Not Worthy of a Title

It was Saturday morning and a beautiful winter day in western Nebraska, Hubby was home and we  made plans to just relax, watch a little TV, read a bit and maybe even get some much needed time to work on the computer. I had been doing some work for our local museum so have not had much time just to myself for several days. Yesterday was the day-Yeh!

Three o’clock rolled around and it was time to open up Legacy and get to work, I’d be adding some more information which I had found and maybe a few new photos. I even have a little table by my easy chair in the living room with all the comforts that any genealogist would want at my finger tips. Computing and researching is so much fun.

Where is that “John” that I had been working on? He isn’t there, is he hiding with his wife possibly? Oops, his wife is gone too and all their kids. Can a family just disappear or were they kidnapped? The dilemma of the day had started. So far, the situation had been calm but panic had started to set in. Losing a whole family is not fun and soon I discovered that not only was the family gone but also many of their friends and other relatives had also jumped ship. Those darn ancestors just didn’t want to live at my house any more. I was so sad, the tears almost started to flow, then the real anger set in...I even tried to blame poor hubby for my family running away. Supper wasn’t to be had at my house until they were returned. Hubby was mad at me and said he was going to leave too and didn’t blame “the relatives” for leaving. Him I could send out the door with his luggage but those other relatives didn’t even bother to take some of their baggage, a little of it had been left behind i.e. a few photos and miscellaneous papers. What was the deal, did they just come to get acquainted, visit for awhile, waste my precious time and then have the nerve to just get up and leave while only leaving behind a few photos to make me think that they loved me? I was just so sad.

For over two months I had been gathering all those great new ancestors, inviting them into my life and even let them bring all their records and luggage along with them. January 29^th seemed to be the day that they had chosen to begin to leave even though I had given them a new place to live that was called Legacy “7.5”. Since I was busy with other things in life for awhile, they just got up and left and when I decided to spend some time with them yesterday on Feb 5^th, nearly half of them who had resided in ONE family file had all vanished. My Legacy program which has always been so good to me, even to the point of me loving it, had failed to make those darned relatives stay. The latest and greatest upgrade that was supposed to make their life easier and mine too coincidentally, well it had failed miserably. It just told my relatives and many ancestors to get out as they were no longer welcome or loved. I cried.

Hubby finally took pity on me and said he’d try to help IF I would please fix supper. I love sharing! He thought those relatives just had to be somewhere as when they live in a computer, they just don’t disappear. He insisted they were just playing a cruel game of hide and seek. I thought he was trying to make me feel better but maybe he was just lying, after all he had not wanted to go hungry. "People and files just don’t disappear", he said, and being a man I had trouble explaining to him that a Legacy file isn’t your plain old standard file that just any program could find and read. He asked "have you tried the Legacy help area"? Well yes, I had been there many times and nothing was there to help find my loved ones. Now I was stupid. 

One last thing I thought of, check out the Legacy Home tab in my software and where sometimes a new update will appear. There was an off chance that my loved ones may be hiding there anyway. No relatives, just a small update and “bug” fix, I was excited so I downloaded that and had the latest and greatest. Our new address was now “7.5.0.55”. A pretty impressive address, surely those great people would want to come back to live with me now. YEH, WOW, GLORY!...up they popped at the door, showed their faces and wanted back in. I loved my ancestors. Supper would be served.

Hubby and I felt some better after our meal and I even told him that he could stay too since the family appeared to be moving back in. He wasn’t sure that HE wanted to stay as supper wasn’t up to its usual standards. Those damn relatives had spoiled it all.

Now it was time to get busy and introduce all my  relatives who had come back to some new friends and loved ones. I opened the door to let them in again so they could unpack and lo and behold those same “damn” relatives had left again, hats in hand and baggage in tow. You just can’t trust anyone these days.

Sadly, their clones had been living on my external hard drive and on my desktop computer too. The external died a couple weeks ago and the new one isn’t due here until this coming Wednesday. I figured the clones on my desktop loved it here but discovered that they also had flown the coop. I  forgot to mention that ALL my backup files from the last two years had been packed up by those relatives and had been taken along with them. The file for restoration purposes was empty. Now... just who needs two years worth of backup files?  I guess that Legacy 7.5.0.55 had lured those files along with the clones away too. I am also slow, my iPad had not yet been updated with my  latest files as there is so little time and so much to do. I wrote a nasty letter of disgust and will contact Legacy on Monday. I really want the rest of my ancestors and relatives back, I just hope I don’t have to wait until fall and go looking for them again all by myself. Today I am not sure I love them enough to go find them all again. Life was good here—once.

The day was nearly over anyway so why not get on the desktop and do a little work before bedtime as that was always fun and relaxing. I adjusted the font size that my printer was using as my poor old eyes aren’t what they used to be. Hubby went to take a nap and my favorite Chelada drink was settling my nerves from the trying day of fighting with relatives and Legacy 7.5. My partner and loving relative, You Go Girl #1,  had tried to console me over my family’s defection and she sent me an email about some classes she is giving. That email looked interesting so I  decided to print it and see my new larger font on paper. It was awesome when the HP printed it out- only one problem: now the printer language on the display of the printer itself showed up in “Pig Latin” or “ChinoJapaRus”!  I can’t read anything the printer is showing me and can’t change a thing.  It now prints gorgeous “school” lined paper too—who knew? I downloaded the HP printer manual and found the solution as follows:

To set your language and country/region

1. Press Setup.

2. Press to highlight Preferences, and then press OK.

3. Press to highlight Set Language, and then press OK.

4. Press to scroll through the languages. When the language you want to use

appears, press OK.

5. When prompted, press to highlight Yes or No, and then press OK.

6. Press to highlight Set Country/Region, and then press OK.

7. Press to scroll through the countries/regions. When the country/region you want

to use appears, press OK.

8. When prompted, press to highlight Yes or No, and then press OK.

Well, wasn’t that just great and simple! Does anybody know what the word for setup or preferences is in “Pig-ChinoJapanRus” so I can change the language on my printer? Oh my! You Go Genealogy Girl #1  has just emailed me, she is asking if I know how to swear in computer language as “Quicken” deleted all her tax information for seven years. YES I DO!!!!!!!  If in question, use the “Pig-ChinoJapanRus” dictionary. It is a wonderful tool.

What a great Saturday yesterday was. The perfect day in the life of a genealogist. Now it is Sunday---what shall I do today? I wonder if my Kitchen Aid mixer still works? Hubby gave up and left me last night, work sounded more like fun even at 10 O'clock pm. Maybe a grand chocolate cake would be good peace offering. I might need his advice again someday and I certainly will need some sweetening before I tackle Legacy and HP tomorrow!

A Day in the Life of a Genealogist!

You Go Genealogy Girl #2-  Cheri

P.S. Ruby and I, The Girls, laughed until we were silly over all this "stuff" last night. What else can two silly old Grandma's do? We are getting to old to organize a protest or to hit the nightspots  and drown our sorrows....even if we did, we'd be the ones to get arrested on the way home!

I-PAD Observations for Genealogists: The Good and The Bad

The Apple I-Pad is proving to be an awesome tool and I want to share what I hope are a few useful tips and observations about its use. I am a new user but have been learning a lot, mostly by trial and error.

THE BAD

Having already been a user of the I-Touch, I figured it would be a snap to get the bigger I-Pad up and running but it was not quite that easy! Like any good student, I spent several days reading and learning before attempting to cable up to I-Tunes and get started. Back in December, while waiting for mine to arrive, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio one day. He was telling of a problem that he had trying to sync two new I-Pads while also using a new MacBook Air. It seems that when he plugged into the computer to set up the I-Pad everything was wiped off of the I-Pad. It went blank, no OS, no nothing. He told of spending hours on the phone with Apple before getting everything to work. I was concerned but didn’t think much about it at the time since I would not be using a new MacBook Air but my windows PC to do the initial setup and already had I-Tunes set up for my I-Touch. Fast forward to Jan 4^th of 2011 as I was about to set my new I-Pad up: reading through my “News” on Facebook, I came across a then new post from Pat Richley Erickson of Dear MYRTLE’S Genealogy Blog fame. She also had problems when she first tried to connect and sync her new I-Pad. Several people added comments and offered advice and thankfully she got hers up and running without having to spend hours on the phone with Apple techs. I started looking at forums and tech blog posts for some more advice before start up. In the final analysis, it seems that most of the problems with new setup originate from not having the I-Tunes fully updated with the latest version. I personally suspect that I-Tunes may have or had a glitch somewhere that may have caused some people problems. Occasionally people do not allow their computers to automatically bring in new updates or they ignore update prompts because they are busy working on something and don’t want to take time at the moment to let I-Tunes update and then restart the computer, then may forget to go back and update it later. My advice is to be sure to update your I-Tunes BEFORE you begin. My next step was to set up the installation and I-Tunes installed all my apps, and music that I had checked with many being the ones I had used on the I-Touch. After all that was done I removed the I-Pad and then plugged into I-Tunes for the second time, it backed everything up and I upgraded to the new 4.2 OS. It worked great and not one glitch. If you have a new I-Pad and have not started using it yet or are waiting for delivery of a new one, do take the time to read the instructions and update I-Tunes, you will be glad you did. There are some nice video tutorials here and you can download the PDF or print a full manual for the I-Pad here. I always print manuals when I can for reference as I am just a paper person when it comes to those.

Most all the apps that are made for the I-Phone/Touch work on the I-Pad, however I find the 2x feature to enlarge those smaller screen apps leaving a lot to be desired in clarity. It is a typical feature of any picture which is enlarged more than originally intended—it goes slightly out of focus as in pixilation. It is very hard to use those apps if you intend to do a lot of reading but they do work. They can still be used in their original smaller format on the I-Pad, however I hope many will soon offer I-Pad only versions and especially the ones for our Genealogy. Reunion already offers and I-Pad version-kudos to them! Surely there will be more to come soon.

The other one thing that I believe is missing from the I-Pad is some kind of locking capability such as the Kensington lock slot that is found on most laptop computers. Even though we will usually carry this pad computer with us, the occasion might arise when I would like to be able to lock it to peruse a bookshelf or map drawer.

THE GOOD

Now that it is up and running, I love it! The larger internal keyboard is quite easy to use even with fingers only. A gamer I am not but Solitaire is awesome as I used to play the old style and original real card type on occasion. Anybody else remember paper cards? If I am deep into researching and just need a short break, Solitaire gives me a bit of relaxation and then I can go back to the records with a fresh thought. Everybody needs some fun once in a while! There are several different apps for Solitaire, most are free.

As I mentioned before, the larger format of Reunion and others really is an improvement over the I-Touch/Phone apps. They include more features and it is so much easier on the eyes too. The I-Pad is a great ebook reader too and there are lots of apps for that such as Nook and Kindle and then with the new Google ebook app all those older and wonderful downloadable genealogy books that are available on Google can be in your purse or shoulder bag anytime.

If you are interested in genealogy and the I-Pad both, you might like to follow along with Dear MYRTLE on her blog as she reports from the Salt Lake Institute this week with remarks on the gathering there and about using her new I-Pad while in attendance.

Are you an artist or digital scrap booker? ArtStudio for the I-Pad is so much fun. In two nights I have drawn and designed several elements for use in my scrap booking. You can design and draw on a transparent png background if you like and then save or email it to yourself. I have included original “beauties” and even a hand drawn portrait of one of our dogs into my digital scrap library. Draw one- of- a- kind bits of artwork and include them on your own scrapbook pages for the Grandchildren. What is more personal than an original work of art or even a line drawing from Grandma? A hundred years from now, the picture will live on in that scrap page. You can be a creative artist or just a kid again and have fun while leaving a legacy too. The cost is reasonable at $4.99 for this awesome app. Flickr even has an ArtStudio gallery if you want to check out what can be done with this nifty app. Brvsh makes a brush stylus that is just perfect for ArtStudio and the Ten1 POGO sketch is one of the best stylus tools for everyday touch use on the I-Pad or I-Touch and also works well with ArtStudio. I find that your finger does a good job of drawing too with a bit of practice.

I have pictured a clip here on our blog of the apps which are available for GENEALOGY use and are made for the I-Pad specifically. Many more are available for the I-Touch/Phone which will also work. Some are better than others so be sure to read the entire description and all the reviews which I-Tunes offers for each one. Several are free and some cost a few dollars but most are reasonably priced. Families for Legacy has worked great for me so far and will be better when they upgrade to an I-Pad only app. Reunion works great in either type app although I did buy it separately again for the I-Pad in order to have a beautiful and clear picture and it does offer more functionality. (You can use your Reunion if you had it for the I-Pod/Touch but see the comments above under “The Bad” about using that.)

Family photos are awesome on the I-Pad. I had fun last night just flipping through several folders which I uploaded and viewed photos that I had not seen in some time. It is so easy and the pictures are beautiful on the I-Pad. Want another great way to take a break, relax and bring on a smile? Flip through an old picture album while curled up in your easy chair. Take just the ones you may want with you to the library for researching: no big album, no laptop to lug around- just you, your purse and your I-Pad. You even will have room left to sneak in a sandwich. There are apps for easy note taking so you don’t even need a paper tablet unless you want one!

Here are a couple cases for the I-Pad that I think you might like. I looked at several and choose the one from ZooGue and it works so nice and adjusts to ANY angle making it easy to view while sitting or laying down... and it is easy to use the internal keyboard with this case set at a slight angle or flat. I love it! ZAGG makes a really nice hard type case that you can check out here.

I put a simple scrapbook page on this post that I did of my Granddaughter and the bright flower within it is one that I drew with ArtStudio in a couple minutes. The dog is my portrait of my Babee while napping, also done with ArtStudio.

I hope all of you who have an I-Pad are loving it as much as I do. If you don’t have one yet…well, Valentine’s Day is soon! ♥♥♥
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*Thank you so much to Ann's Scraps of Time for honoring us with the Ancestor Approved award! It is our third time and we appreciate all of our friends who follow along with The Grannies. We are truly honored...thank you, Ann.

You Go Genealogy Girl #2- Cheri

My Favorite Things

The lyrics to the song "My Favorite Things" are so fitting for a genealogist. We could rewrite it and end each stanza with "These are a few of my favorite things."

Do you have favorite things in your genealogy or your research? Having started my genealogy before computers, aka B.C., I can honestly say my computers hit the top of the list of my favorite things. Years ago I was at a library conference where a young man told us how every book would be cataloged centrally and available universally. He also stated we would be able to search home computers for information about anything in the world. What a vision he had! There were some laughs and exclamations of doubt. But, I believed him and kept waiting. Here we are with home computers, mobile computers and Internet, which is at the top of my list also.

For various period of time I have my favorite ancestors. They are all very special to research and I enjoy spending time investigating them. Because they can't talk to me, I talk to them and try to discover where and how they lived. When I discover photographs of them, I am taken on a journey back in time. We are so different and yet so alike.

I still marvel at how my scanner copies photographs. I can make changes to them, adjust the colors, saturation and density, plus print them out or attach them to my genealogy software. One of my favorite scanners is the hand held one I can put in my purse or computer carrying case. I'm telling my age, but I can remember the delight of owning a Brownie camera. Now I use a digital camera and see the photographs in an instant. I prefer this day and age, so I would have to say my scanners and digital camera ranks high on the list of my favorite things.

The other day some genealogy friends were engaged in a conversation about books ... genealogy books, historical fiction and non-fiction. One of my favorites is Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. We all know the Mayflower story, but he takes it deeper and a step beyond. Another New England story is told in Killed Strangely the Death of Rebecca Cornell by Elaine Forman Crane. Rebecca was supposedly killed by her son, Thomas Cornell. It makes for entertaining reading and is also a good example of the court system in New England.

While in Virginia for Christmas two years ago I read The Lee Girls by Mary P. Coulling. It was a perfect book for a perfect setting, about the daughters of General Robert E. Lee. I was staying north of Lexington, Virginia and could imagine the Lee family, the pre-Civil War era and during the war. This book is definitely one of my favorites.

A year ago at Christmas time I read Someone's Daughter by Sylvia Pettem. This is an account of the search to identify a missing woman. She was found murdered in 1954 near Boulder, Colorado. The author takes the reader on a twist and turn narration of a fifty year search. It is poignant and heart breaking, but also brings to mind that we all have relatives who have disappeared.

Each time I purchase a genealogy book, it becomes my favorite. Some I refer to more often than ours, such as Ancestry's Redbook and The Source. They definitely top the list of favorites, but occasionally another book will sneak into the list.

I'm thankful for the genealogists who care, share and help others. There are so many of you who have become my favorite genealogy people. Let's all start singing ... "These are a few of my favorite things."

YGGG #1 .... Ruby

Taking Genealogy to the Hospital

On February 1st, I had knee replacement surgery. Finally! I am sure that by spring I'll be out chasing ancestors once again.

The surgery went well, except for my allergies to pain killing meds. It was quickly decided that I would just take a combination of tylenol and bite the bullet. The second day I asked for my old knee back and was told that it had been cremated. Maybe they thought I was going to bury it and place a marker on the grave!

The following three days were filled with physical therapy which I thought was grueling, but knew it was necessary. When I wasn't exercising or biting the bullet, I was using my iPod Touch in my hospital bed ... looking at genealogy files. Unfortunately the hospital does not have WIFI. Feeling rather punk one night, I received a phone call from Girl #2. At the end of our conversation she said, "I love you #1." I replied "I love you #2." Strange! Sister-in-laws who are so opposite and yet are joined at the hip in our love of genealogy.

Now it has been almost three weeks since my surgery. I am walking off and on without a cane and realizing it is a good thing they cremated my knee. This one is strong and I know it will take me to cemeteries, courthouses and libraries.

In the meantime I am navigating between my laptop computer in the living room by my recliner and the main computer in my genealogy room. It is a stand-off at times with the main computer as my granddaughter is often using it. The iPod Touch is still wonderful for the e-mails and browsing my genealogy files. At night when I am biting that bullet, it is great for soothing me with good music.

I have filled my time locating information on Internet, particularly digital images. What fun to settle back, watch it snow (yes, again!) and find genealogy information at my finger tips. That's when I stretch the knee and pretend I'm getting ready to visit a cemetery. Spring will eventually come and spring will be back in my step.

As you can see, genealogy goes with me anywhere, even to the hospital. I am never without it. Now I'm anxious for better weather, better walking so #2 and I can be back together to enjoy our companionship and love of genealogy.