had to pull on it. I made it back to the Hyatt and started the afternoon sessions.

I was going to nix the Library of Congress presentation, but decided to check it out and see if it was worth it. IT WAS! There are a lot of things online...books, interviews, music, movies, Americana at its best.

The last sessions was how to index. You know, like create an index to a book. It sounds easy but a lot of decisions have to be made. Microsoft WORD does have two ways to do it, but there is a lot of manual action either way.

I stayed at the hotel and ate dinner at the sports bar there. I had BBQ beef brisket. It was good, but not as good as the sirloin yesterday! I talked with a fellow attendee at the bar. She was from Frederick MD. She also said she and her husband had a summer home in Nashville at Percy Priest Lake. They were going there in June to spend the month. Her husband likes to fish and she says he spends most of the days on the lake.

I walked back to the Fairfield Inn and started these genealogical exercises on the WWII cards and now it's midnight already.

Tomorrow is:

8:00 am Getting the Most from Family Tree Maker (the software I have my information in)
9:30 am The Nuts and Bolts of Using DNA Testing
11:00 am DNA Testing for Genealogy: A Surname Project and Results
2:30 pm Genealogical Research in Kansas
4:00 pm Pushing Up Daisies: Cemetery Research.

So I got some good things as well tomorrow! I also get a car tomorrow!! I'll go to Topeka on Sunday. I'll put to use what I learn in the Kansas research class tomorrow.

OK...I'm yawning pretty regularly, so I need to get to bed. More tomorrow!

Mark

Thursday is over...already???

My eyes were getting tired of that small type...

That was a quick day! Seems like I was just in the shower getting ready to hike to the Hyatt.

What a great weather day and a great conference day. I really enjoyed the walks today. It was cool, sunny and a slight breeze. Lots of sun.

I started the day today learning more about a piece of software I've had for a few years. GenSmarts is a program which accesses your regular family tree data program, applies some artificial intelligence and derives research suggestions. It contains collections in some of the libraries around the country, so not only does it list what you need to fill in the blanks, but also suggests where you can find it. It also notes if the records can be found on-line, and will access that on-line program with a click of the mouse. Makes things easy. EXCEPT it has too much intelligence. Last time I ran it against mine, it gave me almost 10,000 suggestions! So got some tips about how to use the new version and the filters. I can set the filters to only look for certain information. We'll see how it works when I get home.

Next session was on Post-Adoption research. I've never really had any experiences with researching adopted individuals. It was interesting to hear how the laws are so different from state to state. The speaker talked about some of the pitfalls in the research plan. She had a case study which was about a girl in Chicago who was Irish and Lithuanian! Even if you cannot get the original birth certificate, she gave us clues on other records that should be open and available that you can garner information from.

The third session was about Irish Archives: Out of the Ashes. In 1922, a fire destroyed most of the major record collection at the Irish Record Office in Dublin. The presenter gave us titles of various collections which try to recreate some of those records. It seems that the archivist at the time of the fire had a great idea to call on people who were doing research at archives before the fire to contribute what items of information they copied while they were there. It's interesting what great things are in these collections.

Took a nice walk at lunchtime back to Crown Center Mall but so did about 500 people from other meetings! I wanted Chinese or Greek, but the lines were out the door. I decided on Italian and found a great place called Milano. I had the lunch special...lasagna del giornio. It was a half order of lasagna and a salad. The daily lasagna today was roasted chicken and asparagus with alfredo sauce. WOW! It was great, and being just a half order I wasn't stuffed. I then walked around the area and took some photos. I'll try to put them on the pic blog... www.mbellpics.blogspot.com .

The afternoon sessions were a Part I and Part II about British Isles Internet Strategies. Mr. Milner went through scads of websites pertaining to British records. I went to visit some of them tonight and found some things. At least I didn't find anything in the execution files!! Part I covered General records and England, Part II was Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

I met a nice lady from Lewis Kansas in Western Kansas. She was waiting after lunch to go to the same sessions on British records. We swapped stories and talked about Iowa...she is originally from Iowa.

After the sessions, I traipsed over to 20th and Main to Hereford House for a steak. I got a 12 oz top sirloin, steak soup, ranch potatoes and a beer. It was a great steak...got it medium, it was tender and juicy. MMMM..... I finished off with a lemon Italian cream cake. Then I had the long walk back to 30th and Main. I swear these blocks are twice as big as Nashville blocks. It felt like I walked 2 miles back!

Tomorrow's schedule:

8:00 am Becoming an Accredited Genealogist Workshop Part I
9:30 am Becoming an Accredited Genealogist Workshop Part II
11:00 am AAD: Access to Archival Databases
2:30 pm Our National Treasure: The Library of Congress
4:00 pm Indexing from A to Z

So, sounds like some note taking in the morning!!

Well, it's getting late. Need to rest these legs...they tightened up after that walk back.

Keep reading as I finish the week and learn about the Nation's Records.

Mark

Opening Day is done...

What a day! I was up and out earlier than a regular workday! But it was good.

It was a great walk to the Hyatt. The hard part is walking back up the hill.

The conference got off to a great start. After all the preliminaries, the keynote address about immigrants coming to Missouri was good. It was interesting how the waves of people came to the Midwest.

The exhibit hall opened at 9:30, and the sessions ceased until 11:00 to let all the attendees peruse the booths. There wasn't as much for sale as there was in Chicago in 2006. Not a lot of freebie novelties either. I didn't find anything to buy. I spoke to a lot of the vendors, but nothing caught my eye.

The 11:00 session was What's New at Ancestry.com. Wow...they really have added some great search capabilities. I'll have to really get on it and dig. If you contribute your tree(s), they will see all the records for matches on any member of the tree.

Lunch was a pita supreme pizza. Wasn't bad. Went to the Crown Center Mall.

The afternoon was dedicated to Homestead learning. There is a Homestead Memorial historic site in Beatrice Nebraska. They are trying to get all homestead docs imaged and stored there. My O'Malley's were supposed to have Homestead land in Kansas, but they were there in 1860 and Homestead didn't start until Jan 1 1863. I have to write to the BLM office in New Mexico for Kansas information.

I was going to go to the ballgame tonight, but decided against it. I stuck around here and watched it on TV.

Tomorrow the schedule is:

8:00 am GenSmarts (an artificial intelligence software to give you tips on blanks in your tree)
9:30 am Options in Post-Adoption Research
11:00 am Out of the Ashes--Irish Genealogical Collection
2:30 pm British Isles Internet Strategies I - General and England
4:00 pm British Isles Internet Strategies II - Scotland, Ireland and Wales

And I am still planning on getting a good steak from Hereford tomorrow too.

Glad I've gotten some comments in my email.

Well, I'm going to get some sleep. Hope you have a great day!

Mark

May isn't that long after January!

Yeah...call me horrible! The last post was January 21st. A lot has transpired since then.

Right now I am sitting at a Fairfield Inn in Kansas City MO, watching the Royals-Tigers game on TV. I was going to go to the game tonight but the weather is kinda iffy...storms in the area. So I'm planning on going tomorrow night.

So, what's been happening since January 21st? Mostly depression. I mentioned that my aunt wasn't doing well in the last post. She took a turn for the worse the 30th and 31st of January. She still refused to see a doctor or go to the emergency room or have someone stay with her. Mom, Dad & I went and spent the day with her on the 1st. It was tough. She wasn't moving well at all and was in a lot of pain. She did agree to have a neighbor come in and check on here through the day. Monday the4th she was pretty bad so the lady called 911. When they got there, my aunt refused any treatment. We went down as fast as we could. Did some more work and tried to make her comfortable. We left about 5:30 pm. The neighbor came in about 7 pm and left about 8:30. When she went the next morning to check on her, she found her dead. Coroner said she died between 9 and midnight. There was no funeral, as she requested. We did have Mass for her and Uncle Kent at St. Leo's in Murray.

Now we are in the process of being named executors of her estate. Her will named Uncle Kent, but he died last May and she never had a chance to change it...nor had she changed a lot of her legal documents. We have a big job ahead of us. It's been tough.

Work has been a challenge as well. We have some new programs and applications being developed and used and they have been a handful! My group is also two people short and with the current shortfall, there is a hiring freeze. So we aren't getting someone new anytime soon.

Hockey season was promising. The Preds made the playoffs against all odds and did fairly well in the first round versus Detroit. Unfortunately they lost in six games. They have good prospects for next year. The Black Hawks tried their best to make the playoffs. They had a great run at the end, but fell short. It seems they have gotten back to basics since Dollar Bill, the owner, died. His son Rocky Wirtz has taken over and the old Hawks are coming back. Games are selling out again and low and behold! They will be on TV next year! Dollar Bill wouldn't televise the games.

Fr. Bernard is retiring June 30th. We do not know who will replace him yet. We are planning a nice get-together on the 29th after his last Mass as pastor. We are also planning Oktoberfest. Remember the date--October 11 in Germantown!

I am working on the German Research class through BYU. I have two more lessons left to finish and then take the final. With the completion of this class, I should have my English Certificate. Only two more and I'll have the US one. Have also been working on my own trees. I wrote to the Archdiocese of Bamberg in Germany a few months back. I engaged them to do some research since they hold the Catholic church registers for Bavaria. Last week I received the results. They traced the Schramm family back to about 1765 with Heinrich Schramm and Katharina Wachter. The Kohles family didn't go back that far since they were Lutheran, so I have to write to the Lutheran Archives in Nurenberg.

I also dipped back into philately a bit. I purchased an updated US album and some older US stamps. Still trying to fill blanks in the albums. For Bavaria I need 26 more stamps and I'll have them all!! Thing is ...one of them is $44,000!!! Only 6 exist. I am collecting US, Bavaria, Lithuania, UK, Ireland and Slovenia.

A few weeks ago, Elena Nakrosis, Knights of Lithuania National President, called me and asked me to become President of St. Casimir Guild. The Guild is the main US fund-raising organization for the Lithuanian Pontifical College in Rome. It is an ancillary organization of the K of L. The current president's circumstances changed and she didn't have enough time to spend on it. After thinking about it and talking with the two past presidents, I decided to accept it. The college also has a new rector, replacing Msgr. Bartkus. His name is Rev. Petras Siurys. From what I understand, he doesn't know English. This should be interesting!! The main tasks in this job are raising funds mostly through Mass stipends. People request Masses said for various purposes at $10 each. They funds are collected and sent to Rome. Also, we will raise funds at the National Convention. There is usually a project which the college needs to be accomplished. Last year was an upgrade to their computer lab. I'm still in the dark on a lot of things...I'll have to get with the past president and have her explain more. Plus, we need some new ideas and new avenues of support.... Yes, I have ideas!!!

So, now I am back to the present. I planted my garden yesterday after tilling it Sunday. Mom and dad came by me for Mother's Day. We went to 8:30 am Mass, then I made grilled salmon and smoked sausage, green beans, grilled red potatoes with onions and garlic, salad and carrot cake and ice cream for dessert. They spent the night and left Monday morning. Check the garden pics at www.mbellpics.blogspot.com

So now, in Kansas City for the Conference in the States. I'm staying at the Fairfield Inn at 30th and Main Street. It's about a mile from the Hyatt where the conference is. The Hyatt was booked when I tried to make my reservations. I walked there to register and pick up my bag and stuff. It's a good mile hike. This Fairfield is great! The staff is great and they have renovated and it is 100% non-smoking! Earlier I watched the Pistons/Magic basketball game downstairs with Vince, the front desk guy. He was great... He suggested I walk to Gates BBQ for dinner. I did and it was pretty good. For steak he suggested Hereford's. I'll probably do that Friday, as I plan to go to the Royals game tomorrow night.

So my schedule for tomorrow is:

8:00 am Keynote address Emigration to the Mouth of the Missouri and Beyond by Robert M. Sandfort, Ph.D.

9:30 am Exhibit hall opens with scads of vendors of books, forms, maps, software, travel, hotels, etc.

11:00 am What's New at Ancestry.com That's one of my main websites for research

12:15 pm LUNCHTIME

2:30 pm Homestead Records Project My O'Malley's were supposed to have a homestead in Cherokee Co KS

4:00 pm Homestead Records: A Day in the Life of our Ancestors

Ballgame at 7:10 pm.

So now you are caught up. Stay tuned for updates. I plan on updating for this while trip. I need to get in the habit.

Signing off from KC MO! At least the song stopped running through my head..."I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come..."

On to Wednesday!! Royals won tonight 3-2.

mhb