America

  • Names in Wordle Word Cloud

    Jan 13

      This can be a fun project to work on a cold day this winter. Even if you do not have your family complete (and who does?), you do a long list of given names and / or surnames to create your own word cloud. Using the Wordle web site, it can be easily achieved. The more names you can add, especially repeating a surname, such as Johnson - say...

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  • New Season – Genealogy Roadshow

    Jan 11

    Yes, PBS has the New Season of the American Genealogy Roadshow beginning on Tuesday January 13, 2015 at 8:00 pm EST and runs through Tuesday February 24, 2015. This season visits three important cities in the history and development of the United States: New Orleans, Louisiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and St. Louis, Missouri; with ordinary pe...

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  • Slang of the 1960s

    Jan 9

    The 1960s was such a transition from established-traditional lifestyles to a more carefree-anything goes attitude. You surely have relatives who lived during that decade and remember it well. As with every decade there are certain words and phrases one can associate with the era. The words can come from events happening, music styles, cultural ...

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  • New Years Day Postcards

    Jan 1

    The tradition of sending postcards was equal to sending Emails, Twitters or Facebook messages today. It was a simple and easy way to stay in touch, express feelings and an offer of something pretty, funny or charming for a friend of family member to have. The hay day of sending postcards was from the 1890s to the 1920s. Every holiday, season or sp...

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  • Online City – County Directories

    Dec 31

    An often overlooked research in locating where an ancestor lived are the city / county directories. You might only have idea of a region in a state where a relative lived but using directories, just might help narrow down the search. Directories vary over the decades, some providing just a person's name and the city they lived in. Others will in...

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  • Slang Words from the Fabulous 1950s

    Dec 29

    Either you grew up during the decade of the 1950s, or you parents or even your grandparents. It was a period for America's youth when they really set their own path, creating a new style of music (Rock-n-Roll), dancing, favorite foods, clothing styles and especially their own style of slang words. So to better understand what your parents may ha...

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  • Hometown Traditions at Christmas Time

    Dec 25

    Just like our ancestors had different traditions and customs within their own family, so would each hometown vary in how their celebrated the holidays. One tradition that is found throughout the decades in the 20th and into the 21st centuries is that of Christmas parades, many of which have carried on this traditions for 60 plus years. There wil...

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  • Xmas – Origin

    Dec 23

    Many people today prefer that the holiday be written out as 'Christmas' but there a long standing tradition of using the 'X'. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type. In the early days of printing typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious and expensive. As a result, abbreviations were common. It first was u...

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  • Research Mistakes

    Dec 21

    A novice or experienced family history researcher can make some mistakes when putting together the family tree. So you don't have to redo your work or cause any continual errors to be carried on, here are some ideas to avoid any research mistakes. First, never start and solely depend on anyone else's information / family tree data. Countless times...

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  • Funny Things Your Ancestors Said

    Dec 19

    Every generation has its own collection of slang words or phrases. Some remain for several generations, others have a 'short life span'. Knowing some of these key words and terms can help you better understand a great grandparent's generation. Also at the next family gathering to see how many people can correctly identify. From the 1910s: ding-b...

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