I always look forward to Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. This week our mission is to visit the Wayback Machine, searching for screen shots of our own blogs. It’s never occurred to me to do this, I guess because Empty Branches is only 19 months old. However, I accepted the challenge and this is what I found.

Empty Branches was created in January 2014, but the Wayback Machine first found the site on 17 May 2014.

Because my blog is so new, I haven’t changed themes or background colors, but I have added to the toolbar to the right of the green title “Empty Branches on the Family Tree.” I had just begun to add in links to resources online.

The Wayback Machine didn’t return until five months later, on 29 September 2014.

The changes are subtle and can only be seen in the toolbar, as category names have been revised from favorite blogs, websites and educational links to “Blogs I Follow” and “Favorite Sites.”

The Wayback Machine looked like it was becoming a regular visitor for the rest of 2014, with monthly shots taken:

September – December 2014

It was a bit disappointing to move into 2015 and find that no visits were made again until 6 April 2015.

The toolbar has again been updated with the “Research Toolbox” now on the far right. One thing that annoyed me for months can be seen in the bottom right corner of this screen shot. It’s the “ghostly” image of the Feedly icon, not the real link. It took me a long time to figure out how to get rid of it, but the next time the Wayback Machine visits, it won’t be there.

I’m not sure why, but on 19 June, not one, but four, snapshots were taken. I learned something here. The circle on that date is larger than the others, reflecting the number of shots that were taken:

Four Visits in One Day!

I’m a little disappointed that the most recent Wayback Machine visit was on 19 August because it doesn’t reflect all the updates I’ve made to the toolbar.

However, it is evident that I’ve made updates in the interim since June. I am going to have to check the Wayback Machine for a while to see when it captures the latest additions to my blog.

Thanks, as always, Randy for an imaginative challenge.

The Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge posed this week by Randy Seaver was to determine how many ancestors celebrated golden wedding anniversaries and, of those, which couple was married the longest.

I have to admit it was a bit of a sobering experience to look at my family tree, which fared better than my husband’s, and realize how many ancestors died young. Many died of ailments that are very treatable today. For example, my great grandfather, Charles Adams, died in his 40’s of a strep infection a few years before penicillin was invented.

On a happier note, I have six ancestral couples who celebrated their golden wedding anniversaries:

The most recent of these ancestors are two sets of my 2x great grandparents:

1. John Scerbak married Maria Patorai in 1861. Maria died in 1912, a month before their anniversary so they were married 51 years.
2. William Coleman married Sarah Crouse in 1855. William died in 1905, just after their anniversary so they had just completed 50 years of marriage.

Next, I have 3 sets of 3x great grandparents:

3. Daniel Adams married Sarah Parker in 1836. Daniel died in 1893 before their anniversary, so they were married for 56 years.
4. John Stewart married Catherine Carlisle in 1814. John died in 1869 so they were married for 55 years.
5. Thomas Coleman married Mary Elizabeth Astle in 1830. Thomas died in 1888, again just before their anniversary, so they were married for 57 years.

I have only one pair of 4x great grandparents who celebrated 50 years together:

6. William Tarbox married Judith Haskell in 1802. William died in 1860, before their anniversary, so they were married for 57 years.

Therefore, in my ancestral lines, I have no couples who made it to 60+ years. Thomas Coleman and Mary Elizabeth Astle were married the longest, beating out Daniel and Sarah by a few months. They were married for exactly 57 years, 10 months and 17 days.

I mentioned that my lines fared better than my husband’s. His family was decimated by illness, war and a few divorces. He has only two sets of ancestors who made it to the 50 year mark and, ironically, one of those sets is his parents.

1. Edward Stufflebean and Ruby Sturgell were married in 1938. Ed died in 2002, a week after their 64th wedding anniversary.

The other pair of ancestors who passed 50 years were:

2. Isaac Riddle and Catherine Johnson married in 1824. I don’t have death dates for either of them, but both were living with their widowed daughter, Rhoda York, in Clinton County, Kentucky in 1880 so they were married at least 56 years. Isaac was 80 and Catherine was 79 in that census.

So Randy, to answer your question, I have no one who can top 66 years and I, myself, have only six out of 63 sets of ancestors celebrated their golden anniversary.

Every weekend, Randy Seaver issues a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. This past weekend it was A Survey of Genealogy Activities. I know I’m a few days late, but that was because I’ve been doing my spring cleaning this week. Yes, I know that is a couple of months late. However, with our cruise schedule this year, I wasn’t home enough to do spring cleaning. Then came summer yard work. . . . . right on schedule. That meant cleaning up thousands of pods that have fallen off the trees in our yard. It’s the desert equivalent of fall leaves.  However, all that is now finished, so I have time for the fun stuff – genealogy.

Anyway, here are my responses to Randy’s survey questions:

a. I use Family Tree Maker as my main genealogy software program. I am in the midst of migrating to Roots Magic. I have 6000+ scanned images to add to my family trees. When I finish that project, I will likely make Roots Magic my main program. I’m not familiar enough with it right now and don’t want to take the time for the learning curve right now. I also have Heredis and it’s come in handy for sharing ancestral information with my Swedish cousins.

b. I have four online family trees right now, two for the Sabo family and two for the Stufflebean family. One of each is an Ancestry member tree and the other two are housed on My Heritage. While I use universal collaborative trees for ancestor hints, I have not submitted any data to them. I am afraid I wouldn’t be quite as easy going and forgiving as Randy was when a lady contacted him AFTER she deleted his ancestor’s data and replaced it with her own, not realizing they were two separate men on a universal tree. I am happier knowing that I have control over my own trees.

c. Being retired, I watch where the genealogy pennies go and my subscriptions change as my research needs change. For many years, I was a consistent Ancestry subscriber. With their price increases in the last couple of years, I have an intermittent subscriber, which more than meets my current needs. I also have a subscription to My Heritage, which I am using more and more for European lines. I have also been a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society for many years. My last current subscription is with Arkiv Digital, as I have been deep into Swedish records. Their image quality is fabulous and I am hoping to locate a probate file for my Anders Molin, a master mason, who died sometime after 1786 and probably before 1812.

d. My first and foremost favorite free site is FamilySearch, which I use regularly for Slovak and Danish records. I also use Arkivalieronline.dk, the free Danish National Archives website. Another favorite is the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick for my Loyalist and Pre-Loyalist families. I love the Virginia Memory: Chancery Court Records for my husband’s Williams and collateral lines, which originated in Virginia. Lastly, I spend a lot of time in the Missouri Digital Heritage death records, as I work on the Stufflebean lines. My favorite free sites change as my research goals are updated and focus changes.

e. My actual genealogy research time online varies quite a bit from week to week. I would estimate that, on average, I spend about ten hours a week on actual research.

f. My time spent researching in a genealogical repository is much more limited now that we live in Tucson and not Southern California. My library time is pretty much limited to a couple of days before Roots Tech opens and a four or five day visit to Salt Lake City later each year. The Family History Library is about the only repository I have visited for the last several years.

g. Time spent adding data to genealogy software also varies quite a bit each week. I probably spend a couple of hours a week adding data, documents and photos as I work on blog posts. However, my “average” time spent is going to jump dramatically as my next goal is to rename all the 6000+ scanned images that I have waiting for me. As part of my Genealogy “Go-Over,” my goal is to have this done by the end of the year. Scanning was completed in April, all images and documents were back in archival albums last month and I am currently working on processing the images. It will be close to a full time job – at least 30 hours a week, or more if I don’t get too bored – until it is finished.

h. I belong to the Pima County Genealogical Society and attend meetings regularly once a month if we are not out of town. I also belong to two of their special interest groups and attend those meetings if I am around. That would average about six hours per month.

i. Genealogical education activities include RootsTech and at least one webinar a week, sometimes two or three. I probably spend 10 hours a week reading printed and online material related to WordPress and blogging and using new-to-me tech tools for genealogical purposes.

j. I spend about 20 hours per week reading, writing and commenting on genealogy blogs, websites and a bit on social media. My goal is to leave more comments on others’ blogs, as I enjoy reading many of the posts. I think we are all pleased when a comment appears because we know someone has actually read and appreciated what we have shared!

Thank you, Randy, for another fun challenge. At least I got this posted before next Saturday!