Green Bean Machine

New Hobby: Genealogy

A couple months ago, my uncle started a family tree on Geni. I’ve played with other family tree applications before, but this one is bar none, the best ever, because it’s actually a social community.

I’ve gone a little nuts with researching my lineage (I’ve added over 2000 people to the tree already). My mom had a small stack of family photos, which I’ve been scanning and uploading to Geni.

Joel and Lavinia Mitchell, my great great grandparents. (1946)

Great grandma Addie, looking thoroughly modern. (1927)

Discovering distant family relations and their stories is so much fun. For instance, one of my most distant ancestors I’ve been able to trace, Luke Dillon, emigrated from Ireland to America in the late 1700s. He apparently was a quite the drunk. One winter, he was riding home from a tavern in the snow. He dismounted, sat down by a tree, and was found six weeks later, frozen. Can I just say “!!!!”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 6:42 am and is filed under Life, The internets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments

Jeff Corriveau | September 11th, 2008 | 1:12 am

Hi Casey,

I stumbled across your site tonight, and I really liked it. I was starting to dabble in genealogy a while back, but it’s really hard when your family never kept any good records. That story about your ancestor Luke Dillon was hilarious. And can I just say - that Linzie Hunter postcard book - absolute genius! Who would have thought to make an art treatment out of spam emails? That’s the kind of brilliance that comes around only once in a while, and it always makes you say “How come I didn’t think of that?” I love all the quirky stuff you pin onto your site.

I’m a cartoonist with a comic strip on trial right now in the Contra Costa Times, and I was looking around for area bloggers.

–Jeff
http://www.deflocked.com

Casey | September 12th, 2008 | 3:37 pm

Thanks, Jeff!

Genealogy’s fun, but, yeah, it’s hard when your family doesn’t take good records. I can’t find very much on my dad’s side, but my mom comes from a long line of Quakers’ who kept very good records. I’ve done a lot of Google searches, but I’m using other people’s family trees to fill in the holes in mine.

I’ll keep an eye out for your strip in the Times!

Jeff Corriveau | September 11th, 2008 | 1:12 am
Hi Casey,

I stumbled across your site tonight, and I really liked it. I was starting to dabble in genealogy a while back, but it’s really hard when your family never kept any good records. That story about your ancestor Luke Dillon was hilarious. And can I just say - that Linzie Hunter postcard book - absolute genius! Who would have thought to make an art treatment out of spam emails? That’s the kind of brilliance that comes around only once in a while, and it always makes you say “How come I didn’t think of that?” I love all the quirky stuff you pin onto your site.

I’m a cartoonist with a comic strip on trial right now in the Contra Costa Times, and I was looking around for area bloggers.

–Jeff
http://www.deflocked.com
Casey | September 12th, 2008 | 3:37 pm
Thanks, Jeff!

Genealogy’s fun, but, yeah, it’s hard when your family doesn’t take good records. I can’t find very much on my dad’s side, but my mom comes from a long line of Quakers’ who kept very good records. I’ve done a lot of Google searches, but I’m using other people’s family trees to fill in the holes in mine.

I’ll keep an eye out for your strip in the Times!

New Hobby: Genealogy

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