The Clue in the Cupboard: A Letter from Albert Edwards

I thought there was a letter from Albert somewhere. . .  The letters are stored in my Family Archive inside archival file folders inside archival boxes, but I haven't finished indexing or transcribing them, so it's a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack to find one exact file. The dates aren't complete in my genealogy database, either, and I'm unsure of where Arline was living and what she was doing at this time.

Fortunately, one of my last tasks was to organize the letters by date, more or less. This mixes up authors, but does make it easier to locate a particular letter if you have some idea of the year or date it may have been written. I don't recall any other letters from Edwards, but this one reveals quite a bit about the mysterious man --

U.S.S. Kilty
June 9, 1919

My Dear Wife
I will drop off
a few lines to let you
no that I still love
you and I am well and
happy but very lonsome
for a letter from you
I have bin to france
a cuple of times and 
I am leaving a gin
soon for how long I 
due not no I will give
any thing if I had a 
small picture of you or
any kind just to look
at when I am lonsom
for you I will never
for get you Dear
I made out an allotment
to you when I first
came in if you have
not received it yet let 
me no they take it out 
of my pay every month
so you can have it
I will forget the past
Dear and start all over
a gain Arline for no
I love you with all
of my hart and wont
you be the same I will
when we was taking
those walk in helper 
and the Parks in
Salt Lake I will
send you lots of 
Presents if you will
write to me Dear for
I am always think
of you 
I will Close with
lots of love as of
old  You Loving
Husband

Albert Edwards
U.S.S. Kilty
c/o P.M. New York

I'm afraid this doesn't paint a very good portrait of Arline. She sounds like a heartless new bride ignoring her soldier-husband. One can only wonder about the "other side of the story."

In 1919, Arline was 29 years old. She had a ten-year old daughter, Lucile, by her first husband LeRoy Paulen, and another daughter Bernadean. The envelope is addressed to Mrs. A.F. Edwards in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but forwarded twice, first to Pueblo, Colorado where Arline's mother lived, and then to the Page Hotel in Denver, Colorado, where Arline supposedly received the letter.

Edwards letter points to a man without much education, or at least with poor spelling and grammar skills. He mentions the walks in Helper and Salt Lake. I think the photo of Arline and Albert posted yesterday may have been taken in Helper or Beulah, at Arline's mother's ranch.

Next questions: Why was Arline in Minnesota, and then Denver?

Source:  Albert Edwards (USS Kilty, New York) to “My Dear Wife” [Arline Kinsel Edwards], letter, 9 June 1919; Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, 1890-, privately held by Denise Levenick, [address for private use,] Pasadena, California. 2012.

Note: USS Kilty (DD-137), U.S. Navy destroyer launched 25 April 1918 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, commissioned 17 December 1918. Sailed to Europe Summer 1919 and returned to San Diego. Decommissioned 5 June 1922.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, "USS Kilty (DD-137)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Kilty_(DD-137)&oldid=443425306 (accessed January 26, 2012).

U.S.S. Kilty

June 9, 1919

My Dear Wife

I will drop off

a few lines to let you

no that I still love

you and I am well and

happy but very lonsome

for a letter from you

I have bin to france

a cuple of times and

I am leaving a gin

soon for how long I

due not no I will give

any thing if I had a

small picture of you or

any kind just to look

at when I am lonsom

for you I will never

for get you Dear

I made out an anlotment

to you when I first

came in if you have

not received it yet let

me no they take it out

of my pay every month

so you can have it

I will forget the past

Dear and start all over

a gain Arline for no

I love you with all

of my hart and wont

you be the same I will

when we was taking

those walk in helper

and the Parks in

Salt Lake I will

send you lots of

Presents if you will

write to me Dear for

I am always think

of you

I will Close with

lots of love as of

old  You Loving

Husband

Albert Edwards

U.S.S. Kilty

c/o P.M. New York

Source:  Albert Edwards (USS Kilty, New York) to “My Dear Wife” [Arline Kinsel Edwards], letter, 9 June 1919; Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, 1890-, privately held by Denise Levenick, [address for private use,] Pasadena, California. 2012.

Note: USS Kilty (DD-137), U.S. Navy destroyer launched 25 April 1918 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, commissioned 17 December 1918. Sailed to Europe Summer 1919 and returned to San Diego. Decommissioned 5 June 1922.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, "USS Kilty (DD-137)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Kilty_(DD-137)&oldid=443425306 (accessed January 26, 2012).

Nancy Drew Goes to Salt Lake City

Before I can get to Roots Tech, I've got a SLC ToDo List that's more Detective than Digital. I'm playing Nancy Drew and tracking down clues to a mystery that's nearly a century old. If you would like a brain-teaser to occupy your little grey cells before the waves start buzzing with conference tweets and posts… please, feel free to leave your own ideas for

The Case of the Disappearing Husband

. . . in a previous episode of The Family Curator we posed several questions about our heroine, Arline Kinsel Paulen, and her life in Salt Lake City.

Albert Edwards and Arline Paulen
Armed and Ready 

The facts, as we knew them were few --

In 1914 Arline was living in Salt Lake City at 144 S. 5th West with her young daughter Lucile. She received frequent letters from her ex-husband Roy Paulen who worked as a business secretary at the Bingham Mine Company about 28 miles outside the City. Arline and little Lucy occasionally visited Roy in Bingham, but Roy's letters show that he longed to see them more often.

Then, in August of 1917, Arline Paulen (age 26) and Albert Edwards (age 36), both of Salt Lake City, traveled to Evanston, Wyoming where they were married by a Justice of the Peace before two local witnesses.

Within a few months, Arline moved back to her mother's ranch in Colorado and in September 1919 was served with divorce papers by Edwards.

"I'm sure he pushed it through in a hurry as I think he was just as anxious to get rid of me as me him," she wrote in a letter to her mother.

Inquiring minds want to know --

1. What was Arline doing in SLC?

2. Who was Albert Edwards?

3. Why did the couple leave SLC to be married? (Heck, why did they get married at all?)

4. Why Evanston, Wyoming? (Was it the Gretna Green of the time?)

5. What happened to Edwards?

Like any good detective, I have my casebook in hand and a list of witnesses to question. I want to check the Salt Lake City directories to see if Arline and Edwards are listed, and also try to figure out where she might have worked. I'm sure there are more clues in her letters from those years, but they haven't all been transcribed... yet.

I also have a nagging memory that Edwards might have been in the service. It certainly would have been the right decade. I'll have to check into that.

The Wyoming wedding mystifies me; I'd like to find out more about Utah marriage laws in 1917. Maybe there was a restriction on divorced persons remarrying? or maybe they weren't really divorced? 

Lots of questions... any more ideas?

Hear Tips to Organize Your Family Archive on Family Tree Magazine Podcast

I had a lot of fun talking with Lisa Louise Cooke recently about the Family Tree Magazine Organize Your Family Archive Expert Webinars where I had a chance to help Editor Allison Dolan with her inherited genealogy treasure trove. Our conversation is just part of the January 2012 Family Tree Podcast and also includes ideas for working with Evernote, using Social Media, and new collections available from Family Tree Magazine.

The January podcast kicks off the year with a focus on "Making Over Your Research in 2012" with all kinds of information on new products, organizational ideas, and research techniques --

• Diane Haddad reveals news from Ancestry.com and WDYTYA
• Lisa and Kerry Scott discuss using Evernote for genealogy
• I share some tips from the Organize Your Family Archive Webinar
• Allison Dolan describes the new Get Organized Collection

You can also find more organizing ideas in the February 2012 issue of Family Tree Magazine including my article, "Computer Cleanup."

Another Lesson from the Archive #3: Look Inside the Book

No, dollar bills did not fall out of the pages, but something even more interesting showed up when I turned back the cover of this ordinary looking Bible.

With the help of a bit of book tape and a dime-store notebook, Pastor Benny C. Turner made some very creative DIY enhancements to his teaching Bible. He expanded the Bible by six pages in the front and and another six in the back by adding an entire signature from another notebook; this gave him an additional 24 pages to fill with notes, photos, and pull-out charts.

The Santa Ana Bible Church at 1103 West Third Street, Santa Ana, California was only one of hundreds of small evangelical Christian congregations dotting the Orange County landscape in the 1950s and '60s. Pastor Benny led the members in worship services every Sunday morning and evening with the support of his wife Frances, my aunt.

I'm learning more about this little church group all the time as I work my way through the bits and pieces in my aunt's estate. I had forgotten much about the church until we came across Benny's Bibles -- not one or two, or even a few more, but dozens and dozens of Bibles. The first two dozen or so we put in a box and a lady from the church took them with her when she saw them in the house. The remaining ten or twelve were books with personal notes, photos, and extensive annotations. Pastor Benny clearly "worked" his Bible.

This particular Bible was special to Benny and he notes on the first page "This is my first Bible teaching Bible -- purchased in either 1952 or 1953?" The next eleven DIY-added pages are filled with quotations, notes, Bible verses, and personal mottos. He has typed some passages and glued them onto the paper. Others are handwritten in ink or pencil. The flyleaf showed a careful scrapbook-style layout featuring photos of Benny and his wife, an advertisement for his little church, an interesting bookplate, and a typed Bible verse.

The back section shows more notes and verses and pull-out diagrams that could be used as a reminder for his sermons or when talking with a church member. One of these is a miniature colored panorama Jamison's New Chronological Panorama of the Bible Abridged. Somewhere in my aunt's estate we found this same graphic image in two other versions -- a poster size print and a huge oilcloth rendition suitable for hanging on a church wall.

Uncle Benny's Bibles are adding to the story of this little church. A few years ago I found a group photo and my aunt identified many of the people who were pictured. We've also found the church membership book, guest book, account book, and even an embossing seal.

Benny's Teaching Bible isn't the only book to be personalized. In the box I brought home, I found at least two other Bibles with photos, stories, and captions. Together they are helping to build the story of this little church that no longer exists. I'm so glad we looked inside the book.

Lessons from the Archive #2: Maintain Order

No gentle tinkling of a silver spoon against crystal here. ATTENTION PLEASE. Maintain order in the Archive at all times.

I'm just taking to heart an old lesson from my Retired Army Colonel father-in-law: everything ship-shape and in it's place.

Last month I nearly missed two priceless cabinet card photogaphs of my grandmother while sorting bits of trash and debris from my aunt's estate. I realized just in time, that it is wise to Examine Everything. Today I was reminded about another wise piece of advice: Maintain Order.

The Backstory: Our basement office is the world-wide headquarters for a million-schemes and plans. It holds the archive files for fifty years of family businesses; craft supplies, yarn, and sporting goods from a past lives, and now, boxes and boxes from my aunt's estate. As well as boxes from Uncle Herman's estate. And my in-laws estate. And Mom's estate. You get the picture.

Today I looked at one small shoebox. It seemed to hold mostly letters and cards that I had written to my aunt since college days. We brought it home from her house in Orange County as we cleaned out her desk. At the back of the box was a few odd items: a cookbook, an unframed picture, an envelope with my uncles' sermon notes, and a construction paper covered typed booklet. They were headed for the miscellaneous pile when I took another look.

The manuscript begins:

Forward

The following copy has been carefully taken from a little black diary formerly the property of Mrs. Laura Woodman Mills, who wrote the diary as she crossed the plains from Illinois to Stockton, California in 1861, and is now in the hands of her daughter Mrs. W. B. Harper of Garden Grove.

Mrs. Mills, at one time a school teacher in Illinois, made this trip at the age of twenty seven, in company with her husband and small son Frank.

No doubt, my aunt (who taught school in Garden Grove for many years) must have come into contact with someone who knew Mrs. Mills or her daughter Mrs. Harper. Perhaps the women were even members of the little church where Uncle Benny was a pastor.

The typed transcription includes notes and a few census references. I wonder who prepared this? I wonder if the diary still exists? I wonder where it is today? Hopefully, the family has a copy. . . What a sad story if it had been lost . . . Or mixed in with Uncle Herman's submarine mementos, or even Mom's Orange County bits and pieces. As it is, we only have the Garden Grove / teacher connection; but, maybe it's enough. . .

This journal is the kind that's tough to put down once you start reading. Laura writes about the people and things she sees along the route; about men who die; about her own little boy celebrating his first birthday.

Saturday, August 3

Remained in camp today until 2 o'clock. A boy twenty years old belonging to the train that is traveling with us went out last evening to look for a cow and did not return. Was found this morning shot and scalped by the Indians. The sick man dies today at noon and so they were buried side by side. It seems hard to see anyone buried here among the Indians without coffin or prayer, but it matters not to them. Moved on.

It's a compelling story. I surely hope the family has managed to hold on to the original diary.  

2012 Genea Blogging Buddies on your Mark...

It's not a competition, unless you count aiming for your Personal Best, but these buddy-teams have joined up to work towards their own set of Genealogy Goals for 2012. Amy Coffin  and I discovered it helped to have a blogging buddy to nudge us along now and then, but several folks are going solo too. We all know there's more to achieving goals than writing up a grand ToDo List. Determination, motivation, and that good old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness.

Becky Jamison will be organizing her "small family archive."

My Idaho pal Milda Simaitis is organizing photos, CDs, slides, and movies. (I wonder if I'm in any of them?)

Donna Pointkowski and Lisa Alzo are staking their claim to a buddy project, but I wish SCGS was on Donna's 2012 list too! They each list an ambitious 12 goals for the year

• Donna's 12 Genealogy Goals for 2012
• Lisa's 12 for 12

Gayle Wolcott is joining in with New Year Goals.

Terri O'Connell and Steph are teaming up for 2012

• Terri's Motivation Monday: January Goals
• and Steph at Motivation Monday: January 2012 Goals 

I know there are more buddy-teams out there and hope we'll be hearing from you once in a while.

Good luck and Happy 2012!

Ring in the New 2012 Genealogy Goals

As we turn to the first page of our shiny new calendars, I am toasting the health and happiness of my friends and family in 2012, and looking forward to all that a new year brings. New opportunities, new friendships, and the reminder to be grateful for our many blessings (yes, Dad, I am making my Gratitude List!). The best part about blogging is meeting people who share a passion for genealogy, research, families, and even technology.

Amy Coffin and I had a great few hours considering how much we did (or didn't quite) get done in 2011, and now we're stepping into 2012 with a short list of we-can-do-it genealogy goals. You can read about Amy's list here, and her 2011 progress report here. You can see my 2011 report and compare it to my initial goal list and January 2011 update.

My Genealogy Goals for 2012:

Research Goal -- I want to do some colonial era research on my grandmother's line to learn more about the early family roots. I confess my motivation here is to find an ancestor somewhere in our family tree that might interest my sons enough that they get bitten by the genealogy bug. I don't know what I'll find, but I'd like to know more about these shadowy ancestors.

AND, I want to work with my Chamblin/Chamberlain/Chamberlin line and try to make some progress with the Real Sam Chamblin.

Oh, one more research goal (but this one should be fairly easy) -- I learned that my great-grandfather's grave right here in Southern California does not have a marker; I need to confirm his birthdate and take care of this omission. That's really three goals, but as researcher's know... you never want to run out of objectives!

Organization Goal -- It's time for a little Blog Beautification. I have some ideas in mind to get my blog posts reorganized for easier access and more content I'd like to write and post.

Writing Goal -- I would like finish the transcriptions for Aunt Mercy's beautiful genealogy book, and work on the layout and design of this project. This is beginning to be a top priority because the interested family members are getting older (me too!) and I really want to put this book in their hands.

2012 is already shaping up to be a busy year for genealogy, and I am looking forward to making even more progress on my family research and with my writing. Three goals seem pretty manageable, and even though I wasn't able to fully complete my 2011 goals I am pleased with my progress, and I'm sticking with the magic number 3.

Drop a note if you'll be joining us with your Blogging Buddy in working toward  your 2012 Genealogy Goals. If you don't have a buddy (yet), leave a comment and join in anyway. You don't even have to share your goals; but write them down for yourself somewhere. It helps!

Happy 2012, genea-friends.

2011 Genealogy Goals: Year End Report

The Family Curator and Amy Coffin WeTree Blogger

from the West Coast Partner --

It's that time of year, to look back and see what progress we've made with our annual genealogy goals. For the third year, I was able to meet with Amy Coffin of the WeTree Blog when she was in Southern California during the holidays. Last December, our usual afternoon chat turned to research and blogging and we challenged each other to complete three genealogy goals. Now it's time to report on our ultimate progress. You can read Amy's report here.

Our goal was to accomplish three genealogy-related goals, one each for organizing, research. and writing. We decided to break it into categories for variety and to challenge ourselves in areas we needed a bit of a nudge.

Amy really kicked-off the Year End Report season with news of her first published e-book! Last year's dream is now a reality with The Big Genealogy Blog Book, and I am excited to think that I was there at the beginning when Amy said something about wanting to write "a little e-book." Little e-book, indeed! The Big Genealogy Book is eleven chapters filled with great ideas for blog posts, encouragement for stalled bloggers, and topics for improving your genealogy expertise. It's proof-published that goal setting works. Congrats, Amy!  She finished her other big goal too, and you can read all about it at The WeTree Genealogy Blog.

I would like to say that I was able to make it to the finish-line on all my goals, but life has a way of happening. In all kinds of ways.

My goals for 2011:

Organization Goal -- To get my digital life in order. My move from PC to Mac left my digital files in a turmoil and I am pleased to report that I was able to successfully complete this goal and am now a happy and well-backed up Mac user. I have moved all my photos to an external hard drive that is backed up to a second external drive, and I also run the Mac Time Machine back-up system to keep regular back ups of all my ongoing work. No more nightmares.

Research Goal -- To figure out the Chamblin/Chamberlain/Chamberlin link in my family tree. I was making pretty good progress with this and planned to do some onsite research in Springfield, Illinois at FGS, but then, life happened. Instead of going to FGS, I stayed home to say goodbye to my dear aunt who passed away August 30, and then to say hello to my new grandson in early September. The Chamblins have been waiting for a long time, they just have to wait a little longer.

Writing Goal -- To reproduce Aunt Mercy's beautiful genealogy book and share it withe the extended family. It's a gorgeous hand-painted and hand calligraphied work filled with narrative, pedigree charts, and a good deal of "speculative family history." It's too good to be kept in a box in the dark. My plan was to incorporate it in a larger family history and reproduce the artwork, but instead, I think I might like to transcribe the pages and print text opposite a full page reproduction. A short biography of Mercy might round out the book.

Although I didn't complete this goal, I am pleased with the progress I made. I was able to scan and photograph each page and begin transcribing some of the more dense narrative. The pedigree charts are very creative and will be a more of a challenge.

My Big News

Oh, and did I add that my biggest goal (not appearing on the list, but drifting around my head) is also in progress? Yes, I'm writing a book!

Organize Your Family Archive will be out this summer from F+W Media. It's packed with practical ideas for working with family stuff, organizing your inherited treasures, and preserving memorabilia for future generations. I am madly writing every day and loving every minute. It's a lot of work, but great fun to spend time thinking and writing about my passion. Right now, I'm working toward the final manuscript deadline, so I'd better get back to work.

Join Us in 2012

P.S. -- Yes, Amy and I did make a few Genealogy Goals for 2012 and will post them in the new year. We are anxiously waiting to hear a Year End Report from our greatest challengers, the Northern California team of Sheri Fenley The Educated Genealogist and Cheryl of Heritage Happens. Well, team NoCal?

If you want to join us in 2012, find a Genealogy Buddy, set three goals, and write about them on your blog. Add a comment and link to your post in the Comments of this article; I will post a round-up of the buddy-teams in January and Amy and I will do our best to keep the up the momentum in 2012.

There are no rules for this challenge! It's not a competition. Do what works to give yourself the nudge and encouragement to accomplish something you want to do genealogy-wise in the next twelve months. If you want to keep your goals private, try writing them on a piece of paper and sealing them in an envelope. You know what they are, and your blogging buddy can still send you a little nagging email once in a while to remind you to check the envelope.

If Our Ancestors Wrote Christmas Letters: 2011 Edition

This might find its way into your holiday mailbox. . .

My dear Cousin,

Well, all I can say is Whoopie! for you!!! We got your letter last week and that slick photograph of you and James with the kiddies. It looks like you got yourself fixed up fine, that's for sure.

George wants to know if the automobile came with the job at the bank, or if James bought it on his own. You do look mighty fine behind the window with Grandma's fur over your shoulders. I remember how she liked to wear that wrap to everybody's funeral. Do you remember when she wore it to Olive Stebbins' service? Oh my, wasn't that a lark! Remember when the fox tail got caught in the casket handle as the pallbearers brought the box down the aisle and Grandma nearly went into the ground with Olive. Ho ho!!!

Well, cousin, words just can't explain the year we have been through here in the flatlands. It's impossible to describe. You can't even imagine. Let me tell you, it's like nothing we have ever been through, even when Georgie ran off with Patience and we ended up with two babies in the house in less than a month. (a'course the babies didn't take less than a month to get to us! wouldn't that be something!). Sometimes, I wish I could just follow Grandma and Olive Stebbins down that aisle into eternity. Lord, Almighty, I just can hardly find the words.

We should have known things were not going to get better when Bessie got it into her head to break out of the barn and follow Georgie to Patience's folks' farm down the road. Well, it was fine with us if Georgie and Patience wanted to live with her folks, but we weren't very happy about losing our cow too. Every day we had to get a pail of milk for our own baby girl and with George laid up half the time and Georgie mooning over Patience, I think the children must have worn a new path over to the Wilson place. Even Bessie got tired of waiting to be milked by our little ones. She is such a sweetie pie, the most patient little thing. (Bessie not Georgie's wife). Sometimes when she turns her face into the sun and blinks her big brown eyes, I just can't help thinking how much she looks like you that day when we went to the lake with the Martin kids. Now wasn't a treat? (the trip to the lake, not the cow) You wore that navy bathing costume. Remember how you stood on the bank of the lake with the sunshine in your face right before Ed Jones pushed you into the water.

But, I was telling you about what we've been doing around here. . . It turned out that George really did get hurt when Bessie knocked him into the hay rake. He didn't realize he had broke a rib until later when he tried to pick up baby girl and about passed out. Doc Robbins fixed him up straight away and now he's as right as rain, praise the Lord. Georgie and Patience are expecting a new baby, and living over at her folks with Bessie. She is a very touchy thing (Patience, not the cow) so that's just fine with me. Of course, we don't miss out on much with the little ones. Georgie's baby girl is over here with our own little Janey nearly all the time, especially since that Johnson boy moved back to the county and Georgie is working out on the farm most of the time.

The children are a great blessing. Next to Georgie, there are John and Jimmy who help their father with the crops and stock. John is a fine boy and likes to tinker with tools and equipment. I think he will be an inventor. Jimmy is such a gentle soul, he cried when Bessie went off, but I think he has a secret plan to bring her back. Then there's Margey and little Michael who are just as sweet as twins can be, and our little baby Janey. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see my little chicks all in bed at night and know they are all safe and well. Well, of course, all except Georgie, but then I never did rest easy with him even when he was in bed under our roof.

I am enclosing a photograph of baby girl on our newest addition (the calf not another baby). You never said if you would like to hire Bessie as a model for a dairy business, but now we have another on offer. Do write back soon, Cousin, and let us know if you are interested.

Merry Christmas!

Your Cousin Amelia

Read Last Year's Christmas Letter here -- If Our Ancestors Wrote Christmas Letters: 2010 Edition

Photograph:  Underwood & Underwood. The pets--on a western stock farm, Kansas. Photographic Print on stereo card. Digital image. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 US. Accessed December 2011.

Update on Monday, December 19, 2011 by Family Curator

Thanks for the kind words. My imagination does get carried away at times...

Blog Caroling: Stille Nacht is Still My Favorite

To my mind, this is one of the most beautiful Christmas songs of all time, especially when I snapped this photo of of a church steeple high above the Rhine one December night in 2003.

It's especially nice when accompanied by the Vienna Boys' Choir

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year

Thank you, footnoteMaven for your wonderful holiday caroling tradition!

Lessons from the Archive #1: Examine Everything

I nearly missed them. I was tired, frustrated, and saddened by the sheer volume of material to go through. My dear sweet aunt saved everything, and I do mean everything.

It wasn't just the dried corsages, the snips of wrapping paper from gifts to my uncle, or even the old letters and cards that hit me hardest. It was sheets of old flyers and printouts carefully trimmed to be used for scratch paper. It was address labels cut off envelopes to be reused on outgoing mail. It was pencil stubs, old calendars, and rainy-day plastic bags from the newspaper.

Since her death in late August, I have been bringing home boxes from Auntie's home to go through carefully as my sister and I work to settle her affairs. The old bumper pool table in our basement office, topped with a sturdy board, makes a good work surface for unpacking boxes. It's slow work looking at things one-by-one, but it's the only way to do it, I keep reminding myself.

Somewhere between a stack of recycled scratch paper and some old restaurant receipts two cabinet card photographs came into view.

The little girl in one photo looked familiar, I think I've seen images of my Grandmother that look similar, and when I turned over the photo, on the reverse side I recognized her handwriting:  "That is the family cookbook I'm looking at. I think I was 2 or yrs. old" she had written.

The second photo shows a smiling baby, but the reverse is blank. Then, looking closer I saw a faint inscription pencilled in the bottom margin: "Arline Allen Kinsel".

I have no idea how these two photographs became separated from the mass of material I inherited in 2000 that had originally belonged to my grandmother. Clearly, these photos were part of the collection. Maybe my aunt had held them back so that she would have a few to enjoy. How sad that they must have become misplaced over the years, and how fortunate that I found them at all.

I'm starting a new list of Lessons from the Archive, and this is #1-- Examine everything. Every scrap of paper, every box, bag, and bundle. Don't assume that a 6-inch stack of greeting cards contains only cards. You never know what might fall out and land in your lap!

Please leave a comment if you've made your own lucky discovery in your family archive; I'd love to hear about it.

Update on Monday, December 12, 2011 by Family Curator

What a lot of lucky researchers we are! Money, court evidence, letters, photos, school papers -- that's a lot of buried treasure. Anthony, you may get the prize for the oldest find. Unless Dr. Bill's documents are even older. Thanks so much for sharing, all.

What I Learned from Preseenting My First Webinar

If I had know it was this much fun, I would have joined in sooner! Last night I had the opportunity to present my very first webinar, Organize Your Family Archive, for Family Tree University, and I've come away learning a lot from the experience and from the attendees.

A special feature of the webinar included working with Family Tree Editor Allison Stacy Dolan to take first steps in organizing her own inherited archive. Allison shared a representative box of family memorabilia and we worked through identifying the contents and deciding on a strategy to get her started. I think it would be fun to check back with Allison in a few months and see how she is doing.

What I Learned

1. Students have a lot to teach their teachers. The questions following the webinar were very revealing -- attendees tend to feel overwhelmed by their stuff, they want concrete ideas on how to handle the volume, and they are looking for answers.
2. Stay in contact with your organizer. Kerry Scott, Family Tree Magazine's Online Community Editor, (I knew her first at the Clue Wagon blog) was available for the inevitable last-minute questions and encouragement. Kerry coordinated everything from schedule to technology and managed to stay cool even when I nearly flubbed it all with my attempt at Geek status.
3. It's best not to try to get too fancy! I tried a few snappy "improvements" to my home computer setup that could have easily created a disaster. I think I will leave things plain and simple for a while.

One of the things I miss most about teaching high school students is the regular interaction with pupils. I'm sure that's why comments to blog posts are so very precious; it's the closest a blogger gets to someone stopping by after class to make a comment or to ask a question. Presenting a webinar is pretty close to being back in the classroom. The atmosphere is exciting, the students inspiring, and the challenge invigorating. I'm already looking forward to "next semester."

If you missed the live webinar, you can view it and have access to the notes and links through FamilyTree University's webinar-on-demand. Organize Your Family Archive will be available soon.

Thanksgiving Blessings

At this certain time of year,
We think of friends both far and near.
We count our blessings, one-two-three,
And give a heartfelt thanks to Thee.

Happy Thanksgiving
from The Family Curator

Postcard from the collection of Arline Allen Kinsel.

New Webinar - Help for Your Mountain of Memorabilia

If you are drowning under a flotilla of ark-ives (thanks, Drew Smith!) or buried beneath a mountain of memorabilia, consider signing up for a the Organize Your Family Archive webinar I will be hosting Tuesday, 29 November 2011 for Family Tree University.

Early this Fall, Family Tree Magazine Editor Allison Stacy Dolan shared her inherited family archive with readers and asked for ideas to get control of the confusion. Allison inherited over two dozen boxes of family memorabilia and genealogy papers from her grandmother who recently downsized her home. Her legacy included everything from cabinet card photographs to soldier's letters home to scrapbooks and news clippings. I gave her a few ideas with my Short List, but she has a big project ahead.

The webinar will focus on working with Allison to sort, organize, and preserve the assorted items in her family archive. We'll talk about figuring out

• what she wants to do with the collection
• how to easily inventory the contents
• how to decide what to keep and what to throw away
• how to organize, preserve, and store what she has left

Registration for Organize Your Family Archive is now open with a $10 discount on registration through November 20. Hope to see you LIVE on November 29.

The Big Book That Could: Announcing Amy Coffin's New Blog Book

Goals really do come true could be the 2011 motto for Amy Coffin who is the author of a brand new, hot off the presses e-book on genealogy blogging. My preview copy arrived this morning and delivers everything you might expect from the author of the WeTree blog -- great ideas, lots of encouragement, witty language, and clear direct style.

The Big Genealogy Blog Book: 201 Topics Plus Tips and Tricks for Your Genealogy Blog presents just about everything a genealogy blogger needs to write better articles, connect with readers, encourage comments, and come up with new ideas. The book also includes a helpful encore of Amy's popular 52 Weeks... series on better genealogy and blogging.

It hardly seems like nearly a year has gone by since Amy and I met for our ritual holiday meet-up while she was in town visiting her in-laws. We must have been feeling spunky, or bored, or both, because our happy-hour conversation shifted from current research to "So, what are your New Year's Genealogy Resolutions?" After some amount of head scratching we each came up with three things we wanted to accomplish in the next twelve months: a research goal, an organizational goal, and a writing goal.

Amy has completed all three goals with nearly two months to spare. Lucky us, because her latest project gives the rest of us lots of ideas to get through these holiday weeks with fresh ideas for our blogs.

Congratulations, Amy! I am looking forward to our annual meeting and your goals for 2012.

What You Will Find in 
The Big Genealogy Blog Book:
201 Topics Plus Tips and Tricks for Your Genealogy Blog

• Why Start a Genealogy Blog?
• 6 Blogging Myths
• Tips for Writing Good Blog Posts
• How to Get More Blog Readers
• How to Get More Blog Comments
• Quality Control: A Blogger's Checklist
• Jump Start Your Genealogy Blog: 52 Ideas, 52 Weeks
• 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy
• 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History
• 25 Great Topics for Genealogy Society Blogs
• 20 Blog Topics for Professional Genealogists

Now available as an e-book download through Lulu and Amazon Kindle

Lulu.com PDF and EPUB

Amazon Kindle