Before heading to the grocery store, I need to make a list, so I don't forget to pick up something we need, or worse, buy things we don't! I hate waste and overcrowding the 'fridge. It is even more important to plan both my schedule and my genealogy.  I learned how helpful this was some years ago, when we studied Research Like A Pro : A Genealogist’s Guide by  Diana Elder, AG with Nicole Dyer .  Thinking about my questions and goals before diving in, and carefully reviewing everything I know (or think I do) is critical to progress and eventual success. The GPS, Genealogical Proof Standard , was created to help us in our work, because building on a solid foundation helps us have confidence in our findings and enjoy the journey. I find planning more parts of my life helps me have more time for research too. I use Google calendar, but whatever tools you like will work, as long as you use them as a part of your daily routine.  So what's my latest plan? I just started on...

  Oroboros, free image courtesy of Magnific.com Oroboros, or: Haven't I been here before? The value and danger of digging into FAN club members who are part of an "allied family" and part of the pioneer generation of settlers, is finding the same names over and over. Sisters marry brothers, people marry spouses of their same surname or their mother's surname, and occasionally first or second cousins. I  became dizzy as the tree filled. I imagine the snake in the ancient symbol above is feeling woozy too. F amily, Friends,  A ssociates & N eighbors sometimes play all three roles in the early generations and rural locations. Lately, my first action when looking at a census record is to open the index and scan the neighbors, before looking at the person and their family in the image. When I've researched more deeply into their history, another look at the index reveals even more, as future spouses lurk nearby.  Moving back to an earlier generation reveals more ...

Used with permission from Steven Young Caudill, photographer Will Rogers is reported to have said , " If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging ." Recently I found myself in a hole of my own making, and took that advice. My first step was a new custom Tree Tag for my Ancestry.com tree: SameNameConfusion to make the profiles easy to find. Previously I wrote about pruning , part of which has been using Ancestry.com's ProTools to find possible duplicate profiles. I've merged hundreds of such profiles without problems. This case seemed simple and obvious on the surface because I saw what I expected to see, rather than what was actually there.  I saw Jane and Eliza J and thought they were the same woman I saw Thomas J Booth and Jefferson Booth, and thought that they were the same man Because both families were in the 1900 census, I did not stop to notice that one family was in Missouri and the other in Iowa  The Jane with no surname had little information, so I merged...

 MaryLynn recently wrote about piecing together snippets of information ; I came across some more recent history recently. By chance Ancestry.com landed me on the profile of my uncle Hollis McBee, and I noticed a couple of new newspaper article hints, which can be a rich source of information.  Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Thursday 8 November 1945, page 8, column 3, news article "Trucks Damaged, Drivers Unhurt"  mentioning Hollis McBee; Newspapers.com : accessed 11December 2025.      At first  glance, the story reveals few facts, besides that Hollis was unhurt.  But it shows me what he was doing in 1945; which  was driving truck in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, and that he had been in an accident.  The second article places him and his first family in Great Falls, Montana, 375 miles south:   Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Montana, Friday 31 October 1958, page 11, columns 4-5, "Nine Marriages Dissolved"  incl...

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...

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...

  summer_in_seattle_baseball_safeco_baseball_stadium_seattle Courtesy of pxhere.com CCO:Public domain YES, Genealogy and BASEBALL!  🪾⚾ What?  how can genealogy and baseball be alike? SO many ways. First, baseball, like genealogy, is a team sport . While there are ways in baseball to practice specific skills like running, batting, throwing and catching by using machines. But playing baseball requires at least three people: a pitcher, a batter, and an outfielder. Many of us as kids played this way; we called it "work up" where there were no teams, just a bunch of kids playing baseball or softball (larger, softer ball).  Genealogy is a team sport . How much fun would it be to record only our own life? Some writers, videographers, podcasters, etc. do this, but I think you would agree that that is not genealogy. Genealogy is the study of our family and their ancestors, and we need a team to do that. We need, first, records of the lives who came before us. Think of all t...

©Bizarro Piraro The comic above is funny, but history and our ancestor's stories are not always funny, pleasant, uplifting and inspiring. Life and thus history is full of tragedy and comedy, beauty and horror, and some parts are difficult to face. Survival is not guaranteed, because we are human. My family has endured crime and tragedy; my mother's father was convicted of child rape, and spent time in prison. My dad's only sibling, his little brother, drowned when only 13, and my Grampa Cowan, Donald's daddy, found his body. Terrible tragedy in the lives of both my parents, yet they went on to build a house and a life together. They raised my sister and I in that house, and my mother lived the rest of her life there. I think the security of living in a house they owned was a comfort to her, in contrast to the chaos in which she had been raised.  The reason I've been thinking about telling the whole truth of our families is that there is another a way of thinking abo...

It has been calculated from the 2000 U.S. Census that there are over 4.5 million people of Norwegian descent living in the United States . [i] Therefore, many genealogists do not have to go back very many generations before they encounter a Norwegian immigrant ancestor, since the largest numbers of Norwegian immigrants have come to the United States since the Civil War. Fortunately, Liv Birgit Christensen and Margaret Strand have compiled a guide to help us. The book follows families from a farm that may have been established around 500 AD. Written records are available from about 1615. Using these individuals to illustrate research examples provides continuity and increases understanding of the research technique the author is illustrating. For those who are just beginning Norwegian research, an overview of the history and geography of the country provides a foundation for understanding the types of records available and their ...