Happy 101 Award:-)

Thank you to Greta and Harriet for giving me a Happy 101 Award!  In order to receive it, I first have to give a list of 10 things that make me happy:
1. My fiancé Aaron, who is my best friend and always there for me.
2. My family and friends.
3. The opportunity to go to back to school to get my Master's degree and all the amazing people I am meeting through it.
4. Traveling.  Whether to a new town or a new country, I love it!
5. Books.  I love reading and all things book-related.
6. Making a new genealogy find!
7. All the cousins I have found doing genealogy.  Two new ones this week alone!
8. My apartment.  It's nice to have something of your own to go to at the end of a long day.
9. Singing.  Whether at karaoke, on stage or in my car with the radio:-)
10. Thinking about my upcoming trip to Germany.  I can't wait!!!

Now I get to give the award to 10 other bloggers who I enjoy:
1.  Terri at Little Pieces of Me
2.  Barbara at One "Fein" Family
3.  Jennifer at Jennifer's Genealogy Blog
4.  Amy at We Tree
5.  Amy at They That Go Down to the Sea
6.  Barbara at Life From the Roots
7.  J.M. at Tracing my Roots
8.  Tina at Gen Wish List
9.  Jessica at Jessica's Genejournal
10.  Karen at Karen the Librarian

SNGF - My Superpower

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun task:

Dean Richardson posted What’s Your Genealogical Superpower? on his Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented blog last week, along with a nifty picture of a young lady with a big S on her shirt flying (is that Dean's wife?). I thought Dean's question was a great one for SNGF - so your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to...

1) Answer the question: Do you have a genealogical “superpower”? (i.e., a unique research ability or technique that helps you track down records or assemble conclusions that others can’t?) If so, what is it?

My superpower is luck.  I have always been a lucky person, which to me means working hard, paying attention to what occurs and taking the opportunities presented to me.  I hear about a new book at the library or an interesting website and I make sure I go check it out, which usually leads me to finding something useful.  Sometimes luck runs out, though, in which case I use my handy jedi-whip pictured above to get what I want;-)

Make yourself a superhero at The Hero Factory

Google Personalized Results

Google has become tremendously important to genealogists.  Some, such as myself, use their blogging platform to share their research.  Others use Google alerts to stay on top of what others are posting about their surnames.  Many more use the search function to try to find ancestors, research help and a multitude of other items.

Over the past month, you may have noticed a difference in your searches.  If once a week you search for your surname, the same sights now seem to be at the top of the list and genealogy sites seem to be a majority of the hits you receive.  It almost seems as if the Google search bar now knows who you are and creates personalized results.

Indeed, this is now the case.  In December, in an uncharacteristicly quiet move, Google launched a new personalized search result tool.  When signed into Google, they now keep the information you searched for 180 days.  If they notice you view the links for RootsWeb ofter, other RootsWeb links will then get more weight in the search logarithm.  What does this mean for genealogists?  It can be both a help and a hindrance.  By "knowing" that you often search for genealogy related items, it will push those items to the top of your list.  I have found the problem that it keeps putting the same sites to the top of my search list, making it more difficult to find new sites that may have information for me.

This is the wave of the future for the internet.  If you do not like it, however, there is an option to opt-out of this personalized searching.  Follow the instructions posted here.

Buffalo, NY Local History File being Digitized

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is digitizing its Local history File and putting it on Flickr.  According to the website, "The Local History File is the Library’s most comprehensive resource for Buffalo research. It is an index to select Buffalo newspaper articles. References to books, vertical file materials, scrapbooks, and magazines are also included. 

The Local History File covers Buffalo and Erie County people, places, things, and history. It was started in 1936 as a WPA project and now includes about 300,000 entries on over 100,000 index cards. Most citations date from 1930-1982, but some go back as far as the 1890s and as recent as this year.

Repository: 
Grosvenor Room, Central Library, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203-1887. www.buffalolib.org"

They currently have 60 state hospital cards, which are fully searchable.  As they add files, this will be a boon to genealogists with family from Western New York who are unable to travel to the library.

Surname Saturday: Bond

In the new year, I am finally going to start doing the Surname Saturday theme.  My plan is to go alphabetically through each of my surnames in order to get them all on the internet and, hopefully, meet some more cousins:-)


The second surname for the year is Bond.  The Bond's were located in Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.  After marriage, Emma Bond Whitehead moved to Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.  I currently have 3 microfilms on order at the Family History Center for Knockholt.  These will hopefully arrive in the next week and I will write a follow-up post once that occurs.



Descendants of Richard Bond
---------------------------
1-Richard Bond d. Bef 1841
 +Mary b. Abt 1798, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d. 3 Nov 1862,
  Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|--2-Emma Bond b. Cir 1812, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d. 24 Feb
|    1877, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|   +Charles Whitehead b. Cir 1811, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d. 13
|    Mar 1887, Sundridge, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Hannah Whitehead b. Abt 1836, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-William Whitehead b. Abt 1838, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |   +Caroline Feust b. Abt 1840, Westerham, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |  |--4-Edward Whitehead b. Abt 1863, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |  |--4-Rose Whitehead b. Abt 1866, Chelsfield, , Kent, England
|  |  |--4-Emma Whitehead b. Abt 1869, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |  |--4-Sarah Whitehead b. Abt 1874, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |  |--4-Minnie Whitehead b. Abt 1880, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Charles Whitehead b. 10 Oct 1840, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |    d. 12 Oct 1902, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |   +Mary Ann Hayman b. 11 Mar 1845, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d.
|  |    16 May 1877, Barton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Benjamin Thomas Whitehead b. 31 Oct 1866, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent,
|  |  |    England, d. 11 Apr 1906, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Joseph Whitehead b. 2 Nov 1869, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |  |    d. 4 Apr 1936, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Charles William Whitehead b. 12 Jun 1872, Burlington, , Ontario,
|  |  |    Canada, d. 27 Dec 1927, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA
|  |  |--4-Rosanna Whitehead b. 5 Jan 1875, Barton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada,
|  |  |    d. 2 Dec 1924, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |--3-Jane Whitehead b. Abt 1847, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-George Whitehead b. Abt 1849, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Emma Whitehead bap. 29 Jun 1851, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |    bur. 26 Oct 1852, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Edward Whitehead b. Abt 1853, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|      +Barbara b. Abt 1859, Seal, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|     |--4-Edward George Whitehead b. Abt 1880, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent,
|     |    England
|     |--4-Edith Hilda Whitehead bap. 31 May 1891, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent,
|     |    England
|     |--4-William Gordon Whitehead bap. 28 Dec 1891, Halstead, Sevenoaks,
|     |    Kent, England
|--2-Hannah Bond b. Abt 1820, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|   +William Morgan b. Abt 1820, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-William Morgan b. Abt 1846, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|--2-Richard Bond b. Abt 1820, Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|   +Sarah b. Abt 1820
|  |--3-Hannah Bond b. Abt 1839
|  |--3-Bond b. Abt 1841
|--2-James Bond b. Abt 1825
|--2-George Bond b. Abt 1826
|--2-John Bond b. Abt 1828
|--2-Samuel Bond b. Abt 1831

(Nearly) Worldess Wednesday - Sulmona, Italy - Casillo

The young woman in my great-great aunt Amelia Casillo Berni.  The child is her son Frank.  Who are the other two people?  We have no idea.  I also have not yet researched the area of Sulmona yet.  I have ordered the FHC film for my ggg grandparents marriage (hopefully) and it may give Carolina Izzo's hometown, which may help clear up this photo.  If anyone knows Italian, can you translate what this card says?  The Google translation was jibberish:-(

Tombstone(less) Tuesday - Marie Strassheim Tross and Louise J. Tross

My great-great-great grandmother Marie Strassheim Tross (1841 - 1921) in Buffalo Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, NY.  The tombstone belongs to to her granddaughter Louise J. Tross (1913 - 1937)