Journal
138 articles on finding ancestors, reading records, and keeping the story with the evidence.
May 31, 2022 · Christopher Hall
We watch our fair share of movies and television. We often find ourselves watching period pieces like Downton Abbey, maybe a Jane Austen or Charles Dickens story. Our tastes are not limited to England. We like shows and movies from all over the world, though again they’re ofte...
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May 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
Have you ever gone on a genealogy trip? Not just a day trip to go to a cemetery but one where you go to a different state with the purpose of doing research and looking for family cemeteries? Summer of 2020 we were supposed to be doing our first family genealogy trip which of...
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May 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
In Ireland, between the years of 1937 and 1939, one of the largest folklore gatherings took place. More than 50,000 school children, between the ages of 11 and 14, were asked to help record stories, in relation to 55 themes, passed down from their parents, grandparents and nei...
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April 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
Our family tree is built beginning with ourselves, children, parents, and grandparents. All the folks we know to be our kin. Sometimes that includes adoptive parents or step-parents, half-siblings, and others. Then we have our DNA tested. Perhaps we find that our genealogy is...
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April 11, 2022 · Tracy Hall
I have always enjoyed hearing family stories and having family get-togethers. But I never realized how little I knew about some of my ancestors. My maternal grandparents were old when I was born. My grandpa died when I was ten, and he was almost 80. My grandmother died when I...
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March 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
For many years Tracy’s Fitzsimmons family had an annual family reunion. Several folks from the different lines attended regularly. So when Grandma Fitzsimmons passed away, Tracy didn’t want to lose the special times and connections. She decided to manage the reunion. She took...
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March 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
A DNA test can reveal a lot of both positive and potentially negative information for the tester. There are also limitations to what it can tell. Whether or not to test should be decided with as much information as possible. The following is a short explanation of some misconc...
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March 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
In the summer of 2020 we had a big family history trip planned. Of course it was canceled because of COVID and most genealogy places were closed. One of the main purposes of the trip was to get to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where all four of my mothers paternal great grand...
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February 28, 2022 · Christopher Hall
We mentioned MyHeritage.com a few weeks ago. They have this great tool called Theory of Family Relativity TM . It uses several different family tree websites and builds possible relational paths between you, your ancestors, and your MyHeritage DNA match. It is very impressive...
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February 28, 2022 · Christopher Hall
MyHeritage.com has a cleverly named, very useful tool called Theory of Family Relativity TM . It is an automated, cross-service, DNA matching tool. You can either purchase the MyHeritage.com DNA service or simply upload your existing DNA data into their database. Ancestry.com...
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February 28, 2022 · Christopher Hall
We have written before about the value of local family history societies . We wrote specifically about the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society. Today I would like to offer a bit of a personal history with the Society and the value we have found in one of the searchable co...
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February 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
While Saint Brigid Day was on February 1st we are going to discuss it today. On February 1st is the Celtic festival of “Imbolc.” This signifies the time when ewes are starting to come into milk and are ready to go out to the pastures where the new grass is starting to come up....
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