(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