We post huge amounts of data on our social media, including precious family memories, but that data isn’t as safe or secure as we might think. But with a few simple steps, we can get a copy of this data and ensure it lives on!
We all have skeletons in our family’s closet. How do we handle this information? What’s the right way to go about talking about it?
Stereo Cards and Slides were once very popular, and many people have inherited them from elder relatives. This guide will teach you how to digitize them so that everyone can enjoy them.
Archiving photos and documents is a fundamental part of genealogy. It allows us to preserve memories, better understand our ancestors, and share with our friends and family. Most genealogists have one or more scanners for this purpose. But most scanners are large and not made for portability; this presents a problem when you’re away from…
If your family is anything like mine, then food is important. Some of my best memories come from the dinner table at family gatherings. I have always lived quite far away from most of my extended family, so I treasured the few times a year I got to see them. Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners were…
If you went to an amusement park, museum, or other tourist attraction at any point in the last 50 to 60 years, there’s a good chance you came home with a souvenir photo holder of some sort. Some of them contained pictures of the park or attraction. Others held photos you had taken at the…
Any kind of research can be thrown off course by the simplest mistakes. A bad source, a faulty assumption, or erroneous logic can easily send us down the wrong path. Researching one’s family tree is no different than writing a research paper, being fraught with the same difficulties and obstacles. But, like running an obstacle…
Genealogy is a wonderful hobby, one that can bring hours of enjoyment, amazing surprises, and disturbing skeletons. It can also bring stubbornly solid brick walls. Anyone who has ever studied genealogy knows all too well that brick walls are frustratingly common and can be damn near impossible to break down at times. But sometimes you…
How often have you heard someone say “he’s my nth cousin twice removed?” I’d wager you’ve heard it said more times than you can count. Most of the time, it’s in jest, especially in TV shows and movies; a character will say something like “oh, she’s my uncle’s cousin’s aunt’s brother’s niece, twice removed.” This…
If you’ve followed this blog since the beginning, you’ve likely notice that there is one issue mentioned in the first post that I haven’t tackled yet: photos. If you want to re-read the post or haven’t yet read it, go right ahead. I’ll wait. *hums and twiddles thumbs* Finished reading? Okay, let’s move on to…
In the course of any genealogist’s research, there always comes a point where a seemingly unbreakable wall arises, threatening to stop you in your tracks. Information you need simply isn’t available through the commonly search documents on sites like Ancestry and Family Search or available at your local library. On the flipside, sometimes you just…
At this point in time, you’ve put together a decent family tree and have collected a decent amount of data on your ancestry. But you’ve likely already begun to notice that Ancestry.com and Family Search both have limitations. They’re a great source for records, but only if they’ve been digitized and/or indexed. Furthermore, they are…
At this point, you’ve collected your known familial information, built a family tree and begun poking around Ancestry.com for anything to help you trace your roots. However, if you’re like me, you don’t want to shell out $200 a year for access to their international records, no matter how badly you need them (and just…
Last week, I took you through the basic steps of compiling the known information about your family. This week, I’ll be explaining the basics of beginning your genealogical research on the web. To start, I suggest setting up a basic profile on Ancestry.com. I know, I know, it’s expensive, but you don’t need to start…
First off, please pardon the horrible cliche of a title. Now that that’s out of the way, welcome to Looking for Your Roots! If you’ve read the “About” page, you know that this is a blog dedicated to the study of one’s genealogy or family tree. I have been studying my own roots for about…
Looking For Your Roots 