Have you always wanted to attend RootsTech, but couldn’t travel to Salt Lake City? The silver lining in the worldwide pandemic has been the ability to attend conferences, institutes, and classes virtually. RootsTech is no exception, and to top it off, the conference is free! Typical of RootsTech, this conference will be groundbreaking in its scope. The map below shows the numbers of total registrants – over 300,000 and still growing. Those registrants live in...
Are you staring at the facts about your family – gathered from a variety of sources – and wondered how to write this in a fashion someone would actually read? If so, you are not alone. As family historians, we want to leave a legacy, yet turning dry facts into a compelling story is no easy task. Author Carol Baxter provides an example we can learn from in her biography, The Fabulous Flying Mrs. Miller: An...
Have you wondered how you could make a difference in the genealogy world? Your research may be fairly straightforward or have many challenges. For those researching African American ancestors, the brick wall appears relatively soon – generally prior to 1870. Dealing with the lack of surnames in the antebellum era, forced separation of families, and record loss requires a focused approach and pouring through many record collections. Fortunately, more useful records are becoming available and...
As family historians, we know the power of learning the stories of our ancestors. We’ve discovered how they overcame losing loved ones, economic struggles, mental and physical challenges, and more. We research from the comfort of our homes with many resources like computers, the internet, and access to records through online databases. What about the homeless, who are simply struggling for survival? Can learning their ancestor stories help them as well? In this guest post,...
Do you have Eastern European Jewish ancestry? Have you wondered about the historical events that might have affected your ancestors and how to discover their stories? Daniella Weiss Ashkenazy’s new book, Playing Detective with Family Lore: How plugging the holes in a family history unintentionally came to tell the saga of Jews in a microcosm showcases how a journalist set out to discover her family origins. The author provides the reader with informative footnotes on...
Do you have a forgotten story in your family history? One that might seem unbelievable until some fact checking proves it to be true? We all have ancestors whose story might be begging to be told. Could a family story been silenced due to shame, misunderstanding, negligence? If so we have a challenging task ahead of us to uncover more information and provide the perspective that comes with time. In Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten...
Today I’m sharing a guest post for children with some sweet printables for celebrating mother’s day with family history. First, kids can write down their memories of mom. Then moms can write down their memories of the child. What a sweet thing to look back on when children are older. The second printable is a family tree that children can fill out within the PDF file, if they like typing, or print and write on....
Shenley Puterbaugh is the founder of the website inspirefamilyhistory.com. I had the pleasure of meeting her at RootsTech! She is sharing a guest blog post today about how to help children have a discovery experience in family history. I bet you’ll get at least one fresh idea to try from her post. Check out her great ideas at inspirefamilyhistory.com as well! About Shenley Shenley was inspired to love family history when her mom told her...
Have you taken a DNA test for the fun of discovering your ethnicity estimate only to be blindsided with an unexpected relationship? If so you are not alone. With more people taking consumer DNA tests, family secrets from long ago and not so long ago are being revealed. How does one deal with a new half sibling or biological parent? These questions and more are addressed in Libby Copeland’s new book, The Lost Family: How DNA...
Have you taught the children in your life about food rationing? Charlotte’s timely post today is about a food shortage role-play activity she did with her children. I love that she taught about her grandmother’s experience with rationing in Hawaii during WWII and tied that together with today’s chaotic circumstances. I wholeheartedly agree with Charlotte that learning about our ancestors surviving troubled times gives us strength when our lives are upturned. I hope you enjoy...
