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Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds

June 10, 2011 Filed in Follow Friday2 comments

The movers came and I have STUFF again!!!  I can sit on a couch and sleep in a bed and eat at a table and wash my dirty clothes.  I no longer feel like I’m camping inside.:)  I am going to be super busy this week getting everything unpacked and set up – and catching up on my sleep.  Our blow up bed died and I spent the last two nights ON THE FLOOR.  Did I mention that we don’t have any carpeting??  Yeah, I’m exhausted.  Well, I still wanted to share some of my favorite finds from this week, so here they are…

  • I’ve been enjoying reading through posts at A Hundred Years Ago.  Oh, how I wish that I had one of my ancestors’ journals!!  To get a peek into their daily lives is so exciting.  Here you can read about the camera her grandmother bought.
  • I love Kerry Scott’s post “Your House is On Fire”. What family heirloom would you grab? (after everyone was safely out of course).   I think that I would probably take the rocking chair that my husband’s great-grandparents rocked all of their babies and grandbabies and great-grandbabies in.:)
  • The 106th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is out over at Creative Gene.  I just love looking at old swimsuits and wondering how on earth they comfortably moved in some of those things!  Also, the call for submissions for the next carnival is out.  The theme is “the seasons of genealogy” and Bill West of West in New England will be hosting next time around.
  • I love Anita of Family Tree Rings’ post “Favorite Wedding Dress“.  Do you have a favorite?  I honestly don’t have that many old wedding photos.  I don’t have a wedding picture from any of my grandparents or great-grandparents.  Is that strange??
  • Family Tree Magazines has a new list of the 101 Best Websites.  I’m looking forward to perusing it once I have some free time.
  • I have to say that I’m thankful to Ancestry for updating their iPhone app.  I have had the app on my phone for over a year, but was never able to use it, because my tree was too large.  They fixed this problem!!  The first time I opened it, it took a couple of hours to get my tree open, but since then I’ve been able to open it easily!  It can in handy when I was doing research in Iowa a few weeks ago.
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Sierra - June 10, 2011 - 10:47 am

As a kid move on day was always so much fun. My parents always had us kids do the check in for the boxes to make sure nothing was missing. Congrats on the furniture!

Linda Gartz - June 11, 2011 - 12:19 pm

Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for this listing of favorite finds. I always enjoy checking out what others like and usually find I like them too! You mention how much you enjoy looking at old journals — I think you may have dropped by my site before, but if you like this sort of thing, I’m posting the letters and diaries from 100 years ago as my grandfather set off for America and wrote desperate letters to persuade my grandmother to come. Drop by if you haven’t for a while. It’s decision time for Lisi!

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Those Places Thursday: Delphos, Iowa

June 9, 2011 Filed in Agee,Researching PlacesTags: 6 comments

Another ghost town, I’m afraid.

Delphos is near the town of Mount Ayr, which is the county seat of Ringgold County, Iowa.  Mount Ayr is a small, but quaint town with some neat old buildings.  We ate lunch at a really cool diner, called Peggy Sue’s.

Delphos on the other hand seems to have languished over the years.  It is no longer an incorporated town.  We drove through what used to be the town on our recent trip to Iowa.  It made me sad to see all of the run-down buildings.

My great-great grandparents, Ari Austin and Sally Jane (Lee) Agee lived in Delphos from 1904 till their deaths in 1938 and 1934.

Ari was a blacksmith and they owned a lot in the town, where he had his shop.

When I read through Ari’s probate records, I found bills from the local store – Seaton Store.  And here it stands today.  Obviously no longer a store.  I wonder what it looked like when it was open for business.

This is the Baptist church which they attended.  It didn’t appear to be in use, although I read online that there was a small museum inside, if you called a lady to open it.  If I had more time to spend in town, I would have pursued that.

And here is the other local church next door.  It’s definitely not open.

It makes me so sad to see towns like this – that reached their peak a hundred years ago and have since died out.  It makes you wonder what causes a town to disappear, when other areas are thriving and overpopulated.  Any ideas?

add a comment
Heather Roelker - June 9, 2011 - 11:12 am

I blame Wal-Mart, which is totally hypocritical, because I do shop there. But Wal-Mart rolled in to a lot of small towns, built on the outskirts of the town and drew people away from Main Street. Mom and Pop shops can not compete with Wal-Mart prices. Obviously, there are other factors but I truly think Wal-mart had a lot to do with the death of small towns.

michelle - June 9, 2011 - 1:46 pm

My husband is from Iowa. A very small town in Carroll County. When he was little it had a store, bar, bank, gas station, etc. Now, all that’s left is the bar, post office, and the church. No stop lights. The buildings are falling into ruin. I don’t even know if any of them could be saved. It makes me sad that they are in such bad shape.

Sheryl Lazarus - June 9, 2011 - 3:31 pm

I just discovered your blog–and it’s absolutely wonderful. I really like how you tell the story of your ancestors with text and photos–while linking it to the present.

Sometimes I think that the automobile and better roads that enabled people to easily shop (and sell farm products)in more distant cities really hurt some of the small towns.

Greta Koehl - June 9, 2011 - 8:02 pm

What sad pictures. At least they can be remembered in pictures now.

Jen - June 10, 2011 - 1:18 am

I agree – I think a combination of the big box stores like Wal-mart squashing out the small local places and also the wide use of cars makes it easy to drive 20 miles down the road for what you need instead of going across the street.

Michelle – it seems to be quite the “epidemic” in Iowa. I saw quite a few towns like this on my drive across the state.

Michael - April 29, 2012 - 12:07 pm

I like the old pictures.. I was born in Mount Ayr. We lived in Blockton at the time.

As soon as the Railroads left little towns started falling in. That was way before Walmart.

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(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: The Three Sisters

June 8, 2011 Filed in Davidson,Wordless Wednesday7 comments

We went to visit my husband’s grandma while we were staying in Kansas. She is almost 96 years old, which I think is so cool!

She had this beautiful picture of her (center) and her two sisters.   Don’t you just love it?  The old frame is gorgeous, too.

She said that the photographer actually took 3 separate shots and put them together into one.

As we sat there and visited, Ellie pulled out her pad of paper and pencil and started sketching.

Later, she filled her sketch in with watercolors and this is the final product.  She definitely doesn’t get her artistic skills from me, or they would have been stick people.:)  I’m so proud of her!

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Marian Wood - June 8, 2011 - 9:15 am

The sisters photo is a treasure! Did the photographer do the hand-coloring? Surely b/w was the only film available when the sisters were photographed…Ellie’s artwork is remarkably close to the photo, especially the facial expressions and the fashions. Wow!

Debi Austen - June 8, 2011 - 1:16 pm

Taking separate photos and then putting the three sisters together must have been pretty high tech for those days.

Ellie is amazing!

Wendy B. - June 8, 2011 - 3:26 pm

That is a fantastic picture!! Ellie’s representation of it is wonderful, too. What a talented girl you have!

Nancy Schlegel - June 8, 2011 - 3:38 pm

The photo is wonderful; thanks so much for sharing! And thanks for continuing to share Ellie’s interests and talents – first video, now drawing, can’t wait to see what’s next!!

My drawing ability is also stick-figure level, and my writing ability not much better, so I’m in awe of your blogging!

Found you when looking for posts about NGS conference, and became a follower then. Have especially enjoyed the backwoods grave search and Esther’s suitors – can’t wait to hear about the guy who stole her heart!

Linda McCauley - June 8, 2011 - 6:19 pm

Wow! Is there any end to Ellie’s talents?

Jen - June 8, 2011 - 10:02 pm

Thanks guys! Yes, Ellie loves drawing and painting and such. Very artsy, that one. :)

Liz Tapley-Matthews - June 24, 2011 - 3:43 pm

Wow! That is one talented girl you have there, Jen!

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Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds

June 3, 2011 Filed in Follow Friday7 comments

I have a home again!  It’s empty, but it’s a home.  I now have one week of sleeping on a blow-up bed, sitting on a folding chair, and eating off of paper plates.

I. can’t. wait. to. see. my. own. bed. again.

I am so miserably tired and sore right now from the blow-up bed.  Those things are evil.

Besides sleeping in my own bed again, I’m really looking forward to having a workspace, scanner, printer and my filing cabinet full of genealogical stuff.  I feel lost without it all.

On another note, my aunt’s friend asked me to do a little research for her this week and I really enjoyed starting with a fresh family that I knew nothing about and seeing what I could find on it.  It makes me think more and more that I really want to pursue certification.  Things to think about….

Well, on to my favorite finds of this week…..

  • Marian Wood over at my “twin” blog Climbing My Family Tree had a great post about “Ancestor Hunting on Gen Blogs”.  I have to admit that I’ve never used quotation marks when doing a search. I’m starting to think that I should really read Google Your Family Tree, because there are clearly so many little things that I don’t know.  I have quite a few distant cousins that contact me when they stumble upon my blog, but I can’t say that I’ve been very good at searching blogs myself.
  • I feel Greta’s pain.  I have “junk in my yard” too.:)
  • Liz had a great post about Second Life and its uses for genealogy.  The Sims do genealogy??  It sounds like fun.:)  I think I might have to join up on this one – once things have settled down here.
  • Congrats to Ginger and Linda, whom I met at NGS.  They will be “official bloggers” for the upcoming FGS Conference.  I really want to go, but it’s not going to happen this year.  Andy will be in classes in September and I have no hopes of a babysitter for five kids for a week. :(
  • I loved this post over at Lineagekeeper’s Genealogy about rescuing flowers from old ancestral homes.

I might be kind of scarce in the next couple of weeks.  I have a feeling that getting the house set up is going to take up the majority of my time.:)

add a comment
Linda McCauley - June 3, 2011 - 11:48 am

Thanks for the shout out. Wish you could be at FGS.

Marian Wood - June 4, 2011 - 8:20 am

Hi Jen, Good luck on getting your new house set up the way you want it! And many thanks for mentioning my blog (your “twin” blog).

Dan Lynch’s “Google Your Family Tree” really is an excellent book, with lots of tips for every gen researcher who uses Google.

My directions on how to search genealogy blogs and about putting a search box on your gen blog aren’t in there, but the idea of using quotations, searching “Last, First Middle,” and adding “AND genealogy” to a search come from Dan! Check it out. Take care – Marian

Greta Koehl - June 4, 2011 - 6:10 pm

Thank you for the mention, Jen! I’m missing our group already; wish we were all going to FGS.

Jen - June 4, 2011 - 7:26 pm

Me too Greta!! I know that we’ll meet up again one of these days.

Jen - June 4, 2011 - 7:27 pm

Thanks Marian! Four more days and we’ll have “stuff” again. :)

Liz - June 5, 2011 - 1:04 am

Thanks for the shout out, Jen! Hope to see you in Second Life one day! Good luck getting your house set up. Tell Ellie “Hi” for me!

Wendy B. - June 5, 2011 - 10:09 pm

I hope things go well and you get your bed soon! I think you deserve a nice massage when you’re all done. =)

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