Shout out - Martin County (FL) Genealogical Society

I just wanted to let everyone know about the Martin County (FL) Genealogical Society. I recently was in need of a few obituaries for relatives that lived in Stuart, Martin County, Florida. Neither GenealogyBank nor NewspaperArchive returned any hits. I then posted one request on the Martin County, Florida Ancestry message board. A very kind gentleman from the Martin County Genealogical Society responded. He was able to find the one obituary I wanted, and also one more that I requested after reading the first one.

In his response he gently asked for "say, a $5.00" donation. It was not required, but I was glad to send the society a donation.

This made me realize that this is a way for local genealogical societies to make themselves known, and to possibly obtain a small donation. I just wish that all local societies would monitor the message boards. I know that not all have the resources - maybe don't have obituary indexes, etc., but if they do, it would be good for them to respond to these messages.

Has anyone else had a member of a genealogicial society respond to a message board request?

The Long Road to Organization

For over a week I've been doing little research while I have been trying to better organize my stuff. It is a rare event when I can find something I want from my stash, so this is way overdo.

After listening to the Legacy Family Tree webinar "Organizing for Success" by Karen Clifford I decided that I wanted to try organizing both digital and paper documents by what is called the Marriage Record Identification Number, or MRIN, that is used by Legacy Family Tree to identify marriages.

I ordered supplies from Karen Clifford's company. After I received them, the thought occurred to me that for the price I paid, someone should have come with the purchase to set it up! lol

Since I'm only working on my Porter family, at this time I would not be using every number in the filing system. So I've run a report in Legacy from which I've determined what numbers I'll actually need (MRINs used in the Porter family). Now I'm sorting through the numbers in the purchased filing system to see if I actually have everything I need. *crossing fingers*

I have also been renaming the file names on my hard drive to use the MRIN. So now I might have a filename such as "349 CR1880", which would tell me that this record is an 1880 census record for the couple with MRIN number 349.  I've worked my way into the surnames that begin with D, so I have a long way to go.

I think I'm going to like this file organization, especially the digital version. We'll see in a few months how I like the paper documents' version.

If anyone is interested in this filing system, check out Karen's webpage FileYourPapers.Com.

I bet you think my Mommy's dead...

Those that follow my blog might have noticed I've been absent for a couple weeks. I thought of what I said to my Aunt Mary shortly after my Mom started working at the General Motors plant in Columbus when I was about 3 1/2 years old. My Aunt Mary had come to stay for a few days since my Mom worked nights, and she had not arranged for babysitting yet. I said to Aunt Mary when she was getting me ready for bed "I bet you think my Mommy's dead, but she's not. She's at work!".

Well, I'm not dead! I took what could be called a vacation, though the purpose was not one for relaxation. I drove with my daughter Jamie to Atlanta, Georgia. She started work as an unpaid intern at the Georgia Aquarium. We're all hoping that it turns into a full time paid position. She recently graduated with a BS in Marine Biology from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. This is a dream job and one that is hard to come by in this field, so we are quite excited about the opportunity.

I helped Jamie find an apartment, and we explored the area. But I mostly spent the time in the hotel room while she worked as it was just too hot to do any exploring on foot. I did visit the aquarium. It is very nice! It is supposed to be the largest aquarium in the world. They recently started an indoor porpoise show. I like the fact that everything is inside, especially when it's mid-90s outside!

After Atlanta I took an Amtrak sleeper car to New York City to visit my son, Nick. I visited a couple days and finally arrived home early Saturday.

I was able to do a little online research while in Atlanta and will do another post soon on what I've found.