Locating Missing Correspondents
I “lost” two women I’ve corresponded with over the years. When I sent them cards at Christmas, I never received a response. They had always sent me a card with great news, so I entered a query concerning their whereabouts on the USGenWeb site in the county in which they lived. I inquired if anyone out there knew of these ladies and I received responses concerning both. Someone responded that one relative had passed away and another person let me know that the other lady was in a nursing home. She sent me her address and we stopped to visit her on drive back to Oregon from Florida where we are snow birds. I was able to find out what happened to my missing correspondents thanks to the USGenWeb and a couple angels that took the time to reply to my query.

Susan Laubengayer
Punta Gorda, Florida, and Klamath Falls, Oregon

Organizing Electronic Photographs
One of my projects over the last few years was scanning all the family photos and slides, especially the ones from generations past– boxes and boxes of them. I labeled each photograph with the year and the names of people.

Then, of course, the challenge was organizing them. My method is: for the immediate family, since I have scads of photos, I made a subdirectory for each decade. I also made subdirectories for groups of relatives (Follansbee Cousins, Poore Cousins–using the term cousin loosely). I made subdirectories for any other major category as it seemed desirable (e.g., Maps, West Newbury Historical, Vacations-Maine, etc.).
 
I can always move the photos around or duplicate them in more than one subdirectory. This makes it easy to make a CD of pictures for a specific group. My Poore relatives may not care about my husband’s Follansbee family pictures. My children, who are grown, each have a CD of all the pictures. Now, if disaster strikes, there are copies in lots of places for me to retrieve.

Sue Follansbee

Post All Related Surnames
Out of sheer frustration more than good sense, I have had great luck finding new leads (and a whole new side to the family tree) by posting not just my direct line surnames on mailing lists and message boards, but by also including the surnames of spouses. The experience has made me think much more “out of the box” with my research.
 
Ruth McKenzie

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