Use Social History in Genealogy Research – Telling Your Ancestors’ Stories
Social history in genealogy research tells the stories of our ordinary ancestors’ lives. [I like to think my ordinary ancestors were extraordinary in their own right.] Social history tells the stories of how our ancestors lived, worked and played. Understanding how our ancestors lived on a day to day basis, we can begin to understand how they made their life decisions. Choices such as: What occupation they chose When and if they moved to a new location Where they moved to Who they married Understanding the influences on our ancestors’ lives leads to more clues in our genealogy research. Often times we overlook the clues social history offers us as…
Your Guide To Cemetery Research – Are You Missing Important Genealogical Clues?
As a genealogy researcher, I spend a lot of time in cemeteries. I expect you do, too. Now it’s confession time….. Early in my genealogy research days, I would aimlessly wander about a cemetery looking for my ancestor. Once I found the gravestone, I took a photograph of the front and then I left. Doing cemetery research this way, I missed so much important genealogical information! [Maybe the title of this post should be “Don’t Research Like I Did!”] Fast forward to present day, and I come away from cemetery research with a lot of information on my ancestors. I created this guide to cemetery research to show you how…
Vertical Files in the Archives – A Valuable Genealogy Resource
Sometimes the genealogy finds that cause us to do the genealogy happy dance are found in unlikely places. Consider the vertical files found in archives and libraries. I teach often on researching “out of the box” genealogy resources and recently posed this question to a group, “Who includes researching in vertical files at the archives in their research plan?” I was surprised not one person raised their hand! Fellow researchers, if you are not checking the vertical files at the archives and the libraries where you research, you are missing out on a valuable resource! What Are Vertical Files in the Archives? Vertical files are collections of documents and ephemera…
Identify Your Ancestor In That Photograph
How to identify your ancestor in an old photograph is tough. I get it. Genealogy researchers often are the recipients of a family’s old photographs. Yet, these old family photos come to us unlabeled and unorganized. The task of identifying your ancestors in the photographs seems daunting if not impossible. Could your family photo collection contain a great grandparent who is simply not recognized? You crave a resource with strategies to guide them through the steps of identifying their old family photos. You want a resource that will allow you to be strategic in analyzing and labeling your old family photos. Why? Identifying that old family photograph allows that individual’s…
