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About Stan Follis

Stan's photo

If someone had written our family history, I would have bought the book. Since no one did, I'm researching and writing one. The poem We Are the Chosen explains it well. The difficult decision is whether to write a traditional book, or put it on a web site. Digital technology can be changed with a push of a button and offer methods of research and storage genealogists in the past never dreamed. I started my family research in 1993 when I bought Family Tree Maker to use on my first computer an IBM PS/1. Originally using pen and paper for library notes, occasionally photocopying books, manually entering data into Family Tree Maker. It was several years before digital images would come from scanners and digital cameras.

A follis coin

I try to discover, document, preserve, and write lost stories of my ancestor families in America. Since 1993 learning, finding, and preserving everything I find. I am at least the ninth generation FOLLIS in America since 1731 in New Jersey. In three-fourth's of my ancestor families I range from eleventh to eighth generation from 1637 to 1750's in Colonial America. The last fourth is paternal grandmother SCHNEIDER's family arrival in 1881, over 125 years years ago, a more recent third generation born in America.

Internet searches for follis turn up follis coins, so I quickly found the coin denomination called a follis from the Roman era nearly 2,000 years ago. I discuss this on my FOLLIS Trivia web page. My coin shown on the right cost $9.00 in the 1990's. I have heard of prices up to $100.

My large extended family originally included 18 aunts and uncles, not counting their spouses, or the 3 uncles who died in the 1930's. The families still talked about the 3 uncles 70 years after their deaths. We are not unique since I have tombstone photos of fresh flowers placed on graves 70 years after the person's death. My mom's family used to have 2 family reunions a year since the 1940's, sometimes over 100 in attendance, now once a year averaging 40-60, down to 7 aunts and uncles ranging from 75 to over 90 years of age.

I follow the LOCKSS Method of data security - Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe in case of hard drive crashes, scratched DVD discs, corrupted digital files, fire or natural disaster, theft, or careless deletion losing digital files forever.

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In 1999 I started writing the code for this web site using Netscape Composer, then HTML-kit using CSS examples from Eric Meyer. It is overdue for a do-over. I now use Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium tools like Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, and Photoshop. I am also County Coordinator for the Allen County Indiana GenWeb site and administrator for their ACGSI Facebook page and recently became webmaster for the Noble County Historical Society.

MCAS CertifiedFor a couple of years, I taught computer classes, after taking a few classes, and self-taught many other software programs such as: Microsoft VISTA, XP Professional, Office 2007, Family Tree Maker, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Organizer, Google maps, and Delorme Street Atlas GPS. I am certified as a Microsoft Office 2007 Master - MCAS - Microsoft Certified Application Specialist in Access 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, Power Point 2007, and Word 2007 . I am an MCP - Microsoft Certified Professional, with CompTIA certification in A+, and Network+.

Background

2002 Monarach butterfly on prairie cup plant in gardenThe "blue man" in the book "The Five People You Meet In Heaven", states "there are no random acts...we are all connected...you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind." "Strangers, are just family you have yet to come to know" and "no life is a waste, the only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone." So it is with our family history. The more I find, the more obvious it becomes how we are connected by blood and marriage, living in the same areas, attending the same schools, churches and organizations, spending our lives and passing through time together. DNA testing is beginning to show and confirm what most of us always suspected, but many refuse to believe for social, political and religious reasons.

March 1, 1983 Entrepeneurs Fish For Riches newspaper article

1996 April Showers Bring May Flowers newspaper article coverI have a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Horticulture from Purdue University motivated by a lifetime gardening and growing plants. My plant collection was featured in the local conservatory garden walk in 1996 and 2006, including newspaper articles shown on my garden web site. I did summer horticulture internships at the Foellinger Freimann Botanical Conservatory in 1993 and 1995. In 1994 I did a 6 month internship at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and in 2009 they added a Facebook page. My gardens get smaller every few years with less time and desire to maintain them, but are still larger than any other in the neighborhood.

For nearly a decade during and after college while earning my biology degree I ran a tropical fish and bird breeding partnership continuing a childhood fascination with the natural world of all types of living creatures large and small. We made the front page of the local afternoon newspaper before ending a second business effort.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

Two quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) about life sum it best.

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely ... Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a Dream, Make a Plan, Take a Step, Keep on Climbing - Kate Wendleton

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker

Trivia

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