Creating and Sharing Family History – Page 11

Exciting Innovations at the BYU Record Linking Lab

Aug 25, 2018

Joseph P. Price, a professor of economics at BYU, presented at Education Week about his innovative Record Linking Lab. Summarizing from their website, the purpose of the Record Linking Lab is to improve the quality and coverage of the FamilySearch Family Tree by developing tools that link families and individuals across records. Those assisting in this effort include BYU students and academic researchers; yet the Record Linking Lab also works with FamilySearch.org. Their big ideas include...

Don’t Sing at the Table: Life Lessons From My Grandmothers – Summer Book Selection

Jul 17, 2018

What life lessons have you learned from a beloved ancestor? Have you recorded them or even thought about them? Reading bestselling author Adriana Trigiani’s book Don’t Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers might be just the inspiration you need to get started. In the introduction, Trigiani writes: My grandmothers bestowed on me, through their example, the importance of developing character, rooted in kindness; and a spirit that might negotiate loss and rebound from...

Farmer Ancestors: Family History Pretend Play for Kids

Jun 14, 2018

This post is part of the #FHforChildren Linkup, “Learning Family History Through Play.” My children love to dress up and pretend, so I’ve been brainstorming ways to teach them about the past as they pretend. Role playing is a fun way to learn how people work. From doctors to train conductors, kids love imitating the occupations of grown ups. I thought this would be a good way to teach them about our farming ancestors. Were...

12 Discovery Activities at FamilySearch.org

Jun 4, 2018

FamilySearch.org offers many ways to discover ancestors. Below is a list of the email campaigns and discovery activities that FamilySearch has created to help users discover interesting facts about ancestors, including their occupations, obituaries, headstones, and how much we look like our ancestors. Many of these activities are perfect for youth activities or for helping children become acquainted with ancestors for the first time. How does it work? If you have an account with FamilySearch...

Family History Book Series for Children

May 31, 2018

Family History is for Everyone: Becky Villareal, Teacher and Children’s Book Author When should a child start to learn about their family’s history? Nicole and I believe it’s never too early. We are passionate about sharing family history with children and love to meet other’s who share our sentiments. We recently connected with retired elementary school teacher and author, Becky Villareal, who has written a series of children’s books aimed at interesting them in learning...

Review of Gene Heritage – a Third Party DNA and Inherited Traits Analysis Tool

May 9, 2018

Have you heard of GeneHeritage.com? The owners of this third party DNA analysis tool, E. Castedo Ellerman and Joseph Silver, contacted us and offered to show us how their company can analyze your raw DNA results and give new information about inherited traits. As you probably know, I am fascinated by inherited traits. I think it’s an especially useful way to begin teaching children about genetic genealogy. Here are some posts I’ve written about this...

What’s In a History? “Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation”

May 4, 2018

When is the last time your immersed yourself in the history of a research locality? You might know the records well and have a basic understanding of the history and geography, but reading a full length book is an excellent way to bolster your genealogy knowledge. As a southern United States researcher I often come across land records that state something like “land obtained by the Creek Session of 1832.” I had a vague understanding...

8th Grade Family History Projects in North Carolina

Apr 24, 2018

I’m excited to share a guest blog post today by Kristen Ziller and Laura Richardson, two amazing teachers I met at RootsTech. They were there sharing about their 8th grade family history project at the Family Tree Maker booth. They have used their teaching expertise to craft a year long project for 8th graders to learn about their family history through primary sources family stories. Kristen Ziller at RootsTech Introduction Our journey with family history projects...

Doing a Family History Mystery at an LDS Stake Activity Day Event

Apr 18, 2018

I have a great family history activity for children to share today – teaching children to find names for the temple by doing family history research with historical records! The activity was created by Alana Anderson. Alana lives in an LDS stake near me in Tucson. She is an activity day leader and did the Finding Franklin Time Machine Activity with her group. It went so well, that she decided to create a “Family History...

Using DNA to Find Biological Parents: 3 Tips to Get Started and a Case Study

Apr 10, 2018

Are you an adoptee looking for your biological parents? Maybe you’re helping an adoptee or you have someone in your family tree who was adopted. In each case, you might have tested with the various DNA companies and have a slew of results but you’re stymied with what to do next. I’m currently helping my adopted sister, Nancy, locate her biological father. Years ago I helped her find her bio mother using traditional genealogy sleuthing....