ancestors

  • Hints to Get Grandma to ‘Talk’

    Dec 15

    With the family getting together over the next few weeks, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about some the family tales, stories and legends. Of course that is not always easy to get a grandparent, great aunt or uncle to open up and starting telling some family stories. So here are a few suggestions to get the conversation started. First...

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  • Christmas Surnames

    Dec 13

    Did it ever occur to you that families could have a surname associated with Christmas traditions? Some you wouldn't be as surprised by like, 'Claus' has in the USA over 1,300 or 'Santa', has 370 individuals. The name 'Christmas' has 1,499 people with that surname, which is quite a few. The most with the Christmas surname, based on the Crestleaf dat...

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  • Nicknames

    Dec 7

    An ancestor having a nickname can prove to be a handicap during your research. A nickname is a substituted for the proper name of a person. It is often considered desirable, symbolizing a form of acceptance, but can sometimes be a form of ridicule. Some nicknames are given by the parents, grandparents or later by school friends. That nickname could...

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  • Candid Vintage Photos of 1890s

    Dec 5

    Back in 1880s, it was Paul Martin (1864-1944), by trade a wood engraver for prints in magazines, developed an interest in photography. He started taking everyday photos of the people he encountered. Around 1890 it became possible to combine fast-dry plate negatives with a fairly small camera — the Fallowfield Facile camera of London, England was ...

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  • Avoiding Mistakes

    Dec 3

    Be careful now to produce mistakes in your family history research or in turn to place mistakes (unknowingly) into your family database. A major problem is when you locate a whole family tree lineage online and accept / copy every person with every date because some it matches what you know about your family line. Too many times, just about all ...

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  • Lesser Used Records

    Dec 1

    Think you searched every official document -- well there just might be some other records you didn't think to try. First, your ancestor may have owned a dog and the hometown they lived in required a dog license. On that official form could be information (address and names) you didn't know about. Another overlooked resource are other census reco...

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  • Searching Using Amazon

    Nov 29

    The online shopping site of Amazon just might have some items to add to your family information and artifacts. If you had a relative who served in a specific US military branch and you know the unit and / or regiment he served in, you might find something related to it. Putting in the Amazon search 'military units' showed over 53,000 items. For exa...

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  • California in 3-D during the 1800s-1900s

    Nov 27

    Newest item available for research are the California State Library digitized collection of about 10,000 old sepia-toned 3-D photos, those done during the mid to late 1800s. These are stereoscopic photos viewed through hand-held viewers that turned the side-by-side double photos into a single 3-D image, a most unusual feature for 1890s. Not all 10...

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  • Did You Think To Ask?

    Nov 25

    Thanksgiving is in two days, and you will be visiting with different family members over the next few days or by the December holiday season. So this is your opportunity, don't miss it. Focus on one or a couple different relatives to ask the following - the most often forgotten questions to make the family history more complete. Be prepared befo...

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  • Grandma Used It

    Nov 17

    As antiques can be referred to as 'old dusty objects' they were also very important everyday objects with a purpose for our ancestors. Of course today, if such an object is no longer used, its name and purpose can be lost to the ages. Yet to better understand the life led by our relatives, whether 50 years or 150 years ago, we have to understand wh...

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