Who: Susan Sarandon, actress
What: Coming Home, a family history series produced by BBC Wales in which Sarandon participated
Why: To discover her Welsh roots
“Of course when I started acting, all these very interesting actors were Welsh, and it just sounded like a very kinda’ explosive background.
Maybe your third great-grandfather insulted Abraham Lincoln or your great-grandma was the first woman to vote in her town. You’ve heard tales that your grandma’s sister was J. Edgar Hoover’s secretary or her bassist brother used to jam with Miles Davis. What do you do when you uncover a great family story that you know just needs to be told?
Mamie Doud Eisenhower got a lot of press as the wife of a president, but she wanted none of it. When a thoroughly-modern reporter asked what her aspirations had been as a 20th-century female, Mamie replied: “I was [Ike’s] wife, John’s mother, and the children’s grandmother.
Tell us all about your return to the family home.
a2a_linkname=”Going Home–Was it What You Expected?”;
a2a_linkurl=”http://www.ancestrymagazine.com/2007/03/you-said/going-home-2/”;
My family tree seems to have more than its share of naughty daughters. Maybes it’s a head-strong, stubborn, or a willful gene that runs rampant in our DNA.
For me, family history has always been more than names, dates, and places, so trying to figure out what it was that naughty daughters did or didn’t do that caused them to be written out of wills is right up my alley.
When I ask members of the local scout troop if anybody has his Genealogy Merit Badge, I get groans and complaints. “Dude, that took so long” seems to be the general consensus. But when I ask what they found out, the tone changes. Riley learned how his family came over from Sweden and says that asking questions “makes your family more interesting.
Julia Morgan was married in 1876 in Greene County, Arkansas, leaving her maiden name, Craven, behind. Now it’s time to find her parents, but where to start? With clues on Julia’s marriage license.
Step 1
Julia was 18 in 1876 (A). She should be with her parents on the 1870 census and her husband in 1880.
While it’s true that records of private attorneys can contain valuable information about an ancestor, particularly when that ancestor was the attorney’s client, two problems arise that tend to render these records unlikely and inaccessible sources.
Addressing Ancestors
Historic Map Works is a new site for locating an ancestral residence via atlas, directory, or map or even for identifying relevant historic maps based on GPS coordinates. Primarily focused on North America, resources may be searched online. Maps may be viewed in detail with an annual subscription or can be purchased.
Better with words than people? Then the Oxford English Dictionary wants you. The 250-year-old dictionary, already brimming with more than 600,000 terms, wants to make sure they have the pedigree straight on 40 of those, just to be sure everyone is in agreement as to exactly where those words came from.