When researching your ancestors, have you considered a deep dive into the locality through reading a book? Although articles on Wikipedia or other websites can give us an overview of an area, we might be missing the deeper nuances that can be found in an in-depth scholarly treatment of our research locale. I recently read A History of the Ozarks, Volume 1: The Old Ozarks by Brooks Blevins. With several ancestral lines settling in the portion of Southern Missouri and northern Arkansas that makes up the Ozark region, I was hoping to gain insight into my ancestor’s actions. The book...
When he was 9 years old, my grandpa got shot in the cheek while playing cowboys and Indians. He told us this story over and over, showing us his gold tooth that replaced the one that got shot out. I made the story into an illustrated storybook for my children. I’m going to share how I did it today as part of our “Family History for Children” blog link up. This month’s theme is about creating family history related gifts, since Christmas is coming up and if you’re going to make a book for Christmas, you’ll have to get it...
“You are not necessarily a fool because you didn’t go to school.” – Lewis Michaux For February, our children’s book club is The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, for grades 4 and up. Nelson is the grand-niece of Lewis Henri Michaux (1895-1976), owner of the National Memorial African Bookstore. She created the story of her great-uncle and his passion for books by researching in family archives, articles, books, transcripts of interviews, and interviewing Michaux’s son. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase,...
Did you know that FamilySearch has a new partner, Geneanet? Along with Ancestry, FindMyPast, American Ancestors, and My Heritage, you can now sign up for Geneanet and access their vast genealogical library. Why would you want to add another partner? Hidden in the thousands of books and newspapers digitized by Geneanet might be just the clue you need. I’ll show you how to get started and give you an example of what I found. Because of FamilySearch’s partnership with Ancestry, FindMyPast, American Ancestors, My Heritage, and now Geneanet, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have access to these websites...
This month for our kid’s book club we are reading Homeplace, by Anne Shelby, with illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin. This out of print gem was published in 1995 and teaches about ancestors, generations, farm life, and the feeling of connectedness we receive by physically being in a place special to our family history. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase, we receive a small commission but it doesn’t change the price of the item. Thank you for your support! In Homeplace, the illustrations tell most of the story. The simple words spoken by an...
Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box is a poignant, true story about a boy named Michael who went with his granddaddy to vote in the civil-rights era segregated south. It’s the kind of family story that gets told and retold because it is filled with joy, excitement, pain, and inspiration. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase, we receive a small commission but it doesn’t change the price of the item. Michael lives on the farm with his grandparents, where he learns lessons about work and patience from doing chores and fishing...
If you read just one book this year, read The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. Since we’ll be cheering on our favorite athletes in Brazil this month, this is the perfect book to get into the Olympic spirit. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase, we receive a small commission but it doesn’t change the price of the item. Step back in time and discover the sport of rowing. Set in the northwest, mainly in Seattle, this book...
When is the last time you looked at your family tree chart and thought about the dash? The dash as in: Edward Raymond Kelsey 1886-1972 or Rachel Cox 1827-1870. The dash represents everything between birth and death. You might know a lot about your ancestor’s life or you might know a little. Your family tree chart doesn’t know or care how much you know, all it provides is the dash. It’s up to us as family historians to discover the rest of the story. I mentioned this concept of “the dash” in my family history class a few weeks ago and a...
For the last several years, I have been keeping my digital photos organized on my hard drive by year and month. Although it’s nice being able to find my photos when I need them, I would like even more to to have hard copies of them to show off. My goal is to put the photos in an album or book so my kids can easily look back on our family’s memories – which is what my mother did for me. She created albums with our family and individual photos over the years for each of us kids. When I moved out, she gave me...
For May, the Family Locket Book Club for Kids is reading “Me and My Family Tree” by Joan Sweeney, illustrated by Annette Cable. We are sharing two family tree projects to do along with reading and discussing the book. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a small commission but it doesn’t change the price of the item. Kids love learning about their place in the world. Joan Sweeney’s other books, Me on the Map, Me and My Amazing Body, Me and the Measure of Things, Me Counting Time: From Seconds to...
