An elementary school paper, "corrected" by the teacher. Lovely, no? She is just one of the many who think they should get a raise every year just because they're teachers. Hmmm...perhaps a dictionary would be a better idea!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The state of education in America!
An elementary school paper, "corrected" by the teacher. Lovely, no? She is just one of the many who think they should get a raise every year just because they're teachers. Hmmm...perhaps a dictionary would be a better idea!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Genealogy frustration
I would like to make an open plea to all amateur genealogists out there....CITE YOUR SOURCES!! And if you don't have a source, don't enter the information in a tree. If your source is someone else's tree...it's not a valid source unless the tree has valid sources.
Ay-yi-yi I am at the end of my rope with frustrations regarding trees found on Ancestry.com, and, frankly, all over the internet. I am tracking my 7th great-grandparents, John and Eve Markley. I have proofs proving the line from me, all the way back to them, so I know that they are my relations. However, I cannot find any more accurate information past them, because the internet is literally littered with inaccurate trees, and stories, and all kinds of malarky that is clearly incorrect. Yet when the owners of these trees and sites have been informed of the errors, they refuse to believe it and leave the information out there to continue to be spread. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
I was having a running dialog with a cousin who found me through Ancestry.com, but when I informed her that the information she had regarding our 5th great-grandfather was incorrect, and I have the documentation from two sources to prove it, I never heard from her again. I can only guess that she still has those people in her tree and is going to continue to believe what she wants to believe, whether it is incorrect or not. It is frustrating and annoying and frankly, it makes me angry. Especially when people link themselves to my line, and I send them proof that they are not, in fact, part of the line, and they still refuse to correct it.
Any time I tell someone about my genealogy research, invariably I get some version of the question, "How far back can you go?" To me, I'm not interested in how far back I can go. I'm interested in proving each generation before I proceed to search for the next one. Which should be the basic tenet of genealogy research. There are plenty of books written about citing sources, and the importance of it. Lineal societies require source citations for every proof offered for the line. These things are important. Just because someone on Ancestry or the internet put names on a tree doesn't mean they're correct. Especially if the source of their information is someone else's tree! Sources, sources, sources. These include everything from birth, marriage and death certificates, obituaries, headstone engravings, census records, deeds, wills, land warrants and patents, but NOT someone else's tree. (Well, if the tree has been proven by the DAR or SAR or some other lineal society, then it would be acceptable proof.) But try to find the goods. The information is out there. If it's correctly researched and properly documented, then the trees stand the proof test. If not, they're just names on a branch.
That's my rant for today. I will continue to search for John and Eve Markley's origins, and some day I'll find them, in spite of all the erroneous information littering the internet and driving me batty!
Ay-yi-yi I am at the end of my rope with frustrations regarding trees found on Ancestry.com, and, frankly, all over the internet. I am tracking my 7th great-grandparents, John and Eve Markley. I have proofs proving the line from me, all the way back to them, so I know that they are my relations. However, I cannot find any more accurate information past them, because the internet is literally littered with inaccurate trees, and stories, and all kinds of malarky that is clearly incorrect. Yet when the owners of these trees and sites have been informed of the errors, they refuse to believe it and leave the information out there to continue to be spread. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
I was having a running dialog with a cousin who found me through Ancestry.com, but when I informed her that the information she had regarding our 5th great-grandfather was incorrect, and I have the documentation from two sources to prove it, I never heard from her again. I can only guess that she still has those people in her tree and is going to continue to believe what she wants to believe, whether it is incorrect or not. It is frustrating and annoying and frankly, it makes me angry. Especially when people link themselves to my line, and I send them proof that they are not, in fact, part of the line, and they still refuse to correct it.
Any time I tell someone about my genealogy research, invariably I get some version of the question, "How far back can you go?" To me, I'm not interested in how far back I can go. I'm interested in proving each generation before I proceed to search for the next one. Which should be the basic tenet of genealogy research. There are plenty of books written about citing sources, and the importance of it. Lineal societies require source citations for every proof offered for the line. These things are important. Just because someone on Ancestry or the internet put names on a tree doesn't mean they're correct. Especially if the source of their information is someone else's tree! Sources, sources, sources. These include everything from birth, marriage and death certificates, obituaries, headstone engravings, census records, deeds, wills, land warrants and patents, but NOT someone else's tree. (Well, if the tree has been proven by the DAR or SAR or some other lineal society, then it would be acceptable proof.) But try to find the goods. The information is out there. If it's correctly researched and properly documented, then the trees stand the proof test. If not, they're just names on a branch.
That's my rant for today. I will continue to search for John and Eve Markley's origins, and some day I'll find them, in spite of all the erroneous information littering the internet and driving me batty!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Could someone shoot me now?
For quite awhile now, every time I try to login to Blogger, when I initially click to login, I get a message that my email or password is incorrect. It's stored in my Firefox information, so it's always the same thing. And if I click the button a second time, it logs me in.
NOT TODAY!!
Today Blogger decided it didn't want to play nice with my Hotmail account, and I was forced to reset my password, and for awhile I wasn't even sure I could use the hotmail email as my Google account i.d. It's all so bizarre. I'm logged in and creating a blog post, but I"m not really sure how it happened, or if my account will work the next time I try to log in.
Shoot me now!
NOT TODAY!!
Today Blogger decided it didn't want to play nice with my Hotmail account, and I was forced to reset my password, and for awhile I wasn't even sure I could use the hotmail email as my Google account i.d. It's all so bizarre. I'm logged in and creating a blog post, but I"m not really sure how it happened, or if my account will work the next time I try to log in.
Shoot me now!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Document storage
If anyone is like me, doing genealogy research, a LOT of documents accumulate. I'm on my third portable file case stuffed to the gills with papers. And that's just the letter-sized ones. The legal ones are on a shelf in my closet. Last week I was at the courthouse getting copies of old deeds, and they're all on legal size paper. I wanted to put them in page protectors so I could leaf through them and they would be nice and protected.
Ever try to find legal-size page protectors or binders? They're out there. Online. Not in the stores. And they're PRICY!!! I finally found what I was looking for, and last week ordered some protectors and a binder. They arrived on Monday, and are so incredibly nice, heavyweight page protectors, that I ordered two more binders, and the rest of the protectors I'll need to store all of my Civil War pension files and all the deeds I plan to copy. So now that I have what I need winging its way to my house, I can share. www.keepfiling.com is where I purchased them. Their page protectors are slightly different from the ones at Staples and Office Max, as they only have 4 holes, instead of 7, and are made specifically for the binders that they sell at their site. However, I'm okay with that, as the binder I purchased is incredibly nice, so I don't need to worry about putting my protectors into some other binder with rings that aren't spaced correctly. If you need legal-size page protectors and binders, look no further than Keep Filing. I'm sure I'll be back when I need more supplies. Which, at the rate I'm going, won't be long!!!
Ever try to find legal-size page protectors or binders? They're out there. Online. Not in the stores. And they're PRICY!!! I finally found what I was looking for, and last week ordered some protectors and a binder. They arrived on Monday, and are so incredibly nice, heavyweight page protectors, that I ordered two more binders, and the rest of the protectors I'll need to store all of my Civil War pension files and all the deeds I plan to copy. So now that I have what I need winging its way to my house, I can share. www.keepfiling.com is where I purchased them. Their page protectors are slightly different from the ones at Staples and Office Max, as they only have 4 holes, instead of 7, and are made specifically for the binders that they sell at their site. However, I'm okay with that, as the binder I purchased is incredibly nice, so I don't need to worry about putting my protectors into some other binder with rings that aren't spaced correctly. If you need legal-size page protectors and binders, look no further than Keep Filing. I'm sure I'll be back when I need more supplies. Which, at the rate I'm going, won't be long!!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
If you need a new printer
I highly recommend the Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901. Sometime last year my old, old, old Lexmark printer started acting up. The gears that feed the paper into the printer weren't working, so if i wanted to print anything, I had to stand there and feed the pages in. Sometimes even that didn't work. So I bought a $45 HP printer at Walmart to replace it. Unbeknownst to me, my old Lexmark printer was 1000 times superior to the piece of crap HP printer that I bought. I couldn't enlarge copies on the HP. I couldn't print copies in draft mode on the HP. The thing ate ink like it was its job. The replacement ink cartridges costs $60 ($30 for black and $30 for color) Notice that that's $15 more than I paid for the actual printer! It was the crappiest printer I'd ever seen, I hated everything about it and couldn't wait until it died.
THEN....right before Christmas I started seeing commercials for the Lexmark printer that used $5 ink cartridges. This, I thought, is the printer for me. See, I've been printing hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents for all my family tree research. After replacing the black ink cartridge in the HP two times, and the color cartridge one time, I had had enough. I vowed when the ink ran out, I was getting the new printer. The ink hasn't quite run out, but I bought the new printer on sale at Staples anyway.
I...LOVE...IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all, it is wireless, so I can sit on the sofa in the living room, and print documents in the office. It prints two-sided documents with ease! It has an automatic document feeder! It's a fax machine, a copier, a scanner. There's a touchscreen on it that works incredibly well. I love it.
There is one BIG problem with it, thought, that I'll just have to get used to. I cannot change the default print settings to Quick print or Draft print. They're set to Automatic, and it somewhat infuriates me that I can't change that. Okay, it infuriates me a lot. I have searched everywhere for some way to change those settings, but I'm not having any luck. If anyone knows how, let me in on the secret. In the meantime, every time I print I have to go to the properties and do a dozen additional steps to get to Quick print or Draft print, and all-black ink printing. I'm thinking that's a feature designed to make people use more of the $5 ink :-) But I'm on to them, and I'm printing everything with black ink only, in draft mode. I should get a lot of pages out of one ink cartridge.
Oh, and another interesting tidbit. The printer actually came with a USB cable! Nothing comes with its own USB cable, so I was shocked to discover one in the box with this printer. Also came with the XL print cartridges, as opposed to the rinky-dink ones most printers come with.
THEN....right before Christmas I started seeing commercials for the Lexmark printer that used $5 ink cartridges. This, I thought, is the printer for me. See, I've been printing hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents for all my family tree research. After replacing the black ink cartridge in the HP two times, and the color cartridge one time, I had had enough. I vowed when the ink ran out, I was getting the new printer. The ink hasn't quite run out, but I bought the new printer on sale at Staples anyway.
I...LOVE...IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all, it is wireless, so I can sit on the sofa in the living room, and print documents in the office. It prints two-sided documents with ease! It has an automatic document feeder! It's a fax machine, a copier, a scanner. There's a touchscreen on it that works incredibly well. I love it.
There is one BIG problem with it, thought, that I'll just have to get used to. I cannot change the default print settings to Quick print or Draft print. They're set to Automatic, and it somewhat infuriates me that I can't change that. Okay, it infuriates me a lot. I have searched everywhere for some way to change those settings, but I'm not having any luck. If anyone knows how, let me in on the secret. In the meantime, every time I print I have to go to the properties and do a dozen additional steps to get to Quick print or Draft print, and all-black ink printing. I'm thinking that's a feature designed to make people use more of the $5 ink :-) But I'm on to them, and I'm printing everything with black ink only, in draft mode. I should get a lot of pages out of one ink cartridge.
Oh, and another interesting tidbit. The printer actually came with a USB cable! Nothing comes with its own USB cable, so I was shocked to discover one in the box with this printer. Also came with the XL print cartridges, as opposed to the rinky-dink ones most printers come with.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Red letter day!
I am so excited! I found out today that my application to the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) was verified, and I will be voted in and given a national number on Saturday.
All my 'wasted' time doing genealogy research has finally paid off!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so rewarding to have a neutral third party agree with me that I am, indeed, related to these people, and I proved it sufficiently.
Truly a red letter day!!!!!!!
All my 'wasted' time doing genealogy research has finally paid off!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so rewarding to have a neutral third party agree with me that I am, indeed, related to these people, and I proved it sufficiently.
Truly a red letter day!!!!!!!
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