Ten years ago the SoKingNews (newsletter) theme for the year was What's YOUR Story?   That question is still relevant today; let's make it our theme for 2023. Reprinted from SoKingNews, Volume 28, Number 4, January/February 2013 One of the most difficult hurdles to writing a story is putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard in the modern genre) and getting that first sentence or paragraph flowing. The creative juices do not always gush; sometimes they barely drip! In a recent radio interview of a creative writing teacher, it was suggested that, for an exercise, to take a common object and write a paragraph about it. The steps she outlined were very simple: ·   Select your object ·   Think of all the ways you have encountered that object ·   Select one occurrence and answer these questions Where are you? Who is with you? What is happening? What are you feeling? In the interview she offered “the kitchen table” as the common object. Following the st...

If you use DNA to investigate your family tree, you know how valuable shared matches are. I think perhaps if we knew that we "shared a match" a to historical document such as a will, probate court case, pension file, or a piece of land, siblings living with only one parent and many other pieces of information we use to create a story of a life, think of how much richer our collaboration with fellow researchers would be! In some ways, Ancestry hints can be used this way, if someone has uploaded a photo, story, transcription, etc. Contacting these researcher relatives can be fruitful! I sometimes contact those who connect my relatives to historical documents or do other work on a profile where I'm working. Again, these researchers are often relatives. Learning the " Boncella Method " this past weekend, in advance of our Genetic Genealogy group meeting, I was pleased to see a new way to look at shared DNA matches. Lately all the talk from genealogy companies are ...

Courtesy of Pixabay; Peggy & Marco, artists Chat was Great! Following our society November monthly genealogy Chat, I was left with an emotional high I had not felt in quite a while. And I have been thinking since then – what made me feel so good and how does it affect anything or everything genealogy-speaking? Working with Relatives After sifting thoughts and memories, I realized that the chat reminded me of how my Grand-Aunt Bessie Arminta McPherson Hill captivated me with our family stories and memories. I thought about some of my best genealogy times – when I met a Tennessee cousin who had gone to school with my Dad’s youngest brother on an email list where we researched virtually together for over 10 years until her death. We corresponded online with loads of cousins and other folks from East Tennessee families. It was a heady feeling. I thought of looking for lost graveyards with my cousin Terry on old Manhattan Project land in Tennessee, still under lock and key just 20 ye...

David Rumsey Map Collection Genealogy Chat I had a great time at our latest Genealogy Chat session on 28 November. This is an open group that meets the fourth Monday of each month 1 - 3 pm Pacific time; no agenda, just whatever comes up. Land Records This last Monday we talked a lot about land records and where to find them. Alexis and Kathryn talked about the Tennessee State Library and Archives for records. Alexis showed us a set of plat maps for historic counties in South Carolina; the plats were for land granted before the Revolutionary War! History of the Old Northwest Sandra brought up David McCullough's book The Pioneers  for the settlement of the Ohio territory and the importance of the Northwest Ordinance in US history. Several people spoke up about their ancestors having gone to Ohio from other areas--New England especially Connecticut, Virginia and Kentucky. There was a great migration to Ohio and later to Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois because of the federal ...