It Has Been Awhile..

I've recently noticed that I haven't blogged since Christmas Eve! I'm not quite sure what happened. I guess that my company announced it was moving and everything has been crazy at work ever since. It's mostly because I'm an accountant (the only staff accountant) and the beginning of the year is always stressful. On top of that, it's difficult to work because everyone is still abuzz with the moving news.

I even missed my blogoversary on January 26. My blog is now one year old. Yay! Hopefully, I will be getting back to regular blogging shortly.

I now have some even bigger news...this time it is actually genealogy related! My sister and brother-in-law in California are expecting their first child in September! I'm going to be an aunt for the very first time! I'm very EXCITED!!

I have managed to do some genealogy work in the meantime. In the fall, I decided to switch from Legacy software to RootsMagic software. I imported my Legacy database into RootsMagic, but the sources translated incorrectly, so I've been doing some clean up with those. I needed to do some cleanup with those anyway because Legacy switched to source templates based upon Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained when upgrading from Legacy 6.0 to 7.0. I never did convert some of my sources from Legacy 6.0 to the 7.0 standards. I love that I can create brand new source templates in RootsMagic, which I couldn't do in Legacy 7.0. It takes some patience, but it's well worth the end result. The only thing I miss from Legacy 7.0 is the reporting and publishing features. I think Legacy 7.0 definitely had more advanced reporting and publishing features. RootsMagic is annoying me with its reporting features because when I share an event, such as a christening, with the godparents involved, the christening shows up on the godparents' family group sheets as if it were their own christening. Hopefully, RootsMagic will fix that feature soon. I know that sharing events is a new feature, so it is probably just a bug that needs to be worked out.

I decided that I would finish tweaking the sources in RootsMagic before doing any further research on anyone else, but I just can't help myself sometimes. I've been finding info on my brother-in-law's McGRATH ancestors, who immigrated from Ireland to Canada sometime prior to 1850. His great-grandmother was Katherine/Kathleen Sophia McGRATH, who was born 20 May 1877 and was baptized 3 Jun 1877 at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Old Chelsea, Quebec. I just found her baptism record at Ancestry.com in the "Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967" collection. I've also found the baptism records for all of Catherine's siblings and the marriage record of her parents, so I've been entering those in my RootsMagic database as well. Her parents were Felix McGRATH and Mary BARRETT, who were married in St. Stephen's Church on 12 May 1870. Catherine was the fourth of nine children born to Felix and Mary. I've also found the census records for Catherine at Ancestry.com for 1881, 1891, and 1901. Catherine married George John ROBERTS of England on 27 Apr 1904 in Hamilton, Ontario. She became the mother of my brother-in-law's maternal grandfather, Gerald Frederick ROBERTS, who was born on 6 Jul 1907 in Hamilton. In 1927, Catherine, Gerald, and his older brother, Thomas Felix ROBERTS, immigrated to Buffalo, New York, where Gerald began working as an electrician for Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. When Consolidated Aircraft Corporation moved it's headquarters from Buffalo to San Diego, it appears that Catherine and Gerald followed suit, and that is how the family ended up in California. Now, I wonder if my descendants will be able to figure out that I ended up in North Carolina due to my company's headquarters moving...thank goodness for city directories!

Well, that is a little short synopsis of my genealogy musings of late! I will be heading out next Saturday for Miami for the RootsMagic Valentine's Cruise! This is my first genealogy conference, so I'm very excited! My mom is going with me, though she will not be participating in the seminars. We will have two full days of classes on the days at sea and one half day of classes while in port one day. We will be stopping in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, as well as Royal Caribbean's private resort at Labadee, Haiti. There has been much controversy in the news about Royal Caribbean's decision to continue docking in Haiti during this time of crisis. Their argument is that they are helping the Haitian economy and that it would be more devastating if they did not dock there. I'm not sure if I will be getting off the ship in Haiti or not, especially since that is our day of half day classes, but I have several excursions planned for the rest of the ports. In Jamaica, Mom and I will be visiting two waterfalls, including Dunn's River Falls, and doing some shopping. In the Cayman Islands, we will be visiting Seven Mile Beach, which is ranked one of the best beaches in the world. In Cozumel, we will be visiting the private beach at Passion Island, which is the shore excursion I'm most excited about. As for the classes, probably what I'm most excited about is an opportunity to meet George and Drew of the Genealogy Guys Podcast, who will be speakers for some of the classes. I'll report on the classes and post pics when I get back on February 21!

Anyhow, I need to go for now. Just wanted to catch everyone up on what is going on! Hopefully, I will be back to regular blogging now.