Shannon M. Thomas | Mostly Genealogy

Earlier this week I got my copy of Family Tree Magazine and I was reading an article that led me to  World War II History Network  and from there I found a link to an article about the United States Marine Corp making their casualty cards searchable.  You can find the database at  Casualty Cards Database. Fred Thomas, my husbands great uncle, was in WWII and in the Marines.  I searched the database and found : On the first page it states :  While the cards for World War II through Korea are not classified, however, they can often be very graphic.    Therefore, to maintain the dignity and honor of the Marines, the individual cards will only be released, upon request, on a case by case basis.    To request a card, please send an email to   history.division@usmc.mil   or a request in writting to: United States Marine Corps History Division Attn: Reference Branch 3078 Upshur Avenue Quantico, Virginia 221...

On Saturday Randy Seaver posted Saturday Night Genealogy Fun at his Genea-Musings blog.  Randy's mission was as follows:        1)  Have you done a good job of citing your sources in your genealogy management program or online family tree?  How are you doing?  How many source citations do you have, and how many people are in your tree?  What is the sources to persons ratio?        2)  Which master source (e.g., 1900 U.S. census, Find A Grave, specific book, etc.) do you have the most citations for?  How many?  How did you figure this out?        3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or on Facebook or Google+ in a post.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your post on this blog post. In Legacy I did a Source Citation Report. Legacy Source Citation Report screen. It took a little bit of time going through my report...thankfully it wa...

I have been following Russ Worthington's posts at Family Tree Maker User  about citing Ancestry.com Member Trees in FTM and I found a way to do the same in Legacy.  A way that works for me at least. I chose to add a generic source and then from the drop down menu Online database. The Source List Name is the name that you see in your source list for easy retrieval.  I put **USE THIS ONE** to make it stand out until I get the others cleared out. I left the fields for author last name, author given name, author suffix, date and agency/creator blank to get the results that I wanted. Click save and move to the detail section. In the item of interest field I put the name of the Member Tree in quotation marks, family tree by member name, profile for with birth and death information in parenthesis. My citation now look like: Footnote/Endnote Citation: "Public Member Tree," database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Apr 2014), "davis /ri...

William Andrew Siegfreid is my 2nd great grandfather.  He is the son of William Henry and Eve Greenzwig Siegfried. William was born 21 October 1857 in Millport, Lower Towamensing Township, Carbon county, Pennsylvania and he died on 16 February 1927 in Sugarloaf Township, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. William married Emma Lydia Shellhammer in 1880.  They had the following children: Otto Siegfried William Edger Siegfried Arthur Siegfried -- I'm not sure if this is really another child or if he is Archibald...more things for my to do list! Archibald (Archie) Siegfried Cassia Siegfried Charles Crawford Siegfried Darwin Wesley Seigfreid (my great grandfather) Gertrude Siegfried Harry Siegfried Harty Titus Siegfried Hattie Siegfried Dorothy Siegfried County Historical Maps of Pennsylvania  (Harrisburg, Pa.: Archives Publishing Company of Pennsylvania, Incorporated, (donated) 1950). Digital version at  FamilySearch Books Online  - free. I ...

I'm finally getting around to doing this. On Saturday March 22, 2014 Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings posted Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Many Surnames in Your Database. Randy's mission: 1)  Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database. 2)  Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task. 3)  Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!!  Or 20!!! 4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post. This is one of my favorites; I like looking at statistics about my database.  I use Legacy 8 and there is a new button that says statistics and gives you a lot of gre...

This is my great grandfather, Harold Seigfreid. Harold was born in Shickshinny, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA on 5 May 1918 to Alonzo Elwood and Edna Mae Gensel Seigfreid. On the 1920 census Harold is living with his parents and he is 1 year 5 months old.  They live in Foundryville, Briar Creek Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, USA. On the 1930 census Harold is living in Philipstown, Putnam, New York, USA with is parents and he is 11 years old.  Also living in the household are his brothers Walter and William Seigfreid and his Aunt (his mother's sister) Myrtle Gensel Meeker with her husband Owen and daughter Mary. In 1932 Harold leaves school; he is only 14 years of age. In 1934 Harold started working in the mines.  He worked at the Stackhouse Coal Company in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania from 1934 to 1937; the Glen Alden Coal Company in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania from 1937 to 1941; the Salem Collieries in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania from 1945 to 1948. ...

Elizabeth Jane Savage is my husband's 3rd great grandmother.  She was born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania on 1 May 1821 to Henry and Elizabeth (Frantz) Savage.   Elizabeth married Joseph Thomas (#2 of 52) on 19 June 1854 and they had the following children: Daniel W. Thomas John W. Thomas Joshua Eugene Thomas Parvin Oscar Thomas Ella G. Thomas William James Thomas Anna E. Thomas When Joseph was killed in April of 1865 in the Civil War Elizabeth continued to take care of their children.  She did not remarry.  She remained in Fishing Creek Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania where I found them in the 1860 Census.  From the List of Pensioners I found that in 1883 Elizabeth was getting $8.00 a month to care for her family.  Elizabeth died in April of 1890 and she is buried in Dodson Cemetery in Huntington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania with other members of her husbands family. I don't know anyt...