Hello Fellow Bloggers, As you can see, I am going to take a different direction on my blog. I am going to focus on the trials, tribulations and triumphs of family history research, and travel as well. If you google my name, you will notice that over the past ten plus years, I have been leaving posts about my family history research on various web sites. One of those web sites is Genforum.com. I have been working on my genealogy since I was a teenager.I have attended a few regional genealogy conferences here and there, along with a national one in 2005.My ancestors came from Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and the United Kingdom.I have had quite a bit of help with my research along the way, but I still have a long ways to go, particulary with my mother's paternal line of the family. I am very lucky that I found anything with that line of my family, because the borders between Germany, Poland, Russia, and what was formerly known as Prussia has changed so much.Right now, I just have to find church records in Poland, and search for the siblings of my great grandparents, and their descendants.Just think, a year ago, I went to see the movie, "Julie and Julia" twice, and was inspired by that, even though I was rather envious of Candace Bushnell, the columist from the New York Observer.
So, what does family history mean to you? Does it mean going through scrapbooks, and looking at old photos of days gone by? Does it mean hunting for records in the archives of historical societies and court houses? Does it mean going to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, where records are kept underground? Does it mean going to a church in order to ask about records? Or, even better, testing your DNA pattern, particularly if you became ill with cancer, and you have no idea if a relative died from the same illness that you had? What a multitude of questions! My mother had her's and her oldest brother's DNA tested, and did nothing further with the research. To her, it was too complicated to keep up with. That's too bad, because she and her brother kept telling me that I would never be able to find anything! Yeah, right! I'll believe that in a New York minute! Well, fellow bloggers, I must leave for now.I would love to hear from anyone else about their genealogy research.In my next blog, I will share the surnames that I am researching. Until then, happy trails to all of you!:)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Job Hunting
Unfortunately, I have been unemployed for the last two years. It has been an uphill battle ever since! I live on a farm that is near a town with the population of 8000 people. The community that I live nearby is between two college towns, which you would think that they would offer gainful employment opportunities, and with benefits. Unfortunately, that is definitely NOT the case! As a college student, I worked in the call center and retail industries.I still continued in that direction up until 2006, when I tried to do on the job training as a travel agent. It was going well, but my father was declining with his health, and my family told me that I needed to come home. I tried to do temp work, but that didn't go well at all. My father passed away in October, 2007. I was finally ready to move out west to accept a position in the travel industry that came with benefits. Unfortunately, those plans were canceled when my mother became sick. I stayed home, and TRIED my best to find employment. On top of that, right before I tried to leave for my journey out west, my sister emailed to me an intervention letter that stated that a social worker could help me file a disability case, and apply for disability benefits. Needless to say, I was quite unhappy with the actions that my sister took in this matter. She meant well. A death in the family can cause major stress, even if your parents were separated for a number of years. My mother completely forgot that I already had a social services case opened with health benefits that are controled by the state.
According to an article in today's Minneapolis StarTribune Newspaper, it stated that if a person applies for SSI disability, there is only a 25% chance that the application process is a success, and only slightly better on an appeal. This is because the applicant must show that their disability prevents them from working full time. It takes from a minimum of six months to a maximum of three years before the cases are resolved.
According to my medical records at the hospital that I was born at, an incident happened to me where there was a probable traumatic brain injury that occurred. My mother was nursing me, and as this was going on, I choked, turned blue, and really suffocated. Now mind you, this occured in 1968, so we didn't have the technology back then that we have today. I was born with a very small cleft palate, which caused the suffocation because the doctor that delivered me did not see it. This suffocation caused some physical delays that I was able to overcome in my life. I am quite musically inclined, love to read, am able to travel on my own, along with living on my own, and work as well. I have a college education, which no one can ever take away from me! I performed in various musicals. I am able to drive a car, and do minor maintence to it. I perform in music ministry groups, attend bible study, helped with writing a book, and even work on my family history. Although I was originally a music major in college, I switched to social work instead.During the years, I was evaluated to see if I was actually disabled. The last time that I was evaluated was in 1999. The psychologist tried to convince my mother that he could train a monkey. My mother also asked the psychologist why I was able to drive a car. By this time, I felt that the evaluation was inconclusive, and was a major waste of my time and energy. From 2002 to 2006, I worked as an office specialist in a call center environment for a county human services office.As an office spcialist, I worked with clients and vendors that needed help with their applications, and other various case management and crisis issues. I worked with clients that were homeless, wanted to commit suicide, and even with single parents who had just given birth to a baby, and wanted to make sure that their baby was added to their case. I even worked with senior citizens and disabled clients that qualified for SSI payments much more than I ever could! By the end of my tenure there, I was considered as the infant case management worker among several counties throughout the state of Minnesota!
However, burnout can set in rather quickly. This is why I tried to switch careers with my career goals.
What does one do when they are looking for employment these days, besides submitting their resumes to monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and various other career web sites? Has anyone had any success with using Linked In? I even have my resume on minnesotaworks.net as well! I have even shortened my resume, and updated my cover letter so that it includes the reason for my unemployment gap! I am about ready to hang a billboard around my neck, and walk through the streets of downtown Minneapolis just so that I can hand out my resume to various people as they walk by! I have been participating in volunteer activities just to pass the time, and keep me occupied! As far as I am concerned, I am a woman who is in dire need of full time employment, and with benefits please! My last temporary position was working as an enumerator with the Census Bureau!
On my next blog, I will post my resume and cover letter. I would appreciate any comments on how to improve my resume and cover letter so that I can obtain better results with an interview. Until then, Happy trails to you!
According to an article in today's Minneapolis StarTribune Newspaper, it stated that if a person applies for SSI disability, there is only a 25% chance that the application process is a success, and only slightly better on an appeal. This is because the applicant must show that their disability prevents them from working full time. It takes from a minimum of six months to a maximum of three years before the cases are resolved.
According to my medical records at the hospital that I was born at, an incident happened to me where there was a probable traumatic brain injury that occurred. My mother was nursing me, and as this was going on, I choked, turned blue, and really suffocated. Now mind you, this occured in 1968, so we didn't have the technology back then that we have today. I was born with a very small cleft palate, which caused the suffocation because the doctor that delivered me did not see it. This suffocation caused some physical delays that I was able to overcome in my life. I am quite musically inclined, love to read, am able to travel on my own, along with living on my own, and work as well. I have a college education, which no one can ever take away from me! I performed in various musicals. I am able to drive a car, and do minor maintence to it. I perform in music ministry groups, attend bible study, helped with writing a book, and even work on my family history. Although I was originally a music major in college, I switched to social work instead.During the years, I was evaluated to see if I was actually disabled. The last time that I was evaluated was in 1999. The psychologist tried to convince my mother that he could train a monkey. My mother also asked the psychologist why I was able to drive a car. By this time, I felt that the evaluation was inconclusive, and was a major waste of my time and energy. From 2002 to 2006, I worked as an office specialist in a call center environment for a county human services office.As an office spcialist, I worked with clients and vendors that needed help with their applications, and other various case management and crisis issues. I worked with clients that were homeless, wanted to commit suicide, and even with single parents who had just given birth to a baby, and wanted to make sure that their baby was added to their case. I even worked with senior citizens and disabled clients that qualified for SSI payments much more than I ever could! By the end of my tenure there, I was considered as the infant case management worker among several counties throughout the state of Minnesota!
However, burnout can set in rather quickly. This is why I tried to switch careers with my career goals.
What does one do when they are looking for employment these days, besides submitting their resumes to monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and various other career web sites? Has anyone had any success with using Linked In? I even have my resume on minnesotaworks.net as well! I have even shortened my resume, and updated my cover letter so that it includes the reason for my unemployment gap! I am about ready to hang a billboard around my neck, and walk through the streets of downtown Minneapolis just so that I can hand out my resume to various people as they walk by! I have been participating in volunteer activities just to pass the time, and keep me occupied! As far as I am concerned, I am a woman who is in dire need of full time employment, and with benefits please! My last temporary position was working as an enumerator with the Census Bureau!
On my next blog, I will post my resume and cover letter. I would appreciate any comments on how to improve my resume and cover letter so that I can obtain better results with an interview. Until then, Happy trails to you!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Hello Everyone from the Land of 10K Lakes
My name is Claudette Moran, and I am from the town of Little Falls, MN, otherwise known as the Land of Lindbergh. Little Falls was the boyhood home of the famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh. I am in my early 40's, and I love to read, sing and listen to music, travel, and work on my family history. I am the oldest of eight children.Although I am presently unemployed, I have done quite a bit of volunteer work to keep me out of trouble. I just started working on a facebook page, and have been rather creative with it. Hopefully, I can update my technology, and use that for the visulization of my blog. Well, happy trails everyone. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
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