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Add an Alert Note to FamilySearch to Connect with Future Researchers

Image: rawpixel.com   After I've written a blog post on a particular ancestor, I like to add a link to the post to the Memories section of a person's FamilySearch Family Tree profile. Recently I had a revelation about something else I could do to ensure my family stories and research are shared in the future. It occurred to me that I could leave an Alert Note on my own Family Search Family Tree profile directing individuals to this blog, Leaves on the Tree, after I am gone. If the goal of my blog is to record my memories, research, family stories, and more, this alert is one way future researchers might be able to find those stories—assuming Blogger is still around. I don't often think about my own FamilySearch profile, and when I looked at my page, it was pretty skimpy indeed! I had only entered the bare basics of my important relationships, dates, etc. Add beefing up my own profile to the 2026 goal list. Who knows me better than me? Here's what I wrote for the Alert N...

SWAGGER


31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 2, 2022:   My Dad - Joseph John Gilbride, Jr. (1937-2018)


By Nancy Gilbride Casey

This is by far my favorite photo of my father, Joseph John Gilbride, Jr. It was taken about 1955, when he was about 17 or 18. The photo was taken by his uncle, Pete Gambino, and I'm guessing it was taken at one of the Cleveland Metroparks, given the woodsy background.1

Dad always said that Uncle Pete was a great photographer, and I can see why he thought so. Pete truly captured Dad's young swagger, a trait he carried throughout his life. 

Dad quit high school in the 10th grade and at 17 he enlisted in the Air Force.2 Maybe he was thinking of what adventures lie ahead. Dad seemed always on the lookout for the next big opportunity—a trait sometimes both optimistic and frustrating to himself and those around him.

The photo also captures familial resemblances. I see in his face echoes of both my brother Joe and my son James. It's amazing how children can be the reflections of their parents and sometimes even grandparents or other ancestors at different points in their lives, proof that lies in the photos we are lucky enough to keep.


Bonus Photo: My great uncle Pete Gambino, Dad's photographer.3



NOTES

1 Joseph Gilbride, photographed by Pete Gambino, about 1955. Personal collection N Casey [address for private use], 2022. Photo in album belonging to my father Joseph Gilbride, who gave me the album and provided identification of photos.

2 U.S. Department of Defense, Enlistment Record - Air Force, Joseph John Gilbride, Service # AF 15 528 204, 31 August 1954; National Archives Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Mo.

3 Pete Gambino, photographer/date unknown. Personal collection N Casey [address for private use], 2022. Photo in album belonging to my father Joseph Gilbride, who gave me the album and provided identification of photos.

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