Shame on Me!

Well, I never thought it would be so long between posts but I haven't really had a lot to report on the genealogy front. Two things I'll mention though:

1. For Christmas this year I wanted to make my grandmother a family history book. She is getting on in years and was kind enough to give me all of her info and pictures on the Berger and Wellons branch of my family several months ago so I thought I'd repay her with a book. Her ex-husband (my grandfather) had a Shinn family book that my grandmother somehow ended up with and she was fascinated by it so I was fairly confident that a book on her family would go over well. I'd happy to report that it did and she has had that book on her coffee table since Christmas! While I began the project in November and had planned to give it to her on her 81st birthday (December 8th), I wasn't happy with the binding part of it. Luckily, about a week or so before Christmas I was in Target and found the perfect scrapbook to bind the pages. I protected the pages with plastic covers which, while a good idea, made the book a little thick. It was actually so think that adding any new pages was/will be difficult and I had to clip miscellaneous other records and info to the back of the book. I am working on other books for other branches of my family and am especially excited to try Blurb which I think will make it really neat and professional (myCanvas is nice but it isn't a publishing service I think I'll use if I ever do want to professionally publish a book).
2. I am FINALLY getting somewhere with my father's side of the family! Years of hitting brick walls and scrounging for scraps of information have finally (sort of) paid off. I still can't place any of my Allens in anywhere particular in Scotland, but I am learning more about their time in Pennsylvania then Ohio and finally, my branch that went to Michigan.