Life at the Home20

Wrizopa and Robert Womack, date unknown

Tags: Southern Genealogy // 3 Comments »

Well, the 2008 Genea-Blogger Games are coming to a close and Thomas at Destination: Austin Family needs some time to organize the Closing Ceremonies which are scheduled for Monday.  Be sure to visit his site for all the pomp and circumstance.

My personal standings are as follows:

1. Go Back and Cite Your Sources! Nada, just couldn’t get it into gear on this one.

2.  Back Up Your Data! Completed A & C for the Silver Medal

3.  Organize Your Research! Completed A, B, D, & E for the Diamond Medal

4.  Write, Write, Write! Completed A, B & D for the Gold Medal

5.  Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness! Completed A, B & C for the Gold Medal

I may not have documented the last two requirements.  They were to invite others genealogists to join Facebook and back up all of your data.  I completed those on Thursday and Friday.

It’s been fun getting to know more genea-bloggers than ever before and I can say that I had no excuses for not having any ideas for posts for the last two weeks.   I didn’t complete as many events as I was planning to but you know I had to watch the real games from time to time.  I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted.

Tags: Computers & Genealogy // 1 Comment »

Several weeks ago I started working on my Genealogical Scanning Project wherein I installed Scansoft PaperPort 10 (no longer available) on my computer.  I documented this learning process in five posts on this blog.

• Part 1 - I explained my reasons for choosing my hardware and software.
• Part 2 - I discussed the installation of PaperPort and basic scanning.
• Part 3 - I went over keywords, tagging and searching.
• Part 4 - I talked about securing a backup copy for emergencies.
• Part 5 - I discussed some problems I had encountered.

I’m still scanning documents into the application and everything is working fine, although not as perfectly as I would wish for.  Perhaps upgrading to ScanSoft PaperPort 11 would help.  I think it’s just a matter of a few kinks they needed to work out.

Regardless, as a result of having begun this project, I have been able to complete 3 parts (A, B and E) of event number 3. Organize Your Research! of the Genea-Blogger Games on Facebook.

Tags: Computers & Genealogy // 2 Comments »

Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family History has challenged some Genea-bloggers to write about the Stores of Yesteryear, a look back at the special memories we all have of old stores and shops from our younger days.  I can’t narrow this down to one store or one memory so I’ll just make a list of memories from several stores and other similar establishments.

I remember:

• the restaurant in Woolworth’s in Sunset Center where you could sit at a booth or the counter.  The counter took up most of the restaurant because it had these penisula-like extensions that stuck out from the main counter.  And you could spin on the seats, although you got in trouble for it.
• the revolving doors at J. C. Penney’s downtown.  At least two trips around for every kid who went in or out were required.
• real carhops at Stanley’s Drive-in, in Daddy’s new ‘65 Mustang with air conditioning (where is that picture?).
• getting my ears pierced at Montgomery Wards.
• shopping for Girl Scout supplies in the back room at J. C. Penney’s.
• getting S&H Green Stamps at the grocery store or the gas station then going home to lick and mount them in the books.  The cashier would dial the amount of your purchase into a machine that spit out the stamps.
• the S&H Green Stamp Store where everything was priced by the book of stamps.
• the “Over 6 Million Sold” sign at McDonald’s and change back from your dollar.  The golden arches were part of the building back then.
• every gas station was full service and when you drove over the cable at the entrance, a bell would signal the attendant that he had a customer.  Need I mention that they checked your oil and cleaned the windshield?
• Gibson’s and Woolco.
• TG&Y (what on Earth did that stand for anyway?).
• the grocery store across from my grandmother’s house that had the life-size statue of a Hereford steer out front.  I think it was life-size.  Seemed like it to me.
• the Southern Maid (or was it Made?) doughnut shop.  I remember it being a small building and I think it had a drive-thru window.  There weren’t many of those back then.
• Myers Fried Chicken with the toy train that ran on a track near the ceiling.
• the cherry cobbler at Underwood’s Bar-B-Q Cafeteria.

And I had no idea I would come up with that many memories.

Tags: History // 3 Comments »

Relunctantly, I have been familiarizing myself with Yahoo of late.  I signed up for a free online class that uses Yahoo to communicate with its students.  In the process, I saw a blurb about Yahoo Buzz, yet another social bookmarking site to rival Digg.com.  Not that I have found anything especially alluring about Digg but here again is another way to promote one’s blog.

Since it’s new (opened to the public as of today), I went ahead and browsed about the first 10 pages of what some people consider to be interesting blog posts.  I didn’t “buzz” anything up (as opposed to “digg it”) but I have to admit I read a few.  I checked back a hour later and it doesn’t look like anyone else buzzed anything either.  Yahoo Buzz seems to be a bit more celebrity driven while I hear that Digg is technology news driven.

If you search for “genealogy” at Digg, you get four responses.  Geni.com is the only one I found relevant and with 1428 diggs I wonder why it isn’t on page 1?  I guess I don’t get it.  Someone please enlighten me.

Now do a buzz search for “genealogy”.  You get 3 responses, including an article about Randy Newman’s musical genealogy, some genealogy t-shirts for sale and one genealogical society meeting in Lufkin, Texas which was picked up from the local newspaper.

Continuing on down the pages of Buzz, I found an interesting blog post about Blogs.com.  Wouldn’t you know, now I can’t find it.  So just go straight to Blogs.com, the Best in Blogs.  So who wants to be the first to submit their list of 10 Favorite Genealogical Blogs?

Edit:  According to Tech Crunch, you have to “be somebody” to get a Top 10 list.  I still “submitted” my site.  Who knows?

Tags: Computers & Genealogy // 1 Comment »