Mid-April Ideas

With this national health crisis causing many of us to stay at home, you may have now completed many of those projects you had put off around the house (cleaning, organizing, painting, etc), so now is a perfect time to do some of those little projects related to your family tree you can now work on.

Here are some ideas, some items that may have not occurred to you.

How about taking the time to call on the phone or to use Skype to contact a relative to learn what they know about certain relatives and ancestors? Have the paper and pencil ready to take notes or just record the conversation.

Organize your files, boxes and notebooks that have the collection of family documents, letters, records related to family members. Do divide by surnames.

For sure now is the time to get those family photos, letters and documents scanned. You can use your smartphone also to take photos. Label-Label each digital image – placing names, dates and locations.

An interesting and fun activity is to select just one ancestor, one that may have fascinated you the most. Really use every available resource you can to learn everything about that ancestor. I really use what is printed in newspapers of the hometown of the times where ancestors lived, it has always been an excellent resource. Yet, I have also found details about an ancestor that was covered in a hometown newspaper decades after their death – you never know. Check the various locations that the person lived.

What would be really neat is then to write that story of that interesting ancestor you have uncovered and place it on a Blog to share with the world. Check out the other blogs you have read or seen online and go with the one you liked the best.

See what is now available through your own public library system. With libraries physically closed many have made available some digital collections or offered databases online to those who have a library card. No card yet, you can apply online.

Photos: Scan photos; using Smart Phone to scan; using a portable scanner on documents; and your most unusual ancestor.

Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:

Using Google to Do Research

Locating Family Information

Databases available with Public Libraries

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