Journal
138 articles on finding ancestors, reading records, and keeping the story with the evidence.
June 9, 2020 · Tracy Hall
One of the best parts of living in today’s society is technology. Sometimes it can be frustrating but then I stop and think, at least I am able to find records with more ease than the ones who started this journey I am adding to. I am not having to stop lines because I cannot...
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May 26, 2020 · Tracy Hall
In our last blog we discussed how a DNA test was helping my husband tear down his brick wall where his great great grandfather was concerned. We figured out how his great great grandfather Austin "Frank" had two families and the DNA match we were working with was from his firs...
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May 21, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Oh those brick walls. Most every family has at least one and many could build a high rise apartment with all their walls. In my head, the goal is always to find that one brick, just one loose brick to help that wall come tumbling down. My husband's great grandfather was raised...
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May 14, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Imagine you are adopted. You have a few pieces of paper with some background information about your birth parents but nothing else. You want to know who your birth parents are but the agency who did the adoption wants $500.00 to contact the birth mother to see if she is willin...
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May 8, 2020 · Tracy Hall
In our last blog post we looked at some words that are used in place names of towns in Ireland. As a reminder during the Gaelic period Ireland was made up of "Little Kingdoms" with boundaries, and they were named after features of the landscape. So the place-names of these kin...
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May 1, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Do you plan to go to Ireland? Maybe you just want to visit to see the beautiful landscape and the friendly people. Maybe you are going to do some genealogy. We took a trip a few years ago, and I sure wish I had known some of these terms. So here are some things you should know...
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April 28, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Did you know that it takes 72 years after a census is taken for it to be released to the public? This is something I just recently learned from my husband who was taking a genealogy class. It works out to every 10 years a new census is released. So, in 2012 the 1940 census was...
Read articleApril 28, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Did you know that it takes 72 years after a census is taken for it to be released to the public? This is something I just recently learned from my husband who was taking a genealogy class. It works out to every 10 years a new census is released. So, in 2012 the 1940 census was...
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April 25, 2020 · Tracy Hall
Growing up in central Illinois, right in the middle of corn and soybean fields, I loved Spring when everything was green and in bloom. But when there were no crops, and it was just flat, I would often wonder, and out loud sometimes, why did people stop here to make this their...
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April 17, 2020 · Tracy Hall
For many, getting your DNA tested is fun to see where your ancestral lineage originates. There may be some surprise heritage you didn’t know you had. YouTube is full of videos about it. For others, they take these tests to see if they can find family members. Some because perh...
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April 14, 2020 · Tracy Hall
ALERT!!!! The kids are out of school and many of you are homeschooling!!! Sometimes to make learning different and fun, kids need a reason to want to learn it. How about mixing genealogy and social studies together? Help them learn geography and throw in a history lesson while...
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April 1, 2020 · Tracy Hall
One of the best things about working with genealogy today is that more and more records are online. We are also now able to use DNA in our searches along with all the new technologies that are out there for our use. An example is the way we can put headstones on memorials at F...
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