Genealogy Reviews Online

63rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Up

The latest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is up at Jasia's Creative Gene.  This edition is on New Year's Resolutions and 40 genea-bloggers took part - including me.  The New Years edition is always interesting because you get to see the goals of other genealogists, and I always find something I've never thought of before that I can add to my to-do list.  I'm also always in awe of everyone's writing abilities and accomplishments.

This Carnival is a great way to start out the genea-year. 

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2009 New Years Genealogy Resolutions

I can't believe it's New Years Resolutions time again.  You know, what really ticks me off is as I get older time feels like it's moving faster.  Before I start looking at the coming year's resolutions, I guess I should look back on last years and see if I made any progress.  I actually wrote one post and an addendum...to be honest I haven't looked at them since they were written.  Combining the two together, lets see how I did:

1.  Catalog, scan, and preserve my mother's photo albums, scrapbooks, and letters.  I've made zero physical progress on this one, but I have thought about it - does that count?  I received some advice on Facebook and also got the idea from Apple's post on Shades of the Departed about using a digital camera to handle the letters.

2.  Win the lottery.  Didn't happen.

3.  Participate in more of the various Carnivals.  I'm embarrassed to say I only officially participated in two genealogy carnivals...I guess you can say three counting this post.  I did write two more posts that should have been included, but I didn't get them written until after the deadline passed.  I also only wrote a couple of posts for Carnivals of Irish History and Culture.  I did participate in one Smile for the Camera.  I guess you can say I did make some progress from the previous year, but in reality this is a sad level of participation when you look at the number of opportunities.  The topics don't always fit with me, but more often than not I could probably make them fit.  And I've been complaining the last few months about my lack of ideas...

4.  Concentrate on my Irish, German, and Scottish ancestors.  This is really the only resolution where I can see any progress.  I was able to push my Irish family line back one generation.  I researched and explored some of the myths surrounding my 8th great grandfather from Scotland.  I did a little work on my German line.  I did make progress, and I guess I should say I met my goals on this one, but I really didn't.  I really made no concerted and focused research effort on any part of my family.  I was extremely lucky in finding documents here and there, but I wasn't a real genealogist in 2008...I just dabbled.

5.  I want to read more.  I did read more, but no where near the level I wanted to.   

6.  Keep building the readership of my blog. While my readership appears a bit larger than last year, I probably shouldn't have included this as one of my resolutions.

So...seeing how successful I was at meeting my goals last year, my genealogy resolutions for 2009 are...well, I'm not going to make any.  I figure why bother...I didn't look at them after I wrote the post last January so why waste my brain power now.  I think I will just go with the flow and not set any standards I know I won't meet.  I do have some personal resolutions (goals) I will aggressively pursue, but as for genealogy plans...I have none.

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Politics and My Family

I thought this was an interesting Carnival of Genealogy topic because I've never really considered looking into the political past of my family.  I know there are voter registration databases  out there, but I've never looked.  There's no indication any of my ancestors ever ran for political office, and I have no way of knowing whether or not many of my ancestors even voted. 

I only know of the political leanings, and voting habits, of three ancestors - my maternal grandmother and my parents.  My grandmother (Anna C. Hartford 1904-2002) was a Roosevelt (the "oo" sound pronounced like a "u") democrat.  Obviously Franklin Roosevelt shaped the country, and world, during his presidency and probably many people had similar feelings about him.  I only recall her talking about two other presidents - Nixon and Reagan.  She said she never trusted Nixon and she didn't like Reagan ("ea" pronounced like "ee") very much.  I don't know what she thought about the others, but I do know she always voted up until she died at the age of 97.

My parents were Kennedy Democrats.  I think a lot of their political leanings had to do with growing up in democratic families, and also because Kennedy was of the same generation as them.  I also think Kennedy being a Catholic had something to do with it too.  I was six years old when Kennedy was killed and I remember them forcing my brother and I to watch the funeral on TV because they said it was history in the making.  Strangely enough, I seem to recall both of them voting for Nixon in 1968 probably because of the anarchy in the streets caused by the Vietnam war...I believe my father used the term "damn hippies" quite a lot.  One interesting thing I've noticed while writing this post is I tended to like whoever my parents liked and I've noticed my kids doing the same thing, although they tend to mimic my wife's views rather than mine...and this is probably a good thing.

As for the political leanings of my family...well, my wife is still in mourning about Hillary not winning the nomination - she may get at least one write-in vote from Maryland.  Me...I would be a card carrying member of the "cynical about politics" party if one existed.  I happen to think it doesn't really matter who wins because a year or two from now the winner will do something really stupid and there will be a hue and cry for his head.  I'm confident about my prediction because basically this is what politicians do...self interest and party interest cause them to do and say really really stupid things, and I have no doubt it will happen again.  One thing I am looking forward to is all the great new comedy material this will give The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live...the results of the election may not be pretty, but I'm guessing it will be pretty funny.  

How does someone so cynical about politics decide who to vote for?  Maybe I'll just close my eyes, spin around three times and jab my finger at a name...

Important Books in My Collection

(I really, really wanted to get this written for the last Carnival of Genealogy, but I was over come by events and just couldn't get it done.  I didn't want to waste the post I already started, so I decided to go for it anyway.)

I don't have many genealogy books.  I have a few of those how-to-get-started kind I picked up when I first began about 5 or 6 years ago, but to be honest, I never found them very helpful.  I think I was a little too impatient because when I started, all I wanted to do was dive in and find names - and that's what I did.  At the risk of having eggs thrown at me, and ducking for cover before I continue; I don't even have those evidence citation books by Elisabeth Shown Mills.  It's not that I don't like evidence citation, because I do.  I learned how to do it as a history major in college...all those years ago, and doing it any other way is just too hard for my little brain to understand.

After awhile, I got bored with name finding.  It was fun at first, especially if you find someone who has done all the work for you on a particular family line, but the boredom started because name hunting had no real meaning for me.  I wanted to understand each person's life as much as I could.  Since I started my hobby late in life, and since most of the people who could tell me stories about my ancestors were dead, I figured the best way to learn about someone was to study the local history of where my family lived.  The following five books are my favorite and were the most helpful in my quest to understand my paternal ancestors:

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Finding Living Relatives

(While this is a Carnival of Genealogy post, it can also double as a part of Craig Manson's theme of "Greatest Genealogical Find Ever")

I've found a number of new cousins in the US over the course of my short genealogy career - almost 6 years now.  Most of these were also pursuing their family histories, and since we were looking for many of the same surnames on the various genealogy websites, it's not too surprising we got into contact.  The most exciting discovery I had, however, happened almost completely by chance and involved a 61 year old letter posted on my simple family history site and Google.  I'd like to say it was my expert research skills that located the descendants of my grandmother's sister in the small town of Pedace ( located a little below the ankle of the Italian boot).  The reality is someone else (not even related to me) started the sequence of events that lead to what I consider my greatest genealogy discovery.

The New Millennium in Task Force Eagle - Bosnia Herzegovina

My whole experience with the beginning of the New Millennium was weird.  It started a little over a month before when notification came that I was to deploy to Bosnia for six months on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  As military families typically do, we quickly planned to combine holidays and celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time.  This was probably the hardest deployment for me because it was the first long one since my then three year old twins were born, but after a world wind ThanksgivingChristmas, I found myself on a plane traveling to join the G2 section of the 10th Mountain Division at Task Force Eagle, Tuzla, Bosnia - Herzegovina. 

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Agazio or Aggazio, and Interesting Surname Origin Theory

Find Your Family Name In Historical Documents

Spelling Confusion

Confusion about my surname began at the very start of my family history quest.  I have a scanned image of a letter written by my paternal grandfather's older sister in 1947.  It's a very sad letter about the hardships her family were facing just a couple of years after the end of World War II.  She asks my grandfather why he hasn't written, and asks him to send some fabric so her husband could have a new suit made.  There's a lot of interesting information in this letter, but what puzzled me the most was she signed it "Maria Aggazio."  In all of the US documents I could find, the name was always spelled as "Agazio" with one "g," and my family in Colorado had never seen it written as the letter shows. 

My Father - Louie Agazio (1921-1972)

Find Your Ancestors In Civil War Documents 

(note:  click on all of the photos to get the full size)

I thought writing about my father would be easy, but I discovered I really don't know much about him other than what's in my faded memories.  He died when I was 15 years old so I never really got the chance to pump him for information about his life.  Since I started on this genealogy kick, I found it easier to learn about his father, and my other ancestors, because there was more documented information available.  I concentrated on them because it was easier.  My father didn't leave a very extensive paper trail  - there are no letters, diaries, school records or any other documents that would tell me what he was like as a child and young adult.  If he did write any letters during his World War Two service they were lost to history long ago. The little I have doesn't tell me much.  I have his 8th grade diploma, his social security number application, his Army discharge paperwork, copies of his birth and death certificates, and little else.  I'm left to tell his story mostly from my memory and the little tidbits of information I do have - plus many assumptions.