Thu 11 Sep 2008
The month of August is the end of summer and the kids get back to school. Now is a good time to remind all your family about our tree. Family trees are a bit like a farm they need a lot of help.
During the summer I have been spending a lot of time updating some of the family lines. The Family Tree Maker has a look up function for Ancestry.com data. We are lucky enough to have a full access subscription and the data has flowed like water. Hundreds of updates many with source data attached will be on line very soon. The income generated by the advertising on the site pay for all the current expenses. So keep on shopping and looking around. Some older versions of Family Tree Maker are on had if any of you want to get started on your tree.
Erik Hsieh has been helping me with the software and technical part of the family tree. He spent more than a week installing the blog software and updating the family site software that will soon display the new information in our family tree. While most of the software we use is free or very low cost we can still use some additional contributions. All tax deductable of course!
A few years ago while visiting my daughter Cindy Ohman, I heard her son Nathanial talking to a friend. “I have a lot of grandfathers.” Since this handsome dude is the anchor of my family tree many of the French Canadian side of his family have been expanded. From memory Nathanial now has 15 generations of grandfathers, 14 generations of grandfathers in law x two and at least 40 grandfathers once, twice or more removed. You will be able to see all of those grandfathers on line soon.
Our tree grows and gets stronger from the information and update people provide. Computer genealogy has a lot of data and a just as many errors. So did out some of those old photos and obituaries aunt Mary has been saving for years. If you can scan and send digital copies its easier for the researchers. If you can not create electronic copies feel free to send the originals for scanning and return to you safe and sound.
Randy Mayrand sent some wonderful pictures of my grandmother and children. They have been added to the family tree and you will be able to see them soon. The Mayrand side of the tree goes to 1580, were all action stopped off the coast of France. We really need more help from our French speaking cousins; translations are appreciated and badly needed.
Marc Richard, my cousin and childhood friend sent me a huge amount of information about the Richard family and I am slowly digging my way though the information collected by Marc’s uncle Raymond Richard. The Richard collection if full of pictures. New France had a lot of help from the Richard family, early settlers to Arcadia. Another cousin Susan M Richard was kind enough to send a CD of all her collected information. Most of that data has been imported into our family tree. Gosh it just came to me I need to exchange the data back, so Susan watch the mail sometime before Christmas.
A few summers ago Barbara Yeadon (Douglas) and I traveled to a number of known family grave sites and took pictures. The new site will have a tombstone picture section and we hope you will contribute on your next trip to the family plots. I hope those of you that have GPS enabled equipment will send us the coordinates of those markers when you can.
More information will follow and I look forward to hearing from you! Lionel@Mayrand.org is ready to get your email and pictures.
Cousin Lionel Mayrand.