For the next 13 weeks, I have committed to following Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over at http://genealogydo-over.com.  This exercise involves putting aside all the genealogy information I have accumulated and starting from scratch. Yes, SCRATCH! When I originally read this, I thought "sounds like a good idea, but I won't do it." But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense! For 14 years I have been researching both my husband's and my side of the family tree, mainly so my children would know where they came from. But a lot of my sources were not sited, and things were not notated correctly. Recently, I have been working on putting my side of the family in book form, and find that I am sadly lacking in my proof, mainly because of no sourcing. How hard could it be to step back for 13 weeks and actually revisit and source all my findings? If I am not happy with the results, I can just go back to the old way! And so, I am announcing (for accountability sake) that I am going to do a Genealogy Do-Over!

In Week 1, we are to concentrate on three things: setting previous research aside, preparing to research, and setting base practices and guidelines. Here is how I am doing it (so far):

SETTING PREVIOUS RESEARCH ASIDE
I thought this would be a difficult thing for me to do, since I have 14 years worth of documents, papers, files , disks and emails. However, I have a genealogy "office" where most of this stuff is located, and I know where to find things when I need them. All I need to do is close the door and ignore it. Mr. MacEntee had a good suggestion: putting everything aside and then adding a task to my To Do list of locating a record when I need it. This I will do! I have also started a new family tree on Family Tree Maker for my side of the family, The Fosters. I will be concentrating on the main Foster line, and can continue with the other branches of the Foster line later. This will de-clutter my work AND my brain! New folders for the Do-Over have also been set up in Explorer, Evernote and Outlook.

PREPARING TO RESEARCH
This involves thinking about how I did my research in the past and how I can make changes for this do-over. Throughout my genealogy travels I have been very bad about sourcing all my information and keeping track of where I have been and what I have done. One thing I want to concentrate on is properly sourcing everything I have and continuing the practice in the future. I will also start making use of logs faithfully so I don't re-research somewhere that I already looked! Another thing that needed rethinking was time. I usually would jump on my Genealogy work whenever I had a chance. In the last few months I was working at my 9-5 and doing overtime, leaving no time for other things (genealogy). Since I have now rid myself of the overtime work, I can set aside time each day to concentrate on this effort.

I am also instructed to make a list of items I need to have available when doing my research. Here's what I have so far:
Notebook & pen
Internet
Family Tree Maker program
Evernote - I use this a little bit but not as extensively as I should
A copy of Evidence Explained - Ordered but not received yet
Research logs
Also available are Pinterest and Facebook

ESTABLISHING BASE PRACTICES AND GUIDELINES

Reviewing and establishing procedures for my research is a hard one for me. The few that I have so far are:
Cite ALL sources, no matter what form they come in - What, where, when
Track ALL work done - Successes, dead ends and all non-productive searches
"First pass is the only pass." - Slow down and study all information obtained
Use Evernote effectively - Need to read up on this!

This is very scary for me, but I think it will greatly benefit the goals that I want to achieve! Week 1 goes from Jan 2-8, so I still have more time to think on these things. Wish me luck!

     I LOVE technology! Ever since I was a teenager I have been fascinated with computers and technology. Although I was not real geeky about it, I did try to keep up with technology as I got older. One great thing is the internet! It has helped me to learn so much about my Grandpa George Grasse and his family (pictured above) and their history.
     In the early days of my genealogy research (before I knew enough to document all my sources), I did a search of the Grasse name, spelling it Grassy, on Ancestry.com and Rootsweb.com message boards. I fould a very interesting post from a 3rd cousin, Richard Grassy! In it, he is trying to discover more information about where his great grandfather John Grassy (my Grandpa George's father) was from. Here's an exerpt:
     "I talked to my grandfather and was to get a little more information. Not sure if it is enough to locate the exact St. Peter I am looking for, but I will narrow it down. He mentioned that his father used to live near the border of Austria and Hungary which in the 1880's I think was the Danube River? He said his father could drive horses to Vienna in a day from where he lived. So, I would think that at most he would be as far as 40 miles away. He said he used to cross the river from the Austrian side to the Hungarian side to teach German. . . My map shows some of these towns listed below but does not show any in upper Austria.
     Do you have any ideas as to which ones might fit the description? My great grandfather's name on his immigration papers was Johan Grasy, it was changed to Grassy."
The answer from someon who's name I did not document, was even more enlightening:
"There were many places called Szentpeter in old Hungary. . . Since you, however, stated that your ancestral Szentpeter was near Vienna, and as the name of Grazy/Graisy/Grasy is known to exist in the region southeast of Vienna (today split between Austria and Hungary), the most obvious candidate is the place that was called Mosonszentpeter, today's Janossomorja."  (Bold is mine)
     After a little more research on these town names, I confirmed this to be a town in Moson county called Mosonszentpeter. After amalgamation with nearby Mosonszentjanos and Pusztasomorja, the town today has the name Janossomorja, Hungary.
     This town fits the description of its location by Richard Grassy. Mosonszentpeter was to the east of Sopros, Hungary, to the right, near Vienna on the map below. Could this be where my ancestors came from? A definitive answer did not come until a couple years later.

     In one of my earlier posts I mentioned my grandmother on my father's side and her sisters, "all Polish gals with a great sense of humor". One of those gals was my Grandma Rose Kanger Foster's sister, Mary Kanger Yeshnowski. Both wonderful ladies are pictured above with their Kanger family, with my Grandma Rose on the bottom row far right, and her younger sister, Mary, on the top row far right. Great Aunt Mary just celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends in March of this year!
     Being the genealogy buff that I am, I was really sorry I couldn't be at her party. Imagine my delight when I received an email from my father that he had received from his cousin Dodie Graham with a link to a video tribute that Great Aunt Mary's children and grandchildren created for her 100th birthday bash! my second cousin Stephanie Speigel, Mary's granddaughter, has agreed to let me share it here! Thanks, Stephanie!    http://youtu.be/kc5oX8iVW3g 
     I remember Great Aunt Mary, but the last time I saw her was over 30 years ago,  before I was  married. Although she herself had many children and  grandchildren, each of my children received a handmade "First Christmas" ornament from her on the year they were born.  This video tribute to Mary Yeshnowski documents Mary's entire enriched and fulfilled life, from her Polish roots (and ours, Foster family!) and a family fable about a princess, to her many great and even great GREAT grandchildren! I hope you will take a moment to watch!
http://youtu.be/kc5oX8iVW3g
 "This video celebrates the life of my Grandma Mary Yeshnowski. The presentation  was delivered at the event of her 100th Birthday Party, held on March 29, 2014.  The narrative to the presentation was written by several members of the Yeshnowski family, including her daughters Dodie Graham, Barb Propp, and Mary Jane Tweedy and her grandchildren Ben Graham and Stephanie Spiegel. Photos featured in the video were obtained from numerous sources in the family. The slideshow was created and the audio read by Stephanie Spiegel. Enjoy" - Stephanie Spiegel

After I became interested in the background of my Grandpa George Grasse, I learned that his father's name was John. About 8 or so years ago I purchased a membership with Ancestry.com and the first thing I did was search for any information on John Grasse. Lo and behold, up popped the 1900 census for the John Grasse family in Steven's Point, Wisconsin! I was elated! There listed in the census was my Grandpa George! He was only 8 years old and it indicated that he was born there! Here is a shot of the entry, It was on two different pages:

     The census shows that John Grasse emmigrated to the United States in 1888 from Germany (actually, they lived in Austria). By the taking of this census they had been here for 12 years. But the most interesting thing that I saw here was in the far right hand columns. These columns are questions about whether the person listed can read, write and speak English. All of the family could do all three things except for John's wife, Mary. After 12 years of living in the United States she still could not read, write OR speak English! How could that be? Family lore had it that John Grasse taught German in Vienna, so you would think if he could speak English by this time that he could teach his wife a few words, right? I guess not. Later, in the 1930 census, when John was no longer alive and Mary was living with her daughter Christina's family, the answer to the speak English question was still "no".
     What could have prevented her from learning English? Was she not interested? Did she hold out hope that someday they would go back to Austria? How sad that she could not experience all that the United States of America had to offer because she could not understand what was being said. I sure would like to know what her reasoning was. If anyone can enlighten me, please do! Here is the only photo (of a photo) of Mary Grasse that I have, taken in her later years.

     My genealogy voyage started out of an interest in knowing about the family of my Grandpa George Grasse, my mother's father (Pictured with his wife, my Grandma Edna Crain Grasse). I remember them visiting us in Arizona during the winter months (they lived in Chicago). Grandpa would take me for walks around the block. Later, when I was older, he would tease me about the boys in my 8th grade class. He made me laugh. But I never met any of Grandpa's siblings and very rarely did I hear any stories about them. I met Grandma Edna's two crazy (in a good way) sisters, Rene and Gert. They were a hoot! I also had the privilege of knowing my great grandma on my Dad's side, my Dad's Dad's Mom, Gran. My grandmother on Dad's side had some hilarious sisters, all Polish gals with a great sense of humor. Then there were all the stories! I knew that on my Dad's side, the Fosters came from Ireland and the Kangers were Polish. On my Mom's side, I knew that the Crains were also Irish. But I did not meet any family related to Grandpa Grasse (I don't think). I was very curious to know where he came from. He seemed to me to have some kind of faint accent and I was told his family was Austrian. 
     I started genealogy research over 10 years ago, and my files and photos have grown into an office! I believe I bit off more than I could chew in deciding to research both sides of the family so that our children would know where they came from.
     I have come accross some interesting things in my research, from a murder in Arkansas on the Foster side to the possible connection to George Washington on the Taylor side! I am trying to put it all in a book, eventually to share with everyone. However with so much information and so little time, I'm not sure that will happen. But it has been started!
     Personally, blogging will be a big help to my book endeavors. Putting it in writing and getting feedback from family will help in organizing and completing my work. Not to mention the fact that now my family and Bob's family will get to learn a little more about where they came from, too. That's one of my goals, anyway. And, by the way, if anyone is really interested, I could use a helper!

Hi! This is my first venture into the blogging arena! I am building and testing my blog site so it is not a complete work of art . . . yet!
Please reply by posting a coment and let me know what you see if you can even see it! Can you email me? Can you post a reply on the site?
Thank you, family, for helping me test and love you lots!!