Last Shout - Posted by: Old Hippie - Tuesday, 25 December 2007 15:51
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Don't Let Their Memories Die
The Ancestry Project - Data
Collection
The above is George M.
Schultz and his wife Martha -- my father's grand parents. You can learn what
little we know of them in the forums.
When I was a kid, my Grandma Castillo would play her ukulele on the front porch of
the house my Grandfather built, while we kids sang "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" all night long. Then
we'd listen attentively while she'd tell us stories of her childhood, and of her
family.
However, she never documented her life, the life of any of her parents, brother,
aunts, uncle, etc -- so all of that went to the grave with her -- except for
what might be able to accurately reconstructed from the memory of a
ten-year-old. Worst yet, she was really the only of my relatives tell these
stories, and so while we know a little
about her parents -- we know very little about our other ancestors.
About eight years ago, in an attempt to get everyone pumped up for a family reunion, I put
together a little ancestry web siteand asked a couple of our elders to fill us in on our
ancestors that they anything about. Since then we've lost a few of our seniors, and none
of the rest of us are getting any younger. Basically we are at our last
opportunity to learn about some of our ancestors -- before their memories will
be forever lost. It is true that right now most of my generation's kids at the
moment could care less
about their ancestors, and are "too busy" to go visit and sit with their grandparents and ask.
However, someday they're going to regret not taking the time if there is no
other record they can learn from to pass along to their children and
grandchildren. I know that I seriously regret not getting with my grandparents
before they died - and learned of the ancestors whose memories went to the grave with them.
Here's a great opportunity for a little effort to turn into a legacy, or be a
great opportunity missed if most of us are complacent and can't be bothered. I've put
together this web site for my generation and what's left of my parent's
generation to keep the memory of our ancestors alive forever.
So
what I'm asking for -- is for everyone in our family who is over 40 to take a couple
of hours at least one time, to put together and post your story about a favorite
relative who is now gone. In the forum,
I have categories by family surname, and threads of individuals born with that
surname. I assure you that any effort you put forward will be documented and
preserved for future generations -- and I'll discuss that in more detail
elsewhere.
I have all of the details and a
FAQ
area to help instruct you on
the best way to do this. Please read those instructions
and FAQs, and please pitch in and help keep the memory of some good people
from going with the people who have those memories. This is not at all
difficult, and your effort will go a long way towards making sure future
generations know where they came from.
OK
-- if you made it this far, I might be doing better than my last attempt at this
-- with getting a little more help. Right now the short term goal is to glean
some memories from my generation and my parent's generation, as those are the
resources' that can go back the furthest. Midrange goal is to have that
information preserved in a medium easily accessed and and passed down. Finally,
the long range goal being that chain not be broken in the future. Keep in mind
that if done correctly, this will be a project that will continues to evolve, so
long as there is someone willing to step to the plate and accept the passing of
the torch to administer to the previously collected data -- and motivate others
to contribute their memories. I ask for every all of my parents, aunts, uncles,
cousins, brothers, sisters, second cousins, to please help.
Finally, we all know that families branch off through marriages, so that while
we have the same ancestors -- we also don't have the same ancestors. As an
incentive to help with the side of your family that interests me -- I'll include
an area for the side that is not related to me. See the
FAQ
area for more information on that.
Bookmark this site -- as I'll be posting regular updates.
Thank you,
Dave
The Ancestry Project - Documenting
The Ancestry Project -
Documenting
Photo Graphs, Coffee Table
Book, Perpetual Tree Chart, Downloads
Photos:
About ten years ago, I contacted many of the
family elders, and asked to have the chance to have their old photos for one week to digitally scan. I scanned them, and as I have time I'll go through them one by one and repair the water stains, rips, tears, scratches, and missing chunks. The below is an example of the photos I received.
You will notice that pieces of hair, face, suit,
dress, and sofa are missing. About a half hour of repair (see below), and the photo while not perfect -- looks a little better.
While the ones I've put here on the web are suitable for web sites -- they won't produce good
hi-res photographic prints. However, I am touching up the full size scans that I made.
When finished, I have lined up a professional photo printer in Atlanta (with high end photo printers
-- not like what you get at the drug store) that can reproduce high res prints from these digitally repaired photos for about 25 cents each.
They will also be able to produce enlargements up to 8X10 (for the better
resolution photos) -- and you will be able to order on-line from a catalog I
will put up. I'll keep you up to date on that in the
forum announcements.
As
I write this, I only have about 10% of the old photos retouched -- as it is a
time-consuming project. You can
click here to see what I have so far, but check back as I will get them
all up. If your side of the (Schultz, Castillo, Lyon, VilleMonte) family isn't
there yet -- it will be soon. Also -- if you have a collection of old family
photos of our ancestors that I don't have -- please take the time to scan in the
highest resolution possible, and put on a CD
for me. More on this in the
FAQ section -- including what to do if you don't have a scanner.
Coffee Table Book:
There is also a service that I know of, where I can use a program to format these photos, the history/stories of our ancestors
I'm trying to gather, and create a hard cover Coffee Table book (of the quality
you'd expect to pay $100 for at a premium book store), documenting the families
and it's ancestors. This is the real deal with premium spine, heavy acid free glossy pages, and dust cover -- of about 250 pages for about $30 a copy (after I do the work and submit in their layout) for a small batch of 10-25 of these books.
I will not spend my time "throwing together" something -- but spend hundreds of
hours making it worthy of telling our ancestor's story with words and the hi-res
photos I've been gathering. If everyone pitches in just a little, I can come up
with a killer coffee table book that will ensure that these people will not be
forgotten like their predecessors have been.
Perpetual Family Tree:
This is off a ways, because of how big of a project this initial site and photos
are -- but I will ultimately install a web based Family Tree application that
will allow everyone to build their tree from their perspective. It will link up
where it links up by marriages, to create as huge of a tree as people are
willing to work for -- and give the registered member of this site (FAMILY) the
view from their perspective, for as many of the branches as they want to see.
Like a 5000 piece puzzle being worked on by many people, the Frances,
DuJardins, Castillos, Schultz', Lutz, Handzlicks, Rashleighs, O'Dells',
VilleMontes'....... can all work on their part of the puzzle independently.
Where their tree connects by marriage -- the bigger picture develops. Again,
work on assembling your data, and stay tuned to the
forum announcements for more details.
Downloads and Uploads:
Soon there will be a section where family members can upload old photos and
download files of stories and family trees.
Your Families Portal:
This page is what is called a Blog Portal. My personal goals are to document the
Schultz, Castillo, Lyon(s), and VilleMonte Families. At best, most of my
relatives only care about half of those families -- but do have another side
that they may wish to see documented. Again, I will add those other half
of families for my relations (even by marriage) who will contribute to the half
I am interested in and promote the half I put up for them. I will also provide
anyone of them with a Portal (at no charge), for them to do what I am attempting
to do with this one you are reading. It will be a much simpler Portal that will
require not programming experience -- but can be customized. Likewise, if there
is any of my relatives over 65 who would like to document their "Life and Times"
in a portal -- I will set it up and customize it for them. All I ask is that if
you wish me to add a family surname for your other side -- that you get your
family to use it. If you ask me to set you up with a Portal -- that you use it.
All
of the details to these items are explained further in the
FAQ section.
I'll leave the moral and spiritual suggestions to those better prepared for giving that advice. There's really no need for me to give any suggestions of responsibility to any of my family -- as a family, people will be hard pressed to find another family who better takes responsibility for the direction their lives take. No my suggestions revolve around technology. As a family, I think we lag many others with taking advantage of the technology around us. For too many, it is a mystery to them because they will not make the simple effort to even try to learn some of the simplest ways technology can make life a little more interesting to them.
It would appear that the older you are -- the more resistant you are to making the effort to learn about some of the cool stuff available to you. At 52, most of my childhood friends act no different than my elders, when they allow fear of the unknown to stop them from learning just a little something new. I certainly hope that until the day that I'm bedridden -- that I will always want to improve my knowledge, and never feel I'm too old to learn anything new. In many cases, two minutes spent learning something could save you hundreds of hours, and/or provide you with better entertainment - regardless of your age. Some of you have very powerful computers capable of burning high quality music CDs, process great memories in digital photos, make movies, find a place with the answer to any question you have on any topic, have a blog to be your personal soapbox, or even find the best prices for something on-line. Sadly these computers are used for plain text emails and minimal Internet browsing because of the lack of effort to spend five minutes to try one new thing a day.
I've tried to show people something as simple as cut and paste text from one area to another -- but they'll spend hours retyping something that that could have been highlighted, copied, and pasted in seconds. I've set up wireless networks so people could move about their homes with their notebooks -- but they're afraid to unplug the notebook. I get emails about how to attach a file in an email -- because it is easier than to want to learn how to enter the two keywords "email attachment" into Goggle and have 200,000 simple answers in a second. I've seen people go months without sound to their computer because a wire was plugged into the wrong hole -- when they could have looked at the instructions, or tried the hole next to it, or sought some help on the Internet or any visitor. I've seen people perpetrate 10-year-old Urban legends over and over again, despite having a toolbar with a link to first checking it out before emailing it to 50 people, who mail it to 50 people, who mail, and being part of keeping a lie alive....... I've bought people a digital camera and a USB card reader -- that is simpler to use than loading film in a camera -- and those cameras collect dust until they're lost. I have dozens and dozens of people who need me to resolve their computer issues - when they've been provided with a simple opportunity to challenge themselves to learn something -- and having the satisfaction of solving their own problem.
None of this is Rocket Science. Consider that the last grade of school that I completed in school was the 8th -- and I was a D/F student up until that point. So if I can self-teach myself what I currently know -- anyone can -- if they'd only make a small effort to try. Yet they either feel like it is easier to have someone else do it for them, just deal with the problem and do without the feature, or spend more time getting themselves lathered up into a frenzy over some silly little problem instead of spending less time thinking about where they could find the answer -- and going there for it.
The kool thing about learning technology today is consistency of different places to find answers. Once you've taken the initial few hours of getting past the first obstacle -- it not only gets easier -- but it becomes a vehicle that offers unlimited opportunities of self gratification. Treat this as you would a jigsaw puzzle or a crossword puzzle and do it for relaxation before you have the problem and get into a panic finding the answer under duress. The more of the puzzle you do -- the easier it gets to resolve. Better yet -- today offers so many more hints than were not available to me when I was learning. When I worked at United Recovery I saw problems like too much time typing work cards, master cards, and collection letters -- so I learned how to write a simple program where entering that information once save a ton of labor. When I saw how much time and money was wasted calculating payroll from charts, and sending checks to Al Stein to do the bookkeeping and return a month later -- I learned and installed accounting software. When I saw how long it took and the errors made with Donna logging payments by hand - and the retype it all in statements (with zero checks and balances), I wrote a program to not only do that -- but to give accurate information to make a Daily Accounting Summary and statistical reports. When we needed to take it to the next level -- I learned how to design a system that would do everything an agency wanted -- and explain those needs to a programmer who knew nothing of the needs of a collection agency, in the terms he could understand. When I started my own agency and couldn't afford a commercial software application to run my business -- I learned to program and wrote my own. Not only were there no support groups or the Internet back then, there wasn't even books on these then uncharted territories -- so 9th grade dropout had to figure it out for himself.
Few of you need to take on those types of challenges under the gun as I had to -- you just need to learn some of the very basic things a computer can do to make life easier and more enjoyable. The below four suggestions are of super easy stuff to start with -- which will not only give you quick and immediate enjoyment; but start to tear down the "I can't do it walls" that I hear too much.
Music on your computer. I have a computer at my desk at work at DDS, one at work at Lonestar / Swcc, and this one in my bedroom. All of them have about 4,000 songs, which take up 11.4 GB of drive space, and if played end to end -- would give me 9.1 days of music without hearing the same song twice. There is always music playing when I work on the computer -- and it sounds great even through $20 USB speakers. With these songs I can create 100s of play lists with as many or as few of the songs of my choice that I want. When a song is in a playlist -- it isn't a duplicate taking up extra space. It is just a different arrangement of the same songs played from the single database of music. Every night I go to bed with one of five "Beddie Bye" playlists of a dozen songs that help me fall to sleep. I can burn custom CDs right from my computer of any 80 minutes of arrangements I want -- to play my truck or motor home, or give away. The remarkable thing was that this was not only totally free, about the easiest thing I've ever down on a computer, and while it sounds like it was time consuming to set up -- it was all done with about an hour total of my time. I challenge all of you to challenge yourself to try this:
Go to the iTunes site, to download and Install the free iTunes software. Downloading software is standard across the board. Do a download and installation of any application once -- and it will be virtually the same way for anything you download in the future. It is really goof proof, and you will learn something very useful. The download site will walk you through the installation, and there is a Support site if for some reason you get confused. Again the first time is time there might be confusion -- but after the first time you will have forever passed that obstacle.
To load your music, just insert a music CD into the CD-Rom drive of your computer and walk away. It will automatically load all of the songs -- with information like Song, Artist, time, album, genre,.....It takes about 5 minutes per CD to load. I put a stack next to my computer and over the course of a couple of days loaded 3500 songs by just putting a new CD in as I walked by. All you have to do to load all of your CDs onto you computer is know how to push the button that opens your drive. Hardly rocket science.
Once all of the music is loaded -- you can search by song, artist, album, year, genre, or whatever -- and drag that song into a playlist. When you drag it into the playlist -- it still stays in the master list, so the song can be in as many playlists as possible. This application, like all quality applications, has simple on-line help by just clicking the Help link in your NavBar. You will most likely not need it -- but it is there if you do.
Finally you can automatically buy songs for only 99 cents from the iTunes store with a couple of clicks while in iTunes. It is great for that favorite song -- not worth buying an entire CD for. Click to select the song, click to checkout -- and the song it automatically downloaded to you computer.
Outlook as a Personal Organizer. I couldn't live without Outlook keeping my schedule straight -- and my time efficiently used. I can tell you what I was doing virtually every hour of my life since 1985 between Outlook and Sidekick before that. Most all of you have Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express -- which is just the email part of Outlook), in your Microsoft Office folder. The biggest problem with people underachieving is organization and efficiency. An application like this can change your life by making you more productive than the average person. The benefits are:
A calendar / day planner. In addition to my keeping track of days that I'll be gone racing, days I'll be out of town for a convention, appointments, reoccurring scheduled events like quarterly tax payments, birthdays, anniversaries, .... Many sites have a little file to import. For instance I'm a Houston Rockets fan. Virtually all sports teams have their schedule that you can import into your calendar. As a side note: Without my calendar as a record -- we wouldn't have Hope. It is a fact. It became court evidence as proof of our standing to challenge some bad people from abusing her.
To Do List. You can have a to do list, and when you intend to bang out some of those tasks that day -- you can drag them to your calendar and put in the time frame you allot for them. I consider myself a very efficient and productive person and this is my number one tool to any business successes I might have experienced.
Email -- stationary and signatures, distribution lists, folders for filing important emails, searching for items in past emails -- this is the best there is.
Get a digital Camera: Do it for your personal entertainment -- in addition to opening some doors to tearing down technology walls. This is a way to learn a little about technology -- that can be greatly expanded at a reasonable pace. I haven't used film for years. Hope can take and process digital images -- and there's no excuse for anyone to not take the few minutes to learn how to take photos and get from their computer to their computer, and back up the best onto a CD. If you still are using film -- a digital offers these advantages:
Photos that don't fade, scratch, have spill marks, stick to each other, forever lost when thrown in boxes in the closet,
Photos are free -- take 10 instead of one and keep the best
Tools to crop and touchup bad photos (you learn something easy and enjoyable)
Instant gratification
Better Cameras for the money
So easy that you will be angry with your self
Download to the Internet (you learn something that will be useful in many other areas)
Last forever
The downloads on the Internet survive fires
1 billion places to get help if you are too stubborn to read the five minute step by step instruction
My suggestions of three levels of good Amateur cameras (Click)
This is just a starting point. Once you invest a little time with your digital camera -- you will challenge yourself to take better and better photos, share then on the on-line family photo albums, start to do funky retouching, take drives looking for that excellent photo.
Learn to use bulletin boards as tools: Forget for a second that most of my family members have not successfully registered on the www.OldHippiesRoots.com site -- thus haven't seen any of the history about their family that only the registered and logged in members can see -- boards are helpful in answering any question about any subject. When I have a racing question on how to go faster, safer -- I most often refer to a board on that. When my motorhome had a problem that no one could identify -- a board frequented by motorhome and truck mechanics lead me to the answer. All of the applications and programming languages I use -- have me going to a board for answers to my questions. When I needed a fuel pump for my Buick Grand National -- a board that specializes in GN owners gave me the advice of which one was the best for my situation (going faster) and where to get it. When I have computer problem I can't figure out -- a board will always have the answer. I've save thousands of hours by tapping into this free advice. While my interests are going to be different than yours -- there is a board for any topic in the world that you can socialize with others having the same interests -- and resolve problems. Dogs, cars, photography, racing, sewing, church, music, movies, trivia, politics, humor, lawn tractors, go carts, motorcycles, home decorating, law, medicine, kids, money, investments, colleges, vacations, places --- anything. Learn the basics of participating on one board -- and you will know how to participate on any board and have a tool that will make your life much easier.
When you click register on any board you are asked for a user name (the nick name you want to go by), a password, and your email address.
You are then sent and email (to the address you gave) with a link in it to click. When you click that link -- your registration is completed and you can post. They email the link to complete your registration to you to discourage spammers and trolls.
Once you log in and click the remember me box -- most sites will automatically log you in every time you go to that site in the future -- but you should still write down your username, password, for each site in a little notepad that you keep by your computer.
Should you lose your password, there is way on almost every board to email it to the email address used to register the login (so keep it current).
Terminology:
Board: The site that has a collection of forums for various topics or subtopics
Forum: The area where specific topic threads go
Thread: A topic might be a question someone needs answers for.
Post: The individual replies for that thread (answers to the questions -- replies to a statement or opinion)
Troll: An asshole with nothing better to do than stir up crap on a board
Spam/Spammer: Someone posting worthless information with no other goal that to sell his product.
Whack: A post or thread that was deleted by the board administrator
While this message to challenge yourself most likely sounds too harsh to many of you -- I challenge of you to challenge yourselves to do the above four things -- regardless of how old you are, and how little you know about the topic. These are about the four easiest things to begin with -- and once learned will open the door to more and more useful ways to expand on them. No one has a legitimate excuse to not try these things -- as there is help around any corner (including me) for those who will at least make a small effort to try and resolve their own questions. All four of these challenges are the basics that will open the door to the next level -- for those who enjoyed the self satisfaction of not underachieving. If I can do this -- any one can. I will help any of my family who is willing to make an effort. There are computer forums at both www.oldhippie.com and www.oldhippiesroots.com. Put your questions there, so it and the answers creates a database of information that will help others that run into the same obstacle. If someone visits your home that might know the answer -- don't be afraid to drag them to the computer and ask them to show you.
My bad -- it was a recital at a local church. George has been taking piano lessons for a few months now, and was asked by his instructor to play a piano piece (all who attended were glad he wasn't asked to also sing) at a local recital. He was (to say the least) very excited to do so. He is requesting his Christmas gift this year to be a candelabra.
Ok, I haven't done real good so far with getting anyone motivated (Except Spike, who wrote his memories of two uncles, and aunt, and three cousins yesterday -- which those who didn't register haven't read) to so much as register to view the stories of our ancestors. So how about this, let's collectively do one relative at a time every couple of weeks.
So far there are three stories about Grandma Castillo http://www.oldhippiesroots.com/forums/index.php/topic,15.0.html , and despite everyone copying everyone about her song -- not one posting about this in her thread. As a matter of fact, it has been 7 years since there has been an addition of stories about her. I think if everyone who knew her was to give it some thought for the next couple of days, and write on short story of your memory of Grandma sometime during the weekend (you have an hour -- right?) -- we can get the ball rolling on this. It is only a couple of paragraphs -- and I'm sure everyone has one story to tell. Post it to http://www.oldhippiesroots.com/forums/index.php/topic,15.0.html .
There are two areas of the site -- the Portal and the Forum.
The Portal is www.oldhippiesroots.com and the newsy page. While in the Portal, you can get to the forums by clicking the Forums link in the NavBar.
The Forum is www.oldhippiesroots.com/forums and where the memories of our ancestors is at. While in the forums, you can get to the Portal by clicking the Home button.
In the forum, where the actual memories of our ancestors are, you will have to register and log in to see them. They are not the business of the general public, and that's why you'd never know they're there if you don't register, and then log in.
Unless you've done something really strange with your computer, you only have to log in once -- and your computer will from then on be logged in when you visit the site.
Registering and logging in is not a major issue. Click the Register link, follow the instructions of providing a User Name you want to be referred to as, a password that you will remember (but write it down anyway), and a valid email address to you. You will then receive an email with a link to click to prove you are who you say you are, and complete your registration. The email is sent out immediately, so if you don't get it within ten minutes -- start to look around in your spam or deleted folder for it.
If you just can't figure this out -- then email me your choice of user name and password -- and I'll register you. It is better than doing nothing, but please make the effort to try first.
In the forums, there is a FAQ forum that has the answer to 99.999999999% of the problems everyone has thus far emailed me. It is a public forum so you don't have to register to look for the answer to your question. If you have a problem read the FAQs first.
If you are a family member who has no problems understanding this concept, and who can visit this site for 5 minutes a day to help those few having problems -- let me know because I need some help with helping those that are having problems getting this and throwing up their arms. I went back to work in Houston -- and I am just swamped, and could use a little help.
Before you blow this off and can't be bothered -- please take five minutes to register, login, and read a couple of the stories of your ancestors. You may then see that this really is a worth while project. This is only Phase One of what will be a pretty big deal -- don't be left out.
If you are of the younger generation, spend one night a week not trolling the bars in Katy and check this out. There is a private chat room that you can use if you want to have a set time with the cousins to shoot the shit. There is also a free Blog to use if you rather keep the MySpace thing a little more family, have grown up, and want to step out of the Kiddie / Goth / Wicken / Heavy Metal / Trailer Trash / "Hey Look at Me Act Like an Asshole" sites -- with old men trolling for little boys and girls. Register, log in, and check it out before blowing it off as Uncle Bastard's crazy idea.
So far three people have taken the five minutes to register in 48 hours. That's sad. How big is our family?
If you have any questions or problems -- email me and we'll get them fixed.
Spending a little time once a week to learn a little about family, look at old photos, read and tell a joke, and otherwise communicate with family really isn't too much of a burden -- is it? I spent over 100 hours getting this site to where this information can be submitted, read, passed along, etc. A couple of minutes to register, log in, and check it out isn't near as difficult or time-consuming.
This is a family only thing. If you are family (no matter how many times removed) or married into the family, or family that married into the family -- you are welcome to register. If you are the general public -- that registration will quickly get deleted. Sorry -- but this is not one of those general public things.
For those family members that need an engraved invitation before they will participate -- consider this your engraved invitation. For those so important that it takes five family members to beg them -- I ask four another to please email them.
Soon, the photo albums with these old family photos will be tied to your registration and log in -- and the only way you will be able to view them is to register and log in. There are some big things coming down with 100s of old family photos that have been restored -- and can be downloaded of have prints made from. Don't be left out.
I need a couple of you willing to help me make this project a success to join the Nag Club with me, so we can collectively nag the family members that haven't taken the time to see what it is about until they finally take the time. Please feel free to start nagging those people immediately -- telling them what they're missing.
Today the new ancestry site goes live. By clicking the link at the top NavBar or in the sidebar labeled Forums -- you will be taken to the area where stories of our ancestors can be found. Your best bet is to first visit the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) forum to get a couple of tip on how to best navigate through that site.
From the old site -- there are quick stories about Runyan Lake by Noel Francis, Carmen Schultz, George Schultz, Jerry VilleMonte, Dale VilleMonte, Howard Lyon, and Ralph Castillo. There are also a couple dozen submissions on ancestors including:
Guy Lyon
Kate VilleMonte
Ralph M. Castillo
Paul VilleMonte
Luis Castillo
Noel Francis
Bernard Schultz
Martha Schultz
Juanita VilleMonte
Maria Torres Castillo
Francis Castillo
Frank Lyon
Dolores VilleMonte
and others
Additionally, there is a Life & Times forum -- with a submission by George Schultz. Since the original site went live in 2000 -- we've lost a few more of our relatives, and it would be nice if we could get some of the people who best knew Michael Francis, Noel Francis, Mary Lyon, and Patsy Weiss.
