Independence Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

(We're all looking pretty tired from our fun filled week, the long ride to and from G&G's cabin, and early morning church, but I couldn't resist taking a pic of me and my matchy matchy girls.)

Family History, I am doing it....

...my family history, and I've caught that spirit of Elijah!

It all started last week. We had a Relief Society activity focusing on doing our family history and we talked about the New Family Search program that the church has put out. To make a long (but very interesting) story short I'll just skip ahead to the good part. The very next day I decided to start by doing some online indexing for the church. (I'll tell you how you can volunteer for this at the end of the post) After spending some time doing that, and getting familiar with reading a census (picture below), I decided to check out my family line to see what I could find.

After looking for about 30-40 minutes I located an individual on my dad's side of the family; my grandpa's cousin to be exact. Her name was Iris Marie and according to family search she wasn't married. I thought that was interesting and started doing some research on her to see if I could determine if she had been married. I started checking in census records to see if I could locate her and after a few minutes I was able to find her and her family. I also discovered that her birth location in family search was incorrect, so I made the change, searched a couple more things, and then hit a wall. After contacting a friend and trying out a few more things I decided to google her name just for kicks. This is what popped up

IRIS MEREDITH
REAL NAME:
Iris Marie Shunn

Iris Meredith is one of my favorite heroines ... and she is certainly among the most beautiful leading ladies of the B western and cliffhanger.
Her film career spanned from the early 1930s to the early 1940s. Most of her work was at Columbia Pictures in serials like THE SPIDER'S WEB (1938), OVERLAND WITH KIT CARSON (1939) and THE GREEN ARCHER (1940), as well as westerns starring Charles Starrett, Bill Elliott and Bob Allen. Her last films were a couple of sagebrush adventures for Monogram and PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation).
In later life, Iris Meredith fought a long battle with cancer which disfigured her face ... but the illness did not damper her grace, wit and spirit.
Meredith was married to Columbia Pictures director/assistant director Abby Berlin who is best remembered for helming many of the BLONDIE films of the 1940s. He later worked on TV shows for Columbia's Screen Gems TV subsidiary.
Les Adams has Iris identified in about 50 films, of which 32 are westerns and 3 are serials.
You may want to check the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and go to the California Death Records database. There you will find a record for: Iris Marie Berlin, birth date and location of 6/3/1915 and Iowa, Mother's maiden name of Ross, Father's last name of Shunn, and she passed away on 1/22/1980. There is a corresponding record in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

Right in front of my eyes was not only a picture of her, but details of her life, marriage, and recommendations on where to look for vital information. I was floored and overwhelmed with excitement. I could barely sit still in my chair. I quickly looked up her information under the California Death Records and the SSDI. I also continued to google her name and found some amazing things about her. I was even able to watch some of her films on youtube. The best part about all of this.....I had located her husband and his death record which contained information on his birth date. I went back into family search and did a search on him to see if there were any possible matches (or close matches) with that name and birth date.....none. In less than 24 hrs. of our activity I had found my grandpa's cousin's husband. I quickly added his information into family search, reserved to do his temple work, printed off the ordinance sheet, and had Chad take it to the temple where they printed off his ordinance card and a card to do a couple sealing for Iris and Abby.

HOW AMAZING IS THAT!!!!!

I could go on and on, telling you some very interesting things about all of this, but it would take forever. I will finish on this note though; in the midst of researching Iris and her husband I was able to locate their headstones. You'll notice that their headstones indicate that they were parents. Now all I have to do is find their children and add them to my family line. Guess I'd better get to work!

Here are a couple of images of Iris and, as promised, I've explained how you can spend a few minutes of your day indexing. Good luck to all you family researchers out there!

INDEXING:

The great thing about indexing is the fact that you can spend as much or as little time as you want doing it. I'll usually index a handful of names for a few minutes while the girls are napping and call it good. Also, the church could really use the help and all the volunteers they can get. It's also super easy to get started. Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to webpage http://indexing.familysearch.org/

2. Click on "GET STARTED"

3. Download program to your computer (I had some problems downloading the program, so I emailed them and the next day the responded with some tech support that helped)

4. Enter your login information (it's the same as your New Family Search account) or make a new account if you don't already have one.

5. Sign in and go through the tutorial (it's about 5 minutes long and is super helpful)

6. Start indexing

7.Remember, you are one of 2 people indexing the same project so you really can't mess it up. Also, there are tips to help you as you begin.
HAVE FUN!!!

Forever Friends

"To have a loving relationship with a sister is not simply to have a buddy or a confident -- it is to have a soul mate for life. "

-- Victoria Secunda

Chad's Project.....in pictures

(LOTS of pictures!)

The Goal: Construct a shed for our backyard that will help eliminate much of the crowding that is taking place in our garage.

Step #1: Pour concrete pad for shed. (This step actually had several steps that were preformed prior to my taking out the camera. The garden was relocated, the grass was dug up, the footings for the concrete were placed, and gravel was laid.)Step #2: Create a memento that will last for all time. Step#3: Keep cool and have some fun while watching the men at work. Step #4: Drill holes into the concrete and attached foundation of shed. Step #5: Connect pieces of the shed together and insert into the foundation. Make sure you have an assistant to help with this process. Step#6: Pat yourself on the back for a job well done then sit back and admire your work.

** A special thanks goes out to Rob for all of his help and hard work. We would still be out there working if it wasn't for you. We also want to thank Charity and Emily for taking some time to play with Kinsie. She loved it!**

Learning by Example

Saturday night, as I was finishing up dinner, I told Kinsie it was time to eat. Like normal she came walking into the kitchen and went straight for her high chair. Instead of reaching up her arms (indicating that she would like me to pick her up) she folded her arms and started chattering quietly to herself. She's never shown the slightest interest in folding her arms for prayer, so I quickly got Chad's attention and asked Kinsie if she was ready to pray. She smiled and folded her arms again. I was so excited about her willingness to participate that we didn't take the time to sit down; we just quickly folded our arms and said our little family prayer right in the middle of the kitchen. Our prayer for dinner was followed by several kisses and exclamations of praise and she's been good to fold her arms and sit quietly while we pray since then.

I'm simply amazed at how quickly she's picked up on little things like that and how she expresses her interest in being a "big girl". It's been a huge eye opener to me of how our children are always watching the things that we do and just how important it is for me to set that good example. I'm such a proud mommy right now and my heart swells with joy as I watch my little girl fold her arms to pray.

Britnee

I don't know what it is about her tongue, but Britnee can't stop sticking it out. I think it's the funniest thing. Whenever I see her poking it out I'll tap on it and tell her to put it back in her mouth. All she does is laugh at me. I wouldn't mind so much, but when it starts coming out during the sacrament it's hard not to giggle. I mean look at this thing....
I think it's safe to say that she's officially out grown her swing. I'll put her in it for a few minutes (so I can get something done with my day)but she starts to wiggle her way out of it once my back is turned. Just last night Chad and I were playing with Kinsie and I turned around to check on Britnee and found her like this...just sitting there watching us play.What a little nut.