Accentuate the Positive Geneameme for 2017

Geneablogger Jill Ball, of GeniAus, suggests that genealogists celebrate the positives for the past year. My 2017 successes are listed below:

1. An elusive ancestor I found was 5th great grandfather, Oliver Davenport. See Surname Saturday ~ Davenport of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

2. A great newspaper article I found was in the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal which mentioned my paternal grandparents before they were married.

3. A geneajourney I took was visiting Pittsburgh at the end of August for the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) Conference, where I visited a couple of cemeteries, finding many of my maternal ancestors, as well as visiting the house my mother grew up in.

4. An important record I found was a marriage record for my 7th great-grandparents (John Davenport and Hannah Warren) from the Massachusetts Town and Vital Records. As I noted in this blog post, it's very important to look at the original record, especially in this database.

5. A newly found family member shared information about her branch of the Pyle family. She descends from William Scott Pyle, the brother of my second great-grandfather, James Pyle.

6. A geneasurprise I received was the death certificates for my great-grandparents, Lowell Copeland and Ethel May (Greeley) Copeland. They died in Princeton, New Jersey, and a friend in a local genealogical society happened to be researching in New Jersey and obtained digital images of these for me.

7. My 2017 blog post that I was particularly proud of was this one where I had to share that the daguerreotype I received last year from my second cousin was not an Alcott.

8. I made many new genimates who participated over the summer in the Boston University Certificate Program in Genealogical Research (OL24) with me.

9. A new piece of technology I mastered was the new color-coding feature in the new version of Family Tree Maker. I will be blogging about the discovery it helped me make soon.

10. I joined the APG (Association of Professional Genealogists) and the NEAPG (New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists) after I completed the B.U. Certificate Program in Genealogical Research.

11. A genealogy event from which I learned something new was the FGS Conference in Pittsburgh in late August. (See #3.) I attended a few sessions with a Pennsylvania focus where I learned about resources specific to Pennsylvania.

12. Blog posts that taught me something new were posts about DNA. A new-to-me blog is The DNA Geek. My other favorite DNA blogs can be found at my DNA Resources page.

13. A DNA discovery I made was the amount of DNA each of my sons inherited from their four grandparents. Again, another blog post that needs to be written!

Lowell Copeland

14. A brick wall I demolished was confirming the parents of my 4th great-grandfather, Noah Davenport. (See #1.)

15. A great site I visited was Dead Fred, where I found a photograph of my great-grandfather, Lowell Copeland (at right).

16. A new genealogy/history book I will enjoy is Val Greenwood's The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy. 4th Edition, which I received for Christmas and have yet to explore.

17. It was exciting to finally meet the many professional genealogists at the FGS conference (see #3) this summer.

18. I am excited for 2018 because I hope to have more time to research and blog about my more recent findings.

Thank you, Jill, for this wonderful idea and...

Happy New Year to all!