Harris – Family Locket

RLP 346: The Mystery of Claude “Dock” Harris’ Nickname

Feb 24, 2025

Diana and Nicole explore the mystery of Diana’s great-grandfather’s nickname, Dock Harris. They discuss how his name was recorded as D.H., Dock H., or Dock in records, which was puzzling because it seemed like a nickname. They explain how this caused confusion for Diana’s father, Bob, when he began researching the family history. Bob knew his grandfather as Grandpa Harris and had no other information to go on. The family bible even listed his name...

RLP 261: Malissa Welch – Correcting Incorrect Parents

Jul 10, 2023

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Malissa Welch, Diana’s 2nd-great-grandmother. We discuss her life and sources we have found for her, and how we incorrectly attached the parents of Meredith Welch and Susannah early in our genealogy research. Later we discovered a conflict with her name which led to discovering the correct parents for Malissa. Transcript Nicole (1s): This is Research Like a Pro episode 261 Malissa Welch Correcting incorrect parents Welcome...

Oops: Correcting an Incorrect Set of Parents for Malissa (Welch) Harris, 1844-1887

Feb 5, 2023

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....

RLP 237: The Ancestor I’d Like to Meet: Ettie Belle Harris

Jan 23, 2023

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...

The Ancestor I’d Like To Meet: Ettie Belle Harris

Jan 8, 2023

Do you find yourself wanting to write more about your ancestors but needing some motivation? It can seem challenging to write a full history or biography, but what about small bites? If you could write a little each week, at the end of a year, you’d have 52 small bites. This year I’m committing to the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks yearly challenge.8 Each week brings a new prompt and an opportunity to explore...

The Adventures of Cowboy Bob: The Big Snowstorm

Jan 21, 2017

Memories are fleeting. Why do we remember some things in vivid detail and others not at all? As I’ve been writing stories based on my dad’s memories, I’ve realized that the stories he recorded were those that made an impact on him. Enough of an impact that 70 years after the event, he still recalled them vividly. Seeing the wonder of snow through my Arizona grandchildren’s eyes, I gained insight into my dad’s memory of...

Love Story inspired by David Isay Keynote at RootsTech

Feb 13, 2016

“It’s impossible not to love someone whose story you’ve heard.” This truth was spoken by David Isay of StoryCorps during his keynote at the Friday Opening Session of the RootsTech conference. The message of StoryCorps left a lasting impression on me as Isay beautifully illustrated how hearing stories of even strangers creates a connection. Most of my ancestors are strangers to me – but through their stories I feel a deep connection to them. “Every story matters.” -David Isay, StoryCorps...

Do You Have a Skeleton in your Family History Closet?

Oct 30, 2015

We all have them – ancestor stories that tend to be hushed up: illegitimate children, desertion, abuse, mental illness, etc. We call these life details “skeletons in the closet” because we like to imagine our ancestor’s lives as near perfect and may be tempted to bury these skeletons. What do we do when our family history research uncovers something unexpected? Recording these kind of details can be difficult. How do we tell our ancestor’s story with integrity and kindness?...

RLP 346: The Mystery of Claude “Dock” Harris’ Nickname

RLP 261: Malissa Welch – Correcting Incorrect Parents

Oops: Correcting an Incorrect Set of Parents for Malissa (Welch) Harris, 1844-1887

RLP 237: The Ancestor I’d Like to Meet: Ettie Belle Harris

The Ancestor I’d Like To Meet: Ettie Belle Harris

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