This week’s blog is brief. I’m always looking for opportunities to learn more about family history and genealogy. If you haven’t received an email yet, I wanted to let you know you are able to sign up for RootsTech 2022! Like last year the event is free and virtual and you can register and sign in using your FamilySearch account information. RootsTech 2022 is March 3-5, 2022.
 
I don’t have any affiliation with the event but have found it extremely valuable. There are so many sessions that you can access during and after those three days. This is a great opportunity to learn from experts in the industry.
 
You can watch a video here: RootsTech 2022 • FamilySearch. While we have a few months before RootsTech, the way this year has flown, March will be here before we know it. And in the meantime, you can start learning by catching up on sessions from last year’s event Happy Learning!

Happy Thanksgiving 2021!  By now, you hopefully have enjoyed a day with family and friends and perhaps some shopping for those holiday deals.  I hope that you've had time to pause and give thanks for the many blessings and have captured stories and memories to treasure.

In past blogs we’ve discussed the need to look beyond our direct ancestors and explore their siblings and other relatives. I have been doing that recently with my great grandmother’s siblings who moved to Paris from Luxembourg. Let’s look at how maps are helping my research.

Happy Veteran’s Day! I hope you were able to thank a veteran. It is important for us to honor and remember our veterans and all the sacrifices that they made. Whether they served during war or peace times, they essentially gave up years of their life to keep all of us safe. Those were years that they were away from family, unable to pursue career goals or continue their education. Our ancestors include veterans from different time periods. Their service may have been voluntary or through the draft. They may have been stationed in the United States or abroad. Let’s look at ways to find their records.

​Are you having success in writing your family history? As we gather more information, it does become challenging to incorporate those facts in the stories that our relatives and descendants will find interesting. Speaking for myself, I have discovered (rediscovered) interesting tidbits as I continue to update my source information and scan those random notes and papers that we genealogist accumulate. This week let’s look at some writing tools and resources to help us write our story.

Here we are…it’s Fall already! Hope you have a spooktacular Halloween! It’s been fun to see all the creative costumes this year. As you enjoy this spooky Halloween, allocate some time to jot down memories of Halloween past. When you were a kid, did you treat or treat? What costumes did you wear? How was that different from what your children or grandchildren were wearing? Did your grandparents or parents trick or treat? All fun things to capture as you write your family stories.
 
For inspiration check out these sites.
A 1950's Halloween Celebration - LetterPile
Life in the 50’s: Halloween in the 1950’s – Retro Dee's Guide to the Best Era Ever (wordpress.com)
A Wartime Halloween - America in WWII
See How Kids Used to Celebrate Halloween From the 1930s Through the 1980s ~ Vintage Everyday
Happy Halloween!!

For those of us with farm ancestors, we’ve used the land records that are found in our local courthouses. As more records are available online, we tend to forget about the information that is available in the Courthouses that might help us in our genealogy search. Let’s look.

​We’ve discussed in past blogs the importance of reviewing our old notes and documents for our family research. While most love the thrill of the chase, researching for new documents and exploring the web, we might be missing vital clues right in our own files. Let’s take a look.

​October is quite an impressive month with two genealogy recognitions:  Family History Month and German (American) Heritage Month. We often identify our immigrant ancestors as German even if they came from areas outside of what we identify as German borders today. And this is correct because often the borders were changing and so pockets of German speakers were in Poland, Austria, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, and other areas. They hadn’t moved but the wars and treaties had changed where they were living. Think how strange this would be for us today if suddenly Montana’s border extended into western North Dakota. There are many resources for your “German” research. Let’s look.

As we settle into the rhythm of Fall days—crisp mornings, warm afternoons, and shorter daylight hours, it is the perfect opportunity to think about how we can improve our research methods and explore new research tools and sites. For an additional excuse to immerse ourselves in genealogy (but really who needs an excuse!) October is Family History Month! Let’s take a look.