Could YOU resist?   The Hamilton Farmer's Advocate, Hamilton, Missouri, Thursday 21 November 1912, page 1, column , "CALDWELL CIRCUIT COURT: November Term Adjourned Friday Afternoon--Proceedings Since Last Issue," Jennie vs David McBee divorce judgement; Newspapers.com : accessed 13 February 2026.  Wh ile cleaning up some McBee profiles in my Ancestry.com tree (with the aid of ProTools), a Newspapers.com link to this news article popped up as a hint for a different David McBee. I was unable to resist researching this couple, although I was almost sure that they were not "my" McBees.  But I went to bed that night baffled, having had little success in finding either of them. In fact, I intended to drop it, if nothing more turned up. However, I woke up wondering how Jennie and the children survived. $2000 isn't nothing, but even in 1912 it could not have sustained them for long.  Ancestry came through for me Valentines Day morning with a hint to the 1900 Cen...

Step Up and Make a Difference: SKCGS Needs YOU as Our Next Secretary! Hello fellow SKCGS members! As my term as Secretary of SKCGS comes to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect a bit. It was yesterday I was just getting familiar with SKCGS and the many excellent benefits they offered members. From the presentations during COVID, to the monthly Genealogy Chats, I came to appreciate how special the SKCGS community was. And when asked to become the Secretary, I was glad to be able to give back and help.   So, I'm writing to encourage one of you to step into this rewarding role. If you've ever thought about getting more involved with SKCGS or wondered what happens behind the scenes, this might be the perfect opportunity for you! Why Consider Being Secretary? It's Perfect for Your Schedule We all have busy lives; attending an in-person meeting may not be something you want to do. SKCGS board meetings are once a month in the evening via Zoom and last about an ho...

"Doubt" courtesy of Freepik.com Doubt: hidden superpower Doubt and uncertainty are no fun. Our brains prefer confidence. However, listening to doubt can be your superpower IF it helps you stop, evaluate the situation, then  consider alternatives .  As a beginner genealogy researcher, I was not only confident, but ignorant. We don't know what we don't know. I assumed memories of what I had been told about my family were accurate. I've since realized that while no one lied to me, my memories were incomplete and so were the memories of my family members. Unpleasant facts such as divorce and child deaths were never mentioned. No wonder it took me years to untangle even my own recent family, much less more distant relatives and ancestors. The idea of research planning seemed absurd to this beginner. Now I'm looking at doubt and skepticism in a new light as I clean up my sprawling tree. I caused much of the mess years ago by accepting whatever "facts" I f...

White Goose Flying - Royalty free from pickpic.com Whew! January has flown by.   This month I've been re-visiting old research , led by  Ancestry® Pro Tools  power to find possible duplicate profiles in my huge tree. Along the way, I sometimes do a bit of research or even prune as I go. I hope in 2026 to really make my DNA tree shine. One of my Baysinger branches caught me this week, and I've been taking it all the way down to the 1950 Census, which of course was not available when I began building an online tree 20 years ago.  As a beginner, I allowed far too many duplicate profiles to proliferate. I didn't know how to prevent that happening, or to fix it.* Also I had no clue that downloading a gedcom from MyHeritage and then uploading to Ancestry would give me many worthless "sources" which must be removed to generate Ancestry hints. I use the hints to build a "skeleton" for a profile, finding the person and their family in census and BMD (birth, marri...

Ron Strutt: Hops Garden Syndale Farm, Kent UK   Some things I have never thought to ponder: Hops by Pixnio Hops Hops plant growth Harvesting hops Post World War I economy Low income Londoners These are all things I learned about in The Hop-Pickers Murders , the latest crime mystery featuring forensic  genealogist, Morton Farrier.   Author Nathan Dylan Goodwin once again displays his genius by immersing his readers in a distinctive time and place.  This 11th novel in the Morton Farrier series introduces us to the unique time and place of hop-pickers in Kent, England after WWI before mechanization became the method for mass production.  Morton solves a mystery of theft, disappearance and murder for a client who discovered her aunt's journal. We catch up with Morton's personal life as well; he struggles to concentrate despite his 3-year-old's drum kit "practice" and the unknown menace bent on destroying his career.  Morton always gives a lesson in genealo...

  Recently, in her Monday blog, Diahan  Southard reflected on leadership   by relating how she followed her sister to get to an unknown location.   Thanks to GPS, I hadn’t followed someone through traffic in years. That is, until I found myself trailing my sister through Seattle the old-fashioned way.   Not far into our drive, we got stuck behind a slow truck in the right lane. But my sister couldn’t pass without risking losing me, so I had to make the first move, change lanes, and then let her slide in ahead.   The rest of the way to our destination I thought about the seeming incongruity of this situation. I didn’t know where I was going, so I was following someone else. But then to get there most efficiently, I had to be willing to go first. I had to step out and actually make a space for my leader to lead. [1]   This is a profound way to view leadership, especially for someone who is...