Posts

One of the weird side effects of genealogy for me is that it offers me an interesting perspective on my current life. When you continually think about people’s lives over hundreds of years, you realize what a blip in time your own life is. It’s hard to get worked up about the little stuff when… Continue reading In The Present

Home is such an interesting concept. Is it a place? A feeling? One way I think of home is all the physical houses of my family in which I felt loved and welcome. The furnishings, pictures, and routines of their homes were just as familiar and beloved as my own. Both of my grandparents had… Continue reading Many Homes

Does anyone else get excited about dusty old shoeboxes in your grandparent’s closets? For family researchers, these old boxes might hold a lot more than some really cool, or really out-of-style, vintage shoes. These boxes are often full of pictures, letters, ticket stubs, postcards, old appointment books, and programs of events attended. These items can… Continue reading Shoeboxes

Good morning! I’ve posted a video on my homepage about Ancestry DNA, but I wanted to talk a little more about it today. It’s a topic I will revisit a lot if you like to keep up with my posts. First, let me say, it’s just cool. What we can do for genealogical research today-… Continue reading It’s In the DNA

I can't adequately express the immersive experience I had as child concerning my heritage. Perhaps it was my own innate curiosity that lead me to be aware, but I grew up very conscious of who my ancestors were, many of their stories, and in general a very strong sense "where I came from". I was not… Continue reading Defining Moments

From Merriam-Webster (Retrieved January 2018): Nuclear Family : a family group that consists only of parents and children Extended Family :a family that includes in one household near relatives (such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles) in addition to a nuclear family These are the two common definitions we hear about family structure. Considering these family units are a… Continue reading Nuclear and Extended

You’ve heard it before. When you want to start your family tree start with yourself. Write your name on the paper. Write when you were born and where. You may not realize how many questions those three pieces of information can raise – or what they can answer. Your name: Why were you named what… Continue reading Start With Yourself

I love researching my family. LOVE it. I can spend an entire day surrounded by books and papers in front of my computer screen. I go “down-the rabbit hole” so to speak. One idea leads to another, to another. The Internet has really revolutionized researching; I can open multiple windows in a browser to work… Continue reading Why Genealogy Love?