When I announced to my employer eight years ago that I was going to leave his company and go to work for Ancestry, he asked me, “How fun is it going to be working on books about dead people?” At the time, I didn’t have a good answer, and I admit that it was my biggest concern about taking the job. But now, looking back at the past eight years, I’ve discovered the answer.
In the May/June 1999 edition of Ancestry Magazine, I wrote about finding my birth father, Vasco A. Leitao. The experience of learning about the man whose name was on my original birth certificate took my breath away. There was no way of knowing then that Vasco was not my father or that the truth of my conception would unfold like a soap opera.
For your consideration, I submit the following:
Item. My brother is an old-school genealogist. He writes to county clerks asking if they have records with the name he wants, then he writes back to request the records. In the mail. The kind with a stamp and an envelope and a dog-delicacy deliveryman.
While strictly speaking, fraktur refers to an ornate type of written or printed German (similar to Gothic lettering). It has become a generic term for the colorfully embellished German-American manuscripts that recorded births, baptisms, and marriages. They are now prized by folk-art collectors as well as by genealogists.
One of the many pleasures of family history is exploring new places to research. Among the most interesting are those sites that are close to where our ancestors lived. So the local courthouse should not be overlooked as a valuable resource for your family history.
Music and genealogy are two subjects that you don’t hear talked about together very often. Surprisingly, music can help you in interviews with relatives. It can express your feelings. And it can give you a perspective on your ancestors’ lives that you’ll never get from reading a roll of microfilm.
“There stands the glass.” That’s what my father remembered, just that one line.
When my husband and I moved into our home eight years ago, I was in the midst of a major writing project and was not as organized as I should have been.
When we move beyond the basics in our search to know our ancestors, we often have to conduct research in less familiar places. If you feel certain that your great-great-grandmother was able to read and write, you may be able to find letters and/or diaries that she left behind. If your ancestor was a commissioned officer in a state militia, you might be able to find a copy of his commission.
Millions of skiers and snowboarders flock to Utah each winter to enjoy the pristine, powdery slopes of the Wasatch Front. Snowbird and Alta ski resorts are favorite destinations, nestled a few miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty-five miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
On 31 August 1911, several hundred descendants of John and Agnes Barr gathered in Waynesville, Illinois, for a family reunion. The attendees visited with seldom-seen relatives, surely exclaimed over the many sets of twins present, listened to music provided by the Waynesville band, heard numerous speeches, and dined on food prepared by the ladies of the Waynesville Methodist church.