I wrote a blog article for FamilySearch about Julianna Magera, my husband Bernard's great-grandmother titled A Death Record Solved the Mystery.

Today, I finished my online learning program. It has been a long journey and I learned a lot. What was my favorite new thing to learn? It was definitely Delicious Bookmarking Manager! Thank you Claire for giving me this opportunity. You are an awesome coworker and a great friend.

Lifelong skill building never ends and this is only the beginning…

Click on the following link to watch an amazing video Advice from Elder Busche http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw.
In a BYU Devotional, given on May 14 1996, Elder F. Enzio Busche of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave advice to those listening on how to become a disciple of Christ. The speech was entitled "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" and can be found at http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7908.

So today, I continued my lifelong skill building. I explored Google Docs and created a simple document. I really do not see a need at this point for me to use it but I can see how this could be helpful to me if I was somewhere without my computer and had to write a letter. I also checked Web 2.0 awards list and realized that most online tools that I already use actually made the top of the list. I was mostly interested in the Digital Storage & Remote Access and Genealogy categories. I explored Linkedin and was surprised to find some of my friends' profiles there. I signed up for Genealogy Wise and will see if there will be any benefit in it.

Today I learned about del.icio.us at http://www.delicious.com/ which is a bookmarking manager. This is a cool tool. You can create a list of your favorite websites and then access them from any computer. I am actually going to create an account and use it.

So, last week I uploaded a few pictures to Flickr. Today, I learned about RSS feeds. Finally, I know what that little orange icon means that I see so often on the Internet. I also created my very own iGoogle page. It was not difficult at all. I guess I feel little less "technologically challenged" (this is an inside joke only for family members, ha-ha) thanks to Megan who I am sure is here with me and having as much fun as I do.

You can see some of my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepysfam/. Right now I only have my grandchildren's older photos there. Emma is 4 months old already. I will upload her new photos soon.

Rzehorz Research

I just returned from a trip to the Czech Republic. I had planned to spend some time in the Opava Land Archive and concentrate on extending my husband’s Rzehorz line from the village of Lhotka. I wanted to find more information about Joseph Rzehorz, my husband’s great- great-grandfather. However, I did not know who his parents were because I was unable to find his marriage to Paulina Wlczkowa. I hoped that perhaps his death record would give me some clues. My first step was to evaluate the information I already had in my PAF and come up with a timeline.

Joseph’s son Frantisek was married in 1894. Joseph is listed on the marriage record of his son as a laborer from Lhotka. Frantisek died in 1908, at which time his father was already deceased. It appeared that Joseph died sometime between 1894 and 1908. I searched the entire period twice and did not find the death record. I knew from other records that the family did not move and therefore Joseph’s death had to be recorded in Lhotka.

While looking at the death registers I found a death record of one of Frantisek’s children in 1900. A person who came to report the death was Paulina Wlczkowa, Joseph’s wife. She was listed as a widow. So once again I checked the death registers, beginning in 1900 and working back in time until 1894. Joseph was not listed.

Then, after a sincere prayer, inspiration came to check before 1894. I did and found Joseph’s death in August 1893. His death record includes the names of his parents. I do not know why Frantisek’s marriage record did not indicate that Joseph was deceased. Usually the recorder puts a little cross before the name. But I am grateful that I was led to Joseph’s death record and can now research another generation.

Welcome!

This is our family's new genealogy blog.