House Histories

A popular trend right now is researching ancestor’s homes. You can find many fascinating tidbits about families when you study their homes, why they lived there and who lived there before and after them. A house is so much more than just brick and mortar but is the spirit of the family. Have you felt the different feelings there are in your home when your children come and when they leave? Your ancestor’s homes were just as vibrant too. A treasure is finding a biography that describes the home and the activities of the family in that home, and you can create such treasures for your family too.

The first home history you can write could be your own home or homes if you lived in several. You can include a homemade blueprint of the house and a map of the yard. Grandparents homes would be a great history to cover too. Even if you are not familiar with their homes, you could interview family members who were and add their experiences.

I am forever indebted to Amy Carroll Stark (daughter of Charles and Kezia Carroll) for the house history she wrote of the “Section House” where she grew up. She included crude drawings of the barnyard and the house. Amy was very descriptive in her history. “A flower garden graced each side of the wide path leading from the front gate: first a row of Flags; then spicy Carnations; colorful Snapdragons: yellow and orange French Marigolds; various colored Zinnias; tall, white Cosmos and, flanking each side fence, a row of Hollyhocks – oh the bees and bumble bees we have caught in them.” I wish I could go back in time to see the beauty. Amy’s description of each room in the house was just as detailed. The subjects that she included in her history were the house, hill, living room, kitchen, cellar, cows, pigs, chickens, stackyard, creek, and many more vivid memories. Amy’s house history can be read online at users.sisna.com/doughunt/carroll/section1.htm.

Your house histories do not need to be limited to the houses you know. Ancestry Academy has a course on “Discovering the History of Your House on Ancestry.” (www.ancestry.com/academy/course/house-histories-ancestry) This video course has some great ideas for researching houses of ancestors who lived far away or long ago. A house history is a unique way to give context to your ancestor’s lives and a treasure for generations to come.

Locality Research

Have you ever noticed that your ancestors lived in clusters in one locality? Have you ever wondered why they relocated to areas miles away from where they were born? Locality research answers these questions and more.

Kimberly Powell, professional genealogist, states in her article “Resources for Researching Local History” (www.thoughtco.com/genealogy-of-a-town-1422042) that “researching the local history of the town, village, or city where your ancestors lived is a big step toward understanding what their life was like and the people, places, and events that impacted the course of their own personal history.” Powell in her article gives seven steps on how to conduct this research.

1. Read Published Local Histories. You can find local histories in Google Books, Internet Archive and other similar websites. These local histories have profiles for each family in the community in the area. They also give the history of the locality, why people migrated there, and what people did for a living.

2. Map Out the Town. City and county atlases, plat maps, and fire insurance maps, are great resources. A Google search for these maps is a great place to start.

3. Look at the Library. State and University libraries are great places to look for manuscripts and local histories. The FamilySearch Library catalog is a must search. It will show you the maps, histories, biographies, and records that are available for the locality you are researching.

4. Dig into Court Records. At the courthouse, you will find maps of roads, deeds, probate records, and civil complaints.

5. Interview the Residents. Look for residents that are interested in local interest. You may locate them through local newspapers that carry local history columns. They may have stories that are not available elsewhere.

6. Google for the Goods. Look for local history blogs or Facebook groups. Powell suggests that your “do a search on the name of the town or village along with search terms such as history, church, cemetery, battle, or migration.” Google will find images for these locations too.

7. Read All About It (Historical Newspapers). Local newspapers are full of great information. There are obituaries, death notices, marriage announcements, local events, town news, court cases, etc. Chronicling America (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) is a great newspaper resource.

These resources may not mention your ancestor specifically, but you can get a good idea on what life was like for them and why they migrated to where they did.

WPA (Work Projects Administration)

During the Great Depression and because of high unemployment, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal to create jobs and get the economy going again. WPA was part of the New Deal and employed millions of people to construct public buildings, roads, and infrastructure. What is surprising is that the WPA also produced a goldmine of records for genealogists.

Part of the WPA was the Historical Records Survey created to preserve the history of the United States. The Historical Records Survey employed millions of people to index census records, naturalization records, passenger lists, church records, newspapers, birth, death and marriage records, and courthouse records. People were also hired to record oral histories of slaves and pioneers, family histories, country histories, and the list goes on and on.

The workers went into archives, historical societies, universities and compiled inventories. They went into courthouses, town halls, vital statistics, and inventoried records. Not only did they compile indexes they also transcribed many of the documents they found. Some of the information they gathered could easily become lost to age and neglect.

One of the projects in Morrison County, Minnesota (morrisoncountyhistory.org) was to collect oral histories from long-time residents, histories on townships, cities, churches, schools, etc. Projects like this were conducted throughout the United States and varied by locality. The locations of records, vary by state and locality too, making them more of a challenge to locate.

The Library of Congress and the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City have enormous collections of WPA records. When searching for these records, whether at the Library of Congress or the FamilySearch catalog or even the state or local archives you will get better results if you use the keyword search terms. Search terms such as WPA, Work Projects Administration, Work Progress Administration, and (Name of state or county) + Work Projects Administration or Work Progress Administration.

Even the social history found in these projects can help you understand your ancestors more. My neighbor was fortunate to locate an oral history of an ancestor that has led her to more information about an elusive ancestor, a treasure for her. Be aware that oral histories vary in length and quality. The transcribers wrote in the dialect of the interviewees without the use of tape records. Also, the histories may have exaggerations and selective memories. The information available is well worth the search.

Recap of RootsTech 2019

Another RootsTech has come and gone, and it was a wonderful conference. Elder David A. Bednar from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commented in his keynote speech for Family Discovery Day Saturday, “RootsTech is the premier family conference in the whole world.” I agree. Deseret News reported that there were estimated to be 25,000 attendees in person and another 100,000 viewing online. Wow! Since I was one of the 100,000 that viewed online, I will give a recap of the broadcasted classes. Rootstech.org already has the streamed classes online ready for you to watch. They have twelve more classes recorded, but not streamed that need to be added to the list.

First, I have got to say that there was not one online class that I watched that I did not think was great. RootsTech did a great job in streaming popular classes. Even though I missed the energy that you get from attending RootsTech, I enjoyed watching it from the quiet comfort of my home, and I found that I could focus better. Hopefully, next year they will stream more classes considering many people who took advantage of learning from the online classes.

Wednesday’s favorite online class was “What’s New at FamilySearch” by Ron Tanner. Keeping up with FamilySearch can be a daunting job. Ron Tanner does a great job in keeping us posted on what to expect.

Thursday’s favorite was “What You Don’t Know about Ancestry” by Crista Cowan. This class included the new twists that Ancestry has added such as tags and DNA improvements.

Friday, I enjoyed “Why and How to Put Yourself into Your Family History.” Curt Witcher did a great job in showing how the chemicals in our brain change for the better with exposure to family stories.

As usual, the big genealogy companies had big announcements. Ancestry announced MyTreeTags where you can add tags to people in your family tree, New and Improved DNA Matches, where you can sort, group and view your DNA matches any way you like, and ThruLines that is replacing the DNA circles making it easier to find those with whom you have common ancestors. MyHeritage announced the Theory of Family Relativity that will show the relationship between DNA matches and AutoClusters that groups and visualized shared DNA matches. FindMyPast announced that they would publish and digitize the 1921 England and Wales census by 2022.

Irish Immigration to the U.S. through Canada

There is nothing more frustrating than knowing that your ancestor was from Ireland and you can’t find the port they immigrated through. After searching through records for the ports of Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Portland Maine, New Orleans, Atlanta, and San Francisco and finding no mention of your ancestor, it is time to turn to our friends up north. Passageway to Canada was less expensive, and from Canada, immigrants made their way to the U.S.

Grosse Ile, City of Quebec, and Montreal in Province of Quebec are the main ports used by the Irish for immigration to Canada. The ports of embarkation and ports of call included Liverpool, Belfast, Waterford, Cork, Dublin, Southampton, Bristol, and London. Geni has some great ports of emigration passenger lists. (www.geni.com/projects/Irish-emigrants-ports-of-emigration-ships-and-passengerlists/8514)

FamilySearch Wiki has an informative article “Finding an Irish Ancestor Using United States Records,” that states how immigration from Canada occurred.

“From 1894, Canadian steamship and railroads advertised to potential immigrants to the United States to instead sail into Canadian ports, and then gain entry through U.S. ports of entries into the United States. In 1894 passenger lists were created to document the movements of all immigrants from Canada into the United States. Therefore, for example, from this time, forward the Port of St Albans, Vermont ship lists become a valuable record source for tracing some immigrants to the United States but who came through Canadian ports of entry first, and then came through St Albans, in order to migrate to their final destination in the United States.”

It took over six weeks to make the trip to Canada. These “Coffin Ships” were breeding grounds for many diseases. The island of Grosse Ile became the quarantine island. It is estimated that almost 5,000 Irish died and are buried at Grosse Ile making it the largest Irish burial ground outside of Ireland. The records for Grosse Ile, located at the Library and Archives Canada, not only have death records, but there are baptisms, births, and marriage records for the Irish immigrants. When you go to the Library and Archives Canada website the search button is on the top left and says Search:Database. (www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/history-ethnic-cultural/Pages/irish.aspx) Another website to check-out is Stevemorse.org as it has Canadian Border Crossings (1895-1956) and Canadian Passenger Lists (1865-1935) that may be helpful. May your research be blessed with a bit of Irish luck.

FindMyPast Irish Research

Researching your Irish family was difficult in the past. That has now changed with the release of tens of millions of records concerning Ireland. FindMyPast claims to have “the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of easy-to-search Irish family history records.”

FindMyPast has blogs and webinars that help you understand their databases and how to get the best use out of their site. “Secrets to Successful Family Research” presented by Fiona Fitzsimons is an excellent blog on how to use the Irish records in FindMyPast. Fiona has some wonderful suggestions on how to maximize your Irish research.

Fiona’s first tip is to be sure and not just accept what is in an index without looking at the original digital image.

When searching, use variants with or without the O or the Mac. There were periods where the O’s and Mac ’s were used sporadically.

Be sure you are using the right name in your search. Your ancestor may have been named Edward at birth but by the end of his life was called Edmond or Eamon, popular nicknames for Edward. Be aware of the Irish nicknames for the name you are researching.

Marriages occurred in the bride’s home parish early in the week. Inter-faith marriages were more common the many realize. Baptisms of the first children born most often occurred in the mother’s home parish as the mother usually returned home to have her children.

Catholic parents put a priority on baptism. You may find a birth date listed later than the baptism date. How could an infant be baptized before they were born? If parents were late in registering their child, they faced a fine. Instead of paying a fine, they changed the birth date. When in question, assume the baptism date is closest to the actual birth date.

The Irish buried their dead with their kin. Families would transport their deceased long distances to bury them with family. Look for burial and death information where the family originated.

Petty Session Court Records are a must to research. These records included every age, religion, and location. The Irish criminalized even minor offenses.

There are many more records to search such as Dog licenses, Griffith Valuation and newspapers. Being familiar with the records available is the key to success. As the Irish saying goes – “Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.”

Apps for Genealogy Travel

Technology is amazing and a big help to genealogists. How did we do genealogy before computers and cell phones? I recently read “Apps for Scottish Genealogy Travel” posted on The In-Depth Genealogist blog by Christine Woodcock. As I read this blog post, I realized that these tips could apply to all genealogy travel wherever we go - at home or abroad.

Tip 1 – WiFi may not be readily available where you are going. If you are using your own phone be sure and increase your data plan. Christine states that when she gets to Scotland, she will buy a SIM Card that has 8GB of data, unlimited texts, and lots of minutes. This usually costs her around $40. This way you do not have a huge phone bill at the end of the trip. Great advice and something I may not have thought of.

Tip 2 – Family Tree Apps. Use apps that you can use on your phone without needing WiFi. FamilySearch Tree app is a great app as you can attach photos, stories, and documents as you go. Ancestry and MyHeritage also has an app that you can access your tree without WiFi from your phone. Many Genealogy programs such as Legacy and RootsMagic have tree apps that you can use on your phone without needing WiFi.

Tip 3 – Organization Apps. Evernote is a great app for organizing your trip. It is a great place to put your research plan and your travel itinerary. It can be edited as you go. You can take pictures, scan with your phone and save it to Evernote.

Tip 4 – Scanning App. Evernote has a fantastic free scanning app called Scannable. This app will also use OCR to analyze the documents that you scan. Great for documents and photos that you may come across.

Tip 5 – Travel Apps. Expedia and Priceline are some examples. You can use them to book flights, find hotels, and rent cars. Airline apps allow you to check in on-line and be notified of delays. Hotel apps help you with booking rooms, check-in, and checkout.

Tip 6 - Location Specific Apps. Apps for maps, travel guides, restaurants, taxis, purchase train tickets, and bus schedules.

Your phone can help you in your quest for your ancestors, making it an essential tool not only for genealogy but when you travel too. Welcome to the wonderful world of technology.

Public Domain Day 2019

On January 1, 2019, over 50,000 books and works from 1923 have been released from copyright law and entered the public domain and are free for all to use without permission. The books and works released can be found on various websites such as Google Books, Internet Archive, and HathiTrust. Many famous works released include The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille and The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. New Hampshire by Robert Frost is in the public domain now, and this book includes many of his famous poems such as “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Fortunately, for genealogists, almost 11,000 digitized books that pertain to family histories and lineage publications are among those released.

Up until 1998, copyrights for books and works lasted for seventy-five years. In 1998, Congress enacted the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and delayed the release of these books for twenty years after pressure to protect the copyright of Mickey Mouse. Because of this, the works that should have entered the public domain on 1 January 1998 had to wait until 2019. The works published in 1923 will enter the public domain in 2020 and so on.

Nancy Loe in her blog, Sassy Jane Genealogy, posted an article “Genealogy Books from 1923 Now Available.” She has some great hints on how to find genealogy books released the first of this year. She states that “using the search string ‘date:1923 AND mediatype:texts AND genealogy’ at Internet Archive gives you a list of 187 genealogy books and other publications.” Nancy also suggests trying specific surnames or geographic locations to have more specific results.

GenealogyBank has a blog by Gena Philibert-Ortega, “Happy Public Domain Day! New Resources for Genealogists.” She found some fantastic social history information that would give us insight into the lives of our ancestors. A book Gena mentions is Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front. A terrific book for social information about World War I and what it was like to lose a child. Another book she mentions is The Log of a Forty-Niner that has fun information on what it was like to be a fortune-seeker.

There are many books, now free to use, that can help us in our research or even to understand our ancestors better. As you check out the new releases, don’t forget the neat cookbooks that are a great insight into early 20th-century cuisine.

RootsTech 2019

It is time for RootsTech again. RootsTech (rootstech.org) will be at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 27 through March 2, 2019. The information and technology available for family history seem to be growing exponentially, and it is easy to feel lost. Rootstech presented by FamilySearch has recognized the need to help us keep abreast of all the goings-on, so we are more confident as we learn about our ancestors.

With over 300 classes and a great lineup of keynote speakers, there is something for everyone. The goal of RootsTech is to give you the ultimate learning experience. They have classes to help you understand DNA better and to get more out of your DNA test results. The tools classes will help you learn how to research more efficiently. There are even classes to help you organize and preserve the mountain of photos that always seem to be put aside to work on later. The stories of our ancestors are so important, and there are classes to help you collect more meaningful stories that your family will enjoy for years to come.

This year I will not be attending RootsTech, but I will be taking advantage of the live streaming of classes on the rootstech.org website. I will be able to watch the keynote speakers and 22 classes live from the comfort of my couch. They are streaming the classes by Ron Tanner, Diahan Southard (my favorite DNA specialist), Kenyatta Berry, Crista Cowan (Ancestry.com specialist) and Blaine Bettinger to name a few.

RootsTech is also offering a new twist to this year - a virtual pass for $129.00 where you will have access to 18 online recorded sessions from the conference. You will be able to watch these whenever you want, and they are different classes from the streamed live ones. The recorded classes will save you money and help you advance your genealogy skills.

On Saturday, Family Discovery Day, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be streamed live from LDS.org. Family Discovery Day is a fun-filled day with activities for the whole family. The keynote speakers for this event are Elder and Sister Bednar.

There is something for everyone at RootsTech. There is even something for those who cannot attend in person. RootsTech is a do not miss event for all those who wish to improve their skills and knowledge of genealogy.

Evernote

The amount of information available as you research your ancestors can be staggering. How can you collect and organize all this stuff? Thankfully we have the app Evernote to help us. The information collected in Evernote is always available because it is in a cloud-based program. You can have it on your phone, tablet, and computer and it synchronizes all the information you add from each device into one place. Evernote was created just for this day of information overload.

Evernote gives you a place to organize all your genealogical data, no matter what form it is in. It also has a powerful search engine to help you retrieve your data again. This tool can help you sort through your volumes of information and may help you break through those brick walls that can keep you frustrated.

Evernote is organized into notebooks just like you have with your physical binders. I have notebooks of the different areas that my ancestors lived. I have divided my New Hampshire notebook into notes for the various counties, and I divided those counties into notes for vital records, maps, etc. The type of notes you can save are handwritten notes, photos of people and things, photos of documents, audio files, pdf’s, web clippings, to-do lists, research and correspondence logs. You can also share notebooks with other researchers.

My favorite part of Evernote is the web clipper. It is a Chrome extension that I use when I come across articles on the internet that I am interested in. I click on the green elephant icon, and it will save the article to my Evernote in a notebook that I ask it to. It includes the date saved and the URL of where I found it. For example, I found a map that shows the location of my ancestor’s farms located in Bridgewater, New Hampshire. I clicked on the green elephant on my Chrome extension, and it saved the map to my New Hampshire notebook in Evernote which included the information I needed to find it again.

With all the information available for researching our ancestors it is great to have an app like Evernote to help us organize it all. There are many instruction YouTube videos for Evernote. There is also a great book, How to Use Evernote for Genealogy by Kerry Scott, that will give you step by step instructions on how to use this program.

More Organization!

Simplifying your life through organization is very popular right now thanks to Marie Kondo’s organization series on Netflix. Organization is also important when it comes to genealogy. Keeping your things and life uncluttered and simple will help you with stress-free research. A book that I highly recommend is Organize Your Genealogy by Drew Smith and is a great resource to help you accomplish this goal.

I love books, and I prefer paper to eBooks because I like to mark-up and write notes in them to help me remember what I have learned. This book is a favorite and an essential addition to your resource library. At the first of each year, I reread Organize Your Genealogy to refresh me of my organizational goals and help me set new ones.

There are eleven chapters, and you can study the section you are interested in because they are stand-alone chapters. The book starts with a chapter on organizing yourself. It stresses how important it is to take care of yourself and how vital routines and habits are to your success as a genealogist. There is even a Research Habit Tracker form at the end of the chapter to help you work on patterns that will help you succeed.

Another important chapter is “Organizing Your Notes and Ideas.” These items seem to be the easiest to become disorganized. I tend to have notes written on any piece of paper I have handy at the time. This book has helped me to realize that I need a notebook nearby to record my thoughts and information. Since I have moved to this system, I don’t have the problems of pieces of paper with important information floating around on my desk.

“Organizing Your Files” is another excellent chapter. It is so important so that you can retrieve your information quickly. This chapter includes not just paper files but electronic files also. All chapters have forms at the end to use to help you keep organized, and the one for this chapter has an excellent form for you to keep track on how you name your files — no more forgetting whether you named the files with last name or first name first.

The goal of this book is to help become more organized helping you make the most of your energy and time in your genealogical pursuits. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced genealogist, this book is for you.

New Year’s Goal: Organization

Wouldn’t it be nice to have all your genealogy files organized, stored in an easy to find fashion, and your office looking spotless? Imagine how much more productive you can be if everything had a place and was in its place. There are many different organization systems for genealogy that you can follow but one stands out, and that is Mary Hill’s color-coded organization system.

Many do not realize that when you look at your fan chart on FamilySearch, the different colors are not only there to make it look pretty but to help you in organizing your files. FamilySearch is using Mary Hill’s color-coding system to create the colors on the fan chart. There are genealogical software programs that use Mary’s coloring system too such as Legacy Family Tree.

Mary Hill’s system color-codes each family line making it easier to file and retrieve your information. Each of your grandparents is assigned a color so you can keep them straight. Your paternal lineage on your father’s side is blue. Your maternal lineage on your father’s side is green. Your paternal lineage on your mother’s side is red, and your maternal lineage on your mother’s side is yellow.

Mary’s system uses hanging file folders in the color assigned to that lineage. This system is easily adapted to use in notebooks, which I have done. I store all the information on my paternal father’s line in blue folders or blue notebooks. I also apply blue sticky dots on the corners of the papers filed in the folders or notebooks. I label each family folder with the surname, first name, and year of birth for husband and wife. The family folder has a family group record, documents about that family, to-do-list, research log, timeline, maps, and research notes. I then group the family folders by color and then by surnames. Genrootsorganizer.com has excellent step by step instructions on how to use this system.

I was excited when I first started genealogy to find this organizing system. A big rookie mistake I made was to make file folders for each surname in my family file instead of the names I am researching. Now I have moved my documents to notebooks with page dividers to separate the different surnames and families. This method keeps papers from falling out and getting lost. I have found this organizational method advantageous, and I hope you do too!

New Year’s Goal: Learning

There was an interesting article in the paper recently discussing a St George woman’s focus on her brain health. One item she was doing was increasing her opportunities for learning. Thankfully, genealogy has lots of learning occasions to help us keep our brains healthy. FamilyTreeWebinars.com presented by Legacy Family Tree has a wonderful program to help us continue learning.

A webinar is an online class that you watch from your computer in the comfort of your own home. Legacy’s webinars are free, and their recordings are free to watch for the first seven days — great news for us budget-conscious genealogists. You are also able to ask questions during the webinar, and the presenter will answer the questions after their presentation.

This year there are some excellent changes to the webinars. Not only are there 73 classes to watch but they are introducing weekly themes. As well as hosting the MyHeritage and Board of Certified Genealogists (BCG) webinars, they will have a Down Under series for genealogists in Australia, and New Zealand presented at a time convenient for them. The first Wednesday of the month will be about DNA. Places/ethnicity topics will be the third Wednesday of the month. Technology will be on the fourth Wednesday and methodology will be on the last Friday of each month. Each webinar will have closed captioning for those hard of hearing, with some presented in foreign languages. These webinars are popular all over the world and Legacy has responded to the needs of other countries.

Some webinars that I found interesting are: Using the Genealogical Proof Standard on a Closed DAR Line, Reconstructing Your Genetic Family Tree, Applying Evidence to Genealogical Research Questions, Using Timelines and Tables to Analyze your Research, A Month’s worth of Must-Have Tech Tips to Start Using Today, and I just got through January and February. Wow!

If you are so inclined to purchase a membership, the cost is just $49.95/year. The genealogy bargain of the year. With a membership, you have access to over 833 classes in their library, 3,582 pages of instructor’s handouts, and the ability to watch the webinars past the seven-day free period.

There are lots of learning opportunities with something for everyone. Take time to learn something new each week. You may acquire the skills you need to find those pesky hard to find ancestors all while keeping your brain healthy.

2019 -The Year for Genealogists!

The new year brings changes and advancements in genealogy. Interest in genealogy is snowballing, and so is the technology to keep up with the growth. Family Tree and Who Do You Think You Are are magazines produced in Great Britain and both magazines asked genealogy companies what they have planned for this coming year. The following is a summary of the information they collected.

MyHeritage is planning on releasing a new tool that will make it easier to find new discoveries. This new tool will include billions of data from family trees, records, and DNA. MyHeritage will reach 100 million users and will add hundreds of millions of new historical records. They also plan on enhancing their DNA with new tools and adding more ethnicity records to their DNA results.

Ancestry has an extensive collection of parish records and plans to expand those collections. Ancestry also plans on enhancing their DNA with more detailed ethnicity regions including new regions for the UK and Ireland and improved cousin-matching.

FamilySearch has Rootstech coming February 27- March 2, 2019 and is the world’s largest family history expo. FamilySearch is also expanding their Rootstech experience to London, October 24-26 at the ExCel Centre. Interactive personal discovery experiences that are now available through interactive kiosks at Family History Centers will be available on FamilySearch. You will discover the events that happened the year of your birth. It searches for information for the names and births years of family members and ancestors. Record My Story will help you record stories and memories and allow you to add text or audio of FamilySearch and to download it when you want. FamilySearch will also focus on FAN (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors) relationships. FamilyTree search will be updated to provide better and faster results. FamilyTree will have names and limited facts available through Google search without being signed into FamilySearch.org. In the Memories section, you will have the capability to organize memories within an album and add an audio recording and connect it to an image.

FindMyPast is partnering with Living DNA allowing their trees to connect with the Living DNA results to help you find family members. This linking is exciting news for those who have taken Living DNA tests.

2019 is going to be an exciting year! Hang on to your hats and prepare for an exhilarating ride to find your ancestors. Happy trails to you!

Ways to Help Your Family Become Enthused About Their Ancestors

“What surprised you most when you first started doing genealogy?” was a question recently asked on a Facebook post. A responder stated that she thought her family would be just as enthused as she was about genealogy but found most had no interest. Many of us could relate to this problem. Amy Johnson Crow has the answer to how to get family enthused about their family history in her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project. (projectwww.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors2018/)

Amy states that she started this project to give us weekly prompts to help us create fun information about our ancestors to share with our children, grandchildren, and extended family by weekly emails, blog posts, or even letters. Some examples from 2018 prompts with ideas to get your thinking juices going are:

· Longevity – You might write something about the oldest person in your family tree. You could explore the person that took you the longest to find. Maybe it's longevity in a job or career.
Invite to Dinner – Which ancestor would you most want to invite to dinner? Do you have a story of a memorable dinner with an ancestor? Is there a special recipe that's been handed down?

· Favorite Name – Favorite name could be a name of an ancestor that makes you smile. Perhaps it's an unusual name.

· Strong Woman - What female in your family tree has shown remarkable strength (either physical or emotional)? Tell her story.
The Old Homestead - Perhaps "the old homestead" is your grandparents' house or the house where you grew up. Maybe it refers to an ancestor who was a homesteader.

· So Far Away- You could write about an ancestor who is from someplace far away from where you live. You could explore an ancestor who migrated far during his or her lifetime. You could tell about a research experience in a distant library or archive.

· Colorful - It seems that in every family tree, there's at least one person who is a bit larger than life, someone who bold and different... "colorful." Colorful could also be taken to describe someone artistic. How about an ancestor with a colorful name?

Amy has done a great job in creating a fun way to remember your family history that will get your family members excited about learning more about their ancestors. This project would make an excellent goal for the upcoming year.

How to Collect Information at Family Gatherings

Family gatherings during the holidays are opportunities to gather family information such as stories and pictures. Since these opportunities may come only once a year, it is crucial to approach family members carefully. The trick is to collect information without being a pest.

Melanie Mayo, Family History Daily editor, wrote a fun article, “8 Ways to Gather Family History Without Hijacking a Holiday Event.” Mayo states, “How can we broach the topic of sharing family history gently, and make it an enjoyable experience for everyone.” Mayo’s simple and fun ways to gather information are:

1. Ask for a little, Get a Lot - Make sure you bring a recording device to record the stories that are shared. Mayo mentions that we should ask “every person in the room to share one memory of their childhood and/or one family story they’ve been told.”

2. Make Sharing Super Simple – An interview sheet with “no more than 5 questions” passed out to everyone at the gathering is a great way to collect information, especially if the questions are kept simple.

3. Create a Casual Conversation – Photos are a great way to get the stories flowing. Don’t bring a lot, just a few. Make sure they are interesting and a chance to get answers to questions such as who the man in the back row is.

4. Give the Gift of Sharing. My Life’s Story are books with personal history prompts that will create a lasting family keepsake — a great gift to give to the older members of the family showing that you care about their story.

5. Look Beyond the Obvious – Bring cards to gather family recipes. Even asking stories about family heirlooms is important history gathering.

6. Be Prepared for Anything – Make sure you have a scanning app on your phone, and you know how to use it or bring a Flip-Pal portable scanning. Someone may have photos there you have never seen before.

7. Ask for Verification – If there is information that you are not sure about, this is the time get it cleared up.

8. Lay the Groundwork for Future Sharing – Collecting contact information is a great way to contact family members that may be interested in sharing information.

A family gathering is a great place to gather family history information and going about it in a fun tactful way will bring you great results.

Christmas Traditions

With the popularity of DNA testing, we are finding out what our ethnicity is. A popular Ancestry DNA commercial starts with Kyle whose family tradition said they were German. When he gets his DNA test results back, he finds out that he is Scottish. He had to trade in his lederhosen for a kilt. How many of us have had this kind of surprise and had to readjust our views on our ethnicity? A fun practice during the holidays is to incorporate the traditions from our ancestral countries into our festivities.

I am, according to Ancestry DNA, 80% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe. I did a Google search for Christmas traditions in England, and I found some fun ideas to incorporate into my festivities that will encourage my family to show an interest in their ancestors. I found the article “10 Ways to British Up Your Christmas Holiday” that had some great ideas. An amusing idea is to burn the letters written to Santa Clause so that Father Christmas can read them in the smoke. Crackers (wrapped tubes pulled apart) are a great custom too. These are readily available at the local stores. Wassail is a favorite drink during the English holidays. Another idea is to have the tree and the decorations down within twelve days of Christmas so that you will have good luck for the next year.

My next ethnicity is 9% Ireland and Scotland. Since I know that my Grandfather was half Scottish, I did a Google search for Scottish Christmas traditions. I found out that Scotland had canceled Christmas in 1640 and did not celebrate it again until 1958. I don’t think my family would enjoy this tradition, so I searched for Irish family Christmas customs. Irish traditions include putting a tall, thick candle on the sill of the largest window on Christmas Eve to give a welcoming light for Mary and Joseph. A round cake full of caraway seeds is an Irish custom too.

FamilySearch Blog has a great article “8 Holidays around the World” In Finland, at Christmas, they place a single lit candle in the snow next to the graves of their loved ones representing the resurrection of these ancestors. A great tradition. The blog ends with these words of wisdom. “The holidays we celebrate and traditions we practice are a significant part of what binds our families and cultures.”

Fan Charts

TreeSeek.com is a fun website that takes your information from FamilySearch and creates beautiful FREE charts. You can download these charts and print them out yourself, or you can order a copy from TreeSeek. TreeSeek creates an 18”x 24” on 24 lb. Archival paper for you to frame and cost $24.99 plus shipping. Charts like this are a beautiful gift of family history to treasure for generations.

When you enter the TreeSeek website, you now have the choice to log in to FamilySearch to create your chart, or you can use the ged.com option and create a chart from your ged.com. The ged.com feature is great for those who do not use FamilySearch. If you choose to use FamilySearch to create your chart, you have the option of selecting the starting person on your chart. There are twelve different charts to from which to choose, five fan charts, three 7-generation charts, two in color and one black and white, two 9-generation charts, one in color and the other in black and white. They also create a name cloud and photo charts that use the photo of your ancestors from FamilySearch.

FamilySearch has a fan chart option also. You can print out a color 7-generation fan chart that you can frame. FamilySearch has introduced a discovery fan chart that will help you learn more about your family and your family tree. In the FamilySearch Blog, there is a great article “New Discovery Fan Chart: Explore Your Family Tree in Depth,” by Leslie Albrecht Huber. (www.familysearch.org/blog/en/new-discovery-fan-chart-family-tree) She states that “In just one glance, you can discover your ancestral heritage or learn which family members have an abundance of sources, family photos, and family stories – which could use a little more work!” A favorite feature in the FamilySearch chart is the Birth Country Chart. FamilySearch will bring up a color-coded fan chart that will show through the different colors where your ancestors were born.

Fan charts are great to give you an overview of your family. The blank spaces in the chart show your end of line people giving you an idea of where you need to focus your research. You can see which ancestor has stories and photos that are new to you. As Huber states, “You just might see your family in a whole new way.” The advancement of technology is essential in assisting us in our genealogy research!

Book Review: The Family Tree Toolkit

Christmas is fast approaching, and if you are looking for a great gift to give, a new book is hot off the press that your family and friends are sure to enjoy. It is also a great gift to give to yourself. The Family Tree Toolkit by Kenyatta D. Berry, host of Genealogy Roadshow, is an essential addition to your must-have books. This book is “a comprehensive guide to uncovering your ancestry and researching genealogy.”

This Toolkit has beginning researchers in mind; it has valuable information that the seasoned genealogist could use. The first chapter is just five pages long with how-to advice on how to get started, and the good habits that you should form right from the beginning. But the meat of the book is in the following chapters.

There is a chapter on U.S. Census Research, and the best part of this chapter is not only the great research tips that Berry spreads throughout her book but also the charts Berry has put together on all the census years, including Federal and State Census, available for each state.

The U.S. Vital Record chapter has great charts on what records are available and where you can locate them. Ancestry does not have all the vital records, and neither does FamilySearch. You may be surprised to find that Findmypast has their share of U.S. vital records. The author has done an excellent job in separating the information available for each state with these charts. A great example of the difference between the genealogy companies in the state of Massachusetts. FamilySearch has vital records for 1753-1900. For birth records, Ancestry has them for 1620-1850, and FamilySearch has these records for 1841-1915. The same for marriage and death records. If you were looking for births in the late 1660s, then you would need to search at Ancestry. After 1850, it would be best to look at FamilySearch. Knowing where to find what you need will save you a lot of time and headaches in your research.

Berry has done a great job in covering a lot of subjects. She has a big section on military research, a good section of European research, and even includes how to use your DNA results. This book is full of charts and how-to tips that make it a must to keep on your desk as you search for those elusive ancestors. A great gift for Christmas.