About Stan FOLLIS

I am also the County Coordinator for the Allen County Indiana GenWeb.

If someone had written our family history, I could have simply bought the book, but since no one did, I am the one who is researching and writing it. The poem We Are the Chosen explains it well. Digital technology offers 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, and occasionally photocopies of pages in books, then manually entering data into Family Tree Maker. It was several years before hardware and operating systems could handle digital images from scanners and digital cameras.

I follow the LOCKSS Method of data security - Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe. You never know when a hard drive will crash, a disc gets scratched, digital files corrupted, a fire, natural disaster, theft, or careless discard will lose documents forever.

I have been a computer instructor, taken many classes, regularly use Microsoft VISTA, XP Professional, Office 2007, Family Tree Maker, Photoshop Elements for editing digital images, Photoshop Album for organizing nearly 65,000 images, and Delorme Street Atlas with GPS mapping program to locate cemeteries, map ancestor land locations and their proximity to other ancestors and cemeteries.

I originally used HTML-kit to write the code for this web site using examples from Eric Meyer as basis for my CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. I am currently learning Dreamweaver and will begin using the Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium tools on this site.

I am computer certified as a Micorsoft Office 2007 Master and MCAS - Microsoft Certified Application Specialist in Microsoft Office 2007. An MCP - Microsoft Certified Professional, with CompTIA certification in A+, and Network+.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Horticulture from Purdue University.

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If you use Facebook: Ten Privacy Setings Every Facebook User Should Know.

Once I started genealogy research I quickly found there is a coin denomination called a follis from the Roman era nearly 2,000 years ago. I discuss this and more on my FOLLIS Trivia web page. Any internet search for follis turns up dozens of hits for follis coins whether looking on eBay, Google, Dogpile or whatever search engine you use. My coin cost $9.00 in the 1990's. I have heard of prices around $100.

I am part of a large extended family. At one time I had 18 aunts and uncles, not counting their spouses, or 3 uncles who died in the 1930's. The families still talk about the 3 uncles 70 years after their deaths. We are not unique since I have tombstone photos of fresh flowers still placed on graves 70 years after the person's death. Part of my motivation is to discover and preserve these family stories in this information age. My mom's family had 2 family reunions each year since the 1940's, sometimes with over 100 in attendance, now only once a year averaging around 40-60, down to 7 aunts and uncles ranging from 70 to over 90 years of age.

I have been gardening and growing plants all my life, with my plant collection featured in the local conservatory garden walk in 1996 and 2006, including newspaper promotions shown on my garden website. I did summer horticulture internships at the same local Foellinger Freimann Botanical Conservatory in 1993 and 1995. In 1994 I did a 6 month internship at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

For several years during and after college while earning my biology degree I ran a tropical fish and bird breeding partnership continuing a childhood fascination with nature and all types of living creatures large and small. We made the local newspaper front page before ending our small business.

"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