Journey to Certification

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last wrote anything in this blog. It is not for the lack of ideas. I think of things to write all the time. I have a little note book that I keep in my purse and it has pages of blog post ideas. Nope, my problem is time.

At the present time I am working with about six clients and attempting to work on my certification. I have attempted to get my certification before and just never seemed to be able to get to the point where I felt I was ready to "start the clock." Let me explain.

The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) is the governing body that certifies genealogists. You can also apply for accreditation from the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogist (ICAPGen). Either one of these gives validation to your work as a genealogist. You must achieve a high degree of research standards to qualify for certification or accreditation. In affect the two governing bodies set the bar that you must jump over.

You can of course work as a professional genealogist without being certified or accredited, furthermore, one need not become a professional to "do" genealogy. But I have chosen to become certified to challenge myself, to see if I can meet the standards set forth.

I have to admit it is a bit intimidating. For certification one must complete a portfolio of work. You present client reports, research plans, a three generation pedigree chart and family group sheets and a lot more. When I write it out like that it doesn't seem so scary and complicated. But, the reality is it is tough. Each and every fact must be sourced by more than one source. That's every date, every name, every place. My dreams are filled with census records, death certificates, succession records and the like. The data entry alone is making my hands hurt (not to mention my head.)

It takes about a year to complete all the work asked for in the portfolio and then it is evaluated by three or four judges. When you think you have obtained enough education and experience to go for your certification you submit an application for certification. That "starts the clock" and you have one year to complete the portfolio and submit it to the judges.

I have been stuck at the education/experience level. I keep attending conferences, taking online classes, participating in Webinars and such, but never seem to actually get down to brass tacks.

To learn more about what is required for certification go to the BCG website and view their samples or take the "Test Your Skills" test. It is a good way to gage how well you know what you think you know.

The process for Accreditation is a bit different. ICAPGen requires you to pick an area of specialty. While the BCG allows you to test your skills in a specialty area such as German research, the ICAPGen requires you pick either an area (locality) of the United States (say Southern, or New England) or a country of concentration (such as Germany or France.) There are eight possibilities to choose from for the United States

• New England Region - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
• Mid-Atlantic Region - Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland
• Midwestern Region - Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin
• Mid-South Region - Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri
• Gulf-South Region - Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas
• Great Plains Region - Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas
• Mountain West Region - Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
• Pacific States Region - Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington

You can also specialize in an area of expertize such as: Librarian, African American Genealogy or Native American Genealogy. Or you could choose to be tested in one of the other areas such as British Isles, Scandinavia, Canada, Pacific Area, Latin America, or any of the Continental European Countries. 

After you have decided on an area of study you must find a family to focus on from that area that lived in the region for four generations from 1900 back. (In other words...from 1900 towards 1700)

You must complete the four generation pedigree/family history project with all facts documented just as in the certification project mentioned above. In addition, there is a written exam containing six parts: Handwriting, Document recognition, Electronic Database familiarity, General questions and answers (to show your knowledge of the area/locality/region you have chosen it's history and the records you can find there, a pedigree evaluation (they give you a pedigree with problems and you evaluate it) and a research problem. And oh yes, there is the Oral Review... a tiny little 2 to 3 hours. Go here for more information on ICAPGen.

So this is my year for getting on with it. I am working very hard at gathering together my materials and putting them into the portfolio for certification. I'm taking online classes to remind myself the level at which I need to do research, and I'm meeting with a group of people who have also been procrastinating getting their certification. We cheer each other on and keep each other accountable. Each week we tell each other what we hope to accomplish that week and we report on what we actually got done. It will probably take me about a year before I "start the clock" and then another year to finish up the work. But I'm getting down to brass tacks.

Marguerite Irma Domingue

Marguerite, or some form of the name, has always been present in my family tree at least once in every generation. In my generation we have my cousin Peggy (Margaret Odette,) in my mother's generation it was my mother Margaret Audrey. My grandmother's generation Flavie Margarite (my grandmother,) her mother had a sister named Victoria Marguerite and Flavie's grandmother was Marguerite Irma. It keeps on going like that for many more generations. But I'm going to stop at Marguerite Irma.

Needless to say, with all those Marguerites or Margarets running around the "girls" were called by their other name. Marguerite Irma was always Irma or Erema, Margaret Audrey was Audrey, and Flavie Margarite was called Fly, although I don't know if that is how she would have spelled it.

I don't know why my attention has been drawn to Irma lately. Perhaps she is wanting me to discover her story. Do you ever feel like that...that they are reaching out to you, trying to get you to find them or find out something about them? Well, that's how I have felt for the last couple of months concerning Irma and her mother Marguerite Tonton Broussard. Actually Tonton has been on my mind or in my heart now for about a year and she will get my undivided attention soon; but we have to work backwards right? So it's Irma's turn.

On this trip to Louisiana I was determined to find the death date and place of death for my great great grandmother. That in itself is not too difficult. Not really.

There was this priest a while back named Father Hebert. He had a passion for genealogy and those of us who research South West Louisiana records are forever in his debt. He transcribed all the church records for the Catholic Churches in South West Louisiana and some of the Protestant ones too. Forty-Seven Volumes. All the births, marriages and deaths that the Church had recorded and a lot of court house records too. The only tricky part is those 47 Volumes are readily available in Louisiana and a little harder to come by in California. So I spent a great deal of time during my visit to Louisiana looking up records in Fr. Hebert's books.

There she was on page 122 of Volume 25.


DOMINGUE, Marguerite Irma m. Sylvestre ROMERO d. 30 Aug. 1894 at age 54 yrs. (NI Ch. : Fun. Reg.: v. 3, p. 35
Also:
DOMINGUE, Irma wid. of Sylvester ROMERO Succ.: 20 Nov 1894 (NI Ct. Hse.: Succ. #743)

This confirms she was married to Sylvestre Romero (as well as confirming I have the right Marguerite Irma Domingue) and tells me her death record was transcribed from the New Iberia Church (NI Ch) record Funeral Register Vol. 3, page 35. The second record told me that she had Succession Records (Succ.) in the New Iberia Court House (NI Ct. Hse.) and that the record number was #743 filed in 1894.

Jackpot!

Now some researchers might stop there. I had "proven" her death date. But I did not really...what if Fr. Hebert had made a mistake in his transcription? So I went to the Catholic Church in New Iberia.

Now, New Iberia is small but not so small as to only have one Catholic Church. It has three public libraries for heavens sake. So I had to dig a little to find out which church was the one that would have been around in the 1890s. I went to the library and that librarian told me to go to another library (the second one having a genealogy collection) and there I found, once again, that genealogists are a great collection of human beings. One woman stopped her research and started digging with me to help me find "my church." We found out which one it was in a little over 20 minutes and I was off.

St. Peter's Catholic Church
New Iberia, LA

I made a beeline to St. Peter's Catholic Church in New Iberia. A wonderful woman working behind the counter pulled the old books and made copies of Irma and Sylvestre's entries.  They're in French.  I don't read French...at least not very well...not yet. But obviously I will be learning it.

I could not believe that St. Peter's Church was still actually allowing copies to be made from these books. They are in danger of falling apart. I would have understood had they told me they no longer were making copies. But, no, they happily made my copies for me.

So now I had a copy of the original record. Hot Dog!

"Do you happen to know the location of the grave?" I asked the nice lady. She checked her book that lists all the people buried in St. Peter's Cemetery and sadly informed me that she did not.

I called my cousin Eric and he agreed to meet me that afternoon and help me look for the graves.

Eric Wilkerson-Theaux

Eric and I are the two genealogists in the family. He has been working on one of the other lines that we share for more than a decade now. He and I both share that same "craziness" that makes us think "tomb hunting" is a great way to spend an afternoon.

St. Peter's Cemetery

So I picked him up and we went to St. Peter's Cemetery to find Irma.



St. Peter's Cemetery is a huge cemetery and has hundreds of graves in it. Where to start. Eric and I decided that the cemetery would have been started either in the back or in the center and grown outward. So we decided to start in the center. Luckily for us the center was marked with a big cross. About 20 minutes and about 6 rows later I found her. The tomb is clearly marked. Eric and I gave each other hugs and a high 5.

The Romero Tomb where Irma is buried

Marguerite Irma Domingue Romero's grave

Headstone for the tomb

Several hours and a sunburn later we decided we could not find Irma's mother and father who should be buried in the same cemetery. Of course they could have been buried out on the farm but these were highly religious people and they would have wanted to be buried in sacred soil. So my vote is for them being in St. Peter's, but the tombstone may long ago have deteriorated.

So Irma has been found. She lays at rest in St. Peter's Cemetery with her husband Sylvestre, in a grave marked Romero.

Month Long Field Trip

Well, my trip to the South to visit with family and gather family history is coming to an end. Yes, it's been a month. I left Sacramento on February 24 and should make it home by March 22. I need a vacation.

This trip did net me some great stuff though. I met my Uncle R.L. and his family. What a great bunch of cousins I have. (The only one I did not get to meet was his son Danny...that will have to wait till next trip.) I also met my cousin Peggy for the first time. She is already planning a Landry reunion for the next time I make it South.

My cousins Peggy and Andree are determined to get me to speak French, or at the very least not butcher the pronunciation of the names of our ancestors. Which I find hysterical considering that none of them say the name Theaux right. (The h is silent, the name is pronounced Ta (long a) O, but they insist on pronouncing the h.)

My Aunt Lil Fowler

I also got to spend some quality time with my 90 year old Aunt Lil. She took me to a fashion show and we went out to dinner. Lil is very active. She wore me out. She stays up later then me and gets up earlier.

I discovered that artistic talent runs in our family. Somehow it managed to pass right over me. I can't even draw stick figures. My son, however, has some talent, and now I know where it comes from. My Aunt Lil is quite the artist (her medium is oil paints) and I've already introduced you to my cousin Tim who is a sculpture and an amazing portrait artist (his medium being charcoal.) I like his portraits much more than his sculpture....but shhhh, don't tell him.  

One of Aunt Lil's Paintings

I also found out that there are a few health issues that run through the family. I had never thought to do a family health tree...these things are just not thought about when you're adopted, but now I am re-thinking that.

The main purpose for this trip (in addition to meeting family I had not met before) was to gather stories before they were lost and to try and discover information about my great great grandmother Marguerite Irma Domingue Romero. I am happy to report I was successful in all areas.


I recorded my Uncle and my Aunt telling stories about their childhoods and their parents. And my 2nd great grandmother...what did I uncover about her....well, you'll just have to read the next blog.

Cajun Hospitality

I've spent the best two days at my cousin Peggy's house.  Peggy and George (her husband) rolled out the red carpet for me.  Yesterday, Peggy and I spent all day talking genealogy, telling family stories and sharing lots of laughs.  The day was topped off with a "Cajun Party" full of good friends, boiled shrimp, Cajun music and more shrimp.  This morning Peggy made me Beignets and tonight she cooked a fabulous Shrimp Etouffe.

Today I learned how to work my embroidery machine...turns out that Peggy and I have the same machine.  But embroidery is what she does for a living.  George is half convinced we are not cousins but long lost sisters separated at birth.

Peggy has giving me the most wonderful gift, a picture of my great grandmother, Felicie Romero, and her brothers and sisters.  I can not begin to express what that means to me. Being adopted I have almost no photos of my birth family.  My sisters gave me a couple of my birth mother, Audrey, when I met them.  Being a genealogist I always have longed for the fabulous old photos that other families seem to have.  The first instruction to a new genealogist is, "go on a treasure hunt in your own attic."  Or, "ask your parents or grandparents for old letters, photographs, the family bible," etc.  I did not have that option.  My mother had passed before I met my family...in fact if she had been alive I would never have met my family.  So I could not ask her for any photos or papers or anything.

I told you that story so I could tell you this one....

In October Peggy contacted me to do George's (her husband's) genealogy for a Christmas gift.  She gave me a budget and told me to go as far as the money would take me.  I guesstimated that I would get about four generations back.

I did like any good 21st century family history detective would do...I went to Ancestry.com.  I figured I would do a little sleuthing around there to start with and then move on to trying to find wedding certificates or birth certificates...things George could frame...things that pertained to the life his ancestors had lived.  I didn't for one minute think I would find anything other than the usual census records and maybe someone else's tree.

Imagine my surprise and amazement when I found photos of his grandmother, his great grandmother and his great great grandmother.  I also found letters his great grandmother had written.  All courtesy of a distant cousin of George's. The internet is a wonderful thing.

I was so jealous.  Here I had longed for a photograph of someone in my family most of my life. I'm on the computer for about 20 minutes and have great photos for George. NO FAIR.

So today when Peggy gave me that photo I about cried.

Free Class From Louise St. Denis

Did you already sign up for the free (I SAID FREE) class from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies ?

Louise St. Denis was so gracious in offering my readers this wonderful opportunity, this is a beginning class in Methodology.  Normally this class would cost you $89 but she has made it available to you for FREE.

It starts next Monday.  March 14, 2011.

So contact them this week and get signed up for this class.

If you have any trouble getting signed up or if you have questions that the website can't answer call 1-800-580-0165.

See you in class (virtually of course.)

Family Traditions

My Aunt Lena was a pistol.  She was a little sprite of a person.  She looked like a little elf.  She was about 4 feet 10 inches tall (that's a guess) and she weighed about 90 pounds dripping wet.  She used to always tell me she was fat.

When Lena met me she was not very friendly.  It took about a year for her to warm up to me, and accept me into the family.  Her sister Lil told me it was because Lena was mad at my mother for not telling her about her secret (me).

From 2003 until 2008 I received an almost weekly newsletter from Lena. She would send them out to the whole family.  I kept 147 of them.  She would tell wonderful stories in them from when she was young and newly married.  Or she would reminisce about being a child in Southwest Louisiana.  She would always end the newsletter with a Cajun joke.

Today I read my cousin Peggy's blog for the first time.  Peggy is Lena's daughter.  Peggy's blog is about her embroidery business Cajun Stitchery.  In it she tells about her life in Florida, her garden, her work, and right now she talks a lot about her Krewe and Mardi Gras.  At the end of her blog I found a Cajun joke.  Just like her mother used to include in her newsletters.  I think that's neat. It brought back so many memories.  Just this one little tradition being carried forth.

It got me thinking about other family traditions.  My family had all the usual traditions, like cooking a turkey at Thanksgiving and putting up a Christmas tree.   We did not have too many traditions that were special just to our family.  The only one I can think of right now was that my mother always had a oil portrait made of the children (my sister and myself and then the grandchildren) when they were two years old and again when they turned 21.

My dad and I did start another one when I turned 21.  Every year at Christmas time he and I would pick a date to go shopping for my mother together.  We would end the evening by going out to dinner and having a drink together.  It was a very special time with my dad.

My husband's family have a tradition at Christmas time.  It has gone on as long as my husband can remember.  Every Christmas Eve his family gathers for Oyster Stew.

My husband and I have quite a few traditions we do.  For example each year at Christmas we buy a "special" ornament; and every year (for the last 13 years) we go to Mardi Gras.

How about you?  Do you have any special traditions?  I know this is not a unique question but I want to know the non-holiday ones.  Traditions like my cousin Peggy's Cajun jokes.

I'll leave you today with one of the Cajun jokes my cousin had on her blog:

Louisiana Declares War on the USA . ONLY IN LOUISIANA !!!!!!! 

President Barack Obama was in the Oval Office when his telephone rang. 

"Hello, Mr.President Obama," in a heavily accented Cajun voice said.
"Dis' is Boudreaux, down here at Slim's in Kinder, I am callin' to tell
y'all that we declaring war on ya!" 

"Well Boudreaux," Barack replied, "This is indeed important news! How
big is your army?" 

"Right now," said Boud, "dere's myself, my brother-in-law Thib, my
next-door-neighbor Bubba, and a few other gator huntn' buddies. Dat
makes eight!" 

Barack paused. "I must tell you Boudreaux that I have one million men
in my army waiting to move on my command." 

"Wow," said Boudreaux. " call ya back!" 

Sure enough, the next day, Boud called again. 

"Mr Obama, de war is on! We got us some infantry equipment!" 

"And what equipment would that be Boudreaux?" Barack asked. 

"We got us two combines, couple of 4 wheelers, a piroque, and Thib's
John Deere.

President Obama sighed. "I must tell you Boudreaux, that I have 16,000
tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also I've increased my army
to one and a half million since we last spoke."

 "Lord above", said Boud, "be getting back to ya."

Sure enough, Boudreaux rang again the next day.

"President Obama, de war is still on! We got ourselves airborne!  Bubba fixed
his ultra-lite wit couple of shotguns in de cockpit, and four vets from the 
VFW signed up!" 

Barack was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. "I must tell
you Boudreaux that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My
military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites.  And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"

"Oh Lord," said Boud, "Call you back." 

Sure enough, Boudreaux called again the next day.

 "President Obama,  sorry to tell you dat we have called off de war."

 "I'm sorry to hear that"  said Barack. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Well, sir," said Boudreaux, "we all sat down and had a long chat over a
few beers, and come to think that there's just no way our wives can make
enough gumbo to feed two million prisoners.." 

LOUISIANA CONFIDENCE CANNOT BE SHAKEN!!

Happy Mardi Gras Y'all

Families and Photos

Tim Winterbottom is an artist.  His work is modern and abstract.  I like my art real.  Or maybe impressionist.  I like Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, O'Keefe and Rembrandt.  But I think my cousin has some very interesting pieces and one day I hope to see them up close and personal.  So far all I've seen are some pictures of his art.  But pictures are great.

Pictures are one of the things I'm going to talk about today.  At least in part.

RL and his girls brought out a lot of family pictures.  I saw pictures of RL's kids growing up. I saw pictures of my mother and her siblings when they were younger.  And Tim brought over a ton of photos too.  I am going to scan all of them and show a bunch of them to you. (As soon as I learn how to work my new scanner and how to download the photos into this blog...but that's another day.  I tried today, without the aid of "Techie Tutor Tami" and I think I messed up my phone...see what happens when they leave me to my own devices.)

 I got to see a drawn picture (as opposed to a photograph) of a cousin named Jacques Theaux.  This cousin has a tragic tale.  I actually found his story last month in a newspaper that I found in Genealogy Bank.com  (A wonderful resource for newpapers http://genealogybank.com/)  Jacques was in World War II and was reported missing.  After being held prisoner for two years by the Germans he was liberated by the Russians.  He was eventually sent to Vienna where he ended up taking his own life.
Looking at his picture made this man real.  Uncle RL told me repeatedly how smart Jacques was.  He spoke several languages and worked in "Intellegence."

The story of Jacques really drove home the importance of gathering not just names and dates but the stories of the people we learn about.  Jacques is so much more than a name and date.

With that in mind I would like to shamlessly plug my friend Tami's blog Finding Family Stories.  http://findingfamilystories.blogspot.com/2011/03/just-facts.html
Tami talks about just this very thing.

Meanwhile, back to pictures.  One thing I have always wanted to find was a picture of my Grandmother and Grandfather (Mama and Papa Theaux) when they were younger.  Something like a wedding photo.  The only photo I have of them (and the one everyone comes up with when I ask if they have a photo of them) is one taken of them in their golden years.  But this week Tim and RL came up with a photo of them when they were in their 30's or 40's.  What a treasure.

Another treasure is my cousin Eric.  Eric is an avid genealogist and is Tim's half brother.  He has been working on our line for many years.  He lost a lot of his research in Katrina, but he has put most of it back together again and shared a huge amount of information today.  We spent the entire afternoon talking genealogy and walking through the graveyard in St. Martinville, Louisiana.  I took many photos of family graves and felt the "graveyard frenzy fever" come over me. I decided to search for my Grandmother Romero's grave in New Iberia.  (New Iberia is about 12 miles from St. Martinville.)  I couldn't stop myself...I had to find that grave.

So off I went to New Iberia.  My GPS (what a wonderful techie tool) took me to where it thought the graveyard should be; nope...it was someone's home.  I wasn't sure I had the right graveyard in the first place.  (Not very prepared...I know) You see, I don't know when she died or where she is buried.  I can't find the records.  But I know it was in New Iberia.  And New Iberia is small.  There is not that many graveyards.  If I have to I'll search them all.  Trouble is...many of the old graves are no longer marked.  The marble has been stolen or broken away.  So I gave up for today. I think the fever has passed.  My bout with the graveyard frenzies has finally subsided.  Once my head cleared I decided to try and approach this in a smarter way.  So back to the drawing board.  I will write to the church in New Iberia and see if they have a record of her death or where she might be buried.

I'm going to take a little time off from genealogy work...I have to the state of Louisiana is about to close down or maybe it's fire up ...it's Mardi Gras...Laissez les bon temps rouler (Let the good times roll you'all.)