Thoughts
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Look in a mirror…
People fear the past… they fear their history. I have had countless conversations with family genealogists who have problems bringing unwanted, or bad news to their families. The bad news is ‘how you say???’ — rarely well received. Bad news is a term I use loosely. More precisely I am referring to the news that family members don’t want to hear. Or in my case, they have other tales and myths that they really want you to re-enforce, not deny. If you have looked closely at this site (ManyRoads), you have noticed news like that. Every family has undesireables, be they facts, people or circumstances. However the truth is always…
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A Great Find! (part 2) -Raphael & Euphemie Robidoux
I received the following email this morning from Barb Deyo; it read: Hi Mark, I wanted to send this to you yesterday, but I have been having trouble with my e-mail. I read about you finding a picture of your ggg grandparents on line. That night we went for a short walk in the cemetery like we do very often, with my cat. She loves to run and lead us around the field. When it was time to go she led us to the front of the hedge to go home, (we usually go by the side) As I looked at the stone, guess what I saw? It was just…
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A Great Find!
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A Great Find!
One of the great joys of doing genealogy work is that every once in a while, you make a great find. A find that brings on a feeling of joy, wonder, and belonging. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I know I have been offering a lot of insights into issues associated with using Ancestry.com but yesterday’s experience reinforced “why I use and value Ancestry.” Lately, I have taken on the effort of cleaning up and adding to some of my earlier genealogical work. As you probably already know genealogy requires a lot of organization as well as continual care and feeding. Well, as luck would have it,…
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Say it ain’t so…
Family stories are not always true. If you have been doing any amount of genealogy perhaps you have discovered that out. If not, you may be in for a rude awakening. My family, like most, comes with it’s fair share of myths and fables. Certain family members are seen as being larger than life, other are viewed as being evil villains. The truth, as it turns out, is both more exciting and at the same time mundane. In all the literature you are told to gather oral traditions regarding your family, as the start of establishing your family history and genealogy. Although that is a good idea it also a…
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Source Materials- Familysearch & Family History
Probably one of the most valuable primary sources of genealogical information today is provided by the LDS (Latter Day Saints- Mormon) Church- FamilySearch.org. The website itself is not really the most useful aspect of their service. In truth, I personally find the online components to their site to be less valuable then that of their primary competitor- Ancestry.com. So what is good about the site you might ask. The best part of FamilySearch is their ability to find microfiche/film within the LDS archives and make it available to you! Squirreled away in a very hard find, dark corner are two crucial search functions: one finds allows you enter an area…
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The problem of Literacy & Language -part 1
Maybe your family is like mine. We come from a long line of hard working, salt of the earth people. Yes, that means many of them could not read or write.
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Assumptions & Genealogy
Genealogy requires assumptions… Over the past few weeks, I have been working on discovering (perhaps rediscovering) a family line. My Deyo family tree was incorrect, in a major way!
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A Great Find!
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“Photo” Enhancements
Getting a good picture from an aged image is crucial to developing and maintaining a good family history. Unfortunately as you look around ManyRoads, you’ll notice countless images that ought to be fixed. Aside from being a tad lazy, the skills required to accomplish this effort are significant and confusing. Much like the Document Enhancement posting of several days ago. We need to find a good image processing environment. I use the Gimp (an open source toolset that runs under Linux among other operating systems). Many Windows users employ Adobe Photoshop, the pre-eminent tool kit (but pricey). Numerous additional options are listed on About.com. Because I do things by hunt…
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The value of time
Time and patience are great virtues in life and genealogy. It is simply amazing how many things can be accomplished by letting them simmer a while.
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A wonderful day of research!
I guess this is what makes genealogy addictive… I found another generation of Saengers in my mother’s family. Not only did I find a set of g-g-g-g-parents but I found all of their children as well as the spouses of these children. I am always amazed at what original source documentation provides in terms of insights and clues to the past. In spite of bad handwriting, blurry photos and water damage, ancestors just seem to jump off the page at me. It is a true journey into the past.
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A Great Find!
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The LDS & Zeyer ev. Kirche Records
Yesterday was the very first time I was able to view Zeyer Church records, courtesy of my local LDS (Mormon) Church Family History Center and the Salt Lake City, UT Genealogy LDS Offices. I can hardly find the words to explain the experience. It was like a trip into the past. I had my very first opportunity to ‘meet’ people and touch the lives of some of the most important individuals in my life and my family’s lives. I found a photographic image (microfilm) of the official church record of my grandfather’s (Opa’s) birth and baptism. Items I had thought destroyed in the ravages in of World War 2 were…
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A Great Find!
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Genealogy
I am not certain if there will be multiple posts here or simply one on-going post. Either way, I think it is worthwhile sharing some thoughts on ‘doing genealogy’ work. The first thing I noticed when I began tracing genealogical information is that there is lots of it! Some is easy to find, some is not. It is a curiosity to me that everything you really want or need seems to be missing. I am pretty sure that means, or perhaps better said, it almost seems there is a conspiracy out there somewhere. Somehow crucial information is always lacking. This generally means the genealogist (me or you in this case)…
