Uncle Sam Made Me Do It…
An ancestor of my husband who served in the Civil War found when he tried to receive his pension that his name was listed incorrectly. After many, many efforts, he still could not receive the funds. (Just try to change the government’s “factsâ€!)
So, years later he simply applied under the spelling the government had listed and received the pension from then on; his family continued on with the spelling. On the bright side, since they spelled the surname differently, it was easy to know the line I descended from at the time of the Civil War.
Â
Wanda Spainhower
Microfilm Reading Tips
The article on microfilm machines evoked amusement and nods of agreement. Like many of us would-be genealogists, I took up the study about the time my eyesight got worse. Now I keep a couple sheets of yellow or blue printer paper in my supply bag. For microfilm readers that project downward onto a screen, placing a colored sheet on the screen often makes the blurry and faint film easier to read.
Unfortunately, it does nothing to mitigate motion sickness. Peppermint drops help a little.
Mary
Saving Paper
Before I open my e-mails in the morning, I open my word processor and when I see an article or part of an article I want to keep, I just copy and paste it into my word processor. I don’t always want to print out the whole article so this way I can be more selective of what I want to print. Also, sometimes an article contains information that is of no interest to me so I can just delete it. It just takes a moment to do, and it saves ink and paper! (Ever frugal!)
Beryl Flynn
Las Vegas
Click here for a printer friendly version of this article.
If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: mailto:[email protected] . Thanks to all of this week’s contributors!
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the “Ancestry Weekly Journal,†please state so clearly in your message.
Â
Regarding Beryl Flynn’s tip on “Saving Paper”: I, too, open my word processor when reading articles, both in e-mail and on the internet. I then transfer the interesting article/e-mail to my word processor and edit it for the sections in which I am most interested. A couple of lines below the end of the text, I type the words “Excerpted from” or “Abstracted from” followed by the full internet source (usually copied from the browser window). Thus, I know the source of the information and can also locate the document again, if necessary. Sure does save paper and ink as well as my future readings.