It's my blogiversary and I'll post if I want to ...

Peach cobbler, suitable for any celebration--or any day, in my opinion!

Hey, it's my blogiversary!  I've been lax about blogging in the last year or two, though I have been continuing to explore my family tree.  No big excuses, I just work more now than I did a couple of years ago (better for the budget, less so for research/writing time), and lately, I've had a tweaked neck (blame years of flute playing and my iPod touch).  

I find the more blogging I do, the less research I do.  So when I have had free time, it's been more about the research.  This year, one of my goals is to blog a little more (another: "desk-cavation").

(Note: You can blog without being an overachiever.  You still get the benefits of the occasional e-mail from a cousin and also the benefits that come from evaluating your research by writing about it.)

So what was I up to in 2012, genealogically speaking?  Here are some highlights:

• I attended all three days of Southern California Genealogical Society's 2012 Jamboree.  I met more bloggers and visited with others I previously met there or online.  I even saw Saturn (courtesy of a stargazing geneafriend) and chatted up Washington Post associate editor Steve Luxenberg.  His book about unraveling family secrets, Annie's Ghosts, is a compelling and moving read, and he was an interesting and entertaining speaker.  Info for this year's SCGS Jamboree (in June) is here.

At Jamboree, I met a Californian genealogist with ties to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, Denise Spurlock.  Go read her blog.  I'm a cousin to her Kilpatrick cousins.  Which makes us "almost-cousins," I think.  Yes, small world.  I also met genealogist Kim von Aspern-Parker, who has cousins from my Southwest Louisiana hometown, of all things.  Smaller world!  Go read her blog, too.

• I've gotten hooked on DNA.  I've done more research on my "mystery grandpa" Robert Hall's paper trail (promising but not definitive), but now I'm adding DNA to the toolbox.  Dad's Y-DNA has been in a Hall surname study for a few years now with no close matches, so I got myself a Family Finder test at Family Tree DNA and have been slooooowly putting together who might be related and how.

Since roughly 25% of my genes are from Grandpa Hall (unknown parents), I'm looking especially closely at anyone with a surname list with Hall and/or full of unfamiliar monikers.  This takes a lot of time and patience.  Thank you, Cajun and Acadian cousins, for helping me weed out Grandma (Elia Legere) Hall's ancestry!  Your surnames are easy to spot.  (Trying not to think about Acadian cousins who also have Hall or British Isles ancestry--one problem at a time!)

I got a 23 & Me test for Christmas, and I think I may ask Mom to test, then transfer her results back to FTDNA (for a fee) to help sort out which cousins belong to which side of my tree.  Plus we'll be "fishing in two ponds."  A bonus could be that we extend a few of her lines (the two Smith lines, please? I'm in no hurry to research them!).

• I met another new-to-me cousin in person, a "2nd-and-change" Guidry cousin I enjoyed lunching with, and made a few new "e-mail cousin" friends.  One posted a portrait I think solves a photo mystery (more to come), and another shared some good research on our Hollier and McBride ancestors (his web site is here).

• A Trahan cousin sent me a photo of my great-aunt "Philo," Philomene Stemmans (Stemmann) Weber.  It was the first time I've seen her, at least since I was maybe two or three--I may have met her once.  Thanks!  I'll share it here if they don't mind.

There's more, of course: loads of fun with the 1940 census, death notice and obituary finds on Google News Archive for my McCoys, FamilySearch finds for McCoys and McBrides (updated here) and others, Facebook groups, reading, stories scribbled down from Mom every other time we talk.  I hope to share a bit more with you this year and perhaps next year's wrap-up will then be shorter!

Happy blogiversary also to Thomas and fellow bloggers posting at Geneabloggers--you provide a lot of inspiration and food for thought even when I'm not blogging so much!

And thank you all for reading!

Text copyright © 2013 and photo copyright © 2011 Liz Hall Morgan, all rights reserved.

Original post URL: http://mybigfatfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/its-my-blogiversary-and-ill-post-if-i.html

This is the Face of Genealogy

In which I start off responding to a GeneaBlogger meme/call to action and wind up telling you why I heart genealogy ...

This is my dad, George Hall.  When I was a child, he told me stories of his own childhood during the Great Depression that made it all sound like a Great Adventure, despite being one of seven children with a father who wasn't exactly in the running for "Father of the Year," as I found out later.  My grandfather's refusal to speak about his past, and my amazement to find that my dad didn't know his own grandparents' names, are what set me off on my own adventures in genealogy more than 30 years ago.  I am sure his storytelling ability influenced both my interest in writing and in family history.

This is my mom, holding me, and standing next to my "Paw Paw" Stevenson.  When I wanted to find out more about my mysterious grandpa Robert Hall, my mom was the one who taught me the basics of genealogy and she's still the first person I call with new finds.  Off and on over the years, we found out more about Grandpa Hall, though there are still plenty of questions to answer.

For this GeneaBlogger meme, I thought I'd post photos of my parents and me, because the "Face of Genealogy" isn't just wonderful old ancestral portraits -- it's YOU, it's ME, it's whatever you want it to be.  It can be collecting lots of names and dates if that's what you like, and yes, it might be the stereotypical white-haired little old lady with glasses in a musty library (me someday, probably), but it can also be a kid interviewing grandparents about their lives, or a military history fan collecting records and artifacts about his or her ancestors' service.  It can be a family trip to walk in the steps of your ancestors in their hometowns, or it can also be virtual Google Earth tours of ancestral hometowns that you can save to DVD or e-mail to cousins.  There are many "faces" to this hobby, and it's not just about those long gone.

This is me, on my honeymoon in New Orleans, standing approximately where my Carrière ancestors lived in the 1720s.  For me, genealogy has been solving many little mysteries of who/when/where like a crossword puzzle addict, chasing my "mystery grandpa" through the records, collecting and identifying family photos, finding new cousins and making new friends, sharing with family, brushing up my college French, learning more about the history my ancestors lived through, and dreaming of visiting ancestral homelands in Acadia, the UK, Ireland, and Europe.  Perhaps most importantly, to me, it's preserving stories of my family and the lives they led for those to come.

I've looked up Dutch genealogy words, read about Cajun history, photographed cemeteries, learned new tech skills, joined a Hall DNA surname study, found family history gems in my dad's World War II personnel file, and delighted in visiting where my ancestors lived in one of my favorite cities, New Orleans (and that's just in the last couple of years).  It's a varied and fun and wonderful adventure, this hobby, and I invite you to find your own "face" of genealogy.

Text/photos copyright 2011 by Liz Hall Morgan, all rights reserved.

2010 through the rearview & a blogiversary

Tiramisu's the traditional 1st (wedding) anniversary dessert, right?  Divina Cucina, Montrose, CA, 2010.

Happy New Year & Happy Blogiversary to me!

Thought I'd check back in after taking time off during the holidays.  It's my second blogiversary, though I only have blogged with any regularity for the last year.  I'm still here, still doing genealogy, still mentally composing blog posts while driving (making the title apropos), washing dishes (often while listening to a genealogy podcast), or doing other non-genealogical pursuits.  But since my brain doesn't have Wi-Fi, I thought it might help if I got back to the keyboard.  So here are some memorable moments from the past year, (mostly) genealogically speaking:

• Receiving the inaugural Rose Blogger award from a researcher I admire, Lucie LeBlanc Consentino, in January, was a big highlight of my entire year, and wonderful encouragement for a fledgling blogger.  Other blogger-to-blogger awards were fun boosts & appreciated reminders that I am actually read and even occasionally pondered.  Cool!

Dad & me, college graduation, Sulphur, LA, 1989

• My dad's death later that month was certainly the most difficult part of the year, but honoring his life, military service and joie de vivre through my blog has been therapeutic.  I've been mostly private about expressing grief, but I'm proud to be his daughter and I hope that shows in what I have shared about him.  A quiet "thank you" to fellow geneabloggers who wrote about their own losses this year; in sharing your grief, you reminded me I wasn't alone.

• I met a "new" (to me) cousin, who found me due to a blog post about Pie Day in Scott, Louisiana. Andre lives not far from me here in Southern California.  We had a lovely brunch on the beach and have become fast Facebook friends.  I keep threatening to hook her on genealogy, and I need to follow up on that soon with a library visit.  We're 2nd cousins twice removed through the Légère family, which sounds distant, but we're not terribly far apart in age (OK, I'm older), know some of the same relatives and have similar food cravings, being fellow "Cajun expatriates" out here on the Left Coast.
 

"New" cousin Andre Arceneaux & me, Hermosa Beach, CA, 2010, wondering if the curly gene is Cajun...

 • I "met" a few other cousins this year, "met" being in quotes because I haven't yet met them in person.  My term for this is "e-mail cousins." :)  They include more cousins (Guidry, Trahan, Blanchard and others) through the Legeres (I "collect" & enjoy corresponding with descendants of my great-grandpa Constant Legere and other Louisiana Legeres; e-mail me at hallroots [at] sbcglobal [dot] net if that's you), a McBride cousin, and a few Pate cousins.  It's always fun to trade info and/or get acquainted by e-mail or through Facebook w/"new" cousins.  Or to reconnect with cousins you do know.  All you lurkers out there, I don't bite.  (Well, if you're going after the last boudin link, I can't make any promises.)  It was also nice to meet "e-mail cousin" Janice in person this year, my 2nd cousin through the Pate family, with whom I'd collaborated so much I felt I already knew her.

• I published slavery-related records, to warm thanks from bloggers searching for their enslaved ancestors, and to the sound of crickets from anyone not so thrilled that I actually admitted in print that some of my ancestors were slaveholders.  Really, though, if most of your ancestors were white Southerners in the U.S., you probably have at least one slaveholder in your tree.  (And Northern ancestors weren't immune.)  It can be awkward to write about, but by sharing research I've helped at least one person connect the dots to find the likely slaveholders of her ancestors (and therefore resources for finding records of those ancestors), so I think it's worth it.  If you don't feel comfortable writing about that particular skeleton in the family closet, consider contributing the info anonymously via the sites Afrigeneas or A Friend of Friends.

• By ordering a copy of Dad's official military personnel file, I uncovered some real gems, including his handwritten application letter to the Naval Aviation cadet program, high school transcript, a photo of him at age 21 (left), and info on his life for several years after World War II.  I've neglected posting this series lately; I'm being too much of a perfectionist about posting concurrent info or photos from his military career with it, I suppose.  I have info from a few sources and the timeline is a little fuzzy to me.  I've been wanting to clarify it by transcribing the DVD of Dad telling stories of his service, but I wasn't ready to watch footage of him for a while.  I'll probably get back to it soon.

• I attended one day of the SCGS Jamboree, the annual conference held by the Southern California Genealogical Society, and had so much fun I hope I can attend the entire weekend this year.  I enjoyed seminars, exhibits, and especially the people I met, including Elyse Doerflinger, Becky Wiseman, Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Thomas MacEntee, Amy Coffin, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Joan Miller, and several others.  I also took home some goodies I'm still exploring and want to write about.

With Becky Wiseman and Elyse Doerflinger at the 2010 SCGS Jamboree

 • Lagniappe:  Contributing vintage family photos for a cousin's cookbook memoir, which I'll blog about soon ... finally making Mom's peach cobbler from scratch (which came out pretty darn great, for someone who is more of a food assembler than a cook) ... visiting the original Forest Lawn for the first time in years ... celebrating our first wedding anniversary ... having fun on the Morgan siblings' (& impromptu Hall reunion) family vacation to DisneyWorld (until the E.R. detour, but thankfully my hubby is fine now) ... and getting cool genealogy Christmas gifts which I'll write about soon.  Hmm... that means I have several things already to write about (besides the backlog in my head and the ones begun in Blogger).  Better get crackin'.

Thank you all for reading and especially for commenting, "liking," and e-mailing!  Wishing us all a wonderful 2011 with piles of rubble where our brick walls used to be--
Liz

Photos/text copyright 2011 by Liz Hall Morgan, all rights reserved.

"What I did on my Treasure Chest Thursday": a Friday review

South Pasadena, Calif. Farmer's Market, 31 July 2008, from "Benjamin Page's Pasadena and Los Angeles by Benjamin Page," on Flickrphoto, used under Creative Commons license.

Treasured Afternoon
by Liz Hall Morgan

Farmer's market day
Pluots, peaches, plums, oh my!
Heirloom tomatoes

Such dazzling produce
Redyelloworangebluegreen
Drat! No camera!

Sandwiches gourmet
Tuneful French accordion
Al fresco delight

Craved-for gelato
Sicilian pistachios
What more can I say?

Photos in my mind
Hubby and his lovely sis
These are my treasures

Text copyright 2010 by Liz Hall Morgan, all rights reserved.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Remembrance of cobblers past

Proust had nothing on my mom's peach cobbler.  I may be 1700 miles away from home, but one bite of this recipe and she was with me. :)

Text/images copyright 2010 by Liz Hall Morgan.  All rights reserved.

It's Official: I'm "Ancestor Approved."

Thank you bunches to Linda of "Flipside" and Dionne of "Finding Josephine" for honoring me with the blogger badge "Ancestor Approved" for doing my ancestors proud.  Genealogy bloggers are a supportive bunch, and I do appreciate the encouragement. 

As a recipient, I am to list 10 things I've learned about my ancestors that have surprised, humbled or enlightened me, and to pass the award along to other bloggers whom I feel are doing their ancestors proud.

I was surprised that:

• I have so many French-Canadian ancestors (I grew up in Cajun Southwest Louisiana, so the Acadians were a given, but I wasn't aware of my Quebecois heritage until a few years ago).  They're turning out to be some of my most interesting ancestors, as they were among the first settlers of Mobile, Biloxi and New Orleans.  (Cousins: This is through Marie Octavie McBride Legere's mom's family line.)

• A couple of my colonial Mobile ancestors entered into a business arrangement with the ancestor of one of my good friends from high school -- a mere 280 years or so before we met! 

• I dated my now-husband for 10 years before finding that we're 7th cousins once removed.

• I'm still adding new nationalities to my tree.  I have Dutch ancestors through my Acadian lines (!) and a possibly-Swiss soldier ancestor who came to La. -- but no, I'm not adding any more adjectives to the blog title! (There's also Welsh and French-Canadian -- and Scots-Irish, if you want to get technical.)

I was enlightened and/or intrigued to find:

• I'm related to two U.S. vice presidents, Adlai Stevenson (VP to Cleveland) and Alben Barkley (VP to Truman), and also to the VP Adlai's grandson Adlai (the more famous one) who was Illinois governor and Ambassador to the U.N, all related through Mom's Stevenson lines.

• My "mystery grandpa," Robert Bunyan Hall, was apparently married a couple of times before he married my grandma, which may help explain why he preferred that his earlier life (including his parents' names) remain a mystery to his own family (or may not -- this is my biggest brick wall).

• I have a couple of musician ancestors (I have a music degree): My 5th-great-grandfather Jacques Leger arrived in Acadia in the late 1600s as a drummer in the French military, and my 6th-great-grandfather Claude Desbordes was choirmaster at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans in the mid-1700s.

I am humbled by:

• finding that some of my ancestors held slaves.  Not a surprising find, given most of my ancestors lived in the South, but certainly sobering when one reads the actual names of human beings considered "property" on censuses or wills.  I am still not sure how to reconcile this fact with nonetheless being proud of some of the same ancestors' achievements.  I think it must probably require holding two opposing ideas and/or emotions in one's heart and mind at the same time, though it must be even more difficult for those who descend from both slaveowner and enslaved ancestors.

• the fact that my Acadian ancestors and their descendants in Louisiana, the Cajuns, have maintained much of their culture for more than 250 years, despite being forced from their homes by the British beginning in 1755 and "scattered to the wind" along the U.S. East Coast, in England, France, and elsewhere.

• the fact that whenever I reach out past my own shyness to meet a "new" cousin in person or by e-mail, it is invariably a good experience (whether or not we have much in common besides family), and several have become good friends as well as cousins.

I'd like to pass along the "Ancestor Approved" award to the following bloggers doing their ancestors and/or fellow researchers proud: Anne at The French Genealogy Blog, Felicia at Echoes of My Nola Past, "Hummer" at Branching Out Through the Years, Sandra at I Never Knew My Father, Ruth of Bluebonnet Country Genealogy and Tess of NOLA Graveyard Rabbit.

Happy 101 and my Aunt Martha's birthday cards

Ruth of Genealogy is Ruthless without Me was kind enough to award me the "Happy 101" blogger badge in January (that's like 10 years ago in blogger time!).  I was away during my dad's illness, so I forgot about it at the time, but remembered again recently.

Recipients are supposed to list 10 things that make them happy, and pass along the award to others.  So here's 10 off the top of my head:

1. my hubby

2. my cats, especially furry genealogy assistant Roux who keeps me company on or by my desk, and (semi-) feral Ella, who likes it when I take a "petting break" outside

3. ice cream

4. lovely SoCal weather like today (upper 80s and sunny; if only it would stay at that temp)

5. discovering some new genealogy tidbit

6. meeting new cousins (via the Internet or in person) who share my genealogy addic-- um, interest :)

7. reading about the history behind the tree

8. Cajun food

9. having written -- or perhaps more accurately, having written and also edited a time or two

(I'm not sure who first said, "I hate writing; I love having written," but it's a good quote.)

10. comments on my blog!!!! (hint, hint!) :)

I'll pass this along to a few bloggers whose work makes me happy when I read it: "Make a Roux" (a CaliCajun like me, but who can actually cook! :) ), Dionne at Finding Josephine (compelling stories of chasing down her ancestry), Lisa at Adventures in Grave Hunting (fun celebrity graving and SoCal history), and Louisiana Genealogy Blog (whose author does a great job of keeping me up on Louisiana genealogy news).  I was looking for a newer blog (or new to me) to encourage and found one by 5th-graders in Quebec called "All Things Quebec."  Seeing kids blogging, especially about their history, makes me VERY happy!  Their teacher is Evelyn from a blog I already read, A Canadian Family.

Oh, and Aunt Martha's birthday cards of my post title?  They were always late, but knowing I still had something coming after my birthday made me happy, not unlike my late acknowledgement of this blog award. :)  Thanks for the encouragement, Ruth!

In which I am awarded the "Kreativ Blogger" badge ...

No, it's not an award for "Kreativ" spelling--as a sometime editor, I must point out that the badge was "kreated" by a Norwegian, thus the non-English spelling.

It is, however, a designation from a fellow Louisiana genealogy blogger, Jennifer Trahan of Jennifer's Genealogy Blog, because she likes my blog and has recommended it to her readers. Thanks for the encouragement, Jennifer. I do appreciate it.

The Kreativ Blogger badge comes with (often-modified) "rules," including:
1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

So--things about me you may (or may not!) find interesting:

1. I am a Southwest Louisiana native who has been a Cajun "expatriate" in Southern California for 20 years now. I regularly crave boudin, gumbo and my mom's peach cobbler.

2. I am a 10th-generation Louisianian, if you count my ancestors who colonized Mobile, New Orleans, and the Illinois Country, all part of French Louisiana before America even existed.

3. My bachelor's degree is in music (flute performance); I've also studied journalism and fiction writing.

4. My parents are from two very different lands: North Louisiana and South Louisiana. :)

5. Only about 1/4 of my ancestry is French; I have more British Isles ancestry, but because I grew up in Southwest Louisiana, I feel more Cajun than anything else.

6. I tend to name pets after food or musicians: Roux, Miles, Ella.

7. Despite identifying most with my Cajun ancestry, I don't cook very much or speak Cajun French (I do speak & read a little "standard" French), nor am I Catholic (which is sort of like being a Cajun "expatriate" even within Louisiana). I definitely have a Cajun stomach though--the Tony Chachere's is on the dinner table right next to the salt & pepper.

7a. Yes, I do feel slightly like an imposter because I don't cook much Cajun (yet). :) Hope that doesn't diminish my blogger cred. (See #2.)

I'm having a hard time finding blogs that haven't received KBs recently & that may be of interest to my readers. Therefore, I will pass along the Kreativ Blogger badge to a couple of less active (but interesting) Louisiana bloggers in the hopes that they will post again in the near future, and to a newer blogger with a very Southern voice that reminds me of home:

Louisiana Lineage Legacies - Karen's blog has not been active lately, but perhaps I can persuade her to post again. She's an African-American researcher with North La. roots.

New Orleans Ancestry - Jennifer is a busy graduate student, but I'm hoping she can fit a post in here & there--selfishly, because my New Orleans ancestors are a current passion of mine.

Last2cu - Newish blogger Ruth is in Arkansas and writes about cemeteries and related topics. It's not Louisiana, but she's a neighbor and definitely Southern! Check out her wonderfully-titled post "Tell Me About the Dash."