Family History Week 14

Hi everyone;

I have placed on the blog this week one of Sharon's ancestors, Francis Edmonds. Francis was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England on 14 Jul 1822; to William Edmonds and Susanna South.  He married Ann Brunning on the 25th of Dec 1844.  He immigrated with his family in 1860 to Utah. He died 9 Jan 1914 in Salt Lake City, Utah. To most, this would seem like a complete record of Francis' life, but indeed it is just part of the picture. (Pictured to the right is Francis and Ann Edmonds)

Sharon and I are learning that genealogy is more than just a few dates. It encompasses more details of one's life. When Sharon and I were first married we had little money to decorate our home; so we resolved on picture puzzles. We would spend countless hours putting together our   puzzles.  We learned tricks to getting started; like finding the corner pieces and the straight edges of the picture. We also would put pieces together according to color as show on the box picture.  Then with time, trial and error the puzzle would slowly come into view.  Finally we would have the completed work, and would turn it over and glue it together.  Then we could hang it on the wall.

Family history is much like putting a 1000 piece puzzle together. Unfortunately many of us stop at just the edges and corners. We fail to keep going to get a full picture of the history of the person. Locating all the children, places of residence, military, community service, probate records, religious records and journals; all these pieces add to the tapestry of the life of the individual and the family.

In our studies we have found that we commit many of what are called "Rookie Mistakes" in genealogy. To get an idea of what are the common mistakes, go to the search category of family tree and click on "wiki".  The in the search field type "rookie mistake".

Hopefully we can all become better researchers and fill in the full picture of a family.  Sharon and I have started the US/Canada training manual and we are trying to learn how to be good genealogists and do justice to researching out of our families.

This week we have been busy in all aspects of the hosting zone. I will start my functions as assistant zone leader this next week.  Sharon also has some new responsibilities.  I have been asked to participate in the upcoming Roots Tech conference. This is a large annual conference held at the Salt Palace Conference center for genealogist, who come from all over the world to participate.  The key note speaker this year is Laura Bush, wife of former President George Bush.  Evidently I will be working as a volunteer in the cyber cafe. I will find out later what all my duties will be during the 3 day conference.

Last night we held a dinner with Sharon's family. Everyone  was in attendance except Craig.  We met at Miriam and Darrell's home. It was good to visit and share the evening with them. Darrell is heavily involved in the indexing program and serves as an arbitrator.  He works specifically with obituaries, which are difficult to index.


May this week find all healthy and happy. Until next week, Tchau!!

E/S Waller, Mom and Dad, Bama and Bampa, Chuck and Sharon