James Wheeler: Free to use. Pitt Meadows, BC.  CanadaCrop Field Under Rainbow and Cloudy Skies at Daytime   Modern Blessing: Public Health   I am so thankful to live now, not 100 years ago. There are tiny figures next to the wife's name in the 1900 and 1910 US census, noting the number of children born and children living.  I feel relief when the numbers are the same; sadness when they are not.  Worse, we often never know the names of those who have died.  This past week I transcribed a long flowery obituary written by a grandchild of Kezia McGowan Husted, and this part touched me:  "Kizia McGowan was born in Wayne county, Ohio, February 18th 1830. Came to Illinois in 1845 and married Lyman Husted, 1847. To this union were born ten children of which four are living , namely: Mrs. Carrie Dudley, Mrs. Mary Cochran, William and James Husted. Six children preceded Grandma to heaven, when they were quite young... her angel children, whose names were: Ve...

   Collaboration :   creating with others. Synchronicity : apparent  simultaneous occurrences which seem related. These two concepts are different, but why  so often  do they seem to happen together? Perhaps because we think about projects  unconsciously for a while, then something prompts us to begin. If we collaborate with others who "sync" with us, magic seems to happen.  Here in the USA, we talk about independence more than interdependence. But we know that humans are social beings, so we need one another. Separation and loss are tragedy. In contrast, working toward common goals leads to good ends. I think this is why genealogy and family history are popular pursuits, and large projects such as Wikitree and FamilySearch rely on collaboration. It is about us humans and our family and friends, both now and in the past—and we hope into the future.  In most every discussion about doing genealogy, the twin threads of collaboration and synchro...

Chris Hagerman: Two Face: The Flip Side roller coaster at Six Flags America. CC 3.0 Tactics, Strategies, Plans & Practice I've been researching a lot lately, but not for my book on my mother's McBees, or even my "52 Ancestor" project . Those are not forgotten; just on the back burner for now. Instead, I decided to fill a hole in the tree, which has our grandchild as the base person. When we're all gone, it will be his. Because I knew very little about his mother's father's line, I decided to tackle that. It is 100% Russian Jews and we are using DNA as a major clue to families long separated by migration and other historical events. But there is   a major roadblock: endogamy . Endogamy is  marriage within a specific group as required by custom or law . Jews in the Russian Empire were confined to the "Pale of Settlement" and could not live in cities or large towns. As a result, intermarriage normal in small communities was magnified, and lasted...

Creator: Gregg Evans  Copyright: © 2025 GCE Inc. Gregg Evans in the above comic illustrates a common dilemma, so I want to ask:  What excites you? What fills you with satisfaction?   There is a reason that every genealogy and family history expert advises starting projects with a research question, and demonstrates crafting the query into a research plan to save time and money, and success. Success inspires us work through hard problems.   I want to ask another question though, about how you enjoy learning . Whether researching your family, or learning about how to do better research, we all have different learning styles. Do you learn best all by yourself in a quiet place, or with others such as a research group, class, seminar or college class? Is in-person best for you, or recorded sessions you can view at your leisure? Do you prefer reading, listening, or watching videos? Since covid-19 propelled both online meeting and education, we have an abundance o...