In Praise of Hometown Libraries

Since I last wrote, I've had little time for any research at all, but yesterday I was able to take a long awaited road trip to a town the Deller's lived in for years, Coffeyville, Kansas.

More than once during my library visit, I said to the librarian, "I love this library!" She replied, "That's only because you've found something." And she was right, in a way. Even when I don't find information, I love being in libraries, but yesterday I found something because they are repository for the local newspaper, The Coffeyville Journal. And the local historical society had also taken the time to create at least a dozen books of obituaries from that newspaper, making it even easier to find obituaries.

Yes, I WAS a happy camper, to find obituaries and news articles that linked family members and introduced me to new family I didn't even know were there. I will be returning, there was just too much to absorb in one visit; and I'm looking forward to that just as much as I did to yesterday's visit

I know it'd difficult for many people to make trips like this (it's taken me more than six months to be in the right place at the right time), but if and when you get a chance to visit, don't pass it up. Those libraries hold gems for the mining.

New Years Resolution: Backup Data Regularly

It's been a full month since my last post (and a few of those I created in advance); it was a hectic time, but I'm back and ready for a few serious research trips. Yea! It's time for our annual holiday trip back to the good old U.S. of A. and I'm getting all my papers together and have updated RootsMagic for all the new information I hope to gather.

But before I actually fly out of here - most importantly - it's time for a backup. I have good intentions for monthly backups, but that doesn't always happen. But I get nervous when it's time for travel, worrying that something will happen to my computer en route; so I break out an old external hard drive, and back up both our systems, just in case. The hard drive is big enough that I can just copy one system to the other, but soon, that won't be possible; I'm gathering too many big files, so researching new backup systems is on my to do list.

I know my system isn't top of the line, and nothing is completely foolproof - but it is a backup of all the really important files - and I can recreate it (with time) if needed. I hope you have a system for backing up your files - as an old programmer told me once, "It's not a matter of IF you'll need a backup file, it's WHEN!"

Wordless Wednesday - Newspaper Article

This photo and the accompanying article appeared in the
Arkansas Gazette, dated Sunday, June 7, 1936.

This is the wedding picture of Philip H. Bernays and Kate P. Jones Bernays, who were married Wednesday, September 10, 1879 in Little Rock.

Mrs. Bernays, who will be 80 July 2, is the only daughter of Dudley E. Jones, who with Augustus H. Garland and Gordon N. Peay, was a member of the state Board of Supervisors at the Arkansas Constitutional Convention of 1874.

Mr. Jones, the father of Mrs. Bernays, came to Little Rock in 1865 and went into the general merchandising business with General Bussie in 1866. This business known as the Dudley E. Jones Machinery Company was located for 47 years on East Markham street, near Commerce Street. It was closed out shortly before 1913, at the death of Mr. Jones.

The late Philip Henry Bernays was proprietor of a men's furnishing goods store under the Capital Hotel from 1879 to 1884 and did his own buying in New York. The Little Rock Boating and Athletic Club, now the Little Rock Athletic Association and the oldest athletic club west of the Mississippi, was organized in 1873 in his store and he was its first vice president.

Mr. & Mrs. Bernays left Little Rock for Oakland, Cal., in 1890, taking their small daughter, Edith; sons, Dudley and Ralph, and infant daughter, Anna Louise. Two more children, Ralph Fearing and Dorothy Caroline, were born in Oakland. The children are all living in Southern California except Dudley E. Bernays, who is in Little Rock, working on the federal historical survey under the direction of Mrs. Bernie Babcock. Dudley Bernays was associated with D. Palmer Patterson and the late Dr. Charles Hillman Brough for a year in the Community Sunday Forum here, 1932-33.

Philip H. Bernays was killed in an automobile accident in 1926.

On their 25th wedding anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Bernays had a picture made in Los Angeles, posed similar to this wedding picture.

Mrs. Bernays makes her home in Los Angeles.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Thanksgiving!

Philip & Kate Bernays & Family
Dudley, Regula II, Regula, Will, Dorothy, Kate, Philip, Anna, Goodwin,
Ralph, Edith, Katherine, Charlie Guild, on porch: Philip and Eva.
The Bernays Home, Los Angeles, California
Thanksgiving Day, 1914

A Nice Surprise

My thanks to Denise Levenick, a.k.a. The Family Curator, for presenting me with the Kreativ Blogger Award. It was a bit exciting for me, and very kind of her. Having said that, onto the 'requirements.'

Seven Things You Might Not Know About Me:

• I am an eighth generation North Carolinian (though I'm not living there right now).
• I lived in Coventry, England for two and a half years and am quite an Anglophile.
• I absolutely adore dogs and almost everything having to do with them and one day hope to be called 'the dog lady'.
• I used to be a Certified Emergency Nurse.
• I love new technology - almost any kind - and love learning about them.
• I can bake a great chocolate cake.
• I love Indian food (lucky for me there are loads of Indian chefs and cooks where I'm living now!)

Blogs that Deserve This Award:

This part is consuming - but lucky for me there are so many good blogs to choose from - now if I can just pry myself away from them long enough to write about them!

• Jean Wilcox Hibben at Circlemending will teach you loads about all kinds of topics
• James Tanner at Genealogy's Star will keep you updated on the latest at FamilySearch (a special thanks for the Wiki article!)
• Free Genealogy Tools is exactly what you'd expect - a great resource
• Phyllis Matthews Ziller at Genwriters will challenge you to write what you know!
• Larry & Marlys make me laugh at Hesch History - and are helping me learn more about Germans in Bohemia.
• Amy at WeTree always has something interesting to read - her blog about Spinster Aunts made re re-evaluate some of my own family searches.
• And when I'm tired and just need a break, I read Chris's entertaining articles at Genealogue

I do know that almost all of these - if not all - have already been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award too - but I believe they deserve it again! Thanks to all of them for helping me out!

What do you do if you receive the Kreativ Blogger Award?

Like most blogger tags and awards, The Kreativ Blogger Award asks you to tell your blog readers a bit about yourself and then "pass it on" to other blogs. Specifically, write a post announcing that you have been named a Kreativ Blogger by The Family Curator. In your post, list seven things about you that your readers might not know, and then name and link to seven other blogs that you feel are worthy of the Kreativ Blogger Award. You don't have to tell why you are naming these particular blogs, but it is nice to know why they stand out in your book.

Wordless Wednesday - E. Curtis Jones Jr.

Edward Curtis Jones, Jr.
Killed in Action, July 2, 1944

Wordless Wednesday

Nora Hussong Roark Asbell and Carolyn Jones Deller
at the University of Arkansas Graduation, June 3, 1950,
to watch Charles Franklin Deller receive his
Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration