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.