Dec 7
An ancestor having a nickname can prove to be a handicap during your research. A nickname is a substituted for the proper name of a person. It is often considered desirable, symbolizing a form of acceptance, but can sometimes be a form of ridicule. Some nicknames are given by the parents, grandparents or later by school friends. That nickname could...
Dec 5
Back in 1880s, it was Paul Martin (1864-1944), by trade a wood engraver for prints in magazines, developed an interest in photography. He started taking everyday photos of the people he encountered. Around 1890 it became possible to combine fast-dry plate negatives with a fairly small camera — the Fallowfield Facile camera of London, England was ...
Dec 4
Want to learn more about your female ancestors? There is a resource that you may have been overlooking. This is understandable, considering the fact that this particular resource is not one that has been put online in one place for you to dig through. What you need to look for is the recipe contests from old newspapers. Your ancestor might have...
Dec 3
Be careful now to produce mistakes in your family history research or in turn to place mistakes (unknowingly) into your family database. A major problem is when you locate a whole family tree lineage online and accept / copy every person with every date because some it matches what you know about your family line. Too many times, just about all ...
Dec 2
Do you want to build a snowman? Many of you have had the opportunity to build a snowman when you were children. Your relatives, who taught you how to build one, learned it when they were kids. It turns out that the snowman has a longer history than you might have realized. You may have spent time building snowmen during the winters when you w...
Dec 1
Think you searched every official document -- well there just might be some other records you didn't think to try. First, your ancestor may have owned a dog and the hometown they lived in required a dog license. On that official form could be information (address and names) you didn't know about. Another overlooked resource are other census reco...
Nov 29
The online shopping site of Amazon just might have some items to add to your family information and artifacts. If you had a relative who served in a specific US military branch and you know the unit and / or regiment he served in, you might find something related to it. Putting in the Amazon search 'military units' showed over 53,000 items. For exa...
Nov 27
Newest item available for research are the California State Library digitized collection of about 10,000 old sepia-toned 3-D photos, those done during the mid to late 1800s. These are stereoscopic photos viewed through hand-held viewers that turned the side-by-side double photos into a single 3-D image, a most unusual feature for 1890s. Not all 10...
Nov 26
It is fairly easy to find photos online that have been intentionally altered. People use Photoshop to remove the background of a photo and replace it with another. Or, they can add a person to a photo. In the 19th century, people were able to do photo tricks of a different kind. In short, if you happen to find a photo of an ancestor who appears to ...
Nov 26
To get an idea of what your ancestors might have had for their Thanksgiving meal go to the local newspapers. Using Chronicling America (free), Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchives (both with a free trial and fee based) and plugging in a specific year or range of years and locations can producing some interesting information. Use some key words...
Nov 25
Thanksgiving is in two days, and you will be visiting with different family members over the next few days or by the December holiday season. So this is your opportunity, don't miss it. Focus on one or a couple different relatives to ask the following - the most often forgotten questions to make the family history more complete. Be prepared befo...
Nov 24
Thanksgiving is a holiday that many people celebrate by getting together with family. It can, sometimes, involve meeting with relatives that you don't get to see very often. It seems very natural that National Family History Day falls on the same day as Thanksgiving. Have you heard of National Family History Day? The U.S. Surgeon General firs...
Nov 23
The territory of Oklahoma was where many of the country's Native American Indians were resettled. Some did come on their own and others were forced. Mixed in were former African-American slaves who intermarried with the the Indians, plus European settlers looking for land they could homestead. The Oklahoma University Western History Collections ha...
Nov 21
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) was a very valuable asset for many family history researchers to have a photograph of an ancestor's headstone, copy of a death certificate, a microfilm copy of an old newspaper clipping, etc. Unfortunately the former RAOGK had to close down awhile back due to the death of its creator. New on the Interne...
Nov 20
Are you someone who loves to drink coffee? Or, are you among the group who simply doesn't like coffee at all? Have you ever wondered why you like coffee but your sister, or mother, doesn't? The answer could be in your genes! Genealogy and genetics are becoming more and more connected. This is, in part, because we are now able to have our gen...