Short – Quick Ideas
It is good to keep up your family tree research. However, you may only have a short time frame to work once a week or so. The following are a few quick ideas of things for your family history that is beneficial and quick.
If not done so to date, learn the original meaning of the surnames on the family tree, both sides—your mother’s and father’s sides. Here is the link to a long list of surnames, their origins and any famous people sharing that name.
Go to ‘Find a Grave‘ online and see if a photo of the headstone is available on any of your ancestors. Start with the ancestors (parents and grandparents) closer in age to you and then work back in the generations. Make a note of any information from the headstone or if there is any bio information provided. Also, some have a listing of spouses, children and parents. There might be some information overlooked. Keep in mind there might be more than one posting for the same person, check both.
Have you looked at what you have gathered to date on your ancestors to see who lived the longest, which couple were married the longest, which family had the most children and which ancestors had the highest educational level? There can be some fascinating details with any of those areas. In a family branch I was researching, the family had 15 children born in the late 1800s, all who lived to adulthood, and that in itself is amazing.
Examine each person you have especially on one side of the family and see where given names were repeated. Did several individuals, going back many generations, have either as the first or middle names the same, such as ‘John’ or ‘William’. This is showing a continuous use of certain names popular in that family branch. Include if a longer same had a shorter version that was used. Example: ‘Frederick’ in one and now another generation the given name was ‘Fred’. I found even a daughter was named ‘Josephine’ after her father named ‘Joseph’.
So a few quick and interesting aspects to add to your family history.
Photos: Surnames, Duggar family of 20 children and given names.
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
How Far to Go Back in Generations?
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