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A followup to the post just before this one. I found another tree owned by someone with the LeGrand name, so I messaged them also. I haven't heard from the first person I messaged, nor from this second person yet. Maybe someday!

Genealogists share. That's why we do what we do. My mother-in-law passed away in March of 2020, at the start of the Covid Pandemic. We had a viewing/family get together at the funeral home, and a burial, but no REAL funeral or celebration of life for her. We planned to have one in the future. Well, the future has arrived and I think we're all getting together to talk about her and celebrate her next month - 3 years later. That's a good thing. I started looking through some of her old pictures. During World War II, she used to meet with the sailors at the USO (or whatever they were called) and dance and party just about every week. I had made a book of her pictures after her niece shared them with me. I pulled those out again, thinking to use them in her celebration. I noticed the name of one of the sailors was Bates LeGrand. The genealogist in me thought about what an unusual name that was and that maybe I could find him or a family member and share the picture. I know that I would love for someone to surprise me with a picture like that. So I started with a Google Search, progressed to an Ancestry Search. I found his mom's obituary, his dad's obituary, his sister's obituary, his daughter's marriage. The USO clubs were in Texas, and he was from Texas. I then found his name in a tree on Ancestry and messaged the person explaining about the picture and asked if he knew a family member who would like to have it. If I hear from them I'll post again, here, along with a copy of the picture. In a different light, I've been asked to do a beginning genealogy class, with a class "activity", for kids age 6 to 10. This is my current challenge. It's a REAL challenge for me. I'm teaching my usual BEGINNING DNA class in two weeks. It's a "what" class, not a "how" class. Strictly discussing which DNA testing site would be the best place for solving your mystery; biology of DNA etc. How to actually solve your problem and understanding your matches is a later class. A full couple of months....

It's been a year and a half since my last post

We downsized our home about 6 years ago when moving from Tennessee to Arkansas. The time has come to complete the job. I've designated one room per month on a schedule posted with a magnet to the side of my refrigerator as the declutter/downsize target!!! I think I'm already overwhelmed and it's January. I planned to do the office first. I'm thinking I should have started with something like the guest room which has nothing but linens in a dresser and a closet full of games to start this process!!! Sigh. I need to take my genealogist hat off and look at things with the following questions in mind: (1) Would anyone else really want or care about this; and (2) where am I going to keep it and why. When we downsized the first time I took those multiple shelves of white three ring notebooks with all the family surnames on the edge of the binder and scanned everything of importance in them. I have those in directories on my computer, backed up online and on external hard drives. That was a big job, and boy did it feel good to finish it! What I came across today was several small boxes of cards from funerals of my parents, grandmother, husband's grandmother and husband's great grandmother. The genealogist says "oooh, I need to figure out who all these people were who sent flowers and signed the visitation book"..... Do I really? I know the important dates involved with each of these people. I generally know the relatives who signed, but not all the friends ..... None of my children has taken up the family history/genealogy mantle...yet... Will they care? I don't believe these are something important to local genealogy societies..... getting rid of stuff is hard. I suppose I could make a spreadsheet with the names from the cards for each of the funerals involved and maybe scan in the signature pages of the funeral books. Maybe I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.......

More Lyon County Kentucky Residents (1930's - 1940's)

I thought I'd attempt to post a collage of pictures as a test. I've been posting one picture at a time on one of the Lyon County Facebook pages and I don't want to take up all the oxygen with so many pictures, so we'll see what this looks like.

FamilyTree DNA has come out with an extensive redesign of their site

FamilyTree DNA has come out with a new look, increased filtering and enhanced matching for their site. The following article will need to be read several times to catch all the changes, but be patient with yourself. There's a lot going on. Remember to clear your filters, as they're easy to overlook and that can cause great frustration. The HELP section on the site has also been revamped to help you, but the following blog post by Roberta Estes should be get your started. https://dna-explained.com/2021/07/01/familytreedna-relaunch-new-feature-overview/