Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

I haven't participated in SNGF for quite some time but this looked interesting...    our assigned mission tonight from Randy at Genea-Musings is to check out the dMarie Time Capsule website, select a date from our family history and share the information. 

I selected the birth date of my paternal great-grandmother May Kidwell, born Feb 24, 1903. 

Following are some prices and a few statistics of the time:
Bread: $0.04/loaf
Milk: $0.29/gal US
Car: $500
House: $4,000
Stamp: $0.02/ea
Avg Income: $703/yr
DOW Avg:  49

One of the top books of 1903 was The Call of The Wild by Jack London. 
One of the top toys of the year was Crayola Crayons
I also learned that on this date in 1903, the US signed the agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.    

Great site to get more insight to our ancestors lives!   Thanks Randy!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Thank you Randy for another fun filled Saturday Night! Tonight's Genealogy Fun is about your inspiration to do Genealogy. The specific question asked is this: What event or person inspired you to start your genealogy research?

This is part of a post that I did back in November, when I didn't have any readers so I figure no one would mind the re-post.

Did you know that we're related to....

Ok, we've all got some weird family story that has supposedly been passed down for generations - mine just happens to be that one of our relatives was "BORN on the Mayflower" - mmmm talk about making a child's mind race! Come to think of it, this very well could be the genealogy bug that bit me, way back when I was like 10 years old! Grandma told me this story and it stuck with me... one of my relatives was born on the Mayflower. Come to find out we weren't pilgrims - not that I can prove anyway - I've not found a connection in my line (yet :-). Some of my family certainly were among the "settlers in the new world" - they were indentured servants with a 10 year debt to the person who paid their passage, not pilgrims! Like Randy, a death was the catalyst for my research beginning, when Grandma died in 1995 I just HAD to know where she came from.

Off to chase down another mystery!

Saturday Night Fun at Genea-Musings

So I've spent the last few weeks reading up on Genealogy blogs and making some friends in this new world (to me). I had heard of Randy Seaver's blog and seen posts related to his Saturday Night Fun on other blogs but never had joined in the "fun". I took a break from some research tonight (after a LONG day of baking with the kids) and checked out his blog Genea-Musings and I'm sure it's one that I'll be a frequent visitor to. For the Saturday Night Fun this weekend, Randy did a "History Edition" as he put it - tasking us with finding some facts in history about the date we were born. I got my answers for both questions at ProGenealogists site in their Free Tools area. I must say, I had no idea the list of historical items I'd find for my birthday month & day. We were asked to list 5.

1. What day of the week were you born? Monday
2. What has happened in history on your birth date (day and month)?
03/11/1702 - 1st English daily newspaper "Daily Courant," publishes
03/11/1823 - 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy, Concord, Vt
03/11/1892 - 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Mass)
03/11/1942 - 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschewitz Concentration Camp
03/11/1974 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted