Grandma Pence
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Obituary - Allen Rash
In Loving Memory...
Allen Rash
12/1/57 - 6/28/09
Allen Eugene Rash, 51, of Gilman died Sunday June 28th, 2009 at Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center. A celebration of Al’s life will be held at 1:00 p.m. Friday, July 3rd at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. He will be laid to rest in Miller Cemetery at Union. Memorials may be directed to his family. For condolences, please visit www.mitchellfh.com. The Mitchell Family Funeral Home is caring for Al and his family, phone 641-844-1234.
Al was born December 1st, 1957 in Eldora, to parents Clyde and Grace (Smith) Rash. He attended school in Marshalltown.
In September of 1984, Al was united in marriage to Christine Schmidt in Hot Springs Arkansas. The couple made their home in Gilman, where they raised their children Erica and Danny.
Al was a gifted self-employed carpenter, who absolutely loved building things. He also enjoyed softball, having played slow-pitch for many years. Al was also talented in the wood-burning arts, model car building, and hitting 7s on the slot machines. He liked to go fishing and drive golf balls in his backyard.
Al’s early departure from this life will be greatly mourned by all who knew and loved him. Left to cherish Al’s memory, and celebrate his life is his loving wife Chris; his daughter Erica Carter of Joliet, IL; his son Danny Rash of Mankato, MN; his mother Grace Rash; his sisters: Elaine (Paul) Lindaman, Rose (Alex) Pence, Kathy Rash, and Terrie (Noel) Arnold; his brothers Stan “Sam” Rash and Rick (Gina) Rash. In death, Al has rejoined his grandparents, and his father.
Learn more about Allen on the Pence Family History site: https://sites.google.com/site/pencefamilyhistory/families/pence/alex-pence.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
View Harvey Alonzo Pence in a larger map
I am adding maps for each of our ancestors as a tool to better understand where important events happened in their lives. This is the first, and it still will need some editing, of Harvey Alonzo and includes his place of birth, death, burial, etc. Click on "View Harvey Alonzo Pence in a larger map" to explore these places for yourself--MGP.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
I just got my Family Tree Magazine when I got home - there is an article in there that was quite interesting. It's about The Norway Project where they are working to reconstruct family groups through community records - these family groups will be searchable online in the future.
The article says:
Grouped families aren't the only exciting aspect of this effort known as the 'Norway Project' according to Roger Magneson, a Family Reconstitution project manager.
"After we extract the genealogical information from the bygdebøker (pronounced beeg-duh-booh-ker), we'll merge into it data from the 1865 census, 1900 census and parish registers," he explains. "This will provide a rich database." FamilySearch, DIS-Norge, and the University of Tromsø have been indexing Norway's 1875 census (the current version at is incomplete); these data may be merged, too.
In a technological breakthrough, merged data will automatically link to individuals in the bygdebøker database. "Back in the 1980s, the intent was to use computers to merge single-event records into records describing an individual with multiple life events," Magneson explains. "But it required a genealogist to confirm that records matched."
It goes on to say that they will be posting the first searchable bygdebøker (translated that means 'community books' or local histories which document Norwegian farms back to the 1600s or before - entire households are sometimes listed with dates for births, marriages and deaths) by the end of June this year! Now for some even more interesting information for those of you with the patience and ability to endure getting through this post ... it states that:
"Preliminary data from the Norway Project show another interesting result. "In one clerical district, there were 957 family trees, but one tree accounted for 80 percent of the population. That means there was essentially one family in that district," Magneson says. If these data remain consistant across the country, "Norway is probably less than 400 unique families."
The Norway Project will line up those trees like a national genealogical forest, with overlapping branches but distinct trunks. But Magneson says this is just the start. Family Reconstitution already has data sets lined up from Scotland, Iceland, Britain, Mexico, the Polynesian islands, and Aztec and Eskimo sources. "The Norway Project is the pilot to do this for every country in the world."
So is that cool or what????
From Renee's post on MyFamily.com.
The article says:
Grouped families aren't the only exciting aspect of this effort known as the 'Norway Project' according to Roger Magneson, a Family Reconstitution project manager.
"After we extract the genealogical information from the bygdebøker (pronounced beeg-duh-booh-ker), we'll merge into it data from the 1865 census, 1900 census and parish registers," he explains. "This will provide a rich database." FamilySearch, DIS-Norge, and the University of Tromsø have been indexing Norway's 1875 census (the current version at
In a technological breakthrough, merged data will automatically link to individuals in the bygdebøker database. "Back in the 1980s, the intent was to use computers to merge single-event records into records describing an individual with multiple life events," Magneson explains. "But it required a genealogist to confirm that records matched."
It goes on to say that they will be posting the first searchable bygdebøker (translated that means 'community books' or local histories which document Norwegian farms back to the 1600s or before - entire households are sometimes listed with dates for births, marriages and deaths) by the end of June this year! Now for some even more interesting information for those of you with the patience and ability to endure getting through this post ... it states that:
"Preliminary data from the Norway Project show another interesting result. "In one clerical district, there were 957 family trees, but one tree accounted for 80 percent of the population. That means there was essentially one family in that district," Magneson says. If these data remain consistant across the country, "Norway is probably less than 400 unique families."
The Norway Project will line up those trees like a national genealogical forest, with overlapping branches but distinct trunks. But Magneson says this is just the start. Family Reconstitution already has data sets lined up from Scotland, Iceland, Britain, Mexico, the Polynesian islands, and Aztec and Eskimo sources. "The Norway Project is the pilot to do this for every country in the world."
So is that cool or what????
From Renee's post on MyFamily.com.
