My Family History Hat

Friday, April 27, 2018

Squeezing an Obituary of all Pertinent Information

Finding a relative's obituary in the newspaper can be a bitter-sweet experience.

Even if you never knew this person, personally, you can feel empathy for the deceased and his or her survivors. As genealogists, we know, though, that reading the obituary can often bring understanding as to how the family tree fits together.

What are the major points we should look for? Everyone's story is worth telling; what clues in the obituary can help us to know this person better? What indicators will help us to unravel family history mysteries?

I have tried in the past to create a template of questions or facts that will help us to lift from the obituary the relevant information. You may want to create your own template.

You may want to remember that the obituary was most likely prepared by family members who were in mourning or composed quickly on account of time constraints. Any information that is presented should be verified by a second or third source.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Help from Genealogy's Star Blog

I've touted, before, the interesting and advancing articles at this website. To get the full benefit, one must follow the topic from blog post to blog post, as James Tanner unrolls and expands his point. In this case, his point is that there is a wealth of online information about, not just our family tree folks, but also the folks who were related to the lineal ancestors.

I look forward to following this series of articles. "In Depth" genealogy is indeed an exploration of the familial relationships as well as the family tree structure. The information we gain will only serve to strengthen our roots!

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Experimenting at Internet Archive. I was only two years old in 1948, but Eglin Field is a part of my history: I was born there!!

So whether it is relevant, earthshaking, or whatever...History is under the umbrella we call "Family History".

Monday, April 09, 2018

Without it, we wouldn't have such pretty flowers in May! Mid-month (almost) and April Showers (goodies)

Found at USGenWeb: Census Templates
Recipe for Georgia Peaches Sweet Cobbler
Best Peaches in Alabama
What does Genealogy have to do with creating a Wordle? Create one and send it along to margaret.harris at gmail.com and I will feature it in a coming newsletter! And if you do create one, what will you do with it? What should you do with it?
bits and pieces of info may be found online if you just Google: here's one I located: http://data.genealogytoday.com/search/Southern_Tier_Masonic_Relief_Association_1882-1883_Assessments.html (be sure to click on the left hand nav bar, "Records", etc.)
Where is a great genealogy conference coming up this summer? BYU, that's where!
In depth, always, extended discussions of genealogical interest and education: Genealogy's Star
Have you seen this?!!
Finding timelines for your city of birth (or of your ancestors' births) might be interesting. Check this out: http://hattiesburgmemory.org/wiki/Years
Your suggestion for another website that will work as an excuse to stay in out of the rain:?

Thursday, April 05, 2018

Addendum to previous post on Sharing with Your Family your family history treasures

I am attaching a copy, here, for the Notes on the Webinar, previously posted with a link. Rough though it is, you will want some of these links.

Webinar Notes Lisa Louise Cook

Projects You can Share with Your Non-Genealogist Family

1. Your Goal: two concepts (I’m the only one that can pass along my genealogy).

a. Grandchildren are nevertoo young.. They are never too young to pass it on.

Things that matter most, we build on these ideas. They are never too early. 8 years old! Shoebox. Start looking at our kids/grandkids. Exposing them to genealogy. Its an investment.

2. Visit to Family History Center—etc. Pics on the wall. We hold this dear. Catch their interests. Stories, Sharing. Not an instant payoff. Get them interested in family history...not genealogy.

Varying degrees of interest. Skip generation?

The passer-on-ers.

Shift our focus: Talk their language. 3-D Movie glasses. Give them New glasses with which to see the information.

I am here to inspire you to inspire them.

Turning our junk into projects that will capture their interest.

Newspaper, mugs, table, etc. Tell BRIEF story. Make your home a showcase. Decooupage plates. Needlepoint. Photo editing. Do Something!

Decoupage Plate. ModPodge—make copies of photos. Clear plates. Seal it. Vehicles for telling your story. Black and White Photos.

Family History Christmas Wreath: Holidays are busy times. What really matters. Telling a story. Craft pieces of wood...buttons from old clothing can be a frame. An earring. Trinkets and buttons are tucked onto wreath. Bows made out of scraps of material. We are tying to instill interest.. Sepia colored frames. Black and white or sepia tone. Adobe photoshop. Restoring old photo. (Genealogy Gems)...little pieces of jewelry. Buttons, earrings, jewelry. Get them to buy in! Step by step instructions at Genealogy Gems. Subscribe to YouTube Channel. Youtube.com/GenealogyGems. Projects.

Family History Wall Display. Corner cabinet. Old Dresser. Table cloth. Section of fence. Jars, canning. Baking. Pic of grandma and her, plus grandparents. Ribbons, etc. Relics. E-bay.

Bale of cotton. E-bay. Match cover. Search e-bay. Matchbooks. Shadowboxes. Label pics. Real objects from that place and that time. Search names and places. Sell on E-bay?

Hands on quilt. Madden family from Illinois Hands quilt. Branches of family involved. A Genealogy Gem. Someone else’s “trash” could be your treasure.

I hope I live long enough and well enough to do some of this stuff. Jan in my class will enjoy some of these ideas. Wrappers on chocolate bar with old photo (copy). “Sweet Memories”. On backside: ingredients would be family motto or whatever. “Gifts are Family, Attention. Record when you give the candy bar label . Make stockings out of old material. Make copy of quilt at Kinko’s.

Cake decorating, using silhouettes. Theme cakes for fiftieh birthday. Crushed oreos. Tractor cake. Instagram.com/gnealogygems or pitnerest.com/lisaluise

Digital Diversions. Face Book. Blog? To reach millenials===why is this relevant. Shape Collage and makes it any shape. Shape Collage app.

Photo Apps (Retype)

Its about the journey and the people.

Familytreewebinars store

Video—Animoto app. Mobile app videos

Download at HD qualities.

Make a video. Line up photos and maps. Dropbox folder. Put images in dropbox and app will combine. Www.GenealogyGems.com/animoto

We can still have videos. To convey stories. Use little short videos for gifts. How to engage millenials. Click, drag, and drop.

Google Earth Pro “Family History Tour”

Google Earth Pro software is free! Tell the story. (doesn’t have to be the entire story). Use street view. Make it interactive. Time Travel. Online multi media Family History Tour. Google Earth has pics of old map.

Share genealogy research and creative ways and ensures that it will be valued and preserved.

You find your passion and your way to share. How to Save Your Research from Destruction (Episode #4 Podcast)

$9.95 month webinar

FamilyTreeWebinars.com

Georgia Ancestors Wed. April 11

Premium eLearning 1 year membership: Code Legacysave20

$49.95

www.genealogygems.com

Get proficient with your smart phones! Make videos.

$29.95: printed book elearning companion guide book by Lisa Louise Cooke

www.genealogygems.com

Projects that will captivate the Non-Genealogists in Your Life: Sharing the Joy

joy10 =code for free something!

Creator Studio Free Music

for videos

Get You Tube Channel!

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Lisa Louise Cooke "Genealogy Gems"


My granddaughter, Kaylee, is getting first hand knowledge about "babysitting" her new brother. Or should I say, she is getting experience in "lapsitting"!?

I "attended" a webinar today, a genealogy/"family history" webinar. So excited about the message that I've decided to share my notes with you. I take notes because as an unpaid viewer, a non-subscriber to Legacy Webinars, I don't have the option to download the "hand-out". My notes are rough, but perhaps you would like to check out some of the links.

From time to time, I do subscribe on a monthly basis. I never follow one of these webinars, but that I get re-excited about family history. I always learn something! I can't always write my notes fast enough, but perhaps you will get something out of them, anyway. If you can't open the PDF format, let me know and I will send you a word document.

Today's webinar featured one of my favorite people in all of the genealogy community. Lisa Louise Cooke!

Here is a link to those Notes I took during the Webinar: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18FeQ9N0YMDRj_-VHkBRtWvwqZYWM8D-L/view

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

A little newsletter for genealogists in Northwest Florida or other areas.

If the links do not open, please search on Google the items below. I will check this as soon as I post this and try to do some editing so that will not happen often.

The goal of this twice monthly communication is to bring to your attention the most important updates that you need to know, with links to further information, and to reduce the amount of updates via one-off emails.

FEATURED

Family History News, Events, Education and Motivation info and links

ACTIONS NEEDED

Support your local genealogical society.

Visit your local Family History Center

Plan vacations to correlate with your family history locations.

KNOWLEDGE BASE HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday, March 03, 2018

Presentation Slides Shareable Link
Just click and enjoy.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cmV8DPfFdphMpqwcNjwLEAtWJNKUKUaKZl_eg2lpzt4/edit?usp=sharing

The First Annual NWFL Family History Fair Has Happened.

Well! The First Annual NWFL Family History Fair was, in my humble opinion, a wonderful success. Let me know if you attended and what your take was. I'm sure that improvements can be made and your suggestions can help.

The reason I liked it so much: I found a dozen cousins or more as those who have put their family trees on FamilySearch.com as those of us sitting in the room, loaded the app "Relatives Around Us". I sure feel happy to know so many of us connected!

I will be posting my presentation and all the websites I recommend; my launch point was this...before you get on the internet, write down or chart what you know about your ancestor, already. Then, set as your goal to obtain the information online for the stuff you don't already know. Construct a profile and a timeline for your ancestor. Then, use those question marks to drive your online search.

Thanks to the committee and all the volunteers for the wonderful job done today and thanks to all of you who attended.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

What do you want from an online tree?

Using your Brain Lately?

Have you thought about it? What do you want from an online tree?

1) Option to have a private tree?
2) Ability to interact with other online genealogy sites?
3) Tutorials or videos in case you have questions?
4) Good tech support?
5) Reasonable price for all of the goodies?
6) Add-On's that really work?

Enter (drumroll)! ROOTSFINDER!!!!!

Okay, your list may be even longer; I was reading all the reviews and in particular, the Genea-Musings guy, Randy Seaver, says he likes the printed reports.

Let's take a look at Rootsfinder and talk about its features---CLL Students, this is your discussion (or part of it) for Friday, February 21st.

Check back here for other developing....dare I say BREAKING!! news that is relevant to our class, Family History on the Internet.

Watch segments of RootsTech

This is an article that lets you know the schedule for broadcasted sessions of the 2018 RootsTech event.

I'm sending this to all the members of my current CLL class, but feel free to share the link with others that you believe might be interested.

From the article, regarding the 19 Streaming Sessions:

In 2017, streaming sessions garnered more than 50,000 views, and that number continues to grow each year.
The streamed sessions will include the popular general sessions and a sampling of technology and family history presentations appealing to varied interests.

Prominent vendors who will be attending the event, include representatives from Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, and others. Watch the newsletters you get from these companies; some of them have posted promotionals in conjunction with the RootsTech event.
This event is the largest genealogical conference in this hemisphere, if not in the world.

Monday, February 12, 2018

Webinars from the BYU Family History Center

02-2018.pdf

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

The Official Guide for FamilySearch

Were you wondering if there was one?

An official guide to FamilySearch? Well, there is!

Of course there are lot of websites that talk about FamilySearch.org and there is plenty of help on the FamilySearch Wiki, but if you
want a workbook online, a project manager, then use this FamilySearch Official Guide.

Many of us have learned by trial and error, but some of us like to study the "rule book" at the beginning of a new endeavor.

Still others have a specific question about using FamilySearch; well check out the guidebook and let me know how or whether you plan to utilize it for that purpose.

P.S. When I want to find a specific page at FamilySearch.org, I Google what I'm looking for and Google usually takes me there! Another great way to find a specific topic at FamilySearch is WorldCat.org.

And then, there is the Unofficial guide as well. I found it easily, the information for the book, at WorldCat!

Blaine T. Bettinger posted on Facebook about a story of a man who gives lots and lots of his time to digitizing old newspapers.

The story was just too good to pass up, So "Dear Myrtle" shared Blaine's post in her public group on Facebook.

Now, I'm falling in line with others who realize that Tom Tryniski is an amazing person! Here is the link to the orginal article at Columbia Journalism Review.

It's this type of individual that moves the rest of us to do a little more in the area of Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.

Tom's website, Fulton History, has little surprises here and there as he steps outside of the state of New York with his newspaper scanning project.

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

If you are researching your Alabama folks, then you will want to subscribe to a free newsletter, Alabama Pioneers.

I don't always read all of it, but it is helpful to my research because there are days when you read something and a light bulb is turned on in your head!

For example, today's item, (I opened up my email account and there it was), has a header "Free Links to Some Early Alabama Marriages by County". Free is the best! Unless I know that I already have all the marriage information for Bibb County Alabama relatives, (which I probably don't), then you will click on that link, first thing!

It makes sense that if you are looking for genealogy information in any state or county, that you will want to subscribe to a blog, newsletter, or whatever, that has that place in its title.

One of the links in this article brought me to this Site, where marriage info for the period, "Before 1825", resided. http://www.censusdiggins.com/alabama_marriages.html
has, in turn, links to other sites for related research!

Thursday, February 01, 2018

Attention CLL students: Outline for Friday Class (Link)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wqv9ZfnC1nk3jVib4Hiq1ef5Pj93nEFzunH6yTSGlOk/edit?usp=sharing

Friday, January 26, 2018

Newsletters, Websites, Blogs, and Twitter!

Imagine my delight when I discovered this gal over at Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedheadGenealog!

Not only do I have a redhead granddaughter, but my best friend in high school was a red head! At the Center for Lifelong Learning, we've been learning about genealogical newsletters, websites, and blogs.

I get to start on a new track, now: no, not redheaded genealogists, but genealogy on twitter!

Four other tweets you'll want to check out are:

NEHGS Tweeter, Mr. Lambert
Memes and Inspiration at This URL: https://twitter.com/FTCircles
Interment.net (for those who just love a good cemetery read)!
Kenneth Marks, Ancestor Hunter: This guy loves newspapers!

Now, if you want to know more or you want to see more like this, Please send a comment OR subscribe me to your email box!

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Federal Land Office, GLO, BLM

A rose

by any other name would smell as sweet.

Here is the land record link for federal land records.

https://www.blm.gov/services/land-records
The term "GLO" stands for General Land Office (in 1946, it became the Bureau of Land Management). An example of an 1845 Deed is HERE.
To learn more about land records for the purpose of researching your history, heritage, and genealogy, link to this handout. (This link includes a discussion of state land offices, county records, and the value of land records for genealogists.
Many Americans worked as tenant farmers in return for a share of the crop. (True or false)?
What is the difference between a sharecropper and a tenant farmer?
Read more at this link: Gale Group
Read a page of this handout everyday until you've completed reading the handout: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flmgs/articles/BLM_LANDRECS2013_a_2.pdf
General Land Office (Texas): this is an example of an amazing effort to educate the public.
The U.S. Constitution and Private Property Connection. (Just a little off the topic--but related)
Land, Culture, Development and Migration in the Upper Midwest

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Findagrave New and Fairly Workable

I've had more time, this past week, to play a little more with Ancestry's Version of Findagrave.

I'm the type that just dives right in, ignoring the tutorials, so my initial impression was so-so, probably because I had prepared poorly. The more effort you put into doing research, the more results you will get back. Don't be lazy like me and just go looking without first reviewing what facts you've already accumulated on an individual. Bring up your database or online tree in one screen. Then search Findagrave or whatever site you choose.

I do want to thank Ancestry.com for "rescuing" the Findagrave photos and database. Upon reflection, I realized that we might not have any access if it weren't for that company.

You see, the project had grown to mammoth proportions (never discount the spirit of volunteerism), and the creators weren't able to keep up with the costs in time and money, at some point.

It takes money to support servers (big storage computers). It takes people to support the management of the website. Ask anyone who has been a webmaster and/or launched a website. W-O-R-K calls for assistants and managers--the larger the project, the more likely you are to have to hire folks and pay for additional servers.

Why I like the "new" Findagrave:

I can create my own personal virtual cemetery. So far, I've created one each for my mother's folks, my biological father's relatives, and one more for my adoptive dad's kin.
I can edit more easily than ever, the information at the site of an individual's findagrave page. For example, I can add dates and places.
I can do other stuff, too, I suspect, just as soon as I continue exploring and looking at the tutorials! I always want to know who took the pictures and generated the data. That bank of volunteers are why we can't discount findagrave! Their labors are appreciated.

Thursday, November 02, 2017

Take 15 or 20 Minutes out of your day to read EOGN!

It only takes a quarter of an hour or so to go through the newsletter that Dick Eastman publishes each week. For genealogists in this day and age, it is a winner! Here are some tease questions to drive you to subscribe.

Quiz for EOGN (Plus Edition) Readers
1. True or False: Sometimes data sets of records are removed from being online.
2. Why are records removed (disappear) from popular genealogy sites?
3. What can you do now to save important records for future access?
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1. Do Magnetic Tapes Lose their Magnetism?
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1. What new book will be of great interest and help to the Acadian researcher?
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What new Mobile App for genealogists makes it easier than ever to explore and share your family history?
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What nifty application at Internet Archive is available for avid readers?
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What website useful to family historians is having troubles and who is working on updating and revising some of its features?
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What tool is very useful for creating personal genealogy web sites from GEDCOM files?
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What Canadian Census is now available Free at the Library and Archives Canada?
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Many more helpful articles are published each week by Dick Eastman. Subscriptions can be free OR subscribe for the plus edition for a very reasonable charge.

Date/Time	Upcoming Event	Location + Additional Details
March 23rd, 2018/ 6 p.m.-8p.m.	Family History Nite	339 Lake Drive, Fort Walton Beach (off Memorial Pkwy. at LDS Church. All are welcome; No fee. Personal one-on-one Help and Presentation by the Price's.
March 24th 2018/10:30a.m.	Genealogical Society of Okaloosa County, Florida	Fort Walton Beach Public Library Fort Walton Beach, Florida All are welcome! No admission fee to Meeting.
Saturday 7th April, 2018/10:30a.m.	GSOC Special Interest Group	Fort Walton Beach Public Library - All are invited. No Fee. Bring your genealogy questions! Contact Cindy Barber2@gmail.com
14th April 2018/4p.m.-5:30p.m.	Organization of NWFL GENETIC GENEALOGY SOCIETY	Niceville L.D.S. Meetinghouse Contact MarcStrickland5@gmail.com