FHF

Does everything that happens in our life produce documents and photos? And are these moments less important because they lack such evidence? There are so many things that we know about ourselves and our family members that should be recorded. Some funny, some sad, and some just normal but treasured. We can add more to our family history and deepen our connections with one another if we'll record the things that no documents can prove. FUNNY I have a friend who has eight children. When they were traveling cross-country on vacation, they stopped at a gas station. The parents, children, and the dog got out to take a breather and fill up the car with gas and snacks. When all was finished, the family loaded up and headed off. Two hours later, the mom said, "Where's Fido?" It seems the family had left Fido back at the gas station two hours back. Should they turn around? Would Fido be deceased? Would Fido find his way home? The family high-tailed it back to the gas station b...

Conflict, villains, and plot twists make for fantastic drama in shows like Games of Thrones or Poldark, but does every family history have this much drama? No, or probably not. However, you can add dramatic elements to a story, even if you think your ancestor is a bit on the dull side. I recently completed the draft of this book “ Papa: The Life of Lewis Brown ” to share with my family. The public will not see this book so I can write mind-numbing genealogical data I found while researching his life. Right? NOT if I want my children and my Brown cousins to READ this book. So, I needed to make it enjoyable. How do I make a bowling alley manager’s life exciting without turning the book into a fictional story? I decided to add a parallel storyline. Parallel storylines are used by screenwriters to make films more interesting. A screenwriter will have multiple characters storylines progress forward along on similar paths. In genealogy, we can do the same thing, but we are not limited to cho...

As budding genealogists attempt to use FamilySearch Family Tree, they quickly face the learning curve that’s not as easy as some other online offerings. Learning to add reason statements when making a change, attaching a source, merging people, or deleting a relationship can be overwhelming. But anything worth doing, it’s worth doing well. With FamilySearch Family Tree, three reasons to use the program out-weight the learning curve associated with mastering the mechanics of the program. 1. Public Trees and Public Sources With FamilySearch, there are no private trees. Okay, the private trees are the living individuals you add to the tree. But when we’re talking about the history of deceased persons, no one is private. Though you might want to believe this is blasphemy, look through the eyes of a friend’s story. My friend wanted to work on her family tree using an online service that allowed private trees. She found a match to a private tree that indicated that it had sources. This frien...

Let's be brutal. Photos without stories are worthless. They are no better than the photos in picture frames you buy off the shelve with people you've never met and they probably didn't know before the photo shoot. Here are six tips to give your photos value by recording the story the photographer captured. 1. BE OBVIOUS Think of your collection of unidentified persons in photos. What is the number one thing you would like? NAMES! What's the second and third thing you wish the photographer had recorded? DATES & PLACES With that in mind, what do you think you should do first when giving your photos back their stories? Record the obvious facts of names, dates, and places. 2. GO DEEPER Explain the why : Why was this photo taken? What was happening? If the photo was taken in April 1942 in Grandma Helen's backyard and has the 5 Smith brothers, what was going on?  Was it really an Easter celebration, Spring equiniox, or Passover?  Was it a family reuni...

VIEW QUESTION: "Would I be wrong to assume a record is about my ancestor if a source I find has about the same year of birth or death and same place of residence?" The easy answer is, it depends. For some records, you can determine if the source is indeed your ancestors because those documents have additional details that you recognize as specific to your relative. These details match more than the birth year or individual's name. Additional information: identifying parents you have proven including unusual middle names  naming birth cities or villages, especially when they differ from current residences recording occupations noting physical descriptions including known siblings and additional relatives listing the same neighbors as in previous records recording officiators from the known church affiliation including military units that were previously recorded matching complete birth dates or death dates I could go on. The trick is there needs to be more than a hunch th...

In February, MyHeritage DNA released its long-awaited chromosome browser. Woot-woot. Shout praises. Celebrate however you will. This is tool is a game changer for me and I'm enjoying reviewing my results in a user friendly tool. Check this out. I manage kits for myself, my brother, and my two aunts. This allows me to link their DNA results to my tree. I LOVE this feature better than Ancestry DNA. I have five people that I'll be purchasing tests for who aren't interested in tree building. So, I'm in for a lot of work to get their trees built and connected to their DNA results. ANY-WAY, back on track. I began a one-to-many search with my brother, my two aunts, and then a fourth person. Y'all, I don't have to limit myself to triangulation. I can do whatever five people 'angulation' is. And that's where the power of this tool comes in. My brother is red, my two aunts are orange and yellow, and the 'new-to-us' match is green When I reviewed these ...

Graveyards have rich genealogical details waiting to be unearthed. The Cemetery Research Boot Camp Digital Download is perfect for those looking to improve the photographs they take when they visit cemeteries and how to solve mysteries they discover lying in their family plots. During 3 hours of recorded webinars, Devon Noel Lee shares photography tips and a cemetery case study that impressed Thomas MacEntee enough to invite her to share it in a genealogical journal. 8-pages of handouts compliment the video instruction. Topic I: Snapping Better Gravestone Photographs: Go from Point-and-Shoot to Beautiful.  Photographs of headstones and grave markers are fantastic resources to mark the final resting place of our ancestors and can provide rich genealogical details. Despite the ease of taking photographs with digital cameras, why is the quality of grave marker images still no better than the photos from the 1970s? In this session, we will talk about the tips and tricks to take bette...

I'm on a mission to attempt to establish through a paper trail and indirect evidence who the father of John Townley was. I recently decided to jump into searching Wills and Probates. Ancestry and FamilySearch have made accessing these collections so much easier, but I didn't have the best luck. Ancestry.com made finding the Will for John's potential father Effingham Townley of New Jersey easier. They have a collection entitled New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1739-1991 . I learned of Effingham 's five children, one of which is a John Townley. With John being a common name used in the Townley family, I'm not ready to conclude that John in Cincinnati is Effingham's son John. Probate Records, 1794-1902; Author: New Jersey. Surrogate's Court (Essex); Probate Place: Essex, New Jersey After finding this will, I decided to an attempt to look up Effingham Townley probate files. I found two entries in the New Jersey Probate Records, 1678-1980 which is a browse...

There were so many things that to consider when deciding whether to have a vendor booth at RootsTech or any other conference for that matter. Are smaller conferences better because crowds are more accessible? Are super conferences better for the optics that suggest your business is serious about their plans? Need Better Input Information upon which to base decisions about genealogy conferences is lacking. For an engineer (Andy) and a worry-wart (me), we can dream big, but we are debt-free minded individuals. We don't want to go into debt to build a business. We will invest money, but we wouldn't drain our children's college fund to get ahead.  I'd like to see some numerical expectations outlined for all service types at the various international and regional conferences. That way, we can better make stock decisions and see, compared to others, was our experience on par or substandard? Or better yet, did we have an exceptional response?  With sales information (anonymous...

In four previous posts, I walked you through the preparations we made before attending RootsTech 2018 as a first time vendor. In this post, I'll cover the outcome of the plans. In 3 and 1/2 long days at the Expo Hall, we experienced a rollercoaster of emotions. We misjudged all of our plans to generate foot traffic to Newbie Land. We did not overestimate the connection between our classes and the books they were willing to buy. We did not realize the additional purposes of having a physical presence in the vendor hall. GBA.BUZZ  - A Fun Failure? The GBA.BUZZ app did not generate the excitement that I had hoped. Most ambassadors didn't participate and promote it, unlike the Collasal Giveaway the year before. Several folks had heard about it on Lisa Louise Cooke's podcast and were excited to play. Others had watched the YouTube video explaining the game. But when all was said and done, the participation response was abysmal. We misjudged the willingness of the attendees at R...