Amenuensis Monday

Dear Brother

This letter comes from the Myers surname file and are relatives of  my husband Jeffrey Mikel Lott.

A letter from Jacob Myers to his brother in Dark County, Ohio

on January 1, 1847.

Commiserating about the brother having fever and ague for some time.

John had the fever and ague and on the fourth day when the fever was at its highest 

"I had better than a pint of blood taken from me..."

Wm McCreary was buryed last week.

Another brother, John, picks up the pen and writes of his rumatism like his brother James...he has a fine son and calls him Robert Breckenridge.

He writes of Eliza Jane's marriage to Edmund Rockhold 

"A real go ahead Dutchman."

Jacob and Dolly were at the wedding and on their way home the carriage was upset but fortunately no one hurt.

Eliza has done well with her marriage and has a fine farm with a three story house and a bank barn.

"I received a letter from her this day and she is well and happy and has one annoyance and that is she is completely surrounded by dimacrats.

I went to McCrearys yesterday and he is not dead.

The letter continues from his nephew John Carpenter M.D. who writes of the fever and ague and it prevails in Hagarstown, Waynesboro, Chambergurg, Frederick etc. 

He continues and talks about the meeting of the brethern and them doing some considerable good in the neighborhood.

Daniel Sheets is preparing to build a bank barns so you may think he expects to raise something more than ___ and persimmons among the rocks of poor old Adams Co.

The men in writing this letter used every bit of space to compose their thoughts.

Three men wrote to John Myers on this letter.

The letter was send via the Robinsons.

NOTE: Eliza Jane's annoyance with the dimicrats (Demacrats).

See ya down the road...

Copyright @ 2015-16 Diane McClure Lott

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Reflections on getting ORGANIZED

NOW THAT I AM ORGANIZED

According to Denise Levenick in her article in Family Tree magazine, "cutting clutter will make you better organized and sharpen your genealogy focus."

I am here to tell you Denise is

 "right on the money."

Using Denise's techniques for organizing  documents on my computer, I can apply them to hard copy files in my file cabinet. My hard copy files are yet to be done. 

Remember the mantra:

1) read, 2) scan and, 3) recyle

don't print... don't print...don't print 

Note what Levenick says: "If it would be a financial or logistical burden to replace the item, consider it an original."

If the above definition meets the criteria for a document, then scan, keep the original, file in hard copy file.

_______________________________

Here are some examples of success from my organization project so far:

1) When I labeled consistently I found 2, 3 ,4 or more copies of documents, placed in several locations (so I could find it and still couldn't find it.)

I had a photocopied birth record for my mother Catherine (Kata) labeled:

Kata birth, 

Binder Kata Croatia birth, 

birth_record kata 

placed in several locations/folders.

Once all the copies were opened and labeled consistently Binder, Kata birth record, the computer alphabetized them and I 
1) noted that I had several of the same document, 2) practiced consistency and, 
3) trashed two of the copied.

I can easily find that document now.

_________________________

2) The family portrait that was within hundreds of pictures in iPhoto for which I had to search and search is now in a folder called Photos under each surname folder and labeled so I can find it. 

Binder, Joseph formal portrait. 

__________________________

3) Levenick says "label so you know what is in the folder." With consistency and labeling you KNOW what is in the folder.  For example:

What was in the folder I labelled Stoner information? The item in Stoner folder is now called 

S. Dak. neighbor letter re: Stoner.

____________________________

4) Found gold!
Going through email folders I reread, labelled, and placed emails in surname or appropriate folders. 

As I organized and reread emails I found contacts. I needed to reconnect with contacts and I did! 
I reconnected and it generated  

additional surname information and photos from  reconnecting with these contacts.

____________________________

5) I was always opening folders to see what was in them and then closing them because it wasn't what I was looking for. This was a waste of time and caused frustration.

___________________________

6) I located document, emails, and items that were 

  in the wrong surname folder

____________________________

I have not finished organizing. 
I am getting organized and it feels 

Great!

Thanks Denise

Share your reorganizing thoughts, surprises, esamples of success?

See ya down the road... 

Copyright @ 2015-16 Diane McClure Lott

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Amenuensis Monday: William C. F. Krabbenhoft WILL 1933

The Will of William C. F. Krabbenhoft

"The Final Report of Edward Krabbenhoft, Administrator of the Estate of William C. F. Krabbenhoft, respectfully presents to the court the petitions as follows:"

 * This is a small estate and subject to probate

* Edward Krabbenhoft was appointed executor as William C. F. Krabbenhoft died without a will

* This report or information about this report was printed in a notice for four consecutive weeks on the Shelton Mason County Journal

* Burial and funeral expenses were taken from the estate before all other distributions were made

* The estate was inventoried and the values of items were estimated 

* Without a will a list of relatives was made, their relationship (13 brothers, nieces and nephews) were determined, and a percentage or apportionment determined

* The executor and attorney asked for reasonable sum for their services

* The report then asked the court to take notice, recognize the recipients, pay certain bills, and close the report and distribution.

The estate was worth $4856.63 mostly from savings, checking and possessions before payments for funeral and other costs.

William C. F. Krabbenhoft was Jeffrey Mikel Lott's great uncle.

The listing of the Krabbenhoft relatives with names other than Krabbenhoft aided research for the Lott and Krabbenhoft genealogy and family history.

The names mentioned in the will appeared in documents and photos but the relationships were never known in relationship to the Krabbenhoft research. A brick wall was scaled with this listing of names and relationships in the will. 

See ya down the road...

Copyright @ 2015-16 Diane McClure Lott

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION