Today, Phil Gregory tells how he got started in family history in our second installment of the “Family History is for Everyone” series. Phil says, “I think we should all know where we came from, at least in some basic way.” He tells about the value of sharing records freely online and the discovery of his Irish ancestry. I met Phil six years ago while searching google for more information about a branch of my family tree...
As part of the Family Locket Book Club, we’ll be featuring a children’s book each month. Please share your comments on the books in our Goodreads group or in the comments section! The criteria for the children’s books we share will be: books that are about someone’s ancestors books that give ideas for writing family history stories for children books that teach about genealogy and family history books that inspire young people to learn more about...
Do you love to read books about real people overcoming real challenges? Are you interested in writing your own family’s story of trials and triumph? Nicole and I share a love of reading good books and a love of writing family stories, so put those together and you have the Family Locket Book Club. Join us in our quest to discover books that amaze, inspire, and uplift. Read the book and share your thoughts in...
Do you have a compiled genealogy book with numbers assigned to each individual? What do those numbers mean and how can you trace your family with them? If you have wondered how to navigate the long blocks of numbered text in these books, you’re not alone. Last September, my friend Gina and I were chatting about family history when she showed me a genealogy book compiled by one of her husband’s relatives. She let me borrow it. As I flipped through it, I realized how daunting...
Do you have a family heirloom sitting around gathering dust? Curious about the ancestor who owned it? Are you trying to find some ways to interest your teen in family history? Introduce them to this month’s Instagram challenge at makefamilyhistory.org and watch the magic begin. Teens love social media. Combine that with a fascinating family heirloom and you’ve got them hooked. I don’t have any teens left at home, but I am helping a...
Today, we have a guest post by one of our readers, Lindsey Crouch. Lindsey found our post about teaching youth to use census records, then adapted it for a younger age group. She’s here to share her documents and lesson plan so anyone can recreate the activity to teach children about census records. Enjoy! -Nicole —- Hi, I’m Lindsey I’m originally from Idaho and graduated from Utah State in social work. I’m a life-long learner and a mom...
According to D. Joshua Taylor at the Green Valley (AZ) Genealogical Society seminar yesterday, the stereotypical genealogist is a 65 year old white female. He learned this when he dedicated a separate web browser for his genealogy google searches only. Google built a profile based on these searches to target him for advertisements. He found out from friends at google that google thought he was a 65 year old white female. We got a...
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...
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...
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...