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DawnsDelights: August 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Free Week at Ancestry.com


Immigration Collection



Ancestry.com is holding another free week to seek out your Ancestors. Connect with others to get this needed information. Search all the Immigration and Travel Records at Ancestry.com

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Martha Coffee, mystery

Recently I was going through papers that my mom had given me years ago. I came across a copy of an old newspaper article on Martha Coffee. This was a name I had not come across on any of the other documents. I sat and read about this young mother who while tending to her sick husband and young infant went down to the creek to gather the horses when she was attacked by Commanche Indians and Murdered. Her scalped body found later by neighbors who came by to check on the young family.


This really got my curiousity up, who was this lady that has the same name as my Grandma's Great Grandfather Francis Marion Coffee, father of Nancy Ola Coffee Akin. There is nothing about her on any of our documents that I can find, however finding information about women through Genealogy is rather a complicated task to begin with. Sadly many died during child birth, and documents weren't often kept on women of that time.

The next approach I took was to Google her Name and the Cemetery Name from the News Article, Alameda Cemetery of Eastland County Texas. During the 1860's the settlement was still very wild. I did find that Ruth Terry Denny wrote a book on the account of the incident named "A Short History of Ranger Texas", I really hope that I can find a local copy at the library. Maybe there will be more in there to clear this up.

Martha Coffee was apparently the first grave on the settlement according to the ManskerChronicles
Which it matches the newspaper article written by the Eastland County Paper. But the story doesn't end there. Found another written story article about Martha Coffee, but this gentleman called her Elizabeth Coffer, grave marked as Martha Coffee. He wrote of accounts given to him by a nearby neighbor during the time, that Mrs. Lewis Coffer who was a short tempered lady that was killed in 1867, however the grave marker states 1860 killed by Inians on the Duffer Ranch. That is a 7 year gap in dates of Death and accounts so different from each other.

With limited records from these early settlements it is hard to confirm the true identity of this young lady with a tragic ending. I have not found anything yet that indicates a Martha Coffee in our family, but there must be a reason that this article was in with all the other records. The Coffee family was from the Texas area and not one that I have worked to verify yet. This mystery is going to take me to a new direction, a little side step to see where this fits into the Coffee family, which already had been debated. There was a long debated story that we were part Indian, now I wonder if through the years this story has taken a different twist and her death is truly what happened, if she was even related.

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Work Week Blog Hop



Blog hops are a wonderful way to meet other bloggers, and see their giveaways. Hope to see you all over there...

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

sunday blog hop


Photobucket

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Digital Scrapbooking layouts

I wanted to share the different pages that can be made with the two programs side by side. I love them both! They both are flexable and affordable-which was important when I was looking for a way to create great scrapbooks with all these cute old photographs. I didn't want to cut up the old photos and couldn't afford to make tons of duplicates to share. Going Digital has opened the possibilities of sharing these with family.



made with My Memories Scrapbook Software, this is one of my fur babies. Squeak, we got him when he was barely 5 weeks old from the Animal Control Center in Alamogordo. He was covered head to toe in fleas and malnourished. We took him in to see if he would get along with our two other cats. And after cleaning him up and adopting him, he has become family. Its been 6 years now and he isn't as small as he once was.






Made with DaisyTrail - Everything you need for Digital Scrapbooking, Crafting, Greeting Cards, Baby Photobooks, DIY Wedding Invitations and more!

This layout is of one of my little sisters and I when we were little. There aren't many pictures that I have found of us girls. We have many years in between us 4, I am the oldest, my youngest sister is 12 years younger than me.

You can mix and match the embellishments to create true works of art.

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

QVC The Joy of Christmas special

The Christmas Shoppe at QVC.com is stocked full of your favorite holiday goodies - flameless candles décor & more!

QVC is having another wonderful Christmas Sale. I really try each year to plan ahead, that way during the holiday season I spend less time at the malls and more time with loved ones.

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printing those digital scrapbooks

8x11 Personalized Cover Book (20 pages only) for $15 INCLUDING shipping CODE:2011BOOK 8/18-8/25

My favorite place to print my photos and memory books is through Snapfish. I have been using them for almost 10 years now. They have always been reliable for me and has wonderful photos. I wanted to share this August special, it is a great time to print those lovely summer memories. Get them ready for the upcoming holidays.

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How to use My Memories



Welcome to the Family! from Lisa Jurrens on Vimeo.


I have been creating many different layouts and digital scrapbook pages to preserve my families memories. My Memories sent me this video this morning to share with my followers on how to use the software and the digital kits. Many of the digital kits are free designs. And they are still offering the $10.00 off the software code STMMMS36408, which comes with another $10.00 worth of digital kits. Total of $20.00 with those two alone. And now that My Memories has created a new Facebook page you can get another $5.00 worth of digital kits.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My Memories pages

I couldn't wait to share this with everyone. My Memories is offering a $5.00 promo code to to those who like their new facebook page. Many of their kits are free and average is between $3.00 to $5.00 with zero shipping. If you haven't gotten their latest software this code will give you $10.00 off their newest software STMMMS36408. The software comes with an additional $10.00 worth of credit towards software. It is simple to use, and kits are interchangeable with other programs. I can mix digital embellishments from Daisy trail and My Memories to create truly unique layouts.




memories quick page, my Grandma and her mom when she was young.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

More digital scrapbooking pages

I was really excited yesterday when my new Craft Artist Professional Digital Software came in. I have waited a couple weeks for this upgrade. I had played with the free version for the past year. I enjoy interchanging fonts, layouts, embellishments from each program to come up with unique layouts.

I installed the program late last night so that I could work with it today. Well little did I know that my WONDERFUL laptop would crash today. I must have overworked something on it because it wont start up. My hard drive is fine but something else is in need of repair.

But I was able to back up all my photos and software on an external hard drive. I am now using my husbands old laptop with my hard drive.

When working with photographs and technology it is very important not to have everything in one area. Back up sources are really important, rather it be on an external hard drive, thumb drives, CD Rom disks, backing up is important. I prefer the archival cd rom disks that can be bought at any office supply store. I am not always great about backing up my data and was really worried that the few photos that I was able to scan while visiting my Aunt last week would have been lost.. Thankfully this data wasn't and I am able to get it all backed up now.

While the computer is backing up my wonderful photos, I brought up the Craft Artist Professional Software and made this page is less than 10 minutes. It was really simple to add these photos and embellishments together. The first one is of my Great Grandparents Raymond F. Durbin and Ula Mae(AKIN) Durbin. I hadn't seen many photos of them together before this last trip. The layouts are from Daisy trail, it is part of the Craft Artist and Serif software company.






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wayback wednesday blog hop



another wonderful blog hop, flash back to the 80's

Give a Hoot Wednesday Blog Hop


Give a Hoot Wednesday Blog Hop




I really enjoy blog hops. I get to meet so many wonderful bloggers. Drop by, join the fun. Leave a comment...

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Sunday, August 21, 2011

My Memories Digital Scrapbook Software Giveaway winner .

Thank you all for joining me in my first giveaway for My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software. Even though only one of you will win the software for free, all of my other wonderful readers will get a $10 Discount on the software using our promo code STMMMS36408. That is a fantastic deal for the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite! Using Random.org number 3 was drawn- Rebekah is the winner!!! Congrats Rebekah, please email me.



Blogger Rebekah said...

I follow on GFC and would like to use this software to make a wedding album; we have a collection of about 100 photos.

miryfaye at yahoo.com

August 13, 2011 4:02 PM
Delete

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Friday, August 19, 2011

More My Memories Digital scrapbook pages

Being a mom of 4, it gets a little interesting and busy around here. That is why I am loving the My Memories Digital Software. I really enjoy scrapbooking and don't always have the time or space to bring out all the cute scrapbooking tools. This morning I had a few moments to play with the software. Here are a few pages that I put together this morning.I still need to add Journals on them but that won't take all that long to add.





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You like me Friday blog hop

A Mommy's Sweet Blog Design Friday Blog Hop


Another wonderful blog hop, mingling and meeting other bloggers.

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Sharing Memories, Solving Mysteries

It's been a few days since I had the chance to post more on Genealogy.  I had the chance to visit my Aunt and Cousins that live in another State. My Aunt has all the photographs, letters, post cards, and documents that Grandma had saved through the years. My Aunt had found report cards from grade school that were Grandma's. They were in wonderful condition, and Great Grandma Ula's signature was still on the back. These were report cards from Grade 3rd to Grade 6th, at St. Mary's School.



There didn't seem to be enough time to go through all the wonderful photographs, read all the letters, and post cards that had been collected through the years. We had found letter from Nancy Ola Akin that she had wrote to my Grandma when she was just starting out as a young mom. I can hardly wait until the scanner is working and we can scan more than I was able to during my visit. They live 10 hours away, so getting there is a challenge at times. Here are a few boxes that we were going through.






At 1 AM as we were putting everything away I noticed an envelope from Bubbles- Edna. She has worked very hard on the family tree from the Durbin side and has shared with everyone the same information. Or we thought. We opened it and right away there was the Obituary and copies of old photographs of Fredrick Augustus Durbin. My Grandma's Grandfather who passed away when she was a couple months old. I had never seen nor was able to find much about Fredrick Augustus Durbin other than he was a Wire Carrier during the turn of the Century. And here was his obituary, photographs, more than I could have hoped to find. 

Fredrick A. Durbin Obituary. I will transcribed and add this later so that everyone can see his story. 




Photo of Fredrick A. Durbin, with Wife  Mae Augustas Williams Durbin, and son Fredrick R. Durbin. Scrapping these are going to be a lot of fun. Don't forget My Memory Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway ends on Saturday. I have been using My Memories this week for quick pages.





 

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Saturday, August 13, 2011

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway!!!!!- Closed


I am SO EXCITED to be hosting a giveaway for

I have used My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking in the past, long before I got my current laptop. Still use it occasionally on my Dinosaur desk top that runs Windows 2000, yes OLD! Between my desk top, Laptop, external hard drive, I have over 
43, 000 photos and still counting. 

Digital Cameras have added such value to our lives, the instant access to our memories. We can share them everywhere, Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, e-mail instantly with loved ones. Now even our cell phones carry these cute photo moments. What to do with all these photos? They are already in your computer and you don't have to spend hours cutting, cropping, finding the space to store the photos safe.  My Memories Digital Scrapbooking allows convenience, and has many designs to play with.

With My Memories Digital Scrapbooking you can make Invitations, Cards, Scrapbooking Pages, Announcements and SO MUCH more!








My Memories Digital Scrapbooking is giving one of my lucky readers their complete My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite for FREE!!!! This software retails for $40! The My Memories Suite Software can use on a PC or Mac. The software has design tools that help you build entire albums effortlessly using one of the many installed templates or designing your own pages from scratch.




Even though only one of you will win the software for free, all of my other wonderful readers will get a $10 Discount on the software using our promo code STMMMS36408. That is a fantastic deal for the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite!


Here's how to Enter


To Enter the Giveaway you MUST follow THIS blog via Google Friend Connect(GFC) on the right. Click the “blue follow” tab on the sidebar. Then share how many family photos you want to preserve. If you’re like me and have a digital camera- there probably are thousands of precious memories. :)


Want Extra Chances to Win?


Extra Entry 1: Visit My Memories then come back and share with me which digital paper pack was your favorite.


Extra Entry 2: Share this post on with your friends on Twitter, or Facebook, or Blog- share link here. (3 possible entries)


Extra Entry 3: Like Dawns Delights on Network Blogs


Extra Entry 4: Follow My Memories on Twitter.


Extra Entry 5: "Like" My Memories on Facebook




It's all in the Details!


~Leave a separate comment for each entry.


~Winner will be drawn August 20, 2011 @ 9:00pm MST

~ Winner will be drawn through Random.org.


~Winner will be announced on August 21, 2011


~If I can't reach you through your GFC email, check back here on Sunday, August 21, 2011. You'll have 72 hours to claim your prize.




My Memories is also offering my readers a $10 Discount on their purchase of My Memories Suite v2 Software! Copy and paste the promo code STMMMS36408 in the promotional code field on the shopping cart page. The software also comes with another $10 coupon for Downloads. That’s $20 in Discounts!!!

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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Versatile Blog Award


A Thank you to Terri from Mom's Point of View for awarding me "The Versatile Blogger Award." This is my first blog award and am honored to be selected. Thank you Terri!!!

I'm very happy that Terri has been a reader of my blog. I have enjoyed reading her blog, so please check her's out.

The rules after accepting the Versatile Blogger Award are:

1. Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs.

7 things about me:

1. I love my family and friends, they inspire me daily :)

2. I love all Crafts, but can't sew, knit, or crochet.

3. I love the sound of rain.

4. I created a porcelain doll that looks like my oldest son. Won at the NM State Fair 2 ribbons for the doll. Beginner's Doll Guild- 1st place and 2nd Place


5. I love Couponing and saving money.

6. I am a Cafemom.com Frugalista Moderator

7. I love traveling...



15 blogs I am passing this award to that really rock the web are:

1. KathyBs Little Corner

2. Kathy's Crafts

3. Karber's Blog

4. Randomosity

5. Tennessee Honey

6. The Queen of Swag

7. Under A Cherry Tree

8. Scraptastical Kreations

9. Blogging Biz Mom

10. Getting Cricky with K Andrews

11. A day in my Life

12. Dazzling Daily Deals

13. Granite in My Blood

14. Crazy for Paper Crafts

15. Mom's Online Garage Sale

These are only a few of the fabulous blogs that I follow, please check them and my following list out for more creative ladies.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Wednesday Blog Hop



It's Mid week, and another wonderful blog hop is going on. I love these because there are so many wonderful creative women out there that I am meeting. Momsonlinegaragesale.com is very interesting blog. Hope to see you around the hop.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Digital Family History Pages

My Grandma left behind many different photographs that she had collected through the years. It has been fun adding new digital enhancements to these memories. I wanted to share a couple that I have added to Daisy Trail scrapbooking. It is a software I use for my current photos, and was curious if older photo's would look just as great. They have so many different formats, so many different designs to work with. I decided on the Swirling Memories Template. Here are the 2 pages I have done and exported to JPG for sharing online. I can change the colors, the font, the layout, everything, and print out later on.



Joy, Ula, and Roy Akin- Children of Gip and Nancy Akin


Coffee Sisters, Nancy Coffee Akin, Mattie Coffee Randell, and Mattie Coffee.... Seeing women in pants, truly women before their time.


I used Serif - Software with Imagination and CraftArtist Platinum Edition - Get the ultimate creativity for all your print projects to create these layouts.

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Editing your Photographs.

It is so important to select the right photo editing software program to preserve your most treasured family memories. Rather you are editing photographs, old family videos on those VHS tapes. That are in the back of the closet waiting to be watched, memories of get together, reunions. With Serif you can work with a user friendly software to preserve those precious memories.

This past Christmas I got the Serif PhotoPlus X3, I was a little intimidated at first. I have tons of software programs, and get lost with complicated features.

Here is the first photograph I worked with, it wasn't of family but of a road I travel down. The trees along that road are amazing and there was a deep fog that morning. With the editing I removed the street light and brightened it. There is another not so good fuzzy photo on the same day. Taking photos of fog is a challenging task, so I was happy with the second picture. Especially after I had edited it through Serif.


Serif doesn't limited to photo editing software, but has a variety of software available for every need.

They offer WebPlus-Professional Quality Websites Made Easy, Movie Plus-High Definition Video editing, PagePlus-Professional Desktop Publishing, PhotoPlus-Powerful Digital Photo Editing, DrawPlus-powerful Drawing and Graphics, Webplue Essentials-the fun, fast & easy website builder, and many more to meet your everyday need. You could build a family sharing website, share documents from other family far away. Design those amazing family reunion invitations. The creativity is limitless.

I am sharing the Youtube.com video from Serif, I am really glad that my family thought of this wonderful gift for me last Christmas.















image: PagePlus X5

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Digital storage

There are many different sites to store your downloaded photos safety, but the one I have been doing business with since 2002, when I got my first digital camera, has been Snapfish.com by HP I absolutely am so happy with the customer service and with the quality of photos. Sure I have tried other new photo places, only to be disappointed, feel left down and totally unsatisfied with the quality of my photos. I always come back to Snapfish because their prices are great and their customer service reflects their dedication to their customers. 


I was really excited to get their newest updated specials for customers and wanted to share with everyone their latest offer. Summer is coming to a close, family reunion photos need to be printed, perfect time for getting all these lovely memories organized. 










Snapfish.com


Free Shipping on $20+ Code: SUMMERFS20 8/1 -8/31

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Hellman's Sandwich Contest


Aunt Theresa, Grandma, AJ, and I Christmas 2002


Grandma, Cali, and I sitting at the table in 1983

My Grandma loved making sandwiches for us all the time. It was a quick meal, and living in the Hot Southwest a blessing not to heat up the house cooking a meal. Sandwich making is still a tradition for us, and our family loves dressings on our sandwiches. No matter what type of sandwich, we always have a dressing on our sandwich. One of our favorites is Hellmann's Dressing.

Recently as a Mom's Select Member I was contacted to help announce that Chef Bobby Flay has teamed up with Hellmann's to encourage sandwich lovers everywhere to share their favorite sandwiches. With the Hellmann's build your perfect Sandwich Sweepstakes, you can enter to win a $5000.00 Grocery Gift Card. Contest ends on August 15, 2011.


You can enter in their contest on Hellmann's Facebook page, 


"Disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win a Hellmann's® prize package in exchange for this post. No monetary exchange took place."

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Friday, August 5, 2011

101 Brick Wall Busters Part 2


Grandma Ola, Aunt Lovella, and AJ at Aunt Lovella's home in Corona, NM


This was a common sight when visiting my Aunt Lovella. Many a day we sat around this table sharing photos, stories, documents. I was always amazed by all the documents she had. She had dedicated all her life in being the Family Historian, listening to stories, gathering documents and keeping photographs. 

Nancy Ola and Gip Akin with their two eldest children Joy and Roy Akin



Returning to the Brick Wall Busters, the next three steps will really help you. 

4. Identify your Sources, make a list of sources that you could find the information you need. Not only is family a great source for records, especially if family was born prior to record keeping, but Churches are wonderful places to search. Long before states started collecting data and information, Churches were the record keepers of births and deaths. Local Newspapers, censuses, naturalization papers, are great places to look. The Family History Library Catalog is a wonderful tool.
5. When you cant find the information needed online, and there are lots of records still being digitized. Expand your search, try different spellings of your ancestors names. On one census my Great Grandma was listed as Carla, instead of Ula. The location, parents, siblings all matched except her name. On the same census report her Mom was listed as Old N. Akin instead of Nancy Ola. Names got reversed, comparing with other information on these reports will help confirm the lineage. 

6. Research those who lived and were part of your family. Many multiple families lived together during those times and may have served as witnesses to their lives. Land deeds, tax records, the paper trails in communities can also help verify family members. 




Maggie Coffee Randell sister to Nancy Ola Akin






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