Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s 52 Ancestors post in response to the prompt about an ancestor who was the first to graduate from high school or attend college. Diana wrote about her father, Bobby Gene Shults, the first of his ancestors to graduate from college. We review Bob’s autobiographical life story and discuss his schooling from the 1930s to the 1950s. Bob made use of the GI bill to help...
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...
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 Diana’s road trip to Oklahoma to visit sites relevant to her great-grandparents, William Huston Shults and Dora Algie Royston. She shares her experiences finding cemeteries, visiting small towns, and reading her ancestors’ stories as they drove around. She also shares a few tips for preparing for a family history road trip, including bringing a map and printing out the histories of your ancestors before you go....
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s Shults research project to determine if the parent-child link between Hickman Monroe Shults and Martin Shults is accurate. Today is part two of this series and we talk about her research plan to incorporate DNA evidence and documentary evidence into the report. We discuss Thrulines, locality research in Alabama, AncestryDNA communities, exploring DNA tools, and creating a research plan. Transcript Nicole Dyer (0s): This is...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s RLP with DNA 4 Study Group project to prove the parentage of Hickman Monroe Shults, her 3rd-great-grandfather. Long standing documentary research has shown that Hickman was the son of Martin Shults, but Diana shares how she wanted to test this research with DNA evidence. She shares the first four steps of the research like a pro with DNA process and her progress. Transcript Nicole (1s):...
The Adventures of Cowboy Bob: Texas Tricks and Trouble Stories are a powerful way to connect to the past. The trick is finding a way to share them that conveys the emotion and passion of the original telling. My dad had a childhood filled with adventures and he loved to tell them to his children and grandchildren. But how to pass those treasured tales on to future generations? To preserve them in a way that...
Do you know a memory keeper? The person in the family who captures a moment in time with a photo or video, sharing and displaying, collecting and keeping? I have the good fortune to be the daughter of a memory keeper. As long as I can remember, my mother, Anna Mae Kelsey, had a camera in her hand, snapping photos of birthday parties, family vacations, babies. Those photos went into picture frames and albums. Her simple...
Sometimes a gem of story can be discovered from clues in our family histories. My parents recorded my grandfather telling his life history in the 1970’s. After relating the basic facts of his life story, Grandpa began to loosen up and with his memory jogged, he started to tell some of the most memorable events of the early years. His tale of the snake and my dad’s bluetick coonhound should have been one I recognized,...
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...