All images from the Vectezy Library Vectors There’s More to the Story. . . is the theme of National Library Week, April 23-29 Genealogists care deeply about the health and well-being of libraries. We care not only about the public library down the street or across town, but also specialty libraries such as Heritage Quest Library in Sumner, or the Fiske Genealogy Library in Seattle. We care about the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, the largest collection of books, images and digitized genealogical resources in the world and we care about the small collections such as the books held by the South King County Genealogical Society at the FamilySearch Center in Kent and those at the Kent Historical Society . Why do we care about libraries? As genealogists, it is our responsibility to preserve the history of our families. Those stories are more than just, “Justice Jerome was born in Jamestown in 1666, married Jerusha James in July 1690, and died in 1706.” Who cares?  Would our 

  Sometimes I focus on a single person or family, and lose the larger context. A recent discussion in our Tech User Group opened my eyes to this, and shows me that our focus must remain on finding the stories of our families, and then passing along those stories so that our history lives on. SKCGS is here to help you use whatever you need to find those stories, and to help you tell them. Tree Completeness One way to begin to do this is to look at your overall tree, and one way to do that is with a fan chart. As I look at my tree, I'm a bit behind filling in some of the lines here on FamilySearch Family Tree! I need to fill in my Swedish great-grandmother's grandfather, at least. That's the big gap on the upper left. I believe I can do that soon. The gap to the upper right is in my focus family for the next few years, in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, aided by DNA evidence, so these women are not forgotten.  Who Were Your People? To pull back even further, who wer

Courtesy of Amethyst Studio from The Noun Project What Do You Seek? There's an old story about the cop walking his beat when he encounters an old man on his hands and knees under the street light. "What are you looking for, buddy?" The reply: "I'm looking for my car keys." Cop says, "there are no cars right close. Where did you lose them?" Reply: "I dropped them when getting out of my car, but the light is here!" Do you sometimes feel that way while you are searching for records, and finding nothing? Have you considered that Ancestry or FamilySearch might not have the records you seek?   Or that the record you wish for was never created? What's the Plan? When I began doing genealogy research, I never had a plan, didn't know one could plan research, and I'm sure I would have thought the idea of taking research time to create a plan was ridiculous!   These days, some of my research is still unplanned. After studying Research Li

Courtesy PublicDomainImages.net "Car Burning Rubber" Deadlines I used to dread writing reports, from grade school on. Deadlines caused dread, and there was no pleasure (or learning) from scrabbling together all the sources into something readable. When I began doing genealogy research, writing reports of my findings never entered my mind! Not even when I found massive help from various books and articles. I never saw myself then as a contributor to the body of knowledge; only as a consumer.  From Consumer to Contributor https://www.wikitree.com/ Two things changed my viewpoint. The first was finding Wikitree, where I took responsibility for the linked profiles for many of the family members I had found through my years of research. The Wikitree focus on sourcing, collaboration and narrative, not just a bare skein of facts, began to change that "consumer" stance, into becoming a contributor.  Focus and Collaboration The other event that taught me how to contribute be

Women's Month Vectors by Vecteezy MaryLynn Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History  is the title of a book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, written in 1976. Since that time the slogan has become bumper stickers, pins, placards, t-shirts, and many other memorabilia. It has become the cry of feminists and is a truism throughout history. When a woman, or group of women, affected society, it was usually by stepping outside the norm. I have not yet, but intend to read the book. Meanwhile, we would like to share some quotes from the book and how they have fit in with some of our own ancestors or women in history whom we admire.  Follow this link to quotes and see if you are inspired about someone in your history.   Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History Quotes by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (goodreads.com) While you are at that page, click on the Open Preview  button to read some back story by the author.  I think you will find it very entertaining. Quotes: “Some history-making is intentional; much

  Image from Wikitree.com "Wikitree, Where genealogists collaborate" Why do you want to use Wikitree? Short answer is that it will make you a better genealogist, because you will be demonstrating  all the parts of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). Each profile, ideally, will show your: 1. Reasonably exhaustive research. 2. Complete and accurate source citations. 3. Thorough analysis and correlation. 4. Resolution of conflicting evidence . 5. Soundly written conclusion based on the strongest evidence. 1 Wikitree is feature-rich - this is just a short introduction. See Wikitree.com for more information. There are excellent videos on youtube as well a new project: WikiTree Academy . There is even a Help page for Wikitree itself:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:How_to_Use_WikiTree as well as a wonderful forum, G2G (Genealogist to Genealogist). Wikitree Profiles The heart of Wikitree are the Profiles. Each profile is a final resting place for your research, stories, ph

One of the wonderful aspects of RootsTech each spring is the new features from many of the major genealogy and family history companies which they announce there, and of course the sales! Be sure to visit the Expo Hall to connect with the vendors and get those discounts, some of which last all month. One of the new features rolled out by MyHeritage is the cM Explainer™ which promises to "Predict Relationships Between DNA Matches With Greater Accuracy." Read about it in their blog .  The first session I watched this year was  What's New at FamilySearch in 2023 . ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ From me! The feature I'm waiting for has not rolled out yet, but the new family groups tree views should cut down immensely on the proliferation of private still-living people in the FSFamily Tree. It will enhance collaboration with close family and more distant family as well, I hope. The first implementations are showing up now - see more at the new home page . In addition, they are adding more options