Actually I started with one timeline, for Catherine Justice Coffin (1821-1866), and then something inspired me to start another, Laura Denman Booth (1828-1920).\u00a0 Truthfully, what made me start the second one was looking at how little information I had about Catherine and remembering that I have a copy of a memoir written by Laura which should give me all kinds of details.\u00a0 Opportunistic?\u00a0 Yes, but she is<\/span> an ancestor and I do<\/span> have that memoir.\u00a0 Now just where is it?\u00a0 I know it’s here on one of the bookshelves…\u00a0 Before I got too sidetracked looking I thought I’d just list the dates for Laura that I have information for in my computer program.\u00a0 So I did that.\u00a0 Now I have 2 little text files of dates and events to work from.<\/p>\n Then, I got distracted by the timeline file Miriam at AnceStories<\/a> had suggested as an easy timeline form to use.\u00a0 Some time later I finally had a computer file I thought I could use (either printing it out or filling it out on the computer).\u00a0 Decided to try it out with my information on Catherine, so I printed one and started writing dates and events.\u00a0 When I looked at the years I realized I had an 1850 census for her family so went back to my computer file to enter that information for her and source it.\u00a0 Done.\u00a0 Thought about the fact that I don’t yet have the other censuses that she should be in.\u00a0 Contemplated going to look for them and decided that this would really<\/span> be a distraction.\u00a0 Better put it on a to-do list.\u00a0 Then, when I looked at the deaths of some of her siblings when she was young it occurred to me to look at causes of death for them (I have cemetery card images for them).\u00a0 This raised the question of cholera and when there were epidemics in southwestern Ohio.\u00a0 Use my search engine to look for epidemics and cholera.\u00a0 Read that cholera was introduced into the United States in 1832 and there were epidemics by 1833 (when one of Catherine’s infant brothers and a sister died).\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 There is a family story about one of Catherine’s cousins nursing a neighbor through cholera and\u00a0 coming home to die of it herself just a brief time before she was to marry (one of my Salt ancestors).<\/p>\n Ok, so I refocused on Catherine’s information and remembered that she had died at a pretty young age (she was 44 in 1866) in Yellow Springs, Ohio (not where she lived) and I had a vague idea that there had been a health spa or something like it in Yellow Springs.\u00a0 Looked at her cemetery card told me that she was said to have died from pulmonary consumption (probably tuberculosis).\u00a0 That would fit with having gone to a health spa for treatment.\u00a0 So I tried, using my trusty search engine, to find out about health spas and Yellow Springs.\u00a0 With some, but not great, success.\u00a0 So I thought of my friend the archivist at a college in Ohio who might know.\u00a0 So I emailed him.\u00a0 And got a couple of suggestions about where to look for information about the early history of Yellow Springs.\u00a0 Stopped to look for a book I thought I remembered had been published on the history of Yellow Springs by the newspaper there.\u00a0 Found it – shall I order it or not?<\/p>\n The other piece of information I noticed in my RootsMagic file was a note that I had a piece of silverware that had been Catherine’s, with her initials on the front and date on the back.\u00a0 The date was what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary, so I’m guessing that this was a present for that important date.\u00a0 I wanted to look at it to remind myself, so I went looking in the silverware drawer in the kitchen.<\/p>\n Didn’t find the small knife I was looking for but did find a pickle fork and it too has her initials and the same date on the back.<\/p>\n Finally found the knife put away in another drawer for safekeeping.\u00a0 No legible mark on the back to tell me who the manufacturer was or the pattern.\u00a0 Back online I went to try to track this down – I want to know about these pieces.\u00a0 Hours later, I may have figured out the manufacturer but haven’t found a picture of the pattern I have yet.\u00a0 Decided that I should take pictures with my digital camera of the two pieces to add to my files on old family possessions, and to add to the genealogy file on Catherine.\u00a0 Got several that I thought are all right, downloaded them to the folders I want them in, made a version to attach to my genealogy file on Catherine.\u00a0 And that is where that project stands.<\/p>\n Except that I read a comment on Miriam’s blog from someone (Michelle Goodrum) who left a link to show how she had used the timeline<\/a> and when I looked at her site I realized that she had made the form landscape instead of portrait and added a Sources column to the others.\u00a0 What a good idea!\u00a0 So I’m off to edit my form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Update Note: As originally posted, this did not link to all of the sites I mentioned and one of the blog names was incorrect. I have made changes to correct these mistakes. In reading about the 2010 GeneaBlogger Games, and …<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/CEC-butterknife-and-pickle-fork-full-back-blog-300x94.jpg\" "\\"CEC")
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