Blog Content
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October – Family Hometown
Oct 7
During the month of October (with Family History Month), a little different idea to add to your family history is to do research relating to the family hometown or home county. This could involve two or more locations but start with one and be complete as possible. Using the Internet is a great start to learn more about the town. Include with yo...
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What to Do If You Uncover a Deep Family Secret
Oct 5
As you go in depth on your family tree, there will be all types of names and things that your ancestor had and did. Some of their accomplishments can make your heart 'glad' at what they did, but you just might also find some deep dark individual or family secret, something concealed from most family members. If that happens, check your information...
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Fight Over Cemetery Access Heard by U.S. Supreme Court
Oct 4
Not all cemeteries are located on public property that is maintained by a staff. In the past, it was not unheard of for families to bury their deceased loved ones on their property. Years later, someone may purchase the property who is unrelated to the original family. This is where things get tricky – and end up in court. Mary Knick owns prop...
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Colonial Early Church Records
Oct 3
If you have found that some of your early ancestors in America lived in Massachusetts Colony and were of a specific church (Puritan, Congregational, and Christian denominations) you are in special luck. Now available online from the Congregational Library and Archives are the church records from many early individual churches in Massachusetts. Thes...
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Ways to Celebrate National Family History Month
Oct 2
In the United States, National Family History Month is celebrated in October. In 2001, Congress passed a resolution that was introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican – Utah). The resolution was to officially create Family History Month. Here are some ideas for celebrating Family History Month: Visit the Library Your local library may ...
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Family Gifts
Oct 1
The first of October and it is a great time to come up with some interesting family photo collections you can share with family members as a very special holiday gift. Making something as simple as a very personalized calendar featuring vintage photos of family members past and present for when their birthday or wedding anniversary falls on a date...
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Music of Your Ancestral Region
Sep 29
If you've done a great deal of research or using DNA testing and know fairly sure your family's ancestral heritage – Eastern European, North African, German, Southeast Asia, etc., you just might like to have a collection of music characteristic of those ancestral heritage. Using Ancestry.com you can place the regions your ancestors originated...
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Make Digital those Photos
Sep 27
You have put off that task long enough. Now is the time to make digital your collection of photos. Recruit some help from a family member or friend and make it a party. One of the easiest methods is using a portable scanner especially if you have boxes of photos. I had six very large plastic boxes from my mother-in-law who had passed away and I ...
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African-Americans Serving in Civil War
Sep 25
The USCT was made up of better than 178,000 freed African-Americans who were willing served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War. Of that figure, during the war, about 2,751 USCT soldiers lost their lives in combat. More than 68,000 more died during military service from disease and other causes. They were not in the...
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Reasons to Attend a RootsTech Conference
Sep 25
RootsTech is a 4-day annual family history and technology conference. It takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Salt Palace Convention Center. There are many good reasons to attend a RootsTech Conference. RootsTech is Huge RootsTech is the largest genealogical conference in the world. RootsTech is a place to build connections with other ge...
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One Hundred Years – The Spanish Flu
Sep 23
From roughly January 1918 to December 1920, there was a deadly world-wide influenza pandemic. Approximately 500 million around the globe were affected and some 50 to 100 million died as a result of this flu. What appears strange it was mostly the youth, those healthy young adults (ages 20s to 30s) who were affected and died from the 1918 Spanish Fl...
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Linkpendium to Search
Sep 21
This collection known as 'Linkpedium' is a resource directory to everything on the Web about families worldwide and genealogically-relevant information about U.S. states and counties. Most of the directory shows free sources from libraries, other government agencies, genealogical and historical societies, and individuals. There are also items found...
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MyHeritage Changes Policy on DNA Uploads
Sep 20
MyHeritage announced that they will be changing their policy regarding DNA uploads. This change will effect some of what was previously offered for free. Full details will be released later. MyHeritage wrote in a blog post: “As of December 1, 2018, our policy regarding DNA uploads will change: DNA Matching will remain free for uploaded DNA dat...
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Criminals Sent to Australia
Sep 19
There were about 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia in total during the 19th century – to empty out the overcrowded English jails. Many people today can claim their ancestors of those English and Irish convicts. It is an interesting story whether you had such an ancestor or not. For what reasons would a convict be sent to the wilds o...
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Best Practices to Protect Privacy of Consumer Genetic Data
Sep 18
The Future of Privacy Forum and leading genetic testing companies announced Privacy Best Practices for Consumer Genetic Testing Services. The genetic testing companies included: Ancestry, 23andMe, Helix, MyHeritage, Habit, African Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, and Living DNA. The Best Practices provide a policy framework for the collection, protecti...
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