Wonderful quote and promised blessing...

"As you participate in temple and family history work, you are certain to have the Spirit to comfort you in your challenges and guide you in the important decisions you are making."

—Julie B. Beck, "This Is Your Work", Liahona and Ensign, February 2012
I'm sharing this quote as I think about the past year and the challenges I have faced. I have not worked on genealogy with the diligence I have given it in other times. But yesterday as I was helping a friend with some of her family history, I was reminded of how many blessings have come my way through researching my ancestry and the love I have for these people - most I have never met. I have been called to do this work. I may be the only one in my generation who hears that call. I may be the only one in many generations who hears the call and does the research. I have my own family lines, my husband's family lines, as well as my eldest daughter's family lines (my ex-husband) to research. Inspiration through the Spirit has led me to research one name or another.  It is a very exciting and rewarding experience.

I have felt the Lord's hand guide me in genealogy research, as well as in my day-to-day life. The sweetest feeling is to hear Him say, "It will be okay." Even when I do not know HOW it will turn out to be "okay", it always does. When there are mistakes made in my research or people have taken my research and assigned it incorrectly, I get frustrated, but I trust that God knows what child belongs to each family, and the effort is rewarded. He will set things right.

There will come a day when all of the books will be opened. The records will be available to track my ancestors across the Atlantic and to connect them to their ancestors in their homelands. I have faith that when it is necessary, the Lord will bless US with the knowledge we need.

Until that time, I will keep searching and researching for my ancestors. Please, don't forget the maternal lines. Mothers are important, too!  :-)

Dece Gherardini

1940 Census Search Helps

Hello friends and family,

Perhaps you have already found these tools to help you find your kindred in the 1940 Census that was released this week, but I've been going page by page late into the night, still trying to find my Dad and his parents. I'll find them, I'm sure of it. But here are some ideas to help you.

Here is a great site to help you find the Enumeration District in 1940 -
Unified 1940 Census ED Finder
http://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

There are also descriptions of the Enumeration Districts through that site. If you are like me and need a little help picturing the areas described, open up your town or location in Google Maps and find the landmarks listed in the description. For instance:
ED 7-93:
SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT 1 OUTSIDE GILBERT TOWN BOUNDED BY (N) BASE LINE RD, BASE LINE RD EXTENDED; (E) COUNTY LINE; (S) CHANDLER-HIGLEY RD EXTENDED, CHANDLER-HIGLEY RD; (W) GILBERT-COOLIDGE RD, GILBERT TOWN LIMITS, GILBERT-BASE LINE RD; ALSO HIGLEY (PART)

I opened up a map of Mesa and went to where Baseline is the northern boundary, the county line (I assume this is Pinal county) is the eastern line, and so forth. Having a map open helps to determine what ED your address would be part of.

I had gone through all of the ED's for Mesa itself and found none of my relations. I puzzled over this as I knew my family was here. But I think of Mesa as it is now, or 20 years ago, not 72 years ago! The city limits were considerably different then. 30 years ago my house was in open desert. And it hit me... Grandma and Grandpa Starks met when they were picking cotton... in GILBERT. So, I needed to think south of Mesa proper and in the more rural, cotton pickin' area.

And I found my Great-Grandparents, Elzie and Wilmer Starks. I found Aunt Sue Sullivan Mathews. Now, to figure out where my Dad and the others are hiding... I'm going to find them. I really appreciate having the ED Finder, though. It's been a huge help. And I like Ancestry.com's versions of the census better than the first ones I was using. Much easier to navigate through their viewer.

Good luck!
Dece

1940 Census is Released!

It has been a very eventful day for the genealogy enthusiasts. The 1940 Census records have been released after a 72 year waiting period and everyone is ready to dig right in and find their parents and grandparents, just like I am. I'm waiting for the Arizona images to be uploaded to Ancestry or 1940census.archives.gov so that I can wade through them. Some of the other states are already up and searchable by enumeration district or city/state. California is one that many are interested in as it was a destination state due to the poverty and depressed state of the economy and the Dust Bowl. My grandma and grandpa eventually moved here to Arizona for that very reason -- opportunity. I am just not sure where my Dad and his parents were living in 1940. Were they in Mesa? Was Grandpa working at Parker Dam as part of the CCC? And my other grandparents... They were not married yet, but both were in Arizona. Grandpa will be easier to find than Grandma, but I'll get there, eventually.

I did go and upload a batch to index this morning - they were WWI Draft Cards, not the census. I wish I could read Italian better because there were some Italian records waiting to be indexed and I just couldn't commit to it. It's hard enough to read the English records sometimes!

I have been actively working on my Carver genealogy as well as my husband's genealogy lines of Jarosz and Krolikowski. I love the puzzle of researching genealogy so having some untouched lines is fun for me. I did discover that one of the ancestors was in prison or jail in 1910, but I don't have a clue why or for how long. So many questions...

I will keep working on the census and trying to find my people. It will be a long process going name by name!

- Dece