A little progress or none at all? I was taken by this little motivator from my gym earlier in the week: A little progress each day adds up to big results.

The second week here in Salt Lake City is drawing to a close and it feels that I have worked into the night and made no progress at all. One week to go and I have London (including my favourite Irish ancestor who lived mostly in London) as well as Somerset/Wiltshire to look at. And the DNA matches and questions continue coming.

Six years ago I spent most of my time here in the Family History Library scanning baptisms, marriages and burials from books, fiche or films to a USB drive. This time I am finding that most of the information will be available at the GSV when I get home. Except for an intriguing book about the Black Loyalists. After half a day of searching we found that it is at scanning so an electronic version will be available at home in the fullness of time.

I thought I now had a process for looking for all of my non conformists and Methodists. But it failed on its test run. Probably not because of the process but because I have failed to find the right combination of Christopher Abbey born 1815 in Yorkshire or thereabouts to search. Suggestions for optional search parameters will be gratefully received.

I have gone back to fixing up my Family Search family tree which got in a mess when trying to use the Legacy Family Tree extension. It still has a way to go before it is up to scratch for the FamilySearch Tree App.

Army records are a class of records that I have am slowly getting a handle on although I have avoided them for years. After all Uncle Charlie’s biography has been written by Charles Page and we a good deal of Uncle John’s diaries – except for the one that covers his journey from Crete to prison camp in Lubeck, Germany. So I was pleased to discover in TNA’s catalogue that this journey was investigated after the war. Another thing to read at the TNA. Of course I have read a little about my great uncles in World War I – Uncle George who didn’t come home and Uncle Lou who did and who left a repatriation file of a couple of inches. Then there is Lieutenant Colonel Sir Edward Michael Ryan.  The Michael came from his Ryan grandfather and the Edward I assume comes from Edmund Burke the Anglo Irish statesmen born in 1729 and family connection. Wikipedia has a nice entry on the action that led to Edward Michael Ryan receiving a foreign decoration.

That leaves George Watts of Nottingham who joined the 19th Regiment of Foot in 1812. I have spent a lot of time looking at his records this week. For a little progress I hope. Again, it will be my visit to the TNA where I am relying on finding the muster rolls and pay lists to turn a little progress into big results.