Fun with Search Terms

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It's time for another round of "Fun with Search Terms!" People type certain words or phrases into search engines. If the combination is right, my blog turns up in the search results. Sometimes the searches are funny. Sometimes I can provide more information to users, if only they'd comment on my blog. Either way, I enjoy the process. Please note that these searches are anonymous so I don't know who is stumbling on my blog. I just comment in the hope that they find it again.
Now on with the show. Actual search phrases are in bold.

"smith point" bahamas cemetery


I did once visit a cemetery at Smith Point on Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas. I do not know the name of the cemetery. If you go to any of the Wednesday night fish-fry events at Smith Point, you will see this cemetery as it is right on the road:


Hurricanes and age took a toll on the grounds.


As you can see, the road and native shrubs were the only obstacles between the cemetery and the Atlantic Ocean.


There is also the Saint Jude Cemetery at Smith Point, but the photos above are not of that cemetery. If memory serves, Saint Jude was right down the road.

clayton genealogy library houston obituaries


The Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research is one of the foremost genealogy libraries in the country. It is part of the Houston Public Library system. Though the Clayton Library does have obituaries, the best collection of obits can be found in Houston Chronicle and Houston Post archives. These are located at the Houston Public Library Central Branch downtown. Central is a different branch than Clayton, which is located in the Museum District.

Clayton Library house

The Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research is a lovely setting within the Museum District. There is a large 2-story main building on the grounds. The former Clayton residence house now holds city directories and other items of historical interest. There is also another building with a meeting room where most of the events are held.
Here is a photo I took of the Clayton House, as well as its marker of recognition as a Texas Historical Landmark:



frog capital of the world


That would be Rayne, Louisiana. If you ever get a chance to visit, take a tour of the frog murals.


If you have a genealogical interest in Rayne, my Bourgaux line is there. Also check out the song Rayne, Louisiana by Bruce Robison just because.

Janet Hovorka blog


Janet writes The Chart Chick blog. It is part personal genealogy blog, part Family ChartMasters blog, and all sorts of awesome.



husband painted my wife is a cheater on their house


When did this happen? Why would you paint your own house? How did this search string lead to my blog. Some questions can't be answered.



That's it for now. Thanks for playing!

Cross Country Thibodeaux Travelers

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During a rare free evening earlier this week, I did a little poking around Ancestry.com and my own private family tree there. It's been so long since I've been able to work on my own ancestral lines that there were dozens of "shaky leaves" or hints waiting for me.

Two of the hints were for my great-grandfather, Noel Holly Thibodeaux. Both were for city directories that had been added since I last worked on my own tree. 
The timeline for this man is a work in progress. He moved his wife Josephine (my great-grandmother) and his family back and forth between Louisiana and California several times. This was in the 1920s and 1930s before a national highway system, convenience stores and everything we expect for a road trip.
Circa 1926. One of many road trips between Louisiana and California.Photo courtesy of my cousin, Eldridge, whose parents were along for the ride.
Though I am still searching city directories in southern California and Louisiana, here is a loose timeline of the many residences of the Noel Holly Thibodeaux family:
between 1914 and 1916 - Noel and Josephine got married. My grandfather says his parents got married in California. However, my great-grandmother was a young lady in an established Louisiana family. Did they elope to California? That would be quite a scandal, though I wouldn't put it past Noel as he looked like he was a handsome charmer. I'm still looking for a marriage record.
1917 - lived in San Bernardino, California with a child on the way.
1920 - Noel, Josephine and 2 children lived in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1922 - lived in "furnished rooms" in San Bernardino, California.
1924 - lived in Los Angeles, California

1926 - at least one trip to Lousiana, as the photo above was on a trip from Louisiana to California.
1928 - lived in Brawley, California. They had 4 kids then.
1930 - lived in Josephine's parents' house in Rayne, Louisiana.
1931 - lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. They had 5 kids.
1937 - lived in El Centro, California. They had 7 kids.
1939 - lived in El Centro, California at a new address.
1944 - lived in Bell Gardens, California.

1948 - lived in Bell Gardens, California at a different address.

1950 - lived in Downey, California.
1962 - lived in San Jacinto, California, at the time of Noel's death.
I can't imagine moving around that much, especially cross-country with kids, but they did it. Hopefully Josephine had a sense of adventure and it wasn't just a chore. Here is a photo of my great-grandparents and one of the cars that took them there and back and there again:
Josephine Bourgaux and Noel Holly ThibodeauxOn the road again. And again. And again.
Hopefully this summer I'll get some more time to scour the city directories and fill in this Thibodeaux timeline. Until then, those shaky Ancestry.com leaves will continue to tease me.

[Here's a search tip: don't always trust the search box for city directories on Ancestry.com. I've found this family in two separate directories where the search said "not found," but they were there when I manually searched the books page-by-page online. This manual search isn't hard, as the directories are in alphabetical order. Put in the extra time in searching. They payoff is worth it. --A]

Cousin Bait: Francis W. Schoffman and Mary Lenertz

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I am looking for information on Francis W. Schoffman and Mary Lenertz as well as their children. My genealogical connection is to Mary Lenertz. She was an older sister of my great-great grandfather, John Benjamin Lenertz.

John moved away from Minnesota and his siblings. He died in 1919 and I don't have a lot of information on the other Lenertz brothers and sisters. I do have vital statistics, but I would like to learn more about their lives which is why I wrote this post.

Here's what I do know:

Mary Lenertz
born 12 August 1859 in Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa
died 9 March 1940 in Mankato, Blue Earth, Minnesota

married in January 1875 in Mankato to:

Francis W. "Frank" Schoffman
born November 1847 in Wisconsin
died 13 July 1936 in Watonwan County, Minnesota

Mary and Frank had the following children:

William Francis Schoffman (17 October 1875-21 November 1918)

George Ambrose Schoffman (15 June 1879-8 January 1924)

John Roland "Rollie" Schoffman (12 February 1882- ?)

Sadie May Schoffman Movius (16 December 1890-15 May 1897)

Rose Katherine Schoffman Heiertz (31 March 1893-17 June 1986)

Like I said, these folks are cousins to me and my connection is through the Lenertz line. I would like to know more about their lives and maybe see a photo or two.

I am hoping someone somewhere does an Internet search for their Schoffman ancestors and lands on this blog post. I am hoping after reading this that they reach out and connect with me.

I do have some information on the other Lenertz siblings, as well as Mary's parents, that I am happy to share.

Thank you for reading this far. Hopefully casting this line will help me reel in some cousins. I'm not a crazy online stalker person, I promise. I'm just trying to bolster this Lenertz / Schoffman branch on my family tree.

SCGS Jamboree Live Streamed Sessions

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Hello from California!

I'm here for the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. It will be great to see some of my genealogy pals again, as well as make some new friends.

If you're not able to join in the fun in person, you can participate and learn through several live-streamed sessions.

This is a great opportunity to learn from home. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to the Southern California Genealogical Society for making it happen.

I will try to post from the conference, but I make no promises. I don't want to miss the fun.

SCGS12 Hollywood Gala

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The 2012 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree has come to a close. I took three whole pictures and I've included them here. All were taken at the Hollywood themed Gala on Friday night. Attendees were encouraged to dress up, so I did. 
Here I am with Thomas MacEntee. He was the MC of the event, so no big hair for him.

There was a photo booth at the gala. I was sitting at a table next to the photo booth, so I was able to get this great photo of Elizabeth O'Neal and Sheri Fenley. The went for the Old Hollywood look.


The photo booth included silly props that you could incorporate into your pictures. George Morgan and Drew Smith (aka the Geneaogy Guys) just wore their regular outfits.


The Jamboree gala was really fun. I liked it better than the traditional conference banquet where we have to sit in one spot and be served chicken-starch-vegetable for dinner. At the gala, we were able to mingle and have fun. There were even some real legends of Hollywood who were signing autographs. A good time was had by all.
{Note to my son: I'm sure you're mortified by your mother. However, please note that everyone said I had the best costume there. That has to count for something, right? Also, you better behave and keep your good grades or I will wear that foam hair to pick you up at school. Love, mom}

'Attenuating the Taint,' and other stories

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Let's clear the decks of a few recent non-election related items that merit Grits readers' attention:

CCA: End justifies means at traffic stops
Reported the Courthouse News Service, "Police can make illegal traffic stops if the driver or passengers have outstanding warrants, the divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled." Read Liberty and Justice for Y'all's take on this ignominious opinion, "Attenuating the Taint."

Congress may prohibit employers requiring social media passwords
Legislation has been filed in Congress to prevent employers from requiring employees to give up their social networking username and password, reports The Back Gate. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice allegedly had done just that, the website reported earlier.

Adios, Injustice Everywhere
The CATO Institute has taken over the National Police Misconduct Reporting Project after a brief hiatus following its founder's retirement, and has resumed the site's original mission publishing daily summaries of police-misconduct related news stories found online. The site, previously called "Injustice Everywhere," has migrated to a new URL, policemisconduct.net. Congrats to David Packman for successfully passing off the project.

'Why We Lie'
The Wall Street Journal excerpted a forthcoming book which argues, "We tend to think that people are either honest or dishonest. ... But that is not how dishonesty works. Over the past decade or so, my colleagues and I have taken a close look at why people cheat, using a variety of experiments and looking at a panoply of unique data sets—from insurance claims to employment histories to the treatment records of doctors and dentists. What we have found, in a nutshell: Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little." Most people cheat right up until they think it makes them look bad, says the author. "Sadly, it is this kind of small-scale mass cheating, not the high-profile cases, that is most corrosive to society."

Stop and frisk on trial
A federal judge granted class-action certification in a civil rights lawsuit to plaintiffs alleging mass constitutional violations under New York City's famed "stop and frisk" policy. Those interested can read the judge's blistering opinion (pdf). Unless an appellate court says otherwise, the suit will put the "stop and frisk" policy itself on trial.

Could most gunfire incidents really go unreported?
Something doesn't add up here.The New York Times has a story on cities which have adopted "ShotSpotter" technology which allows them to triangulate the source of gunfire by sound. The company charges cities a yearly fee of $40-60,000 per square mile as a subscription package. Predictably, concerns have been raised about recording conversations in one incident (the system isn't supposed to). More surprising, though: the technology has "made it clear how much unreported gunfire takes place on city streets. ... In the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco, for example, where one square mile is covered by ShotSpotter sensors, only 10 percent of the verified incidents of gunfire detected by the system were accompanied by 911 calls, Commander Ali said. In Oakland, Sergeant Bolton said, only 22 percent of the verified gunfire the system detected over a three-month period was also reported by residents." Those are eye-popping numbers: One wonders if that much "verified" gunfire truly goes unreported or if the technology is generating false positives?

Reviewing new Florida regs on confidential informants
At the Snitching Blog, Alexandra Natapoff points to a retrospective on the death of Rachel Hoffman, a Florida drug informant whose death spawned a new state statute regulating confidential informant use. (See prior Grits coverage.) Natapoff also mentioned an interesting looking law-review article about the Florida statute that "focuses on an important provision in Rachel's Law that was eliminated [during the legislative process], that would have required police to provide potential informants with counsel."

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Silhouette artist Cindi Harwood Rose is the Pied Piper of silhouette artists. Even wiggly children, are amazed at her magic scissors. “The scissors are like a magic wand to the children,” says Cindi, “they glisten and make shapes from special French silhouette paper”. A self-taught silhouette artist, Cindi, does not underplay the importance of natural art talents. “If you cannot draw a profile with a pencil, pen, or brush, then you could never draw with scissors,” C. H. Rose, explains. It is much harder, and that is why you rarely see real silhouette artist, who can do the lovely miniatures. By this, Cindi is speaking of the skilled artist who merely looks at a subject and cuts directly from the paper, without the use of a light, pencil, pen, or camera. This Mother’s Day, Cindi will do silhouettes in Houston at Fundamentally Toys, and in Dallas and Fort Worth, at Learning Express stores. Wiggly children, do not have to sit still, Harwood-Rose explains, not do the parents. www.silhouettesbycindi.com