Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: If You Won ...

Tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun finds me in front of a fire in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, contemplating the question ...

1) If you won the grand prize in the Ancestry.com Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes of $20,000 for genealogy travel to places of your choice, where would you go, and what would you do?

2) Tell us of your dream genealogy trip using the prize money in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook.


Okay.. I can't justify some serious bling in the name of genealogy so I begin my second favorite internet activity ... shopping for bargin air fare to the U.K. Wait! I have twenty thousand smack-olas so why am I looking at flying coach? I'm not sure I can totally justify the cost of upgrade to Business Class but having the extra leg room on my flight from Chicago to London is much appreciated.


After enjoying a traditional first night in London meal at Cafe Uno near Carnaby Street, I head off to East Anglia and research on my Clarke family line. While I am there, I will enjoy time spent at Bury St Edmonds, the site of RAF Rattlesden Airfield.  Originally designated as a satellite for RAF Bury St. Edmunds during WWII, the airfield was assigned to the 3rd Bomb Wing which controlled most of the USAAF assigned airfields in Suffolk. In June 1943 it was decided that the airfield was suited for B-26 and finally the 447th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the Eighth Air Force. The crew that included my uncle Lee Bergeron was among the first of 447th B-17 Flying Fortresses that arrived at Rattlesden from America.


From East Anglia, I will head up to Lancashire and spent time researching my Hornby and Howard family lines. Then up to Rochdale for Jones family research before my U.K. research quest continues north looking for the elusive Armstrong family lines.


Back on American soil my traveling companion (Mom) and I make a road trip to Pennsylvania for research in Clarion and Luzerne counties. As long as we are in the neighborhood, we will certainly spend an afternoon at Space Farm and Zoo; founded by a descendant of Peter Space, the brother of the progenitor of my Space line, John.


This is truly a dream come true ... wait. What?? You mean this isn't really my moment in the sun and only a dream?


Really ... don't bother waking me up.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Chris!

Happy Birthday Christopher John. It has been a blessing and a joy to answer to you as Mom.

Copyright (c) 2010 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Wordless Wednesday

Copyright (c) 2010 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Sharing Memories: A Genealogy Journal Week #9 Birthday Parties

Lorine Massey at Olive Tree Genealogy has created a year-long Genealogy Journey in Genealogy Journal Writing. Having my grandmother's travel journals and a diary among my family papers and treasures, I can appreciate the different perspective someone will have years from now with a glimpse into my life in the early years of the "new millinieum" as opposed to my view of  "who would be interested"?


On the highlight reel of my life, birthday's rank high on the list of celebrations. During my childhood, the countdown to October 10th began somewhere around July 4th. By the time we were in the single digits, I could barely sleep at night. During this period of my life we called October 10, 11 and 12, Birthday Week. My birthday was the 10th, my father's on the 11th; not only was my maternal grandmother's birthday October 12th, but she and my grandfather were married on October 12th in 1922. My father's mother, Mildred Little Bergeron, was born on October 26, 1899, and his sister, Marian, was born on October 23rd.

The memory that immediately comes to mind when I recall childhood birthday memories is the one captured in the photograph above. Taken at our apartment on First Avenue in Antigo, Langlade, Wisconsin, are the three birthday cakes my mother use to make. On the far left is the birthday cake for my grandmother, Alma Polar Space. On the right, my father's birthday cake with his birthday gift wrapped in what was probably the beginning of the tradition of asking if the gift was 'plaid or plain'. My cake is in the middle ... how I looked forward to those wonderful doll cakes! I don't know if my mother, who is wonderfully creative, thought of this herself or discovered it in a magazine but the decorating is the result of her sense of color and design. As I got older, the dolls 'aged' as well. I recall a birthday party at my grandmother Bergeron's house with friends from Antigo's Sixth Ward School; the cake being a harbinger of the Barbie doll in a decorated cake dress Scarlett O'Hara only dreamed of.

I cannot imagine the time - and expense - of making and decorating three cakes, can you?

In the fifty plus years that have passed since this photo was taken, my life has been blessed with the addition of brother-in-laws, nieces and nephews as well as my being welcomed into the Scherwinski family. The addition of my beautiful daughter-in-law is a blessing that, like the three son's I gave birth to, cannot be measured in words.

Now, Birthday Week has been expanded from October - with the addition of two brother-in-law's sharing their October 11th birthday with my father and other family members who share our opal birth stone - to February Birthday Week's celebrations that includes my sister, Lisa, oldest son, Chris, nephew, Chad and enough other family members to cause a spike in the profits of the Hallmark card company.

This past October my Dad celebrated his 80th birthday. The celebration marked the first time in several years our entire family gathered together and while we blew out candles on a shared birthday cake, we all looked forward to the birthday tradition we've begun since the time of doll birthday cakes - the tradtional birthday pie.


Copyright (c) 2010 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Make A Calendar!

Live! From central Wisconsin! It's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (insert applause here).

After last week's SNGF step back and learn about our fellow genealogists and family historians, Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings takes us back to research with tonight's challenge:

1) Open your genealogy software or family tree program of choice and make yourself the highlighted person.

2) Find out how to create a Calendar to show birthdays and/or anniversaries of yourself and all of your ancestors (or all relatives, or all persons - your choice!). The "Help" button is your friend here!!! It can be done in all of the current software programs.

3) Create your calendar. Pretty it up if you want. Save it. Can you show us a page from your calendar  - say January 2010?

4) Which of your ancestors (or relatives or descendants - your choice!), if any, were born 30 January?

Have fun with this. How can you use this in the coming year?

No need for those round-nosed scissors and paste with this project nor do I have to worry about ending up with bits of paper clippings stuck on my fuzzy slippers.

This is a feature of my family tree program of choice, Family Tree Maker, that I make 'regular' use of; the current edition that is on my computer is Family Tree Maker 2009. Pictured above is the screen snapshot of my January 2010 calendar page.

What I am unfamiliar with is the calendar 'pretty up' feature. I have, however, used a background when creating family group sheets - usually the tree silhouette provided from the drop-down box but on occasion I have used one of my personal photographs. But back to the calendar.

I was a bit frustrated not being able to immediately scale the background to the calendar even using one of the provided backgrounds. I then used one of my personal photographs but was disappointed and frustrated when I spent too much time 'futzing' to get the background scaled to my liking. If I were to print out the calendar I would opt for the default, generic background and use one of my photographs and place it above the calendar page for the pretty factor.

I have two relatives listed on my calendar page as having been event dates that occurred on Jaunary 30th: George T[homas] Armagost, born 157 years ago and the marriage of Etienne LaFond and Marie Boucher who would have celebrated their 365th anniversary on 30 Jan (you have to love those French Canadians who knew how to record every event and store them in stone churches.)

The Armagost family married into my Space and Shankle family lines (my mothers paternal family); all from the Clarion County, PA, area. Etienne LaFond, born about 1615 in France, and Marie Boucher, born 21 Jan 1629 also in France, were married 30 Jan 1645 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Their daughter, Francoise, born 8 Jul 1658 in Trois Rivieries, Quebec, was my 7th great-grandmother. This is my father's paternal family line.

So how can I use this throughout the coming year? A number of years ago I gifted my parents with a relative/descendant and ancestor calendar using the calendar feature from FTM as a reference. I purchased a caledar that featured one week per page with large rectangle boxes for each day. This allowed me to fill in the dates with my choice of whom to include, the event date and how many years ago that event occurred. The first calendar included individuals and dates from both of my parents family lines. They enjoyed it so much that I would present them with an updated calendar every few years. A few years ago my father called me and asked if I would make a calendar for him with his family's information as he was disturbed to realize he could not remember the dates of his grandparents and other family members. Since that time I've made a calendar for each of my parents.

Thank you, Randy, for the gentle reminder that 2010 should be the year I update those calendars for my parents as I am blessed to be able to gift an updated one to them.


Copyright (c)2010  Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Maengun Neebageesis - Wolf Moon

Only one thing could pull me away from the warmth of a fire and the promise of an evening spent with a dog curled up next to me, cozy and warm, and send me outside - bundled up against the bitter cold: the chance to photograph Maengun Neebageesis, Wolf Moon.

The Farmers Almanac describes the Wolf Moon as "January - Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon."

Tonights moon will be the 14% wider and 30% brighter according to Spaceweather.com. Along with the added bonus of Mars cozied up next to the Wolf Moon, I decide that Jinny could keep my spot on the couch warm until I return.


Copyright (c) 2010 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski

Wordless Wednesday: Elsie Laura Space

Elsie Laura Space, daughter of Allen Zephaniah Space and Nancy Ann Stone. Photograph taken in 1910 while attending the school for the deaf, Clarion county, PA

Copyright (c) 2010 Cindy Bergeron Scherwinski