Write the Story: Around Cape Horn and Back Again!
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold Molten, graven, hammered and rolled, Heavy to get and light to hold, Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold, Stolen, borrowed, squandered,…
Beware the DNA, My Son!
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws…
My DNA Test Is Back—Now What?
The test kit comes in the mail! So exciting! You spit and spit and send it off, and wait seemingly forever for the test results. Finally the day comes! The…
Family Food History: Putting on the Irish!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. So the saying goes, and oh, does it apply to family history! You’ve done all of this…
Why Family History: And Their Eyes Were My Eyes
“I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me those who are to come, I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers,…
Eyewitness to History!
Is there a better way to learn about history than through the eyes of an ancestor? I haven’t found it. History can often appear as flat facts and irrelevant numbers,…
Which DNA Kit is Best?
So you want to give Great Aunt Sophia a DNA test for her birthday! That’s a GREAT idea! (Although Aunt Sophia may actually prefer chocolate.) Now the questions begin—What kind…
Family Trees—To Use Or Not to Use!
QUESTION: When building your family tree on Ancestry.com, do you ignore suggested member trees or do you review them? If you review them, do you ignore siblings of the person…
Finding the Details: William Martin Goes Yukon!
I knew that my Great Uncle William S. Martin had spent four years in the Yukon. He appears on the 1901 Canada Census, captured as he was returning to the…
John, John, Mary, Mary: Re-using Names
QUESTION: Was it common to name a child the same name of a previous, deceased, or stillborn child? ie; John David was born still in 1872 but his brother, John…