A to Z Challenge Preview

I'm in Washington now, limited to 30 minutes at the hotel computer, but I haven't forgotten my commitment to the A to Z Challenge.  I have prepared.

Through the month of April, every day but Sunday, I will be blogging about a topic beginning with a letter from A to Z.  Here is a taste of what's coming up.  Hope you will be back to read them:

• This being a genealogy blog, the first post is going to be "A is for Addiction."
• Stay tuned for "B is for Bannia" where I'll share a summary of the parish census from Bannia, a frazione of the Comune di Fiume Veneto in the Friuli region of Italy.  The census is from 1895.  Friends and family from Sault Ste. Marie will recognize many of the families.
• "C is for Caherolickane" -- it's not just hard to say, or even a pretty background picture.  Writing this blog helped me figure out a bit more about one leaf on the family tree.
• "D is for Devon" -- that's Devonshire, where the cream comes from, and my favourite Burrows gents.
• "E is for Ellis Island" -- if you're researching your family tree in North America, chances are you'll find one of your peeps coming through Ellis Island.

More to come.  I'm still deciding if F will be for Fano, where my grandmother was born, or for Uncle Frank's first marriage.  What do you think?  G is definitely genetti cookies (thank you Aunty Anna).  And there is much more to come about the Moynihans, Burrows and others in my family tree.

If this A to Z challenge intrigues you, please check out some of the other 800!! bloggers also covering A to Z through April.  You can find links to their sites on the Tossing it Out blog.

And any of you who ever have to pack a lunch or feed a little one, please check out Kim's blog The Lunch Box.  I first learned of the Challenge on Kim's site.  I can't wait to see what delicious and practical suggestions she'll have for us through the A to Z Challenge. 

So long from Washington.  Come on back Friday, April 1 for the beginning of my genealogical take on the A to Z Challenge.

Gene-O-Rama, April 1-2, Ottawa

Next week, the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is holding the 28th Gene-O-Rama, "Ancestors on the Move" at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario.  It starts Friday at 7:30 (registration opens at 7:00) and continues Saturday from 9:00 through 4:30, plus a banquet at 7:00 where Lesley Anderson will speak about new projects at Ancestry.

I'm really looking forward to this year's Gene-O-Rama, though I will miss the Friday night Pat Horan Memorial Lecture as I'll be out of town.  Fawne Stratford-Devai will be speaking about tracking migrants leaving Ontario.  You may remember seeing Fawne on Ancestors in the Attic.

On Saturday, there will be a number of sessions including:  using Family History Centre resources, military records at Library and Archives Canada, immigration records on Ancestry.  I'm particularly looking forward to Kyla Ubbink's session "Artifacts in Genealogy" and Doug Hoddinott's "Merging On-Line Data into Family Tree Maker."

In addition to the main conference, you can sign up for a beginners course in genealogy which runs Friday afternoon.  Oops, make that "you could have signed up".  The beginners course is already full.

Go to the Ottawa OGS site for more information on Gene-O-Rama.

See you there!

Let's be Realistic

Did you see the episode of Who Do You Think You Are with Rosie O'Donnell?

It was rebroadcast on March 18.  If you missed it, Rosie's family history included a young mother who died after a gas lamp exploded while she was holding her baby and Rosie learned of family members who lived in a workhouse in Ireland during the Famine.

That was an episode The Bean asked to stay up past her bedtime to watch.  She really liked it.  The Bean says it was cool.  For her, it was amazing that that mother was able to save her baby.  And she was struck that in the workhouse, two year olds were separated from their parents and children were kept in the coldest part of the building.  We don't know how many of our relatives died during the Famine in Ireland, but The Bean says she wants to learn.  She asked me to tell you that she loves genealogy.  And she even knows how to spell it!

Like The Bean, I thought the Rosie episode was a good one.  So I was surprised to learn that wasn't everyone's reaction.  I was on Dear Myrtle's site and saw her blog post Take off your rose-colored glasses.  One of Myrt's readers found the Rosie episode depressing, and a waste of time.  I share Myrt's view:  not many of us have royal roots like Brooke Shields and we should take off the rose-coloured glasses if we're going to look back on how our ancestors lived.

Dear readers who are Moynihan, Bertolo, Burrows and Kazuke relatives:  you won't find me writing too much about kings and queens.  In our families, if there was a royal involved, we were most likely fleeing from him. 

From the research I've done to date, we have come a long way from the poverty our ancestors experienced.  If you own your home, have a full belly, and CAN READ, then you should be very, very grateful.  And maybe you should thank those ancestors for having come to Canada when they did.  I do.

I encourage you to watch Who Do You Think You Are -- it'll give you a taste for the addiction that is genealogy.  By the way, see my post next Friday, April 1st for more on that addiction.  Once you've got the bug, read Dear Myrtle.  Myrt knows what she's talking about.  Her site  has lessons and organizational tips for new and old genealogists. 

I have a dilemma tonight.   Who Do You Think You Are is on, but so is the hockey game.  Steve Buscemi's family will have to wait till I can watch the recording.  Go Sens Go!

Design Changes at the Jim's Girl Family History Blog

If you're back for a repeat visit, you will have noticed that I've changed the design of the blog.  I set the blog up last week, in the early hours of last Saturday morning, using a simple blog template.  Literally, it was called "Simple."  Having viewed a few other blogs, I wanted something a little more personal for my blog.  This morning I was able to spend some time personalizing the design.

I hope you like the new look.  If you're wondering about the picture, it's a shot I took in Ireland in 2008 from my cousin's property in Caherolickane, a townland in West Cork.  Wouldn't you love to see that sunset every day?

Surname Saturday -- Iop

If there are other genealogy bloggers out there blogging the Iop family name this Saturday, I sure want to meet them.

Iop is a difficult name to research online.  Do a Google search for Iop and you get a lot of computer references, among other things.  The last time I searched for Iop on Ancestry, I got a lot of references to Arthafad Ap Iop, born  in the year 885 (and no, I'm not missing a digit).  But I'm not looking for any Welsh Ap Iop.  My Iop relatives are from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in Northern Italy.

My great-grandmother, Maria Iop, was born in 1879 in Pescincanna, a frazione of the Commune de Fiume Veneto, now in the Province of Pordenone.  The village is close to the city of Pordenone.  Her parents were Francesco Iop and Marianna Sutto.

Maria married Giuseppe Bertolo of the nearby frazione of Bannia.  In 1908, Giuseppe left Italy to go to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, where his brother Mino had established himself.  Maria appears to have been pregnant as he left; she had her fifth child, Elena Bertolo in 1909.  One baby had died very young, so Maria Iop was raising four young children without her husband.  Giuseppe later returned to Italy, at least for long enough to father Olivo, who was born in 1912.  In that same year, Giuseppe returned to Canada for good.  Then in April 1913, Maria and her children (Luigi, Francesco, Alessandro, Elena and Olivo) left to join Giuseppe in the Sault.

Maria and her children set sail from Le Havre on the S.S. La Provence on April 12, 1913.  They landed at Ellis Island in New York City on the 19th.  Maria's passport indicates that she was illiterate in Italian.  She was 33 and travelling with five children who ranged in age from nine down to a mere eight months.  Imagine.  At least she had her brother-in-law, Olivo Bertolo, on the voyage with her.

Maria and Giuseppe quickly established themselves in Sault Ste. Marie, where they had several more children:  Mariana, Amelia, Ontaria and Assunta.  Life wasn't all wonderful.  Shortly before Christmas in 1921, Marianna died at the age of seven and a half, of convulsions.  In 1932, Giuseppe died of stomach cancer.

Maria herself lived until 91 years of age.  I wish I remembered more about her, but I was a small child when she died.  And because I didn't speak Italian and she spoke little English, we didn't spend much time together.  I recently looked at the four-generation picture taken with her, Luigi, mom and me when I was a baby.  Boy, they looked proud.  That I remember.

Maria Iop never returned to Italy.  To my knowledge, none of her family came to Canada.  We have a couple of pictures and memorial cards with Iop relatives in them.  But we've had no contact with the Iop family since Maria left in 1913.  From the Italian White Pages online, it looks like there are a few Iops still in the area.  Maybe they're looking for us?

Benvenuti, famiglia Iop!

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2011

I spent my bus ride into work this morning brainstorming future blog topics to share with you.  This evening, while checking out the Lunch Box blog I noticed that Kim has signed up for the "Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2011."   That sounded intriguing.

Arlee Bird's Tossing It Out Blog is promoting the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge for the second year.  The idea is that each day but Sunday through the month of April you blog, eventually covering topics from A to Z.  I like the sounds of that.  Since my brain was already in brainstorming mode, within an hour or so, with the help of Sweetie and the Bean, I had ideas from A to Z.

I hope you'll join me through the month of April for Family History from A to Z.

Poem -- The Story of a Family

Back when I was in high school, one year for English class we had to write a short story.  For whatever reason, I wrote a poem to go with mine.  Having just started my family history blog and with St. Patrick's Day coming up this week, I thought I might share this with you.   It may not be my best work, but it tells you a bit about why I have this blog today.

The Story of a Family

I long for a land that's not truly my home.

The land of my fathers,

The land of the stones.

The land which has beauty

In forms so abstract

Made concrete in leprechauns, shamrocks and grass.

This land has endured

What many could not:

The Penal Laws, the Famine, the battles they've fought.

They've lived through it all,

Held firmly to custom.

They know where they're going, and where they have come from.

And let us remember each St. Patrick's Day feast

That Ireland's the place we'll find happiness

At least.