The excitement of new records!

Yesterday I had an email from Ancestry.com. They had added a new collection called Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985. “Well, there’s a chance…” I thought.

Wow. I’ve barely scratched the surface so far, but I’ve found the marriage date of two couples, and I have high hopes of breaking through a very frustrating couple of brick walls.

On this Super Bowl Sunday, I’m excited about new genealogy records going online! Hence the Geek element of this blog. 😀

Why genealogy is awesome: Miss Cora Strayer’s Private Detective Agency

Paul Reda became intrigued with a vintage ad that said:  Ladies: When in need of legal or confidential advice why not confer with one of your own sex? Established 1890 Miss Cora M. Strayer’s Private Detective Agency.  Read his research on her here: Miss Cora Strayer’s Private Detective Agency

IT DID NOT RAIN

In April 1894 my great great great uncle (Newt Garst) participated in an experiment to make it rain in Wichita, Kansas. This article from The Wichita Daily Eagle has so many great phrases in it that I’m just posting the whole thing.

21 April 1894

 

Lord of the Rings Family Tree

Lord of the Ring Project

Some guy who is made of awesomeness is putting every single character of Lord of the Rings in a giant family tree.

(DeeDee, I think I found you a perfect boyfriend. *grins*)

Woe.

What is a genealogy geek to do when she has nothing left to do? Until I have the money for travel to Philadelphia (NOT any time soon, I can tell you) and/or some new records come online, there’s nothing more I can do. It’s so depressing. I have the itch to research and scavenge for missing pieces, but nothing to scratch with.

I believe I’ll make one of my occasional “Please give me something to research” posts on Facebook…

Pointless post, over and out!

My new favorite newspaper…

My new favorite website is the Library of Congress project called, Chronicling America. I have been going through the 1800 hits (Yes, 1800!) of the name Garst from the Wichita Daily Eagle newspapers from 1830s – 1920s. I’m up to about 700 and the year 1899. And so far, yes, 99% of these articles are about Garsts that I’m related to. You’d think it would take a long time, but really a lot of them are advertisements for their businesses so it’s easy to click to the next one.

You know the “Girl in the Fireplace” episode of Doctor Who? Where the Doctor and Rose are peaking into rooms that all contain Madame de Pompadour in different decades, but it’s all the same day for them. That is how I feel reading these articles. After article 700 I finally got to one that said, “A decade ago in the Wichita Eagle” and it mentioned a concert that my ggg-uncle sang in that I remember reading about earlier and I thought, “That was 10 years ago, it seems like only yesterday!” I’m such a dork.

The one thing about the website that I’ve never come across before is that all the files are .jp2 files. I like the files because they are GINORMOUS…not file size but just length and width size. They are BIG. But I can only open them using photoshop and then I have to crop the little piece of the newspaper page that I want, so it’s really time consuming to mess with them. The website does give you an option to clip a certain section of the image and save it as a regular jpg but the quality isn’t as good so of course I feel like I have to save the whole jp2 image instead.

BUT OMG THE CRAZY STUFF I HAVE FOUND!!! I have to post some of it. So be prepared for lots of weird newspaper articles.

From the 2 December 1898 Wichita Daily Eagle:

Frank Garst is my great great grandfather.
Ash Garst is his brother

Frank sued him because Ash owed him money for some cattle.

2 December 1898

I love what this newspaper thinks is news. I actually keep getting distracted by reading the surrounding articles as well because this newspaper is just full of crazy.

Next up, the article in which one of my ancestors assists in an experiment where they try to make it rain!

My Middle-Earth ancestors!

From the Fellowship of the Ring:

Boromir: Have you ever seen it, Aragorn? The White Tower of Echthelion glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver. Its banners caught high in the morning breeze? Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?

Aragorn: I have seen the White City.

Boromir: One day, our paths will lead us there. And the tower guard will take up the call, that the Lords of Gondor have returned.

From the Wichita Daily Eagle, 22 October 1893:

22 October 1893

Yes, I momentarily envisioned my ancestors taking an extended trip to visit Aragorn and see the White City of Minas Tirith. And then I googled White City and decided they are probably referring to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

A lengthy Middle Earth vacation sounds way better.