Genealogy #70: Genealogy 2.0



Wow! It's amazing what can be done with technology. The Internet opened up all new avenues for finding and sharing genealogy information. Obviously, these are equal contributors to a thorough genealogy search. I was quite surprised to find I could locate celebrities that look like me based on face recognition technology (I have no idea what exactly this means and could not find a thorough definition). The celebrities that came up were not at all what I would expected. I guess we all picture ourselves as looking like the most beautiful, sexy celebrities on the magazine covers today!

Footnote can be used to make some amazing connections. Through posted photos and documents and their tags, people can connect and chat with old family friends. I can see where this would be useful in identifying people in a photo and learning a new chapter in family history. Blanks can be filled in and new research started!

Genealogy #68: Detective Work

I attempted to do some oral history with my mother around her 85th birthday. Not really having a plan of procedure, she just really started talking about various happenings from her childhood as I took notes. I feel compelled to attempt it again with a recorder. She would be a great subject, as she's very talkative (and opinionated).

I had some difficulty determining how to find the oldest grave in the Ponca, Nebraska cemetary. I did not find the help section for Find-A-Grave user friendly (or the site in general). It did look like several of the graves (over 300) went back to the mid-1800's (date of death).

Genealogy #69: Database Research - Digging Deep

In searching Ancestry.com, I was able to find census, marriage and military records for my grandfather on my mother's side. I discovered his mother's name and then tried to search for her to see how far back I could go. I was hoping to discover ancestors in Europe. I didn't find Ancestry very helpful for this--there seemed to be very little information about her. So, I attempted a google search and viola! Someone had created a family tree and I was able to trace back several generations--not Europe, but to 1700 U.S.

Genealogy # 67: Genealogy Genesis-Ascending the Tree

Ascending is not the word. It's too encompassing. Genealogy work requires an ongoing alertness to details, a compulsion to probe, CSI style, to uncover often one-word details. It's an exercise that can be given proper time and attention in retirement only. By this time, a good many reliable sources of family information have passed on. Therefore, it's urgent to do the following immediately:

1. Gather all paper documents pertaining to my parents (records, letters, documents, etc.) from family members. For this I would begin with my mother (closest living relative) and fan out to aunts and uncles.

2. Talk with key relatives about family information and begin recording family history. I began this with my mother a couple years ago and have since become lax about it. I remember being impressed with the number of skeltons in the closet and thinking there was enough drama for a fictionalized version of my own family's story. Also, I remember hearing comments from a couple of my more analytical cousins at a family funeral about their eagerness to initiate a genealogy search.

3. All this would reveal names and dates and to keep it all together I would print out a free genealogy chart and begin inserting all the gathered details.

A very time-consuming process, but the minimum that must be done at this stage!