Well, I made a discovery tonight!!  I found the will of my 3rd Great Grandfather James Frederick Keck.  That is a wonderful discovery and I thought it was doubled for a while with the will of my 3rd Great Grandmother Almeda Jane Reeves Keck.  Then, as I was further examining the wills I discovered that they are dated March 29, 1938.  That would be a little hard for Almeda Jane to have done seeing as she died in 1931!!

I reexamined the will of James Frederick and I am still sure that this is his will so I made a legitimate discovery but who is the woman whose will (identified as his wife in his will) is just before James Frederick’s in the Will Book for Madison County??  This is a mystery to me.  

I saw her will first and I just passed over it because the husband was listed by initials and I thought they were J H at first. But after reading his will on the next page, I determined the initials were J F instead of J H.  The will of J F lists his children which include Mary Margaret Moore, Sydney Keck, Almeda Reynolds, Louvina Shaw (spelled differently), and Elzora Burgess.  These are the children of James Frederick Keck!!  But I never knew anything about a 2nd wife before!

Both of the wills are dates as March 29, 1938 and they are together in the will book for Madison County that is online at Family Search.org.  I have a whole new area of research now!

I did some research tonight but have so far been unable to find a marriage record.  I reviewed the obituary for James Frederick and his obituary doesn’t mention a second wife but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t marry again.  He is buried by Almeda Jane Reeves Keck but she would be his first wife and the mother of his children so that doesn’t necessarily indicate the absence of a second marriage either.

I did find a death record for an SE Keck who died in 1942.  That could be the second wife but still no name for her just initials!

Well, that discovery makes this a good genealogy week!

Happy Easter!

Kellie

I have managed to get some things accomplished in the past couple of months though. I started by going back to the software that let’s me get the most accomplished in the smallest amount of time. I have returned to The Master Genealogist. I have also used John Cardinal’s Second Site software to publish my family history to the website. I have tried most of the other software and the various methods for putting my genealogy on the internet and I keep coming back to the combo of The Master Genealogist with second Site! There must be a reason I keep returning!! I am trying to remember those reasons and not let myself be distracted into trying something else again!!

I have also setup a genealogy area in my bedroom. I do use this area when I work at home too, but I am getting my genealogy organized! I am still working on my paperless genealogist quest. I am slowly getting all my genealogy documents, photos, and newspaper clippings digitized. Therefore, my genealogy area doesn’t have a lot of storage area and instead focus on being a pretty, organized, functional area for using my laptop with an external monitor attached which doubles as a TV for when I am not transcribing and want to watch TV while I work at my computer. I really love my new genealogy area. It is coming together wonderfully.

More updates to come as I get my genealogy research updated!!

Kellie

8:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Where: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

6731 Lynches Ferry Cove

Springdale, AR

Info:      Dianne Letsch

479-466-4307

Come learn about finding your ancestors!

via Gather Your Family.

I am scheduled to present a class at this genealogy conference!  Please plan to attend.  I have attended this conference for the past two years and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about their family history!

Kellie

I began my genealogy research over twenty years ago now. There have been periods of days, weeks, or even months when I haven’t done any genealogy research but I always seem to keep coming back to genealogy to find just a little more information on those who have gone before me.

I have had a website to show my genealogy for the vast majority of the time I have been doing genealogy. At first, I used direct coding to get my website online. Later, I tried various online websites and software programs to create my website. I used those methods to both display my actual genealogy information and to share my discoveries and to discuss how I found them.

Then in 2010, I discovered WordPress! I enjoy using WordPress to create my website. It makes it much easier to share my genealogy discoveries and my joy at the discoveries.

I hope that my blog readers have enjoyed reading my blog for the past three years as much as I have enjoyed writing them! More to visit come in the next year!!

Kellie

Today is Answer Your Cat’s Question Day!  Cats, in my experience, always have a question!  They are however most definitely in charge!

I have been a cat lover all of my life.  I have been lucky enough to have four cats that shared large portions of my life.  They are all gone now but I have fond memories of them.  I think that the Cat Rules to live by over at WellCat.com is well worth checking out.

Rules for Cats to Live By 

The presidency is not just the person who currently occupies the office but the endurance of the democratic process.  Just during my lifetime we have peacefully changed our leaders because the majority of the country selected a different person to lead our country.  The President is the president of all the people in the United States not just those who elected him.

As Americans it is not only in our best interests to hope that the President and the other elected leaders do well in their jobs and do what is best for our country but it is our duty as citizens to do everything we can to aid in the success of their efforts.  Then, those who didn’t like this president will have a chance to elect one they do like!  That is the beauty of the American system of Democracy.

May God Bless America and all its leaders!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  I have lots going on at work with the beginning of the year processes and then there has just been a lot going on in my life the past couple of weeks.  Things are beginning settling down!  My life is beginning to return to its normal routines after the holiday season.

There has also been a lot to do with my genealogy society for the past couple of weeks.  I presented the program for the January meeting on beginning genealogy.  I had to get some handouts and stuff ready for the meeting.  This took much of the time I would have used for my own genealogy research but it paid off when it came time for the meeting.  We had several newcomers to genealogy come to the meeting.  I hope that they learned something and that their enthusiasm for genealogy continues! I love seeing someone else begin to enjoy genealogy research for the first time!

My Research Plans for 2013

My research plans for 2013 involve getting organized and getting my family researched and documented through my known ancestors (known at this time).  Then, I will proceed by trying to take my known family lines back another generation or two!

To accomplish this goal, I am going to begin by following a new research strategy.  I am going to start with my grandparents and thoroughly document their lives.  Then, I am going to move on to their siblings and the descendants of their siblings families.  This will be a large project!

I want to document their military service (if they served) by documenting the appropriate draft cards, enlistment records, pension records and the other military records available on Ancestry.com.  I also want to get obituary records, FindaGrave Memorial pages, and any newspaper articles relating to their lives added to my database.  Next, I want to document their marriages through at least marriage indexes but ideally, through an actual marriage document.  I want to include birth and death records including birth announcement cards, engagement newspaper announcements, and death notices.  Finally, I want to add in any photos I can find of each ancestor.  At the very least, I want to know that I have looked for all of these things for each ancestor!  I want to have good records for each of my ancestors and for the important events in their lives.

When I have finished the first part of the project (if I finish it this year), I want to move on to the generation of my Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings.

Then, my Great-Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings.  Then, I will move on to my 3rd Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants followed by the 4th Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants.

Although this is a huge project, it isn’t as huge as it might sound at first. I am not trying to find out who my ancestors are at this point.  I have completed much of this research already.  I just have spent the last few years switching between software programs and changing my research methods that I don’t have it as organized as I would like and much of it isn’t in my current database!  I am going to go through my previous files and my online trees and get my information put into my  database.  I am also getting my files both digital and paper files organized into a manner in which I can actually find what I want to find when I want it.  I am going to be an Organized Genealogist with a documented database through my 4th Great-Grandparents by the end of the year!

I plan to post regularly about my progress on this goal!

Kellie