​As I watched the presidential inauguration this week, it made me think about the wide diversity of our country.  Were our ancestors involved in politics?  Or members of a local social club that reflected their heritage or their religion or their work or their interests?  It is an interesting side of our ancestors’ lives to explore.  Let’s look.

​Many who have midwestern pioneer ancestors feel fortunate to trace them back to the early 1800s.  If you cross the pond, you may find yourself running into the timeframe of the Julian to Gregorian Calendar.  I was fortunate to have had someone knowledgeable guide me when my Luxembourg ancestors had key dates during that transition time.  Unlike then, now there are many resources online to guide you.  Let’s look.

​I hope that 2021 to be a better year for all of us.  Did you squeeze any time for genealogy between the holidays?  I found some time to explore my Luxembourg roots and that led me to look at German records.  Some border towns were part of Luxembourg until demarcation shifts made them part of Germany.  With more records online I delved into these records.  And wished that I had census records for Germany.  I thought I would share what I have discovered so far about German Census Records.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year!  
While I am not much for New Year's resolutions, I do believe in setting some goals for the year. Why not use January to figure out what you want to accomplish in your family history this year?  Will you finally write your family history to share with family?  Or will you solve that brick wall that you have been working on for years?  Whatever you decide, we can only hope that 2021 will bring us a calmer and healthier new year. Happy New Year!

​Holiday Memories are here.  Whether you are “zooming” to stay connected with family or friends or social distancing through a window or six feet away with masks, we will all have tales to tell this year because of the pandemic. Let’s look at some tools for capturing these precious memories as we close out this crazy year.

None of us would be here without the female part of the equation of our ancestors.  I have been reading an excellent book that is focused about women’s lives in the United Kingdom but some of the information can be applied to our ancestors in the Midwest.  Let’s look a bit more at that book as well as other material that might help you discover more about your female ancestors.

​While not a genealogy site, ThoughtCo has a plethora of great information for the family historian and genealogists.  ThoughtCo considers itself to be a premier reference site and a wealth of information is available on many topics.  Let’s look at a few that are relevant to family historians.

​Happy Thanksgiving 2020!
This is a wish that you had a Happy Thanksgiving in 2020.  Hopefully you were able to celebrate with those in your household and reach out to other family by the multiple ways available to us electronically today.  We’re blessed to have so many options to socially connect.  Imagine what it was like in 1918 when people had to physically distance and many did not even have a telephone as a way to reach out.  Hopefully we’ll never have to experience anything like this year again.
Happy Thanksgiving!

​Sometimes we need to look at where we’ve been to better understand where we are going.  Gazetteers and Maps can be the tools that help us in our search for our ancestors’ lives.  Whether you are trying to find a hometown or better understand the history of an area, let’s look at resources for these tools.