Home-grown obituaries and online newspaper databases

When my mother passed away last June, my brother asked if I would write her obituary. After my having read and used countless obituaries as part of my genealogical research, this was my first time in writing one, and I was certainly aware that I needed to include all of the most useful information for future genealogists and family historians. This obituary is preserved in the archives of my hometown's local newspaper, the Newberry Observer. Fortunately, the contents of the Observer are available going back to the beginning of 2006 in the Access World News database (a NewsBank product), which I can access from home thru my local public library or thru the academic library at the university where I work. Here is the text of Mom's obituary:

Newberry Observer, The (SC) - June 18, 2007

NEWBERRY - Corinne Martin Smith, 86, of Newberry, widow of George Smith, died Saturday, June 16, 2007. Altha Corinne Martin was born on Dec. 19, 1920, in Newberry County in Moon Township near Chappells. Youngest of seven children, she was the daughter of George Washington Martin and Elizabeth Estelle King. She grew up in the Mollohon Village neighborhood of Newberry and graduated from Newberry High School in 1938. She married George Thomas Smith of Newark, N.J. on Jan. 31, 1943, at Epting Memorial Methodist Church in Newberry. After World War II, she and her husband established their home in East Orange, N.J., but in 1960 the Smiths returned to Newberry, where they lived the remainder of their lives. For many years, Mrs. Smith was employed as a ward secretary at Newberry County Memorial Hospital. Her husband, George, passed away in 1999.

Mrs. Smith was an avid reader of mysteries, and was well known throughout Newberry for her annual Christmas tradition of making cookies to be distributed to friends and local businesses. She was a longtime member of the Mt. Bethel-Garmany Home Demonstration Club, and of Epting Memorial United Methodist Church and its Mary Addison Circle.

Mrs. Smith is survived by her sons William Jeffrey "Jeff" Smith of Newberry and Andrew Martin "Drew" Smith of Tampa, Fla. and by many nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Newberry Memorial Gardens. Memorials may be made to the Newberry County Library, 1300 Friend St., Newberry, SC 29108.

Preservation and storage

While at the nearby Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft superstore yesterday, I purchased a 12" by 12" "E-Z Load Memory Book" manufactured by Pioneer Photo Albums. It advertises itself to be of archival quality (acid, lignin, and PVC free). So I now have a place to put the physical photo of my grandparents' family. Since I won't need the album very often, I've put it on a bookshelf on the other side of my home office. Once I've cleaned out and made some room in the office closet, it may end up there.

The size of the pages means that I can use the same album to store originals of other kinds of documents.

To Do: Go thru existing files and locate, digitize, and store original documents.

Starting points, family photos, scanning, and Paint.NET

One of my favorite family photos is the last picture (to my knowledge) taken of my maternal grandparents and all 7 of their children (including my mother, the youngest of the 7). I was present at the time this picture was taken, and it was taken in the home of my grandparents in Newberry, South Carolina. Because Granddaddy Martin died on 12 November 1964, I know that the photo was taken before then, but I don't know the exact date on which it was taken.

I have scanned a copy of this photo (which had been printed onto an 8.5x11-inch sheet of photo paper) using my HP PSC 950 multifunction printer, and then used Paint.NET (free imaging software) to crop the actual image.

To Do: Preserve the printed copy of the photo using archivally safe storage.

In the photo, seated left to right are Mattie Cleo Martin McLeod (Aunt Cleo), Elizabeth Estelle King Martin (Grandmother Martin), George Washington Martin (Granddaddy Martin), and Altha Corinne Martin Smith (Mom). Standing behind them, left to right, are Walter Lee Martin (Uncle Walter), Anna Naomi Martin Tollison (Aunt Naomi), George Ernest Martin (Uncle Ernest), Marion Virginia Martin LeValley (Aunt Jenny), and Robert Ansel Martin (Uncle Ansel). My mother, who passed away last June, was the last surviving member of this family.

One funny story about this photo worth preserving: Aunt Jenny (my favorite aunt) was not wearing a dress that day (she was likely wearing shorts), so when it came time for the family photo, she needed to borrow the black dress and white plastic belt from her niece (Aunt Naomi's daughter, Billy Jean Tollison Goss). When Aunt Jenny passed away in early 1992, it was then that I first began doing serious genealogical research.

The Bad Side

In the same room as the "neat" side of the office (the side with the computer desk, printer desk, and credenza) is the "messy" side, as pictured here. This will be the challenge for 2008.

Organizing and Starting Anew

I've renamed this blog to focus a bit less on my personal genealogy (although I will continue to use the blog for that purpose), but to focus a bit more on the methods of genealogy. Few people will read a blog about someone else's research unless they can learn from the process.

At the same time, I'm long overdue for cleaning up the mess in half my home office. So this blog will also serve to motivate that process. We'll begin with a photo of the good side of the office and another of the bad side.

Tag, I'm It

Steve Danko has "tagged" me in his blog, meaning that I need to come up with 5 things that most people don't know about me (and secondly, I'll have to come up with 5 other bloggers to tag, which is going to be the real tough part). So at least in this posting, I'll list my 5 things:

1. Back in the early 1990s, I collaborated with my (now) ex-sister-in-law, Rande Yates (her maiden name, I can't recall her new married name) on writing a number of songs. Rande is a very talented pianist, and after hearing some of her tunes, I volunteered to write lyrics to some of them. When she wrote a tune inspired by her young son (Benji), I wrote lyrics for it. Rande submitted "Benjamin's Song"(also called "Kindergarten Kid") to an annual contest held by the South Carolina Songwriters Association, and our song won first place in the children's/novelty category.
2. Growing up, I always watched GE College Bowl with host Allen Ludden on Sunday nights. So around 1980, when I was on the computer center staff at Clemson University, I volunteered to play in an exhibition game between Clemson faculty and Clemson students. I ended up on the faculty team with 3 Clemson history professors, but I was the only one on the team who could answer the history questions. I went on to coach the Clemson team for 8 years, and when I left Clemson for the University of South Florida, I coached the USF team, too. I was a regular College Bowl moderator for the regional games in the southeast U.S.
3. I learned to play bridge in college, and joined a duplicate bridge club in the late 70s/early 80s. I eventually earned enough master points at local tournaments to be a "Junior Master". (Fortunately, it didn't take many.)
4. I ended up as a co-star of my high school's senior play ("The Phantom Strikes Again", a mystery/comedy), primarily because the original male lead was also busy playing in the high school band, he was so busy with the band (when they played in Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans) that he didn't learn his lines, and I was chosen to replace him. If that hadn't happened, I would have played the butler with only about 3 speaking lines.
   
5. In 1970, I came in 2nd in the Newberry County (South Carolina) spelling bee. I believe that one of the words I misspelled was "cemetery".

Now I just have to figure out who to tag...

Sarah Ann YONCE and Nathan BODIE (son of Obediah BODIE)

My friend Steve Danko reminded me that I need to talk about my recent research activities in Salt Lake City's Family History Library. I found my new digital camera (with its "Text" mode) to be exceptionally helpful in recording pages from books, without the need for transcription or photocopying.

One of the techniques I used was to photograph the title page of the book, followed by the individual pages. I also found it useful to photograph the relevant index pages (which will come in handy if I discover that I missed a key page).

I began by examining the Family History Library Catalog for books relating to the name Bodie (or Boddie). I skipped books that I already own, or whose pages I already have photocopies of, or that are available online in digital form, or that were on microfilm.

The first book I looked at was Yonce families in the United States of America although it is interesting that the book has a slightly different title on its spine and at the top of its pages (Yonce Families in America). It does appear that I missed a few pages in this one, primarily in the descendants list in Chapter 13, but I have the more detailed descendant information from Chapter 14 (beginning on page 313). According to the book, Sarah Ann YONCE married Nathan BODIE, the son of Obediah BODIE. This is not the Nathan BODIE who was my great-great-grandfather (Nathan A. BODIE, Jr.) nor his father (Nathan BODIE, Sr.). The name "Nathan" is very common in the various branches of the BODIE/BODDIE family.

The book indicates that Nathan BODIE died in "Wagner" (in Aiken County, South Carolina), but this town should be spelled "Wagener". The town is spelled correctly in other places in the book.

Although I had details on some of the descendants of this line, the book has brought a large number of new descendants to my attention. I can imagine spending many months verifying the information in this book. I'll return to these individuals after I've reviewed the other material I found in SLC.