Ten Neat Things To Do

by Rich Remling, former board member CNYGS

1. Read genealogy blogs. I’m always amazed at those genealogists who are able to consistently put posts out on the blogosphere that are well thought out, interesting and enjoyable to read. I thought that Dick Hillenbrand’s blog was the best blog source on genealogy in upstate New York. He was always spot on with his posts and I always got a chuckle out of them. I’ll never forget his post about getting lost in the woods. Another blogger, Judy Russell, is really on another planet. If you haven’t checked out the Legal Genealogist’s blog yet, please do so! She posts virtually every day, and she responds to most every comment people leave for her. And she properly cites her sources. She is amazing. I also like Taneya Koonce’s blog. She is a young librarian who got bit by the genealogy bug about a decade ago. Her blog is heavy on software and technology. Her specialty is African American genealogy. Although I personally don’t do any of that ethnic research, I always find myself getting motivated by the energy and enthusiasm she writes with. And I love seeing a young person really into genealogy!


2. Learn to be more computer literate. Like most genealogists I did not take computer classes in high school. The first time I ever had exposure to the computer was when as a physics major in my junior year of college I took a course titled “Microcomputer Interfacing in the Physics Laboratory.” Well many of us have a mental block when it comes to computers. Fortunately I married well, and so whenever I find myself in a bind I call out “Nancy, can you help me?” and nine times out of ten she picks me up, dusts me off and gets me back in action. One time I actually brought the laptop upstairs to the bedroom in search of much needed tech support after she had gone to sleep. Fortunately for me she is a fellow genealogist so she understands this obsession we have. CNYGS has a GIG (Genealogy Interest Group) that meets about nine times a year on Monday nights at the Salina Library in Mattydale. Often their meetings focus on computers and technology. Now that I have Monday evenings free due to a change in my schedule I plan to attend as many as I can so my wife can get her much needed rest.


3. Visit the local repositories. You know, we have so many repositories in CNY that few people even bother to explore. I think it would be neat to take one repository a month and pick a family from the 1850 census in that locality and try researching that family. That’s probably the best way to “kick the tires” so to speak of a repository we’ve never been to before. Good way to give it a dry run. Some places will allow you free reign to explore their collection. Others run a tight ship and you will not find any open stacks. Many people who staff these places are very knowledgeable. One such person is Joan Leib at the Chenango County Historical Society. She was incredible when we visited this past year. On the other hand sometimes you’ll find a volunteer who may have good intentions of helping but may end up not being all that helpful. And I have been in town historical societies where the records are just thrown together in a closet and have no organization whatsoever. So you’ll find repositories to be a mixed bag, but always interesting!


4. Need to lose weight? Become a find-a-grave contributor! There are over 130 million memorials on this well known website . Folks who live far away from their cemetery of interest can submit a photo request for a gravestone. Then you can volunteer to go out to the cemetery, hunt the grave down and take a picture. Upload the image to the website and you’ll usually get a nice thank you email from the person who submitted the photo request. If the cemetery has an office you may be able to get the grave location from them to save you some time. What a great way to perform a genealogy random act of kindness!


5. Study genealogy journals. If you are like me, you may subscribe to one or more genealogy journals. What I find is that I don’t read them cover-to-cover. I don’t dissect them. I just kind of browse through them. But if we want to be the best researchers we can be, we are really doing ourselves a disservice if this is the approach we take. I’ve decided that from now on, in each issue I’ll pretend that the journal case studies are dealing with my family. You better believe I would be paying much closer attention if this were the case. You might find a source cited that you didn’t know existed. Tom Jones in the October-December 2015 issue of NGS Magazine (NGS Magazine; Volume 41 Number 4; pg 47; Getting the Most from Case Studies in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly) discusses how to get more out of journals.


6. Get organized. OK, I’ve scanned all my genealogy documents and photos and have them in family folders on my computer. This project took about a year. There are several thousand photos and documents that are now on my computer. I copied them into folders on my laptop following some of Lisa Louise Cooke’s organization ideas. But I still need to do a better job with my file naming conventions. If I have a scan of a newspaper clipping, I’d like the file name to have a subject and a source reference. I still have to think about how best to do this.


7. Take a genealogy vacation. Need vacation ideas? Well how about taking a vacation each year at a city that is hosting a major conference? Nancy and I have done this since the National Genealogical Society conference held in Raleigh in 2009. We typically take a few extra days for sight seeing and research in addition to attending the conferences. We really like going to the New England Regional Genealogical Conferences. During the last one that was held in Providence, we did some research in Hartford, Connecticut as a side trip. There are a number of conferences and institutes that we have yet to attend including GRIP and the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference. Fort Wayne is another great place to visit that is within a day’s drive of CNY. We drove out there on a Thursday, spent Friday and Saturday researching at the Allen County Public Library and drove back on a Sunday. Other ideas for trips are the genealogy cruises being offered. For those of you wishing to attend a conference closer to home, please consider the 2016 New York State Family History Conference in Syracuse.


8. Spend time reading dissertations. Each year universities in our country award thousands of PhD degrees. History dissertations are the product of years of study on a particular topic. Why not take advantage of this scholarship? Bird Library at Syracuse University has dissertations on their shelves. They also have access to dissertations from colleges throughout the country on their computer databases. Suzanne Etherington presented at the CNYGS 50th Anniversary conference in 2011. Her thesis from Syracuse University, Less Hell and More Corn: Agriculture in Jefferson County, New York 1850 – 1910 (1993), would be an excellent read for anyone with an ancestor from Jefferson County. There are many dissertations that would be helpful for genealogists.


9. Patronize your local history/genealogy department in the nearest public library. I must admit my attendance has dropped off over the past years. I’ve always enjoyed browsing the stacks in the lh/g department at the Onondaga County Public Library. In it’s future configuration on the 3rd floor much of the collection will be in closed stacks and staff will have to be sent to retrieve your books for you.


10. Reinvigorate the CNYGS Blog! The reason I posted this blog was that I felt that the CNYGS blog was a good way for members to interact with each other and share thoughts. I was saddened to see that it has become somewhat dormant. I hope that my post will encourage CNYGS folks to give it a try. As you can see by this post, you don’t have to have a great deal of writing talent to post a blog. So in an effort to solicit more posts, I’m going to take a page out of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I call out Chris Wilcox, CNYGS president, and challenge him to post the next blog. So Chris if you are reading this, I hope you will accept my challenge!

©2016 Richard Remling

The Serendipity of Genealogy

by Barbara Leiger Granato

I recently received a request to do some research for a man residing in California. He was looking for more information on the Stafford family who had lived in Augusta, Oneida County, New York back in the late 1700s.

After doing a little preliminary research from my home computer, I visited the Oneida County Archives, and found many land records from the early days of Oneida County – which was founded in 1798. That shed a little more information on the family, but what I had learned from basic surfing on the Internet is that John Stafford, “a Revolutionist of 1776,” was buried in the “Stafford Cemetery” in Augusta.

I also learned that the “Stafford Cemetery” was an old, abandoned one. And although I found a notation of the road it was on, there was no street address or directions available to find it.

I decided to take my chances, and hopped in my car in search of the little cemetery. I drove through the small village of Oriskany Falls, until I found a sign pointing me in the direction of Augusta. Soon, I discovered I was on Augusta Road and had no clue where I was, until I saw a road sign, “Scharman Road.” WOW! I had found the road where the cemetery was located.

Now, although this was a 55 mph country road, I slowly crept up the big hill, looking first on one side of the road and then on the other. It was not until I got to the top of this hill that I glanced to my right and saw the most beautiful sign set back a distance from the road – “Stafford Cemetery.” And behind the sign, there was a small American flag posted in the ground.

SUCCESS! I parked my car on the shoulder of the road and bounded across the open landscape to the cemetery. It was nestled between two country homes, set quite far apart from each other. When I reached the cemetery, there were only four stones, and three of them were totally worn and illegible. However, the stone that had the American flag next to it was partially legible, and sure enough – it was the stone of John Stafford, “Revolutionist of 1776!” As I looked around the little cemetery, I could see evidence of small trees and brush that had been cleared from the area. Behind the cemetery there was more brush that had not been cleared, but then a farmer’s field was beyond that. I wondered about the souls who were buried there, and began to imagine what life must have been like when they were living.

After taking several photos of the tombstones and the area where they were located, I drove back to the village of Oriskany Falls where the Limestone Ridge Historical Society is located. The society was closed, but after stopping at the Town Hall, the clerk there gave me the name and telephone number of the President of the Historical Society. Yes, small towns most often are friendly like that – and oftentimes will bend over backwards to be of assistance.

The president met me at the Historical Society and let me in to do some research. Although I was not able to find any additional information on the family, I relayed my story about the cemetery that I had just found.

The president looked at me in amazement. It seems that the Limestone Ridge Historical Society awards a scholarship each year to a graduating high school senior. Last year, the decision was based on the essay of the recipient, rather than grade point average. The boy who received this award was a Boy Scout, and the project he worked on to achieve his Eagle Scout badge was to clear an abandoned cemetery and place signage on it. Not only that, but he identified the tombstone of a Revolutionary War soldier, and planted a flag next to his grave.

Yes – this was indeed the Stafford Cemetery! Had it not been for the patriotic act of this boy scout, this cemetery would have been immersed in overgrown brush and trees, and I would have never found it.

Sometimes – especially when searching for genealogical information – I truly believe that things happen for a reason. Sometimes we are meant to find stories and symbols from the past.

Although I do not believe that this little cemetery had any personal relevance to the boy scout who cleaned it up and marked it, what a positive difference he made by doing so. He helped to memorialize a man who helped to make the United States a country!

©2016 Barbara Leiger Granato

After retiring from her job as a secretary at Mohawk Valley Community College, Barbara Granato had more time to pursue her love of genealogy. She is a member of the Oneida Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, currently serving as the chapter Registrar and Vice-Chair of NYS Lineage Research for DAR. In addition to teaching Beginning Genealogy classes, she is a Board member of the Central New York Genealogical Society, as well as a Board Member for the Oneida County Historical Society. She also is a member of the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica and serves as a tour docent to the mansions on Rutger Street in Utica, and writes murder mysteries which are performed at one of the historic mansions once a year. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists as well as the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.