Small Brick Wall torn down

So I have been researching my great-great grandfather, Arie Blom Sr., and had gotten stuck on getting his death certificate.  I had sent away for it in the state of Illinois based on the following newspaper posting I found on Ancestry.com

So with the above article, I had decided to search in Cook County, Illinois for his death records since the article had mentioned Lansing as where his daughter and her husband were going to.  I also checked the date of the newspaper and looked up a calendar for 1943 and found according to the article his date of death was July 19, 1943.  

Well, I sent off for a copy of his death certificate from Cook County, and was surprised when I got a letter back stating no records found for the information I gave him.  Especially since I found an entry on interment.net for him and his wife buried at Homewood Memorial Gardens in Homewood, Cook, Illinois. 

I called Homewood Memorial Gardens and asked them to send me a copy of his burial record and the first one I sent was actually for his son, Arie Blom, Jr.   When I finally got the right record, I figured out why Cook County doesn't have a death certificate for him:

At the very bottom of the record, under remarks... "POD: Hammond, In.  No int order, too old".  So now, I am waiting for the State of Indiana to do their search and hopefully within a week or so I will have my great-great-grandfather's death certificate in my hands.

Absent no more

I had pretty much abandoned the blog for awhile because life just got in the way.

I am back now and am working on a post about my great-great-grandfather, Arie Blom Sr. that I am going to be posting a little bit later today.

Yes, I am alive!

It seems like it has been forever since I've written here.  Working full time has kept me busy and I haven't had much time for my genealogy research. 

Since my last mailbox waiting game post, I have received my grandfather's death certificate and my great-great-grandfather's naturalization documents.  I've been having a hard time trying to successfully digitize the naturalization documents as they are on larger paper than my scanner can handle.  I did take some photos of them with my digital camera but it's not as clear and sharp as it could be if I had scanned them.

I am still waiting on the death certificate for my great-great-grandfather.  Hopefully by the end of this week it will be in my hands. 

Update for the mailbox waiting game

So a couple of weeks ago, I sent off for a copy of my grandfather, Wesley John Blom's death certificate.  I also sent off for my great-great grandfather, Arie Blom's death certificate and naturalization documents.

I still have not heard anything back regarding the death certificates, however one of the checks I mailed off has been cashed so hopefully I will see the one for my grandfather soon!

I did, however, get a letter today from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois's office regarding the naturalization documents.  They found the documents and were sending me a letter detailing the cost of photocopies and mailing fees, a total of $17.94.  So once again I am playing the waiting game as I mailed off the check this morning before going to the grocery store.  At least now I know the process a bit more so that when I go to order the naturalization documents of my great-great grandfather Henry J Moes, his wife Gertrude Hillegonds and Henry's mother Jennie, I will be better prepared. 

Ancestor Approved Award

So back in November, I was nominated by Alice Keesey Mecoy (author of John Brown Kin blog) for the Ancestor Approved blogging award.  I was still getting into the swing of posting blogs and kinda set it on the back burner so to speak as I hadn’t really thought of homework aspect of the award much. 

Part of receiving the award is to “list ten things I have learned about any of  my ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlightened me and to  pass the award along to ten other blog writers whom I  feel are doing their ancestors proud.”

Well, I was also given the award on the 12th of January by Jenny Lanctot (of her blog Are My Roots Showing).  I work full time so I hadn’t really given much thought (again) to the ten items list.

I figured this week, however, since I took a couple days off from work so I wouldn’t have to be out in the snow, I would go ahead and work on it.  My list of ten things I have learned will be in an upcoming post.  I just wanted this post to recognize the two great bloggers who had given me the award with this one!

Mobile Monday - New ancestry app for the ipod touch, iphone, and ipad

There's a new post on Ancestry's blog regarding the newly updated Ancestry app for the ipod touch, iphone and ipad.  This new update to their mobile app Ancestry (formerly Tree to Go) brings the app in line with the way you view member trees at ancestry's website.

To me, this update is just what I was looking for with their mobile app.  As soon as I saw the blog update in google reader, I immediately grabbed my ipod touch to update Tree to Go so I could see it for myself. 

I went into my main tree and after it finished the sync, I was presented with the tree view.  I flicked right to left in the top half of the screen until I got to my great-grandfather, John A. Blom

After selecting my great grandfather's little card, I was then brought to this screen:

Here is the family view:

And here's the photo view:

And last, but certainly not least... my personal favorite... The Evidence view:

From what I also read at the ancestry blog, they are also considering a Droid app, which would be great for me because then I would definitely have my ancestry tree anywhere I go since I have a Droid phone as well as my ipod touch.  Until the android version does become reality however, if you do have an iphone, ipod touch or an ipad, and you are a member at ancestry, I highly recommend you go download this app.  After all, the app itself is free!

The mailbox waiting game...

Yesterday, before work, I dropped off 4 items to be mailed out at the post office.  One was a few photos I had promised to send to my little brother.  The other 3 were genealogy related. 

I sent in a request to the state of Missouri for a copy of my grandfather, Wesley Blom's death certificate.  I have a copy of his delayed birth certificate already and figured it was finally time to get the death certificate to go with it. 

I also have a couple of requests on their way to Illinois regarding my great great grandfather, Arie Blom.  One is a copy of his death certificate, and the other is a copy of his naturalization record. 

So now, I get to sit back and anxiously await my new-to-my-genealogy-collection documents to show up in my mailbox. I think I am most excited about the naturalization records as it will be the first time I've seen a set of them.