Heritage Quest Research Library
Category:
Timeframe:

Search: For: Search Clear Search
Entries Per Page: 
Page:   of  3Next Page


Blog Entries: 1 to 10 of 21
June 5, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Took a Class, Went to HQ, Have a Buddy?
What New Learning Are You Applying?...
 
So, this week’s question is just that. This blog started in January 2025 and there have been 8 speakers, 9 counting this week. What are one or 2 ideas that you have applied to your family history research from all the speakers or from the ideas for beginners? If you couldn’t attend the class or get the recorded version, did you read anything in the Blog that helped?
 
Let’s look specifically at the week. The class was by Daniel Horowitz from MyHeritage. Have you ever tried MyHeritage before this class? Did you try it from the library or from home. One of the extras from this site is that if you are an HQRL member, you can get onto the library edition from home.
 
I have heard people say that it is for European ancestors. It is true that it has that but also US information. All my new information has been for the US. I am anxious to discover new techniques and resources from the speaker that will help me learn more. I know that I haven’t scratched the surface yet.
 
I learned about the catalog on MyHeritage and how to search on that, the translation technology that they use, and that while you are browsing the data that pertains to your ancestor, they are finding more documents that apply the that ancestor and other related people. COOL!
 
But the initial question wasn’t just about this class. We are all busy doing life! If we all truly enjoy family history, what can we learn from these resources available through HQRL be they speakers, librarians, or books? I read something in a recent newsletter from the “Occasional Genealogist,” that many times we are not stuck on our tree for lack of information but for not doing the detective work to learn from the resources that we have found. I know that is true for me. When you do find something on Google, MyHeritage, in R/E Deeds, Kentucky research, Fille Du Roi, Mapping or other places; do you look at it carefully or just for what you wanted in the first place?
 
Reading books, talking to your research buddy and taking classes only helps if you apply the learning. For me, it is helpful to try new ideas sooner rather than later before I forget what I was taught. I don’t have to become an overnight expert, just try something new and see what sticks, what you find.
 
After you try something from MyHeritage get ready to learn about your railroad ancestors, New England ancestors in a double opportunity from New England specifically and then from the American Ancestry data base. And there is more after that….get signed up.
 
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
May 29, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Research Buddies
Here is your question for this week. Who do you share your family history work with? Who do you talk to about genealogy? Ok, those are 2 questions, but they are related, right?

Most of my family tolerates me when the conversation turns to family history research, but I see the eyes glaze over and roll. That means that I either don’t share or I must find someone else to talk research with. Lucky me, I volunteer at HQRL. Even there I must remember that if I share, I need to be willing to be shared with. Heureusement, je le suis et c’est genial.

Heidi, move your hands on the keyboard, you hit the wrong keys. Nope! I recently had a great mini work session / talk with a good friend at HQRL and confirmed that my 3x great grandmother on my mom’s paternal side is French Canadian. At least she is from there. (The above phrase is “Fortunately I am, and it is great.”)

You all have that opportunity, too. Whether you go into the library at Puyallup, meet at the local coffee shop, have a Zoom conversation with a friend from the library or from elsewhere, or just a phone conversation; the key is finding a research buddy. Make it a regular “date” to check in with what you have found, what you are stuck on, and get ideas about where to go next. What have you tried, look at it again. What are you missing, where might you look that you haven’t looked? Remember, we called that gap analysis. And remember it goes both ways. Help each other because you learn from that as well as benefit the other people. It also helps to hold each other accountable. What ideas are you going to report back on the next time you meet?

My friend suggested some places to try for my 3xGG. Some of them came up empty but even at that it gave me other ideas of where to look for other people. Some of them came up with the same items I had which I may have found years ago before I knew anything about what I was doing, and we found more information including where I found the information in the first place. (citing is so important and yet….class in September) Some of the ideas lead to other ideas and low and behold I ended up on MyHeritage (next class) and found a death certificate and obituary that connects the daughter and parents and location.

With all that help, I now have newspapers to look at and can begin looking with a little more confidence at Canadian censuses. It makes sense, because of this, that she wasn’t born in Champaign, New York but Champlain, New York which is right on the New York – Canadian border. Detective work with a team. Isn’t research fun?

I am on to dig further with these new ideas in mind. I sometimes forget that there are people in this world who just like to help and that like to dig into research. Take advantage of that with your research buddies. A GREAT BIG THANKS TO MINE!

Happy hunting!
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
May 22, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Keeping an Open Mind
I wonder at times how we get started down the wrong road only to discover that after lots of research we need to make a U-Turn and start again on a different one. There is an old Yogi Beara quote that says, “when you get to the fork in the road, take it.” My understanding of that Yogism is that he lived on a circular drive. You could take either road to get to his home. My ancestors didn’t live on circular drives that I know of, so I must pick a direction and go for it. How about you? Do you ever have to circle back to head a slightly different direction? Are you like me, do you get so anxious to connect the pieces that you look right past pieces that might be better fits because of the incorrect conclusion you started with? That is my next step, to open my mind to other possibilities and see where they lead.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my 2x GG was born in Champaign, New York. But there is no such community that I can find. Another resource said Champaign, Ohio but I couldn’t find information for her connected there. Maybe you would have come to this conclusion sooner than I did, But I am now thinking that all the census reports that said she was born in New York were correct, however, not Champaign but someplace along the way that name was miswritten and could have been Champlain, New York.

I started looking at Champlain, NY to see what I could find. Unfortunately, I still can’t find any definitive information that connects me to her birth or to her parents. Just census reports that have her born in New York to parents born in England and Canada -French (mother speaking Scotch). I could have her parents’ names wrong also.

Instead of trying to force 2 puzzle pieces together I should stick with what I am more certain of and see what fits. DO THE DETECTIVE WORK! I will see what tips our next speaker gives us for myheritage. I really know little about her that I can use other than her spouse but no marriage document.

It may be time to put her aside for a bit and look at other lines. But which ones? How do you pick the members you are searching for once you get the “easy” stuff done? How do you do the “detective work” needed to dig deeper into your family story?

There are a couple of ideas I have. I first must remind myself why I want to do this work. Remember that concept from the very beginning. What are the family stories that have been passed down? Can I search for any truth in them? I was told at some point when I was young that we were Pennsylvania Dutch. I know a little about the term such as that the term “Dutch” could have come from Deutsch meaning German or that it could have referred to people who left from a Dutch port. I could look for that. First, I would need to find the immigrants.

That could also be a next step, where do I have some potential immigrants that I could research. That is the nature of family history, easier to find more questions than answers!

Heidi Geise education@hqrl.com
May 15, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Background Info and R/E Deeds
I was doing a little reading and noticed, as I often do, the similarities between photography and family history, 2 of my hobbies. I was reading books in each field and just happened to hit one of those similarities, knowing the background of your subject.
 
In photography that means understanding when the wildflowers are going to bloom on Mt Rainier. Do the backyard birds land on a particular branch every time before going to the feeder? In family history, what is the history of the area at the time you are researching? Were there boundary changes at the time? Were there historical events taking place such as battles or major weather issues? What was the major industry of the area?
 
How could this help you in your family history? I found family members in an area at the time of a major drought and then flooding that created havoc with farming which they were engaged in. What do you think they did? Options were to move or change occupations or struggle through it. They did some of each.
 
Understanding the background in photography can help you be more successful in getting the shot. Understanding the background in family history can help you search for the right resources, to get a better idea of what life was like for your families, understand why they might have left a location or went to a new one, and to understand why they pursued various occupations.
 
One of our last speakers talked about the triangle – location, era, group. It is hard to step away from those family surnames that we are trying to connect with, at least it is for me. But, if I know a little about what was going on in Iowa, for example, between 1850 and 1900 it might help me to get an idea of why they moved to Oregon in the early 1900s. What was happening in Wisconsin from 1800-1900 that caused another family to move to Oregon. Because, if either one of those things hadn’t happened, my grandparents might not have met.
 
It so happens that each state section at HQRL has a history section that might help you find what you are after. In the HQRL bookstore there is a history section as well, where you will find 1) The Genealogist’s US History Pocket Reference and 2) History for Genealogists.
 
When we combine this background knowledge with the learning from our speaker on “Using Real Estate Deeds,” I can only imagine that the learning and discovery would be that much greater. Are we looking at the correct locations in the correct time period. Check out godfrey.org for the Godfrey Memorial Library which is a library like ours except older and larger. Al Fiacre gave us so much information that included many, many pieces of information that we can use for verifying relationships, locations, occupations, neighbors, etc. It all helps us gain a better understanding of our background and our family history.
 
Next up, Using MyHeritage Library Edition.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.org
May 8, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
What Next?
I have 2 questions today:
  1. After hearing our last speaker, how many of you went back to start reorganizing your research? Or vowed to organize it the way Suz Bates did from here on out? Or thought about it and ……?
  2. My plan was to use Suz Bates’ suggestions, look for location first and see if I could locate the birth place (verify it) for my 3x great grandmother. I have all sorts of information that says her daughter was born in New York. If they have a city, it is Champaign. I thought this would be easy and then I could verify the parents’ birth places. Is anything in genealogy easy? I think not. What next steps do you take when the city you are looking for doesn’t seem to exist?
Let’s tackle the 1st question 1st. Did I think about reorganizing? Yes! Did I move forward with it? No. I may in the future, and we will leave it at that.
 
Question 2 is the challenge I am focusing on now. The reason I was focused on this, my 2x great grandmother, is that all the census reports that I have for her and her husband say her father was from England and spoke English and her mother was from Canada and on some it says she spoke Scottish and on others she spoke French. My thinking was, “go back to what your last known information, Heidi.” That would be their daughter’s birth, in Champaign, New York in 1847. It turns out I don’t know what I thought I knew. So, what next?
Genealogy is a puzzle. We hear that all the time. What do we do when we can’t find the piece we are looking for? We look for the patterns, colors, shapes that surround the missing piece and go hunting, often on the floor, in the dog dish or with the baby. My point being that you look all around to see what might match up. Could there have been a Champaign in a nearby bordering state? Could it be Champlain even though numerous different items say Champaign?
 
I do have names for her parents but that hasn’t helped me up to this point, so I am going to step away for a bit, stay with Suz’s suggestion, and continue to search for the mysterious location.
 
So I stepped away, did you miss me? I decided to look for land information, a step ahead of the next speaker. I didn’t find anything but,  one hint took me to FamilySearch where there was a birthday notice. You know, “one of your ancestors has a birthday coming up.” The first name on the list was the ancestor I was looking for. Wait! It says she was born 1 May 1847 in Champaign, OHIO! Sure enough, that place exists and has lots in it with her name….Now what? Like in Hearst Castle, “KEEP SEARCHING!” (maybe you won’t get that one)
 
Until next time, sign up for more classes and lets “KEEP SEARCHING” for our family history mysteries.
 
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
May 1, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Googling for Gems
My plan from last week was to review previously seen documents looking for new information and then to find 2 new sites to find additional information. Here is my question to you, what are some sites you commonly use besides the big databases such as ancestry.com, family search and my heritage?

Do you go to local library sites in the area you are researching? Do you look for genealogical or historical societies in the area? How do you find these sites? Which sites do you look for? Are there specific items in specific sites or do you look for general sites that hold the potential for several facts to be uncovered.

One idea is to talk to your family history colleagues, friends, HQ librarians and find out what they use. Many resources, such as Family Tree Magazine or YouTube videos such as Genealogy TV identify the best sites to use. They often do this each year to highlight the new sites that may be available. When you find facts that others have connected to your ancestors, look at the sources they used and at the original documents. Often their sources will be identified, and you can look in those locations.

Another idea is to Google information which is what our latest class topic explained and boy if you missed this one it was a great class. It was as much about organization as it was about finding things using Google and Google Scholar. She talked about and showed us how to use Google Translate, how to find entire books on sites that can be downloaded and translated if needed, and how to develop a system on your own computer for filing and linking all of your findings so that they can be saved and found again when you want them. Suz Bates was outstanding, and we got her just 3 presentations before she retires from speaking!

One of my biggest take-aways was the use of the triangle – Location, Era, Group. I don’t know why I just realized this, slow I guess, but your research workflow should be location, era, group and then the individual you are researching. She talked about looking for databases and then how to use them, asking where they were from and where they are now, who created them and why they were needed. It gets back to putting our information and people into historical context. It is going from the general to the more specific.

If you are interested, contact HQRL at 253-863-1806, pay for the class and they will let me know so that I can send you a link to the recording and give you the handout.  While there sign up for the next classes on Using Real-Estate Deeds and how to use My Heritage.

In the meantime, I am going to apply what I learned today to see what I can find on my 3x great grandparents from McDonough Co, Illinois – 1800 – 1870 - Arnold Family. See how I did that? Wish me luck!

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
 
April 24, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Isn't Learning Fun
(A little side note – I apologize for last week's entry. My system has decided not to let me into our website, so I entered it from my phone which didn’t allow me to edit. Oh well!)
 
I have to ask, did you get unstuck or at least find something new? As you read in my information, I didn’t get unstuck on the person I was looking for only because I didn’t know I had it wrong, but I did correct my thinking and apologize to all those census takers that I thought had it wrong. I do think that I will continue reviewing previous data for a while. I have, over the years, found items that I had overlooked when I went back.
 
When I was teaching high school, we talked about the “reticular activating center.” It is the part of the brain that filters information through it to bring relevant information to our attention. You know, when you buy a new car and suddenly notice everyone is driving the same car. I mention this because I received this months issue of “Family Tree Magazine” and here are a few of the topics: WWII ancestors (sources for my father’s story), Kentucky resources (which our April speaker mentioned), How to use  Full-Text Search on Family Search (which our other April speaker mentioned), MyHeritage resources (our June speaker), and Planning a Family Reunion (which will get at involving family in family history – November class). I also got a newsletter from the “Occasional Genealogist” and “Genealogical Gems.” These issues cover looking at religious records and developing educational plans and using Google. All of these we have discussed or will be discussing. Look at all the places for new and continued learning on topics you may be interested in.
 
I mention these things because as we learn and do more family history research, we can pick up ideas and learn more from so many places. It is called “generative learning,” learning that generates more questions and more curiosity and more learning. We used to refer to this as lifelong learning, but I like generative. It goes beyond just learning new things. It actively engages us in applying what we learned to learn more. I like that concept.
 
Our next 2 topics are about using Google for family history research and about using Real Estate Deeds. I wonder how far back these things can take us. I wonder what new stories we can find. Did my ancestor really sell his tavern in Kentucky to create Brandenburg, Kentucky? Remember, Debbie last week encouraged us to look at executors and witnesses, what names can we find, do they show up as neighbors (FAN) in the census reports? So many questions Heidi!!!!!!!
 
Isn’t learning FUN?
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
April 20, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Stuck or Are You?
Happy World Heritage Day on April 18!
What do you do when you are stuck and have been for a while? Reading my own blog entries, I would apply the new learning I am doing and see what I find. Sometimes that just doesn’t get me unstuck right away. What about you?
 
This morning, I was thinking, go look again, you need to “walk the talk” as they say. Then I thought, maybe I need a little recharge or “reboot” in tech terms. Maybe what I need is to look at someone I haven’t looked at for a long time and see if I find anything new. So that is my plan today. I will start with my 2x great grandfather on my dad’s paternal side and review the information I have, look for new hints to questions I have yet to answer in the information I have, and then look for at least 2 new resources in which I haven’t tried to find life stories for him yet.
 
Remember the phrase, “current level of awareness’? I hope that after 3 months of classes in 2025 alone that my current level of awareness is not the same as it was earlier in the year. When I look at previously seen information with new eyes, there is a chance that something new will appear. Perhaps a note on a census that I had glanced over or a sibling that I had ignored that may have a story to tell. It is the stories that I look for. Yes, I need the birth, marriage, death information but it is the living in between that I want to know and that is sometimes harder to find the further we go back. It may be in the history of the area or country and then knowing your ancestor’s role in that history so some of it may be educated guesses. Or the new information can lead us to the family that came before.
 
I think that is “indirect evidence!” What can I apply from this latest class? Oh, come on! You knew I was going to go there!
 
This class was great! I really appreciated the logical steps to the “Genealogical Proof” needed in support finding and verifying new information. Check out Debbie Wilson Smyth at Oak Trails Genealogy Services. She puts the steps in an easy to understand, logical form. It really is like putting together a “jigsaw puzzle.” Look at the FAN Club (Family, Associates, and Neighbors) Don’t forget to look at witnesses, executors, etc. If you put it together with the new set of eyes that I referred to earlier, we find more than we might think. It isn’t easy and it isn’t fast, so be patient.
 
Going back to my issue, my 2x great grandfather was John R Hartzell. I thought the R was for Rufus and always researched it that way. Looking at everything I had; I suddenly realized the R was for Roland. His son was John Rufus. Now things make sense. I just needed a new set of lenses!
 
Next month Google and R/E Deeds. Sign up yourself, your family and friends and join HQRL on your family history search.
 
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
April 11, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Apply What You Learn
I typically try to start these entries with a question to ponder. Here it is for today: How are you applying the learning that you are doing? That learning could be from these blog entries (I hope you are learning from them!). That learning could be from the classes that you take from HQRL or other places. That learning could be from the librarians that you find at HQRL or elsewhere. It could be from your genealogy friends, books, articles, or it could be from your own experiences as you research. All of those are places where you can learn. The question is, when you experience those learning situations, do you apply what you learned in them?

From my own learning in the last class on Kentucky I tried MyHeritage again as it was one of the resources that Debra Dudek discussed. Now I have used it before but this time I followed her suggestion for looking at newspapers and the boundary differences as Kentucky separated from the Virginia Territory. I found an article from 1897 that was under the heading “Genealogical and Historical.” It was about a gentleman who died when thrown from a horse. (As a side note, this was not the only article on the page about someone being thrown from a horse. No wonder cars soon took off.) But I am bird walking ,,,,, the man was my 5x Great grandfather. It mentions his name and his sons including one who I have always seen with the nickname “Choctaw” and it mentions that in the article. I still have some research to do but it is the first time I have seen them linked in the same article from an old newspaper. I am not sure why it came up in this edition because he died long before this, but it did. 

I have also learned over the years the advantage of contacting some of the resources I have found. I contacted a member of the Ostrander Society that I found when looking for on my paternal side. They just sent me the death certificate of my great grandfather listing his parents and both his and his parents marriage records. Cool, huh?! I contacted a historical museum and I was sent my great-great grandfather’s civil war records. Sometimes you just have to take the step and ask the questions. Maybe they will turn up nothing…..but maybe they will be a cool find.

April 17th we will learn about finding indirect evidence, which might be my story about “Choctaw.” In May we will learn about how Google can be effectively used in our research and how to find and use Real Estate Deeds. We will continue to have some great speakers so go to the website and get signed up or call HQRL or go into HQRL and sign-up to continue your learning.
 
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
April 3, 2025 By: Heidi Geise
Kentucky Ancestors and more
Here is today’s question. You are researching your family and come across information maybe in a census report giving you the name of a state from which your family was in previously. Maybe that state was Kentucky? What do you do next?

Remember in an earlier blog entry we talked about why you are doing this work. If you are just looking for lineage, perhaps you look at the big cites and try to find death, marriage, birth records that could give you the basic information. But what if you want more or what if you can’t find the basics?

That is where our April classes might come in handy. The class yesterday is a key to unlocking the information you might be looking for in Kentucky. I will say this again, even if you aren’t looking for information about Kentucky, knowing what one state provides can help lead you in the right direction in any state in which you might be searching. Maybe not always, but generally. 

What did we take away from Debra Dudek’s class? Wow! My head is full of places to look. Debra filled us with information and unique places to research, some familiar but interesting places within them. Check out Fold 3 at HQRL for newspapers not just military records. I can’t begin to cover everything she shared with us.  Check out her website at http://www.debradudek.com. 

All these individual state and country classes also tell us that history is an important part of the search. Knowing who tended to settle in the areas, why and when can give us a hint into what our family might have been doing there. Were there conflicts in the area that your people might have been a part of or did they leave to avoid the conflicts, and what side were they on. That information can connect you to the correct sites to find more information. 

History is not just about battles, but it could be the land boundaries. For example: before 1776 Kentucky records might be found in Virginia state government records as it was part of the Virginia Territory. And do you know the migration routes your family might have taken to get into and out of Kentucky? By land or by water? History could be about the weather. My grandmother had to leave Colorado because of her asthma and the arid conditions in her location. Be open to thinking about all sorts of reasons people might have moved into an area or out of an area. What did they do for a living? Did they move for jobs. 

The 2nd class in April is about Indirect Evidence. If you are challenged in your search, perhaps looking at brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, neighbors, cultural groups in the last know vicinity or hint of a location might be the ticket. Check out the class on April 17th. 
 
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com