Hey there friends!

Lord have mercy - we are living through the Air Fryer Summer. 🥵 Please Lord, just give us a high temperature below 100 for a change. I hope wherever you live, you aren’t in the midst of this stubborn cycle of dry, brutal heat.

I’ve also noticed that not too far north of where I live, people are having another challenging weather cycle of relentless, flooding rain. If that is your situation, I’m sorry for you, too.

Now that I’ve gotten my complaining out of the way, let’s move on to what I’m calling “Family Story Threads to Pull.” Alternately, we could call this “Rabbit Holes to Fall Into.” Either way, I’m going to be sharing some unexpected ways to discover some stories about your ancestors.

I’ve shared with you before about my genealogy research through Ancestry.com. While I’m weary of paying the subscription fee for this service, I will admit that they are helping me find more and more nuggets of interesting stories about my ancestors.

Recently, I got an email from them telling me that there was a “hint” about my great uncle - my paternal grandfather’s oldest brother Alonzo. It directed me to my great uncle’s World War I Selective Service registration card. I’ll tell you more about what I discovered there and how that can help you below.

Happy thread pulling and happy almost weekend,

BEHIND THE SCENES THIS WEEK​
​Threads of family stories hidden in old documents

Here's what I discovered with my thread pulling adventures into my ancestors’ stories! When I looked at my great uncle Alonzo’s WWI selective service registration card, I found a LOT of information. For one, I found out that Alonzo was exempted from military service because of a physical disability. I think I vaguely remember my mom mentioning it before, but seeing it in print mad me sad for his difficult life. It also made me consider what it was like for my sweet grandfather to have an older brother who struggled his whole life.

What about your ancestors? If you aren’t an Ancestry.com subscriber, you can still find your ancestor’s selective service registration cards.

First, you can order paper copies ($7) from the National Archives. Here’s a link to check this out. Remember that these documents are from a required registration for U.S. men during the years of 1917-1918.

If you want to look at these records in digital format, the Family Search website has made them available in that form in conjunction with the National Archives.

Family Search is a completely free service provided by the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Even though they will ask you to register first with name and email address, I don’t believe that you in any way will be obligating yourself to a connection with their church if that concerns you. My cousin has used their scanning and research services and was very happy with the outcome and their generosity.

​Here’s the link to that service.

I registered and use this site to find another ancestor’s records and was successful.

So, there you have it. If you pull this thread for your male ancestors who were adults during 1917-1918 - here is what you can find out about them.

Name - Age - Home address - Date of birth

Answers to these questions by the registrant:

• Are you (1) a natural-born citizen, (2) a naturalized citizen, (3) an alien, (4) or have you declared your intention (specify which)?
• Where were you born? Town - State - Country
• If not a citizen, of what country are you a citizen or subject?
• What is your present trade, occupation, or office?
• By whom employed?
• Where employed?
• Have you a father, mother, wife, child under 12, or a sister or brother under 12, solely dependent on you for support?
• Married or single (which)?
• Race?
• What military service have you had? Rank, branch, year, Nation or State
• Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)?

Signature or mark of registrant

REGISTRAR’S REPORT (answers given by registrar’s observation)

• Tall, medium, or short?
• Slender, medium, or stout?
• Color of eyes?
• Color of hair?
• Bald?
• Has person lost arm, leg, hand, foot, or both eyes, or is he otherwise disabled (specify)?

And there was one more thing that made me sad. At the bottom left corner of the form, I saw this statement - “If person is of African descent, tear off this corner.”

I would like to challenge you to pull this thread for your own ancestors and see what you find. You’ll need first and last name plus the city where they lived during those years if you have it. You can also add the dates and location of a life event like birth, marriage, etc. The more clues you have the more success you’ll find.

Happy thread pulling!

INTENTIONAL HOME - Decluttering & Curating Memories

FREE - CURATING YOUR READING

I finally got around to creating a Reading Log spreadsheet to keep track of what I’ve already read. I have a page in my Apple Notes where I started listing books years ago, but I haven’t kept up with it.

I added the current audio book I’m listening to in my own copy so that you can get an idea of how it works.

I’m giving away the Books I've Read - Reading Log until I get it set up in my shop, so please use this link to download a document that has instructions and links to both the Excel desktop version and the Google Sheets online version.

Note: The document will say "purchase" because I'll be using it in the shop. But for you - this is totally FREE! Happy first day of Spring. 🌸

​​​Reading Log Access Document.pdf​

SHOP

Legacy Library Insert Cards Printable Floral Collection No. 1 Visit Shop

Legacy Library Insert Cards Printable Books Collection Visit Shop

RESOURCES FOR ART & HEALING

Renée Fleming - “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” - Amazon​

Susan Magsamen - “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us” - Amazon​

RESOURCES & SUPPORT

​My choice for a NOK box​

​Affordable thumb drives​

​theNOKbox.com​

​Help for using phone notes apps​

FREE DOWNLOADS

• ​Download Free Scanned Photo Log Spreadsheet (available in both Google Sheet and Excel)
• ​Download Free Ebook - “The Big 5: Family Stories You Need To Preserve For Future Generations”
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I'd love to have you follow my social feeds. I promise to not be boring but will most likely be cheesy now and again. 😉