Friday, January 1, 2010

NEW YEARS DAY

A New Year had dawned and I hope to make some Genealogical  Resolutions.   The biggest one is to get organized.   I have a lot of things that I want and plan to do but, somehow, never seem to get them done.      Why is that?   I think it is the time constraints or working and not having enough free time, what time I have is usually used resting from the time working.

I have to 1)   Send for the death certificates on my relatives, I think there are ten I would like to have.    Pennsylvania is a pain in the acquisition of records.   If a person died 100 years ago there are still “privacy issues”   I suspect that the real reason is there is a lot of money to be made for the state by controlling the information and not permitting century old records into an online data base.

2)   Send for records from the Diocese of Pittsburgh.   I have done this before and really gained a lot of information.    What I want to find is the marriage date of Patrick O’Rourke and Ellen Martel.    I have a few more ideas on where to request the volunteer to search.    

3)   Make a trip into the City of Pittsburgh and search for deeds and probate records.   I need to take an allergy pill and have at least $20 for parking.   It is a royal pain to drive into Pittsburgh.

4)   Start scanning slides and negatives.   I purchased a slide scanned, it was my Christmas Present to myself.   It arrived and I have to get started on that project.  I am hoping it works and I am not disappointed.    My sister and I had talked about this project but somehow choosing which to copy seems like a long and arduous task.   I will start this today or perhaps tomorrow.

5)  Start scanning and preserving records that I have gleaned in the Carnegie Library and papers from my father.   I need to transfer this information to more than one source as a back up.

I think that is enough for starters for now.

Tom and Gerda 50th 1993

Tom and Gerda at their  Golden Anniversary Dinner.

1 comment:

  1. I found my grandfather's name, who emigrated from Italy to Pittsburgh, on-line on Ellis Island website ship's log- there was a place on the checklist for "anarchist: yes, no" !

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