Heirloom Cookbooks

A collection of family recipes are a great gift for Christmas. If you have recipes collected from your mother, grandmother, or passed down from ancestors and they are just loose copies kept in cookbooks or a recipe box, then an heirloom cookbook is a great idea to preserve and pass these recipes on to your children and grandchildren.

Holidays are a fun time for family gatherings and home-cooked meals. It would be great to include recipes from these occasions that bring back fond memories. Adding memories, pictures, and even a short history of the ancestor along with the recipes makes this a special book to be treasured. You can also include special Sunday dinners that the family enjoyed on Sundays. Some recipes may have been used for generations, and these give children and grandchildren a chance to share in these delicious memories that have been a part of their family for generations. Heirloom cookbooks are a great way to share your family history with your family.

You can even include favorite recipes of each of your children or grandchildren and start traditions of passing down a new generation of memories. These recipes could consist of favorite birthday foods that include cake recipes. You can organize your cookbook by a family member, holiday, or even favorite family reunion recipes and memories. Don’t forget to add pictures!

You can create these cookbooks simple by gathering the recipes and putting them in a binder, or you can get creative and use a publishing company to print your book. If you have good copies of the recipes, include a scanned copy of the recipe instead of rewriting it, especially if they are handwritten.

A search on Pinterest.com with the term “heirloom cookbook diy” will give you lots of ideas on how to create your heirloom cookbook. There are ideas for templates and lots of pictures of cookbooks that others have created. There are great visuals on how to include photos and histories along with the recipes. Not sure on how you want the cover of your cookbook to look like? There are lots of ideas on Pinterest too.

Making a family cookbook full of your family’s favorite meals is a great gift and a perfect way to pass down your heritage. You can put these recipes into binders or use websites like Sanpfish.com and Blurb.com that have cookbook templates to create your special gift.

Civil War Widow’s Pensions

If your ancestor was born between 1801-1849 in the U.S., there is a good chance that they served in the Civil War. Pensions were granted to widows and those dependent upon the soldier that served in the Union Army. For Union soldiers, the pension system began in 1862, (Confederate veterans were not eligible for pensions from the federal government, and their home states had to take care of them). More than a million men were on the pension rolls by 1893. These pension records include information that may help you extend your family lines and understand what the war was like for these ancestors.

These pension records may include the soldier’s full name, name of widow or dependent, rank, company, regiment, infantry unit, when and where the soldier enlisted, amount of pension, death date, and cause of death. This information may lead to death certificates and burial records. The resident of the dependent can lead to census, church, and land records.

Unfortunately, Fold3.com has only been able to digitize 21% of the pension files. The files are very fragile, and digitizing was halted until the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) felt assured that these records would not incur damage during scanning. Fold3.com has the digitized pension records and is available at the FamilySearch Center. There is a Civil War Pension Index available on FamilySearch and Ancestry. If you locate your ancestor in the index and their file has not been digitized, you can go to the nara.gov website and request a copy of the files referenced in the index.

I did find an uncle (John F. Swap) whose mother applied for a pension and luckily this pension was digitized. I discovered that John was the sole provider for his mother as his father had died when he was young, and she was able to receive a pension. He enlisted in 1863 in Norwich, Connecticut and died the 3rd of February 1865 of starvation, exposure, and diarrhea at the Salisbury, North Carolina prison camp. Information found in his 36-page pension file include handwritten letters from his mother and uncles. There is a handwritten letter from his Sargent who was present when John died.

The information I found in John’s pension file, along with the handwritten letters, has helped me to put “meat on the bones” of my ancestor, John F. Swap. Hopefully, you will find such a treasure too.

The “Forgotten War”

The War of 1812, also known as the Second Revolutionary War, produced many records that are valuable to genealogists. It is also known as the “Forgotten War” because it is not studied much at school and is all but unknown. Unfortunately, the War of 1812 pension records has been at the bottom of the stack to be digitized. These pension records have 7.2 million pages contained in 180,000 files (www.preservethepensions.org)

In 2008, the National Archives approached the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) to save these vital records. These frequently requested pension records are not microfilmed and are in bad shape because they are deteriorating from age. The FGS bided out the digitizing process, and Fold3.com won the bid. The FGS also needed $3 million to pay for this project, and more than 4,000 individuals and 115 genealogical societies contributed the amount required to do this preservation. They have digitized A – P of surnames in this project so far. They are free on Fold3.com and will remain that way indefinitely!

If you have an ancestor born between 1752 – 1799, they may have served in the War of 1812. Statistics show that there were 60,000 members of the U.S. Army and 475,000 state militias or volunteers that served. Your ancestor may not have been in the war but wrote out an affidavit to help support a claim. (www.familysearch.org/blog/en/war-1812-pension-files/)

To find these records, you need to go to fold3.com – browse military records by war- War of 1812- War of 1812 Pension Files – browse- choose state ancestor lived in – choose the letter of the last name. I went to New Hampshire – Johnson – Jeremiah (my 2nd Great Grandfather). There are 64 pages of documents in his file. You can save these records to your tree at ancestry.com. I found a marriage certificate, my 2nd Grandmother’s signature, a document written by Jeremiah’s sister about his first wife’s death, a description of Jeremiah (6ft tall, black hair, black eyes, dark complexion). There were letters written by family members verifying that he existed and served in the war. To me, this was a treasure trove.

Check out the War of 1812 pension records and see if treasures are waiting for you there! I had no idea that Jeremiah had served in the War of 1812 and he only did so for a few months. I am so glad I checked out these records. Don’t forget the “Forgotten War!”

DAR

If you had an ancestor who was born between 1715-1767 in the American Colonies, there is a good chance that they served in the Revolutionary War. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage society you can join if you have ancestors that served in the American Revolution. Applicants need to prove through documentation that they are a direct descendant of that ancestor. It is this proof documentation that makes the DAR an essential resource for your family history and is available to nonmembers to purchase as a download.

Documentation can be personal letters, pages from Bibles, obituaries, etc. and is scrutinized by professional genealogists for accuracy. Legacy Family Tree Webinars recently had an excellent webinar on the DAR by Rick Sayre. Sayre mentioned in this webinar that there are 205 new members added to DAR each week and 55 NEW patriots added each month. That is a lot of documentation proving ancestry for new members. There are also 7,100,000 descendants listed in this database.

On the DAR home page (ww.dar.org), you need to:

· Click on the green GRS tab at the very top. This tab will take you to their Genealogical Research System. This system is up-to-date and replaces the DAR index books.

· After you enter the GRS system, you need to click on the Ancestor tab. This tab will take you to a search page where there is a search box to search for ancestors. Even though there are red asterisks that indicate you must have information in a field, I was still able to search with just a last name.

I choose an ancestor’s last name of Sleeper and found fourteen different Sleepers listed. I chose my ancestor David Sleeper and found that around forty of his descendants had joined the DAR using his Revolutionary War Service. On this page is the column Nat’l Num. This is the DAR member number. The larger the number, the more accurate the documentation. I clicked on member 919051, and for $30 I can get both the lineage and the ten pages of documentation used to prove this lineage to downloaded to my computer. On the Bible tab by the Ancestor tab, I found that someone had used a page from David Sleeper’s Bible to prove their relationship. I can also purchase a copy of this page.

Don’t overlook this underused resource to aid you in expanding your family history!

New York Immigration Records

Most American family stories begin with an immigrant. Who are your immigrants? When did they arrive? Where did they come from? Luckily, immigrants created a wealth of information, whether it is from their immigration voyage or trying to become an American citizen.

FamilySearch has the complete New York immigration records online. These records document 63.7 million people who arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1957. These records have become available through a partnership with FamilySearch and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

FamilySearch has divided this collection into three parts.

· New York Passenger Lists (Castle Garden) 1820-1891

· New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island) 1892-1924

· New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists 1925-1957

The first part covers Castle Garden that was in operation before Elis Island. More than 100 million Americans arrived during this time. Each arriving ship had a passenger list and filed it with customs officials.

The federal government then took control of all ports of entry and the processing of immigrants into the United States. The government closed Castle Garden and moved the processing of immigrants to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was an isolated island to protect U.S. citizens from exposure to diseases that many of the immigrants carried with them.

The third part includes immigrants arriving at New York airports. Many immigrants during this time were from Italy, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, England, Ireland, Sweden, and Greece.

The ship records list passenger names, age, last place of residence, American sponsor, port of departure, and date of arrival in New York. They may even include a photograph. By studying every detail in these records, you may find clues to further your research. You may find the names and addresses of family members in the U.S. and the old country.

Search for your ancestor by name, age, date of arrival, and country of origin. Your ancestor may not have used their Americanized version of their name, and so it is essential to know the ethnic equivalents. Also, watch for other passengers from the same locality. They may be relatives. If your ancestor was alive after 1900, look for them in 1900, 1910, 1920, or 1930 census that includes immigration and naturalization details that may help in your search.

What is your immigrant’s story? Search these records and learn more about them, why they immigrated and the sacrifices they made to become an American. Their story is your story.

Thomas Philbrick vs. Goody Cole

At my house, Halloween brings about the question of whether we had any ancestors that participated in the Salem Witch Trials. This is an excellent opportunity to share ancestor stories, good or bad, with my children. The witch trials were a tragic chapter in American history but are a great lesson on how important tolerance is in our society.

The superstitions and fear of witches brought by settlers from England became a fundamental part of New England society. But it was the Puritans who conducted the trials and executed those whom they declared guilty. As life in the new world became difficult, the Puritans blamed witches for all their problems. They concluded that eliminating witches from their society was the only way to survive. Enclycopedia.com has a great article, “Witch-Hunts in Puritan England,” that explains this part of American History well.

It was in this setting that we meet Goody Cole. Eunice “Goody” Cole lived in Hampton, New Hampshire. Not all witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Goody Cole’s problem was that she was an unpleasant woman to be around. She was older and had a sharp tongue and took advantage of the local’s superstitions and frightened them by making terrifying prophecies.

Goody Cole warned Thomas Philbrick (my 9th Great Grandfather) that if his calves got into her place once more, she would poison them or choke them. He never saw one of his calves again, and another one got sick and died. Because of this and other incidents in the town, Goody Cole found herself before the court in 1656. Many testified against her, and she was found guilty. 

 

Goody Cole eventually released from prison and soon after passed away. The townspeople quickly buried her in a deep hole by a ditch that was too unclean for consecrated ground. The people fashioned a long stake with a horseshoe nailed to the end of it, and they drove the stake through her heart as protection from her witchcraft. Her grave was left unmarked. Her life inspired the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, The Wreck of Rivermouth. In 1938, the town of Hampton, New Hampshire declared her innocent.

Relative Finder (www.relativefinder.org) will search through your FamilySearch database and look for your ancestors who were part of the Salem Witch Trials. By searching Google, you can find stories like the one I found about Goody Cole, witch, and Thomas Philbrick, witch accuser.

Who is on Your Ofrenda?

Pixar’s movie Coco, currently on Netflix, was a hit at Rootstech 2018. It is a family movie about a boy’s adventure with Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Dia de Los Muertos is celebrated October 31 – November 2. The movie Coco shows how essential it is that we remember our ancestors and build a connection that goes beyond names and dates.

On the FamilySearch Blog is an article “Dia de Muertos: A Day to Honor Your Ancestors” by Jose Lopez. He tells about how his family in Guatemala would fly kites to “symbolize sending messages to loved ones who have left this life.” Another tradition was the decorating the tombs of ancestors. Many add flowers and skulls to their ancestor’s graves. Families would clean the graves and decorate them with not only marigolds but photos, mementos, and the ancestor’s favorite food. This was done to attract the spirits of deceased ancestors whom they believe visits them during this festival.

Dia de Los Muertos is a great time to remember our ancestors and preserve their memories. We can share stories about our ancestors and add those stories to FamilySearch. We can scan photos to share by adding them to FamilySearch; or use the Memories app for on-the-spot sharing. It would be easy to make this Day of the Dead a day to add memories to FamilySearch and make it an annual tradition.

An important part of the Day of the Dead is the Ofrenda. An Ofrenda is a display that families create to honor their ancestors; it helps keep their memories alive. You can honor a different ancestor each year, or several ancestors. Each Ofrenda is different so have fun with your unique design. It can be as simple as pictures of parents, grandparents, great grandparents, along with some types of food and drink they enjoyed. Some people include on their Ofrenda Marigolds, candles and of course sugar skulls. You might get creative and add the name of your ancestor across the forehead of the skull. Pinterest has new and fun ideas of how people assemble their family’s Ofrenda.

Dia de Los Muertos is an excellent opportunity to honor and pay tribute to the lives of our deceased loved ones by keeping their memories alive. This is an occasion to create fun memories with your children and grandchildren, let your hair down and have a party!

Tips for using FamilySearch Record Hints

The computer age is great for genealogy as technology allows us to research as we sleep, work, and play. FamilySearch uses algorithms to search its vast amount of records to determine if they match the people in your family tree. The FamilySearch blog article “Use Record Hints” states that “FamilySearch is constantly scouring their digitized, indexed records to identify records that may match your family—and these blue boxes signal to you that they might have succeeded.”

When dealing with record hints, it is important to remember:

· Information on the Record Hint may not be right.

· If you are not sure the Record Hint matches your person, don’t attach it.

· Don’t attach the Record Hint without looking at the actual record. Remember, the image often has more information than the index, and you can usually learn new details about the person and their family. Many researchers are finding that if they print off a family group record with the sources included they will find more information such as birth, death, and marriages with complete dates. This information may consist of spouses for your couple’s children too. Some have found children they did not know existed.

· If there is more information on the Record Hint, but it doesn’t give you the option to “Add” it over, go back to the person’s main profile page, and add it yourself. Having a notebook nearby is helpful to write down the information you need to add to your person as you study the Record Hint.

· Many records in FamilySearch are indexed more than once. Still, attach the record even if that means there will be two or three of the same record.

· There are many significant databases not accessed by the Record Hints. Many databases have not been indexed yet and are image only, so you will have to search them yourself.

· You need to standardize the dates are as follows: day, the full name of the month, and year. The location needs to be standardized too. FamilySearch will give you a hint on how they want this information standardized. If your data is standardized, you will get more record hints.

If you clean up your family tree by standardizing your information, the algorithms FamilySearch uses can find more Record Hints. This allows FamilySearch to research for you as you sleep helping you find more ancestors. Technology is amazing!

Christmas Ideas

With Christmas just around the corner, it is time to think of some fun genealogy gifts that are treasured for years to come. Even though fifteen weeks may seem like plenty of time to prepare for Christmas, some presents take time to create. The two ideas in today's article will take some time to make but are well worth the enjoyment that they bring.

A great gift is to create a book about your ancestors that your children and grandchildren will want to read. Ancestors at a Glance is a book where you create just one page for the ancestor you wish to highlight. The book I made included all my pioneer ancestors. I added only one favorite story to highlight and kept the story on one page. I also included a photo and birth and death statistics on each ancestor. I put the husband on one side of the page and the wife on the back side and the second page would have a family group record for the family. By doing it this way, it kept the book simple, and your children and grandchildren are more likely to read one page rather than a large book. It may also create an interest in their ancestors where they are more likely to pick up a larger book and read about them.

If you lack stories, a good place to look is FamilySearch. Many are putting their ancestors’ stories, and photos on FamilySearch and these are just perfect for a book like Ancestors at a Glance. Google is another good resource to use to find stories and photos to use.

A twist to a book like this is to group your ancestors’ stories into a book of virtues. “Responsibility. Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence. Faith. In order for our children to develop such traits, we have to offer them examples of good and bad, right and wrong.” This is a description of William J. Bennett’s Book of Virtues from Amazon.com and a great example on how you can put together your own virtues book. You can add other virtues such as prayerful. A book like this makes an excellent resource for children to use for talks in Primary, church, and on other occasions. We can learn compassion from Grandpa’s story on how he used compassion to help in a difficult situation.

Books like these make the best Christmas presents!

Changes in FamilySearch’s Family Tree Person Page

If you look at FamilySearch’s Family Tree, you will notice a new look. FamilySearch has given their Person Page a big update. At first glance, it seems the same, but as you study the page, you will notice a lot of changes. FamilySearch states that these changes “will make learning about your ancestors easier than ever before.”

The menu tab across the top of the page now includes buttons that take you to Details, Time Line, Sources, Collaborate, Memories, and Ordinances. These tabs include the number of documents in Sources, Collaborate, and Memories.

The Time Line section is new and is a great tool that gives you a glimpse of your ancestor’s life in context. This timeline helps you to identify missing events. It even adds the record hints that may lead you to sources to help fill in the missing events. There is a map function inside the timeline section too, and this shows where events and the record hints included in the timeline took place.

The Collaborate tab now contains the previous notes and discussions. This is great that they kept these. There can be valuable research information included in these notes and discussions.

There are edit buttons visible next to the information on your ancestor. This makes it easier to edit the information. It also lists the number of sources used to verify the vital information. If there are no sources on the date of birth, this is a good heads-up on where you need to research next. The Data Problems alert not only lets you know if your data is not formatted correctly but will alert you to possible duplicates and includes a number to show you the number of issues with this alert.

Another nice feature is the number included with the Record Hints tab. If you have ever tried to add record hints and the hints seem to go on forever, you can now see the actual number of hints you need to check out.

These changes are a great asset to FamilySearch. They help you to see where research is lacking and what information has no sources. Now at first glance, we can see what information is reliable and what is not. By adding a timeline and map section, we can see our gaps in information on our ancestors in a more visual way.

Spanish Flu

In the autumn of 1918, the deadliest pandemic in human history occurred. The Spanish Flu rocked the world just as World War I ended. This flu infected almost a half a billion people and killed 50-100 million people, more than who died in the war. It hit the young healthy people the hardest. The infected would get horrible nosebleeds, and their skin would turn blue because of lack of oxygen from their fluid-filled lungs. Hospitals were overwhelmed, and coffins were in shortage. This fall we recognize the 100-year anniversary of this deadly flu.

The flu took most of its victims in the prime of their lives. They were not married with a posterity to remember them. I searched to see if any of my ancestors had died in the fall of 1918 and found three people. One was a young woman, age 21, from New Hampshire. She suffered from the flu for ten days before she died. What a tragedy.

Vera Jones Vaughan from Malad, Idaho survived the Spanish Flu, and we are lucky that she recorded her experience for her posterity. Vera was visiting relatives in Pocatello, Idaho when the flu struck that town. From their windows, they would watch the ambulances with sirens going to the flu victims and the hearses taking away the dead.

One day. Vera’s cousin asked her how she felt because she didn’t look well. Vera said she felt fine and went to hang out the laundry when suddenly, her legs gave out on her. She had to crawl to the back door dragging the laundry basket. At least a dozen people watched her crawl to her house from their windows. Vera was put in a tub and given a glass of castor oil mixed with lemon juice sprinkled with pepper. Her fingers went black and stiff, and eventually, her face went black. The man who delivered her groceries got the flu one day and died the next. Eight people in her neighborhood died. Vera was one of the lucky ones to survive, and she remembers being weak for a long time.

What do we know about our ancestors who either perished or survived the Spanish Flu? This autumn is a great time to remember them. We can tell their story and share with our children and grandchildren. These stories would be great to add to FamilySearch. Let us not forget those that are often overlooked.

Unofficial Ancestry.com Workbook

The Unofficial Ancestry.com Workbook by Nancy Hendrickson is “A How-to Manual for Tracing Your Family Tree on the #1 Genealogy Website.” Amazon.com sells this book along with other genealogy book retailers. Each chapter in this book focuses on a specific record type in Ancestry and teaches you how to get the most out of your record searches. This book takes you step-by-step through each record set and shows you how to search and includes images of the search results. By learning how to use Ancestry’s massive record collection, you can save time on your searches and feel confident that you have not missed information that may be valuable to your research.

Each chapter starts out with an overview of the collection so that you get a good idea of what is in each group. For instance, the section on census records gives the reader a good impression on what census records are available and how to use them in their research. The chapter also includes exercises to help you get hands-on experience in searching census records. The first exercise has you find a Herschel B. Hendrickson in the 1940 census. It goes through three steps to locate him and includes pictures of the search results. It even includes an exercise in using a mortality schedule, so you feel comfortable using those. At the end of each chapter are blank forms to help you record your findings.

The author starts off with a lesson on how to use the Search form and the card catalog. There are times you will want to use each of these search formats. The author feels that this first chapter is one that you will not want to skip over because this is essential knowledge to know when researching each collection. There is even a chapter on how to use your AncestryDNA test results so that you can include your results in your research.

Whether you would like to understand how to use maps, military records, and even immigration records, this book will help you maximize your search queries to save you time and help you feel confident that you have done an exhaustive search in each record set. The book is set up with exercises with step by step instructions. There are forms in each chapter to help you record your results. An excellent book for those wishing to improve their searches on Ancestry.com.

School Records

The summer is almost over, and it’s time for school to start again.  It is surprising the amount of information schools keep on their students, staff, and teachers.  Many do not realize that the information from school records can be a treasure trove for genealogists. 

Findmypast.com has a great blog article “How School Records Can Help You With Your Genealogy Research.”  This article gives visuals on what the actual records look like and provides a list of information you can find in these records. This list includes:

1.     Child’s age and date of birth. Information such as this can help you find birth records.  You need to keep in mind that this information may not be accurate as some parents fibbed about the age of their child to get them in school sooner or there were errors in the recording of this information.  It is always best to find other sources to verify this information.

2.     Parent’s names.  The records give the name of the parents of the child.  It may not provide the mother’s name or maiden name, but it will give the father’s name.  It will also contain the name of the guardians if they do not live with their parents.

3.     Parent’s occupation. Finding information about how the parents earned a living can help in identifying that you have the right child.

4.     Address of your ancestor and if they moved.  The address of your ancestor can point you to census records, land records, and even newspaper articles.  Be sure and check the “Remarks” column as it may indicate that the child moved, left school, and when.

5.     Death information. Again, check out the “Remarks” column as it may indicate that the child has died.  Listing the death of a child gives a year to look for death information.

6.     Glimpse into your ancestor’s school life.  School logs can provide information about your ancestor especially if they “misbehaved.”  These logs also give you an idea of what day to day school life was for them.

Findmypast has over ten million school records.  Ancestry and FamilySearch have school records too.  State archives and libraries, historical societies, google books, newspapers, and even the school itself are great places to search for school records.

In searching for your ancestors, don’t forget to include school records.  It is in these unexpected places that you may find the information you need!

Family Roots Conference

Need a fun get-away where you can learn, laugh, and meet new people? We are fortunate to have the perfect escape coming to St. George. A family history conference, sponsored by Family Roots, is happening September 28-29, 2018 at the Dixie Convention Center. The Family Roots website (familyrootsconference.com) states that it will be “two days of exploration, education and fun experiences that will connect your family for generations.” Sounds like lots of fun!

Each day starts off at 9:00 am with a keynote speaker. Friday’s keynote speaker will be Lisa Louise Cooke, CEO of Genealogy Gems. Her topic will be “Finding the ‘we’ in your family tree.” Saturday will have two keynote speakers! Todd Hansen from The Story Trek will be the first keynote at 9:00 am and Jason Hewlett, a motivational speaker popular at Rootstech, will follow at 10:00 am kicking off the special Saturday youth event for youth 12-18 years old.

There will be 40 classes each day with something for the novice to the experienced genealogist. The classes range from international research to organizing your photos. There is even a class on how to create a musical biography. Wow! That should be interesting. There is something for everyone at this conference.

If you have attended one of the conferences previously, you will notice something different. The exhibits are now in the halls and Garden Room that is right outside the Ballroom. This change will make it easier to access the exhibits as you go from class to class. There are some fun exhibits for the youth including panning for gold, Pioneer weaving, and candle making.

Saturday not only includes the regular classes but also has a free youth event that includes great speakers and “fun, interactive classes.” Also, on Saturday, attendees will enjoy a Pow Wow presented by the Native American Tribes.

The cost is reasonable. An adult 2-day pass is $49, and the 1-day pass is $29. The youth event is free for all youth. For those wanting to attend the Saturday night Jason Hewlett concert and would like preferred class seating (never miss a class you want to attend) there is a Platinum ticket for $69.

The best news of all is that Family Roots is giving the readers of the Senior Sampler a 15% discount off the ticket price! To get this discount use the discount code VIP15. Thank you so much Family Roots.

Occupations

Have you ever wondered if you descend from farmers, seaman, tailors, or even shoemakers? Studying the lives of your ancestors and how they earned their living can be exciting and rewarding. When I found out that my 4th Great Grandfather served in the British Navy under Admiral Nelson that was all I could talk about to my children or anyone who would listen. This grandfather left a history of the ships he served on and the famous battles such as Battle of the Nile that he fought in. I immediately started studying books on Admiral Nelson and that era of history. I even found a children’s book full of drawings on what life was like serving in the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Livelihoods provide a great insight into how your ancestors lived, but they also are essential to your genealogical research.

Knowing your ancestor’s occupation can help you differentiate between two John Smiths that are the same age, living in the same location, and both have a wife named Mary. If one John Smith is a farmer and the other is a blacksmith, it will be easier to keep them separate. Many sons followed the occupation of their fathers so knowing the father’s occupation can help you sort children to the right parents.

Occupations also give us clues to what other records may exist for your ancestor. Farmers would have land records if they owned their land. Those who worked for the railroad could possibly have a pension that could give clues about their family. FamilySearch Wiki has a listing for occupations and will give you a list of records available for the different professions. A Google search for occupations will bring you sites for occupations from different countries and time periods.

FamilySearch also has a great blog about “How to Discover Your Ancestor’s Occupation.” In this blog is a list of records that specify occupations. Some examples the blog gives are:

· Census records

· European parish records

· Obituaries

· City directories

· World War I and II draft registration cards and pension records

· Passenger lists

· Death and probate records

Whether you had an ancestor who ran a flour mill and practiced dentistry on the side (without a license) or was a farmer, understanding your ancestor’s occupation can help bring them to life and can also point you to other records that may help you extend your line further back.

Google Books

There is one type of genealogy resource that helps us move beyond the names and dates of our ancestor's lives. This resource is a wonderful place to find wills, obituaries, family stories, land ownership records and much more. These resources are in old books found in Google Books.

Google Books has lots of county histories. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a push for county histories and biographical compilations. These books have geographic, social, economic, political and religious notes about specific areas. In the second half of the books are biographical sketches about prominent people in the area and these sketches may include relevant dates, lists and information on family members, and stories about these people.

Google Books is a collection of digitized books and magazines from around the world. Many are out of copyright and in the public domain. Some books you may only have a snippet view of the book, but there are many books that you can view the entire book and even download them as a PDF. For those books that only allow a snippet view, Google does help you find places where you may purchase a copy or even find a copy in a library near you.

You can search Google Books by your ancestor’s name and town or county where they lived. There are even books on court records, patents, and military books from the area you are searching. There are books about churches and congregations that my list your ancestors as attending these churches. By clicking control and f, you can do a search in these books for specific names or information you are researching.

First, go to Google Books (books.google.com), and you can start with a narrow search for books with your family names. As an example, I always start my search out with the family surname I’m looking for and add genealogy (Brinkerhoff family genealogy). I might even include the state, county, or town where they lived. Then look for ‘Tools’ at the top of the page. Click on it and choose ‘Any books’ from the drop-down menu. Next click on ‘Any books’ and from that drop-down menu choose ‘Free Google Books’ to get the books that you can read its complete version.

Next time you are researching, be sure and give Google Books a try! These books are great for finding information that may not be elsewhere.

Newspapers

Newspapers contain a variety of information that is useful to genealogists. Often, they are the last item that we check when searching for our ancestors, but they should be what we check next when vital records do not give us the information we need. Family Trees need the details that are found in newspapers.

Obituaries give us death dates, burial locations, and often provide information about the family such as spouse, children, siblings, and parents. Obituaries may provide biographical information about the deceased.

Birth announcements may contain the name of baby, birth date, place of birth, and parent’s names. Many times, they included the names of grandparents and other children in the family.

Marriage and engagement announcements give the name of the bride and groom and the date of marriage. These announcements may contain information about the wedding day such as what family and friends attended the wedding. You may be fortunate to have a photo of the couple included in the announcement.

You can find legal records in the newspaper. Probate records and court cases contain information about the ancestor such as names, relatives, and places of residence.

Many passenger lists are in newspapers. Many times, if you cannot find a passenger list for the ship your ancestor arrived on, it will be in the newspaper.

Photographs of your ancestor may be in the newspaper. You may find obituaries, weddings, birthdays, and family reunion photos in newspapers.

Even the advertisements can be useful for genealogists. The advertisements give us a glimpse into the styles of the day, the type of appliances that were popular or new and other social information that will help us understand how our ancestors lived. We may find the advertisement for an ancestor’s place of business.

Chronicling America (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/) is a great free website from the Library of Congress. It has newspapers from 1789-1924.

The Ancestor Hunt List of Newspaper Research Links (theancestorhunt.com/newspaper-research-links.html) contains a list of links by state of free online historical newspapers.

Elephind.com allows you to search over three million newspapers across the country. They add collections regularly so if you don’t find what you need now check back later.

Searching for your ancestor in a newspaper can be overwhelming, but with the help of free websites like those listed above, your search can be more manageable. Don’t forget to search in newspapers when looking for information about your ancestors.

Family Trees on Ancestry.com

There are many resources out there to aid us in our search for our ancestors. One resource that many overlook is Family Trees on Ancestry.com. There are many ways to use Family Trees, but I will cover two important uses in this article.

First, there is a lot of research information that is available in these trees. When you start researching a name the first place to look is the Family Trees section on Ancestry. About 75% of all research is duplicate research. By searching for your particular research name or family in this section, you can see who is also researching those ancestors. This search also gives you names of those who may be researching the same line as you and you can contact them and hopefully work together and share information.

Not all Trees are alike. The valuable ones are the ones with sources attached to verify the information in their tree. These sources can save you lots of hours of research time because someone has taken the time to find them for you. Be sure and verify each source for accuracy though.

There are treasures in these trees too. I have found lots of photos, newspapers articles, and histories that are from private sources and only found in these trees. One great find was portraits painted of ancestors from the 1700s. People have been generous in sharing their information.

Another use for Ancestry Family Trees is to upload your tree onto Ancestry and let Ancestry research for you. Those shaky leaves are a significant help in locating documents and other information that will aid your research. Ancestry does link to Family Search, and you can upload your tree from FamilySearch into Ancestry. Ancestry only uploads four generations at a time, and so you will have to go to the end of the line and upload four more to get your bigger trees onto Ancestry.

The records you find on Ancestry can be sourced to your tree on FamilySearch through a free browser extension from recordseek.com. Recordseek has step-by-step instructions on how to attach your sources. This an excellent resource for those using both sites.

The first thing one should do when starting their research is to check to seek if someone else has also researched those same ancestors. Take advantage of all that Ancestry Family Trees has to offer. Have fun researching with those shaky leaves!

Audacity

Heraclitus’ statement “The only thing that is constant is change” is an excellent description of the world today. The world has changed so much in just the last fifty or so years. Remember the days when our music was played on vinyl records, then came the 8-track tapes. Cassette tapes were the big hit because not only could you play your music, you could also record your own stuff on them. Today everything has gone digital so what do we do with all our previous collections? Many of us have recorded family events and interviews with family members on cassette tapes. Are those memories going to be lost when there are no cassette players to play them on, or when the cassette tapes eventually break? Luckily, we have Audacity to help us out.

Audacity is free software used for audio editing downloaded from www.audacityteam.org/download/. You will find the manual on how to use Audacity at https://ometra.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/audacity-manual.pdf. You will need a cassette player, audio cable, and your computer then you will be all set to convert those cassettes into mp3’s. There are many YouTube videos on how to use Audacity, and I would highly recommend viewing several. These YouTubes will give you an excellent visual and understanding of how it works. A Google search of “convert cassette tapes to mp3 with Audacity YouTube” should bring you up pages of beginner videos to get you started.

When you turn your cassette tapes into an mp3, you can then upload your information onto FamilySearch. By converting those old cassette tapes, you will preserve your audio treasures for all to hear and enjoy. My husband has a cassette recording of his Grandmother speaking in church right before he left on his LDS mission. She passed away a few months later. Wouldn’t it be nice if this recording could be saved onto FamilySearch for her posterity to enjoy? Others have recordings of Grandparents telling stories about their lives. Imagine how nice that would be to listen to their stories in their own voice and have it saved for all to enjoy.

If you are lucky enough to have valuable recordings on cassette tapes, it is crucial for you to save them to a format that can be used by FamilySearch and archived for posterity’s sake. The challenge of this technology-rich world is to keep our information up-to-date and keep valuable information available for future generations.

Time Travel with the Wayback Machine

Have you ever been searching for information about an ancestor and came across a website that is no longer accessible? Just the other day the information I desperately needed was in RootsWeb, and Ancestry.com has locked up this valuable resource because of security reasons. I used the Wayback Machine (web.archive.org ) to find the information I needed. It was pretty slick. The Wayback Machine is time travel for genealogists!

The Wayback machine is great for recovering lost information from the internet and especially information locked up in RootsWeb. In the search bar on the Wayback Machine’s home page, you enter the URL or words related to a site’s homepage. The Wayback Machine has over 505 billion archived web pages dating back to 1996. This machine crawls through the web taking snapshots of websites every so often.

Internet archive is making it easier to access archived versions of dead web pages. It now has an add-on for the Google Chrome browser. If you land on a web page that gives you an error code such as “page not found” or “404,” this extension will query the Wayback Machine to check for anything in the archives.

The Wayback Machine can be a lifesaver if you have on an old web link that no longer works or “link rot” as many have put it. Link rot does not just happen to websites; it happens to our citations also. Our citations should lead us back to where we found our information and if we included the URL and it has changed then we have problems with our citations.

It is important to remember that the Web is not permanent. An article that you regularly refer to can suddenly vanish. If the item was valuable to your research, it is best to print it up or take a screenshot of your article and save it to your computer or the cloud or even share the article with other family members. Be sure to include the URL in case you need to access an archived version through the Wayback Machine.

If you come across the “page not found” message, be sure and try the Wayback Machine to find an archive of the page you need. If you don’t have the URL, you can still do a keyword search and find the information that you need. No more lost information!

Naming Patterns

Many times, during our genealogy research we come across the use of several names over and over making it difficult to keep the families separate. For instance, in England, you may find half the boys named John, William, or Thomas and half the girls named Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, or Ann. It is not uncommon to find ancestors with several grandchildren with the same name. Lucky are those whose ancestors used unusual names and passed those names down from generation to generation. It was the tradition in many families to give their children the names of other family members, usually in a specific order. This tradition is called naming patterns and is a significant help in our research.

British Naming Conventions from FamilySearch Wiki gives the following example for British naming patterns:

• The first son was named after the paternal grandfather
• The second son was named after the maternal grandfather
• The third son was named after the father
• The fourth son was named after the oldest paternal uncle
• The fifth was named after the second oldest paternal uncle or the oldest maternal uncle

• The first daughter was named after the maternal grandmother
• The second daughter was named after the paternal grandmother
• The third daughter was named after the mother
• The fourth daughter was named after the oldest maternal aunt
• The fifth was named after the second oldest maternal aunt or the oldest paternal aunt

If there was duplication (for example, the paternal grandfather and the father had the same name), then the family moved to the next position on the list.

Many other countries used naming patterns also. FamilySearch Wiki and Google are a good place to search for these lists. It was also common in many countries to use the name of a child that had died for the next child. At first glance, it would seem that the couple named two of their children the same name. When you see this pattern, it is a good heads-up to look at the death records for the death of the first child.

Naming patterns are not absolute. Many used these patterns but not all. Lucky is the researcher whose ancestors used these patterns. But be careful and use naming patterns as a guide because they are not a set of rules that all followed. Given names may be the clue you need to move back to the next generation.

Cyndi’s List

Could you imagine going into a library and finding the books in utter chaos? There’s no card catalog even to look through to locate the book you need. Your visit to the library would be a waste of time. In a way, this resembles the organization of genealogy resources on the internet. Where is what and who has what can be frustrating when researching your ancestors. Not all information is available on FamilySearch, Ancestry, Findmypast, and MyHeritage. Thanks to the hard work of Cyndi Ingle we have a “card catalog” of genealogical internet links organized into subjects making it easier to find the sources that you need.

Cyndi has gathered (at latest count) 336,769 links and has organized them into 220 categories. She receives almost 300 emails daily to categorize. Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com) is a free website. She calls it “your genealogical portal onto the internet.”

She has very easy to understand categories. Cyndi has alphabetized the categories with the U.S. states being listed under the United States and not by their specific name. It is the same with all the countries. You need to go to the country and then find the area you would like to research.

One of the more interesting categories is Outer Space. There are two subcategories under Outer Space: Astronauts and General Resources. Under Astronauts, you find links to biographies and information on U.S. Astronauts. The General Resource section takes you to the “Alien Spaceship Theory of Genealogy,” It even links you to Fold3’s section on government investigations of UFO’s. Maybe one of the investigations involved an ancestor of yours! You can also find the Skywalker Family Tree from the Star War movies.

On a more serious note, for instance, if you search the category for Quakers, Cyndi’s List will link you to sites where you can find vital records, cemeteries, meeting records and much more. It even takes you to how-to guides if you are not sure how to research your Quaker family. If you are researching a U.S. state such as Ohio, there are 5,929 links relating to Ohio research. What a goldmine of information.

Cyndi’s List is a great resource to point you to internet sites that will help you answer your research questions and should be your starting point in your genealogical research. Give Cyndi’s List a try and see what you can discover about your ancestors.

Utah Pioneers

“They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” — Banksy.

Is this a fear that our ancestors now realize? Will those who have sacrificed all so that we live comfortably be forgotten and lost from memory too? Will their stories vanish, and their names never mentioned again? Forgetting our ancestors will happen unless we try to keep their memories alive and gratitude in our hearts for giving their all for us, their posterity.

There are several organizations whose goal is to keep these memories alive. One is the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP). DUP is “dedicated to honoring the names and achievements of the men, women, and children who founded Utah.” DUP maintains a collection of over 42,000 pioneer histories. They consider an ancestor a pioneer if they came to the Utah Territory, died crossing the plains, or was born before May 10, 1869, when the railroad came to the territory.

DUP also has a fabulous website, isdup.org. On this website, they have links to indexes of histories and photos. These indexes are valuable to see if DUP has information on your ancestors. You can order a history from their website. To request a history, you must either be a member of DUP or a direct descendant of pioneers. You will need to send a copy of your pedigree chart and highlight ALL the names for which you want histories. Some pioneers have multiple histories. The histories cost 25 cents per page with a minimum of $1.00. They will contact you about the cost of your order before they send it to you. They also have a Photo tab. Under this tab is an index for the photos they have in their collection. Photos are sent on a CD and cost $5.00 an image. You can also get copies of the histories and photos by going to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers main museum in Salt Lake City, Utah at 300 N. Main St. At the museum you can see the histories and photos firsthand.

As the Daughters of Utah Pioneers theme song goes “And we’ll love them more and more, as we read their history o’er.” We are who we are because they were who they were. Let us not let our ancestors die the death of being forgotten.

One Name Study

Unique surnames can be a curse or a blessing. In genealogy, they can be easier to trace, but they are misspelled easily because the name is unfamiliar to those writing it. Many genealogists take these unique surnames and create what is becoming more popular- a one-name study.

A one-name study is a study of a particular surname without following a pedigree. The focus is on collecting all the information available on that one surname. It is following that surname as it occurs throughout history. The one-name study includes the variants of the surname and its frequency. Others may focus on this specific surname in certain geographical location.

If you have hit a brick wall, a one-name study may help you break through that wall. Collecting all the data available on your brick wall surname may help you find the connection you need to go back farther. It will help you find family immigration and emigration that you may have missed. It may also help you find others who are searching this same name and through those connections find the information that you need.

There are the Guild of One-Name Studies (one-name.org) and The Surname Society (surname-society.org) that have a collection of one-name studies. You can check these groups out to see if they have registered your surname with that group. The names are recorded by their original spellings so if the surname you wish to follow is variant of that spelling you will still have to search by the primary spelling. If you find that the specific surname that you are researching is listed, you can contact the researcher of that surname, and they may have the information that will help you in your searching. When approaching the surname researcher be sure and include as much information on the surname that interests you. Your contact information should include locations, dates, and variations of the specific surname whose information you are requesting.

If the surname you wish to study is not registered, this is a fantastic opportunity for you to register this surname and do the research for that name. Investigating a surname and its occurrences throughout history are challenging but also rewarding. By registering and researching a particular surname, you may not only help yourself but others who may need the information you find to break through their brick walls. Is there a one-name study in your future?

Revolutionary War Pension Records

War is an unfortunate event in the history of nations. War can bring so much sorrow and create heroes. But with war comes volumes of records which is fortunate for those wanting to know more about their loved ones who served in these wars. The Revolutionary War is abounding with records that have been preserved and digitized after all these years.

The Revolutionary War’s duration was from 1776 to 1783. The typical ages of service were from 16 to 60 years old. If your ancestor was born between the years of 1715 – 1767, they could have served in the Revolutionary War.

Fold3.com, a subscription website owned by Ancestry, is available for free during holidays that celebrate the military or available for free at the St. George FamilySearch Center. Fold3.com has ALL 80,000 pension applications digitized. These records are from The National Archives and are images of the originals, so you get to see the handwriting, water stains, and all that these records went through during the war.

If your ancestor or heirs applied for a pension, you have a goldmine of information available. These pension records can give you the veteran’s history and the battles they fought in. Many times, it is the wife applying for the pension and to prove their marriage they would take pages out of the family bible for evidence. You can find out their state of health and more about their life after the war.

Be prepared for many pages of information. Some pension files can be up to fifty pages or more. To prove that the pension applicant had served in the Revolutionary War, they sent many pages of correspondence from military leaders and fellow soldiers as proof. These letters were handwritten and often included descriptions of the battles they fought. Heirs had to prove their relationship to the veteran, so they too sent letters as evidence of those relationships. The government kept all evidence and correspondence associated with these veterans. The information you can glean from these records is: birth date and place, their children, death date and place, spouse and marriage date, the military unit served in, physical description, and their residency.

The information available in the pension files is astounding. The battles our ancestors served in become more personal. It also brings these ancestors to life to see letters they, their family and associates have personally written.

Pioneer Mourning Rituals

Daughters of Utah Pioneers’ lesson for May was about pioneer gravesites. The lesson started off with mourning rituals of the pioneers. For our ancestors who lived in the 1800’s, their mortality rate was high. This closeness to death led to many rituals that were important to help them cope with the difficult lives they lived.

Our ancestors brought these mourning rituals with them as they immigrated to the U.S. In Europe, the tradition was to carry the body out of the house feet first so that the spirit could not look back into the house and beckon a family member to join them. The Danish brought the tradition that when a person passed away, they opened a window so that the soul could fly out.

When Queen Victoria’s husband passed away, she created many of the mourning rituals that the English brought to America. There was even a manual printed with detailed instructions for mourning etiquette. Queen Victoria introduced the wearing of black, that included clothes, hat, jewelry and many other rituals.

During this era, the corpse was kept in the parlor of the home and watched over until the burial. This “wake” would last for four to five days. Flowers and candles were brought in to mask the odors. This “wake” was done to allow time to make sure they did not bury someone who had not died and allowed time for family and friends to arrive as travel was slow. A wreath was hung on the door with black ribbons to announce a death. They drew the curtains, and clocks stopped at the time of death. Crepe-covered the mirrors. They often took photos of the deceased for a remembrance. Young couples were asked to “sit up” with the dead. The night watch was not a solemn occasion for them, but an opportunity to court.

There was a fear of being buried alive, so the families buried loved ones with a rope in their hand that was attached to a bell outside the grave. If the person awoke and found themselves in a coffin, they could ring the bell for help and brought about the expression, “saved by the bell.”

These rituals may seem strange and bizarre to us, but they brought comfort to our ancestors. As we read our family histories and come across stories like these, we can empathize with them and the challenging times they had.

Games for Family Gatherings

Games are fun to play at family gatherings. It’s even more fun when you learn about your family and ancestors as you play. Fortunately for us, there are developers who have created fun apps for use with FamilySearch. These apps are great for family gatherings.

The first app that comes to mind is Geneopardy. (geneopardy.fhtl.byu.edu.) It is a Jeopardy-type game that takes information from your FamilySearch file to create questions. Geneopardy is not an easy game and is fun when played in teams. The categories are dates, places, people, facts, and other. The questions can be trivial so that a pedigree chart might be helpful.

Another fun app is Relative Finder at realtivefinder.org. Relative Finder, created by BYU, helps you discover if you are related to Prophets, Presidents, friends, and many categories of famous people. You may discover that you have a Mayflower ancestor and that can spark an interest in the youth and adults alike, and they may want to know more.

Wheel of Family Fortune is another app produced by BYU (wheel.fhtl.byu.edu.). It has up to four players or teams and works just like Wheel of Fortune on TV. The words are from your FamilySearch file so you will have to sign in. It does give a hint about the word. You click to spin the wheel to find out how much you can win if the letter you choose is in the word. It is tons of fun.

Compare-a-Face is so much fun to play. You compare your face to your ancestors to see where you got your good looks from or maybe your nose. You need to upload a picture of yourself, and it compares it to the photos of ancestors found in your FamilySearch file. If you are doing this at family gatherings, make sure the attendees send you photos of themselves to upload into this program. Compare-a-Face is located at familysearch.org/discovery/compare. FamilySearch Discovery has more apps coming soon so be sure and check the website every now and again.

These games will be memory makers at family gatherings. There are more enjoyable games found in the app gallery on FamilySearch or even found by doing a google search for family history games. Learning about who we are and where we came from can sure be fun and is the secret to a happy family!

A Family Tree Gathering

As summer approaches, many thoughts turn to family gatherings and family reunions. A fun reunion is to do a family tree gathering. A family tree gathering is when the family gathers to honor and learn about their ancestors. FamilySearch Blog’s article, “Five Easy Ways to Enrich Your Family Reunion,” has some great ideas for a family tree gathering reunion.

Share Family Stories
One family decided to spotlight six people. The descendants of these people were given a few months to prepare a five to ten-minute presentation about their assigned person. Some did collages, slideshows, videos, or told stories that were full of humor and retrospect.

Share Family Photos
Before the family reunion, organizers called everyone to bring their photo albums, scrapbooks, and family photos. They set up photo viewing stations where family members could go from booth to booth to see the photos brought. The sharing of photos is a great time to scan the photos and have them uploaded to the memories section of FamilySearch.

Some families have put the photos onto cardstock and made a deck of memory cards or find a match. If someone found a match, they could earn extra points for sharing a story of the ancestor pictured on the card.

Perform Family Skits
A skit could be about family love stories or other fun memories from ancestors. Those families that don’t care for skits could assign out to everyone over sixteen a couple to research and share their research with the other members of the family. These stories can be collected and put into a binder to share with everyone and FamilySearch.

Capture Oral Histories
Bring interview prompts and divide up into groups to interview the senior members of the family. Make sure that each person in each group gets to ask a question. Be sure to record these interviews and then transcribe them to share with the other family members and be sure to share these histories on FamilySearch.

Highlight Heirlooms
Before the reunion, ask those who have heirlooms if they could bring them to the reunion and share the story behind them. Be sure and take pictures and share the stories with members of the family and on FamilySearch.

There are many more ideas. As you gather for your family reunions this summer, think of having a family tree gathering. A family tree gathering is a fun way to introduce your family members to their ancestors.

Old Letters for DNA Testing

Living DNA announced at RootsTech that they were able to locate someone’s father through the DNA off a postage stamp. I was standing in line at the Living DNA booth to purchase a DNA kit from them, and all around me was the talk of postage stamp DNA. The discussions were basically about what letters and from whom did they have in their possession. Now, these old letters have taken on a new purpose.

Adoptee Anthea had been abandoned under a blackberry bush when she was about nine months old. Her hands were tied so she could not move. A family heard her cries, and she was rescued and adopted by a very loving family. When Anthea was older, she found out her story and went in search of her biological family. DNA testing found four brothers who were candidates for who Anthea’s biological father could be. Two of the brothers showed that they were first cousins, so that left the other two brothers as potential matches. A cousin had saved letters from those last two brothers, and it was the salvia from these stamps that provided the DNA to prove which one was Anthea’s father. An incredible story, but it opens a whole new way of identifying our family members.

Denise May Levenick’s blog, theFamilyCurator.com, has an article “How to Preserve and Test Old Letters for Grandma’s DNA.” Denise interviewed David Nicholson, Managing Director at Living DNA, and he stated that the ability to test postage stamps for DNA would be available by the end of 2018 at the cost of $1,000 - $2,500. Living DNA will test both the stamp and the flap that was licked.

David Nicholson’s advice on how to save these old letters is:

1. Look for family letters where the flap and seal are intact. Multiple samples are best. If the letters are stored in a bundle, the ones in the middle are usually in better shape.

2. Wear white cotton gloves when handling these letters to avoid further contamination.

3. Keep the letters stored in acid-free folders and boxes in moderate conditions. Avoid plastic. Metal file drawers or archival boxes are best.
If you have any keepsake letters from your relatives, you may want to hold on to them. They may hold the secret to your past. How to preserve letters for DNA testing is great information and thank you, Denise, at theFamilyCurator.com for sharing.

Clues in the U.S. Census Records

Census records are a great way to search for your ancestors. They are easy to search and readily available. If you’re are just searching for families and residency in these census records, then you may be missing the clues that will help you break your brick walls.

The 1840 census is two pages wide. On the right-hand page, there is a column for Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services, and the column next to that is for the person’s age. The 1840 census is a “name of household only” census, but the Penson information is for anyone living in that household.

The1850-1870 Censuses have Agriculture and Manufacturer's schedules besides the Federal Census. If your ancestor is listed as a farmer or manufactures something, check out these schedules at Ancestry and FamilySearch.

The 1850 census asks if you were married that year.

1870 census asks if your mother or father were of foreign birth. Great for finding children of immigrant ancestors.

The 1880 census asks questions on lines 16-20 about disabilities. If there are check marks in these disability boxes, be sure and look at the Special Schedule of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.

In the 1900 census you will find years in current marriage, month and year of birth, mother of how many children and how many are still living. Naturalization status, year of immigration, and how many years lived in the US.

On the right-hand side of the1910 Census is a question about Civil War Service. The question asked is "Whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy?" The abbreviations used in this column for UA for Union Army; UN for Union Navy; CA for Confederate Army; and CN for Confederate Navy.

The 1920 census asks the year of naturalization.

In the 1930 census, you will find the age at first marriage and if you are a military veteran, which war.

The1940 Census has an X in a circle by the name of the informant of the census information. If it was Harry, the border, then the information may have errors in it. The informant information is a nice heads-up to the accuracy of the information.

There is so much more information available. Be sure and look at the headings of each census year, and you may find the answers that help you find your ancestors.