My original intention for this blog was to publish to a general amateur genealogist audience, but I realize that many individuals in my audience are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I will on occasion do a post mainly for that portion of my audience. That being said, this information is useful for anyone who uses FamilySearch, but more relevant for members of said church.Continue reading “3 Tips for Merging Duplicates on FamilySearch”
Featured Image: Adam and Eve, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
“Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions.” – 1 Timothy 1:4
Can you trace your family tree back to Adam and Eve? This question comes up all the time when people talk to me about genealogy. As a professional researcher, when newbies to genealogy ask that, I generally just roll my eyes and say, “no, you can’t.” But I wanted to take some time to really answer the question through a genealogical research perspective.Continue reading “Can You Trace Your Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve?”
Featured image: The City of Detroit (from Canada Shore), 1872, by A. C. Warren. Wikimedia Commons.
I have been trying to do more research in the Midwestern United States, to build up hours of experience so I can take the ICAPGen accreditation test. One of the Midwestern states I have had very little experience with is Michigan. So I recently ran a search of my RootsMagic database to find out if I had any ancestors in Michigan.Continue reading “Michigan Research: Detroit Existed in 1784”
Martha Bryan was the one ancestor my grandmother could never find. Her great-grandmother on her direct maternal line, and she only knew her married name. After my grandmother passed away and I caught the family history bug at around twelve years old, I was determined to break down the brick walls she had left behind. And I did.
I found Rice Bryan, Martha’s husband, and his parents and siblings in Hancock County, Illinois. I found everything I could about the family, including a marriage record for Rice Bryan, to a Julia Spaulding. But nothing on Martha. Absolutely nothing. If I hadn’t posted my family history online, I would not have found her.Continue reading “Why You Should Share Your Family History Online”
It can be easy to find ancestors in the United States from 1850 on because of the availability of Census Records on the internet. However, before 1850, only the heads of households were listed on the census. This makes it difficult to find all the members of a family and trace your family back for multiple generations through census records. That’s where wills and other probate records can be very helpful. I am about to share with you two examples of how I uncovered my ancestor’s families through probate records.Continue reading “Finding Families in Testate and Intestate Probate Records”
Here are two pictures of family artifacts. Both are marriage certificates of my ancestors on different sides of my family. The first document is older than the second by about 50 years, and it certainly shows its age. You can see it has creases from being folded and water marks from being exposed to moisture. It is stored in a box in the attic. The second document is nicely framed and hangs on the wall in a spare bedroom.Continue reading “5 Things You Should Not Do with Old Family Artifacts”
This is my great-great-grandmother, Caroline Jane (Webber) Gile. I love this picture. Usually in pictures this old the people don’t really smile. Old photos of babies usually have them by themselves or in mother’s lap. Half the time baby is blurred out because she is moving too much for the camera to focus. But in this photo, the mom is holding the baby up next to her face. You can see the hint of a smile on her face as she lovingly cuddles and proudly shows off her baby.Continue reading “Little Jonnie Lathrop, or, Child Deaths in Great Plains Genealogy”
My Grandpa lives in a little brick house in a small town in Kansas. Just outside of town is the land where his grandfather first built a Kansas homestead. Grandpa has driven us grandkids around on those dirt roads in Kansas and showed us that old homestead. On that homestead lay the ruins of the old dugout home. There stands the two remaining walls of the old stone house, a record of the hand-built past. There lays the grave where our ancestors’ little boy lies buried, a monument to how difficult those first years on the prairie were for them. In addition to the stories and the land, there are boxes of old things in my Grandpa’s attic. Grandpa’s attic holds letters my ancestors wrote and objects they held, records of their handwritten past.Continue reading “The Handwritten Past”
