Blog Content
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Oldest Standing House in NYC
May 27
It may be hard to believe in New York City, still, today is the Wyckoff House, which is currently the oldest standing building. It dates back to at least 1652 and was occupied by the Wyckoff family for centuries. Imagine, only a few decades after the Pilgrims, English settlers, who came to North America on the Mayflower and established the Plymout...
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Bill To Protect African American Graves Failed
May 26
The Black Heritage Trail website provides information about the African Burial Ground Memorial. It is located on Chestnut Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The cemetery was actively used into the late 1700s, when the area west of Chestnut Street was part of the undeveloped outskirts of Portsmouth. As the town flourished and developed ...
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Nursery Rhymes Meanings
May 25
Traditional nursery rhymes have been a part of our growing years and especially for our grandparents and other members of the family tree for decades. Sometimes it is good to re-examine the meaning of these traditional nursery rhymes. Many vintage nursery rhymes go back to England, even during the Middle Ages (500 AD to 1500 AD). The whole purp...
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Things Women Couldn’t Do Before 1971
May 24
photo by malleja retsan reunassa Every so often, something is posted on social media that gets reposted or retweeted because people think that it is true. Often, the original source of that information is unknown. Recently, someone put a post on Facebook about things that women could not do in 1971. What was true? What was false? USA Today ...
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Lucky Penny Day
May 23
A children's rhyme about the humble one-cent piece (“Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck”) yet there are some groups who want to eliminate the penny from general currency. But note – May 23 is 'Lucky Penny Day'. While it’s true that pennies cost more to produce than they’re actually worth and fewer people th...
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Once Popular Given Names
May 21
Just like clothing styles, hairstyles, homes, – things do go out of style over a period of time. This is true of given names. For both females and males, some names were super popular for different reasons to name a baby and today, that name is hardly used for a newborn. Yet, as you do your family tree, you may well come across these old-fash...
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All Ancestors Have a Story – Every Voice Matters
May 19
We work on our Family Tree and do try to learn as much as possible about each individual. The individuals on our trees, we identify with them, get to know them and try to piece together their stories, whether they are cut short by tragedy or they live to a ripe old age. These ancestors need a voice, you are that voice, it’s up to us to ensure th...
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Talequah Public Library Has Genealogy Tools
May 19
Tahlequah Public Library is part of the Eastern Oklahoma Library System, a multi-county organization providing public library service through fifteen libraries in six counties, including Cherokee County. Tahlequah Public Library has access to resources through the Eastern Oklahoma Library System. The Tahlequah Public Library hosts technolog...
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Painting Your Nails
May 17
Everyone remembers when they first had fingernail polish on their nails. Some parents may have forbidden it, and others allowed it at an early age. What is your experience? The practice of adding color to one's nails could go back thousands of years. The Chinese used bold colors on their nails made out of beeswax, egg whites, gelatin and vegeta...
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Parkinson Foundation Expands Free At-Home Genetic Testing
May 17
The Parkinson Foundation is expanding its free genetic testing initiative in an effort to connect a broader and more diverse set of candidates to clinical trials that could lead to future treatments. Its project, PD GENEration: Mapping Future of Parkinson’s Disease, now has 23 actively enrolling participant sites in addition to ongoing at-h...
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Remembering Childhood Toys
May 15
There were many childhood toys produced for the 'Boomer Generation” of the late 1940s into the 1950s and early 1960s. Here are a few. See how many you remember or that your parents had as kids. The Magic 8 Ball – Since the 1950s, the Magic 8 Ball has been a consistent source of advice for all of life’s problems. The toy’s inventor, Albe...
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Things No Longer Done in a Kitchen
May 13
Cooking and preparing meals really has changed over the decades. You might recall some of these vintage things done in the kitchen that are just not done anymore. Baking food items, many times those items then had to cool. Today a cooling rack might be used but your ancestors usually had their baked goods cooled on the windowsill or on a table ...
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Six Million U.S. Adults Identify as Afro-Latino
May 12
The Pew Research Center posted information titled: "About 6 million U.S. adults identify as Afro-Latino". The Pew Research Center states that this information was gathered in a different approach than that of the U.S. Census Bureau sources. Afro-Latino identity is a distinct one, with deep roots in colonial Latin America. As a result, it ca...
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Clothing Styles of Our Ancestors
May 11
Everyone loves viewing vintage photos of our ancestors to not only see what they looked like but also their clothing styles. Some examples of fashion styles follow: Women wore a corset under their dress and around their wrist to pull in their wrist 1-2 inches. It was fashionable to have a silhouette figure of an hourglass. Men and ladies ...
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23andMe Acquired Lemonaid Health
May 10
23andMe announced another step toward unlocking the power of genetic health information. 23andMe acquired Lemonaid Health, a telemedicine company, last fall. Instead of being treated for an illness, most of us would prefer to avoid getting sick in the first place. But in large measure, our health care system isn’t geared for that. It’...
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The study of birth, marriage and death records to discover family relatives. more »
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