Resurrecting My Blog

In recent weeks, I have received increased inquiries on Ancestry.com via their message system and have some emails direct to me, also.  It would appear that a new group of people are getting into their family trees.  This is great!

I must admit though that for me, I had taken a bit of a break from several of my lines because I'd hit the proverbial "brick wall".  Also, time to work on my family tree is not something that I've got a lot of.  

A year or so back, I reverted many of my over 670 blog posts back to drafts because of uninvited spam in the comments.   As a result, those posts are suspended out there within my blog for what I thought would be for posterity for myself and my immediate family.  To top it off, I'd had little traffic on my blog so it made sense to remove the posts that were attracting way to much spam to keep up with as the moderator and author of this blog.

At this point in time, I am slowly resurrecting posts when I can.  I have requests to put my Irish Settlement, McLaughlin, and Maxwell posts back out there.  Let me tell you, there are many of those.

Today, I am working on getting the section about the Irish Settlement in Newport, New York with hyperlinks back up and running.  It's not exactly a quick process.  I will have time to tackle the rest sometime this summer and will try sooner to do more.

What a blessing to have amassed so much information that even I am now overwhelmed by the bank of writings that I have to weed through (and more information on an external hard drive, too).  Organizing it again will be a labor of love but will take some time.

P.S.  I did do my DNA on Ancestry.com and it is interesting.  I recommend it.  My wish for those who do their DNA test is for them to also create and attach their family tree on Ancestry.com.  Without a family tree attached, the DNA does not do much for you or any "cousin" matches you see.  Please put your tree out there.  Mine is there with medium level detail (zelsersk, My DNA Direct Line Match).  Thank you!

Forgive grammar and spelling errors!

Irish Naming Patterns for Children

Originally posted in 2010

A wonderful, maybe relative, provided this information to me all the way from England. Thank you Anne!

Irish Naming Patterns for Children:
The 1st son was usually named after the father's father
The 2nd son was usually named after the mother's father
The 3rd son was usually named after the father
The 4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother
The 5th son was usually named after the mother's eldest brother
The 1st daughter was usually named after the mother's mother
The 2nd daughter was usually named after the father's mother
The 3rd daughter was usually named after the mother
The 4th daughter was usually named after the mother's eldest sister
The 5th daughter was usually named after the father's eldest sister

My Family Surnames Part 3

So every couple of posts, I plan to put this list of my surnames out here to keep the momentum going. Feel free to let me know if any of the names strike a chord.

1. Flanagan - Co. Louth, Ireland; Napa, California; Corning, California

2. McLaughlin - Ringowney, Parish of Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, Ireland; Newport, Herkimer County, New York; Austin and Grass Valley, Lander County, Nevada; Napa, California

3. Maxwell - Shancarnan, Parish of Moynalty, Co. Meath, Ireland; Newport, Herkimer County, New York; Austin and Grass Valley, Lander County, Nevada; Napa, California

4. Shaffrey - Dunshaughlin, Parish of Moynalty, Co. Meath, Ireland; Newport, Herkimer County, New York

5. Gartlan - Co. Monaghan, Ireland; Newport, Herkimer County, New York

6. Fox - Co. Monaghan, Ireland; Newport, Herkimer County, New York

7. O'Brien - Castleconnell, Co. Limerick, Ireland; Australia; Napa, California

8. Hickey - Whitegate, Co. Clare, Ireland; New York City (Greenwich Village)

9. Coughlin - Co. Clare, Ireland; New York City, Long Island, and Rye, New York

10. McGuire - Co. Fermanagh; New York City (Brooklyn, Greenwich Village) and Long Island, New York

11. Bellew - Co. Louth, Ireland

12. Kirwan - Co. Louth, Ireland

13. Maguire - Co. Louth, Ireland

My Maternal Side - Family Photos

I am starting to print photo to hang on my walls.  It's about time!

The following are my mom's side of the family.  They definitely took photos regularly and hung onto them.  All of these families lived in Napa, California.

I will be retouching these photos for printing.  So thankful to have them (and know who everyone is in them, too.)

John Henry Vienop & Family - 1900

Henry Borchers & Family - 1899

Patrick Flanagan Family - Without Patrick - 1890s

Thomas M. McLaughlin and Family - 1919

Monterey Bay Trip

My children's school believes strongly in learning in the field.  They spend many hours in the classroom working toward state standards but they also create by working on art and projects.  Recently, my 5th grader completed her 10 page report about the Monterey Bay and the aquarium.  She wrote about 4 animals and wrote 2 pages about the aquarium.  Part of the report required each student to illustrate by hand each of those 4 animals and label their basic parts.  My 5th grader has a pretty good hand at art.  Once the report comes home, I'll post her hand drawn illustrations.

In the meantime, the following photos were part of the field experience.

Fixing Photos and Other Stuff

It has been a really long time since I posted but I am still alive and well.  My children's activities and my many volunteer jobs keep my time full these days.  I work on my genealogy about 2 hours per week.

I am slowly going through everything that I have in boxes again.  I've restored my mom's photo album so that it can be used again.  The cover was completely broken off and the photos were falling off the pages.  Now, she has a new album that I found on Amazon.  It was challenging because of the nonstandard size.  The photos are back on the pages and the book is back in her possession.  Someday, I will go through that album and scan each photo.

During the Fall, I scanned my dad's photo collection of his time in the Air Force during Vietnam.  I created a photo journal on Shutterfly and printed books for myself and family.  The books turned out great including some of the sillier photos.  It is hard to believe that he passed away just over 11 years ago.

I challenged myself last week to finally get a photo out of a frame.  The photo was stuck on the glass.  Over the years as the photo slowly became dry and somewhat brittle, it has released.  To get the remainder of the photo off of the glass, I used a hair dryer.  With some damage, I fixed the photo with some acid free markers but not before I scanned it.  I was also able to fix the scanned version in Photoshop.  Jack and Minnie Flanagan are now free of their frame if they need to be.  I was able to return the original in the frame back to my mom.  She'd been missing that photo for quite some time even though she knew where it was.

Before the fix

After the Fix 

I have more things to "fix", scan, and return to my mom.  So, for now, my blog will sit.