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All Blog Posts Tagged 'genealogy' (233)

10 Hard Truths About Genealogy

1. There is no "A" in Cemetery.

2. The census takers, more often than not, didn't really care when your relative was born, or how your relative's name was spelled. They spelled it like it sounded. They also didn't really care if the two year old hanging off of the Polish woman they were questioning was a boy or a girl, and they couldn't understand Polish anyway. Thats why your great uncle is a girl in 1900 and a boy in 1912. Its still the same person.

3. There are occasionally errors… Continue

Added by tami osmer glatz on July 11, 2009 at 6:30pm — 4 Comments

Chicago research - on the internet

I already told you about the very cool Historical County Map Boundary tool at the website for the Newberry Library. Now to more great stuff available at the Newberry's website!. If you're doing research in Chicago, Cook County, there's no better site than the ChicagoAncestors site from Newberry Library, which you can find in the Genealogy Collection Guides and Research Tools page of the Newberry's site, under the tab "Research Chicago". You can also get there directly by… Continue

Added by tami osmer glatz on July 11, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

Digital Quaker Collection

I never cease to be amazed at the great websites for genealogy online! Yesterday I discovered the Digital Quaker Collection at the Earlham School of Religion (a graduate theological school for the Society of Friends). The website states "DQC is a digital library containing full text and page images of over 500 individual Quaker works from the 17th and 18th centuries." Once you enter the site, you can easily search all of the collections, or browse them by title or author. While the… Continue

Added by tami osmer glatz on July 11, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Confused By County Boundaries? Here's Some Help

Thanks to Tami over at Relatively Curious About Genealogy for reminding me about the problem with historical county boundaries and a great FREE resource to determine the exact boundary in a given year.

In her recent blog post, Tami discusses the… Continue

Added by Thomas MacEntee on July 11, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Do I Need A Genealogy or Family History Blog?

Technology - and specifically the Internet - has allowed many of us to make great advances with our own genealogy research. And it has given us the ability to connect and network with other genealogists on sites like GenealogyWise.

My colleague Elyse Doerflinger who runs the Elyse's Genealogy Blog has another… Continue

Added by Thomas MacEntee on July 11, 2009 at 9:01am — 1 Comment

Hugged by Ancestors

I made a reference in a previous blog about feeling hugged by my ancestors when sitting among my grandparents scrapbooks, photo albums, journals, etc., when I was 16 years old. A new found friend on GenealogyWise emailed me and said he liked that phrase, "hugged by ancestors." A few of the back and forth emails had the subject line "Hugged by ancestors," and I have not been able to get this phrase out of my head since.

As I pulled a few different genealogy files out today to look up… Continue

Added by Jennifer Eklund, PLCGS on July 11, 2009 at 12:00am — 2 Comments

Great Online Map Site - Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

I've "tweeted" about this already a couple of times (I'm "rcurious", in case you tweet too), but I am just so thrilled with this site, that its worth yet another mention. Most genealogists are familiar with the "must have" book, Map Guide to the US Federal Census, by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide - you just can't do census research without it! But recently I found a website, hosted by the Newberry Library (Chicago), that really is incredible. Not only does it show… Continue

Added by tami osmer glatz on July 10, 2009 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

Spelling can be misleading...

Several years ago I sent out an S.O.S. on a message board to find information on an ancestor. A man who's first name was spelled Frances. A member of the board who happened to be an English teacher replied to me with a lecture about how I was spelling the man's name wrong. Frances with an "e" is the feminine. Francis with an "i" is the masculine. She told me I needed to change the spelling because I was spelling his name wrong.

What the English teacher did not understand was that… Continue

Added by Jennifer Eklund, PLCGS on July 10, 2009 at 12:39pm — 6 Comments

The Saturation of Social Network Sites

As I talk to fellow genealogists and others about the launch of GenelogyWise (official launch date is Friday, July 17, 2009), I have come consistently across complaints of too many social network sites existing. I think I have benefited from only having a MySpace and Facebook page and now GenealogyWise. I tried out a genealogy networking site last year, but the site could not keep my interest. Some days the site did not work at all and the content on the site was not enough to keep my interest.… Continue

Added by Jennifer Eklund, PLCGS on July 10, 2009 at 11:12am — No Comments

The Politics of Mailing Lists and How to Survive...

Mailing lists can be a terrific way of gathering information and sharing stories with others. Mailing lists allow you to keep up to date with advancements in a field, events, and education. Sometimes though, someone or a group of people on the mailing list begin souring the list with drama. Some people just thrive on conflict. A fact that is difficult to escape in life, but one that is controllable, especially on a mailing list.

Recently, a professional list for genealogy dealt with… Continue

Added by Jennifer Eklund, PLCGS on July 9, 2009 at 1:41pm — 1 Comment

When I got bit by the genealogy bug...

Everyone has a story of when they were bit by the genealogy bug and their entire lives were transformed to trying to get as much information as possible about their family. This blog will share mine. I will also post this as a discussion forum to hear others stories.

My paternal grandfather died when I was 16 years old on December 17, 1993. I was a junior in high school. Both sets of my grandparents lived two hours from my house in different directions, so I was never close with any… Continue

Added by Jennifer Eklund, PLCGS on July 9, 2009 at 11:03am — 1 Comment

Can Social Media Save Genealogy Societies?

My colleague Elyse Doerflinger at Elyse's Genealogy Blog has started a dialog concerning the future of genealogy societies and how bridging the "technology divide" can mean sink or swim in terms of society survival.

In her post, Elyse discusses many different ways a genealogy society can leverage technology… Continue

Added by Thomas MacEntee on July 8, 2009 at 2:41pm — 4 Comments

Seeking contact with any other BLOFELD, BLOFIELD or BLOWFIELD researchers

I am researching all occurances of the surname BLOFELD plus variants such as BLOFIELD and BLOWFIELD as part of a one-name study. Please contact me if you have these surnames in your ancestry, I may be able to help with your research.

Added by Gillian on July 8, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments