GeneaBlogger Games 2010 Diary, Day 2 (2/14)

The catagory I've been most drawn to has been the Expand Your Knowledge one.  Yesterday, I completed Task A by using Google maps to find an ancestral location.  Today, I did a timeline (Task B), read some tutorials and articles (Task D) and created a surname map with Wordle (Task E).

For my timeline, I was planning on updating the one I did for my great x 3 grandfather, John W. Berger.  But I still don't have his pension record and so I wanted to wait until I had that so that the timeline is as complete as possible.  So instead, I did a timeline on his wife, Susanna vonAllmen.  I used TimeToast to make the timeline:

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/39310

For Task D, I read some articles on Ancestry and FamilySearch.  There were a few good ones on California research and organizing, but the really great articles were at NEHGS.  Some of my favorites were:

Counting the People: Using Vermont Census Records
O’s By many Other Names: Common Myths About Irish Surnames
Locating Ancestral Homesteads in Rhode Island

For my Wordle (Task E), I chose to go a different route.  I've done several Wordles for my surnames but for this one, I wanted to focus on just one family.  In keeping with the theme of my timeline, I went with Susanna vonAllmen and John Berger.  Included with them are all their children and all the places where they lived or were born:

Medal Count at the end of 2/14:
1 Diamond in Expanding Your Knowledge