Veteran's Day 2013

Until my father, my family, at least my direct line, has been pretty thin on veterans since 1865. Below is a photo of my Grandaddy Patterson. He turned 18 on D-Day. His WWII service took him to the exoctic local of New Jersey.

My other grandfather, who is technically my mother's step-father but the only grandfather I remember, also turned 18 on D-Day. I don't think he even made it out of the state during WWII although he was in the Army for a short time. I always envied people who had stories of their grandfathers' WWII service.

My father was a career Air Force officer and served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. He retired after 20 odd years of service. Recounting his service would take more of a book than a blog post.

My husband's family is a different story. His Papa Mark (photo below) served in the Navy during WWII on the USS Haas and USS Hilary P. Jones. He had some adventures and clearly enjoyed himself. I loved listening to his stories of his service every Christmas.

Not Quite Dead Yet

This blog isn't quite dead yet, not exactly. My more general musings and 'newsie' items are now being posted on my professional blog, J.P. Dondero Genealogy Blog. I'd like to get back to having time to post about my personal research but I spend most of my time working on other people's genealogy. If I do find some free time, personal research posts (including very geographic specific posts) will appear on this blog. Items with a larger audience appeal will be on blog.jpgenealogy.com.

Digital Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

Earlier this month Dick Eastman wrote an article about the Newberry Library's completion of the Digital Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. You can read that article here. One of the options offered to users of the Digital Atlas is downloading KMZ files for use with Google Earth.

Filing Friday

This week I've shared several items from my recent trip to Georgia. I always get questions, and even often lecture, on 'digital genealogy.' This recent trip has created a slew of digitized records but of all different types. Because of this I have once again updated by filing system ON MY LAPTOP. If you're new to digital genealogy and don't quite know how to handle all the digital files you're creating,

Tate Station

If you read Monday or Tuesday's posts, here's a photo of Tate Station for your enjoyment.

Tombstone Tuesday Returns! - Edward Patterson Tombstone

Ah, Edward. My 3rd great-grandfather. Thanks to his early death I actually got somewhere on my genealogy in the early days. He died, and then his wife died. Records galore!
But this post is about his tombstone.

Mapping Monday - Tate, GA

This is not the most exciting Mapping Monday image. It's provided mainly for reference for later posts. If you're new to Google Earth, the additions to this particular map image are a place marker for the tombstone of Edward Patterson and the addition of a photo of Tate Station (in Google Earth, if you zoom in, the icon of the camera would become a thumbnail of the actual picture). I did not take GPS readings while visiting Old Tate Cemetery (where Edward is buried) but instead just marked as close as possible, the spot where the tombstone is. This happened to work becasue the spot was recongnizable from a satellite image but in general, taking a GPS reading at a tombstone and recording the coordinates would be best.