Every Girl Needs a Big Brother

Every girl needs a big brother. 

Someone to protect you, watch over you, tease you, and love you only like a big brother can. 

Someone to wrap duck tape around your talking, stuffed Barney’s mouth and leave it on your bed. 

Someone to ruin your doll house to create a G.I. Joe stop-motion movie, by sticking pieces of scotch-tape all over it, so he can put back dots on them, so it looks like the house is shot up, but then the tape never comes off. 

Someone to fight with over who gets to control the car radio and always winning so you have to listen to his rock music, but secretly you enjoy learning all the band’s names and being proud you can rattle them off.

Someone who has his own improv band in the house, that requires everyone to stack mattresses against the door to keep out the sound.

Someone who threatens you with a bucket of ice water on your head if you don’t trade the Monopoly property. 

Someone who takes you to a major theme park for your birthday, just the two of you, and then brings you home the long way through the neighborhood, super slow, while she’s laughing her head off about how slow they are moving, not knowing the rest of the family is setting up her surprise present. 

Someone you can leave drawings and notes for on his pillow every night.

Someone who makes you an aunt by giving you your first treasured nephew.

Someone to teach you about computers, movies, dancing, and music.

Someone to encourage you to take risks. 

Someone to have the strength to tell you that your precious"Grammy" has gone into the hospital because of a stroke and probably won't be going home. 

Someone to sit next to you, sing with you, and cry with you at your "Poppy's" funeral. 

Someone to travel across the country and rescue you from the emotional and traumatizing strain of watching their father go through an open-heart surgery. 

Someone who makes sure you never get old and stay his little sister forever. 

And, someone for you to look up to and still treasure every hello, every hug, every lesson, every laugh, every memory.

I'm so grateful for this big brother in my life. When I was little, my mom taught me that whenever I was frustrated by the teasing of my big brother to just say in my head "biiiiiig brothers, they're sooooo wonderful." Today, I saw it again, but this time with great love and respect and admiration - big brother, you ARE so wonderful! 

Happy Birthday Christopher!! I love you more than you'll ever know and hope you had the wonderful day that you deserve!

3 Tips on How to Include Family History into Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! This is one of my favorite holidays! Here are three tips on how to include family history into this fun day!

5 Tips on How to Include Family History into Your Christmas Day

On Thanksgiving this year,  my husband and I spent Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. We cooked together, laughed together, and put up blinds in my parents living room together. (Okay, my husband did that.) But one of the highlights of the day was when my father's sister surprised us and stopped by for a few hours while her husband and children went hiking in the rain. We had a lovely time chatting and snacking like we always do, but the best part was when I pulled out two boxes we had just received from my Grandma, my aunt's father's wife. You see, my grandpa (Poppy) passed away in 2010. It was very hard on all of us! His wife, my beloved 2nd grandma, had many of his things until last month, when she mailed them to us. What a gift! So I pulled them out for my Aunt, and we all began rummaging through the photographs, letters, and keepsakes. We delighted and shed tears in seeing baby photos, former homes, and childhood photographs of my grandparents. It was fun. It was pure. It was memorable. It was sacred. 

So if Thanksgiving was a perfect time to rekindle the family memories, Christmas has got to be even better. It is the most wonderful time of the year, and why is that? Oh, it's it’s the gifts, lights, songs, decorations, parties, and everything combined. But what it should always come down to is family. The best gift you can give this Christmas is the gift of family time and creating family memories. That Thanksgiving day was a treasure to relive and learn about family memories, but it also created a family memory. 

So to help you strengthen your family and intertwine some family history into your family traditions this year, here are 5 tips:  
Stories. Stories. Stories. What are your family stories during the holidays? Do you have a grandmother’s journal? At least talk about your christmas memories to your children. Write out a little paragraph about a family history story and place it at each table setting or tie it to the tree and have each person pick one before opening their gift. Have little children act out the stories. 

Bring out the photos and camera. Sit down with your family after dinner and look through family photos. Use family photos from past Christmases to decorate your table. Create a family slide show. Take new family photos!

Celebrate your heritage. What traditions did your grandparents have on Christmas? Does your family come from France? Have your children leave their shoes at the bed and fill them with candy from Pere Noel.

Eat your family history. Use family recipes for Christmas dinner. If you have a foreign heritage (Scottish, Japanese, Irish), what do they eat on Christmas? Make it!

Give a gift. Create a scrapbook of family memories, photos, and stories to give to Grandpa and Grandmpa. Give your mother or cousin an Ancestry.com account or another subscription. Create a family jar for all loose change to go into so you can save up for a family history trip. Most importantly, put away the cellphones and the ipads, and give the gift of being present. 

The ideas are endless! Just remember, family history not only helps us learn about our ancestors, but to learn about each other. Give the gift of family time!

I hope you all have a wonderful and love filled Christmas this year! 

Hannah

Grammy - Evidence of Love

Today is my beloved, late grandmother's birthday.

The other day I was looking through my grandmother’s 4 journals. My “Grammy” was my father’s mother, and a treasured matriarch to the whole family. She and her husband, “Poppy” were very precious to me as they were/are to all of their children and grandchildren.

 Grammy passed away suddenly, shortly after I turned 8 years old. I still remember that day vividly. It was heart-breaking to all of us, yet we all took comfort in the love and legacy she left for each of us. Everyone who knew her loved her, and she loved them. They knew she loved them, as she made them feel like the most important person in her life at that moment. This is evident by the fact that there were over 900 people at her funeral. I saw it the other day, as I read through countless number of “Thank You” cards stuffed into each of her journals. Each one talked about her love, influence, service, and impact.

Grammy and Poppy at my baptism.
Just a couple of weeks before she passed.

I then found a little note that had my name on it. It said, “Hannah – loves to sing praises to Heavenly Father. Helps other people. Shows love to her family & friends and animals.”

I wept.

She knew me so well to the point that she knew my special love for animals and took the time to mention it. This means so much to me, as I want to be just like her.

At her funeral holding her favorite yellow flowers.

Family was the most important thing in the world to my grandmother. She took time and care to know everyone she came in contact with and to look for the best in them. 

I feel her love every time I think of her, because even though I can’t remember her voice or remember everything she did for me, my bond with her is as strong as it was when I was 8 years old. How does one create such a loving bond with a child, family member, friend that it lasts so long despite all the memories disappearing?

The famous picture of Grammy and my brother dancing. 

I am so grateful that my grandmother kept such detailed journals (so detailed she lists the types of flowers at the church service!) Journals are very special things. Not only do they provide a one-of-a-kind and personal view into someone’s life and heart, but it is an evidence of love. 

So take a little advice from my beloved Grammy. Share some love. Leave your family with a journal, a note, a card, and more importantly a legacy. It will impact your family and future generations forever. I promise. 

Grammy & Me. I wear that pioneer dress today. 

Join Me!

I haven't written on this blog for sometime now. But I have recently shifted some things around in my life and hope to blog more about my feelings towards family history, tips, adventures, and the strength it has in bringing people together.

This past week I created a personal Facebook page for my business "Hannah Z Allan Genealogy Services". I have been trying to create a website for months now, but it's just too time consuming and really doesn't do what I want. I realized that Facebook would be a better medium to share what I am doing, places I'm speaking, and more importantly share my enthusiasm for family history. My hope is that through my page and my work, others will find the joy in searching for their ancestors and fall in love with their family.

The attack on family is increasing and affecting every individual and every aspect of society. I care so deeply about families and want to share my passion through my talents and skills. It is my true belief that through family history and drawing close to our ancestors, we will be strengthened and changed individuals and families. I have seen it over and over again and hope to keep helping others do the same.

So here's my way of making a difference!

Happy Researching!

Hannah

Fun with Microfilm

Last week for five days, all day, we had two old ladies searching for obituaries on microfilm. They did nothing else. Each day my co-worker and I were surprised they had more to do; and each day we sighed with resentment because of all the work WE would have to do.

After the first day, their pile of used microfilm looked like this:

Here's the second day:

 And third:

 Mind you, this is a lot of microfilm for our historical society. So each morning we had to put all of these away. Unfortunately the boxes aren't numbered like at the Salt Lake City Family History Library. They are in alphabetical order by town and then the name of the newspaper. It takes a little while to figure out were they go. So you can imagine how excited we were to put all of these microfilm, from all over Oregon, from all time periods back in all of their drawers.

It really isn't that big of a problem but the best part of the story is when after their fourth day of doing this they finally come to us and ask, "Do you have an obituary index for all of Oregon?"

 Now you are asking??

 I guess the millions of microfilm were getting to them too.

 "Sorry, no..."

 Now that would be nice, now wouldn't it?

 So back they went to the microfilm room, and back we went to wondering where they got all of these names. The next day I finally asked them what was going on, and it was exactly what I thought.

 "So you're looking for obituaries?"

 "Yeah."

You've just done a lot of research and are finally having the chance to look for obituaries?"

 "Yeah."

 Cool. Ok...

 "So you're family's from all over Oregon?"Hence all the newspapers from Tillamook to Grants Pass. 

"No, Mostly from North Dakota."

Pause. Flash back to all of the microfilm from the past five days. 

"Ah. Well, let us know if you need anything."

They have gone now, and I will secretly miss the suspense of them coming in. But I do have to say, it's nice not having to put all the microfilm away. Perhaps now the librarians at the North Dakota Historical Society are having fun with microfilm. Yet again, they could have a master list of obituaries in their library.

Now that would be nice, now wouldn't it?

Moral of the Story: 

Ask for an obituary index before searching through hundreds of microfilm.
 Just in case. 

Genealogy: Bonanza Style

Last week a patron came in with a very curious genealogy problem.

His ancestor emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the early nineteenth century. He married and settled in Pennsylvania; but when the man was in his fifties, his wife, apparently, “had enough of him.” She gave him $2,000 and told him to go away. So he went away-- to Oregon.  

Hmmmm…And what sources do you have for all of this? Family letters. Ok, whew!

In 1844, he bought 1280 acres of land (aka two sections) near Oregon City. Then two years later, he supposedly died. A will was left that bequeathed all his land to a doctor…. and witnessed by…. the same doctor.  

 

Uh oh. We have a Bonanza/Cartwright dilemma on our hands: Good man with lots of land. Bad man wants lots of land. Bad man tries to kill good man and steal all the good man’s land. 

Hmmmm… 

The wife then proceeds to dispute the will in the mid 1850s but is told by the Oregon government that all the records had been, you guessed it, burned. 

Hmmmm… 

The patron can't find anything more about his ancestor or any of the men associated with the land or the will. He can’t even find them in the censuses.

 Hmmmmm…

 
(source of image) 

 Question 1: Were all the records  really burned?

Question 2: What happened to the doctor?

Question 3: Is there a real probate?

Question 4: Where are the 1200 acres?  

“Well, we can look at a few things here,” I tell him. “But your best bet would be to go to the Clackamas County Courthouse for land and death records, and probates.”  

Oh! You debated whether to come here or the courthouse, and you’re from Tennessee, and you only have this afternoon. Greaaaattt…”  

First, I check the validity of the fire. The Oregon State Archives website states: "The first Clackamas County Courthouse was built in 1850 at Oregon City and burned down a few days after completion…"

(source of image) 

Awesome. 

With that solved, I show him the items in the library that would be most helpful. We find nothing. Nothing about his ancestor and nothing on the men mentioned in his letters or will. 

I'm seriously starting to wonder if the man was even ever IN Oregon!

 I then get an idea. There is an add-on for GoogleEarth where you can plot the township and ranges grid over a current day map. We do this and decide to try to figure out where the land is. In one of his letters it says “9 miles up the Willamette River.” Or something like that.  

So I go 9 miles UP the Willamette River from Oregon City. That puts us just south of Portland.

Hmmm…

 The patron goes 9 miles up a tributary of the Willamette from Oregon City. Not much out there. Besides, that’s not the main Willamette River.

Hmmm…

 Wait. You say it was 9 miles from the MOUTH of the river. Well then, that’s from the Columbia River. And that puts, us...right...at…Portland?”  Hey! Your ancestor was the first man to own Portland!

(source of image) 

Ok, not really. 

 Well this is all very confusing.  

We decide to look at old maps showing who owned the property in the 1860s for all the places 9 miles up and down and diagonal from the river…minus Portland.

 Nothing. Again. Well at least we’re consistent! 

We try a few more things, but with no luck. I suggest again contacting the County Courthouse or trying the microfilmed land records and probates through FamilySearch. 

So sadly, the man left with little findings on his one afternoon visit. However he probably learned a lesson… 

Moral of the story:
If you only have one afternoon in a state faraway from home,
go to the county court house.