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Blog Entries: 1 to 10 of 53
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Finding New Ways to Learn
I hope you have been enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having (if you live in western Washington at least). As I was enjoying the warmth, the front porch, and the dog sitting beside me I was reviewing some previous journalling I had done and ran across the quote, "don't get lost in the steps only to lose focus on the objective." I believe it came from the book Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.
So. what do I mean? Sometimes I get caught up in the steps too much? But in photography, and in family history I believe as well, there is a visualization process. Instead of snapping off as many photos as possible in the 30 minutes I may have (which could be hundreds in digital photography), the creative process would be to think about a subject, consider the light and the potential compositions, and what it would take to make that photo happen and then to take action and photograph the subject. Isn’t that kind of true with family history? What am I visualizing for the use of this research and how do I make that happen?
It might mean that there are classes to take to help you understand the technical skills or research skills needed to make your vision become reality but that is the process. We learn new skills to meet our objectives. True for any undertaking.
That brings me to classes for family history whether from HQRL or elsewhere. There are 2 approaches, 1) Find classes at your favorite site (HQRL I hope) and take them and apply them as you can or 2) Look for classes anywhere that fit your current research focus, take them and apply them. Now as I write this, I realize it is probably a bit of both.
I am not trying to discourage you from taking our classes; however, I am an educator, and I can’t compete with the learning tools available to all of us beyond our own library. If you are truly trying to learn about how to do family history for your own family story, anything you can find that teaches you about history and genealogy is invaluable especially if it helps you meet your objective.
With all that said, I just found another “gold mine” of learning tools, Allen County Public Library video collection. Perhaps you are ahead of me and have already found this site, but there are over 400 videos in this collection alone and they are free to watch. My recommendation is to look at HQRL’s class list and then go to places like Allen County Library, Mid-Continent Library, and Ohio County Public Library, for example, to find resources that can help you learn what you want. Other libraries in larger communities may also have this kind of collection as well as libraries connected to universities. Family Search and Ancestry also have classes that you can take. Don’t be afraid to browse or to go to Cyndi’s List to find “Libraries, Archives and Museums” or to go to YouTube.
Well, happy learning and happy researcing.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com |
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Finding History to Find Family History
In the next 2 months we have a class on finding ancestors in Ireland, another look from a new presenter on Social History, and a look at researching in Missouri. I am looking at how I can use the previous class which included some social history information and prepare for Ireland and the next social history presentation.
One of my focus points recently has been on where people came from when they came to America early on. For example, were there German communities in Butler County, Ohio in early 1800? If no, move on. If there were, did they come directly from Germany or did they come from Germany to another American location and migrate to Ohio?
I will often google the question and then look at the resources used by google. I am not looking for ancestor’s names and vitals. I am looking for migration patterns. Now, I don’t know if this is the professional family historian’s way, but it makes sense to me. If the patterns indicate that, for example, yes there were German communities in Ohio in the early 1800s then where does history say they came from? What part of Germany? Why did they leave Germany at that time?
What I am learning is more about history than family history, but I can then apply it to my family history. In my case I have found that many of my German ancestors came from SW German states like Wurttemberg and Baden for example. That immigrants into Butler County, Ohio at the time were Swiss-German. I have learned the reasons they came for farming, religious freedom, which also told me the potential religious beliefs of my family and occupations. Now these aren’t facts about my family necessarily, but they lead me down the road for more research locations which might lead to those facts.
After finding this and more about history at the time, I can investigate the locations I have for ancestors and see if anything fits, which it does. I can look for the churches from the areas in which they lived and then research church records to find names possibly.
I will repeat what I have said before and what I must tell myself all the time, “Family History research is not simple, and it is not quick.” I have yet to find my family names in any country beyond the Atlantic. But all the presenters say the same or similar things, “find everything you can on this side of the pond, before you try to cross.” With that, I think I am getting closer. If the hints that I have gotten from DNA or from the big databases have any truth to them, then looking for German or Swiss or Scots-Irish or whatever only makes sense to me, if people from those places landed in the American locations around the time I have.
All my school history teachers, both my own and those I supervised, would be so proud, I think?!
See you in the next class.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Patience and Careful Analysis
I haven’t been doing family history as long as many of my friends have been but the longer I do it the more I learn about the challenges and the benefits. For example, I used to just see the connections on my tree from the general database and add it to mine. It is on the database; it must be correct!?
Recently I was reviewing one line to decide what location to research. I found a 6x great grandparent couple that had lots of history written about them. He was the first president of what would become Brown University, a renowned Baptist minister and very influential in the local area. So, what is the problem?
I decided out of curiosity to look more carefully at the Research Help (warning). There were 14 sources for this person and several contained the statement that he and his wife had no children, yet 4 were listed for him including one from my line. How can that be that he had no children yet hundreds of years of descendants? There are no sources listed for births of any of the children, but then this was the 1700s. I think my trail on this line has a disconnect whether someone else adds them or not and from looking at the comments on this gentleman, lots of others found the issue as well. This will require lots of help from the class we just had (more below).
The lesson, look carefully at all of your information including the hints and resources well before you add them to your tree. One of the things that I have been doing is to add those I have confirmed to WikiTree. I did this with one line and suddenly it was fill with confirmed ancestors. I wonder what or when that will happen with this Baptist minister?
In the meantime, I am working on applying what we learned in the last class on “Researching Beyond Your Ancestor.” That is what I was doing when I ran headlong into the “no children yet descendants” issue. Our speaker talked about Cluster / Fan Club Research, about exploring jurisdictions, the importance of social history, local history and then illustrated it all with a case study. She provided a lot of resources and examples as she shared her knowledge. A big takeaway on this one was, “SLOW AND STEADY!”
Again, my learning tells me not to expect to find things at the click of a mouse. She gave us a list under each topic of subtopics to look for. It takes time to find the right information and then to analyze it. What do the facts you find tell you about your family history or about what life might have been like for people living during the same time and in the same location? What organizations were they part of that could give you names of family, friends, associates, or neighbors? She even mentioned an organization that I had only recently heard of, Knights of the Pythias, that my grandfather was part of according to the records.
There is so much to learn when and about doing family history and as I have said before, history didn’t happen overnight and it is not going to unfold for you and me overnight. (as much as I want it to!) Time for more learning – Ireland, more Social History, Missouri, AI and so much more.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Where Were They in 1776
Got a bit ahead in the blog and behind in the family history. How does that work?
As I was contemplating what to work on and then write about this week a popup appeared, 250 Years. I wondered which generation that would be for me and where they were. For the most part this would be my 4th and 5th great grandparents (7th and 8th generations). Where were they? In general: Ohio 2, VA 9, PA 2, MD 2, MA 6, NY 3, TN 1, NC 1, a couple possibly in KY and many unknown yet. And many on their way west. There were perhaps one or two from England, or Canada at that time and who knows where else.
It is clear that many of these past members of my family story were in the northeastern US and quite likely involved with the battles of the area. That makes the HQRL event America 250 Patriot Celebration particularly interesting. I’ll bet it is the same for you. See the flyer on the website for more information about what it involves and how to attend.
I also was thinking about what life would have been like for my family members during that time. What were the Faris families doing having just arrived from Northern Ireland and finding themselves in the hills of Virginia? What about the Ostranders who were likely from family roots in The Netherlands (even though my grandmother said they weren’t) and now in New York. And there were all those various families in Massachusetts. What were they thinking and doing?
It all makes me wonder about the strength they must have had and their beliefs. Did they wonder whether they had made the right choices to leave their homelands and come to this wilderness? They certainly weren’t sitting around wondering what reality TV show to watch tonight or whether kibble or natural dog food was best.
I am looking forward to the next class which is about looking beyond our ancestor. I am hoping to get a little inspiration for discovering more about the lives they led. Most of my current research isn’t so much about adding names but about adding “why’s.” I don’t think my history is that much different from so many of yours. Farmers moving for cheaper and better land away from the crowded places they landed when first arriving in America. I wonder if we aren’t a bit more isolated than they were then which seems funny to say, but many seem to have traveled in like groups (countries of origin, language, religion, families) and supported each other through community membership and meetings. What would they think of our current social media community connections, Zoom meetings, and lives that take us several states away from our families? What if we dropped them into New York City or Seattle today? I am wondering if I might be speaking Dutch now?
Heidi Geise, hqrl@education.com
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Generative Learning For Success
I was reading a book that I read every couple of years, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, one of the editors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and I happened upon a reminder. Everything worth doing takes time and to be successful we must take that time one step at a time and always be open to learning.
Family History is worth doing!
We usually have 2 classes per month. Each one addresses a different aspect of doing this work. Sometimes it involves how to do the research in a particular area or for family from a specific area such as our Dutch Roots class or the upcoming one on Ireland. Sometimes it is about family research in general such as our beginning classes or classes on organization or citing sources. Sometimes it is about what kind of information to look for such as our class on Naturalization Records or Looking Beyond our Ancestors. Sometimes it is about the kind of help we can get from various databases or using AI or newspapers or support from groups like WikiTree and the WikiTree community. You get the idea. The classes cover a lot of topics. Hopefully, something for everyone.
The point is part of being successful at anything is continuing to be a learner and applying the learning one step at a time. That is the idea from the Canfield book. Even if you don’t know how you might use the information at the moment or if you have been doing family history for a long time there is usually learning that we can take away from every class if we are open to it. Maybe it is that we are doing things correctly or maybe it is a site or strategy that we forgot about or maybe it is how to help others. Maybe it generates ideas that we can use to do more learning and find more classes.
What are our takeaways from the presentation by the volunteer from WikiTree this week? Well, too many to list them all here. A couple of things that set them apart is that it is totally free. They are not a database so if you find a hint to look at you will end up at MyHeritage or Family Search, etc. You have to sign an Honor Code to change information. Also, it has a 2-step verification system. This means that no one can change your tree unless they ask you first or you give them permission. Maybe the most important learning is that it will not confirm an addition until you site the sources.
They have weekly, monthly and yearly “contests.” There are Friday Night Bingo nights, badges to earn, a ton of ways to help and to learn about doing family history. Best bet, www.wikitree.com to explore and learn more.
It really is a site to explore and play with so go play. You have a week to get ready for “Exploring the Community: Researching Beyond Your Ancestor.” After that we have beginning, Ireland, Social History, Missouri, AI, Norway, Germany, Power of Clues,,,,and June 9th, America 250 Patriot Celebration (see the HQRL website for more information.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Hints Come at Odd Times
Thursday March 26th was Opening Day for Seattle Mariners’ Baseball. We were baseball parents, so baseball was a big part of our lives. A while back I talked about how far back we can trace our family history connections to various hobbies such as sports but short of my own Dad I really didn’t find anything.
I mention this because this morning in the early hours I had this thought that connected baseball to family history. You know those hours, before you crawl out of the comfy sheets, before the dog pounces on the bed deciding it is time for someone to get up and feed her. It often happens to me that what I was thinking about or working on the day before but couldn’t figure out suddenly becomes clear. I may not get the full answer, but I may get a thought of where to look. I keep 3 x 5 cards by my bed so that I can write some of this thinking down before they run right through “in one ear and out the other” as they say.
So, the day before I was working on connecting more migration dots for my paternal grandfather’s side. Then I stopped to watch the game until time for bed. Suddenly about 2am, I think, somewhere I have some baseball cards that belonged to my paternal grandparents. Where are they? What team were they from? What year were the players from? What is their story?
I went back to sleep. I am not that obsessed with family history that I am going to get up at 2am to look for baseball cards or feed the dog for that matter. When I did get up, I found the cards and eventually did some quick research. They were team photos that clubs used to sell like cards. They came in an envelop and were about 9” x 7” black and white photos of the team members with a copy of their signature on the photo. They were sets of 25. Mine are of the Chicago Cubs from 1942. I researched the players and coaches that included Dick Spalding and that is the date they all were together.
This finding didn’t tell me that my grandparents were Chicago Cubs fans. They would have been in Oregon by that time. There was a minor league team, Salem Senators, founded in 1940, that was a big deal and eventually became a farm team for the LA Dodgers. The finding did tell me that someone was a fan. My grandfather’s family was from Iowa and Pennsylvania generally and my grandmother’s family was from Wisconsin and New York. I suppose any of them could have been fans. It could have no connection, but my grandmother had very distinct handwriting and she wrote the positions each played on each photograph. I wasn’t planning on selling them anyway.
All this is to say, you never know when you might get a family history hint. It may work out or it may not, but it is worth following the path. Any connection that can be made gets you that much closer to the true story. I think that is what WikiTree tries to do, help connect people and stories. I also think that is what the class on Beyond Your Ancestors will try to do.
In the meantime, while I try to find my Dutch roots, I will continue to look for migration connections. Found one that moved from the farm to a brick factory town in Iowa to one in Oregon. Better jobs may be a theme.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Dutch Roots or Just a Learner
Have you found the Geboorten, Overlijden, and Huwelijken records for your Dutch ancestors?
That was a mouthful and that was only the appetizer. It is great to hear from speakers who have tremendous enthusiasm for their subject. Alex had that and shared his knowledge with us this week. He always starts with some history to give us context for why records might be found in particular places. This presentation started with that as well.
My biggest takeaway was that wherever you are planning to research outside of the United States do the “home” work first. Gee, we have never heard that before! Research from the present to the past. Get all the information you can out of the more recent and more local resources and then look for those records in The Netherlands or whatever location you are going to.
- Do you know the history of the settlers of the American location?
- Are there Dutch settlements or neighborhoods in the area? Some of the neighborhoods took of the names of the Dutch provinces or Dutch cities.
- Do you know their religion? What do you know about the history of that religion? Many of our ancestors were leaving because they were parting ways with a belief system in their homeland, only to find the same beliefs here so they changed religions or churches or started their own. It might be the Dutch Reformed Church in The Netherlands and the Dutch Reformed Church of America in the US.
Eventually you will get to when and where. Can you narrow down when they might have immigrated? That could suggest why they were leaving and where people were landing in America at the time and then working backwards perhaps where they departed from? So much history and geography to learn. I have to get some old maps or go to HQRL and use theirs.
One of the best resources, in my opinion, from all our speakers, is the list of recommended readings and resources they provide. Alex suggested like many others that you connect with genealogy and history societies in the areas you are researching. He also suggested the local libraries, sometimes that is large ones, sometimes small local ones, and sometime University libraries. Examples in this case were Calvin College in Michigan at Hekman Library and Hope University in Holland, Michigan. Both have a Dutch community connection. There were so many options to explore.
If you missed the class, we did record this one and if you go to the HQRL Store on our website, you can purchase that recording and see what you missed. While you are there check out the class on WikiTree which is our next class. Go to www.wikitree.com and see what they are all about. It is too much for me to put in here.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Helping Tell the Story with History
What have you been working on lately? I have been trying to apply, where I can, the information from our classes such as looking at different spellings of names, taking notes and identifying the resources I have used, having a clear objective and not trying to move too fast.
My current research has been more about history. I have been trying to use history to help me figure out what the potential story of my ancestors might be. Start with what you know, right? So, I know my ancestor and his father were both born in Ireland. The younger one, John William Faris was born in 1759 and married and died in Elm Grove, Ohio County, Virginia. By-the-way, they were both in the Revolutionary War.
I wanted to find where he was born in Ireland but all I had was the possibility that it was County Down, Northen Ireland. If I start with what I know, he died in 1838 in Elm Grove, Virginia and his father in 1818 in the same place. To learn more about their history I decided to narrow down when they might have come to America. John’s brother, the next one in line, was born in 1763 in Virginia. That puts the family moving to America between 1760 and 1762.
Again, starting with the known I turned to history. What can I learn about Elm Grove, Ohio County, Virginia? Since this was in the mid -1700s, I looked at when Elm Grove was established, (first known settlers in 1769 and county established in 1776). I figured by looking at that I might be able to learn who the early settlers were and where they came from.
Elm Grove is part of Wheeling in Ohio County, West Virginia which was Virginia at the time. To give you a bit of my work, I found that many of the people in this area during its early years were from England, Germany, and Northern Ireland. They also didn’t get off the ship in Wheeling. They could have landed in New Brunswick, Canada, Philadelphia, PA, New Castle, Delaware or several other communities on the river systems in the area and then down the Ohio River to Wheeling or through the Allegheny Mountains.
This is really a shortened version of my findings, but the point is that by looking into this I can start to find locations that I can research further during the time periods most likely for them to have been traveling. I also learned that they are buried in the Old Stone Cemetery in Elm Grove. That told me they were probably Presbyterian as this was a historic Presbyterian Church. Northern Ireland was/is largely Presbyterian. It is this history and critical thinking that circles me around to next steps. I may not find original documents, but I am hoping that I can make logical sense out of what might have happened.
I have gathered general history books as well as genealogy books for England, Scotland, Canada, Germany, and Ireland to help me with my research. Now it is time to read.
Oh, by-the-way, happy St. Patrick’s Day! That is a happy coincidence! See you for the next classes on Dutch Records, WikiTree, Researching Beyond Your Ancestors, and Ireland.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Names!
We had a great class on Thursday by Virginia Majewski about naming patterns. Some of the patterns I knew from past learning such as prefixes and suffixes that are son and daughter specific and that first sons were given the father’s name and first daughters the mother’s name in some cultures and down the line. There were similar patterns is other cultures. Anyone who has done much family history has run into the same name issue. How many Samuel Vance’s are there? Names honoring grandparents, uncles, previously born children who passed away, etc.
All of this reminded me that first we must slow down! We have had this discussion before. It is not about collecting names but about collecting stories so we need to slow down and look carefully at the people behind those names and make sure we have the right ones and all the information we can find about them. That includes looking at all the various ways a name may be spelled.
When we go back a few years, spelling may not have been as important, ancestors may not have known how to spell their own name if they even had a surname. So much history just in that piece alone and then add the given name patterns and how they were selected.
All of this is to say my family surname may have been Hartzell (which is my maiden name) but just in my little bit of family history I have seen Hertzell, Hartsel, Hirsel, etc. As our speaker said, just because it is spelled the same doesn’t mean they are related and just because they are spelled differently doesn’t mean they are not related. This means we need to research all the options. Then we have to figure out how it might be spelled that we haven’t seen yet or what the spelling could mean.
She gave us 4 research concepts to consider. 1) What was the history where and when they lived that might have affected the name they used or how it was spelled? 2) How might the name have sounded in their language and to the people they were speaking it to? 3) Don’t make assumptions, instead do the research and 4) Embrace diversity – learn how to use advanced genealogy to search using a variety of spellings and symbols.
So much here and I didn’t give you many details. The simple take-away: slow down, think about all the possible names (spelling, pronunciation, meanings), learn about the history of the time and the location and research it all! Isn’t family history FUN! I hope you like history!!
Just as we start to understand names, we head to “Dutch Records.” I bet that naming pattern issue shows up again. Then a couple of new and interesting topics, “WikiTree” and “Exploring the Community: Researching Beyond Your Ancestor.” Look on the website for all the upcoming classes. Don’t miss any of them.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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What are Your Research Routines
What are your research habits? When you sit down to work on your family history, what are the routines that you follow to get you started?
I know I am assuming that you have routines, but I am guessing that you do. Just like you have morning routines for the morning prep. Alarm goes off, hit snooze, goes off again, get up, shower, brush your teeth, get that morning coffee. But what about research time?
I think it depends doesn’t it? How much time you have or when you researched last or….whether you are researching before or after 1850.
For those ancestors born after 1850 I would guess we all go very quickly to one of our favorite databases and look for census records. I asked AI, “What are the steps for researching ancestors from before 1850?” It gave me a pretty good list but maybe more importantly, it gave me the resources it took the steps from. Here are the general resources it used: MyHeritage, FamilySearch, Family Tree and St. Louis County Library in MO. I checked each item and sure enough came up with the AI steps.
So, what do you do? Here are the steps I found from the above resources:
- Study the region – geography and history of the people, (my add on – weather history such as draughts, huge storms, etc)
- Research historical records – Redbook, probate, vital records, county court records, land, military records, etc.
- Use early census data
- Bureau of Land Management General Land Office – BLMGLO
- Trace Relationships
- Expand search – church, tax. FAN (family, associates, neighbors) Club, Town records, cemeteries, etc
A few items left off the AI list: get organized including clearing your desk, identifying your focus question, start with what you know, and set up your note page in preparation for all you will find and maybe look for but not find.
I am sure that you all have go-to sites where you look for all the above. Do you also have some sites that might not be places you typically go but that might be great for this research session? Do you use Cyndi’s List?
I asked an HQRL librarian what she used and here are some of her go-to sites: American Ancestors, county genealogical and/or historical societies, Midwest Genealogical Center, NARA, Allen County Library, larger libraries in larger cities, Chronicling America (newspapers), and county or city histories. Googling can give some suggestions as well. Family Tree Magazine each year comes up with a list of top sites, free and subscription. This is just to name a few.
Whew! So Step 1A – get those pencils sharpened and that cup of coffee and get to work. Oh yes, go to HQRL and also, sign-up for classes at HQ (What is your name? and Dutch records in March).
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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