Dec 19
I've been interested in checking out the brand new search engine created by the Genealogy In Time online magazine. Their Advanced Genealogy Search Engine is free for anyone who wants to use it. It has been said that it is very easy to use, and it allows you to search over 1.2 billion historic records. Let's see how well this works for me! The fi...
Dec 18
A team of scientists have located a gene mutation that appears to be the link to what causes intersex conditions. The researchers who discovered this have reported their finding in the American Journal of Human Genetics this month. The genetic mutation seems to act as an on/off switch. About one in 1,000 people are born with an intersex conditio...
Dec 17
Recently added to the many databases on the Ancestry.com site are the images of the 'Historic Catalogs of Sears Roebuck and Company 1896-1993'. What an opportunity to view on your computer screen page after page of thousands of everyday products used by our ancestors. Nearly every home from the late 19th century and all through the 20th century had...
Dec 16
The United States was a young nation on April 1, 1940 with some 132 million residents in 33 million households with 7 million of those being farms scattered across the country. That was the date of the official U. S. Census count when over 120,000 enumerators (census takers) crisscrossed the nation to count the population. Those census records have...
Dec 15
What causes a person to be unfaithful to his or her spouse, or significant other? Why do some people have “one night stands”, while other people never decide to do so? A new study reveals that the tendency for a person to engage in these kinds of risky behaviors has something to do with their own specific genetic make up. In a revolutionary ...
Dec 14
The Internet has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 15 years as well as the interest in family history research. By digitizing many documents and records they are now available on the Internet through various providers such as FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com. One source which likewise has been digitized are the many printed books that are i...
Dec 13
Oh, where does a family genealogist begin when asked what they would like as a gift for the holidays? Whether a family historian is a novice or experienced pro, there are always some special items that can help the researcher. The first idea, especially if the researcher has a computer, would be one of the software programs for compiling, sortin...
Dec 12
Hopefully you have a separate file on your personal computer with the notes, charts, photos, census information and data you have amassed on your ancestors. You could well have it organized into one of the many family history computer software programs; such as Family Tree Maker, Legacy, The Master Genealogist, RootsMagic, Reunion 9 and Family Hist...
Dec 11
Many vital records including birth, marriage, census, military and death have countless errors. Especially true when it comes to a person's given name and surname. The clerk filling out the birth record, marriage license, deed, etc. may have had only an 8th grade education. The clerk may not have understood the individual when information was pr...
Dec 10
The genealogy website called MyHeritage has just launched some brand new software called Family Tree Builder 5.0. It's free, and easy to use. This software offers you new ways to organize, document, and showcase your family history, and has features that the previous versions did not have. You can download it directly from their website. When I ...
Dec 9
Facebook is more than a place to post statuses about your opinion of the restaurant where you ate your lunch today. It's more than where you go to play simple online games, and to look up the people who were in your class in high school. It seems that Facebook is also the place to go if you are trying to get in touch with a long lost family member....
Dec 8
There are different formats that a Family Tree might take. Depending on the style of the chart that you are using, it might show five, six, seven, or even more generations. Some family tree charts get so full of information that it can be difficult to understand exactly how one ancestor relates to another one, or how either of them relate to you. I...
Dec 7
As a family historian, one is interested in gathering the names, places and dates of our numerous relatives. However, there is more to learning about one’s ancestors than just a series of dates. Each of those dates represents an important event or a life-changing moment that well could have changed future generations also. True, it is very har...
Dec 6
Are you tired of playing Farmville? Try Phylo instead! It's not yet on Facebook, but there are plans in the future to try and integrate Phylo into a Facebook application in the future. Instead of spending your break time farming virtual crops, spend it helping genetic researchers decode a disease! Phylo was created by a team of b...
Dec 5
The information that is in your family tree reveals much more than who you are related to, and how you are related to them. It is also a research tool that can be used to reveal important health information! There are many conditions, diseases, and disorders that can be genetically passed down from ancestors to their descendants. The more you k...