Live What You Love

I am currently between jobs so I'll take a moment to post an update. Lately, work has been strenuous at best, so perhaps the ending of one contract job comes as a subtle blessing in disguise. My dad is recovering nicely after succombing to a heart attack two weeks ago. We're grateful that he is still with us and doing well. Our cat (Fluffy) of 15 years just passed away yesterday morning, and it seems we've lost a close family member. She was the only pet my son (age 21) has ever known, so she was truly a mainstay in our home. She was a great pet and we have many wonderful memories.

Fluffy loved to climb on my stomach or chest and knead away.

Of course, it made reading difficult, but who's complaining, right?

Thanksgiving is coming up soon, followed by Christmas and the New Year. Have you told a family member or a friend today that you love them? Life is short. Love is forever.

As I buried our 15 year old cat today in our back yard on top of the hill under the cherry tree, my mind wandered to those ancestors of ours from yesteryear. In past generations, our ancestors buried many a child or spouse on their farms. If the death and burial of a cat can rip your heart out so much, what then must it have been like to dig a grave on your own land and bury a family member - a person - someone you love and cherish?

And yet, that very story repeated itself thousands of times over the generations across this great country of ours. Graves long ago lost to time and erosion. Only memories now. Distant. Muffled. Gray.

From time to time, however, those of us who research our ancestors have the privilege to bring those memories - those personalities of long ago - to life. To front and center. Loud and clear. Colorful.

Have you considered writing a short story about an ancestor of yours? Think about it. It will bring joy and satisfaction to your heart in so doing. Who knows - it might just do the same for someone else, too.

Life is short. Love is forever. Live what you love.

WP

Status of Research Projects

The last four weeks have been a whirlwind as I embarked on another Blog project - one that has absolutely nothing to do with genealogy. It took off like a rocket and has kept me quite busy - some 35 blog posts in 25 days, and right at 4,000 pageviews have resulted during that time frame.

But now that has settled in and "running like clockwork", it's time to make an appearance in the root diggin world. If for no other reason than to let you know I'm still alive, then so be it.

Actually, the month of August is always busy for me anyway, and back to school projects (my wife substitute teaches at the local high school). So we've settled in and the dust is clearing. What's coming up in the world of genealogy?

While you can never say with absolute certainty, the items on my list including visiting north GA again to meet up with a couple of distant cousins and capture some of their old family photographs. I also want to get up to Delaware and visit the site where old Robert Patterson lived in the 1730's - the one who died in York Co SC in 1775, that is. I also hope to get back up to Harrisonburg, VA in the not too distant future and see if I can hone in on where Robert's land was there.

Always plenty to do. Never enough time to do it. Hopefully I'll land somewhere in the middle.

WP

Family Tree Maker 2011 Locking Up

When you do the kind of genealogy research I do, you have to have a reliable family tree database. For years I have used Family Tree Maker (FTM). About a year ago I bought a new laptop computer which came with Windows Vista. So my old FTM software didn't fully work in Vista, such as converting reports to PDF format. That's a big problem.

So a few months back I broke down and upgraded my FTM to the 2011 version, which is compatible with Vista. Reports? Check. PDF format? Check. Cool new features? Check.

Basic tabbing from one field to another? LOCKS UP. Bummer.

I did some basic googling to find some answers. I downloaded a couple patches and installed them. No difference. This has gone on for months now. I don't even want to update anything anymore because it takes so long. And that's bad as I really need to update a bunch of records.

I've checked for settings that allow this version of FTM 2011 to always be "Offline". In other words, not connected to the Internet automatically. There is no such setting that I can find.

But just the other day, I did find a setting under the "File" menu that says "Go Offline". Once I select that, then (after a couple minutes, anyway) it seems to improve the functionality. What a pain. When I shut the program down and restart, I have to go offline again. But, at least for now, it seems to have resolved the issue.

Perhaps you've had the same problem and are looking for a solution. Perhaps you have a better solution than what I've just described. If so, please let me know by posting a comment here. Thanks.

And happy FTM'ing!

WP

Research "State of the Union"

It's been a busy week of research and today (Saturday) will be a busy day. At 10:00 a.m. today Ginna and I will be meeting a distant cousin of hers, David Teague, and Love's United Methodist Church in Walkertown (NC). The cemetery there is where four generations (at least) of Ginna's maternal ancestors are buried. The Holtons, Carmichaels, Joneses, Dilworths... and who knows how many others. Ginna knows of her grand parents and great grand parents, but David will show us the graves of the two older generations which Ginna was previously unaware of.

At 2:30 this afternoon I will be meeting Bev Hamel for a planning session concerning some of our joint research on the families of the Yadkin River (western Forsyth and eastern Yadkin counties). Bev is the author the book Bethania.

A lot has been uncovered this week regarding the descendants of Samuel and Mary Harrison of Linville Creek, Augusta Co, Va. It appears this clan moved in the early to mid 1760s to NE South Carolina along the Lynches River. I've also discovered the fact that at least three of Samuel's sons were officers in the SC Rangers, a Loyalist regiment. Of the five sons of Samuel, at least two were killed during the Rev War, and two or three of the remaining sons moved to East Florida, a refuge of many of the Ga and SC Loyalists after the war. Soon thereafter, two of these Harrison brothers moved from FL (and possibly to AL for a time) to the Natchez (Miss) area along the Mississippi River and settled a town called Harrisonburg, which is now in Louisiana. I am in the process of trying to make contact with descendants of these families to further clarify and document these facts. And, of course, any connection of these Harrisons to the Harrisons and Pattersons of York Co SC would be a bonus.

I also sent off to the NC Archives a request for 13 land grants of the Yadkin River families, but I'm still waiting to hear back from them as to whether or not they received my online form requests. We'll see.

Wes