Blog – Page 27 – Family Locket

Psychological Benefits of Family History Research

In 2022, three Brigham Young University professors published a paper dealing with the psychological benefits of conducting family history work: Barry M. Lunt, Kelly R. Summers, David A. Wood, “Improving Psychological Well-Being of Young Adults by Conducting Family History Research at a Religious University,” The Journal of Genealogy and Family History 6 (2022): 66-73. You can read the article at https://doi.org/10.24240/23992964.2023.1234541. It shows that those who participate more in family history work have higher self-esteem, reduced anxiety, […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer June 4, 2023 Creating and Sharing Family History, Families and Children

RLP 255: The Education of Bobby Gene Shults

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s 52 Ancestors post in response to the prompt about an ancestor who was the first to graduate from high school or attend college. Diana wrote about her father, Bobby Gene Shults, the first of his ancestors to graduate from college. We review Bob’s autobiographical life story and discuss his schooling from the 1930s to the 1950s. Bob made use of the GI bill to help […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer May 29, 2023 Podcast

At the Cemetery: Ed and Florence Kelsey

Do you have memories of visiting the cemetery as a child on Memorial Day or other special days? My maternal grandparents are both buried in my hometown, and we decorated their graves every Memorial Day without fail. We would pick the May flowers and make beautiful baskets of iris and lilacs to fasten to the ground in front of the headstones. This tradition cemented in my child’s mind the importance of remembering those who […]

By Diana Elder May 28, 2023 Creating and Sharing Family History

RLP 254: Out of Place: Edward Raymond Kelsey and The Hobo Life

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s 52 ancestors post with the prompt “out of place.” She chose to write about her maternal grandfather, Edward Raymond Kelsey. After high school and a few years working at the railroad, he decided to become a hobo. This was about 1905. He stayed in hobo camps along the railroad lines and traveled throughout the northwest on the trains. Join us as we study the family […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer May 22, 2023 Podcast

Brick Wall Ancestor: Clemsy (Cline) Weatherford (1817- after 1880)

We all have brick-wall ancestors, and often they are the women in our family tree. In this 52 ancestors post, I share more about Clemsy Cline, one of my third great-grandmothers without a well-documented trail leading to her parents. When I first started researching Clemsy, other researchers attributed John Cline and Mrs. John Cline as her parents, so I added them to my tree. I’ve looked at Clemsy through the years but not known exactly […]

By Diana Elder May 21, 2023 Research Tips

RLP 253: How to Evaluate Sources in Family Trees

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about evaluating family trees and the sources in them to help us determine if a family tree is accurate. We review independent sources, primary information, and direct evidence. In the absence of direct evidence, we can often put together a body of indirect evidence to help us prove a parent-child link, but that requires a written conclusion. Often family trees are missing this element. Transcript Nicole Elder […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer May 15, 2023 Podcast

Memories of an Animal Lover: My Mother, Anna Mae (Kelsey) Shults (1928-2021)

What memories stand out about your parent or grandparent? As we think about their childhood and adult years, there may be common themes that run through their lives. Fun memories that I have center around my mother’s love of animals and her pets, especially her little dogs, who were such companions in her widowhood. Anna Mae Kelsey was born in mid-winter on 20 January 1928 to Florence (Creer) and Ed Kelsey at Burley, Cassia County, […]

By Diana Elder May 14, 2023 Creating and Sharing Family History

Uncovering the True Identity of James William Johnson: Part 3 Adding DNA Evidence

When researching the identity of an ancestor who may have changed his name, examining the people he associated with can lead to important connections. In part 1 of this series, we looked at using the FAN methodology (comparing Friends, Associates, and Neighbors). The timeline clearly showed that Patrick Alford changed his name to James William Johnson between 1879 and 1885 to hide from Texas law. In part 2, we added confirmation of the relationship between […]

By Michelle Mickelson May 10, 2023 Research Tips

RLP 252: How Accurate are Thrulines?

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about AncestryDNA’s Thrulines hypotheses. We respond to a listener question about how accurate Thrulines is. We discuss new AncestryDNA technology SideView and how they use that to split up matches by parent. We review strategies for analyzing Thrulines to see if it’s accurate or not. We talk about matches sharing small amounts of DNA and how they are often found in inaccurate Thurlines hypotheses. Transcript Nicole Elder […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer May 8, 2023 Podcast

Discovering and Writing a Family Secret: Review of Unearthed: A Lost Actress, A Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust

What would you do if your aunt gave you the charge never to forget your family’s history and then gave you a book about the family but forbade you to read it? For years, author, Meryl Frank, kept her promise to her aunt but did start researching the events during World War II in Lithuania that resulted in the death of her Jewish family. Eventually, her research led to uncovering the stories and finally to […]