Blog Content
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Playing Cards
May 9
Playing Cards are a global fun game whether it is Gin Rummy, Old Maid, War or a high bank poker game, cards have been popular for years. The cards are standard size and design now but they have changed over the years. It is estimated playing cards came about during the late 1300s and early 1400s in Europe. Yet similar early cards were in the 12...
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Mother’s Day
May 7
Anna Jarvis originated Mother's Day when, on May 12, 1907, she held a memorial service at her late mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers. Although Jarvis, who started Mother's Day as a liturgical ...
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Diseases and Vaccines of the 1920s
May 5
You might not have known but there were many diseases and illnesses during the 1920s that could have affected an ancestor of yours. One especially bad was the typhoid epidemic. It was affecting the population in areas in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California in 1927. Besides typhoid, children were hit with infantile paralysis (polio), men...
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Birth Certificates
May 3
Having official birth certificates is a fairly new concept. Years ago, writing in the date and name of a baby born to the family was done in the family Bible on a special page. As government forms and requirements increase an official document of one's birth became necessary. This was especially true as 'child labor' laws came about – proof t...
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Traveling the Oregon Trail
May 1
Many of our ancestors traveled west, some just to the Indiana-Ohio territories, others to Missouri, to the Dakotas and some all the way to Oregon on the west coast. People traveling to Oregon came from many locations, the New England states, the southern states or areas of Tennessee and Kentucky, but took the established trail known as the 'Ore...
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Use of Snuff
Apr 29
When one looks at the beginnings of tobacco (1600s into 1700s) from the early Americas, it was grown and exported to Europe. But for years tobacco was not smoked as cigarettes. It was used in different ways, such as in a pipe or later a cigar but what was really popular was using tobacco as snuff. It was not just in European countries but location...
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Crayola Crayons
Apr 27
A favorite of youngsters during the 20th century and into the 21st century has been Crayola Crayons. The basic colors first started off for Crayola were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black. However, it did not remain just 8 colors, more varieties were added over the decades – some 120 different colors with creative names s...
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School Days of Long Ago
Apr 25
Many behaviors, activities and methods have changed in the classroom over the decades. The schooling your grandparents got is quite different, especially compared to elementary classes today. The classic light punishment for passing notes or talking out of turn was getting a casual hit with a ruler on the hand. Not done anymore. Helping arou...
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Beauty Myths
Apr 23
Our female ancestors had many routines as far as their beauty and upkeep they followed. You might remember your mother or grandmother doing some of these beauty tips. Brushing your hair before bedtime at least 100 times for shiny and healthy hair. As it turns out ladies do not need to brush their hair that much, especially if they have curly or...
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Your Ancestors Mail Service – The Pony Express
Apr 21
America was expanding as our ancestors started moving westward in the 1840s. The only major problem was getting goods and products along with mail to these western outposts. If things were sent from the east to the west using a steamship it would be months arriving and then additional time to get to the family living somewhere out west. There was ...
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Ancestry Introduces SideView for Greater DNA Insights
Apr 21
Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, unveiled SideView technology, a first-of-its-kind scientific innovation that separates DNA into parental sides giving AncestryDNA customers new insights into which side of the family they inherited their genetics from. With more than 20 million people in its growing cons...
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Heirloom Jewelry Boxes
Apr 19
Most of our female ancestors had some form of a container or box to place their jewelry, even if they only had a couple of pieces. Many people in recent years have loved to collect some of the vintage jewelry boxes used years ago. Especially popular are vintage jewelry boxes; some are hand-carved, others musical, and occasionally you’ll find ...
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The 2020 Census Was Undercounted
Apr 19
In March of 2022, the United States Census Bureau website released results from two analyses about the quality of the 2020 Census counts. One analysis was from the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) and the other was from the Demographic Analysis Estimates (DA). Both studies estimated how well the 2020 Census counted everyone in the n...
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Apple Cider
Apr 17
For the early settlers of the 1600s and 1700s to America, there was not always clean safe water to drink. Many instead turned to beer, such as the Pilgrims but it was difficult to grow wheat, rye and barley for brewing the beer. Another early English settler's beverage was cider. With apples growing very well in the New England region of Americ...
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Easter Bunny
Apr 15
A song by Gene Autry became famous in 1950 titled “Peter Cottontail” reminded kids of the Easter Bunny and all the candy he could bring to each child. It started with civilizations who may well have celebrated the onset of warmer spring weather by hailing hares, eggs, or other emblems of fertility. First popular in Germany, the German immig...
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