A Few Branches Short of a Family Tree

MignognaWeb has a Wiki!

2007-07-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

Okay... so I decided that having a "Wiki" was the way to go to help collect and especially help share the genealogy data.

It's set up, and I started adding a little info to it. Until we've decided how to best protect the data, there is no link to it directly from anywhere on the MignognaWeb website.

If you are a family member (incl. extended family), and would like access to start seeing what it's like, playing with it, commenting on the process and contributing, email me directly and I'll send you info on how to gain access.

I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

Yes, we have the technology... but what do we do with it?

2007-07-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

This has been gnawing at me for years - how to accumulate, organize *and* share all this fantastic genealogy data in the limited bits and pieces of time I have available outside work, work, work and the rest of my life.

The genealogy software I've been using for years is Wholly Gene's "The Master Genealogist". While it's been great at keeping track of all the data, it's not always easy or intuitive to get reports out and share data with others. It's a massive chore to export reports and get them up on the website and protect certain things and unprotect others and present it in a way that's useful to the rest of the family.

I'm also looking for a better way for all of you to keep the records up to date. Did someone get married? Have a new baby?

So I've been thinking about what to do next and how to reorganize the website. I'm thinking along the lines of turning the genealogy side of mignogna.org into something that works a little more like a social networking site or even a Wiki. Something that includes user accounts that doesn't allow just anyone to see - I know several of the relatives are sensitive to certain data for living folks getting out and I certainly respect that.

I really am liking the Wiki idea.

Any Mignogna's, Agdern's, Lilienthal's or Goldmark's reading this, please comment on what you'd like to see.

Get all the stories... get them now!

2007-04-11T07:10:00.000-04:00

Whether or not you're new to genealogy, one thing that you must do: contact living relatives (especially older ones) and get their stories! It's so sad, but they won't be with us forever and once they're gone, they take their memories with them.

Case in point:

I was so happy when I brought home a copy of the 1920 census where my grandfather and several siblings were kids living in my great-grandfather's house. One of the neat things about census records is that several list a person's occupation. According to the 1920 census, one of my grandfather's older brothers, Peter, was a Shoemaker. Sounds normal enough, right?

A few months later I visited my great-Aunt Zitzie (another of my grandfather's older siblings) in the nursing home. She was in her early nineties, but as sharp as ever. At one point, the whole thing about Uncle Peter being a shoemaker came up. My family were traditionally farmers and carpenters, so this was odd and something we thought we should ask about.

Apparently, in my family's history and/or culture, a "Shoemaker" was not a favored profession. According to Zitzie, she remembered the day the census man came around. Uncle Peter did something to upset their dad that day, so when asked about the occupation of his kids and Peter came up he called him a "Shoemaker" - an insult, not his true occupation.

The point of this little story? It's great to gather all the paper records (there's plenty of time to do that). But if you have the ability to get information and stories from real, live people, DO IT!

P.S. Aunt Zitzie passed away that summer. I'm so happy I at least got to speak with her when I did.

Other name variations...

2007-04-08T13:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a list of other name variations I've found on "official" records:

Mignogna as:
- Mignona
- Mignocna
- Micnocna
- Mignoyna

Yetta as Jetti
William as Wolf or Wilhelm
Morris as Moris or Moses
Saul as Solomon
Claire as Clair

(I might add more to this list in the future)

22 years and counting...

2007-03-26T22:15:00.000-04:00

It's been just about 10 years since I first set up a web page with Mignogna genealogy. It's been about 22 years since I first learned about genealogy in a school project. We were given some bits of information, given some pedigree forms and interview sheets and tasked to talk to our family. I did, and I've been hooked ever since.

This blog is the newest addition to the Mignogna Web genealogy website. I'll be posting information on my own specific research activities as well as general research tidbits that hopefully will be useful to other amateur genealogists.

Check back, or subscribe to the e-mail or atom feed on the left.

Goldmark = Goldwark = Goldman

2007-03-20T22:00:00.000-04:00

Finally!

My great-grandfather Morris Goldmark is an elusive guy. I've been looking for records to figure out more about who he was, where he was from and maybe figure out who his parents were for a LONG TIME. I have some anecdotal stories from my grandmother and her brothers, but I've never been able to find any records to back it up.

Until this past weekend...

One is supposed to work backwards in genealogy - find the most recent records first, then work backwards. So in this case, that would mean starting with US Census records. For years I have searched the 1930, 1920 and 1910 census records for Morris and his family.

Finally - I found it. Under Moris Goldwark. Apparently, to the indexer, the "m" looked like a "w". I found this in the 1920 census. Then I expanded my search in the 1930 and found them again under Morris Goldman. I'm 100% confident it's the right Morris because the wife and children all are correct.

Note #1: search engines are finicky. "Morris Goldmark" did not lead to "Moris Goldwark". But when I changed the first name to "Moris" (I dropped an "r"), that's when the magic happened. I don't quite understand it, but it reminded me that I can't rely on the search engine to find name variations, I need to try a bunch myself.