Are you familiar with wikis? Have you ever used one for your genealogy research? If not, you should. They are excellent genealogical research tools. Join me today on the Ancestral Findings Podcast as we look at what a wiki is, why you should be using them, and how they can benefit you as a genealogist. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/what-is-a-genealogy-wiki/ Listen via: https://ancestralfindings.com/itunes https://ancestralfindings.com/youtube Weekly Giveaways: https://ancestralfindin...
Jun 10, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 257
Everyone loves a merry-go-round. They are fun for all ages, charming, enchanting, and wonderful reminders of our childhoods. At the same time, we can enjoy watching our children and grandchildren having fun on them. They are also one of the few carnival rides that we can enjoy riding with them. Merry-go-rounds are true family fun rides, suitable for and beloved by all ages. It makes sense, then, with all the love that merry-go-rounds receive around the world, that there be a museum dedicated to ...
Jun 07, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 256
The 1790 through 1840 census records only list the name of the head of the household, but that doesn’t mean you can’t glean more information from them than this. They also include lists of how many people are living in the household, and most of them categorize these people into gender and age groups within those genders. Really early ones may even include listings of who is free and who is the slave in a household, and categorize the slaves into genders and age groups, too. You can use this to ...
Jun 06, 2019•2 min
One of the wonderful things about genealogy is discovering your ancestral homelands. Remember, unless one is Native American, one’s ancestors always came from another country before coming to North America, and it was in the recent past (usually the past three to four centuries, which is relatively recent, genealogically speaking). Learning where our ancestors originated opens up so many intriguing things to research and try, including customs, traditions, methods of dress, and food. Food is one...
Jun 05, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 255
Census takers didn’t always spell names correctly. If it was an unusual name or a foreign one spoken by foreign people, the census taker may have spelled the name phonetically, or misheard it and spelled it completely differently from anything it was supposed to be. You may think your ancestor is not in the census, but this is because you haven’t checked using all the search methods that can lead you to them. This method works best on online census records that are searchable with an interactive...
Jun 03, 2019•2 min
If you thought the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 were the only incident of witch hysteria in colonial America, that is understandable. This incident is widely known and talked about, probably because of the sheer volume of numbers of people who were convicted and accused. There were twenty victims who were unjustly executed, while hundreds more for miles around and from far outside of Salem were accused and spent time in jail before the hysteria ended. However, the incident in Salem Villag...
May 31, 2019•9 min•Season 5Ep. 254
People have been keeping track of their genealogies since time immemorial. Before writing, we would pass down our family histories and lineages through oral tradition. Later, those who could keep this information in family Bibles, Torahs, and other religious texts. Finally, we started writing it down in the form of family trees. Family trees have been the most popular and widely used form of genealogy, at least in the modern age. The fascination with and importance of genealogy has always had to...
May 29, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 253
In the old days of genealogy, you would have to go to a genealogy library, look up a name in a printed index, and then get a roll of microfilm corresponding to that name, and scroll through to find your person (or just browse a whole neighborhood, if no name was in the index). You can still search this way. However, there are many places online with digitized images of the census, many of which have been indexed, and you merely have to type in a person’s name and location to find the image with ...
May 27, 2019•1 min
Have you ever considered taking a vacation to the homeland of your ancestors? If so, you are far from alone. Genealogy tourism is more popular than ever. With more people getting involved in genealogy, the number of people who want to see for themselves the places where their ancestors lived, walked, worked, and loved is at an all-time high. And, there are genealogy tourism companies that are jumping on this trend. Why is genealogy tourism so popular right now, and how can you use it to add impo...
May 24, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 252
The easy availability of home DNA testing has become extremely popular in both genealogical circles and in everyday people who do not do genealogy. The idea of being able to know about our ancestors, where we came from, and even ourselves (via health and other personal information DNA provides) is tantalizing. Since these DNA test kits are so affordable for most, it is hard to resist their appeal. Personal DNA testing is now more popular than ever, with ads on TV from companies like Ancestry and...
May 22, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 251
You may be looking at the census just to get the names, ages, and birthplaces of your ancestors, and this is good. You should do this, as it is a basic research task in genealogy. Looking up these things on the census records can tell you a lot about your ancestors you never knew, such as children, parents, and other relatives who are living with them who you never knew existed. You can also get important information on their origins and the origins of their parents. There is more to most census...
May 20, 2019•2 min
Did you know that old newspaper advertisements can tell you a wealth of information about what your ancestors’ childhoods were probably like, or what they may have been like as parents? This is valuable information you won’t find anywhere else. Join me today to find out what old advertisements can reveal. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/how-to-use-old-newspaper-advertisements-to-research-the-childhood-lives-of-your-ancestors/ Listen via: https://ancestralfindings.com/itunes https://anc...
May 17, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 250
Martha Washington was the very first 1st lady of the United States. We all know this about her, and that she married George Washington. But, what about her life before him, and after him? Do you really know Martha Washington? Tune in today for her story. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/americas-first-ladies-martha-washington Read more about America’s First Ladies: https://ancestralfindings.com/category/americas-first-ladies Listen via: https://ancestralfindings.com/itunes https://ances...
May 15, 2019•9 min•Season 5Ep. 249
While some people were overlooked in certain census records because they were moving and in between residences (such as people migrating west), they weren’t home, the person giving the information forgot to include them (or deliberately did not), or were genuinely trying to hide from census takers, the vast majority of people who seem “lost” in any given census year are actually there. You just may have to employ some creative searching methods to find them. If the person had a hard-to-pronounce...
May 13, 2019•2 min
Quakers call themselves the Religious Society of Friends. They were given the moniker of “Quaker” by other Christian denominations who derided the writhing and dancing in religious ecstasy that was common in the early days of the group. While there are several different Quaker denominations today, they all come from the same first group and share the same values the original Quakers taught. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/the-history-of-the-quakers Listen via: https://ancestralfindings...
May 10, 2019•9 min•Season 5Ep. 248
If you’ve been to any family gathering, picnic, or potluck in the United States, you have probably eaten, or at least seen a deviled egg. The deviled egg is almost a cultural icon for intimate parties in this country. However, as American, as they may seem, they did not originate here, and they exist in other varieties in different nations. As an example, these tasty treats are referred to as deviled eggs in the UK, and as dressed eggs, eggs mimosa, stuffed eggs, and angel eggs in other parts of...
May 08, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 247
Most genealogists will eventually inherit photos. People in your family know you're the family genealogist. When the time comes to pass photos on to someone else, either due to the death of someone in the family or because an elderly relative is downsizing, you are the most likely person to get them. Some may be in albums, but quite often you will get loose photos kept in boxes and other unlikely methods of storage. Only rarely will these photos be labeled. It is up to you to label them and get ...
May 03, 2019•4 min•Season 5Ep. 246
Yes, they do, but it depends on the census. The 1840 census, for example, includes a column that lets you know whether the head of the household was a Revolutionary War veteran. This can be helpful for confirming Revolutionary service for lineage society applications. Ages begin to be listed in the 1850 census. Relationships to the head of household, year of immigration to the United States (if applicable), whether naturalized or not, the birthplace of the parents of everyone listed, and whether...
May 02, 2019•2 min
It's time to start figuring out what genealogy projects you want to tackle for May. Each month holds its own best genealogical practices that you can incorporate into your regular genealogy research. Here are the 10 "must do" genealogy projects for May. Each of these will make your genealogy research and family history narrative richer and more informative for you and others. Enjoy doing these fun and important genealogical projects. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/10-must-genealogy-pr...
May 01, 2019•7 min•Season 5Ep. 245
Beginning with the 1850 census, the names and ages of everyone in a household were recorded. Prior to that, in the 1790 to 1840 census records, only the names of the heads of households were listed, though those censuses included tallies of how many people of each gender in one of several different age groups lived in the house with the head of household. The 1820-1840 censuses also include a tally of the number, gender, and age groups of any slaves owned by the head of household. If you know an...
Apr 30, 2019•1 min
Beginning in 1790, the United States took a census of the entire country every ten years. This tradition is still continuing today. The census records are divided by state, then county, then city or town. However, this does not mean the exact census you are looking for will be available. Many counties and entire states have had their records lost in the earliest censuses, usually the ones between 1790 and 1830. And, of course, there is the infamous case of the entirely vanished 1890 census, whic...
Apr 29, 2019•2 min
There are dozens, even hundreds, of different records you can use to compile your family history when doing genealogy research. Each one tells a different story about your ancestor. When you put them all together, resolve any discrepancies between them, and use your genealogical skills to read between the lines, you get a fuller, richer picture of your ancestor's life and times. That's the ultimate goal of the advanced and/or professional researcher. Discovering as many records as you can that m...
Apr 26, 2019•6 min•Season 5Ep. 244
It is often easy to make a good guess as to where your ancestor’s burial location may be. They are typically in one of the cemeteries closest to where they lived, or on the property of the church, they belonged to. Of course, there are exceptions, such as people who were buried on family farms, or in far away locations when they died while traveling, or if they wanted to be buried near relatives who didn’t live nearby. But a cemetery close by is generally your best bet as far as guesses go. Ceme...
Apr 25, 2019•2 min
It's wonderful that we live in an age where a lot of genealogy research can be done online. We don't have to drive long distances and pay large sums of money to get access to many different record sets anymore. While there is no substitution for in-person research to find ALL of the available records concerning your ancestors and to get the true story of who they were and how they lived, you can still find out so much online. While many of the best-known genealogy websites are subscription-based...
Apr 24, 2019•6 min•Season 5Ep. 243
If you can’t find a death certificate, such as if your ancestor died before his or her county or state started requiring the issuance of them, look in the old newspapers of the area to see if you can find an obituary. The time and place of the funeral, as well as the burial location, are often revealed in obituaries, even quite old ones. Once you have the name of the cemetery, finding the burial location is usually a simple matter. Many old newspapers are now online, both on free and membership ...
Apr 23, 2019•1 min
Every time period and every family has its traditions. Often, the two mix. Sometimes, they are separate. They are all important to our understanding of our families and our heritage. That is why they should be preserved. Part of your genealogical research should always be to find out about the traditions of the times in which your ancestors lived, and any special family traditions, and then record them for posterity. If you don’t, these important historical details may be lost, and our understan...
Apr 19, 2019•5 min•Season 5Ep. 242
Even if you just do genealogy casually, you should join a few genealogical societies in order to learn about the newest research collections, research methods, and to read stories of genealogical successes that can inspire you. If you do genealogy professionally or as a serious amateur researcher, you probably need to belong to several societies in order to keep on the cutting edge of the profession/hobby. Whether you are a casual or professional/serious genealogist, these are the three genealog...
Apr 17, 2019•5 min•Season 5Ep. 241
Are you getting ready to do family history interviews with your older relatives? Don't forget to ask these important questions. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/family-history-questions-you-may-not-have-thought-to-ask/ Listen via: https://ancestralfindings.com/itunes https://ancestralfindings.com/youtube Weekly Giveaways: https://ancestralfindings.com/drawing Free eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Hard To Find Surnames: https://ancestralfindings.com/surnames Social Media: htt...
Apr 12, 2019•4 min
There are plenty of free genealogical resources to use online. Some are well-known, others less so. Today, I’ll give you eight little-known free online genealogical resources that you can use to build your family tree without breaking your bank or wallet. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/some-free-genealogical-resources-you-might-not-have-considered Listen via: https://ancestralfindings.com/itunes https://ancestralfindings.com/youtube Weekly Giveaways: https://ancestralfindings.com/draw...
Apr 10, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 239
FamilySearch.org is the most popular free genealogy website online, and often one of the first ones new genealogists use. Their collection of records is impressive… it’s the largest in the world. However, billions of its billions of records are still not indexed. Today, I’ll talk about how to find some hidden gems on the website, even without the benefit of indexing. Show Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/how-to-locate-hidden-genealogical-gems-on-familysearch-org Listen via: https://ancestral...
Apr 09, 2019•8 min•Season 5Ep. 238
