Genealogy breakthrough

I had another good break in my genealogy work last night while my husband was at a Linux Users Group meeting. I had found someone with my grandfather’s name marrying a certain person in 1949. My grandmother passed away when my dad was young, and he had a step-mom that I barely knew. We called her “Chole,” and this person’s name was Soledad Romero. I figured it was fairly close, the year of the marriage is when my dad was about 6, which seemed to add up. I wasn’t sure though, so I downloaded this person, the event, and the other linked items to my “Research” database. There they waited until someone sent me an email thanking me for submitting a grave-locator link to their database. She said that the link was now up on their listing for Los Angeles County CA and gave me a link to their listing. So I clicked it, and there was the link I submitted, and I clicked that too. I had found the other day that the search wouldn’t bring up every person of a given surname, and sometimes you have to add a few letters of the first name to make it work. Now, to test this, I just casually typed in my maiden name to see what it would come up with. Some of the names are common names, and I’m not quite sure why I decided to click on who I did, but I clicked on a Soledad Aceves... that’s when I thought, “hey, wait a minute...” I opened up my research database, and the date of death reported by Rose Hills as the person buried next to my grandfather is the same date of death provided by the International Genealogical Index for the person who supposedly married him in 1949. I then looked her up in the social security death index, which listed her last residence in St. George Utah, which I knew to be true of my dad’s step-mom. So with Soledad Romero and Soledad Aceves having the same death date, her being buried next to my grandfather, and all the dates adding up properly, I thought that was confirmation enough and went ahead and added her and her family to my “live” database. Then following leads from there, I dug a little more and found more members of that family. By the end of the night (about 2 hours work or so), I had my dad’s step-mom, three of her siblings, her parents, and all four grandparents. She and her parents have birth and death dates, as do all of the siblings. There are also marriage dates for her and her parents. Of course, this doesn't replace the need for independent confirmation, such as marriage certificates, birth certificates and death certificates, but it does at least let me know who I'm looking for. Current stats: Individuals ---------------------------- Number of individuals: 131 Males: 66 Females: 65 Individuals with incomplete names: 1 Individuals missing birth dates: 71 Disconnected individuals: 5 (Mom’s cousins, I haven’t made all of the links between them) Family Information ---------------------------- Number of families: 34 Unique surnames: 23 I think that part of the reason why I had many more hits online with her than with other branches of my family is because she converted to LDS in her later years, and may have submitted this information to the Genealogical branch herself. There is a batch number and sheet number as source to some of the information, referencing something member-submitted that I can request a copy of. I’m adding that to my genealogy wishlist for in a paycheck or two. Some other items I want to request: grandfather’s death certificate in hopes of getting his parent’s names (got them online from the LDS search, but there was no source information- I want some kind of confirmation), and Soledad’s social security application which may have more information on their marriage,

Funny spam

I like this one! It made me giggle! In my "your PayPal billing information are out of date (sic)" email, it tells me: To safely and securely access the PayPal website or your account, open a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the PayPal URL (http://update-service-intl.de/paypal.com/us/eu/paypal-server-security/cgi-bin-sql/update-service/account/index.html) to be sure you are on the real PayPal site. I love it!

Uncle's Anniversary

I forgot to mention, on Saturday we celebrated my uncle Jorge's 50th wedding anniversary. We didn't make it to the ceremony because I had to work (it was the last day of a class I was teaching) but we went to the reception. Everything was very nice, my aunt looked gorgeous. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the two of them with my camera. There were disposable cameras on each of the tables, so I took pictures of them and their kids and such with the disposable, and only pictures that wouldn't interest them as much on my camera, like my husband with baby Angel. The baby really likes him!

I'll post those later, right now I'm (as I type) uploading pictures from the conference I went to the first week of this month. I'm just a little behind in the picture area. (Partly because my computer doesn't auto-magically bring up the camera as a hard drive, so I make my husband get them for me. =P)

I will post pictures later though, I promise.

We spent the night at my mom's house and drove back up in the morning on Sunday. We picked up the car, which we still owe money for. It's gorgeous too! It's shiny, much prettier than I've ever had it! (I bought it used from a neighbor who bought it new, I think.) We've rejoined the world of the two-car households! Which is why I'm here blogging and uploading pictures instead of at work waiting for it to be time to clock in.

So, for now, go to my Flickr pictures site for National Aquatic Conference 2006 pictures. I'll let you know when the other ones are up.

Things I'd Like to Invent, Part 3

I thought of another one while I was at the conference. It had to do with business cards, but Charles says I shouldn't post it yet. =X

National Aquatic Management School & Conference 2006

So, I had told you about the conference that was going to go to, you know, the one I got a scholarship for and then my work graciously picked up most of the rest (they paid the rest of registration and my airfare, I paid hotel and food). I just forgot to mention it again when I was leaving. Silly me! But I got back last night, and it was good! I did have to learn how to ride the bus system of Austin, Texas (which is pretty awesome, btw, one dollar day passes) because we didn't have enough money for a rental car or taxis. That's okay, though, it was kind of fun. In about an hour and a half each, I learned the following: Aquatic Management School Interviewing Techniques and Legalities / Labor Laws Employee Manuals and Basic Operations Achieving Staff Excellence: Preparing People to be Successful Achieving Staff Excellence: Motivating and Retaining Staff Staff In-Service Training On the Job Training Operational Planning Programming Special Events Programming Evaluations: Staff and Programs - How to Measure Success Risk Management 101 Handling and Dealing with the Under-Performing Employee Aquatic Conference Keynote: Men and Women, Can We Talk? Recreational Water Illness Outbreaks and Lessons Learned in the United States Splash to the Past- Aquatic History Renovate for Revenue The New Face of Automation for Aquatic Facilities Incident Command- Who's in Charge? Aquatic Facilities: Revenue Producers or Financial Sinkholes Amazing Facts: Why People Die in Guarded Pools Leadership Development Training for Part-Time Staff I missed out on underwater hockey, I had to choose between that and something more bookish! Met some very cool people too, including attendees from many different states and regions. Even the vendors were awesome. Wishlist:

• I want the new Laerdal head immobilizers. I got to play with them at their booth, I love them, I will push them to everyone I know, because they're THAT GOOD.
• I want Dr. Tom's Disappearing Dummies video.
• I want Kevin Johnston's video of a near-drowning at a birthday party. (Surveillance video used in court.)
• I want the Encyclopedia of Aquatic Codes and Standards. My boss has one, I want my own.

Lots of fun all around. The next one is in Atlanta, and I want to go. =)