I have been writing and scheduling all of my post through a great plug-in called WordPress Editorial Calendar.  The calendar can be set to view anywhere from a week to a whole month.  This makes it great to see how many posts you have planned, any series or memes you want to participate in, and generally the activity of your blog.

You can draft a post by adding a title on a date.  You have the option to Edit it fully or Quick Edit the post.  Once the post is written, you schedule it for a date and time.  One nice thing about this plug-in is that if you decide you aren’t ready for something to be published, you can just drag and drop the post title to another date.

This plug-in has been a big help in writing and staying on schedule with this blog.

Tech Tuesday – WordPress Editorial Calendar is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

Prompt: For which family heirloom are you most thankful? How did you acquire this treasure and what does it mean to you and your family?

I am not the keeper of the family heirlooms, yet.  I do have 1 that I love that my grandmother made sure I had before she passed away 6 years ago.  It is a cutting board made by her grandfather and handpainted by him.  It was meant to be decorative, and I hang it on a wall,  My g-g- grandfather was Danish, so this cutting board shows heavy Scandinavian influences.  The picture is stylized. 

I feel a deep connection to my grandmother’s family and the cutting board hung in our kitchen with care brings them to mind daily.  Grandma gave up many of her family traditions when she married my grandfather, but her love of sweet and buttery things remained.  Like her mother before her and so on, every Christmas I (and everyone else in the family) got their favorite cookies and a few samples from other favorites.  When I was an adult, she encouraged me to continue the tradition, or discover another one of our own.  She alway encouraged my cooking endeavors and we both enjoyed trying new foods.  She never taught me to cook the Christmas goose (her family’s Christmas Eve meal), but any baking or anything with a special technique all I had to do was ask. 

One day I will pass down the cutting board to my daughter and her family.  I will bake some of my grandma’s cookies for my grandkids and I will tell them stories of their people, like my grandma did.  And the traditions will continue.

Abundant Genealogy – wk 6 is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

Friends of Friends Friday

It is the first Friday of the month, and I have another Pitt County deed (in this case listed as a Bill of Sale) to share with Friends of Friends.  This document, transcribed to the best of my ability, is from Deed Book DD, page 179, Pitt County, North Carolina.  It reads as follows:

W. Hanrahan to Moses Tison, Bill of Sale

State of No. Carolina, Pitt County.  Know all men by these presents that I , Walter Hanrahan of the County of Pitt for and in consideration of the sum of three Hundred and seventy – five dollars current money to me in hand paid by Moses Turnage[sic] of the County aforesaid at and before the sealing and signing of these presents the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged have bargained slod and delivered and by these presents doth bargain sell and deliver unto the aforesaid Moses Turnage[sic] a certain negro boy named Riley about twelve years of age.  To have and to hold the said negro unto the said Moses Turnage[sic] his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns forever and the said W. Harahan for myself my heirs, executors, and administrators shall and warrant and forever defend the aforesaid negto against the claims of all persons whatsoever unto the said Moses Turnage [sic] his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns.  In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 25th day of July in the year of our Lord 1823.

witness:  Thomas Hanrahan      signed:  W. Hanrahan {seal}

February Term, 1826.  The above Bill of Sale from Walter Hanrahan to Moses Turnage[sic] was then proved in open court by the oath of Thomas Hanrahan, a witness.  Thereto ordered to be registered.

Attest Jas. Sheppard, Clerk

Interesting that this deed has a clerical error in the title.  Moses Tison (as in the title) is referred to in the body as Moses Turnage (a very common Pitt County surname) over and over.

Good luck on your research!

Friends of Friends – Bill of Sale to Moses Tison is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

Andrew Karstensen married Alma Julianna Nelsen in 1920 at Union City, IA.  Alma was also a child of Danish immigrants.  They settled and had 4 children.  They were a very outdoors oriented couple, always camping, fishing, and hunting.

Andrew died a few months before his wife from injuries due to a car accident.  He died June 9, 1960 in Adams County, IA.   I will post a picture of Andrew as an update as soon as I get one.  His family group sheet is here.

Andrew Karstensen (1893-1960) of Union City, IA is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

January flew by and now it is time to look over what was accomplished and what was not.  Here are my January goals:

Smaller Goals:

• Join 2 genealogical societies.(I joined GRIVA and the Virginia Genealogical Society)
• Attend 1 Rootsweb webinar (Took the first one in the series and learned some basics)
• Post 3 blog posts per week. (Did this.  Hope everyone enjoyed!)

Larger Goals:

• spend 2 hours per week digitizing and organizing my records and notes  (Did some, but not every week)
• order the first deed book for my “Opus” from LDS  (Can’t seem to get over there, but I promise I will this week)
• spend 2 hours per week on inputting  Briley deeds from Pitt County (I have most of them photocopied) into Deed Mapper  (This may have to wait until after April)
• Look for more “modern” records for my grandparents on Ancestry (not a priority this month) (Found a few, but like I said not a priority)

Overall, with all we have going on in our lives right now, I think I did pretty good.  I am using my new electronic Outlook system to track projects outside of genealogy and am hoping to work it this month with genealogy.  I can report on that at the end of the month.  I also have to work around our house renovation, which is going on and on and on.  I was hoping to be back there by now, but no such luck.  So, without further ado, here are the goals for February:

Smaller Goals:

• Finish Scanning Dad’s photo album.
• Attend 1 Webinar.
• Post 3 blog posts per week.

Larger Goals:

• spend 1 hour per week digitizing and organizing my records and notes
• order the first deed book for my “Opus”  from LDS
• Go by Kinko’s and see if they can scan in 10×13 sheets of paper.  If they can, start scanning deeds I have.
• Plan and work 1 genealogy project using Microsoft Outlook Organizing System

Good luck to everyone on their goals for February! 

Motivation Monday – January Goal Review/ February Goals is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

Prompt:  Sometimes the challenges in life provide the best learning experiences.  Can you find an example of this in your own family tree?  Which brick wall ancestor are you most thankful for, and how did that person shape your family history experience?

While I would not say that I am “thankful” for this brickwall, I do have a very challenging direct ancestor.  James Briley born circa 1800 and died before 1845.  His land was auctioned off by the sheriff.  He has been the hardest ancestor to trace and I have been piecing together his life little by very little for at least 20 years. 

My first introduction to James was as a name on the marriage record of his son, Marcellus.  So I started to look for him, and look some more.  Marcellus listed his mother as Pennie A., and naturally, she was nowhere to be found either.  One day, while looking through the index of deeds (it was either LDS or at Pitt County Courthouse) I came across a deed that listed the local sheriff as the executor of a sale to some Briley men.  It was the sale of the property of James Briley.  No other Brileys were designated as specific relatives (like sons, or brothers).  The description of the land being sold gave me the lead to William Briley.

A few years later, and as my experience at researching grew, I came across the will of Sarah House.  She was a House by her second marriage, having been married to and delivered children first to William Brierly/Briley.  She mentiioned all of her children in the will, and then designated 4 names as grandchildren, one of them Marcellus.  Another stroke of luck.  Living children were mentioned.  James had died 20 years prior to the will’s date.  All the names matched names of siblings that I knew of. 

I have basically accepted the fact that I have to build a case with secondary evidence for James.  I am convinced that the best evidence lies in deeds and the buying, selling, and swapping of property within the family.  I actually now really enjoy researching deeds.  They have information that your would never expect.  I have set a project for myself for this year of plotting all of the Briley deeds I have from Pitt County.  (I have to wait for our house renovation to be done first so I can spread out a little).  I hope to be able to use my deed mapping program (DeedMapper) and overlay them on Google Maps and some USGS maps.  Look for some Tech Tuesday postings for this in the fall. 

Abundant Genealogy – wk 5 is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

My husband’s father, Eammon (Edward) Conleith McCaul was from Newbridge, Kildare County, Ireland.  His father, James Joseph, was born in Cavan County, Ireland. At that time, the spelling of the last name was McCall.  It seems there was some sort of falling out between brothers and my husband’s grandfather changed the spelling of his last name.

There was another family story I heard that also explained the spelling change.  James Joseph fought with Michael Collins (not directly, but under him in the “army”) for Irish Independence.  To give some semblance of protection to his family, he changed the spelling of his name.  I know that his sons were aware of what their father did, but they only learned about it later and through family friends, against the wishes of their father.

There are many McCalls in the Dublin and surrounding county areas in Ireland.  The name is derived (from what I have learned) from Cahill.  I have done only very limitied research into tracing Irish lines.  There is much left to learn.

Surname Saturday – McCaul/McCall is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

Have you been eyeing that genealogy book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble?  Do you like to have a little extra in the PayPal account?  Then let me introduce my method of earning free gift cards to keep me in the Nook Books.  Meet Swag Bucks.  Swag Bucks is a search engine that rewards you.  When you sign up for a free Swag Bucks account and start using their search engine you win random Swag Bucks rewards.  And on Friday, you can earn Mega Swag Bucks which are random awards of 100-1000 SB.  Just so you know, a $5 gift card to Amazon is 450 Swag Bucks.

I have been using Swag Bucks for a few years.  I have certain blogs and news sites that I visit everyday and I use the Swag Bucks search engine via their toolbar to get to them.  I earn, just from searching for my favorites, an average of 10 Swagbucks per day.  I easily earn 1 $5 gift card from Amazon every month.  The Swag Bucks site has more ways of earning, including Groupon purchases and an online portal to online shopping.  Personally, I tend to use only the search engine and the online polls (when I remember).

If you would like to check it out and perhaps sign up, please use either the ad button to the right or follow this link to swagbucks.  This is a referral through my account and it will help us both earn Swag!  Thanks!

It’s Mega Swagbucks Friday! is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

I have been reading an organizing book this month.  I need some ideas to go paperless even more and wanted to learn how to use what I already have (Office with Outlook 2007 soon to be udgraded to 2010) more efficiently.  So, while surfing my library site I found this book:  Take Back Your Life:  Using MS Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized by Sally McGhee.  When this book was written, Outlook was then in the 2003 iteration, however, the concepts she uses are easily adaptable to my 2007 version.  She has an updated version for Outlook 2007, but I went with what our library had, and will check out the other book later.

This book has some very useful ideas that I have already started to incorporate into my everyday.  The way she suggests you use tasks and the to-do list in Outlook, how to organize Categories, and how to tell the difference between goals, projects to achieve goals, and actions or tasks, seems to work well with how my brain organizes information.  I am almost done with the book and have done much of the “thinking through” that she suggests.

McGhee suggests using Tasks to plan projects.  When you create a new task, you decide, is it an action (she has specific categories for actions like “Call”) or is it a supporting project to help you achieve an objective (or goal).  If it is a project, within the notes section of the task, you set up a basic outline of what needs to be done, who needs to do the action, and when the action is due.  You then use this a “feeder” for your next action to continue to work towards the goal.  I am using this right now to help plan an Arrow of Light campout for our Cub Pack that is coming up in April.  So far, it has been great as we think about the theme, activities we would like to offer, what might help the ScoutMasters, even a menu plan.

As a Stay-at-Home mom with 4 kids (2 teens, and 2 elementary), I need a way that I can capture attention to what they need “to do”.  Teens live and sleep with their ipods these days and every one of those devices have calendars.  I am trying to use less paper and would like to have a way to delegate tasks to them without posting it onto the refrigerator.  In an effort to ignore what they need to do, they have learned to not read the frig anyhow.  Ignorance is bliss, right?  With this system, I can send a task to a kid via e-mail and when they open it, up it pops in the calendar on their ipod.

I am still learning to discipline myself to use this system.  I hope to be able to incorporate other things that need to be planned into it.  I can see using this system for genealogy research also.  I will share that later, as I learn and refine the system more.

What I am reading – Take Back Your Life: Using MS Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012

somewhere in here!

Here is the crux of my Briley/Brierly problem… Just how many William Brierly’s in a row am I related too?  I am thinking 3, and upon further inspection, seem to find evidence supporting it.  I only just realized that William Brierly, the father in this deed, has a different mark than his son.  In this case, they do not use an X (like so many other of my ancestors).  The older William uses a stylized W and the younger one flips it over.  I have not really started the cataloging of these deeds.  It is one of my long term projects to get started on sometime this spring when our renovation is finished.

Here is my transcription of the deed (I tried not to edit it too much):

Pitt County, NC

Deed Book F – pg 68

To all Christian people unto whom this presents and to who shall come, I , William Brierly of Pitt County in the Province of N Carolina send greeting.  Know ye that I , the [sd] William Brierly for Divers goods, causes, and valuable considerations me there unto moveing have given and granted ad by the these [presents ?-unreadable] do give grant and confirm unto my son William Brierly the whole tract or parcel of land whereon I now do live to have and to hold the said tract or parcel of land of me, William Brierly unto my son William Brierly, his executors, [adms], and assigns from hence forth to his and their own proper use and uses tereof and therewith to do order and dispose of at his or their wills and pleasures as of their own proper land freely and peaceably and quietly without any manner of let trouble or denial of me the sd. William Brierley or any other person or persons whatsoever of all which premises.  I, the sd. William Brierly have put my son in full and peaceably possesion by virtue hereof.  In Witness whereof I, the sd. William Brierly hereof in witness whereof I, the sd. Willima Brierley have hereunto set my hand and seal the 26 october Domini Anno 1744.

Signed, Seal, and Delivered in the presence of :  Henry Ellis, Benjamin Ellis, John Presson

Signed:  William Brierley {with his mark)

October court:  1774 order for Registration

Another thing I noticed just recently in this deed, besides the very common mixing of the spelling of Brierly to Brierley and back, is that William Sr. mentions ‘moveing’.  Does this literally mean moving out and onward or does it mean he was so moved to give his land to his son.  I have to consider this because around the year 1800 a Briley family shows up in Anson County, NC with the same naming patterns.  Family historians from the past have long maintained they are from the Eastern NC Briley’s.

Good luck with your deeds!  I feel they are the key to sorting out these early relationships in my family.

Mapping Monday – William Brierly to William Brierley, son is a post from: Briley Genealogy copyright 2012