Tobin Family Website

This morning I started to play with some of the untapped features of the Tobin Genealogy Website.  I currently use a great program that my friend “Mr Papa” recommended to me last year, called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, or TNG.  I use TNG to display our genealogy data on the Internet, and use Legacy Family Tree on my desktop for entering/editing the family tree.   The thing I like about TNG is that it makes use of a database to display my genealogy information on the fly, when queried (as opposed to having to have a bunch of pre-created pages).  I particularly like the look and feel of the program, as it is very professionally done. 

The key feature that I set up this morning is the use of Google Maps to display relevant genealogy information on a map.  For example, for a given person’s genealogy record, I can now display all of the locations associated with events of that person (i.e., birth, death, residence, etc.) on a google map nested within the display of their record.  As an example, you can view my genealogical record at the site and scroll down to the map.  On the map graphic, there will be pushpins that correlate with the “events” from my life (as annotated in my genealogy record).   To the right of the graphic will be a listing of the events associated with each pushpin.  Click on one of these pushpins (the one on the right, not the one on the map graphic), and a separate window will open with a Google map of that location!  From here, you have a lot of interesting options.  You can zoom in/out, move around the map, change the view from map to satellite to terrain data, overlay photos of the area, and even show street views (if/when available).  It is a pretty neat feature that makes the genalogy information that much more fun to view.  So far, I have only geolocated a relative few of the places in my genealogy database….but over time, I will geolocate all of the records in my database.

I continue to enjoy working on our genealogy.  I need to ask my parents to provide me with some more information about their lives that I can capture in the genealogy site.  In fact, I need to expand that to a wider audience of my extended family.  The Legacy software provides data forms on which I can use to survey/collect this type of information.  So far, I have largely collected factual information such as names, dates, and locations.  I would also like to gather more historical information about occupations and other interesting anecdotes.  It is a fun hobbyto work on (when hockey season is over!).

Tags: Genealogy, Website Update

In the course of my genealogy research, I had noted that we didn’t have a lot of information about my mother’s side of the family.  Her mother (my grandmother) had passed away at a young age, and her father (my grandfather) had died when she was just 26.  When her grandparents (Herbert and Mary Nathan, my great grandparents) passed away, little else was known about any other living relatives.  On the Klein side, my mother and her brother had lost track of their 3 uncles (Klein) and any offspring that they had.  On the Brandstrup side, they never knew a whole lot about their Danish relatives beyond what their grandmother (Mary Kirstine Brandstrup Nathan) had told them. 

At the beginning of February, I mentioned that I was contacted by Jerry Klein in California.  As it turns out, Jerry is my mother’s cousin…..the son of her Uncle Ben.  Apparently, Jerry’s wife found our website while searching the internet and they contacted us!  My mother and her brother hadn’t heard from Jerry in over 40 years!  We exchanged phone numbers and my mother contacted him immediately when they arrived to visit us from Vermont.  Since then, I have traded a few e-mails with Jerry and his son Mike.  It is amazing to make contact after all these years, and to know that I have some cousins on teh Klein side of the family that I have yet to meet.  Hopefully someday we will get a chance to meet in person! 

This past week, I had another amazing connection on my mother’s side of the family.  As I mentioned above, my great grandmother Mary Kirstine Brandstrup Nathan hailed from Denmark.  Last year, while researching the Brandstrup line, I had come into contact with two gentlemen from Denmark (Jan Tuxen and Werner Brandstrup Andreason) who had done a large amount of genealogy on the Brandstrups and were considering writing a book.  They had informed me that they had some contacts that were related to my great grandmother, and that they would try to get us in contact.  That was the last I had heard until this past week when I was contacted by Kirsten Brandstrup from Denmark.  As it turns out, her great-great grandfather is my great-great-great grandfather!  Even more amazing, she sent me a 4-page letter that my great grandmother (Mary) had written at age 85 to Kirsten’s father (Jorgen Brandstrup) in 1972.  In the letter, my great grandmother references both Kirsten and myself!  I am not certain that my great grandmother had ever even met Jorgen in person, but did exhange letters with him occassionally.  I find it simply amazing that here we are 36-years later, making a connection over this thing called the internet and sharing a piece of correspondence from the US to Denmark that ties us together on one piece of paper.  It really is quite incredible!  Kirsten also sent a copy of a picture of my great grandparents and my Aunt Nancy that was included in the letter.  The picture had been taken by my Uncle Paul.  Kirsten has also been helping me correct a couple of errors I had in the Brandstrup genealogy photo files and has been able to help me name a few people in some unknown photos that I had from my great-great grandmother’s photo album.  It has been truly wonderful making a connection with my Danish relatives and I hope I can stay in touch.  Fortunately, Kirsten speaks/writes in perfect English.

In other news, we have been extremely ill here at the Tobin household.  On Valentine’s Day, Karen was diagnosed with a strep infection.  She spent the long weekend trying to get better as my parents were visiting from Vermont.  On Monday the 18th, the rest of us fell ill and we assumed we all had strep.  We went to the doctor and got cultured on Tuesday morning, but it all came back negative.  Nonetheless, we still struggled through sickness for the rest of the week.  Although Karen had started getting better on Wednesday, she fell ill again Wednesday night (this time with the flu, which is what I think the rest of us had).  I was certain that I would get better over the last weekend, but instead I continued to degrade to the point where I decided to go to the Emergency Room on Sunday (which was my only option on a Sunday).  This time, the doctor determined that I now had strep!  So, I missed Monday and Tuesday before going back to work on Wednesday.  Delaney was also out of school during the same time as we were both being treated with anti-biotics and getting little sleep.  I am still trying to get fully over it, but feel a lot better.  Yesterday, I lost most of my voice and I still have a nasty, rib-hurting cough.  Karen and Ben are fully recovered and Delaney is about 90%.  I don’t recall ever being this sick for this long.  It was so bad that we chased my parents away early, although I understand that my father got sick not too long after they left….but not quite as bad as we had it.  Delaney was supposed to have a speaking part in a play last Thursday, but we all missed it with the illness.   

Tags: Brandstrup, Family Update, Genealogy, Klein