​We’ve talked about the importance of capturing traditions and memories related to the Holidays with our families. Did they celebrate with presents, a particular food, or the gathering of extended family? Do some of your siblings remember the holidays differently than you? Let’s look at ways we can capture and use this information in our family history stories.

​I hope you had a great St. Patrick’s Day! It’s fun to celebrate our family heritage. While everyone seems to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, it would be fun to discover other ethnic holidays that are not as widely known. There seems to be a celebration for every day on the calendar from the traditional and religious holidays to peanut butter day to world sleep day (which is also on March 17th.) I wonder what our ancestors would think about all the crazy ways we celebrate random days? Regardless, enjoy your celebration. And for those who can’t resist doing a little more research, check out these sites:
 
My Heritage is offering free access to all their Irish records from March 14 to March 19th.
Discover your Irish heritage (myheritage.com)
 
Ireland records | findmypast.com I haven’t heard if they will offer any St. Patrick’s Day specials on Find My Past but this page will give you an idea of the Irish records they have on their site.
 
Birth Death Marriage Genealogy Records Ireland - Irish Family History Foundation (rootsireland.ie) This is a subscription service which seems well organized by county and type of records.
 
Welcome to Irish Genealogy - Irish Genealogy  This site is from the Irish government and is free to use to do your Irish research.
 
Enjoy the day. Happy Researching!

Looking back at sites I’ve used for research in the past, I thought about USGenWeb Project. This site is a collection of states and their counties and maintained by volunteers. Each state and county vary in content. Let’s look.

​A discussion about birthday cakes and family celebrations led me to research when did people begin celebrating birthdays with a special cake? Are there other celebrations that we assume people have always held? Did our ancestors celebrate the same way? How could that inform our family story? Let’s look.

​Let’s be honest. The older death records, whether civil or church, do not always include the cause of death. And even when they do, they might be in an unfamiliar language or a term that isn’t common today. How do we puzzle this out? Here are some resources to help.

​This time of the year I like to plan for learning opportunities in genealogy. The landscape has changed to some degree with more opportunities to watch conferences online, join a class or watch classes on YouTube. Let’s look at a few learning opportunities for 2023.

​I recently found an inexpensive map of Paris at a thrift store. I was happy to find it as I wanted to map out the locations where ancestors lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. While there are maps online, some are not detailed or printable. This made me think of plat maps. Nothing beats looking at the physical plat book. Let’s look at options for using plat books in our genealogy research.

How have you been doing with your goals in genealogy for 2023? Not quite hitting the mark? Me either. I have been distracted by new research opportunities and excellent zoom classes. While I could feel bad about this, I will focus on the positive. I’ve found new family information, learned a ton of new things and now have the opportunity to buckle down and refocus on my goals. Let’s look at some distractions that actually help you become a better genealogist.

​This time of the year triggers several articles about the “best of” and genealogy is no exception. This week I’ve compiled a list of links to the best of articles related to genealogy. Most will be familiar to you but I like to look at these reviews because there are often hidden gems. Let’s look.

​Perhaps January days of fog and lack of sunshine have turned my thoughts to darker topics. As genealogists we are a bit strange with our fascination with death and death records on our search for information for our family history. Let’s look at ideas for finding this information.