Today's episode of Research Like a Pro is about copyright and plagiarism for genealogists. Have you ever wondered what the rules are for using others' work? When is it ok to use works whose copyright may have expired? How can you know if sharing something in your family history book or blog is fair use or not? Come listen to our discussion of these important topics. Links Plagiarism and Copyright for Genealogists by Diana at Family Locket Elizabeth Shown Mills’ QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism—Five “Copywrongs” of Historical Writing The National Genealogical Society has published “Guidelines for Sharing information with Others”...
How do you learn history? Watching a movie? Taking a course? Reading a historical novel? Discovering the nuances of time and place can make all the difference in our ability to make connections in our family history. Personally, I have found the historical novel, based on research, to be my favorite learning vehicle. A memorable story engages our brain and helps to absorb more information. The Family Locket Book Club on Goodreads is featuring Isle of Canes by Elizabeth Shown Mills as its summer selection and I am pleased to introduce you to the historical novel that plunged me into...
Today's episode of Research Like a Pro is about a case study Diana wrote about the father of Mary French. Determining the maiden name and parents of a woman born in the late 1700s is one of the most difficult genealogical undertakings. Because women were not mentioned in many of the records of the era, few sources exist to prove their parentage. Combine that with record loss and the task becomes even more difficult. Descendants of Ignatius Bryan, born about 1775 in Maryland and died 1803 in Hardin County, Kentucky have long wondered about the origins of his wife Mary....
Today's episode of Research Like a Pro is about the Kinship Determination Project (KDP), the narrative family history work sample portfolio element submitted to the Board for Certification of Genealogists. The KDP element shows your ability to prove parent-child links as well as tell the story of a family in their unique place and time. There are three formats of narrative family histories - narrative genealogy, narrative lineage, and narrative pedigree. We discuss these terms and the numbering systems that go with them. We also discuss proof statements, summaries, and arguments, and what these look like. Links Kinship Determination: From...
Do you have an ancestor who emigrated from another country yet left no story about the why and how? Leaving a home and traveling to a new place, learning a new language and culture - these are significant events in our family story that can strengthen us in our own challenges. How do you discover the story of an ancestor? The Research Like a Pro process will not only help you organize a research project to break down a brick wall, it can give you the tools needed to research and write your ancestor's narrative. Nancy Gilbride Casey is an...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to put information from records into a table to help you organize the data and make connections. Nicole tells about a land study that she did and organizing lots of deeds by clustering the rows in the table by the names of the witnesses. Diana talks about showing data about a person's age from each census year with a table. Join us for a discussion of using tables for research reports! Links How to Add a File to Multiple Folders in Google Drive - YouTube Google help article Go to...
Have you thought about writing a family history story or book to share with your family? Maybe you have a famous ancestor who has grown larger than life with each subsequent generation and you'd like to find out the the real story. You might want to discover more about the bits and pieces of an ancestor's life that have been passed down. If so, the Research Like a Pro process can give you an organized methodology to tackle this type of project. Once I had written the Research Like a Pro blog posts, I wanted to try out the...
Do you need to escape into the pages of a good old-fashioned mystery with a genealogical twist? Then let me introduce you to author, Nathan Dylan Goodwin, and the fictional Morton Farrier, forensic genealogist. I'd been hearing about Nathan's books for some time, but missed meeting him at RootsTech 2018 when he made the journey across the pond to hob nob with fellow genealogists. I decided the first book in his series, Hiding the Past : A Genealogical Crime Mystery, would be perfect for our fall book club selection. There is something about settling down by the fireplace on a dark,...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to deal with and write about family secrets that we uncover during genealogy research. Often these skeletons in the closet bring up difficult emotions and threaten to upset family members. As the historians in our family, do we have a duty to tell the story? How should we tell it? Diana shares some thoughts about uncovering how her great grandfather died, and how another great grandfather was committed to a mental hospital. I will share about the illegitimate children I found in one family line as well as the ancestor...
What life lessons have you learned from a beloved ancestor? Have you recorded them or even thought about them? Reading bestselling author Adriana Trigiani's book Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers might be just the inspiration you need to get started. In the introduction, Trigiani writes: My grandmothers bestowed on me, through their example, the importance of developing character, rooted in kindness; and a spirit that might negotiate loss and rebound from grief to love more deeply. . .In dark moments when despair kicks joy to the curb, and I feel I don't have it in me...
