It Is NEVER All DONE!

Mama Worthy and Friend

As all of you know, I am big, Big, BIG into Family History!!!  This weekend I attended my Stake Relief Society Conference.  One of the classes I attended was about how to use Google Search to get better results to find information for family history.  This got the wheels in my head turning!

As soon as I got home I relayed all the information I had learned about it to my family members.  Oddly enough, my Grandma was actually working on a Google Search information handout for her family history class.  She shared the handout with me and I was able to learn even more.

Today I decided to put into practice what I had learned, I was especially excited to see if any of my ancestors' pictures that I have would pop up as being recognized in Google Image Search.  I was sad to find that the pictures were not turning up any other pictures of the individuals.  I thought about what I could do about that.

2nd Great Grandparents

About 4 years ago my Grandma, Juanita Worthy Peeler, died and left me her family history legacy.  Included in this was loads of pictures!  I have done nothing with these pictures since I received them.  Today that all changed.  With the help of my P A F file and Picasa, I uploaded about 40 pictures today to findagrave.com. The memorials for these individuals had already been created and many of them had obituaries and pictures of headstones attached, most of them however, had no picture of the person.  I went through and attached the picture of the person that I had to their memorial.  What a joy!  I'm hoping my kin in South Carolina start searching for their ancestors and find my pictures and can have the knowledge of what their ancestors looked like!

After adding the pictures to findagrave.com, I then jumped over to familysearch.org/tree and added the findagrave.com memorials as sources to the corresponding people.  Now if someone is looking at them in familysearch.org/tree, they can click on the findagrave.com source, see the person's headstone and their picture!

One thing I learned at the Family History class is that it is never all done!  The internet changes every day, new images are being indexed every day.  I challenge everyone to look through their family history materials and see if there is something that can be added to the internet to shine more light on that individual's life.  If not to the internet, than at least to other family members so they can know of that ancestor as well.



I am so grateful for the spirit of Elijah in my life!

My Top 10 of 2012

If I had to give this year a theme it would be Waiting...This has been the year of waiting.  We have had some tests and trials this year, but I would like to end the year thinking about the positive things that happened this year.  Here are my top 10 things that we did this past year of 2012:

10. ANDREA & TAYLOR'S WEDDING

In May, Dan's cousin Andrea got married to Taylor Martin.  Taylor is from the same part of South Carolina as my mom, so naturally I did some digging, turns out we are 3rd cousins and have the same 2nd Great Grandparents: James Madison Peeler & Christina Martin.  Also had this wedding I was able to help set up and keep things organized.  There was also an AWESOME photo booth there.  Dan & I enjoyed celebrating Taylor and Andrea's marriage and wish them well in the years to come!

9. MOM'S 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

In April, my mom celebrated her 50th Birthday in style!  We had a Mad-hatter's tea party.  All of the extended Wiese family members were there and mom invited my in-laws as well.  Dan dressed as one of the construction workers and I dressed as the Cheshire Cat.

8. JOE'S MISSION CALL/ TEMPLE/FAREWELL

After spending a year with Joseph in Logan as he experienced his Freshman year at USU, we were able to be there when he opened his mission call to the Chile Santiago North Mission.  We also attended the temple with him when he went through.  In July, we flew back to Utah for a a day to be at his Mission Farewell. 

7. TEACHING COMPUTERS

I was able to teach computers at Providence Elementary for the 2011-2012 school year.  I loved my job so much!  I cannot believe how fast the school year flew by!  

6. GARRETT FAMILY PHOTOS

On Memorial Day we took family photos with Dan's family.  It was fun to do a photo shoot with everyone around the USU campus.  A lot of great pictures were taken!

5. TAKING JAKE, HANNAH, AND JOSIE HORSEBACK RIDING

During my trip back to Utah in the fall I took Jake, Hannah, and Josie horse back riding.  I have to admit that I enjoyed being back in the saddle again.  There was about a foot of freshly fallen snow and it was fun to watch Jake and Hannah ride horses at my house.  We even made Josie sit on a horse for a bit.

4. DAN GETTING A JOB

After 8 months of looking for a job, Dan finally received one at Hewlett-Packard in Houston, Texas.  It is so nice to be out of college and onto big new things.  The ward here has been great and we have seen many sights.  We are starting to feel the 1500 mile distance between us and home, but hopefully we can make some trips in the new year.

3. BECOMING AN AUNT

Josie Lynn is the cutest baby I have ever seen!  I am so excited to be an aunt and we continue to be so happy for Jake and Hannah!  Also, having a niece gives us an excuse to buy toys and baby clothes :D.

2. THANKSGIVING TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO

Over Thanksgiving break Dan and I went to San Antonio, Texas.  It was so nice to take a vacation with just the two of us.  We went to the riverwalk, the Alamo, some caves, and Dan won a half marathon race.

1. PICKING UP ERIN FROM HER MISSION

I am SO glad that Erin is home from her mission now!!!  An email once a week was not enough for me to hear from her!  I am so grateful that I was able to go out with my family and pick her up from her mission and spend two weeks with family.  She's back now and I will not allow her to be away from a cellphone or computer for that long ever again!

Here's looking forward to a great 2013!!!