Change is good.
It’s trite, it’s overused, but sometimes that simple phrase makes a point and summarizes a reality. Like in the world of computer technology purchases.
Change comes frequently today when we attempt to keep pace with technology and a busy world, and choices come at us more rapidly than they ever did for our ancestors.
Five steps to wander based on the direction of a single census record.
You found your ancestor in the 1910 census—now what do you do?
1. Ancestor—William White: Check the 1900, 1920, and 1930 censuses based on the 1910 information. Check a few census pages before and after William in each of these censuses for other family surnames.
2.
In response to my request for orphan heirlooms (any item that’s strayed from the hands of the family of origin) to rescue, I received the following from Barbara Corotto of California:
“My mother was a genealogist who lived many years in Iowa. When she died, I started through her papers and was able to donate some research files to the Napa Genealogical Society.
Taste, see, feel, smell, hear. Where else but the kitchen, where the central dramas and basic building of a home and life take place, so embraces all the senses? The heft of a well-used knife, the aroma of onions and garlic in olive oil, the laughter or arguments over a meal. Food has the power to take you back to a particular moment, a particular place, and recreate it for you.
The unspeakable happens: a flood, fire, or other disaster strikes your home, and all of the family history records you gathered over the years are destroyed. Fortunately, you’re prepared, right? You made a backup copy of the data and stored it at a friend’s house.
But once you start your research again, you wonder why you came to certain conclusions.
If they weren’t missing, exactly why was this family so hard to find?
They, of course, were not lost. They knew exactly where they had settled, where and whom their children had married, and where eventually they had died. I was the one with the problem—searching for them year after year without finding them.
I hate footnotes!
When I finished high school, I danced a polka, thinking there were two things I’d never have to do again: science projects and footnotes. Dumb thought.
Still, there is a difference in the footnotes I did in high school and college and those I do now. Back then, I cited sources because teachers demanded them; to me, it was a pointless exercise.
Take a look at popular summer activites dating as far back as 1870.
What reminds you of the sights, sounds, tastes, and fun of summers gone by? Take a look at how generations of Americans have spent their leisure hours during the long, and often hot, days of summer.
1870
“The Greatest Show on Earth”
In 1870, P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus debuted.
Put on your hip waders and dig up some worms. It’s time to find ancestors.
July was always my favorite month when I was growing up. It was the month when my grandfather and I escaped the scorching heat by going fishing. We’d get the cane poles out, dig up some worms, fill a fruit jar with cold water, pack a lunch, and take off.
Could this be true?
My computer screen is glowing with the tantalizing possibility that I might have some of the Scottish brogue and blood I’ve always secretly wished for. Or perhaps I’m the lineal offspring of William Rawling, rector of Great Snoring. I assume he must be some sort of relation, considering my family’s prodigious adenoidal talents.
