Kansas City
The Grand Genealogy Journey 2010 (Virtual Edition) Starts Anew
Believe it or don’t, but it’s been three years since the Big Train Trip. I’m really ready to go again, but circumstances currently won’t allow that. So we started to lay out our virtual genealogical dream trip traveling via Amtrak and other conveyances. We ran into a set of difficulties soon after the beginning of the trip. As a result, …
June 30, 2010 Wednesday at 2:34 pm
Happy Mother’s Day, Haplogroup L3!
Yes, a genetic genealogy remembrance of Mitochrondrial DNA Day! Here are my mothers (my matrilineage), as far as I know them, with their spouse’s name in [ ]: Lillian Gines (living)[H.V. Manson] Annie Florida Corrine Long (b. 1902, Kansas City, MO; died 1986, Kansas City, MO)[Wm. E. Gines Mary Elizabeth Johnson (b. 1870, Clay County, MO; died 1946, Kansas City, …
May 9, 2010 Sunday at 12:39 pm
Genealogical Customer Service Kudos
I had to order a copy of a Missouri birth certificate on short notice recently. I ordered it through VitalChek. Now the trick is not to order birth certificates from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in Jefferson City, which is the main repository. Instead, order them from Kansas City or St Louis, which both have statewide records. …
April 23, 2010 Friday at 5:17 pm
Black Catholic History Month: The Catholics in My Families
The number of black Catholics in the United States is small. I know this both anecdotally and empirically. I was probably a teenager before I met another black Catholic family. My parents, each for their own reasons, converted to Catholicism as teenagers. They did not know each other at the times of their conversions. My mother was raised as the …
November 16, 2009 Monday at 7:32 pm
Why I Blog–Reason No. 1 and Reason No. 776,002
Several weeks ago, in a post called Happy Dance Days are Here Again, I posted some photographs. The photos were of Frank Gines and his wife Willie V. Cole Gines, and their children. Frank Gines (1883-1946) was a son of Richard William Gines (1860-?) and Sylvia LeJay Gines (1863-1940). One of Frank’s younger brothers was my grandfather, William Edward Gines …
March 25, 2009 Wednesday at 7:42 pm
My Favorite Photograph
This was supposed to have been a post for the 4th Edition of Smile for the Camera at Shades of the Departed, but I missed the deadline. (Somewhere along the line, about three weeks ago, perhaps, I slid behind schedule and have been running to catch up! We’ll see what that means for the Games!). In any event, I decided …
August 14, 2008 Thursday at 8:54 pm
My BFFs
With school starting in about a week and a half (what?!), it’s been busy around here. So I’m slow on several things. First thing is the BFF. I was tagged twice–by Elizabeth O’Neal and Janet Iles. I actually met Elizabeth at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in June. She writes the crisp and frequently wry Little Bytes of Life. …
August 8, 2008 Friday at 10:23 pm
Carnival of Genealogy: 106 Years in America–And More!
One ancestor I’m really trying to learn more about is my great-great-grandfather William (“Billie”) Sanford. He was born in 1809 in Virginia and died in 1916 in Texas at the age of 106! A book I read says that he is the oldest person buried in the “colored” section of the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. (170 …
July 16, 2008 Wednesday at 4:24 am
New Midwest Genealogy Center Opens
The Kansas City Star reports that the ribbon-cutting and dedication of the new Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri, was held today. As regular readers know, that’s right in the heart of my maternal homelands. I’m quite eager to visit on my next trip back! But, until I can see it in person and blog about it, here’s the next …
June 21, 2008 Saturday at 10:38 pm
