I wish I had more time to read all the wonderful blog posts and articles that are posted each week about genealogy and family history! Here are some of the posts I did get to read. I love the Eyre’s idea to make an ancestor book, and am excited about the new Genetic Genealogy Workbook by Blaine Bettinger and Debbie Wayne. There were lots of great tips for using FamilySearch.org, and in the Family History is for Everyone section, you’ll find an interesting new website that tells if you’re a cousin to Donald Trump.
Mother’s Day
5 Ways You Can Make Your Mother’s Day Special by Aimee at The Apricot Tree. “Take a picture. Most moms are usually behind the camera. We aren’t in enough pictures with our kids! Take this special chance to gather your children around and ask someone to take a picture for you. This could be a special tradition. You’ll love having a collection of Mother’s Day photos to look back on over the years.”
Surprise Mother’s Day Sale at Family Tree DNA by Roberta Estes at DNA Explained. “I can tell you personally that the best gift I ever gave my Mom was her DNA test. It has opened so many doors and she was so fascinated by the results. It has continued giving in the decade since she has been gone.”
Three Ways to Honor Your Mother Who Has Passed by Kathryn Gonzales at the Ancestry Blog. “Not only will you be paying tribute to her, but with each of these activities, you’ll be working to preserve her legacy for future generations.”
Families and Children
FamilySearch for 8-year olds by Jana Greenhalgh at The Genealogy Kids. “Did you know that children (ages 8-12) can have their own FamilySearch account with a parent’s permission? Owen is 8-years old. This afternoon he said, “Mom, can I do some family history on the computer?”
It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye…or a Finger! by Elizabeth Campbell at Heritage Hunter 411. “I use quite a few of my grandfather’s stories while I am teaching my sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. … Grandpa lived through two world wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Top parenting ideas, No. 2 — The ‘Ancestor Stories Book’ by Richard and Linda Eyre at Deseret News. “As our children were growing up, these “ancestor stories” became their favorite bedtime stories. Each connected in some way to a value — courage, responsibility, respect, sensitivity — and they were always told with the ancestor tree as a reference point.”
Research Tips
Was My Ancestor Lynched in Ga.? by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Meaghan E.H. Siekman, NEHGS Researcher at The Root. “Your family lore details a tragedy shared by too many black American families: the brutality of lynching…You may also want to gather more information on the family to determine if Moultrie, Colquitt County, Ga., is the right location to be searching for a newspaper article, or if there might be more to your family story. ”
New Book Coming Soon: Genetic Genealogy in Practice by Debbie Parker Wayne at Deb’s Delvings in Genealogy. “We think this book brings together the genetic and the genealogy concepts and techniques needed to solve family history problems using DNA as one more tool in the genealogy toolbox. We hope you enjoy the book and learn more about genetic genealogy.”
Practice What You Preach by Lindsay Fulton at Vita Brevis. “Then I spoke to my aunt, the very aunt who gave me the postcards to begin with, and she knew exactly who Lol was – she was Laura (Wharton) Burk. And as theorized, my aunt was able to confirm all of my suspicions… If only I had followed my own advice!! Maybe I wouldn’t have been so frustrated!!”
5 Types of Maps Every Genealogist Should Know by Amy Johnson Crow at AmyJohnsonCrow.com. “Maps are incredibly useful in our genealogy. They can put our ancestors in context with their surroundings like few other sources can. There are numerous types of maps, each with its own benefits to our research. Here are 5 types that you should know.”
Creating and Sharing Family History
Ideas for re-purposing family history items and sharing family history with others.
Make Your own Heirloom Recipe Tea Towel by Debra Norton of TheStar.com. “Turn treasured recipes into thoughtful keepsake gifts perfect for Mother’s Day using iron-on transfers.”
From Ireland to a Baltimore steel business: One family’s history inspires two sisters’ art by Brian Drouin at NewsWorks in Delaware. “Nancy and Jane Kavanagh are artists and sisters whose work is fueled by their family history.”
Timely Tips for Preserving Family Heirlooms by Steven and Jill Decker at the FamilySearch Blog. “In speaking of preserving heirlooms, or any objects, Randy Silverman, head of the Preservation and Binding Department at the University of Utah, said “It’s an uphill battle,” and told FamilySearch, “The first question to be asked is not how, but why?” He offers two cardinal rules. First, don’t sort while you’re grieving…Second, after the grieving process has passed and you begin the sorting process, be sure to identify a caretaker who will understand her or his role and ask the vital questions: To whom is this important? To whom do I leave this?”
Sort, Scan, Share: How to NOT Drown in Family Memorabilia by Jodi Bash at Family History Daily. “My client was overwhelmed with her extensive genealogy collection. She had been the willing recipient of family documents for as long as she could remember. “Give it to Shelly, she’s the family history buff!” But now, Shelly was drowning. She needed to downsize her home. Her grown children were seemingly uninterested in genealogy and inheriting a massive collection, as were her siblings. She had no idea where to start with the heaps of family memorabilia that frankly she no longer wanted it cluttering up her space.”
Old Quilt and Old Lace Has New Life to Show and Tell by Sue McPeak at Collect In Texas Gal. Sue tells the story behind about an old quilt that was remade into a bag. “I wonder if anyone will notice Sudie’s Granddaddy Chap’s blood stains hidden under the pocket and spattered here and there on the inside of the New/Old Bags!”
FamilySearch
Tips for using FamilySearch.org
All Your Family Stories – In One Place by Glen N. Greener at the FamilySearch Blog. “Caution: Do not open the All the Stories app if you have anything else to do. I opened it just to get an idea of what it is so I could write a review of it later. After two hours of sitting in a chair I didn’t like, my back hurt so much I finally stopped. All the Stories is an amazing app. You sign in, allow access to your family, and a list of all the stories anyone has posted on your family tree comes up. It’s as user friendly as anything I’ve seen: easy to access, no setup, instant results, and the results are important.”
God Bless the Indexer by Jennifer Kerns Davis at the FamilySearch Blog. “About a year later, I decided to revisit this family. After searching indexed records on FamilySearch.org for a few minutes, I couldn’t believe how quickly I was able to find a marriage record that named the maiden name of the mother in question, along with her parents. In the time I deferred my search for this family the year before, someone had indexed the exact record I needed!”
Look Before Jumping Into Family History Projects by Twila Van Leer of Deseret News. “What we found right at the outset was that there already were several biographies of the type we envisioned and that there were several dozen items on his personal profile page at FamilySearch.org that pretty thoroughly chronicled his life.”
Family History Moment: Behind a Wall by Richard Eugene Braegger Jr. at Deseret News. “The owners … had bought the house and with an architect had restored it to as nearly the original as they could. In so doing, they removed a wall that had the old fireplace and oven behind it. In the oven was a metal box with some old documents in it, among which were old coins, a seventeen [hundred] Bible, … and a book of the Braithwaite’s written … by G.E. Braithwaite.”
Hundreds Gather at First Canadian Black History Summit by Tracie Cayford Cudworth at the LDS Newsroom. “Nearly 500 people recently gathered for the inaugural Canadian Black History Summit…The free conference, held April 16, 2016, was co-hosted by the nonprofit FamilySearch International (the genealogical arm of the Church) and the Ontario Black History Society. …“We are tearing down walls, because not having an ancestry is like not existing. The records we will be releasing in the fall are making it possible for individuals to find themselves for the first time,” said Reed.”
The FamilySearch Catalog, WorldCat and ArchiveGrid — Part One by James Tanner at Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. “One of the first things to realize about the Catalog is that it also contains links and references to the digitized, online collections of records being converted from paper and microfilm in the Family History Library.”
Family History is For Everyone
Articles that tell why people are interested in their roots.
Am I Related to Trump? by Nina Godlewski at Tech Insider. “Appropriately called Cousin Trump, the site was built by AncestorCloud, a genealogy site that connects family researchers with genealogists and historians who can help them piece together their family trees.”
Heritage, Ancestry Important to Local Native American Student by Tom Smith of Times-Daily.com in Florence, Alabama. “He said at the summit, he learned about Native American ways and traditions when it came to farming. “We talked a lot about our ancestors, how they farmed and grew their crops, how they fed their families,” Hickman said.”
Turkish Genealogists Help Families Uncover Their Roots: Why people in Turkey are interested in learning about their ancestors.
We Must Hand Down the Heirloom of our Faith by Mordechai Ben-Dat of the Canadian Jewish News. “Let us resolve not to take away from our children what our ancestors gave us, lovingly, to pass forward.”
Family Tree Mass in West London by Judy Masters at Independent Catholic News. “Fr Angelus also suggested that sin and spiritual deprivation had been passed down through the family line. A way to deal with this generational dysfunction is to rectify past generations via forgiveness and conversion.”
The Journey From Hobbyist to Professional Genealogist by Lori Samuelson at Genealogy At heart. “I read the journals at my local library while my kids were either in story time and later, while they were doing their own school required research reports. … It was definitely difficult to fit into our busy schedule while working full time and caring for children and elderly parents. I tried to select one activity a quarter and those that I could bring the family along with me. “
May I Introduce to You…Colleen Murdoch by Michelle Taggart at GeneaBloggers. “I have cried many tears over ancestors who I never knew and wish I had known. I have learned of family who died in workhouses, War Heroes who died in WWI and those who led a simple, but seemingly happy life. Since I am curious by nature, my family research then turned into a historical one – as I believe it should in order to build a true picture of the lives of my ancestors. This in turn compelled me to start writing about them and the lives they led. I wanted to “remember” them.”
Why U.S. Politics Keeps My Grandma, A Holocaust Survivor, Awake At Night by Naomi Martin at The Dallas Morning News. “Growing up, we heard my grandma tell us her story. Passover took on a personal meaning: God led the Jewish slaves out of Egypt – and out of the concentration camps. Scarred from her starvation, she never let anyone waste a crumb of food.”
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