Obituaries Folder

In scrabbling around (I have tons of paper, notebooks, newspaper clippings, etc.), I found one folder that held "Obituaries".  

 I noticed that I had gotten the basic (vital) facts from the first obit, but had neglected to record the whole obituary as written, ....you know, the part with relatives, brief life sketch, etc.

Everyone deserves to be remembered (you will often hear that sentiment from a genealogist or see it in written materials).  What I have done in the past, finding a place to put the obituary information/sentiment, as well as the vital "facts", is to enter it at FamilySearch.org, on the personal profile "page" for that person.  Located at the top of the items listed, including details for birth date, etc., is a heading for "Life Sketch".  You can easily enter the detailed obit information, here under this section.  

The obituary itself, or rather an "Image" of it can be added under the Memories option.  There are other options, as well.  You can read the obituary and by this I mean that you can vocally read it and add it as a recording, also a "Memories" feature.

Questions?  Please contact me at margaret.harris@gmail.com if you need further instructions.  

Helpful Hints from Ancestry.com

When working on your family history, it is helpful to receive hints and tidbits of educative stuff!  This is a message I received from Ancestry.com as I was "unpacking" my DNA results:
 1850–1875

Disrupted by the Civil War

North Alabama Settlers

When several years of depression forced cotton prices to plummet and banks to collapse, thousands of farmers left Alabama and joined other migrants en route to cheap or free land in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Market prices improved leading up to the Civil War, a war that left the state divided in the north, which thousands of Southern Unionists called home. Alabama lost more than 25,000 men to the war and  many farms were destroyed. It also brought an end to the enslaved labor the plantation system was built on and laid the foundation for Alabama’s iron and steel industry.

[Does anyone have a personal story about this event impacting their family]?

My Ancestry DNA results are in!

So, I recently did my second DNa test, this one, via Ancestry.com.

My first test was with FTDNa.com.    I have a warm spot in my heart for that company (it was my first), and I trust their lab; they are doing an awesome job out there in Texas!  However, you won't always find a lot of family trees posted on that website.

Consequently, I  uploaded my gedcom/database, (created from my fave genealogy software, RootsMagic.com), to as many family tree websites as possible.  MyHeritage.com took my raw data and has, so far, been very useful in putting me in touch with matches, but again, not a lot of family trees.  I also uploaded my raw data to WikiTree.com, Gedmatch.com and maybe a few other websites that I can't think of, right now.  

Just for the heck of it!  My personal belief is that you can't have your DNa data in too many places!

For many years, now, I have posted family trees at Ancestry.com; when I discovered, however, that I couldn't upload my FTDNa results to Ancestry, I really had no choice but to do the Ancestry.com DNa test!  For one thing Ancestry has a ton of other people's family trees, and I wanted to be able to connect with those folks, people to whom I might be related.  Secondly, I wanted those folks to be able to connect with me. 

Just got the results and can't wait to start digging into them!
I don't put a lot of store in the ethnicity report; most of my folks probably came from the

British Isles and (genealogical research always takes me there)!  However, this Ancestry DNA test confirms what I already knew:  If I ever get to the British Isles, I should feel a "whammo" ton of ancestral auras!  Or something. 

Stay tuned---more to come!