Blog – Page 123 – Family Locket

each of us is a book waiting to be written quote

Favorite Reads of the Week: 2 April 2016 – writing our own stories, translation, and teaching kids history with ancestor stories

“Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, when written, results in a person explained.” -Thomas M. Cirignano This was quoted in an article at Write My Journey about the value of writing your own story. Rosemary Osborne writes, “You can never know the difference family information will make to people’s lives not only in appreciating their heritage but also understanding the DNA of their personality, character and relationships.” Many of the […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer April 2, 2016 Favorite Reads of the Month

“Dark Enough to see the Stars in a Jamestown Sky” – April Book Club Selection

Have you ever researched an ancestor so extensively that you felt like you knew them? Have you wished you could tell their story in a way that would do justice to their life experiences? Connie LaPallo did just that with our April book selection: “Dark Enough to see the Stars in a Jamestown Sky.” Her journey in writing the story of her ancestor, Joan Peirce, one of the few women who survived the Jamestown […]

By Diana Elder April 1, 2016 Book Club, Creating and Sharing Family History

“Who’s Who in My Family?” by Loreen Leedy – Lesson Plan Ideas, Family Tree Diagram Activity, and Discussion Questions

For this month’s Kids’ Book Club we’re reading Loreen Leedy’s book, Who’s Who in My Family Tree? It’s perfect for teaching kids about family tree diagrams, second cousins, great uncles, and great grandparents, and you can even create a fun family tree when you’re done reading. Who’s Who in My Family? By Loreen Leedy (This is an affiliate link. If you click the link and purchase the item, we receive a small commission but it doesn’t change the price of […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer April 1, 2016 Families and Children, Kids Book Club

3 Tips to Focus Your Research With An Objective

Have you ever been sucked into the whirlpool of internet record searches and an hour or two surfaced wondering where you’ve been and what you’ve accomplished? It is so easy to get distracted by all the goodies that are available online: census records, birth certificates, cemetery records, and so much more. How can you put some order into your research? Try formulating an objective and watch your efforts come into focus. I recently started my […]

By Diana Elder March 30, 2016 Accreditation, Organizing, Research Tips

Strengthening Children Through Family History: Bruce Feiler’s Tips from RootsTech 2016

At the end of Bruce Feiler’s inspirational keynote talk at RootsTech in February, he encouraged listeners to do four things: 1 – “Find a way to connect your family story with the oldest stories ever told.” 2 – “Find a way to not just talk about the green and bountiful moments, but about the moments in exile, in desert, in pain.” 3 – “Find a way to take your passion for family history, and pass […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 28, 2016 Creating and Sharing Family History, Families and Children, Sharing Stories

Favorite Reads of the Week: 26 March 2016

My favorite article this week is from Deseret News about starting with hearts, not charts, and the implications for involving the next generation in family history. CEO Steve Rockwood shares why this is FamilySearch’s new mantra for recruiting beginners. He said, “Starting with a story … would ultimately lead to the important data. … “Let’s start with something that everyone can participate in, everyone can get excited about.” ‘Start with the heart vs. the chart’ and share family stories […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 26, 2016 Favorite Reads of the Month

The Scraps of a Well-behaved Woman’s Life Part II: Three Steps for Understanding your Ancestor’s Leavings

How well do you know the women in your recent family’s history? Have you wondered how they weathered the changes of the 20th century? Do you know of their contributions to community? As part of Women’s History Month, I went in search of my 20th century ancestor to determine her involvement in public service. My reward was discovering facets of my grandmother’s life that just needed to be contextualized to give them meaning. Researching 20th […]

By Diana Elder March 23, 2016 Research Tips

Favorite Reads of the Week: 19 March 2016

Many articles and blog posts were about Irish roots this week, which I thoroughly enjoyed as we celebrated our Irish ancestry for St. Patrick’s Day. Amy Johnson Crow wrote a fascinating article refuting advice in an AARP bulletin which said to burn old family letters when de-cluttering. Laura Hedgecock’s thoughtful response about finding her parents’ love letters was equally interesting. A BBC article discussed what happens to our Facebook pages when we die – and how […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 19, 2016 Favorite Reads of the Month

The Scraps of a Well-behaved Woman’s Life: Florence Creer Kelsey Part I

“Well-behaved women seldom make history” was penned by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in 1976. Do you have a well-behaved woman in your family’s history? A woman who lived through the astounding changes of the 20th century and quietly worked to make a difference? To celebrate Women’s History Month, you might want to reexamine her life from a different perspective and tell her story. I discovered a single scrapbook page that my grandmother, Florence […]

By Diana Elder March 16, 2016 Research Tips