Episode 63 - Woman Learns of 9-Year-Old 19th Century Cousin Who Led A Posse!
Oct 27, 2014
Transcript of Episode 63
Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show
Host: Scott Fisher
Segment 1 Episode 63
Fisher: Genies, I’ve to go to tell you right now, I never would have thought it, that so many of you would have had these old guys marrying these young thing! [Laughs] Hi, it is Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth and this is Extreme Genes, family history radio, America’s Family History Show where we shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall out. Our specific poll question last week was, “Do you have at least one ancestral couple where their ages were at least 20 years apart?” I mean fully two thirds of you said “yes” I thought we’d see like a 20 something percent up there. Well, that’s why we ask these things. This week’s questions is, with Halloween coming on Friday, “Has one of your deceased relatives every paid you or someone in your family, a visit?” Has one of your deceased relatives ever paid you or someone in your family, a visit? Cast your vote at ExtremeGenes.com, we’ll give you the final tally next week. You know, we still have a little of 2014 to go but we’re already looking forward to 2015. Roots Tech will be happening in Salt Lake, City in February, and then in June, New York will be the side of the world’s largest family reunion at the old 1964 World’s Fairgrounds in Flushing. Putting this whole thing together is our friend AJ Jacobs of Esquire Magazine. We talked to him several months ago and this week he returns to fill us in on the latest developments and tell you how you can be part of what is turning into a worldwide event, that’s in 6 minutes. Then, we’ll talk to a woman who stumbled onto a tale of the old west that happened in her family in the 1860s. She learned the story of a little girl leading a posse to capture an outlaw from the Jesse James gang. What happened that night? We’ll get the full story from Marsha Noland Bergman of Independence Missouri, later on in the show, which will include the action she took to assure the story and her little girl cousin would never be lost to history. It’s compelling stuff.
Thanks to Leonard Schulzer of Hackensack, New Jersey for his email on Phil Devitt’s Rediscovery of his great grandfather’s policeman journal. Leonard writes, “I love Phil’s enthusiasm in connecting with his policeman ancestor. I have several ancestors that were police officers in New York and later New Jersey. Interestingly, one of my great grandfathers actually arrested a man who later became my grandfather! It was kids’ mischief that got him into trouble, but the story has been repeated and laughed about in my family for generations.” Thanks Leonard, this is what we mean when we say, “Nothing should surprise us anymore, but it always does.” If you have a comment or question, you can email me at [email protected] or contact us through our Facebook page. Facebook.com/ ExtremeGenes, and while you’re there please give us a like and join our growing community of Extreme Genes Facebook followers and be sure to tell your family and friends about us. By the wya, if you missed my visit with Phil from last week you can catch the podcast on iTunes, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn or ExtremeGenes.com. All of our past shows are there, and to make things easy we have a free podcast app waiting for you to download to your iPhone or Android, just look up Extreme Genes in your phone’s app store. You’ll never miss another show again. It is time once again for this week’s family histoire news. First up, this old house recently ran a gallery of photos of stuff people found during renovations from their old homes. The pictures are fascinating, as are the stories that go with them. From Michigan, a 1918 tutor was hiding a box containing homemade moonshine dating back to the nineteen teens. It was hidden in the ceiling above the garage. Michigan actually had enacted their version of prohibition a little earlier than the rest of the country.
There were also old photos of the apparent elderly owners enjoying their creation. Another home, in 1891 Queen Anne style place in Illinois yielded a Civil War officers belt buckle, as well as a tin type of a Union soldier. The tin type was found when a contractor was drilling a hole in the porch ceiling. And imagine his surprise when he saw a face staring back down at him? But perhaps the coolest find of all was from a 1910 so called shotgun cottage in Franklin, Tennessee. During a renovation the owners found an old quilt, specifically it was a friendship quilt with the names of many locals stitched into it. Among the names, relatives of the man who had bought and was renovating the house! And there’s a lot more, check out the photos and all the stories from our link at ExtremeGenes.com. The ashes of Maddie Clyburn Rice the daughter of a slave have been buried in North Carolina. Ms Rice was 91 years old. Her father Weary Clyburn was in his early 80s when she came along. For many years Ms Rice devoted her energy to proving that her father a slave had served as a solider of the Confederacy. In time, she found his pension record which had been approved by the state of North Carolina. Clyburn’s 1930 obituary noted that he had been buried in the Confederate uniform of grey. Experts refute the idea of black confederate soldiers. However, saying they were slaves who were actually among the soldiers to serve their masters. Regardless of the controversy, in 2012 a marker was placed in North Carolina honouring the Civil War service of 9 slaves and 1 freed black who served the south in the Civil War. Read the entire story at ExtremeGenes.com. And coming up next, he’s planning the world’s largest family reunion in New York City for next June and we’re all invited. We’ll get caught up with the latest developments with AJ Jacobs of Esquire Magazine, and tell you how to meet your cousins from all over the world, in about 3 minutes on Extreme Genes, family history radio, America’s Family History Show.
Segment 2 Episode 63
Host: Scott Fisher with guest AJ Jacobs
Fisher: And we are back! Family History Radio ExtremeGenes.com America’s Family History Show. It is Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth with my good friend AJ Jacobs from New York City. How are you AJ?
AJ: I’m good Fisher. How are you?
Fisher: Good. You’re just back from vacation. This man is a writer and writers need breaks so they can clear their minds, they can be creative. He works for Esquire Magazine, he’s written books. He followed all the rules of the Old Testament for what, a year?
AJ: Yeah, exactly. I was living biblically
Fisher: But that was about all you could handle at that I would imagine. One year.
AJ: [Laughs] It was a challenging year. No lying, no gossiping for a year.
Fisher: Yeah. [Laughs] How does anybody do that?
AJ: Yeah.
Fisher: I have no clue. Of course the reason we’re talking to you right now is we need to get caught up because you are the maniacal organizer of the world’s largest family reunion, which is coming up June this coming year I recall.
AJ: That’s correct. June 6th 2015 and you’re invited Fisher, as you know, and is everybody whose listening because it’s the most inclusive Family Reunion ever.
Fisher: Ever.
AJ: The whole human family.
Fisher: Yes. And you’ve been tracing back, this thing started as I recall, you were in touch with a cousin in Israel or something?
AJ: That’s right. I got an email out of the blue from this guy who said, “I’m your twelfth cousin. You don’t know me. I read one of your books and I’m your twelfth cousin.” And he said, “I have a family tree with eighty thousand people on it.” At first I thought as I mentioned to you earlier, I thought he was going to ask me to wire him ten thousand dollars to a Nigerian bank.
Fisher: Of course.
AJ: But it turns out that he was legit and he’s a genealogist and that hooked me. I became addicted to genealogy. I love it, and I was introduced to this new world where we can figure out how you’re related to almost any other human being on earth. Not necessarily by blood, but through marriage. So I’ve been collecting relatives right and left and then I decided, with all these relatives why not throw the biggest, most entertaining, most inclusive, most star studded family reunion ever and invite everyone in the world and we’ll have speakers and music and exhibits and comedy and the world’s largest family photo.
Fisher: And you know, it’s right near my old stopping ground’s over there at the old world fair site New York City, right near Shea Stadium was when I was growing up with the Mets and now where our city field is. So you could catch a ball game I would assume while you’re in town. It would just be right across the bridge, right?
AJ: Right there, exactly!
Fisher: Yeah. So you’re by the union fare, you’re going to have all this entertainment there, and the way this really works, I got a kick out of it. I don’t know if you were watching, did you watch the Roosevelt series with Ken Burns, AJ?
AJ: Not yet, but I have it all queued up because I hear it was wonderful.
Fisher: Yeah it was really, really good. But it was a little grating to me to some extent because of the fact they kept talking about Teddy Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin, like they were somehow really close. They were like fifth cousins! I mean half of America is fifth cousins.
AJ: [Laughs]
Fisher: All they did was share a name and somebody was born in the 1600s. It was hysterical. And they kept talking about, “Well this branch of the family, and that branch of the family.” As if everybody thinks of it. I don’t think we even know most of our fifth cousins, but you AJ are making it possible to know not only fifth cousins but sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, twelfth, fifteenth, twentieth, whatever.
AJ: That is exactly the idea. I figured there are so many fascinating people who are your distant cousins you never met. Now here’s the opportunity to meet them. And by the way, Franklin Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt they are related to me and probably to you.
Fisher: And to me. I do know the links to me. Yes.
AJ: Oh you do? Fantastic!
Fisher: Yes, of course.
AJ: Where does it go through?
Fisher: It goes back... let’s see, my wife’s side, it’s through Van Roosevelt the original guy that came over in the 1600s. On my side it has to do with the DeWitt family I believe, from Upstate New York.
AJ: Clinton DeWitt, was that him?
Fisher: Well no, but he was a descendent of them also that’s where the first name came from. This is how it kind of all ties together, right?
AJ: That’s what I’m trying to tell, that we’re all one big family. And maybe when we realize that, we’ll start to treat each other with a little more kindness. And listen I know, I have three sons so I know it doesn’t always work that way. I’ve seen the way they wrestle.
Fisher: [Laughs] No. Exactly!
AJ: But I also think that it is a nice idea that we’re all this one big family. And the event itself will be raising money for Alzheimer's.
Fisher: Oh, wonderful!
AJ: So I figured, why not try to do a good thing while we have these thousands of people together.
Fisher: Well, and we’re all touched by that. I lost my mother to it. And it was a horrendous thing to watch. I hope you have more than one motel for the gang.
AJ: [Laughs] We do have quite, you know, always email me and say, “Can I stay at your house?”
Fisher: [Laughs]
AJ: Well, I do live in an apartment in Manhattan, so maybe there’s not room for all 5000.
Fisher: Right.
AJ: But there are a lot of places nearby.
Fisher: Now let’s talk about that. First of all, if somebody wants to be a part of this, it’s really a pretty simple matter. Number one, you’ve got to show the relationship, right? And you help them with that.
AJ: That’s it. Exactly! Yes, you go to the website, GlobalFamilyReunion.com. It has a little form where you just fill in your name and your parent’s names and birthdates if you know them, and then from there, we’ve got hundreds of amazing researchers and volunteers who are helping to link you to this global family tree. So you can see how you’re related to me and to Fisher and the Roosevelts and to whomever else you want.
Fisher: [Laughs]
AJ: And by the way, everyone is invited, but those with a link will get a special bracelet and then can be part of the biggest family photo ever.
Fisher: Ah!
AJ: And that, I’m hoping will get a lot of play in the media. We’ve already got commitments from Good Morning America and People magazine and Morgan Spurlock, who’s a film maker. He did the Mac Donald’s movie.
Fisher: Right. Right!
AJ: He’s making a movie about it. So you can be in that movie as well, as part of the biggest family ever
Fisher: Hmm Okay. I’m going to have to make sure my make-up is right, my hair is perfect and they get my good side.
AJ: [Laughs]
Fisher: So, what is the cost to this thing? Is all that information on the website?
AJ: It is. I’m trying to keep it as cheap as possible just to cover the cost of the event, so it will be $10 to $15. But the other thing I’m excited about is that we partnered with some great groups, including Family Search. So they have been wonderful and supportive, and they’re going to be there in a big way, and they have helped to make it a truly global event. So it’s not just going to be in New York but there will be simultaneous live stream events where you can see us our wonderful line up of speakers, including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the Clayton Library in Houston and the Midwest Genealogy Library, so I’m really excited about that, that it’s now truly a global event.
Fisher: So AJ, let’s get down to the fun. What is the entertainment going to be like?
AJ: Oh we’ve got a great line up of speakers, so some of them are genealogists you’ve heard of like Josh Taylor or Spencer Wells who’s Head of the Genographic Project, the DNA Genius. Some are more main stream like Scott Simon. He’s the NPR host of Weekend Edition. And we’ve got President George H.W. Bush! My cousin will be saying some words, probably via video because he doesn’t travel much. There’ll be music. We’ve got Lisa Loeb.
Fisher: Really?
AJ: And I’m in the final stages of Sister Sledge.
Fisher: Oh you have to!
AJ: It’s not a 100% yet, but it’s looking like 90%.
Fisher: And you’ve got to get Sly and the Family Stone to come by and do It’s a family affair!
AJ: If you know them, please let me know. Let’s have them come. We’d love to have them.
Fisher: [Laughs] Um hmm.
AJ: But there will be an addition. There’ll be games and exhibits and Ken Jennings. Do you know Ken Jennings?
Fisher: Oh yes.
AJ: The Jeopardy.
Fisher: Oh yeah. He was the number one champ.
AJ: He yeah, he’s the smartest man alive, and he is writing the ultimate family quiz for us and we’ll deliver that.
Fisher: Ah!
AJ: So, it will be like a pop quiz, a trivia quiz. And also, I’m very excited. Some of our historical writers will be showing up.
Fisher: Like who?
AJ: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas so far, with many more to come.
Fisher: Oh well that’s great. This is good news. I don’t know if you saw this past week there’s a video that’s going viral of a little girl who just learned about George Washington and she wanted to meet him. And when informed that he was deceased she was inconsolable.
AJ: [Laughs]
Fisher: Absolutely inconsolable. [Laughs] So you know we need to get her there. [Laughs]
AJ: Oh, yeah, she will be there. I have not that. That sounds great. And I do hope to make her life happier, because, yeah, I’m very excited. The guy who plays George Washington on the History channel in Mount Vernon, he’s our George Washington.
Fisher: Does he have wooden teeth?
AJ: [Laughs] Well I’ll tell you. I happen to know this. I don’t know everything, but I know that was a myth and it was actually partly human teeth, partly hippopotamus teeth.
Fisher: Oh don’t, don’t tell me this. You’re ruining everything.
AJ: I am sorry, I’m sorry, but he didn’t actually cut down the cherry tree. But I won’t ruin any other thing.
Fisher: Who else is going to be there?
AJ: We’ve got Daniel Radcliffe who’s played Harry Potter.
Fisher: Right.
AJ: He’s going to be there, either via video or live, depending on his movie schedule, and Paul Williams. I don’t know if you remember him?
Fisher: Oh Yeah, little guy.
AJ: Yes a little guy. [Laughs] He’s a fantastic singer. He wrote a hit called Family of Man, about how we’re all related. And I happen to know him just a little bit and he is great and he agreed to come. So he’ll be there. There’s going to be a family theme Scavenger Hunt. My wife, weirdly enough, her whole job is organizing scavenger hunts for weddings, for corporations.
Fisher: Really?
AJ: Yes. And I hope you’ll be there Fisher. We need you.
Fisher: Planning on it. Planning on it! It’s going to be a lot of fun. Now let’s go through one more time. The date is
AJ: The date is June 6th 2015
Fisher: That’s one day only.
AJ: One day only.
Fisher: Right.
AJ: I hope to do it annually and make it a weekend next year.
Fisher: Um hmm.
AJ: But this year’s one day and it’s in New York, but there will be events around the globe and to get more information just sign up to the mailing list and go to globalfamilyreunion.com and we would love to have as many people there. The more the merrier.
Fisher: Absolutely. This is the time to make plans obviously.
AJ: Absolutely.
Fisher: And you get your Broadway tickets ahead of time, and your baseball tickets ahead of time and figure out if can get into A J’s basement anytime soon.
AJ: [Laughs] That’s right.
Fisher: So it’s going to be a lot of fun. And of course TV cameras are going to be there so make sure you bring your make-up person.
AJ: [Laughs]
Fisher: And get your hair done before you go. It’s going to be a lot of fun. A J Jacobs, he’s from Esquire Magazine. He’s a freelance author and organizer of the world’s largest family reunion coming up June 6th the D Day Anniversary, oddly enough. He would choose that day. So it’s going to be a lot of fun in New York City. We’ll find out more online. Thanks so much A J.
AJ: Thank you, great to be back.
Fisher: And coming up next, we’ll talk to a woman who was documenting her lines for an application to the Daughters of the American Revolution when she came across a story of a little girl, a relative, who led a posse after a member of the James gang. What happened to her and how did Marsha Noland Bergman find her? We’ll find out in 5 minutes on Extreme Genes family history radio, America’s Family History Show.
Segment 3 Episode 63
Host: Scott Fisher with guest Marsha Noland Bergman
Fisher: Hey, welcome back to Extreme Genes, family history radio, America’s Family History Show. It is Fisher here, the Radio Roots Sleuth with Marsha Noland Bergman. She’s from Independence, Missouri. Hi Marsha, welcome to the show.
Marsha: Hello! Glad to be here.
Fisher: I am so excited! I was just, you know, reading your story about how you traced down. You were working on a DAR application, and by the way, anytime you go to join a linage society like that or the Mayflower Society it’s a lot of work, isn’t it, a lot of detail?
Marsha: It really is. And you need a lot of proofs.
Fisher: A lot of proofs. And as a result of that, you ran across a story of a little girl from your neck of the woods named Sarah Catherine Noland. And she was what, nine years old back in 1867. Tell the story a little bit.
Marsha: Okay. When I ran into this story in a Jesse James book by William Settle, it just called her a little girl. And later on I came across some other accounts of this and they said it was Miss Noland or Dr. Noland’s daughter. Well, since I was a Noland and that piqued my interest. Sarah was like you said, about nine years old. And there had been a bank robbery at Richmond, Missouri and they were looking for the outlaws that were involved in that bank robbery on May 23rd 1867. And they came by the farm where Sarah was staying. And it was a blinding rainstorm and they didn’t know how to get to the Evans farm, which is where they thought one of the outlaws, Payne Jones, was hiding. So they stopped. And either she volunteered or for some reason her family allowed her to go, because she said she could take them to the farm. So she was with them in this blinding rainstorm. Got them to where they needed to be. But unfortunately, Payne Jones heard them coming or something and he fired a shot from his shotgun and he killed the deputy and it said “fatally wounded Sarah.” So I don’t think she died immediately.
Fisher: Oh!
Marsha: She was shot as well.
Fisher: Now this Payne Jones was connected with the James Gang, right?
Marsha: That’s correct.
Fisher: It sounds like they almost had separate little groups that went out. Because the story says that he actually was the ring leader for a bank robbery, but it doesn’t mention the James brothers being involved.
Marsha: No, it doesn’t and it also doesn’t mention the Youngers either. The Youngers said they had alibis, so neither the James nor Youngers were, but these were some people who had evidently been with them at other times.
Fisher: So you found the story and now you recognize the potential that this girl might by related to you because of the local name of Noland, N O L A N D. And what is the relationship? How far back are you tied, do you know?
Marsha: Well, she is my second cousin once removed.
Fisher: Okay.
Marsha: So it’s really not that far back.
Fisher: No.
Marsha: She was my dad’s second cousin.
Fisher: Really, your dad’s second cousin?
Marsha: Um hmm. And there were thirty years difference in their ages, because my father was born thirty years after she was born.
Fisher: I see, in the 1880s?
Marsha: He was born in 1887.
Fisher: Okay, got it. That kind of probably put a halt to your work on the DAR application for a while, because it’s a great deal.
Marsha: Well I had done a lot of it already, so I was in pretty good shape. And I kind of went off on, you know, another area with this. And then it took a long, long time because that was twenty years ago and we only found the grave about last year.
Fisher: Well, now talk about that. How did you locate the grave?
Marsha: Well, a friend of mine knew I was looking for this little girl and she was studying the Woodlawn cemetery which is a historic cemetery in Independence. And she came across this Noland girl who was buried with the Moon family. And she called me and said, “What’s this Noland girl doing buried with the Moons?” And we had never heard that before. And it turned out that they were her maternal grandparents. She had been buried on a farm with them and then they moved the bodies later to Woodlawn cemetery.
Fisher: And her grave then was just a stone, but no name on it.
Marsha: Well, there was no stone, and hers had been broken off. It was just, there was cement and a little bit of the marker was there. You could tell it was a white marble. And it was broken off, so there was no information on it at all, but fortunately there was a record of the cemetery of her being buried there.
Fisher: Ah, and so that’s when you found out where she was right there in the neighborhood and she didn’t have a marker. So now you went to work.
Marsha: Um hmm, and I had the help of a lot of friends and one in particular, the one who had found the grave did a lot of research for me and helped me out with it and really encouraged me, because she thought, “Well, we should do a marker or something.” And I thought that would be a good idea too, because it had been broken off.
Fisher: Well, and it’s such a sad story. I mean, can you imagine the parents, how they had to have felt about letting her go?
Marsha: Well, yes. And then another thing is, Payne Jones may very well have known the Nolands, because it was a close knit Independence town. And it’s likely he even knew her dad maybe even. And then to have that happen, I’m sure it was a real tragedy. And I could find no information on her funeral or obituary or anything. So I never did find anything like that.
Fisher: Have all the Independence newspapers or regional newspapers been digitized yet?
Marsha: I think some of them have and we did a lot of searching for them and even went to other newspapers in close by towns, but we never found an obituary about that. Now the deputy that was killed, there was a little notice about his funeral services and that was all that was there about him.
Fisher: Isn’t that interesting? I mean, a story like that today would garner all kinds of attention.
Marsha: Sure it would have.
Fisher: And Independence is so full of history. In fact, I went there once and stopped by Harry Truman’s place and he wasn’t home. But back when I was a kid, I used to learn that he used to write to people. And so, my mother had saved a “World War II Ends” newspaper, and so I mailed it to him and he autographed it to me personally and sent it back, which I thought was very impressive.
Marsha: He was pretty much that way. And I also understand, a lot of times, if people were going to the library, he would take time out and talk to them. And he was very, very personable that way, and that’s why I think he was so popular.
Fisher: Now did you ever meet him?
Marsha: I saw him several times. I didn’t actually meet him, but I ran into him one time when he and Bess were up on the square and she was shopping for a dress. And that was common back then. And we saw him at the grocery store. So I mean he literally just walked around town and did the same thing everybody else did and it was quite common to see him.
Fisher: That’s unbelievable! What era would this have been?
Marsha: It probably would have been about ’69.
Fisher: Right, just a few years before he passed, because he died in ’72 when he was 88 years old, so he had to have been in his mid 80s at that point.
Marsha: And he also was related to the Nolands.
Fisher: Oh, is that right, in what way?
Marsha: I think he had a relative James Noland who would have been the brother of my third great grandfather, Ledgeston, who was the one I went into the DAR on.
Fisher: Okay. He was a Revolutionary soldier. And you’re saying that Harry Truman descended from him as well?
Marsha: From the brother.
Fisher: From the brother, okay. So he’s a distant cousin also. Well isn’t that interesting? I think every area where families have been there for some time, there’s a lot more close relations than anybody ever knows. And maybe many people who live on your same street or you went to school with or worked with are relatives and you have no idea.
Marsha: Right. And they’re related somehow and you just kind of find that out.
Fisher: So, let’s go through the tombstone. You got the tombstone. Did you get it funded through various people or did you do it all yourself or how did that work?
Marsha: I pretty much did that one myself. I had helped on another one. Sarah had some cousins that were killed down in Kentucky and I had worked on that one. And a group from several different states went together and purchased that one. And they were killed during the Civil War, so I had been involved with that one, but on this one, it was pretty much my own project, so it was something I really wanted to do.
Fisher: I think it’s so worthy. Can you share with us what the inscription says?
Marsha: It pretty much tells her story and basically just says that she was shot and killed while with the posse that was after Payne Jones. And that’s basically what it says. And then I had the Noland family motto put on the other side, which is, “One heart, One Way” and I’ve always liked that saying. And that’s the Noland motto and they were from Ireland.
Fisher: Well that’s a great story, Marsha. And Thanks for all your time and sharing it with us and good luck in your pursuits.
Marsha: Thank you very much.
Fisher: And on the way, our Preservation Authority, Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com returns to answer another of your questions on Extreme Genes, family history radio and ExtremeGenes.com, America’s Family History Show.
Segment 4 Episode 63
Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry
Fisher: Hey, welcome back to Extreme Genes, family history radio, America’s Family History Show. It is Fisher here, with Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com, he is our Preservation Authority. And are you all ready for Halloween, Tom?
Tom: I am all spooked out, ready to rock and roll!
Fisher: Excellent! And we do have a question. It’s from Lindsay in South Carolina. She emails us and says, "Tom, I've got thousands and thousands of digitized photos. I went to look for one the other day, couldn't find it. You mentioned some software recently that can help me get all this mess organized. Please remind me what that was."
Tom: You bet! Absolutely! There's some great software out there on the market. In fact, we actually have a link on our page to it, it’s called Heritage Collectors, and it’s an amazing software! You can have an unlimited amount of photos. And this has a way that you can go and organize it, and just by keywords, you can type in reunion, somebody's name, and it will pull up all the possible items that you've setup under that name. It makes it really easy to find. Another neat thing about this software is, you're able to go out and create calendars, you can tag things. One of my favorite things that I've done with this software is, you can do what's called "a rollover", like if you have a large picture. Like Fisher, you've talked about that big picture that you have of all these firemen, and your, I think it was your grandfather or your uncle that's in one of them.
Fisher: Great grandfather.
Tom: Okay. So he's in one. And you can send it out to other people, don't have to tell them where it is. You can do what's called a rollover, and as you move your mouse or your cursor over each picture, their name pops up.
Fisher: Excellent!
Tom: And so, it’s really a neat way to go in and set stuff like this. And another thing about it is, if there are like your grandfather, when you rollover him, you can have a dropdown menu that comes down too that you can go down and say, "Oh, here's a voice recording of him, here's other pictures of him. Here's his, you know, family history group charts." all these different things that you can go to and click on those. So the power behind this is absolutely amazing. You can do calendars, which we've mentioned. And a neat thing that Marlo who wrote this software, in fact, he's been a guest on the show, you can do these UPC codes, the QR codes that you have on the back of cereal and everything.
Fisher: Wow!
Tom: We use QR codes on all our stuff. You can put special birthday greetings. So, on your grandson's birthday, you can have a QR code on his birthday. He can take his Smartphone or his mom's Smartphone up and shoot it and it will play a birthday greeting. You can be singing them, Happy Birthday or whatever, clear across the country, just with something as simple as a QR code.
Fisher: Isn't that amazing! How this links it all together in so many different ways. That's great software. And where do you get it?
Tom: You can go to our site and there's a link to it, or just go into HeritageCollector.com or do a Google search under HeritageCollector.com. And the software's just incredible. In fact, we have their basic software you can actually get for free, there's no charge. So, download that, play around with, and then you can decide, "Oh hey, I want this module where I can put in the UPC codes." or "I want to add a module where I can go in and do dating and things like that." So when you are looking at a photo, you can actually see where it was. You can put GPS codes on headstones, so when other people go to a cemetery and want to for some of their ancestors and they have the information you've given them, they can hone right into it on the GPS on their Smartphone, so they're not walking through the cemetery looking for things, they can just go right to it.
Fisher: Boy, that would have saved me a lot of trouble last summer! [Laughs] I wish I used that! And by the way, Tom's website once again for that free software is, TMCPlace.com. And of course, you can always ask him questions at [email protected]. And coming up next, Tom, what are we going to be talking about?
Tom: We have a huge announcement!
Fisher: All right, it’s on the way on Extreme Genes, Family History Radio and ExtremeGenes.com.
Segment 5 Episode 63
Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry
Fisher: You have found us, Extreme Genes Family History Radio ExtremeGenes.com, America’s Family History Show. Final Segment! It is Fisher here with Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com. He’s our Preservation Authority and I’m excited about this Tom! You know a lot of people have wanted to be more in touch with you and maybe more engaged with you in terms of preserving their materials and you have a way now for them to accomplish that.
Tom: You bet! We just signed a contract with Goin’ Postal. It’s a shipping place where you can take boxes in and ship things, do business services and such. And we’ve had to sign a contract with them. They do 250 locations across the US and they are going to be official drop off locations. You can drop off your boxes and there’s no charge to ship it to us. Some of the outlets will actually help you to write up the forms and everything. Some of the outlets will actually do some of the transfer services. They’ll be using our guideline, so it’s going to really help people a lot. Go to any Goin’ Postal location and they are great places. They are absolutely wonderful. Every single one is ma and pa owned. They are wonderful people to talk to, and as they get trained they’ll be able to learn a lot of things that we know that they’ll be able to share with you. So they’re just kind of there to hold your hand and help you get everything set up. If you have questions you can go to them. If you have other bigger questions of course, you can contact us. And the one nice thing about having a local person you can go to, if you have basic questions, they can contact us, we can train them in the new things and teach you the things you need to know to be able to have your stuff done. So that gives you 250 more locations across the countries that are going to be available to do your memory transfers
Fisher: So Goin’ Postal is helping you go National. This is awesome!
Tom: Exactly yes! It rings both ways. It’s going to be a help to us, it’s a help to them, it’s a help to you. So this Christmas when you’re doing your shipping, go to one of the Goin’ Postal locations, because like I say, they’re the little guys. You know the part about the franchise, the people that actually run the franchise; they’re really, really easy working with the people. They want the people to do what they need to do to make their area stores better. When you go to some of the other major chains, they have these rules that are like concrete that they can’t adjust and they are, you know, rock solid. It’s really tough to work with people like that, whereas all the Goin’ Postal franchisees are there to help you. If they need to bend some things to make a project work for you, they’re able to do that kind of stuff because their national headquarters allows them to you know, work with you, and make things happen. They’re more concerned with what you need to do, what your needs are than what corporate wants them to do.
Fisher: Okay and one thing about shipping to Tom at TMCPlace.com is that you can actually keep track of where these things are going. Correct?
Tom: Oh absolutely, absolutely. You can request a GPS tracker that goes into the box and then you can go home, and you go on your computer instantly the second you get home. And you can see where it’s sitting in their store; you can tell when it gets picked up by the UPS driver. It goes in the truck; the UPS driver is driving down the street. You can go on Google Maps and see he’s pulled over at Denny’s or he’s stopped at a fuelling spot or where it is in the warehouse. I mean, if you want to get really technical and for some reason your delivery come back, is a day late, you can go to the UPS site and say, “Hey, I know where the package is. It’s in the Northeast corner of your warehouse.
Fisher: Isn’t that great? And this way you know that, for instance, if you’re sending movies or old videos or scared photographs that you know where all that is without concern.
Tom: Oh absolutely. It makes it just interesting. Some people just like to do it because it’s fun to watch; you go across the country. We use UPS a lot, we use FedEx and in the over 40 years that we’ve been doing this, knock on wood, we have never had anything lost or misplaced. The worst thing that’s ever happened is delays because of weather. But this is nice. It’s at the airport. It’s at the UPS terminal, It’s parked out front at Denny’s. The driver’s come in down your street. You have all these options if you request such a thing.
Fisher: All right, it’s a new thing Goin’ Postal. You can find out more on Tom’s website which is TMCPlace.com. And of course, you can always ask Tom at TMCPlace.com. Good to see you again Tom. Congratulations on that!
Tom: Thank you, it’s exciting.
Fisher: That wraps it up for this week. Thanks to our guest AJ Jacobs from Esquire Magazine for updating us on his plans for the world’s largest family reunion in New York this coming summer and Marcia Noland Bergman for sharing her great discovery, a related little 19th century girl whose amazing story was seemingly lost to history. Hope you make some great discoveries this week. Talk again to you next week. And remember, as far as anyone knows, we’re a nice normal family!
