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Data driven crazy…by Google

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That’s me currently. I’ll admit, I do love research and technology. It’s the behind the scenes data and interconnectedness that amazes and perplexes me. Sure I hit roadblocks like any other genealogist, but the ones I am finding myself up against lately are of a technology nature as it relates to starting my business.

I get asked pretty regularly, how’s your website traffic, what’s your reach? I just assumed I could go into my web hosting service and see the data. It must be buried pretty deep because I couldn’t find anything and the support boards weren’t any help either. Time to spend some time and do this right.

Google Analytics was the recommendation I found at every turn. What, it’s free?! I’m sure the catch is that Google has access to my data in my website, maybe more. I can deal with that, I think… So I pulled the GA switch this weekend. From there, I went to my Facebook company page and figured what the heck, let’s promote this page and I created a paid ad with a fixed budget not the crazy $5 per day. I set up target audience demographics, interests etc… I thought, this is way too easy. And it really was! I downloaded both the Facebook Insights and another analytics app that pulls in the GA data. Now, I’m hooked. I can tell in an instant how many unique visitors, what’s my bounce rate and how long they stay on each page of the website. Just plain cool.

Google has some cool technology typically so I thought I would check out the Google Glass tour that started in Durham, NC. This proved to be an underwhelming experience compared to all of the great tech endeavors Google has been part of. After waiting in an hour long sun-baked line with my children (2 under the age of 5) and our caregiver, it was finally our turn to see what the buzz was about. I put the Google Glass on, it kept trying to find a connection. It didn’t understand my commands, or actually my question “Ok Glass, where am I?” until it was my last moment with this contraption. Finally the screen above my right eye displayed the words “Durham NC” and then showed me on a map. Hmmm, do I need a small piece of glass monitor over my right eye to show me where I am? Perhaps I should have asked how to say “good evening” in Japanese. As a genealogist, the most practical purpose i considered this Terminator type eye piece would provide was the ability to take photos of graves and dictating what was being viewed. I could easily pull out my iPhone for this and as far as pics, the $1500 current pricetag of Glass would more easily translate to a new Nikon.

While I continue to build my business, I will be keeping stock of the steps and technology along the way. Watch out there could be a lecture in my future! In the meantime, I wonder how many new visitors liked my Facebook page or visited my website while I wrote this? Ok Glass, where am I?

Business cards, logos and QR codes – OH MY!

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QR code!

QR code!

Finally, I’ve settled on a business card design, and what would a modern day business card be without a QR code? Yep, I did that too. I seem to be teaching myself the ropes of starting up a business as I go. I’ve designed a website, figured out how to link it all up to social media channels and all because I am a cheapskate! I even farmed out my brand logo to a pool of designers and the winning submission came from India. I believe I can write a book now on how start up a new business on a shoestring budget. Stay tuned…

Most of these business details I wanted to put into place as preparation for the Rootstech conference I will be headed to in February of 2014 which is being held in Salt Lake City, UT. This is a very large conference combining genealogy resources and technology. I will have the exciting opportunity to spend an evening at the Family History Library and hopefully find new treasures to complement my current research. When I look back at my younger self I never thought I would ever be excited to spend an evening in a library!

Now, back to the QR code as I probably should have explained that bit. It’s that black and white digital image found on a lot of products, kinda like the UPC code but this is square and might make your eyes cross if you stare at it too long :-). You can scan the code with your smartphone if you have a QR reader app. Scanning this code from my business card will launch the mobile version of my website myancestrysteps.com for a virtual user experience. I’ve placed the image into the top of this post so you can scan for yourselves… Also up top is a tiny link to preview the new business cards. Enjoy and thanks for all of your support!!

By Way of Casino

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“When was the last time you did something for the first time?” my Director at my day job asked me recently. It didn’t take me long to answer because the month prior, I had embarked on a solo trip to Tampa, Florida to meet a Sullivan cousin for the first time.

 I had found out she was a living relative over a year ago and gathered the nerve to call her one day while my mom was visiting. The beginning of the conversation was peppered with a few awkward silences while I shared what I knew about her family and asked her questions. Following that conversation I emailed her some newspaper clippings and photos I had. I felt I really needed to convince her I was a genuine family member and build trust.

 Over the next several months we communicated through emails only and I gained many of her memories and stories in response. Then this year we started discussing how we could possibly meet. Now, she’s a busy lady and travels often to visit her kids and grandkids. She’s a widow with a full social calendar and I’m a mom of 2 who works a full-time job, how could we make this work??

 I grabbed a long weekend in April and ran the dates by her with only a week’s notice. She was free! I guess I was headed to Tampa!

 The last call I had with her, I described what I would be wearing as she offered to not only pick me up at the airport but invited me to stay at her house. I tried to get her details beyond a cell number but she couldn’t decide if she’d leave her hair white or color it and the only photos I had of her were of when she was a child. She was now in her 70s. Good thing she was finally able to ID me because when you land in Florida looking for a 70 year old woman, well you’ll see them everywhere.

 We had an instant rapport and literally spent each waking moment out of the 4 days I was there, talking.  I never had a chance to write anything down because we were so engaged in conversation. My main hope out of the visit was to end the mystery of what my great grandfather John W. Sullivan looked like. I felt strongly she would possess a photo that I would just know was him. Unfortunately there was a bag of pictures she once located and could not find again. Each morning she woke early looking for them. I had no time to be disappointed because our visit was so special.

 During the car ride to her house from the airport I learned a lot about her independence and interests and how she enjoys driving to visit family in Colorado, New York and Virginia.  When I shared that I prefer to fly if going that far, I asked her how she breaks up the long trips and makes them enjoyable. Her response, “I travel by way of casino!”. I knew then that she was a real firecracker.

 When we got to her house, I learned that she and her husband had raised 6 children together (2 were his, 2 were hers from previous marriage and 2 they had together). They met as neighbors on the same street she still lives on. I got to meet her daughter and son-in-law the first night. No doubt they wanted to check me and my motives out, so I treated them to dinner at the Olive Garden—I insisted.

 Mornings were spent chatting poolside under the lanai and eating Costco cinnamon crunch muffins, days  (and most nights)were spent sifting through photos and documents while I feverishly scanned them with my new wand scanner or took photos with my iPad. I listened mostly to stories about her husband and his family and the grandkids because she was young when our shared relatives passed away.

 We spent Saturday, my first full day there walking through a boardwalk area of St. Petersburg and then walking and laying on the beach. We both got burned but luckily didn’t peel. We clearly were not paying attention, just gabbing.

 Once back at the homestead, she started rifling through her casino “frequent gambler” cards and said there were specials going on at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and we should head there that night. Game of choice (after my own heart), slots. I too acquired my frequent flyer card and got enough points to almost purchase my girls gifts at the Hard Rock shop, almost.

 The next morning I attended Catholic church with her, just fitting into her weekend routine. Later her daughter and son-in-law came over and we all headed to an Earth Day event where local greenhouses, growers and landscapers sell their goods directly. I enjoyed more time with the family and we even took photos of us cousins.

One of the photos was taken near a wall where her late husband kept a growth chart on everyone who entered the house (including a pet turtle!). I started to wish we lived closer and could do these things together more. That night I introduced my host to the Macaroni Grill only a few miles from her house. She’d never been there before and was excited to have so much for leftovers!

Monday morning was our last chat by the pool. We spent each day watching this sting ray-looking pool cleaner move about the pool yet never once swam in the pool!

 We waited until the last possible moment to leave for the airport.  I snuck back into my room and left a postcard note from North Carolina, as she had mentioned she collected post cards when I was about to board my initial flight to Tampa. With a gift of children’s song CDs for my kids and my heated up leftovers, we were off. She waited with me while I ate last night’s dinner and I only headed to my gate when I really had to. It was as if we didn’t want the weekend to end.

 I realized that stepping out of my comfort zone to take this trip, never once felt uncomfortable. I still treasure my first meeting of a newly discovered cousin and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. I hope she’ll visit my family and me someday but until we get a nearby casino, I will have my memories.

 

As long as I’m here…

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…I may as well blog.

I am sitting in Perkins library at beautiful Duke University after canvassing the campus looking for this place. I paid my 5 bucks to park, asked a student for help finding the library and was happy to escape the 90 degree heat when another kind student swiped her card to let me in.

I knew where I was headed once I got in as I called earlier in he day to confirm they had what I was looking for, the city directories for Binghamton, NY years 1857-1860. I was on a mission, I found the rows of cabinets and the correct drawer with ease. I did not find the microfiche with the catalog number I was searching for. After several unsuccessful pulls of other nearby drawers (that doesn’t sound right?!), I was still out of luck. The reference person assisted but she too couldn’t locate it. Hopefully I will get an email from the person who manages the fiche. It just figures really that this one item that’s probably rarely accessed has gone AWOL.

What am I hoping to find in the fiche? Perhaps some answers as to when my original Sullivan ancestors arrived here, what they did for a living, were there other family members I don’t know about? One thing about ancestry research is that you have to constantly confirm what data you learn of through any resources you can find and this is a very tedious process. But seeing as this is the first time I’ve had to travel (15 minutes from home) to secure this knowledge, I’ve done pretty well so far!

I hope I get an email tomorrow about the fiche’s location, but for now I’ve at least enjoyed some quiet alone time which is priceless even if I did have to pay 5 bucks for it!

 

Memorial Day – Michael Sullivan in the Civil War

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Folks are enjoying the 3 day weekend, time by the pool or off to the beach. I’m enjoying it all too, but having started this family research quest a few years ago, I have a new appreciation for those who serve or served this country. Several men in the family have served in different war times but the story of my great great grandfather’s brother Michael Sullivan is of the utmost significance to me.

He enlisted in the Corcoran’s Irish Brigade in 1862 in Binghamton NY. He was a mere 19 years old, the same age as many of today’s soldiers who are serving in the middle east. This was a particular group of Irishman who had recently emigrated and were led by Michael Corcoran who was set free from court martial to join federal forces against the confederacy. Why he was being court martialed had a bit to do with his disrespect toward the Crown of England, but I will leave it to you to secure your own history lesson.

I sent away for Michael Sullivan’s enlistment record and discovered he was already married and had a child while he was serving in the Union army. Long story short, Michael did not make it home from the war and his widow Mary remarried another Civil War soldier Orville Benton who raised Michael’s son William as his own (including a name change to Benton). I am researching the son William and hope that when the 1940 New York census is complete and available online I will learn more.

Michael served is the 155th infantry Company F. They saw several battles and Michael survived most but was wounded at the Siege of Petersburg in Virginia. He was taken as a prisoner of war at Ream’s Station. His final days were spent in the Salisbury NC confederate prison. He eventually died from his wounds and the horrible conditions of the over populated prison. His resting place is a mass grave for Union soldiers in Salisbury and the prison was burned to the ground. He never made it back to Binghamton to be buried in the Sullivan plot along with his mother and brothers Dennis and my great great grandfather Thomas.

Being a transplant in North Carolina from New York and being truly oblivious (until my time here) about the Civil War, I did not fully recognize or appreciate the toll of these battles and the true importance they played in shaping our history and what is now the future state.  Our modern issue over acceptance of gay marriage is reminiscent of the emancipation of slaves, a tortured minority. This war elevated an issue to all consciousness and conscience and the result was a true awakening of what civil rights was about. It seems to me that if this country can move past slavery, then gay marriage too shall come to pass. I just hope it’s in my lifetime not in my children’s.

More about the 155th:

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/155th_Regiment,_New_York_Infantry

More about the battle at Petersburg:

http://www.nps.gov/pete/index.htm

More about Ream’s Station:

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/ream-s-station.html

New info on Henry!

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Henry was a busy guy and it’s no wonder there was more out there for me to find about him. Now that I have started the blog, I constantly get new thoughts in my head on how to research family members. Now I know that Henry was “Superintendent Thompson” (because of his position with the railway), so that’s a search I never did before while perusing the archived newspapers at fultonhistory.com. I hit paydirt with 218 articles for me to scour through. Not all 218 were about him as there was also a Superintendent Thompson of schools, but I did discover a plethora of information about my Henry’s day to day life. Who knew that being a Superintendent of the railway basically meant you were also in charge of the destinations to which your railway transported people? I found that Henry was a man whom many in the Onondaga Valley were grateful for. It meant they could visit the Barnum circus (as it was not B&B at the time), attend the local baseball games (Oswego always brought the rain with them) and go on company outings. He became the Danforth Park manager in effect and anyone who wanted to schedule the park for their event went directly to Henry. Nuns from the local children’s asylum bestowed a gold cross on him for all of the gracious gestures he provided and local veterans who wanted to decorate graves of the fallen all got a free ride on Henry’s railway.

I have also had recent contact with Sister Catherine of the Catherdral of the Immaculate Conception. I decided to reach out to see if they had info on Henry’s death and I am still following up on other family members. Sister Catherine has been especially helpful during a time of thousands of people who must be searching for family history now that “Who Do You Think You Are” is so popular. I don’t know this woman, but I hope she understands the quest and is being very gracious with her research time. I have been very lucky so far. She’s provided me the wedding date of Henry and second wife Mary and the witnesses to the marriage which include Mary’s brother Michael and sister Kate. Unfortunately Henry died of arteriosclerosis which was also in her records.

One unsolved piece of the puzzle stems from Henry most likely living in Buffalo before finishing his life in Syracuse. I know this because of the 1860 census where he and Sarah and their son James were living in the 5th ward in Buffalo. I also found an article on Henry visiting relatives in Buffalo. He was a cartman at the time, but doing more research on railroad activity I have found there was a Henry Thompson named to the Board of Directors of the Fort Erie Railroad. There are a lot of articles online about a significant time in history when Jay Gould who owned the railroad (and several others) inflated the value of the stocks in the railroad to make it financially impossible for Cornelius Vanderbilt (yep, of thee Vanderbilts) to purchase the railroad. He took the profits for himself, bribed a few lawmakers in Albany and ultimately a Henry Thompson was called for testimony about what went down. From what I gather this Henry did not know much about Jay Gould’s underhanded ways and provided his sincere knowledge of the case. I have a strong feeling this is my Henry but I need to dig a bit deeper to be sure. What I have gathered thus far is this was a man of principle, ethics and someone you call when you are in need of a ride.

More to come as this further unravels. One thing I have discovered is that research has no end.