It's Official!

Earlier this month, I made a decision.  When I retire in 2033, I would like to work part time as a Professional Genealogist.  I have been watching webinars like crazy and some of them were about creating education plans for both yourself and a society that you are a leader of. 

So I started a new doc on my iPad and just starting brainstorming a Genealogy Educational Plan for myself.  Here is what I came up with:

Genealogy Educational Plan

Goals

To become a certified genealogist 

To become a professional genealogist

Conferences 

To attend at least one National, State, or Regional Conference annually

Institutes 

To attend a genealogy institute at least every other year

Memberships

To be a member of the following local societies: NCGS, WNYGS

To be a member of the following state societies: PGSNYS

To be a member of NGS

To become a member of APG & NYG&B

Education

To listen all new genealogy podcasts as they are published

To watch at least 10 webinars a month

To read at least one genealogy book a month

To attend at least 5 local presentations a year

To read Periodicals

Writing

To write at least 1 newsletter article for NCGS each year

To write weekly blog posts for NCGS

Speaking

Give genealogical presentations to at least 3 different societies/groups/libraries each year

Mentor

Obtain a mentor 

Offer to be a mentor?

Study Groups

To join the ProGen Study Group

To join the Mastering Genealogical Proof Study Group (request sent 4/9/19)

To join the NGSQ Study Group

Books

To build up my reference library

Certificates

NGS American

Brand Myself

To create a website

Create a Resume

ProBono Genealogy Clients

I have already asked Jen, Geoff, and Allyson and they all said yes, I could use them as practice clients


So, to start checking off some of those goals, here is what I have done in the past few weeks:

I booked a hotel for FGS but I haven't yet registered for the conference.  I believe that I will after I talk to Sunny this weekend.  So that will be my one National Conference for the year.

Last month I registered for a GRIP class (Mastering Genealogical Documentation with Dr. Thomas W. Jones) so my attend a genealogy institute at least every other year will be taken care of.

I joined/renewed memberships to the following societies: NCGS, WNYGS, PGSNYS, NGS, and NYG&B.  I'd like to add joining DAR and Mayflower to the list.

For education, I am listening to the podcasts and watching webinars all of the time.  I did some new searching and found some podcasts that I wasn't familiar with so I have added those to my subscriptions.  I have really enjoyed listening to Research Like a Pro and very much enjoyed the episodes where they talked about creating a Locality Guide.  I would like to do this for both myself and NCGS as I learn more about the library and the sources that we have for Niagara County.  In my head, I see a binder with various tabs, but on the podcast they suggested a google doc so that you can click on links to take you to websites.  I'm not sure which I will end up with or maybe a version of both.

I read the book The Stranger in My Genes by Bill Griffeth that Dawn loaned to me.  It was a quick read and gave me some insight into what people may feel when they learn that one of their parents is not their parent.

I wrote an article for the upcoming NCGS newsletter that is themed around adoption.  I talked about watching the TV shows Long Lost Family and Relative Race.  So that will be my one article for 2019 but I won't limit myself to one article if I can think of more for the future.

I am current with my blog posts for NCGS and already have submitted ones into next month.

I gave a presentation yesterday at the Amherst Senior Center for their Genealogy Club.  The topic I spoke on was Death Records with my The D in B-M-D presentation.  Two weeks ago I did an ALE presentation at the Lockport Library and I have already given three presentations for NTLGC, so my minimum of three different societies/groups/libraries has already been fulfilled for 2019 and I haven't yet spoken for NCGS which I am scheduled for two presentations this year.  I will also be speaking at the FHC Fair in October.

I have not found a mentor yet or joined any study groups.

I bought many genealogy books to build up my reference library.  Some were new, some were used on Amazon, and some were from NCGS's book sale boxes.

I started the NGS American Studies course and am half way through the first class.

That's all for now!

Edmund Sheliga's 50-Year Member Pin

On April 6th, 2019, Grandpa Ed, a nurse, Chris and I headed to Adams Fire Company's Installation Dinner.  It was a special night as Grandpa was being awarded his 50-year membership pin.  The firemen pooled together the money to pay for a wheelchair transport and the nursing home cleaned him up, polished his hat, and sent a nurse free of charge to the special event.

He sincerely thanked me for bringing him and when it was time for him to be awarded, he stood up out of his wheelchair.  He was mostly well behaved except for one joke: John D. asked him how he was holding up.  He responded that he was holding his own as no one else would hold it for him!!!  Haha!

It was a great night.

Ruth Olive Whittaker

I went to work today, got sick, and promptly turned around to come home.  I have spent most of the day (when I'm not coughing) working on the Whittaker line and trying to make sure that all of the documents that I have uploaded on my Ancestry tree are duplicated on my FamilySearch tree.

One of the ancestors that I worked on was my 2nd great-aunt, Ruth Whittaker.  She died at the age of 20 on 19 Jun 1919. 

Ruth Whittaker

She seemed like such a sweet girl.  My grandmother, Carol Larkin, told me that Ruth was engaged to a young man named Wendell when she passed away.  She said that Wendell never married after that or if he did, it wasn't for a very long time afterwards.

Ruth and Wendell 1918

One of my favorite genealogy treasures is a letter that Ruth wrote to her Aunt Ellen (Whittaker) Webster in 1916.  What a wonderful insight into their lives at the time.







People mentioned in the letter:
Ellen (Whittaker) Webster
Inez Whittaker
Dorothy Whittaker
Ella (Webb) Whittaker (Mamma)
Alice (Whittaker) Baity
Leon Webster
John Whittaker
Ida Whittaker
Gilbert Webster
Edith and Hazel Webster (girls)
Beatrice Cady
Maude Baity
Marguerite McInroy

Whittaker Family Photo

Whittaker Family 1890

Standing in back (if arranged from eldest to youngest) is: Cassius, George, Frank, Charles, and John.  Sitting are Juliette, Ellen, Stella, Alice, and Barna Whittaker.


This past summer I attended the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  It was so excited to meet the many of the big names in genealogy.  One of them was Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective.  I paid a consultation fee and showed her this picture on my iPad.  I didn't give her any clues as to what my guesses were about the photo.  If everyone is placed from oldest to youngest, I have all of them named and my best guess is that the photo was taken @1888.


Here is what she said:
24 Aug 2018: Photo Consultation with Maureen Taylor the Photo Detective.  She said that the photo was taken @1890.  The girl in the middle with the neck choker is the youngest sister.  The puff sleeves on the shoulders help date the picture to 1890.  Barna is a very conservative/religious man with his under the chin beard.  These are their clothes (they did not belong to the photographer) and the women were dressed particularly nicely (especially Juliette's skirt sash and the detailed shoulder work).   These were purchased dresses (rather than homemade) that would have been colored in rust, red, dark blue, and garnet.  They were very dressed up for the occasion.  They were healthy.  She was curious to what the occasion might have been for them to have the photo taken.

Cindy Ribbeck, Maureen Taylor, Jeanette Sheliga

Edmund Sheliga

I've been asked to write a bio for my Grandpa Ed's 50th Year for the Adams Fire Company's Installation.  Here it goes:

Edmund C. Sheliga was born on October 21st, 1922 in Buffalo, NY.  He was the 2nd born to his parents of 4 children.  Life growing up wasn't always easy as his father abandoned the family and his older brother died in 1932 leaving Ed as the "Man of the House" at the age of 9.  Living through the Great Depression, it is easy to understand how he developed early on the trait of fixing things by repurposing items.

As a teenager he developed an interest in radios and became an amateur radio operator using only Morse Code.  He graduated from Burgard Vocational High School in 1940 and started a career as an apprentice pressman.  Shortly thereafter, he served 5 years in WWII, and was Honorably Discharged with the rank of Private.

He married his wife, Ruth, on August 2, 1952.  They were married for 54 years having three boys: Jeffrey, Carl, and Donald.  They started out their marriage living in Buffalo, moved to Tonawanda, and eventually settled in Wheatfield.

He worked as an electrician for Bell Aircraft, Sylvania, and Mennen Medical.  Many of the projects he worked on at Bell Aircraft and Sylvania were government contracts and classified.  You can try asking him about them, but he can't tell you.

He joined Delaware Hose Fire Company around 1958 and Adams Fire Company in 1969.

Ed and Jeanette after the Shawnee Parade June 2013

Hello Blog. I've missed you...

I've started to blog again on behalf of NCGS featuring items in our genealogy library.  You can link to it here: https://niagaracountygenealogy.wordpress.com/  It's help to encourage me to get back to blogging on my own genealogy and presentations that I give.

Yesterday I presented for NTLGC on RootsTech2019.  I taught about the new features that Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch announced while at RootsTech.  Many of those features are DNA based, but the new MyTreeTags from Ancestry is not.  I can't believe how many of my direct ancestors that I haven't yet obtained death certificates for.

MyTreeTags is helping me identify items like that so that I may complete the vital records on at least my direct ancestors.  If I ever want to join a descendancy society like Mayflower or DAR, I'm going to need to have all my ducks in a row (as Grandpa Ed always says).

I visited Grandpa Ed yesterday in the Nursing Home.  He's 96 now and at this year's Adams Fire Co. Installation Dinner, he will be honored as a 50-year member.  I hope we can safely get him there for the dinner.

I've spent all day working on my genealogy, but I've been all over the place.  It's like I can't focus on one thing.  At first, I was trying to get down the number of shakey leaves that I had.  It's a pretty vicious cycle as I started with 5,809 and after hours of work, I ended up with 6,060!!  Each time I add a new ancestor, a bunch more hints pop up.  Especially the census records that add parents and siblings.  I actually started ignoring records of spouses that were nowhere near my direct line.  It's hard to do, though, as I know that they were most like part of my ancestor's FAN club and could be in pictures, etc.

I spent quite a long time going through my old Reunion Tree and copy/pasting the notes that I took from interviews with various people and uploading them as stories to my FamilySearch tree.  I'd like to go back and add pictures to some of them too.

Later I worked on uploading the church records that I got from the FHC this past Tuesday on the GLEISNER family and making sure that I was citing where I got them and uploaded them to both Ancestry and FamilySearch.  It is soooo slow taking the time to properly document and transcribe each record.

My Dad just got back from vacation in Jamaica.  He sent me a picture that I couldn't help but see a resemblance to Grandpa Ed.  I couldn't stop laughing!!