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.

 

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

I am SO EXCITED to be hosting a giveaway for

        My Memories Digital Scrapbooking!!!!

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!!!

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.

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. 












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

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."

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

101 Brick Wall Busters

A few months back I took a wonderful course through Family Tree University, called 101 Brick Wall Busters. It is something that happens when researching our family. Records are lost, destroyed in fires, or never even existed. Record keeping wasn't as wide spread in the early days of our Nation, many areas never kept records until the past century, less in some areas.

In the age of Technology and instant information, it is shocking to many that there isn't a data base somewhere with every article of information on our ancestors. The LDS Church has done a wonderful job of gathering many records, but there are still gaps in the research.

In the course 101 Brick Wall Busters it discusses several ways to find this information or at least find information that can lead you in the right direction.
I will be touching on a few points each post.

1. You have to access the problem, what records do you have, what is it that you are trying to find out. Birthplace? Maybe the Date of Birth was left off or the common brick wall of a mothers lineage. For some reason the woman's line is always incomplete.

Ask family first, see if a relative ended up with a box of photographs, documents, letters between family, or land deeds. Recently while researching the death of my Grandma's little brother, I couldn't find any state records for 1929 of his death. My Great Grandma had given a trunk of paperwork, birth records, love letters between her and Great Grandpa to my Grandma's sister and now her Daughter has all the information. It was a real break through on proving his death and burial area. The photograph we believed was Grandma with her father and brother standing by a grave was not the grave of her brother, but her Grandfather who passed away in 1926.

2. Don't skip any steps, check all records here in the US before venturing overseas. If there are not State or County records, see if the papers of the time have any articles on your ancestors. I recently found a wonderful article written by the Senior Center that my Grandma was active in, honoring her crafts and involvement at the Center. County Fairs, Senior Centers, newspapers are a few places you can look for more information.

3. Create a time line of their life. Do you know when they lived, who else in your family was around during that time. My Aunt Lovella was my Grandma's Mother's youngest sister of seven children. I always referred to her as Aunt, when really she was my Great Great Aunt. Knowing the time line of the family helped when filling out the lineage chart. Other things to know is what sort of things were going on in the world during the time of their life. Was it during War time, there are a lot of War records that can help bridge the gaps.

 Gip and Nancy Akin, with their children.

Storing your Family Treasures

I have been very fortunate that my family has kept all the photos and different documents from our past relatives. My Grandma and her Aunt Lovella, who as 3 years older than my Grandma were the families record keepers. Our photos were kept in boxes in dark, dry closets which wasn't all that bad. I often wondered why these weren't on display. But actually their technique was what kept those memories safe from fading.

Great Aunt Lovella Akin and Ola Mae Durbin c. 1930's

To truly preserve your families precious moments locked in time, you have to keep them from bright light. Sitting in a closet does protect them, but I love sharing these beautiful photos with my kids. Some of the methods I have done is to scan many of them and share them digitally with family far away. This has given myself a copy of them and had the opportunity to share precious treasures with my family. You can scan these photos with just any scanner. I love my Kodak scanner, and have tried a Flip-pal, which is a portable scanner. Really hoping to receive that as a Christmas gift. then you can upload them into any software program you already have to edit if need be, I use Photoscape which is a free program.

Nancy Ola and Dora Coffee c. 1880's

You can add the digital copies to any photo printing company, I personally like Heritage Makers because you work with someone and they can help you scan it to the proper size, and you wont end up with a book full of fuzzy photos.

What I have done with the originals is use Archival Mist, you can get this at any hobby store, such as JoAnn's. Place them in an acid free scrapbook to help keep harmful light from fading them. Here is a video from youtube on how to use Archival Mist.

I'll post more on how to safely remove photos that were glued to scrapbooks pages and how to remove safely the photos from the scrapbooks of the 80's that used non archival acid free sticky glue. 

Scanning photographs

There are many different types of scanners available on the market, flatbed scanners, multifunction scanners, pan-digital scanner and now the flip pal. Of all the various scanners available and I do own a few the flip pal scanner offers the most. You just charge it and go. No cords, no computer, just your SD card. This is great for scrapbookers, artists, and Genealogists alike. No extra's to carry at crops, when in libraries scanning old documents, or when at family reunions. You can scan anything, photos, cookbooks, wall portraits, quilts, anything.