Blog Content
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Cost of Goods and Services Years Ago
Jan 19
Many decades between 1860s and early 1990s but even more so is the price for items your ancestors had to pay for things they needed. Here are a few examples of price differences, even figuring in inflation. At the dry cleaners in the 1930s, to have a coat and pair of slacks cleaned and 2 pockets repaired cost $1.00 in Florida. Today tha...
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Geni Posted a 2020 Year in Review
Jan 19
Geni is a genealogy company that is based in Los Angeles, California. They wrote a blog post titled: “Farewell to 2020” in which they say goodbye to, and reflect on, the year 2020. Geni solves the problem of genealogy by inviting the world to build the definitive online family tree. You can use the basic free service at Geni.com to add ...
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The Victorian Use of Velvet
Jan 17
The Victorian Era, is that, a time frame approximately during the reign of Britain's Queen Victoria which was 1837-1901. Many of our ancestors lived during that period whether in Great Britain, Canada or America. Many popular styles of clothing, furniture, homes, etc., existed during those decades. Those who have studied that era say ...
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Your Ancestors during the Worst Years in American History
Jan 15
Here is a listing of major crises and events that occurred during the lifetimes of your ancestors. It would be important for future generations to know which of just these top events affected your ancestors. This list represents just some of the top worst events in American history. Each would be easy enough to do further research on to add...
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MyHeritage DNA Launched Genetic Groups
Jan 14
MyHeritage announced the release of Genetic Groups, a long-awaited enhancement of ethnicity results on MyHeritage DNA. With this addition, the resolution of MyHeritage's ethnicity breakdown increases dramatically to 2,114 geographic regions, providing more depth and resolution than any other DNA test available today, and complementing the curr...
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FamilySearch Added Over 28 Million New Indexed Records
Jan 12
FamilySearch expanded its free online archives in December of 2020 with over 28 million new indexed family history records from all over the world. New historical records were added from Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecu...
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Contraband Camps
Jan 11
During the American Civil War of the early 1860s, there were "contraband" camps. Such contraband camps were African-American refugee camps to which between 400,000-500,000 thousand enslaved men, women, and children in the Union-occupied portions of the Southern Confederacy states fled to escape their slave-holding owners by getting themselves ...
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What Do Those Sayings Mean?
Jan 11
Every generation has had their own sayings or phrases and every one of that generation understood what was being said or referred to. Also over time, those phrases are still used in later generations but no one knows where it originated from. There is the phrase 'Busman's Holiday'. It originated in the 1840s in England with the use of a...
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Origin of Birthday Cakes
Jan 7
The idea of celebrating a birthday with a cake began with the Roman Empire who celebrated men's birthdays with cakes made from nuts, honey, flour and yeast, (just not very sweet). This was for men of high status or importance in an area. Women's birthdays were not celebrated with any type of cake. In Western Europe in the 1700s birthdays ...
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Nazi Headstones Removed from Veterans Cemetery
Jan 7
Two German World War II headstones bearing Nazi swastikas were removed from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in December of 2020. The headstones marked the graves of German prisoners of war, and had stood in the cemetery since 1947. The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs National Cemetery Administration honors Veterans and their eligib...
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Leftovers – Common Foods of 1930s
Jan 5
With the Great Depression during the 1930s, you did have ancestors directly affected by lack of paying jobs, not enough money which meant not enough food for the table. But your ancestors of the 1930s did come up with ideas to help the food situation. Many grocery stores trying to stay open, slashed their prices. Many signs said “Pric...
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MyHeritage Added Family Tree Pedigree View on Desktop
Jan 5
MyHeritage has added Pedigree View to their desktop software. Pedigree view is the preferred family tree view for countless MyHeritage users who do their family history on their MyHeritage family sites. Many have asked for MyHeritage to release Pedigree View on their desktop software. The company has released a Pedigree View for family tre...
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Items Once Thought to be Dangerous … Are Safe
Jan 3
Before science and medicine (before the late 1800s) could prove that diseases and illnesses were due to germs, the population the stench of human waste and decay – bad smells were what caused people to be ill. People tried to cover their nose if there was a hint of bad odors around. Medical doctors (1600s-1700s) were known to wear a long p...
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Colonial Celebrations of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Jan 1
When looking into the lives of any American colonial relatives use the date of 1752. The people living during the Colonial Period in the North American colonies using the Julian Calendar prior to 1752 celebrated New Year's Eve on the evening of March 24 and New Year's Day was March 25 until the year 1752 and then, beginning in that year and ...
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Newspaper Boys of Early 1900s
Dec 31
Little is known today about the life of those young boys in large cities who sold the daily newspaper on the street. This was not an after school job as it would become in the 1940s and beyond. At the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, the young boys selling newspapers were termed 'Newsies'. This was their life, usuall...
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