This week I started working on converting my (messy) craft room into a genealogy room/office. I have piles and piles of papers, notebooks, and books to sort through. It’s kind of overwhelming, but I’m sure I’ll make some neat discoveries that I’d forgotten! Today I came across some old microfilm order slips from when I first started doing genealogy. Back then, we didn’t order the microfilm online. We went to our local family history center and filled out an order card. Then we waited for notification that our film had arrived via snail mail. The oldest card I found was...
While searching for a newspaper article about relatives who had measles in 1853, I came across this article about Mrs. Singleton, the oldest woman in the world. The Charleston Standard, Alton Evening Telegraph, Alton, Illinois, 28 May 1853, page 2, column, 3, digital image, newspapers.com, (http://newspapers.com), accessed 5 February 2017. The Charleston Standard says that the oldest woman in the world is now living in Williamsburg district, South Carolina. Her name is Mrs. SINGLETON. She is now in the one hundred and thirty-first year of her age—enjoys good health—retains all her senses, except that of sight of which she was...
To label the people in this group photo of my husband’s family, I used PhotoShop Elements to create a faded version of the photo and then number each person. I then posted both photos on Facebook and asked for help filling in the names of individuals my in-laws had not identified. because of this process, we now have 25 of the 30 people in this photograph identified. Also, a relative had photos from this same day in a scrapbook and provided us with a month and year for the gathering. Payton Family “Reunion” Photo, April 1942, Muskogee, Oklahoma List of...
I first did an “ancestral score” spreadsheet in January of 2015. This is where you create a chart showing how many of your grandparents, great grandparents, etc., you have identified. “Ancestral Score” January 2015 I didn’t post a similar chart in January of 2016. However, I now realize that in 2015, I discovered my missing 3x great grandparents, the Holthoefer’s and the Adam’s, through the book I was a contributing author to regarding Holthoefer ancestors. So, I now know all of my 3x great grandparents! table.tableizer-table { font-size: 12px; border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .tableizer-table td...
I recently met a “new” Peters cousin through Ancestry.com and we have been sharing photos and other information. She sent me two paintings that her family believed were of William Peters (1850-1927) and his wife, Mahala McFarland (1859-1906). William was a son of Joachim Peters (1815-1894), the immigrant patriarch I’ve been sharing about recently. Cousin’s Painting Labeled William Peters, son of Joachim Peters. Used with permission. Cousin’s Painting Labeled Mahala (McFarland) Peters, William Peters’ wife. (Used with permission.) When I saw the paintings, I thought they looked really familiar. My family has a photo of our Peters’ immigrant couple, Jochim...
In the U.S., most of my ancestors were farmers. But, my newly found German ancestors had a variety of occupations. As I tried to locate the birth family of my 3rd great grandfather, Joachim Peters, using his father’s occupation as a “keyword” helped me find the correct family. Mecklenburg-Schwerin, where the Peters family lived, did not take many censuses. In fact, the only ones I’m aware of are for the years 1704, 1751, 1819, 1867, 1890, and 1900. Since the family emigrated in 1859 and Joachim was born about 1815, the only useful census would be 1819. However, the 1867...
Matthew Boyers, who was probably born in the 1750s, was living in York District, South Carolina in 1810, and in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1830. Although quite a few people have Matthew Boyers on their Ancestry family tree, no one had located him in 1820. So, I used one of my “tricks” and searched for Matthew without his last name. I specifically searched the 1820 U.S. federal censuses for the following: First name: “Matthew” with “sounds like,” “similar,” and “initials” checked Lived in (1st search): “York County, South Carolina” in the field and marked as “exact to this place” Lived...
If you know of a newspaper clipping but can’t find it online, maybe it hasn’t been digitized. If so, a great place to find out what repositories have copies of it is at the Chronicling America site. I’ve been working on my Dickson family of Tennessee. A 1998 post on RootsWeb by David Walker mentioned an 1846 legal notice. The notice is in regards to the estate of my 4th great grandfather, James Dixon [or Dickson], and also mentions his son, my 3rd great grandfather, Joseph Dixon/Dickson. But, I could not find this article on any of the digital newspaper...
I’d like to make a “scrapbook” of newspaper clippings I’ve found that relate to my family. I’d like the clippings to LOOK like I clipped them out of the paper, but they always print out huge. Any suggestions? 50 Years Ago, The Express, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, 20 Jul 1967, page 1, column 4, digital image newspapers.com, (http://newspapers.com), accessed 12 Feb 2015 Thank you for your help! Dana
For the past few months, I’ve tried to figure out how to set a “primary photo” for an individual. It was easy on the “old” Ancestry! I finally called Ancestry and they quickly sent me an email with a link that explained the steps I needed to take. I don’t think it is intuitive (or I would have figured it out!), so I’m sharing the steps. STEP 1: Go to the profile page for the person on your tree and click “Gallery” to see all the images. STEP 2: Click on the image you want to use as the primary...
