Sunday, May 15, 2011

RETIREMENT AND NEW FIND

 

I think the Honeymoon phase of my retirement is about over.   I have enjoyed my time off doing essentially nothing.  One goal, and the most important in my eyes, is to get organized.  

I have only been doing research for about three years.  At the beginning there was not too much information on citing your sources.  I did make a notations about when I obtained my information but not everything in my collection.

  Now I am sorry because I was searching for the immigration record (my theory, has not been proven) my great grandfather Patrick O’Rourke,  I can not find it !!!!!!!   What I remember was a record that listed “P O’Rourke”    The location and timing was in the right time frame, but can I find what I had copied?   NO and my biggest initial source of documentation was and is ANCESTRY. COM.   I have tried to search again to no avail. 

They seem to have changed the search.  When I choose the Immigration selection I get a massive run down on all areas.  I am now trying to find a needle in a haystack, a portion of which has been my own doing.

In the need to get moving I went again to the box that held my fathers photographs and some of family papers.   I really never had examined this box thoroughly.   I found some more childhood pictures of the sibs and I.

At the bottom of the box was a blue photo album which I haven’t recalled seeing before.   This must have belonged to my grandmother Gertrude O’Rourke or her brother William O’Rourke.   What I found was many pictures belonging to the O’Rourke side of the family.  I found a picture of my great grandparents Patrick and Ellen plus much more.   Now I have to get the printer and scanner connected to copy my new finds. 

The pictures are presenting a new challenge.   They were stored in one of those “magnetic” sleeves that stuck on the backing and were covered with a plastic sheet.  The photos are literally stuck to the back sheet.   It will be quite a endeavor to safely remove and scan them.   The problem remains how do I treat the now sticky photos.   I have to find some mechanism to safely store the pictures.  They must have been in that album or forty years.

Good start to achieving my goals for today.

picturesbyclaudia 002

My current picture of Ellen Mortel and Patrick O’Rourke

3 comments:

  1. Claudia - do you think a fresh pair of eyes on Ancestry might help (to find the immigration record)? I know I've glanced over some things because I was just look for the same piece of information for too long and got frustrated. If your tree is on Ancestry or you can give me more info, I'd be happy to give it a look for you.

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  2. Nice find, the album. My mom put photos into one of those magnetic albums. I was able to remove the photos fairly easily by gently lifting them. I have heard that if you can slightly loosen a corner, using dental floss behind and gently pulling it under the photo can help to loosen the whole photo. I have not tried this. In my mom's album the old newspaper clippings were another story. I found that I could soften the "magnetic" glue using a hair dryer. The gentle heat helped on all but the most brittle papers. I haven't heard any other tricks.

    I have heard that you should photograph or scan every page of the album in order. It seems like a good idea to me. Then, if you wanted to, you could reconstruct the album using archival paper and without glue.

    I hope you're able to find the immigration record. I've had the same problem with ancestry - found something once and couldn't find it again later.

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  3. I hope you find lots of things to fill your days. Mary

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