Organization Update

So I have been working hard(ish) on my files! I have one drawer emptied out, not the smallish drawers either, a very long filing cabinet. What I ended up doing was scanning the obituaries and miscellaneous stuff and filing them by family group.

But I put the internet stuff into folders by site. I already did the Holland Sentinel archives lookups and now I am starting on the GenLias. I have a LOT of dutch ancestors (and their families) so this file is kind of full. (The largest file is actually from a site called Digital Resources of the Netherlands but now I am wondering if I can just use GenLias instead.) Right now I am questioning the dates that are listed since they are labeled Registered. I wonder if the date is actually the event date or the day the event was recorded. Since I haven't been able to find the answer, I am plowing forward with inputting this information into my Bento file and linking to each person.

I do consider the information a primary source since it was recorded at the time of the event. Although I am bothered that the information I am looking at isn't a scanned image but transcribed which does leave room for error. Since I will probably never be able to actually see the documents, I will just have to work with what I have available!

Update

So I was listening to the Genealogy Guys and George mentioned that his New Years resolution was to organize his paper files. Which he did. Now I have been working on organizing computer stuff into Bento but my paper files are so not well organized. Or I should say, they are in folders but I really do not have any idea what I have. So I not only need to reorganize the papers so that I know what I have, I also need to scan and update my Bento file so that they are linked to each person. So I decide to start redoing my files. I have been pulling all the files apart and adding to Bento. I did find I have a lot of stuff I printed off the internet so that means I need to go back and digitally link to my computer rather than all the paper. Serious amount of work.

But I did add some obituaries to my files and this is one of the ones I found. This is the woman in the picture from the last posting I did!

Willemke Meulenbelt Brand 1863-1947

Willemke Meulenbelt was born February 2, 1863 in Aduard, Groningen, Netherlands. She married Otto Brand Dec 31, 1890. They had two children, Gijsberdina & Jan, before they immigrated to America aboard the Dubbeldam, April 19, 1894. They had two additional kids, Otto & Catherine after arriving in Michigan.

The story I heard from my mother about Willemke is that she pressured her husband into coming to America. Her family had already come across and she really wanted to go also. Otto never really adjusted to life here and didn't even learn English. Interesting, they died 11 days apart. They are both buried in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland Michigan.

Halloween pasts

Okay - time for another challenge from Genea-Musings. The question is what was your most memorable Halloween.

I don't think we did up Halloweens much in our family. I do remember going trick or treating around my Grandmothers trailer park and I have pictures of me dressed up etc. These days I do enjoy going to my kids school and seeing all the kids dressed up and having fun. But the most memorable probably is still one from high school. A few of us were studying. (I think we had the ACT test coming up). And we decided to put our shortest friend (Martha) into a mask and drive around to people we knew and send her up to the house on her knees to see if they would give her candy. It was quite funny to see my friend doing this! Most people had no idea. I think one person caught on because her nails were always so long which isn't normal for a grade schooler.

The pumpkins are my brothers creation!

Smokey 1993-2009

We received Smokey in the Fall of 1994 from my brother & sister-in-law. She wasn't a kitten when we received her so we were not sure of her exact birthday. But she was truly a wonderful cat. I do not remember her ever getting into something she wasn't suppose to, leaving the house without us or biting. She didn't enjoy the children when they were younger and pulled her tail but in recent years she grew to love them also. Her favorite spot was lying on our waterbed. She always purred when you pet her. She use to "bite" Eric's hair. (I kind of forgot about that until just now!)

I will miss her laying against my legs at night and her soft thick fur. I will miss the welcoming look on her face and her moving to greet me. I will just really miss her.

Rest in Peace, Smokey

Who do you know?

The new Genea-Musings challenge is laid out below:
1) Choose a set of Great-grandparents:
I choose Berend Groenhof (1881-1967) & Ymkje Steigenga (1883-1938)
2) Create a descendent list using iFamily for Leopard
3) List the number of descendants, living or dead:
**Children - 4 (3 dead, 1 living)
**Grandchildren - 19 (1 dead, 18 living)
**Great-Grandchildren - 56 (all living)
**Great-Great-Grandchildren - 79 (all living)
**Great-Great-Great-Grandchildren - 1 (living)
4) How many have I met?
I met 3 of the 4 children & 8 or 9 of the Grandchildren. As the generations go down, I probably have met fewer since I only see them at the annual family reunion. I actually gained a lot of family information at the last reunion I attended. I brought my computer instead of a print off and everyone really seemed to enjoy looking at the information I had collected.

(I couldn't get my image to load - I will try to add later!)

Picture postings

I scanned the pictures from my mother's heritage album and uploaded them to the internet. But now I realize that I should post information about the people in the pictures because my cousins don't know much, if anything, about them. So I will be putting information on the blog with the picture in question.

The picture here is of my Grandparents. I just really like this picture - they are so young! But I will post information about them individually at a future date!