Looking Into the Past

(Note - This is a long read. It is for anybody to read, but it is also a way for me to store this in writing somewhere.)

Recently, I started researching my ancestry. I've wanted to do this for awhile, but usually I've been too busy to really get a start on anything. Due to some recent relative down time, I've finally begun. Another reason for the hesitation was that I wanted to use Ancestry.com, but they require a $23 monthly fee to use the service which I feel is a bit much to pay. However, they offer a 14 day free trial but I never had enough time to dedicate to get the most out of those 14 days.

I know a small amount of people who have their linage know due to well kept records by relatives of theirs, and the results always made me a bit jealous. They could trace their ancestors and heritage back to England, Germany, Ireland, etc, while I could only go back to my great, great, great grandfather, and that was purely because he is buried in my family's cemetery. Anything before that, I have always been at a loss. The most information I could get from any of my family lead to the same dead end. We knew he was the first Camp to move into the area we live now, and we knew he came from the east somewhere, but nothing more than that. So I finally did some snooping of my own.

Easily the best thing to use when starting to research is the United States Census database. It is extremely useful in finding children and parents of know relatives, allowing you to go farther up the line, or down a line of their children. The down side to the Census data is, one, that it is only a picture of every 10 years. And a lot can happen in 10 years. A child moves out, a spouse is remarried, or new child dies. And two, that it is limited to between the years of 1850 and 1930. Before 1850, the Census was very minimalistic in it's approach regarding it's purpose: Count the population. There is no family grouping or any kind of order in the listing, no ages, no occupations, just names. So unless you know exactly who you are looking for, it's very difficult to use. As for after 1930, US regulations state that Census data regarding names and individual information is not to be released until 80 years after the year of the Census. So it will be 2020 before the 1940 Census data is released.

This is why the Census is a good starting point, but difficult for extended use. Next comes using marriage records, death certificates, and cemetery records. The marriage records confirm spouse or reveal those to ancestors you are not sure about. Death certificates are great for death days and last residence before death. They usually show birthdays, but they don't always, and sometimes are not very reliable. When it comes to dates, a headstone in the cemetery is the most concrete proof. But the limiting factor with this kind of data is the fact that it is relatively recent. Records like this were not kept very well before the 1800s, especially in the deep south.
At this point, the best bet for going farther back in your line is historical records. Looking for last names in records from locations that have been around for a long time. Historical facts from cities like NYC, Boston, or any of the original settlements along the coastlines. History books, old newspaper records, any city records, housing directories, anything a large city would have or try to keep back then.

The final place to look is at other people's research. Everyone in America can obviously be traced back to their first ancestors who came into the country. These ancestors had children, who had more children, and the line spread out across the country. Odds are that somebody along this line passed down information or history about your family. In my case, there is actually a book that was written in the 1960s using date compiled from throughout the early 1900s tracing back to the 1600s. Using the information I collected, I could add to this new found information to see a complete picture of my genealogy.

Now, researching tips aside (which I had no intentions of writing, but just kind of happened while typing, sorry), I'll get to what I found out so far for my family, and it's made me quite excited! If you're interested, just click read more:

End of an Era

It's for days like today that I decided to have a blog. I'm not very consistent with it, I know, but I'm not out to impress or please anyone. I created my blog to put my thoughts and opinions on certain matters in word form for others to read if they so please. Today is a day that I will do just that.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis launched today on its, and the entire shuttle fleet's, last mission, beginning the end of a legacy that started 40 years ago. The concept for the Space Shuttle was actually in it's early design in 1968, before the first moon landings. With the decline in budget support for the Apollo missions, NASA designers moved their focus to this new idea; something reusable, with the promise of cheap and constant space flights.

Orbiter Enterprise on a Atmospheric test flight

The shuttle program was launched in 1972 during the ongoing Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz Programs. The first orbiter was completed in 1976 and was named Enterprise. This lesser known orbiter was used for atmosphere flight tests and was never intended to fly in space. The first fully functioning orbiter was completed in 1979 and was named Columbia and first launch on April 12, 1981.

Today, July 8, 2011 marks the last launch of a Space Shuttle ever. The reasoning for this was a Presidential decree by George W Bush in the early 2000s. The plan at the time was to retire the shuttles in 2010 and have the next manned spacecraft in full development to be launch in the mid 2010s. That new program was the Constellation Program.

I do not have a problem with the retirement of the Space Shuttle. It was and is a modern marvel of human capabilities and still is the most technologically advanced piece of equipment built by man. It has done wonders for the American space program, led to spin off technology currently used by people everyday, and almost entirely build the International Space Station, the largest cooperative endeavor by any grouping of nations. That said, it was never built to leave Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It has never flown over 400 miles above the Earth, and that is well under the 238,857 miles to the nearest celestial object, the Moon. For the past 30 years, the shuttle fleet has been a transport service to LEO. While this a phenomenal feat in-and-of-itself, there is no great scientific or exploratory journey involved.

The Constellation Program was another Rocket based launch system that focused on returning to deep space journeys; something the shuttle fleet could not do. The amount of funding involved in both would only allow the government to operate one program at a time, so naturally, the shuttle fleet was cut. In this day and age, commercial space flight is taking off (pun intended), and can take over the basic hauling needs for satellites and LEO trips to the ISS, while NASA spends it's time on returning to deep space.

Then comes along a new President. NASA, being a government organization, is under direct control by the President. Each administration mandates a new direction in the space program, and up until now, most have just carried on the former's plans (or a very similar version thereof). This time, the Constellation Program is scraped in favor of a new program to be announced. Meanwhile, the shuttle fleet is still set to retire. The problem here? For the first time in NASA's history, there is no new vehicle program to transition into. From Mercury, there was Gemini. From Gemini to Apollo. Apollo to Apollo-Soyuz, then the Shuttle. And now...nothing. The was a 7 year gap between Apollo-Soyuz and the Shuttle flights, but the program was there and NASA had direction. This time, there is no plan, no direction, and thousands of people are set to be laid off. Extremely experienced people and the best in the world when it comes to manned space flight, and they will be dismissed with the shuttles. Bureaucracy at it's finest.

This is why the last shuttle launch saddens me. For my entire life, I have watched NASA send people to space and personally have longed to be a part of that legacy. Now, I get to watch my favorite organization put together by man fall into but a shadow of what it once was. No, manned space flight for America is not over. Commercial companies will carry that along well, and NASA will return with a capable vehicle to fly into the solar system. But the release of so many experienced people who know spaceflight better than anyone else in the world due to the scientific ignorance of politicians just disgusts me and the knowledge they take with them will not be replaced any time soon. And the absolute loss of interest by the American public for spaceflight does not bode well for the future. In a society expecting immediate gratification, it will be an uphill battle for another "giant leap for mankind".

The Reason

I'm only writing a basic update to take up space. I've missed writing a blog. Mostly because it feels good for me to put my opinions out in the open. I don't try at all to force them down anyone's throats, I just love to express mine. There are actually few things we are truly free to do, and form our own opinions is one we have until we die. I'm a huge advocate of educated discussion and cooperation. I believe it is what advances our understanding of science. Group effort. So I place my ideas in the world just to maybe advance someone's understanding on a particular subject. The more people know about a subject, the smarter the decision they can make about it.

Just my two cents. I'll return with some updates about the situation in space, my opinions on some politics (I usually keep those to myself, but somethings are getting just to ridiculous), and maybe something involving Legos?

Plus, I shall be receiving my new laptop very soon, which will spur my renewed fire to update the blog!