Jan 9
One of the most important things you can do for your health is to take the time to create a Medical Family Tree. Many diseases and disorders run in families, and the more you know about what could be lurking in your genes, the better chance you have of making choices that could affect your health in a very positive way. A great time to start p...
Dec 22
You know a branch of your ancestors arrived in America about 1887. To learn if they ever became naturalized American citizens you would want to look for a petition to become a citizen and the completed naturalization papers. Count yourself lucky if that ancestor did not apply for citizenship until after 1906. Your ancestor was not required to be...
Nov 10
Do you come from an extremely large family? I do! The very idea of trying to fit all of my relatives, and all of my ancestors, onto one family tree template seemed impossible to me. In fact, the very idea was so intimidating that I really haven't put much effort into attempting it. However, now that there are giant family tree charts that can be do...
Nov 2
It can be easy to give in to the impulse to idealize your ancestors. Everyone wants to think that their grandparents, great grandparents, or great great grandparents were perfectly sweet and decent people. This is especially true when you see a photo of your great grandmother doing something like working in her flower garden, or a photo of your gre...
Oct 28
There has been a lot of rather surprising news lately about politicians. No, I am not referring to political scandals, to who is planning on running for office in the next election, or to what an individual's personal political views happen to be. If you are interested in genealogy, the biggest news about politicians lately is their relation to on...
Oct 18
Anyone who has started genealogical research has hoped to come across a famous ancestor. Maybe Daniel Boone was a third great granduncle or Martha Washington was a distance cousin. It is fun and a bit intriguing to think of the possibilities. Then there are the family legends and tales handed down over the generations of being related to a well-...
Oct 18
Everyone has collateral lines in the family tree. Those are the relatives who are not part of direct lineage, but of the same ancestral line. Such ancestors would be the uncles, aunts, granduncles, second cousins and in-laws of the family. When completing a family tree it is the direct lineage that is recorded, such as parents, grandparents,...
Oct 18
In the early stages of researching your ancestors, you keep with the direct lineage, those parents, grandparents, etc. However, you can early on run into a roadblock on a certain relative. There is a grandfather on your mother’s side in which you can not locate any of the basic data. Change the approach and look at other branches of that generati...
Oct 18
A family’s ancestral home can be a rural village, a small town, a medium-sized city or a large metropolis. Learning about the particular location; its people, occupations, traditions and history can give a researcher enormous insight into their own family. Traditionally individuals and their descendants remained in a given region for decades ...
Oct 18
Family history researchers with the same surname you’re investigating can produce some of the most valuable sources by reaching out to link up. Between family heirlooms, diaries and Bible records to the research done by other people, a wealth of information can be learned and shared. The following are some of the most fruitful places to start ...