Ancestor surnames can be a challenge in research – especially when they begin with a vowel! Take, for instance, my Eisenhaur/Isenhour ancestors. My earliest ancestors emigrated from the German region of Europe in the 1700s and retained the spelling Eisenhauer until my ancestor, John, anglicized the spelling to Isenhour. Some branches of the family still use the Eisenhower spelling – such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower, my 4th cousin, 5 times removed. Nicole wrote about...
Do you have an ancestor who died fairly young? Have you discovered their story? My great-grandmother, Mary Margaret (Peterson) Creer, died in her mid-50s. Her daughter, Florence Matilda (Creer) Kelsey, my grandmother, was expecting her fifth child when the family gathered and took their last photo together in 1925. Mary would miss meeting most of her grandchildren and seeing her youngest children grow up. Although I never met Mary Margaret, stories and photos shed...
Do you have any ancestors who were lucky? Perhaps things always seemed to go their way or perhaps they really did win the lottery. Such was the case with John Royston’s orphan. Not only was this individual lucky in the land draw, but I was also lucky that this record was created because it became a key piece of evidence in linking generations. The Georgia 1827 Land Lottery Georgia is a state-land state meaning that...
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...
When I began my genealogy journey, I carefully sorted the papers inherited from my dad’s research and started building my family tree. Those were the days before online trees so I used Personal Ancestral File (PAF). I worked hard to document each person and generation with sources – using the newly digitized censuses available on Ancestry and research done at the Family Search Library in Salt Lake City. Eventually, though, I came to a stopping...
When thinking of an ancestor who was an outcast, who comes to mind? Various situations could result in a person becoming an outcast from their family or from society. These ancestors may be the subject of a family story that entails some kind of crime, misdeed, argument, or another event. Uncovering the facts behind the story can lead you on a quest to discover more. In this blog post, I’ll discuss an “outcast” in my...
Have you considered using social media to discover more about your ancestors? Social media can be a powerful tool – both to learn more about our ancestors and to share stories about them. What was social media before Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc? The local newspaper often featured community happenings, gossip columns, and reporting of every nature. I recently saw a Facebook post from a relative giving the history of the cabin that my grandfather, Edward...
Despite our best intentions, we all make mistakes as we fill out our family tree. Perhaps we were baby genealogists and simply didn’t know how to analyze records or maybe we were copying another cousin’s tree without verifying the information. For whatever reason, errors can be corrected and we can improve the veracity of our tree. An early mistake I made in my research was attaching the wrong parents to my ancestor, Malissa (Welch) Harris....
Do you have an ancestor who was the first in their family to graduate from high school or attend college? Many of our ancestors, out of necessity, needed to stop school after the 8th grade and start helping in the fields or the family business. On my paternal line, my father, Bobby Gene Shults, was the first to earn a college degree. With the theme of education for this week’s 52 ancestor post, I decided...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about our ancestor, Ettie Belle Harris, Diana’s paternal grandmother. Diana is doing the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. We discuss writing letters to relatives to learn about Ettie, an heirloom passed down from Ettie, and her life story. We also talk about a few tips for writing about ancestors. Transcript Nicole (2s): This is Research Like A Pro, episode 237...
