Family Heritage

  • A Great Winter Project

    Jan 17

    Many areas across the country or in other nations have a thick blanket of ice and snow during this time of year. To avoid having to get out in such conditions, this is a perfect time to start a really worthwhile project. Besides gathering the names, dates and basic information on relatives on your family tree, how about taking a different perspect...

    More

  • Baffling Ancestors – Some Hints

    Jan 15

    Everyone has more than one elusive ancestor in their direct lineage or extended family line. It can be quite baffling for a family researcher to find our details on that person. Here are a few hints and suggestions to help in the process. If you have found their death date and a possible location, search for a Will on file. Those legal documents ...

    More

  • World War One Draft Registrations

    Jan 9

    Selective Service Act became effective into law on May 18, 1917 (nearly 100 years ago) with over 24.2 million (about 23 % of the US population) men born between 1872 and 1899 required to complete the registration cards. There were 3 registrations, for men residing in the U.S. — whether native born, naturalized, or alien — between the ages of 18...

    More

  • How to Save the Photos in Magnetic Albums

    Dec 27

    At one time using those magnetic albums with self-adhesive surfaces to arrange and hold in place photos was just about the only type of album used, especially in the 1960s-1990s. Magnetic albums aren’t magnetic at all. The pages have adhesive on them. The adhesive is acidic (aka very bad for photos). The photos can yellow and it also makes the ph...

    More

  • Christmas Day Photos

    Dec 25

    No matter the ages of those in the household celebrating Christmas this year, take the time to take photos. Don't worry about posing everyone just perfect, instead, have photos of having FUN. It can be while opening gifts, cleaning up the wrapping on the floor, the playing with a special gift received, finishing preparing the Christmas meal and of ...

    More

  • Photocroms

    Dec 21

    At the United States Library of Congress they have recently put online more than 6,000 old full color “photochroms” from around the United States and many locations in other parts of the world. The images date from the 1890s to the 1910s showing many scenes of hometowns. If you had an ancestor from one of these locations, it will be of special ...

    More

  • Google has ‘PhotoScan’

    Dec 19

    It can be a job scanning your vintage photos. However, Google has come up with an improved method for getting your photos in a digital format. PhotoScan is an app used to “take a picture of your pictures.” That is, it will snap photos of all those old pictures, even those in an album. It will then create enhanced digital scans, with automatic ...

    More

  • 75 Years Ago. Pearl Harbor.

    Dec 7

    It was 75 years ago that World War II came to the American shoreline with the 7:48 am attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the military facilities based there. Japan launched a surprise bomb attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. bases in the Pacific, such as Wake Island, Philippines, and Guam. Japan officially declared war on the USA and UK. Canada decl...

    More

  • US Army Serial Numbers

    Dec 5

    Americans have been in numerous wars over the decades but it was not until February 12, 1918, that there was the introduction of US Army serial numbers (SNs). Before that date the main method of identification of soldiers was by the 'roster rolls' or 'muster rolls', the listing of soldiers during a specific time period. The first service numbers ...

    More

  • Civil War Documents Scanned

    Dec 3

    The Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission (James I. Robertson Jr. Civil War Sesquicentennial Legacy Collection) spent several years going to counties across Virginia asking residents to look in their attics and forgotten chests to see if they had photos, documents, letters, journals, etc related to the American Civil War. ...

    More