Look around you, it's summer and flowers are blooming everywhere.  Some of those flowers have some fascinating stories. From Wyoming The other day I was preparing a presentation for Understanding Migration.  We, as genealogists, think of Migration as our ancestors, after arriving from their homeland in search of a new life, crossing the country from the East coast to areas across our country.  In my search I had found migrating animals and plants, not exactly what I was looking for; I was thinking more like wagon trains. Then a couple days later I was on a virtual meeting with members of the South King County Genealogy Society when we were asked to turn in stories of flowers for the Societies Blog. Of course, flowers , just read about plant migration in my research for the presentation.  “I have a Migrating Rose” Well, here’s the story.  We lived in Casper, Wyoming in 1961. My husband, Norv, worked for Supreme Bakers and delivered crackers and co...

Mystery gift from afa r It was an unexpected arrival – and as I strolled back from the mailbox I was full of anticipation at the surprise package from my father. Small, the size of a box full of checks, what on earth could this possibly contain – and why? It was between holidays – right after Thanksgiving and enough “before Christmas” not to be a Christmas gift. I smiled with delight. Packages from home and my parents were always fun. And in this case, somewhat mysterious, given the timing. In the house, I carefully cut through the layers of clear packing tape that encased the box. As I lifted the lid off, there was a note labelled in my father’s unmistakable handwriting: Care Package. Like any kid with a new toy, I laid the note aside (the adult kid did this very carefully) and then I just stared at the contents. I took another look. Jumbled together in the bottom of the box were not quite a dozen crumpled red and silver foil balls, some with narrow wire sticking from them and ...

By Dorothy Pretare In my prior post, “What Will Happen to Your Family History Stuff”, we identified 1) the types of family history stuff and their possible locations, 2) your hopes and possible options, and 3) some steps to help ensure your hopes/wishes will be honored. One of those steps was to “Organize Your Stuff”.  This step will help you in your research and make it easier to share information with others.  First, each of us may approach tasks in different ways -- think about handing an unorganized grocery list to a few people and watch them shop in an unfamiliar store.  Since there are many ways to organize items, I suggest you check “The Organized Genealogist” on Facebook or “Organize Your Family History” ( https://organizeyourfamilyhistory.com/ ) or Cyndi’s List ( https://www.cyndislist.com/organizing/ ) for her list of links to various methods.  Just select a method you think will work for you and remember you can always change your method of organizin...