Apr 21
There are types of specialty maps and charts today to help better understand how our ancestors lived. The University of Oregon's Mapping Project has a wealth of historical time periods and events in digital maps to see the progress and changes over the decades. It starts off with North America and where were the early English, French and Spanish s...
Mar 16
Some wonderful ideas and suggestions were offered during the six hour presentations done March 15th by Dick Eastman in Stuart, FL for the Martin County Genealogy Society. The following are just a few of the interesting hints and suggestions offered: In the MyHeritage.com - online databases (sign in free creating a user name and password): They h...
Mar 9
One area for sure you could have a problem with when doing your family tree is conflicting dates, names, hometowns, events or occupations. First look at all the sources for that one specific conflict - say an ancestor's birth date. You must have where each listing for a date came from. Was one from the family Bible, one from the county vital recor...
Mar 5
Social media is everywhere and it can truly be helpful if used correctly. One good area is to share ideas, sources, databases, photos and questions with others doing similar research. First way -- after you get your own Facebook page -- is to find out what is there on Facebook to help you. Start with states where your ancestors lived. Put in ...
Dec 24
Those with full Irish heritage may already familiar with many of the Irish words and terms and what they mean. However, there are individuals with less than full Irish blood that may have no idea what some common Irish terms mean. Here are a few words and phrases used today in Ireland. Runners -- why they are the sneakers you use to walk or r...
Oct 22
Are you from Brooklyn, did you have relatives who lived or worked in Brooklyn, New York? Seeing it has been a large community for decades, it is very possible you do have one or more ancestors from Brooklyn. It is one of the five boroughs of New York City with a population now of about 2.5 million in a land area of about 71 square miles. With the ...
Jul 22
The ability to have digital copies of books and newsletters, especially those with family history, to be viewed on your computer, is invaluable. The HathiTrust Digital Library has such a digital preservation collection. The digital books on 'Google Books' are an excellent source, but here is yet another resource to use. These books in the HathiTr...
May 17
The Library of Congress acquired in the late 1940s a large collection of glass plates / negatives of photos done in the early 1900s of Russian scenes. They were done by Prokudin-Gorskii during the time the Russian Empire still existed. He had even been known as the photographer to Russian Tsar Nicholas II. With the downfall of the royal empire...
May 15
There is a new web site available, called TinEye, that is a search engine which uses reverse images to location similar images. Instead of placing a keyword, surname or place you download a digital image. The results can help you find out where that image came from, how it is being used, if there are higher and larger version of the images and if ...
May 13
Being aware of the positive collection of family history information that can be gathered along with the 'pitfalls' can ease the possibility of becoming frustrated doing research. The following are some ideas to help keep you on the right track and not become annoyed. Step one is to always begin with what is known---mostly yourself. Have yourse...