Indiana Dillmans: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

On This Day...

1796 - Birth: Mildred Gresham,

1827 - Birth: Woodfield Grant Denbo, Harrison County, Indiana

1868 - Birth: Daniel Bennett Boyett,

1873 - Death: Esther Ada Yates, Crawford County, Indiana

1884 - Birth: Henry Lewis Smith,

1884 - Birth: Angelica M. Steichen, Rockville, Stearns County, Minnesota

1903 - Death: Peter Francis Keppers, Avon, Stearns County, Minnesota

1930 - Death: John Adams Stoner,

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Marian Pierre-Louis of Marian's Roots and Rambles once posted an interesting exercise. As genealogists, we sometimes find traits or skills that seem to crop up along family lines, things we pass along from generation to generation. Her exercise was to leave a note to her descendants describing her traits, so that they might know which, if any, traits they got from her.

As we are researching our ancestors it's fun to make a discovery that one of them may have had similar interests or avocations that we have. Maybe you're an artist and you discover that your ancestor was too. Or maybe you have a long line of teachers in your family. Certain traits and passions seem to carry through the generations.

If you could leave a note for your descendants, which traits would you tell them about yourself? Leave a comment below or write a post on your own blog.

Here's mine:

I'm a photographer. No, not professionally, although I did spend six years in the US Navy as a Photographer's Mate, essentially a professional military photographer.

I started borrowing my parents' cameras as a kid. Just the usual happy snapshots with no skill or knowledge of how to take better pictures. In high school, I took a couple of photography classes that were offered, learning the basic camera skills and even how to process my own black & white film and prints, back before the days of digital cameras. In college, I took some more classes, including an art class where I was looking to learn the more creative side of photography, not just the technical skills. Alas, things changed, and I got realistic about my abilities and skills, and my career choice went off to computers instead of cameras. But I still have a DSLR camera with extra lenses, I still go out and shoot from time to time.

So how does that fit with the exercise mentioned above? Well, my father enjoyed photography. He had a number of different film cameras over the years, and even an 8mm movie camera. But even more, his mother, my maternal grandmother, Alta May Day, was an avid photographer. She took many hundreds of photos, back when each frame was costly in terms of film and processing, and never knowing until you got that done whether the image turned out or not. I have albums full of her photos, which she helpfully put in order and labeled with names, places and dates. What's more, I have the actual negatives for many of these, going back to 1910 or so.

Since my grandmother was born in 1910, that means someone earlier had to have started that photo collection. Her father, my great-grandfather Clyde Day, was also into photography. As he lived out on the South Dakota prairie, that was not an easy hobby to have! He learned how, and got the equipment needed, to process his own film and prints back when photography was still rather young.

Prior to that, I don't have any evidence of anyone in the family doing photography, but they were interested in pictures, as there are portraits and family photos of the Day line that go back to the Civil War and before.

So if you're my descendant and reading this, are you photographically inclined? What equipment are you using? How has photography changed?

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

On This Day - Nov 29

If you have any information on the people listed below, please contact me so we can exchange information.

On This Day...

1679 - Death: Daniel Weed, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA

1833 - Birth: Amanda Narcissa Booker, Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

1841 - Birth: Anna Maria Hartmann, Dromersheim, Mainz-Bingen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

1866 - Marriage: Samuel Winter James and Hannah Eliza Palmer, Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

1884 - Death: John M Meriwether, Floyd, Indiana

1917 - Birth: Ralph Waldo Loe, Worley, Idaho

1918 - Death: John Wiseman, Ravenna, Buffalo County, Nebraska

1935 - Death: Anthony Duclos, Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minnesota

1965 - Death: Milo Frank Day, San Diego, California

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

On This Day - November 28

Today I am beginning a series of (hopefully) daily posts of things that happened in my families on the particular date. This is useful and interesting in a few ways.

First, it's classic "cousin bait", and that's the main reason I'm posting it. Hopefully others searching for these people will come up with them in their searches and contact me, either looking for additional information, or to provide me with information or corrections.

Second, it's interesting to see how far back I have been able to find details for people in my tree. When I started doing family history, I was handed information on my family up to a "brick wall" beyond which it was not possible to find information due to a court house fire. Other lines had more or less data, but all eventually ran into dead ends. When I began researching my in-laws, I was told nobody remembered much of it, and there wasn't much information around. I have since found some extensive records, including abundant old photographs, from many of my lines and my in-laws.

Have you tried doing this sort of "On This Day..." list with your family data? How did you do it - what tools did you use to create the list? Did you discover things you had forgotten about your ancestors, or found interesting events you didn't remember you had documented?

On This Day...

1769 - Death: Joannes Zwilling, Wallenborn, Eifel, Germany

1772 - Birth: Sarah Laramore, Edgefield County, South Carolina

1833 - Birth: Samuel Straughan, Grantsburg, Crawford County, Indiana

1875 - Birth: Samuel Joseph Cox, Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois

1886 - Birth: Katherina Schreifels, Saint Nicholas, Stearns County, Minnesota

1891 - Birth: Selena Azalee Courtney, Holden, Livingston Parish, Louisiana

1904 - Birth: Victor William Hengel, Saint Joseph, Minnesota

1908 - Death: Willis Marion Dark, Chatham County, North Carolina

1918 - Death: James Leeward McMurry, Oak Grove, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana

1931 - Death: Ralph Waldo Loe,

1980 - Death: Eleanor Schreifels,

1989 - Death: Yancie Virginia Holley, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana

1997 - Death: Hubert M. Fruth, Waite Park, Stearns County, Minnesota

Still alive!

Just a short post to let you know that I'm still alive. Also, due to changes in employment, I may be posting a bit more in the future. For those of you who are still following, I thank you! I noted when I came here to post that I have 32 people still following, and that there have been over 12,000 page views of the 272 posts made so far. That's considerably more than I was aware of!

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman