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“At Christmas Time”

 

“At Christmas Time” is a hand-painted card made by Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling. He most likely made this for his wife, and the Arts & Crafts style suggests it was done in the early 1900s. (Click to enlarge.)

 

Helbling Family (Click for Family Tree)

             – and all our wonderful Heritage Ramblings blog readers!

Just a quick post to wish all our good readers health, joy, and love this Holiday Season, and always!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. More to come in another post about this card painted by G. W. Helbling (1882-1971), likely for his wife, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling (1881-1954). From the Arts & Crafts style used and knowing their family history, it probably was painted after 1904 when they married and before 1920 or so.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2021 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.

A Little Housekeeping for a New Decade

“We Help Mommy” c 1956

 

Whether your math sense says this is the first month of a new decade or that 2021 is truly the start of a new decade, the blog is starting a bit refreshed.  One of the worst issues was the SSL technology Google has been using- because we did not purchase an SSL certificate, “Not Secure” came up in the address of the blog. (Cue flashing lights and “Warning, Will Robinson!!”) This blog is supported privately so that you don’t have to deal with ads or tracking, so needing to purchase an expensive SSL certificate was pretty aggravating, and did not happen. Thankfully WordPress and independent app developers stepped in to make this technology free, so we have added it to the blog. You can now connect securely to HeritageRamblings.net, and will see a locked padlock in the address bar and “https” in the address, rather than “Not Secure.” You will be redirected to the secure connection if you use the old URL, so please change your bookmarks or notes to reflect the new address of https://heritageramblings.net/.

The past year has also been spent on updating some behind-the-scenes aspects of the blog such as back-ups and printing as a PDF or to your printer. Quite a lot of information and artifacts have been ‘found’ this year too, and those are being scanned and researched so we can add to the blog- the most recent posts for the Roberts family are some of those lovely pictures and stories. The blog and some traveling has allowed us to reach out to more family members which has been absolutely wonderful. Genealogy should really be about the family, its love and connections, and honoring those of the past while embracing the new family members who carry on with our genes but more importantly, our family legacy.

We hope that 2020 brings our family, and the whole human family, closer in love and understanding. Best wishes for the New Year to all.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Warning, Will Robinson!!” will be understood by those ‘of an era’ though it is cool to see that “Lost in Space” has been revived for younger generations. Those who have not seen the early TV versions should watch the first one or two for campy fun.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2020 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Thriller Thursday: Getting Started in Genealogy

Edith (ROBERTS) [McMURRAY] Luck at her desk in Newton, Iowa, 1980. Edith’s love of her family  and their stories helped to inspire some young budding family historians/archivists.

Why is this a “Thriller Thursday” post? Because we have new interest within the family to document and preserve the past, and that is THRILLING! It is so wonderful to find connections between cousins and our ancestors through DNA, online trees, and communicating via email, sites like FaceBook, or wonderfully, in person! Unless we preserve the little pieces we each have and share them, there will be much missing in the stories of our family.

A number of cousins have asked for suggestions on getting started, and after starting a long email to one cousin, it seemed a bit easier to put it out in a blog post, along with some links that might be useful.

So here are some of my thoughts on doing genealogy, and I hope that they will help those interested.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
There are so many ways to do and organize genealogy. An Ancestry.com public tree will give you the most exposure for finding cousins, even if you do not pay for the service. (Most libraries have a version of Ancestry that can be used for research.) Software on one’s own computer allows more privacy for living people although it is tough to keep two trees current. There is some concern about using genealogy software- when they no longer support a program, what will happen to your data? They always keep their data in a ‘proprietary’ format, which means it cannot be read by other programs. So it is lost if the company ceases to exist, although there may be time to convert it before data is removed. Unfortunately the program used to convert, called GEDcom, is very old and does not transfer pictures, notes, has problems with places, etc., so some information would be lost. Using formats like .pdf or .txt, Excel, or a Word document to keep everything on a laptop can be very useful- those files have a better possibility of being kept/supported  for a very long time. And some persons, like me, still believe in paper copies- those can be read no matter how out-of-date something is on a computer, or if the power grid fails or whatever. (But then we probably have worse problems to deal with!!)
Here are some ideas about getting started with preserving your family history so that it can be shared:
1. Scan your photos at 600dpi and make sure the scanner glass is clean (has to be dry too or you can destroy the photo). Scan only one photo at a time, as the scanner decides lightness/darkness automagically, and if you have an old b&w photo plus a color photo on the glass, it will find a not-so-good middle ground for the scan. Try to carefully dust off the photo with a clean, dry cloth, and make sure that little bits of paper crumbs are not left on the glass between scans.
2. Don’t forget to take pictures of family treasures- the wedding gift from 1904, a diploma too big to scan, a WWI canteen, or pickle castor. Take pictures in good light if possible rather than a flash, and shoot from different angles, including any place there might be a manufacturer’s name. Did grandma leave a little piece of paper inside that had a note? Also take a photo of the paper with the object, and it could be scanned as well.
3. Choose the file format that works best for you for scans or photos. TIFF files are more archival but take up more room on your hard disk. JPG files lose information each time they are copied. Here is a blog that has lots of great info on photo preservation and talks about this problem with file types, even if you don’t use the equipment she is talking about:
(I don’t suggest her filing system- see below for mine.)
If all that is just too complicated, just take pictures like you normally would- it is definitely better than not having an item documented.
4. There are a number of resources and blogs that can really help with getting started on recording your family history and family artifacts, photos, and treasures:
Here is a fast, easy, and inexpensive way of keeping information with an image: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/easy-low-tech-way-to-label-scanned-photos/  I would use unlined index cards and write a date, names of persons and places, plus any other info you know about the photo, keeping it somewhat brief. Personally I would scan the card with photo and then do the photo alone, but the photo could always have the info card cropped off if you decide to only do the one scan with the card.
(Amy’s blog is great to read and she has a podcast now that might help get people started in genealogy research.)
Make sure to scan the borders of a photo and the back of any images that have information on them too. Even a studio or photographer’s name can help you figure out an approximate date of the photo, as can the type of paper it is on, border size, etc. Plus, it is lovely to have the handwriting of an ancestor, and especially their sweet comments on the image.
5. Naming and filing information so it can be found later is really important. Do you have a Mac or Windows machine? I use a Mac but filing and naming are essentially the same, I think. Here is one of my posts that might be useful:
This link tells in detail how I name my files. I use this format for EVERYTHING- photos, documents like censuses or marriage records (you can download from FamilySearch or Ancestry or do a screen capture, and I recommend that because sometimes the documents disappear from being online), notes, emails with info that I save about a person, and even current photos.
For files that belong together, I use the same root file name and add an extension describing the new file, as described in the article. Here is an example:
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm.png
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm_cropped.png
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm_unit info.txt
When you name the file, make sure to include keywords to help you find it within a search of your files. With the above, I can search by date, name, ROTC, camp, certificate, etc.
6. All those files need to get from your scanner to a folder where you can keep them together for each family; the post below tells how I do that.
Each folder, or the files within each folder, then, will essentially become a timeline for each person, as the computer will order them from oldest to newest since you have the dates first in the name (if you have set it up that way- there is a small arrow to click up or down for sorting order). If you put the year first it sorts by year, then month, then day. If you put the month first as in traditional dating, it will put together all the May files you have, then sort by day then year- not very useful in general. Some persons do file by document, event, or place, but I am lazy and don’t want to browse 4 folders when I am looking for information about one person. I also like the continuity of files being together for a person within their birth family, then their own family once they have married. For siblings who are not of my direct line, I leave them under their parent name, but create a folder for them with their spouse.
I actually use full names in the folder now, not initials as was posted previously:
McMURRAY_William E-Lynette PAYNE
7. Capitalizing last names makes them easy to find in files with a quick visual scan. In my family trees and software programs, I only capitalize direct line ancestors. (Some software now lets you tag direct lines, but Ancestry.com still does not.) Capitalizing makes a “William McMURRAY” who is an ancestor easier to find among all the William McMurrays who are cousins. (Why did they use the same names over and over??)
8. It is important to write down your impressions when you first see a document or photo- what is unique, who do you think is in it, when or where do you think it was taken, etc.? Our brains are remarkable and often make associations that are unexpected. (Trying to ID the person in a daguerrotype, after many years I noticed the woman had very large hands, and realized I had noticed that in another picture more recently acquired. I knew about what family she was in, so looked at those photos again, and the large hands were evident in a family photo with her husband and children! That photo had an ID so now I knew that the daguerrotype most likely was of the same person, though younger.) I use a Text Editor, as that will probably always be readable, for taking notes about images and artifacts. You cannot format text in it, but that’s ok for my purposes.  You could also use a Microsoft Word document for interviews, notes, things you want to verify, etc. Even second or twentieth impressions can give insight-  a picture that just seemed to be Grandpa in the back yard suddenly became one that made me realize he loved to grow roses- something I would never have guessed.
9. If you are lucky enough to have folks of the older generation available, try to get with them ASAP to record their memories. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, or a sudden death can make a delay in visiting also a big loss of information, as well as being a heart-breaking event in a family. Showing a picture or document may help jog a memory, so take what you know from prior research and be ready to take notes, video, or record your visit, as well as scan (even using your phone camera). The memories may help them jump to more remembrances, and they might even say, “Hey, I have some things you might be interested in, I think, in a box under the bed (or in a closet or horrors, attic or basement).” Transcribing the information soon after is important too, as nuances of a conversation can be lost- was the person interviewed happy about a memory, disturbed, cautious, or elated? It is good to add your impressions in to an interview, but always make sure it is obvious that they are your impressions, not those of the person being interviewed. You can use brackets and italics to signify things unspoken: [got very excited to see picture, and began remembering small incidents from childhood]

 

Here are some sites that may also be of use when getting started:

FamilySearch.org
This is a great site that is free, offers an unbelievable number of documents, photos, etc., as well as educational materials. The site is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you will need to create an account to use it. Once you have signed in, click on “Search”- you will have the option to look for records, old genealogies (not always accurate but good for clues to verify information), old books, such as county histories which will provide biographies of many citizens (although often paid for, so often glowing accounts), plus one of the best-kept secrets, the FamilySearch Wiki. The Wiki will help you find what records are available for a specific time and place, and give ideas on genealogy how-to subjects, such as interviewing. They even offer a world-wide family tree, but, as with all other online trees, please use the information as CLUES, not facts- there is a lot of bad genealogy out there. Visiting your local LDS Family History Center will open new doors into your research as well.
LegacyFamilyTree.com
https://familytreewebinars.com
This website offers a wonderful software program, as well as an incredible array of webinars on about every subject in which a genealogist could have an interest. Webinars are free when they air and then for a number of days after, and some webinars are always free. Others are behind a paywall but even a one-month membership could be enough to get a new family historian up and running in the right direction, with the right documentation.
Ancestry.com
Hated by many, the discoveries made using Ancestry’s trees, documents, books, newspapers, DNA database, etc. has been worth every penny to me over the years. Since Ancestry came online, our family tree has grown by countless generations in every direction, and I have found close cousins I never knew existed. They offer special pricing at times and a partial version is available in many libraries and Family History Centers.
Books, Journals
GoogleBooks, Internet Archive, and the Hathi Trust have old magazines, journals, and books online for free.
Newspapers
Newspaper websites can help tell the stories of our ancestors when vital records or photos only give us the facts. “ChroniclingAmerica” is from the Library of Congress, “Old Fulton Postcards” specializes in New York but has newspapers for other states, and many states are now digitizing their newspapers and placing online for free. Google abandoned its newspaper project but pages are still available online at https://news.google.com/newspapers.
Before paying for a newspaper site, browse their holdings to see if they have papers from the dates and places in which your ancestors lived. My favorite site is GenealogyBank, but short subscriptions may help you find what you need even if they only have papers for one place/time of interest.
Overwhelming? Sure, but it is all out there, just waiting for you to work on preserving and sharing your family history. Take one step, tackle one small project at a time. Any bit you do, no matter how small, will preserve more information for our younger generations and those to come than might have been otherwise saved. So just get started!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. I have no financial interest in any of the above organizations or businesses, and none of the recommendations were solicited by them.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

In Honor of Those Who Served and are Serving (not just in uniform)

US flag at half-mast at sunset, Indiana, by a3_nm on fr.wikipedia. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

McMurray Family, Payne Family (Click for Family Tree)

It is with great sadness that our flag today flies at half mast*- our country has lost a military hero and a man who has given most of the years of his life to service for our country, its values, its preservation, and its people.

Whether or not you like the politics of John McCain doesn’t matter, and yes, he was not a perfect human- none of us are. But he loved this country and its citizens, and did his best to honor them, whether it was his resolve to survive honorably as a downed Navy pilot enduring the horrors of the Hanoi Hilton (North Vietnamese POW camp for you young’uns) or negotiating across the aisle in the halls of Congress to enact legislation that would better the lives of everyday Americans. John McCain is a true American Hero, and it is good that we honor him.

This is not meant to be a political post, but the feelings of his passing weigh heavy on many hearts, mine included. These feelings have also made me think of our own ancestors who devoted their energy to preserving our freedoms, helping us all to be better souls, and even those who braved a wide, unpredictable ocean and the unknown to start a new and better life in America for their families and descendants. They too are American Heroes- our ‘quiet’ heroes.

All of our immigrant ancestors fit into the hero category, in my not-always-so-humble opinion. The very earliest, in the 1600s, would have known little about this country before they came. (And yes, some of our lines go back that far!) Later immigrants would have had more knowledge, though probably little about the conditions on board ship, or the terrible way many immigrants were treated once they got to our shores. Some came to build a new civilization where men (literally- only men like them) would be free, some were fleeing persecution due to religion, and others came to enrich their fortunes, help their families to survive, and have some land to leave their children. They braved unbelievable circumstances to get here and to settle here, and leave us an incredible legacy- the United States of America.

Our ancestors of the McMurray-Payne-Burnell line are a great example of those who chose to serve in various ways. Robert Burnell (1669-1737) was born in Essex, Massachusetts, so his father (still a question to this researcher) may have been our immigrant ancestor before 1669. Both families would have been involved in protecting homes, farms, and businesses, theirs and their neighbors. They would have lived through the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692- wonder if they had any involvement? (There were also other cases of accused ‘witches’ in other parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, where other early family lived.) It would have been hard to speak up against the hysteria without being accused yourself- there are always such considerations when taking a stand.

Headstone of Capt. Joseph Burnell 23 Sep 1807, in Center Cemetery, Chesterfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

Robert’s grandson, Capt. Joseph Burnell (1725-1807) was a volunteer to the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and participated in the Siege of Boston. He is also noted as being on duty during the war at West Point Military Academy, working as an ‘artificer’- someone skilled in working on artillery in the field. He likely was teaching others those skills so that our rag-tag Revolutionaries would at long last win the war against the British, giving us freedom from king and tyranny.

Capt. Burnell’s son John Burnell (1750-1837), another of our ancestors,  was 26 in 1776, and he too served his country as a Continental soldier. There are quite a lot of documents for men named John Burnell from Massachusetts, so we will need more research to determine his actual service.

Rufus Burnell (1796-1875) was the son of John Burnell and Mary Bannister (1752-1838). (“Rufus” is from the same Latin word that means ‘red’ or ‘reddish hair’- without color photography can you get a sense of what he looked like?) Rufus was a Deacon in the church, and was serving his neighbors in a spiritual manner. Nancy Kingsley (1792-1839) was his first wife of three- sadly, he buried the first two. Their son, Kingsley Abner Burnell (1824-1905) spent his own life spiritually ministering to others. He travelled around the world with his brother, Thomas Scott Burnell (1823-1899), also a missionary. Both men were very involved with the American Missionary Society, and Kingsley, also known as “K. A.” journeyed through the United States promoting the Young Men’s Christian Association, or Y.M.C.A. Soldiers during the Civil War throughout the South were served by K. A. as well. The stories of these two Burnell brothers is an incredible one, and we will tell much more in upcoming posts.

Of course, we must, “remember the ladies” as Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams as our new republic was being organized. There is very little that survives of their lives, unfortunately, but we know that they would have been beside their husband, supporting him in his efforts to serve, while raising their children, maintaining the household and garden, etc.- they served their families and communities in their own quiet ways.

Marriage license of Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell, 05 May 1870, Kane Co., Illinois.

The only daughter of Kingsley Abner Burnell was Nancy Maria Burnell (1847-1898), who married Edward Biron Payne (1847-1923). Edward was the son of a minister, Joseph Hitchcock Payne (1810-1884), became a minister himself, and even founded a short-lived Utopian colony in California. He wrote as well as lectured, and was a Christian Socialist who stood up for the rights of “the common man.” Edward gave up a pulpit in a wealthy church in New England in order to minister to others who needed him more because of their life situations in the mill towns of the Northeast. He may have contracted tuberculosis there, or possibly earlier, when he and Nanie (Nancy’s nickname) were in Chicago, Illinois, working in the poorest areas with Dwight L. Moody. Despite going blind in her early 20s, Nanie worked alongside Edward, and was involved with women’s groups in his pastorate.

Lynette PAYNE, portrait, taken at Sparks Studio, Marshalltown, Iowa, possibly as early as 1897.

Lynette Payne (1879-1968) was the only child of Edward and Nanie, and she grew up in the liberal town of Berkeley, California. As a teen she read a paper of her father’s to a Socialist group, and she likely attended meetings and lectures of socialists during her teenage years. She also probably attended lectures of the leading as well as local Suffragists who spoke in Berkeley and across the bay in San Francisco. (There was no Golden Gate Bridge back then!) Her father gave a series of lectures on female suffrage, and Lynette was 17 years old in 1896 when California voters decided not to ‘give’ the vote to women. Lynette moved to small-town Iowa after her high school graduation in 1897. She was outspoken there on women’s rights too- she was the first woman to ride a bicycle in Newton, Iowa, and even wore the scandalous new “bloomers.” Lynette was a devout Episcopalian and served her church with work done at St. Stephens in Newton.

Lynette married William E. McMurray (1874-1957) who owned a grocery store and meat market in Newton, always serving his customers  with a kind attitude. They had three children, and the two sons, Edward A. McMurray (1900-1992) and Herbert C. McMurray (1911-1989), both became doctors, serving their patients with kindness and understanding.

Edward A. McMurray, Jr., 1943, likely taken in boot camp at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri.

Dr. Edward A. McMurray’s son with Edith Roberts (1899-1982) served his country in World War II. Edward A. McMurray, Jr. (1924-2010), was an aircraft mechanic in the South Pacific. Our Marines would take a small island from the Japanese, the Seabees would go in and bulldoze a landing strip, then Ed and other Army-Air corp members would be taken in to set up the mechanics shop for the airplanes. His enlistment lasted the duration of the war, and their ship was in Tokyo Harbor on 2 September 1945 when the Japanese signed their surrender. He always was so proud to have served, and helped preserve, the freedom of our country and of those around the world.

Ed served his community as a trusted pharmacist for many years after the war. Some of his customers called him, “Doc,” showing the respect they had for his knowledge and loving care.

These are just some of the people in our McMurray-Payne-Burnell family lines who are “quiet” American Heroes. There are so many more who have served others throughout the years. These Heroes have served as role models for their children and communities, and we can never know the true extent of their legacy.

You can read more about the above persons in other blog posts- there are too many to reference- just put their name in the search box, or click on the tagged name that is a part of this post to find other stories about these fine people.

There are many more blog posts planned to tell the stories of these quiet American Heroes.

A heartfelt thank you to them all, and to John McCain. May they all Rest in Peace.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. * Half-mast vs. half-staff- technically, flags are flown in the US at half-staff, as the staff is the flagpole. Only on Navy ships is ‘half-mast’ technically appropriate, as flags there are flown from a mast. Since the Honorable John McCain as well as this writer are Navy veterans, we shall let it be ‘half-mast’ for today.By the way, the flag should always be raised to full height first, then lowered halfway, in honor of the fallen- not just raised to half-way up.
  2. Please check out other, more detailed stories of our “quiet” American Hero ancestors on this blog.
  3. Subscribe to the blog to be notified of new posts.

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Some Global Housekeeping

“We Help Mommy” c 1956

Part of the reason the blog has been quiet lately is GDPR. You may not have heard of it, but you likely have gotten quite a lot of requests to update subscriptions, consent to cookies, etc. when you visit websites. Getting ready for GDPR has been a stressful nightmare of research, no answers yet, and wondering why one part of the world can dictate terms to another.

But we are global now.

The European Union’s “General Data Protection Regulation” or GDPR, went into effect on 25 May 2018. It is a huge document designed to provide strict privacy and consumer rights to internet users, something truly needed. It is a sweeping law and no one is quite sure how it is going to work, so that is a big part of the problem and global stress.

While the majority of readers of this blog are from the U.S., we have had a few from overseas (the U.K., which will be in the E.U. until 2019), plus of course, thousands of foreign hackers as well. (We personally don’t care about the rights of the latter group.) California already has some data protection requirements too, so we are providing this Privacy Policy in order to comply the best a small family history blog can do.

This website is paid for entirely out of our own pocket- no advertising is allowed on it.  We do not make money from the website through ads or page clicks, and we do not market anything to you (except a love for family history, we hope); we do not pass your info on to other marketing sites.

Despite all that, we MUST make these changes (or so some believe, others in the US are doing nothing) or possibly be subject to very large fines, even though we do not live in the E.U. Seeing what big companies have done with the data from Facebook, Google, etc., the law is probably good, although it has led to the closing of some important genealogy and family history websites, and small family blogs as well, as compliance is too onerous and/or expensive (both time- and money-wise). Hopefully we can navigate this well enough to keep this blog going- but I would rather be writing about our family history than coming up with a privacy policy. And I would rather be BAKING “Grandma Edie’s Sugar Cookies” than researching and writing about computer cookies.

Please see our Privacy Policy and Cookies page, and do not get too frustrated always having to agree to the use of Cookies. It’s our brave new world.

Now that we have helped to make some  history by complying with this new law, let’s get back to researching the family history past. Thanks for your patience.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Thankful Thursday- Edith Roberts Luck’s Christmas Cookies” — http://heritageramblings.net/2014/12/25/thankful-thursday-edith-roberts-lucks-christmas-cookies/

 

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