As genealogists and family historians, we love original records such as birth certificates, court records, family bibles, and deeds. We’re always hoping that a record will state a family relationship and clues to birth, marriage, and deaths – so key in our research. If we’re researching British Colonial America, we may become frustrated by the lack of records or wonder about the accuracy of the records we do find, especially if they seem to...
Writing the story of an ancestor’s military service can help us better understand their experiences. Correlating the records marking their service, the ancestor’s recollections, and historical context provides a fuller picture than any one of those three items alone. This process can also lead us on the hunt for additional records. For this Memorial Day post, I decided to use Artificial Intelligence to help correlate my father’s World War II Navy records with his...
Writing a family history book is a daunting task, one that many family historians hope to undertake someday. Reading how others tell their ancestors’ stories can give us ideas. In Buried Secrets: Looking for Frank and Ida, author Anne Hanson takes us along on her research quest. In the book, we learn how Anne discovered a huge secret about her paternal grandparents and the exhaustive research it took to uncover the truth. We’re reading Buried...
Reading examples of how other family historians share the stories, memories, facts, and photos they have acquired can inspire us with new ideas for sharing our own love of our ancestors. I recently read “Keeping the Watch: Caretaking The Hidden Value of a Family Heirloom ” by Patrick Blau. This is the story of five generations of Blau sons, each of whom becomes the caretaker of the family heirloom —a gold pocket watch. The book begins in...
Ancestral homes are an important part of our family history. We can research the home’s architecture and records, such as city directories, taxes, maps, newspapers, and more. For this 52 Ancestor blog post theme of “Home Sweet Home,” I researched and wrote about the Spanish Fork home of my great-grandparents, Charles Cannon Creer and Mary Margaret Peterson. Charles built the home for his bride to move into upon their marriage on 23 March 1892, and...
Lisa Fair, one of our Research Like a Pro graduates is sharing this guest post about her experience writing a family history book and formatting a bibliography. As she discusses, bibliographies usually get only a passing mention in citation lessons! She shares how she came up with her chosen format. I hope you enjoy her post. – Nicole I’ve decided that the bibliography for a family history book gets the short end of the...
When we read the stories of our ancestors, certain memorable instances can stay with us. One such instance from my own family history centers on my 2nd great-grandmother, Mariah (Brockhouse) Beddoes. I’ve always wondered at the story of how Mariah’s parents were so upset at her emigrating from their England home to the Utah Territory that they hid her little girl, Selina, in hopes that it would prevent the journey. I pictured myself as Selina...
We often think of our ancestors in isolation – focusing on just their immediate or extended family. But our ancestors were members of a broader community. They could have belonged to a church, a club, a fraternal organization, a service group, or a military unit. When we explore their membership in that group we gain more understanding of their lives. In this 52 ancestor’s post, I’ll highlight the life of Daniel Henrie, a member...
Have you been thinking about writing your life story but procrastinated because of not knowing how to start? What you might need is a beautiful journal with thoughtful prompts to make the recording of your memoirs an enjoyable and fulfilling project. My colleague, Lisa Lisson, has recently published a pair of journals titled My Life Story So Far: A Grandmother’s Journal and My Life Story So Far: A Grandfather’s Journal. Beautifully designed and illustrated, Lisa has...
Do you have a family story to tell? One that depicts a transformative era in an ancestor’s life or maybe a simple story of connection? You may be at a loss, not knowing where to begin. In Annette Gendler’s book, How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History, you will learn techniques to start you on the path of writing your own family stories. We are reading How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History as...
