Doing Honor to Family

There are many different ways that we as genealogists and family historians find to honor the memories of our ancestors. Many of us write stories taken from the bits of information we glean from research, others of us love the joy of making beautiful scrap book pages, and still others are content to gather all available information in our software programs and make printed family trees to hand down. All are worthy endeavors to keep the memories of the past alive.

The two of us, The You Go Genealogy Girls, find many different ways to honor our loved ones. Girl #1 has made purses and bags with photos on them and Christmas tree ornaments. I love to do scrapbooking pages and wall art of various types, all with photos and trinkets of our ancestors added. I am running out of wall space to display everything and have even helped Number 1 fill up her wall space too.

We are lucky to be the proud owners of a beautiful family photo of our Great Great Grandparents and their family, The George Albert Copsey family which was taken in Custer County, Nebraska in about 1886-87. Not only do we have this treasured photo of their family and their sod house but it is also an important photo in the collection taken by the famous early photographer, Solomon D. Butcher. He made many early glass plate negative prints of the Plains, mostly in Nebraska during the later part of the 1800's and often centering around Custer County, Nebraska. This collection of glass plate negatives is at the Nebraska State Historical Society. Ours is a photograph and the original glass plate negative from the Butcher collection can be seen HERE and the plate details are available HERE. We invite you to take a look at the original glass plate, it is quite interesting and has a somewhat different look from our photo.

Many of the Solomon D.  Butcher photographs can be seen on the Library of Congress American Memory website. If you are a student of history and especially that of the early Plains and  American west those photos offer very poignant views of sod houses and the families who lived during those early years.

Cropped closeup taken from our original photograph of the George Albert Copsey family.

As many of you may already know, Ruby recently wrote a helpful new book about doing "Genealogy Research in Nebraska". Of course she had many hundreds of family photos that she could have chosen from to use on her book cover but our Copsey family is the one she wanted to use and when she suggested that to me in the pre-production stages, I was in total agreement that she had chosen well. What better way of doing honor to one of our dearest families? We are both so proud and so thankful that the Copsey's chose so many years ago to have their photo taken for posterity. Little did they know that thanks to Mr. Butcher, their Great Great Granddaughters would "make them famous" 130 years later! To us they were already a great family in our knowledge of their history and accomplishments...and were it not for them just where would we be? It is they who deserve our love and we honor them each time we look at those faces.

One of my other postings on my photo blog Taken Somewhere in Time has more early photos and information about Effie Mae Copsey, our G Grandma, the little girl with the doll in the sod house picture. "Great Grandma Gardner's Photo Timeline"

Ruby's book cover!

Ruby's book can be ordered from Roots Family Publishing: HERE.


Thanks for stopping by our blog!  ~Cheri, You Go Genealogy Girl #2

The Girls Stay Home, The Girls Travel

After being home exactly one week from attending the Family History Expo in Overland Park, Kansas, I am enjoying the comforts of home, but also longing to get Lil' Red back on the highway.  YGGG #2 has been home most of the summer and she is anxious to get under some wheels and travel.  Unfortunately we are going different places at different times.  She and her husband are going on a much needed camping vacation and I am leaving in less than two weeks for my high school class reunion.  Notice I didn't precede it with a year!

Summer is far from over even though school bells will be ringing here in a couple of weeks.  They can just ring because I am not going back to school.   At least I'm not going back to school in a building with regimental classes.  I can select my classes.  Genealogists are not exempt from the learning process.  There is always something new to learn.  That is why this year's theme for the Family History Expos is appropriately titled, "Where Ol' Dogs Learn New Tricks!"

This summer I purchased books at the various Family History Expos.  Many were from Family Roots Publishing's booth in the exhibit halls.  As my genealogy grows and develops, I have to stay informed of techniques, records and resources.  Internet does a great job of supplying information, but some of the best is still found in genealogy books.  Christine Rose's new book, Military Bounty Land 1776-1855 was one of my first summer purchases.  An older publication I purchased is Inheritance in America From Colonial Times to the Present by Carole Shammas, Marylynn Salmon, and Michel Dahlin.  I am not anxious for cold weather and particularly not for snow, but a stay-at-home day with my books would be welcome.

After those school bells ring my plans are to continue traveling.  I have long accumulated research needs in eastern Nebraska.  A trip to the east coast to visit family and relatives, as well as do genealogical research, is also anticipated.  Fall is a great time to travel and see the country in different colors, at a slower pace and with renewed vigor for research tasks.  I will stuff the books in my bag and read as time permits.  There are always evenings to learn new genealogy tricks, or while on airplanes, or even when camping.  Both of the You Go Genealogy Girls hope you never stop learning.

You Go Genealogy Girl #1 -- Ruby

People at the Expo

Shortly after noon today I arrived home from Loveland, CO. The time went fast, but it was worth every minute. One of the great things about the Expo is getting to see familiar faces and make new friends. The Honor Bloggers had a specific area for blogging, but we could also blog and tweet in the classrooms, which many of us did.

We were easily identified by our beads, compliments of Thomas MacEntee. Of course, we had name tags and badges, again compliments of Thomas MacEntee ... the guy at Geneabloggers! Quite often we were asked to explain blogs, why they are fun and effective for genealogists. Tom did some lectures on social networking which were informative. As the Expo wound down I listened to people saying they might try creating a blog. So ... genealogists look for new genealogy blogs in the upcoming weeks and months.

My friend Leland Meitzler posed for a photograph by some of the books he was selling. Family Roots Publishing was a popular spot in the Expo. In fact, it was so popular you could hardly turn around without bumping into somebody.

In the group photograph you'll see some of the bloggers ... back row Gayle Gresham, yours truly YGGG #1, Tom MacEntee. Sitting is Lisa Alzo and Becky Jamison.

The guy in the blue shirt, with the smile is Michael John Neill of Illinois. He is a dynamic speaker who got a lot of enthusiasm going at the Expo. We had fun visiting about our recent trips to Salt Lake City to the Family History Library.

Behind the scenes were people who worked for months, weeks and days to make the Expo possible. Thanks to all for making it a memorable experience!

YGGG #1 - Ruby