The Wilson-Bingham Family History Web Log

This is a web log or "blog" about efforts to publish the Wilson-Bingham family history in the form of a single hardbound book. Major family names being researched include Wilson and Bingham. If you feel your family history ties into ours, please post a comment to one of the latest postings. Please subscribe to get instant updates.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Wilson Bingham Book Progress Report - March 2006

In This Newsletter
------------------
I. PROGRESS REPORT
II. THE WISHLIST
III. THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Hello everyone!

Sorry that there wasn't a February update. Coming back to work at an education company after the holidays is a bit like crossing a busy freeway. You never know what you're going to be hit with and when.

And, now that I have a portable computer again, I have more of a chance to take advantage of free time to continue writing. I also purchased a large capacity external hard drive to regularly archive pictures and documents. I would be devastated if something bad happened to the computer and I had no way to get back to where I had finished off.

I. PROGRESS REPORT
------------------
To bring you up to speed:

1) I have a new email address. [e-mail address info ommitted to keep spammers from finding it. Contact me through the mailing list to obtain my new e-mail address]

2) As I write this, I'm just getting back from a one week vacation to Ireland. Actually, the trip is part of a reward system for Shannon having placed so many foreign exchange students with host families for the non-profit she works for part-time. Yes, I'm a kept man, at least when it comes to traveling with my spouse on business. *laugh* I used some of the spare time I had while Shannon was in meetings the first few days to figure out whether we Wilson-Binghams have a connection to Ireland through the Butlers. (We are, at least biologically speaking, descended from James Butler, who was Elizabeth Harris' second husband, but from whom she later was divorced--Emma Jane Powell and her brother John, who were born of the Bulter marriage, were later adopted into the Powell lineage through being sealed to John Powell, Elizabeth's first husband). I found some very interesting connections to the Butlers who were part of the French Norman conquest of Great Britain in 1066, but there is no genealogical link yet between the Butlers from Hertfordshire, England and the Butlers of Kilkenny, Ireland. The ultimate result of the search was that I was able to take the James Butler line back to his great-grandfather, John Butler. But you'll have to read the book, when it's done, to find out more because there's too much to show here. :)

3) Because of the new information I found about the Butler line, and some fascinating historical facts about areas of England where our family lines originated, we're now at 178 pages (over 20 more from last month). Once I have more family histories from the descendants of Alfred and Emma, I estimate that number will at least double. Remember, everyone is welcome to submit family histories, even if there is a lot more history to be made. Just send me a summary of your family's highlights up until now. Writers of future editions of this book will fill in the rest as time goes on. The main goal is to represent as many of Alfred and Emma's current descendants as we can in this first edition.

4) I'm getting closer to figuring out a way to record phone calls made over the Internet so that I can record family history interviews with some of you and, with each person's permission, include them on a DVD to accompany the book. If you have a basic knowledge of downloading and installing software on a computer, try out Skype to call another person who also has Skype software (cost? zero, zilch, nada, free). Call me by looking up "proud2b4family" or "thewatsontribe". Or, if you want to call someone who doesn't even have a computer, you can pay a fraction of a cent per minute get them on their regular phone through your Skype software.

5) When my mom moved to Illinois, she also brought with her a treasure trove of photographs from her childhood that include people throughout the Wilson-Bingham family. Because of these pictures, and many others I know exist, I'm considering doing a separate book as a massive family photo album so that we can preserve them all together in one volume. The album would have to be limited somewhat as we cannot include all the pictures everyone has in shoeboxes. I see it more as a book to restore and preserve the older, and therefore more perishable, items we have in our collections. Some very select photos will already be included in the history book being written now, but a more extensive collection belongs in an album by itself.

II. THE WISHLIST
----------------
Here is the latest list of the items that will help move us towards our publication date of July, 2006.

1) The outline is still pretty current in terms of what is still needed. Please download a copy of it and see if you can provide information on anything highlighted in yellow. The book can't be finished without this information. Thanks.

2) If you have any computerized versions of your genealogy information, no matter how complete or incomplete you believe it to be, please forward it to me via e-mail. You can send it as a GEDCOM or PAF file.

3) I need up-to-date summaries of the following family groups and individuals...

Ann and Val Stringfellow and their descendants
Paul and Lisa Kitchen and their descendants
Alfred Raymond ("Ray") and Maxine and their descendants
Joseph Harold and Dorothy Wilson and their descendants
Emma Jane and Clarence Gull and their descendants
Elizabeth and John Wilson (does anyone remember the circumstances surrounding their birth/death?)

4) If you have a special ancestral photo you want included in the larger photo album, please send it to me and I will scan it into my computer, digitally restore it if necessary, and send it (the original and the restored computerized version) back to you. I can also scan negatives and slides for preservation and so you can easily order larger reprints online or from Wal-Mart. Please include any information you know about the photo, such as dates, names, places, and stories.

5) So far I have the contact information for Grace and Dale's descendants, but not for anyone else yet. Please send me the email addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers of your descendants so that I can begin to include more people in the effort of this book.

6) I'm anticipating a need for people to help with "on the ground" research such as going to museums or monuments (mainly in Utah) to photograph artifacts related to our history, find source documents and bibliographies, etc. to make the book as useful as possible. Let me know if you have an interest in volunteering to help with this.


III. THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
--------------------------------

Thanks to all for your time and willingness to see this through to
publication.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Wilson Bingham Book Progress Report - January 2006

(The January 2006 newsletter was originally published January 3rd, but an e-mail malfunction caused it to need to be resent on February 1st.)

In This Newsletter
------------------
I. PROGRESS REPORT
II. THE WISHLIST
III. THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Happy New Year everyone! Time for this month's progress report.

I. PROGRESS REPORT
------------------
1) Murphy's Law of Technology seems to rule the day now that the loaner laptop I had from work isn't letting me log in. The good news is that I made a lot of progress marking words and phrases for further research. The bad news is that it's all still on that darn laptop. (These things always happen just after I think to back things up and just before I get around to it). So, that's about where I am, with 100 or so "tidbits" on which to toil to produce more background info and confirm dates and names. My insurance company is covering damage to my old laptop and a new one is on its way. I'm praying that all the horror stories I've heard about Dell computers are untrue.

2) On December 17th I received a letter from Todd Wilson with handwritten notes about his family and various items of family lore and memories. Thanks, Todd!! I'll be giving you a phone call soon to get more details. :)

3) I got a list of descendants of Dale and Grace Callan so that I can invite them to our mailing list. They also corrected and provided their middle names. Thanks, Dale and Grace!! Hopefully with increased numbers, we can substantially fill our family history anthology with many more stories and summaries of our heritage.

4) I've also been working on digitally archiving manuscripts and histories sent to me by Arlene Edsall about Elmo "Pose" and Ruby Page Wilson and their family. It's fascinating to finally get the details on all the family stories I remember my grandpa and grandma (Ray and Maxine) telling me as I grew up. I've been able to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology on many of these manuscripts. All I have to do is feed them into my scanner and the software makes its best guess (between 80-95% accurate depending on the clarity of the type) as to what the characters are and then drops them into a word processor for me. Then I just edit and I'm done! This reminds me of a discovery I want to share with you all...if you have access to an inkjet or laser printer instead of a dot-matrix printer, go with the inkjet or laser (but I'll still accept dot-matrix). OCR software has a hard time correctly recognizing dot-matrix printing. :)

5) Here are some pictures of Sarah Elizabeth Harris and the whole Powell family. These were found at the WelshMormonHistory.org web site.

6) By happy coincidence, I happen to work with a fellow from Australia. When I told him about our connections to Down Under through Caroline Merchant and family, he mentioned that he would be vacationing there soon and offered to take photos of the area should he pass through Vacy, Allyn River, New South Wales. Speaking of photos, if you'd like to see photos of Swainby, Yorkshire from where Thomas Henry Wilson emigrated, look no further than here. Pictures of Yorkshire can be found here.

7) A number of you have inquired as to Marolynn Watson's new address and contact information now that she lives here in Illinois. Here you go. :)

[ommitted from blog version of newsletter for privacy purposes]

II. THE WISHLIST
----------------
Here is the latest list of the items that will help move us towards our publication date of July, 2006.

NOTE: It is now January 2006. December 31 2005 was to be the initial "deadline" for turning in your autobiographies and biographies. If you would like to simply type them up in a reply to this message, that will be fine as well. Thanks!

1) The outline (initialoutline.pdf) has not yet been updated this month. When I do update it, I will send an email to the group. If you haven't done so yet, have a look and see if there is anything you can help with. It's in the "Files" section of our group web site.

Everything highlighted in yellow is something that needs attention. Please let me know if you are having difficulties opening or reading the initialoutline.pdf file.

2) If you have any computerized versions of your genealogy information, no matter how complete or incomplete you believe it to be, please forward it to me via e-mail. You can send it as a GEDCOM or PAF file. Family group sheets have been especially helpful in summarizing family info.

3) I would like to start extending our mailing list to the descendants of "the Wilson cousins". If you have email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers for your immediate and extended families, please email them to me and I will invite them to join the list.

III. THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
--------------------------------
Thanks again to Todd Wilson and to Grace and Dale Callan for their contributions in December.

Thanks to all for your time and willingness to see this through to publication.