Nicole Elder Dyer

About Nicole Elder Dyer

Nicole Dyer is a professional genealogist specializing in Southern United States research and genetic genealogy. She is the creator of FamilyLocket.com and the Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast. She co-authored Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide and Research Like a Pro with DNA and is an instructor for the study groups of the same name. She lectures at conferences and institutes and previously served as the secretary and publicity chair of the Pima County Genealogy Society. Nicole holds a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in History Teaching. At Family Locket Genealogists, Nicole is a project manager, editor, and researcher.

Favorite Reads of the Week: 20 February 2016

Feb 20, 2016

Today I’m sharing my favorite blog posts and genealogy news from around the web. I am especially fascinated by the Wall Street Journal piece about growing heirloom variety flowers – the same varieties your ancestors may have grown. I looked at some heirloom flower seed packets at our local nursery today, but decided I needed to scour my family stories for mentions of plants before I buy any. Also, I’m looking forward to the History Channel’s remake of the mini-series “Roots,” based on...

Ancestor Coloring Page

Feb 18, 2016

Need a way to share family stories with your kids more often? How about coloring pages? Every so often, we create a coloring page about one of our grandparents. While my son was coloring one of his Great Grandpa Elder today, he remembered that Great Grandpa passed away last year. He talked about missing him and wondered what he looked like when he was younger. As he thought about it, he colored this picture of Grandpa in the army. We...

Recreate an Ancestor Photo

Feb 16, 2016

Do you look like one of your grandparents? Do you have one of their dresses or coats? Then you might have fun doing this photo challenge from www.makefamilyhistory.org : recreate an ancestor photo. My daughter Alice now has my pink baby sweater knitted by my Grandma. I showed her a picture of me wearing the sweater and she instantly wanted to put it on. We pulled a mini Christmas tree out of storage and… done! We recreated...

Related to a U.S. President?

Feb 15, 2016

In honor of Presidents Day today, I thought I would pose the question – are you related to one of the presidents of the United States? I found out I was related to Dwight D. Eisenhower when I first started researching my Grandpa Shults’ side 14 years ago. My 3rd great grandmother, Eliza Ann Isenhour, was his fourth cousin. As you can see, the spelling of the last name morphed over the years. Doris Kearns...

Love Story inspired by David Isay Keynote at RootsTech

Feb 13, 2016

“It’s impossible not to love someone whose story you’ve heard.” This truth was spoken by David Isay of StoryCorps during his keynote at the Friday Opening Session of the RootsTech conference. The message of StoryCorps left a lasting impression on me as Isay beautifully illustrated how hearing stories of even strangers creates a connection. Most of my ancestors are strangers to me – but through their stories I feel a deep connection to them. “Every story matters.” -David Isay, StoryCorps...

Make a Pie Chart of your Ancestors’ Home Countries with Grandma’s Pie

Jan 27, 2016

Have you tried the fun little website called Grandma’s Pie? If so, you might be wondering how I changed the pie chart it generated for me from the orange color scheme into this blue one: In this post, I’ll show you how. First, for everyone who hasn’t seen Grandma’s Pie before, here’s a little introduction. When I was in high school, I thought it would be interesting to make a list of all the native countries of...

Tips for Researching in Small Increments of Time

Jan 20, 2016

I’ve been doing the 30 minute daily research challenge for two weeks now. Some days I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to get it done (like when I don’t start until after 10pm) and other days I spend much more than 30 minutes because I get on a track of discovery. Mostly, I try to keep my daily research to 30 minutes. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things for making the most...

Family History Valentine’s Day Decorations

Jan 14, 2016

After Christmas, my 5 year old was devastated to take down the tree, lights, and ornaments. So we quickly replaced the Christmas tree with our Valentine’s Day decorations! A couple years ago I started decorating for Valentine’s Day with old (and new) family photos of weddings. These are some of my favorite wedding photos from our family: Here’s how I decorated last year: And this is what I came up with this year: I framed a pretty...

Daily Research Challenge 2016

Jan 6, 2016

Janine from Organize Your Family History shared her 30×30 challenge the other day and I was inspired to do it too. I’m excited to join her in researching 30 minutes every day for the next 30 days! What better way to prepare for the RootsTech conference that I get to attend for the first time this year, February 3-6, in Salt Lake City. As I’m researching I’ll choose the classes that most apply to what I need...

Ancestor Photo Ornaments

Dec 26, 2015

Our ward Christmas party was a nativity display. We decided to create a family history display in one of the rooms with Christmas family traditions and ideas from the FamilySearch Christmas campaign, 5 Ideas for Creating Cherished Memories this Christmas Season. The second idea on the list was to create ancestor photo ornaments, so I decorated a small Christmas tree with a bunch of photo ornaments. There are a lot of ways to make photo ornaments,...

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About Nicole Elder Dyer

Favorite Reads of the Week: 20 February 2016

Recreate an Ancestor Photo

Related to a U.S. President?

Make a Pie Chart of your Ancestors’ Home Countries with Grandma’s Pie

Tips for Researching in Small Increments of Time

Family History Valentine’s Day Decorations

Daily Research Challenge 2016

Ancestor Photo Ornaments

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