Blog | California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: A Lifetime of Postcards

by Chris Pattillo (4/22/2020)

Chris Pattillo is collecting “Quarantine Quests,” stories of genealogical projects and discoveries made by our members while sheltering at home due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This story was shared by CGS Board Member Arlene Miles.

Jamaica is one of the places in Long Island, New York that
Arlene Miles lived

I telephoned Arlene Miles, chair of the CGS Library Committee, a few days ago with a question about the library. While chatting I learned about Arlene’s Quarantine Quest project. After thinking about it for three or four years Arlene has now begun to scan her collection of postcards, partly because she now has extra time to do so.

The collection was started by her husband Ted – a regular visitor to the CGS Library. In his youth Ted had a vision problem that made it difficult for him to take photographs so his mother agreed to let Ted buy postcards of the places he visited and things he saw. Before he and Arlene married in 1984 Ted had already compiled a sizeable collection of postcards that reflect his life and his personal interests in trains, historic homes, streetcars, sailing ships, lighthouses and more.

Ted Miles’s collection includes many historic buildings such as
the Wading River Congregational Church on Long Island, New York,
where he and Arlene were married

After Arlene and Ted were married the two of them continued the tradition and the collection has continued to grow. Now their two collections tell the story of their lives in postcards. Arlene has postcards from the schools she attended, from St. Francis de Sales Church where she was confirmed, and from St. John’s Church in Riverhead, New York, where she and Ted were married. They have post cards from their vacations and cards from every place they have ever lived. Arlene is considering starting a blog where she could use her postcards to illustrate her family history – “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Arlene considered several scanner models before deciding on the Brother DS-720D, a small, compact unit that sells for $129 (she found one on sale for $109 at Office Max). “It is easy to use, will scan one or both sides, does full-color scanning and is self-feeding,” she says. She estimates that she can scan about 400 postcards in two hours. Images can be saved as either a PDF or JPG file.

The scanner comes with software that helps you organize, label and add information for each card. Arlene and Ted are maintaining the same organizational system that they created for the original cards – so they are grouped by subject matter. After the cards have been scanned Arlene uses Picasasoftware to crop, straighten, adjust the brightness, and make whatever adjustments are needed.

St John’s Church in Riverhead, Long Island, New York

I asked Arlene, “How many have you finished scanning?” and was impressed when she said she had scanned about 1,600 postcards. But then I asked “How many cards do you have in your collection?” and I was truly speechless when I heard her answer. Arlene estimates they have 60,000 to 80,000 postcards in their combined collection! Hopefully the quarantine will notlast long enough for the project to be finished. It seems Arlene is making good use of her at-home time while staying healthy.

The Miles collection includes postcards from 42 towns in
Long Island, New York

Online Genealogy: Week of April 19-26

by Jennifer Dix (4/19/2020)

Each week we will share news of upcoming online genealogy events. Most of them are free. Check our previous post “Genealogy Learning in theTime of Coronavirus” for a list of and links to free archived classes you can find online at Ancestry, FamilySearch, RootsTech, and more.

Legacy Family Tree continues unlocking new webinars every day this month. This week:

April 20 – Combining DNA and Traditional Research – In-Depth Case Studies by Michelle Leonard

April 21 – Documenting Native American Families in 19th and 20th Century Records by Angela Walton-Raji

April 22 – Spreadsheets 101 – Excel-lence in Genealogy by Mary Kircher Roddy

April 23 – Polled! Finding your Ancestors in New South Wales Colonial Muster and Census Returns by Carol Baxter

April 24 – Ten Brick Wall Tips for Beginners by Marian Pierre-Louis

April 25 – Using Snag-It to Annotate a Screenshot by Cari Taplin

April 26 – The Five-story Fall: Correlating Indirect and Direct Evidence to Extend the Pedigree by Debra Mieszala

The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society hosts 3 webinars this week:

April 20 – Identifying and Examining DNA Outliers by Blaine Bettinger
April 21 – Fair Work: Labor Unions and Your Ancestor by Jennifer Baldwin
April 24 – Uncle Andrew was a Stamp Deputy for the Federal Government by J. Mark Lowe

FamilySearch hosts a daylong “English Research Seminar“ in commemoration of St. George’s Day, Thursday, April 23! Topics include:

A Researcher’s View of Old English Life
England Non-Conformist Church Records
I Give and Bequeath: English Probate Records
Introduction to English Heraldry

Your DNA Guide offers the free webinar “Understanding MyHeritage DNA” twice this week, on April 21 and April 23.

Conference Keeper keeps an up-to-date calendar of genealogy events from all over. Check their site for a list that includes many of the events mentioned above, plus some other gems that might be overlooked.

Don’t forget to check the websites of your local genealogy and historical societies!

Quarantine Quests: Writing Leads To New Discoveries

by Chris Pattillo (4/17/2020)

Possibly the footstone at Hiram Gaines’s grave

One of the inadvertent benefits of writing one’s family history is that sometimes the process leads to new discoveries. My current genealogical focus, during the CV-19 shutdown, is Hiram W. Gaines, a third-great-grandfather on my paternal line. I previously shared my story of how I was able to confirm the name of his father – that was the inspiration for this Quarantine Quests series.

I had been waiting to write Hiram’s biography for my family history blog until I could include the names of his parents. Since I now feel confident that I have that figured out, thanks to Ancestry’s ThruLines, I decided to write Hiram’s bio. That is what I’ve been working on for the last few days.

My process for writing an individual biography, once I have substantially completed researching that person, has two parts. I use the list of facts and the timeline features in my RootsMagic genealogy database to compose the narrative. Once that is complete I look through my source documents and select material to illustrate the post. Sometimes, particularly for more distant ancestors, I turn to Google to help embellish the story. After all, I want my siblings and cousins to read what I write so I try to make it as appealing as possible. For example, the list of possessions that were recorded in Hiram’s probate packet included a gig wheel, an inkstand and whip, and a flaxwheel and reel. I entered each of these in the Google search box and easily found images of all three to augment my story.

This image came up in Google when I entered Gig Wheel

I finished the text for Hiram’s bio yesterday afternoon. After dinner I was looking through the documentation I have for Hiram which includes a series of photos I took in 2017 of his original probate papers. Yes, the archive I visited in Abbeville, South Carolina allowed me to look for, handle, and make copies of Hiram’s material as well as the probate packets of several other Gaines relations.

While trying to decide which page of the probate packet to use as an illustration, a line item popped out at me and momentarily took my breath away. It simply read, “Monticello – .50”. Yes, this was a reference to theMonticello – the home of President Thomas Jefferson. Three years ago, I reviewed each item in his probate packet including this list of expenses and gave no thought to that specific entry; but recently I have done a lot more research on my Gaines line, and in doing so I learned that Humphrey Gaines was a carpenter at Monticello. Humphrey was Hiram’s uncle. Using good ol’ Google I found this website https://www.monticello.org/slavery/the-plantation/free-workers/that lists Humphrey and two of his brothers as workmen who were employed at Monticello.

This is a page from Hiram’s probate packet
showing the reference to Monticello

I doubt that there is any way of ever learning exactly what services or materials my third great grandfather sold to Monticello but I believe this original record shows that there was a connection and that pleases me. Had I not endeavored to write a biography of this ancestor I would never have known this, but I did and now I do.

Let me know if you have a Quarantine Quests story. I’d like to hear from you. I will do the writing or edit what you write if you prefer. You can contact me at [email protected]