GLF-LIN
During her teenage years, Lin spent countless hours copying royal lines on to 3 x 5 index cards. Interest in her own family history started not long after, but only she began genealogical activity in earnest in the 1980s after taking an adult education class in genealogy. Now some twenty odd years later she has both taught adult
education classes in genealogy and researched her own royal lines the
tied her directly to the people on those index cards.
Lin enjoys familiarizing herself with different aspects and areas of
research, often "adopting" the lines of family, friends or public
figures to explore places and resources she doesn't have call for in
her own lines. This has given her a breadth of knowledge of many
states and a few non-US areas, although her primary focus is in three
of the New England states: Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
When the need arises and she has the time, Lin likes to use the
nearby research facilities of the State Library and Archives in Augusta,
Maine; the Maine Historical Society in Portland; and the Maine
Franco-American Genealogical Society in Auburn.
Among her current areas of genealogical interest are finding living
cousins, Colonial America with emphasis on New England, Mayflower
families, notable kin, and the people of Maine.
GLF-RITA
My genealogy researching started as a project in high school. I knew my parents and the names of grandparents, but that was about all I had to go on. Little did I know at this time my mother had been doing genealogy research for years and had quite a lot of information. When she showed me what she had researched I was excited to see many generations and wanted to know more. She took me to libraries and showed me how to do look ups of certain members of the lines. When I read her notes I noticed several blank areas and wanted to fill them in. I started researching on these areas and soon became quite good at doing look-ups. I also went to other relatives to find information they might have or remember on the family.
After I got married in 1969 I added more to the family lines with children of my own. While my children were young I got away from researching. When the computer came into being my husband and I purchased one and it was then I restarted my researching. I became involved in genealogy chat rooms with other chatters doing the same type of researching that I was. It was great fun to find a person researching the same names as you were and to compare notes adding to each others research. During this time certain topics would come up and because I liked looking things up I would go and do a research on it. Some of these topics included funeral home records, obituaries, cemetery records, and funerals themselves, there were many more too numerous to mention here. For most of my information I got it from my dad who was a funeral director.
I then would go into a chat room and give a presentation on it. It was these presentations that helped others to know of other avenues they could use to help in their researching. I was a constant person in a chat room, giving talks and helping others with their researching, I became friends with a few hosts and they recommended me as a host.
In 1998 I started training on aol and became a host on July 5, 1999. Since this time I have helped in beginners and general genealogy chats. I have given information of where to go on line to find things they might need in their researching. During some of my chats I found out that the chatters who came in liked doing quizzes. I then started giving them once a week. I did them on a variety of subjects with mostly all of them being genealogy related. Not only have I been a host all this time, but have continued doing researching on my lines. I believe in this time I have been a beneficial influence in giving information to help other researchers in their quest for answers and in reaching their goals.
Current activities:
Chat Host:
Thursday evenings on GLF -- Vital Signs
GLF-WOHLFORD
I have been doing genealogy off and on since 1970. I guess what really got me interested was my dad talking about his grandfather who was in the Civil War at Gettysburg. In 1970 I was living with my aunt and uncle while going to college. She and my other aunt were close to the granddaughters of my Civil War ancestor and had pictures of them. Unfortunately this family turned into a brickwall. Then I got interested in my dad's family but another brickwall. Then I got interested in my mom's Wohlford / Wolford ancestors and have more or less concentrated on them. The families I research are Burns, Ford, Avery, West, Wolford, Wohlford, Kleckner Snook, Kraemer, Koch, Ferguson and Allen. I am also interested in the Colby family in Henniker NH area.
I was a host in the good old days of Golden Gate Genealogy on AOL. I was Host GFS Wolford. I still host on AOL (though unofficially) as GCH-Wohlford. I host here in Beginners on Monday as GLF-Wohlford. I volunteer on www.raogk.com to photograph tombstones in Windsor Co. VT and also with the Hartland VT Historical Society.
I am a member of Vermont Old Cemetery Association, the Hartland VT Historical Society, the York Co (PA) Heritage Trust and the Berks Co (PA) Genealogical Society.
I am retired from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs where I worked for almost 34 years.
Interests outside genealogy include bowling, U of Miami Hurricane sports ( Miami '72 BA in Politics and Public Affairs), art, books about New England, ghosts and photography.
I currently live in Quechee VT, but hope to be able to move to the Gettysburg PA area this summer to be closer to family both living and dead (mostly dead).
Current activities:
Chat Host:
Monday evenings on GLF -- Beginners Genealogy
Friday evenings on GLF -- Paranormal Genealogy
GLF-ZOS
I am retired and now live on a 108 area abandoned farm in Northern New state near where my wife was born and brought up. I spend 34 years working on and with IBM mainframes for a large insurance company. I lived thru S360, S370, S390 and ZOS IBM mainframe operating systems. Yes that is where I picked ZOS from.
I meet my wife in Germany where we were married some 39 plus years ago. We were both serving in the US Army at the time.
As a teenager and younger I was always interested in the history of New England and the early settlement of North America. As a teenager I found that John ALDEN and Priscilla MULLENS of the Mayflower were ancestors when I saw a family Tree at a COPELAND family reunion. I think this is what got me interested in Genealogy and family history. I did not really start doing genealogy research seriously until around 1995, but always did a bid of reading and looking at family history.
I still remember how surprised I was to discover New York did not require vital records until 1880s. My wife’s family roots are from Northern New York and back to Ontario, Canada on her father’s side. On her mothers side she can trace back to the early Dutch Settlement of New Amsderdam. That was when I realized how lucky I was that most of my ancestors stayed in Massachusetts until well into the 1800s.
I am presently serving my 2nd term as president of the St Lawrence County Genealogy Society and am also a member of the St Lawrence County Historical Society.
I have done a number of photo inventories of the older and smaller cemeteries in Western Massachusetts, Southern Vermont and Northern New York in the past few years. I hope to do a few more cemetery inventories this summer. My St Lawrence county Cemetery inventories along with those done by Anne and others are online at Anne Cady’s excellent web site at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~stlawgen/index.HTM . This web site is what really got me interested in doing cemetery inventories and posting them.
My research resources are a membership in the NEHGS and access to Heritage Quest. These two give me US Census records and New England area record access. I also use the LDS site and use the 1901, 1906 and 1911 Canada Census information that is online.
Current activities:
Chat Host:
Tuesday & Thursday afternoon on GLF -- General Genealogy
