Blog
U.S. Merchant Marine in WWI and SMS Wolf
During my lectures about WWI research, there is usually some with a question about researching members of the Merchant Marine. While I revised and expanded my book about researching WWI ancestors, I definitely wanted to include information about the U.S. Merchant Marine. It can be difficult to research the Merchant Marine in WWI, so I spent some time looking for both obvious and less obvious sources to learn about and understand their experiences. In this post, I will demonstrate the use of a less obvious source: contemporary accounts....
read moreUsing WWI Morning Reports on Fold3
Those who have seen my lectures, read my books or visited my WWI Facebook pages know that Morning Reports have proven to be one of my favorite resources for researching an individual who served in the Army in WWI. The 1,748 reels of 35mm microfilm containing the Morning Reports for 1912-19 have been digitized and are now available on Fold3. There reports are created by a company or detachment and contain the important details of the daily status of in the life of an Army company: where and how they traveled; names of those who joined...
read moreBook Review: “History for Genealogists”
When I envision a commercial for this book, it would have to be a full infomercial rather than a short spot between segments of a favorite program. Timelines are well known tools for genealogy, and are my go-to tool for unraveling mysteries. This book contains historical timelines and so much more. Ms. Jacobson gives context to the timelines, which in turn add context to the genealogical research of individuals and families. Using history in our genealogy is that extra step to bring our research to a higher level by understanding...
read moreNew Offering: Member Survey plus Class
We offer a new service! Have you wanted to learn more about your society members current interests? We can help. When booking the presentation “Creating an Individualized Genealogical Educational Plan,” We can work with your society to help you learn more about your members’ current interests. Here’s what is included with the speaker’s fee: Work with your designated society member to create a customized survey Provide a link for society members to useProvide a brief report, with suggestions about how to...
read moreThe Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland
100 years ago at the start of the Irish Civil War, a fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) in the Four Courts complex destroyed the Record Treasury, a repository holding seven hundred years of records. Trinity University began the Beyond 2022 project to bring together historians and computer scientists to reconstruct the library in a virtual format. The project identified replacement documents then built a virtual archive using digitized images of the records that survived, duplicates of documents that survived in other...
read moreBiological Anthropology and Genealogy
This past semester I decide to follow the archaeology course by studying more about anthropology. I took a course about Biological Anthropology (also known as Physical Anthropology). As a reminder, there are four branches of Anthropology, with the other three being Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology and Linguistic Anthropology. (See my blog post about Archaeology and Genealogy.) Biological Anthropology is a course for gaining a deeper understanding of how humans came to be. It is also a course that provides a strong foundation for...
read moreBook Review: “DNA for Native American Genealogy”
When the esteemed Roberta Estes of the DNAeXplained Blog writes a book about DNA, there is a justifiable expectation that the work will be accurate, informative and definitive. Among Ms. Estes many accomplishments are launching the Million Mito Project and being a National Geographic Society Genographic Project affiliate scientific researcher. This is a very thoughtful book, intended to put actionable information in the hands of readers that will guide them through the process of learning about Native American genealogical...
read moreYou can search the 1950 US Census!
Searching the 1950 US Census will be an awkward and cumbersome search until every field is indexed. But you can give it a try. Be sure you to navigate to the search page: https://1950census.archives.gov/search The search has limited features that include: name, state, county and enumeration district. You do not have to enter search terms any field. For example, you can leave the county or the enumeration district blank. If you cannot see the population schedule sheet for the search result on the right, click on...
read moreIt’s Been Confidential for 72 Years: The 1950 Census
There’s been great information published about the upcoming release of the 1950 US Census. I have been collecting it and want to share with you a reference of helpful resources, along with activities that you can do to prepare for the release! Important date: 1 April 2022 What is going to happen The 1950 US Census will be released, 72 years after it was taken. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Artificial Intelligence will give us an initial index including name and...
read moreRootsTech 2022 lives on
Another RootsTech has come and gone, but RootsTech 2022 is really is not over! The classes that were recorded for RootsTech 2022 are still available. In fact, RootsTech made a decision to keep classes online for 3 years (unless the content creator asks for them to be removed). That means you have access to content from 2021 and 2022. Be sure to have a free FamilySearch account so that you can create a playlist as you search for classes. The web address is https://rootstech.org. Use the menu on the upper right corner and select the...
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