Why Do I Blog ?

First off -- WOW!! I have followers! With so many great blogs out there, it is nice to think some would take the time to read yours. I started because I enjoyed my daughter's blog so much, I thought what a great way to share with the family our history. As I've said before genealogy is much more than lists of names, it's finding things or stories to reveal something of their life. I follow quite a few blogs using Google Reader and now I've added "The Blogs I Follow" to my blog . I find that they work in conjunction with each other.
I had always thought I should write about my growing up, so my daughters and my grandchildren would know something of me, my mom and dad and their parents too. The experiences that we had were so much different than theirs. Listening to the radio before we got that television in the early 50's.
Having the ice man lug in a big chunk for the ice box in the late 40's. Using the "candle stick" phone of a neighbor until we moved to the country and got on a 4 party line. Our job experiences were a lot different than the kids have today. In high school, jobs were limited to all types of farms in our community, dairy, chicken, turkey and tobacco. Oh, and one crazy job hanging stage curtains in schools all over Ct and Mass. My mom when she was younger along with her sister and parents worked in thread and cloth mills. Those big granite or brick buildings stand empty or converted to condos or hold a variety of small business. I guess what I'm trying to say is our world is constantly changing, what I've experienced is not what my grandchildren will experience nor is it like our ancestors life time. There's a lot of stories hidden in these lines that I need to share, I hope the kids find it interesting.

P.S. One tidbit I picked up on "Facebook Bootcamp for Genea-Blogers"
is to export your blog. I backup mine to my computer and a backup drive.
Maybe I''ll cut and paste some of this stuff into a little booklet, that would be neat. And who knows maybe someday I'll really come out of my shell and join Facebook ;-)

Does 3rd Cousin 4 Times Removed Count?

My GG Grandmother was a third cousin to Abe Lincoln, which would make them Great Great Grandchildren of the same Lincoln back in the early 1700's.
Try to keep that straight in your head. I'm not 100% sure yet but I think my 5th great grandfather (Lincoln) was born in Massachusetts in around 1778.
Its a challenge to get focused on any family for the branches are many. I hope to get back to the Lincoln's soon. Interestedly at the time of 1850 census the town of Washington was in Lincoln County, Maine. Other towns in the neighborhood were Liberty, Freedom and Unity if that isn't a patriotic area I don't know what is. Branches of our tree lived in them all.
I found the "Vital Records of Washington Maine" compiled by Marlene A. Groves at the Godfrey Library in Middletown Ct.. In it Sarah E. Lincoln is married on March 9,1850. What is interesting and what makes makes genealogy so difficult is what you may find in a census. In the Washington Me. 1850 census Sarah E.(18) is listed as a daughter of James Lincoln and 9 days later we have our Sarah E.(19) listed with her husband Almond Newhall. It is easy to go off on a wrong tangent. Unfortunately neither birth was recorded.
P.S. I read another blog today with tips on researching genealogy and he talked about who might have given the info to a census taker and whether
they understood the questions. It makes me wonder if the two Sarah E.'s were the same person. If question about the families children was understood as "who are your children" and not as "the names of the children living in the house".

I Wish You Could Speak

I'm re posting this picture to enter it into the "Smile for the Camera" Blog Carnival. My hope is that others can offer comments on any clues contained in the photograph. As I said in my previous post that it has intrigued me for years.
It was with my grandmothers album, and I suspect that it may be from her family in New Brunswick Canada. My uneducated guess is that it was taken around 1900. The women's clothes could help date it, as well as the frame.
I think the older woman on the left interesting as it looks as she intended not to look at the camera. She may even be an Native American. If from Dalhousie,New Brunswick the family name would be Balfour, but as of yet I haven't located any records to match my grand mothers birth in 1882.
Even without names the picture will remain a wonderful image of our past.