Keeping Tract of our Family Homes

The absolute primary reason for this blog is so that my children and theirs can know something about me.  Not that I am or was the best person to know, but looking back to my own parents and grandparents, I would love to know every detail of their life.  This is important to me not just from an historical / genealogical perspective, but I would like to know their emotions, thoughts, struggles and accomplishments to compare with my own.

Haven't any of you wanted to go back to see your birth home, or that favorite neighborhood you lived in growing up?  If so, can you remember right where it is?  I cannot, therefore I have gone back and recorded the exact location of each.  This isn't a complete list, and it will grow as time goes on.  How did I do it?  In some cases I used a Garmin GPS handheld trail receiver, in other cases I used my smart phone, and the longer distance places away I used Google Earth.

Places I've Lived
Coordinates listed are Decimal Degrees, Basemap WGS84 when possible.

Date: Coordinates by Longitude and Latitude and the general location, i.e., city, state, zip, country

1959: Bountiful, UT, My birth house. N 40.873518, W 111.881625, 29 West 1600 South, Bountiful, UT
1960: Minnesota
1963: Fort Worth, TX
1977: N 32.720033 W 097.462495, 76116, 8404 Bangor Drive, Fort Worth, TX
1979: N 55.569115 E 009.742989, Fredercia, DK **
1980: N 55.640800 E 012.583717, Amager, DK **
1981: N 41.765329 W 111.804760, Little White House, 1885 N. 1200 E., N. Logan, UT 84341
1983: N 41.879454 W 111.989905, Dairy, Newton, UT
1987: N 41.767727 W 111.802645, 84341, Salisburys, 2020 N. 1250 E., N. Logan, UT 84341
1989: N 41.731343 W 111.843606, 84321, Center Street, Logan, UT
1990: N 41.711697 W 111.853128, 84321, Park Avenue, Logan, UT
1998: N 28.647644 W 080.866294, 4325 Caper Court, Titusville, FL 32796
2002: N 28.575609 W 080.806277, 32780, LaCita, Titusville, FL
2004: N 28.555872 W 080.805495, 4700 Sisson Road,Titusville, FL 32780
2005: N 28.641823 W 080.853132, 1665 Saratoga Drive, Titusville, FL 32796
2014: N 28.647644 W 080.866294, 4325 Caper Court, Titusville, FL 32796

* Recorded 2014, Updated Dec. 2017.
** General Area

What is your North Star?

This story is about acknowledging the positive aspects of our lives, and finding a reliable "compass" or way to guide us.  For those who believe in God, it is about surrender and discipleship.  For non-believers, it is about finding positive role models and life attributes to follow and look toward.

Sometimes when life becomes challenging for us, we need to look beyond our current situations and try to envision the “big picture”  or overall life perspective of the situation, detach ourselves from the anxieties of now and look to a power greater than us to give us strength and direction.

My journal entry from September 29, 2014, 9:00 PM at the prison where I work.

I’m on Outside Perimeter Post tonight at the prison, driving in circles around the outside fence making sure everything is secure.  It’s a rainy night, and it has been drizzling all day long, kind of melancholy, and in a moment of contemplation I wrote this:

What is your North Star?

Lately I've been thinking a lot at night about the stars in the sky.  Spending most of my time in the city nowadays, it’s been a long time since I've seen a clear starry night.  I can’t even remember the last time I went outside and searched for Polaris, the North Star.

For centuries explorers and navigators on both land and sea have used the stars to guide them.  The 16th century explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the first person to circumnavigate the globe, traveled over 37,000 miles.  He primarily used celestial bodies, such as Polaris and seasonal winds to find his way and lead other countless travelers to do the same.  This accomplishment established trade routes that helped civilization develop and grow that we still use today.

In the absence of these guiding lights in the sky, how would he have done this?  He possibly could have done it without these navigational aids, but chances are he would have spent countless weeks or months wandering about not knowing where he was or which direction he was going.

We don’t navigate by stars anymore, at least us city dwellers.  We have roads, maps, and speaking GPS navigators on our phones and at our fingertips, taking us to our destination literally turn by turn.  But metaphorically, what are we using as our Polaris to lead us through life?  Some of us are driven in a certain direction by career, family, money, ambition, education or similar; some of us by religion or politics.  Ultimately all of these drivers are just temporary guides that change.  They are proven to be inconsistent, flawed, of less significant value and can potentially misdirect us.

The North Star doesn't move.  It’s in the north sky and is, and always will be a reliable guide.  I think of God this way.  When my life gets misdirected and my priorities get misaligned it’s because I've taken my eyes off God, the North Star of the Universe and replaced it with something less reliable (usually worry).

Here is a Bible verse in John, chapter 14 that hit me like a rock!  1. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me (Jesus)… 5. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me. 

So if your life is lacking direction or if your compass has become misaligned, consider switching to the Great Navigator, God to provide direction and see how that works for you.  May you be blessed in your journey. - gus

PS. If you like this, comment below and share it with a friend.  Meet me on Twitter @guskoerner

Using GPS in Genealogy, A Marvelous Tool, Part 1

As a young man I began my love of the outdoors and everything about it. I was always kind of concerned about getting lost, so I took it upon myself to become an expert in navigation of all forms, including map and compass, celestial bodies, and yes, which side of the tree the moss grew on (environmental clues). Later in life, but not much though, only about ten or twelve years, I was introduced to the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Photo by USGS

About the same time I remember my mother talking to me about her Mom and Dad, and my Dad’s parents and how they emigrated from Europe to the United States. I was immediately interested in their stories of what it was like in the “old country”.

In 1995 I bought my first Magellan GPS receiver, and I was amazed that it had the capabilities to direct me to a point (or pinpoint one) to plus or minus a hundred yards! 2000 was an important year for navigators, professional and amateur. That was when selective availability was removed by the U.S. government, which improved GPS accuracy tenfold! Then about 2005 came the W.A.A.S. system, which improved accuracy again. So in a relatively short period, less than ten years, GPS went from football field to about car size accuracy. The cost of having this navigation capability for a person has always been about $100. The GPS satellite service is free.

In 2001 the game of geocaching started to grow. What some people call high tech treasure hunting, geocaching combines the internet with a handheld GPS receiver which lead the player to local and global “treasures”. I often told my 4-H kids that if they could master geocaching, which isn't hard because I've seen ten year old kids become experts in a week; then they would have navigation skills sufficient to guide them to any spot on the globe, like the early explorers did.

Simply stated, GPS allows us to pinpoint places on the globe, and find for that matter, locations that are foreign to us, near or far away, the size of a mountain to as small as a dime. For example, my grandfather, G.A. Johnson originally from Sweden got into an argument with his dad and left his countryside farmstead when he was eighteen (as the story goes). Today as far as I know, my third cousins still live there.  But where did he live EXACTLY before coming to America, and if I have distant cousins out there, where are they now?  You know if I could only find their house, in person or on Google Earth, I could pinpoint where my Grandpa, Papa Gus grew up.  If I only knew.  GPS and genealogy can help me here.

In a few days, in my next story I'm getting into the specifics about finding, marking and recording these locations so they can be found by current family members and future generations.  Until then, please follow some of the hyper-linked words above and consider how and why you would like to know where certain things are.  As always, please feel free to leave your comments and follow me on Twitter @guskoerner.

-gus

Journal Entry, May 19, 2014, Part 2 of 2, Obsession With Life in the Desert

I'm obsessed with learning more about the Spanish explorers who lived, explored, traveled and mapped the southwestern United States, in the Utah, Colorado, New Mexico region; specifically the southern Utah desert.  (Why do Franciscan monks always come up for me??)  The Escalente' Expedition were dedicated Christians and Catholic Franciscan monks, (Wiki photo, left) who tried to convert native Americans, but had the outdoor and mapping skills comparable to Lewis and Clark, but came before him in the 1770's.  The flintlock gun era.  I must research their journals!!  Someday I shall return to my most memorable place on Earth, which I call Solace Overhang.  It is located on the banks of the Escalente River at N 37.77445, W 111.42385.  Dead or alive, I shall return to that spot where I spent seven days alone in September of 1979, with nothing but a wool blanket, a coffee can, a pound of mixed wheat and corn flour and a half-dozen honey packs.  It was by far, the most influential time in my life where the only thing I could do was survive and reflect upon my life.  The only friend I had to speak to was my own conscious and God.  Occasionally I would explore and see a rabbit or a rattlesnake, but most of my time was appreciating the rocks, stars and cool stream a hundred yards away.  I would reflect upon my life thus far, and what the future may bring.  I was a naive nineteen year old with my life in front of me.  It was at that point, where I crossed from being a boy to a man, and the first time in my life seriously acknowledged God's grace in my life.  I also realized that the universe was much larger than I had imagined, and that spiritual life was more than a religious upbringing, or a church and didn't necessarily have to do with any particular religion or dogma.

I'll never ever forget laying on the ground under my overhang, covered by my woolen blanket next to my personal fire.  Even though I could feel warmth from the flames, I was still very very cold.  I would just lay there and wait for sunrise.  My body was facing North, and I had a clear view of the North Star, and the Big Dipper just beside.  Through the embers of the firelight, I would lay there and watch the fixed Polaris, with Ursa Major pivoting around it, completing a near full circle.  As the Big Dipper came close to the horizon, I knew that dawn was eminent, and I would soon feel the warm sun rays.  At dawn, I'd walk down to the Escalente River and fill my coffee can.  On the way back up the hill, I would collect some sprigs of Brigham Tea, Ephedra viridis, and then prepare a breakfast of ashcakes and warm tea to start my day.  For the first four days I had a little honey to put on my cakes.  At 37-111 (lat/lon) were my first experiences of heaven.

I thank God for that wonderful experience, parents who encouraged me and help make this happen, and for the people who ran the program, specifically Larry Dean Olson, author of Outdoor Survival Skills, foreward by Robert Redford, ISBN 13: 978-1556523236, the founder of BYU's Youth Leadership 480 program, and my class D-12.  I would also like to thank my program director Doug Nelson and my local Fort Worth buddy Bobbie Baird.  I also have to thank my father,Karl L. Koerner who was a course graduate in 1976.  This program is still ongoing, but under the direction of Boulder Outdoor Survival School, or B.O.S.S.

Teaching teachers how to navigate.

Yesterday I had the best opportunity to teach a group of elementary education students at the University of Central Florida.  In three hours, they were taught the history of GPS navigation, the "ins and outs" of the sport of geocaching, and had an opportunity to place a cache and hide a cache.  If you're unfamiliar with sport of Geocaching, this link will tell you all about it, but in short it is high-tech treasure hunting.


A few of the important things mentioned included, that children for the most part are not learning skills in any type of navigation these days, at home or in the classroom.  Putting a GPS receiver in their hands and having them get to know how to use it is the easy part.  Most kids nowadays feel comfortable with electronics and holding an instrument and manipulating the buttons.  Some of the reasons geocaching in the classroom is a special  event, is that it gets them outdoors, they get to explore with some autonomy and most of all they get to find a "treasure".  It doesn't really matter that the treasure is science, social studies or match related, they still enjoy it!


I admire teachers who are using this skill, and going the extra effort with our children to help them learn with innovative methods.  I applaud UCF by including this topic with their education students!


The space below is for including some of the good ideas the students have in implementing GPS into K-6 curriculum.  Please check back to see their ideas!

UCF Pre-Service Teachers Learn All About GPS In The Classroom

I had the greatest experience working with Instructor, Shloe Kerness of the University of Central Florida teaching Elementary Pre-Service teachers all about GPS receivers, classroom navigation and Geocaching. I felt the classroom portion moved along quite well, and we had fun in the field looking for secret locations!  A few important points I failed to give appropriate attention to include:

Hands-On Activities In The Woods!

• Space Coast Geocachers, who are very active in Brevard County and throughout Florida.  In fact, they manage the one and only geocaching retail store known to most of us in the sport!
• In navigation, a GPS receiver can, usually does, but SHOULDN'T EVER be solely relied upon as the only navigational tool.  A well studied map and compass should always be kept near by.
• Besides Geocaching.com, some of my other favorite related sites include: Waymarking, which builds a "geocaching" database of virtual sites such as historical markers, landmarks, interesting scenic views, etc.  My other favorite, but not as popular is the Degree Confluence Project which has snapshots of every corner of the globe, and has just celebrated its 15th anniversary.

Keep up the great work and be sure to interact with your colleagues in class and those you meet in Extension.  Throughout the US and Florida, teachers are utilizing GPS receivers and geocaching to teach all of the core subjects, while at the same time inspiring their students to increase their knowledge of science, math and of course - outdoor education!

Mr. Gus

My Muzzle Blasts Editorial, Jan. 2010

Muzzle Blasts is the official publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association. In this month's issue, Letters to the Editor I wrote a column promoting the use of GPS receivers by all hunters and outdoors men, even the most traditional ones.


Here is an excerpt...Dear Editor, (Mr. Eric), I call this Old Tech Meets New Tech... As a group of dedicated gun enthusiasts, typically appreciating more the low-tech nature of the sport than the high-tech, we may often disregard or even scoff carrying and using a GPS receiver, and (God forbid) perhaps even putting it in our possibles bag next to our powder flask and nipple pick. The reasons that we should seriously consider using a GPS receiver is two-fold, safety and convenience. Gary’s reasoning, to find the remote rendezvous location from another city is a good one, but we should also consider other positive implications of knowing precisely where you are (or are going). I have to also mention before I go on, that the old fashioned way of map and compass will never be lost by the wayside of navigation, and will always be more reliable than any electronic device...

At the end of the article, I issued this challenge: PS. The first reader to email me my office street name, I’ll send them an official replica of an 1837 Bank Token cast of solid pewter I bought from Track of the Wolf. I am at GPS Coords. (DMM): 28° 21.579'N, 80° 46.884'W. 

Congratulations to Jerry Boyle, Dave Schreck, Rick Buxton and Jim and Annetta Holmes for being the first to reply! Dave Schreck was the winner, but they will all receive a token (if I have enough!).  Other winners of either finding the location or giving it their best shot were: Steve Pressman, Brad Bennett, Pete Garrett.  Sorry, I'm out of tokens now.