Happy Holidays for those of you who celebrate 🙂 I wanted to share a picture of my tree (and the best dog ever, Enzo) and my newest Christmas ornament!
Author: NikiMarie Page 2 of 5
Just a winter stroll 🙂
Bobbie and his dog
My grandpa, Bobbie, on his first winter, which was technically his second since he was born in January 🙂
This Week in Genealogy
- National Genealogical Society – They introduced a new cloud course on Revolutionary War Ancestors! A great course to take for those who wish to dive into this part of history.
- Who Do You Think You Are – New celebrities are announced for the next season of the TLC show Who Do You Think You Are. I look forward to this series every time and the new lineup looks great.
- Genealogy TV Shows – The National Genealogical Society Blog, UpFront with NGS, posted about where to find your favorite genealogy shows online. Check it out if you missed some of Finding Your Roots, Who Do You Think You Are, or the Genealogy Roadshow.
- U.S. National Archives – Yesterday the Archives posted an announcement on Facebook that over 400,000 newly digitized documents had been added to FRANKLIN. FRANKLIN is the library’s virtual research room and a digital repository. You can check out their Facebook page here and check out the library here.
Enjoy your weekend! And for those doing last minute holiday shopping – I wish you luck!
Ruth Hummel – 1944
I am actually not sure who Ruth Hummel is. This picture looks like it was taken on her wedding day but only her name is on the back, not the man next to her. I’m assuming they were getting ready for the wedding and her maiden name is Hummel, making her one of my grandmother’s cousins. I have to confirm all of that but my grandmother’s father had many brothers and sisters so I have some searching to do.
After I cleaned up the photo a bit to get ready to post, I noticed the two shining spots in the background – a bit creepy but it’s most like Ollie Hummel, my grandmother’s father sitting there as I have seen him sitting in the same spot in other pictures. The shining spots would be the reflection from his glasses. Then to the right, in the doorway, it looks like someone is standing. But I think the bottom part is a chair and the top is a coat hanger with some coats on it (at least that’s what the original picture looks like).
Genealogy News
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society’s blog (UpFront with NGS) posted some exciting news! Ancestry.com and the University of North Carolina collaborated to create a resource for using family history in the classroom (history classrooms specifically). It’s my dream come true!!! As a history education major with a love for genealogy, I had planned on doing this in my classrooms somehow. I never got the chance to try it though as my English major was all my employers ever saw when hiring me. Either way, I am VERY excited that they are working this into classrooms! I would have LOVED that as a student!
You can find the article and link to the digital textbook here.
Time Capsules
Some of you may have seen this floating around Facebook already but I thought I’d share for those of you who have not. They have found a time capsule buried by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere in a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House from 1795! They do have an idea of what is inside of it from notes on it, but I can’t wait to see pictures of the reveal! How neat!
To read more about it, check it out here.
RootsTech
I would love to go to this conference but sadly, I won’t be able to make it this year. They did make an exciting announcement on who their keynote speakers will be just recently- Laura W. Bush and Jenna Hager. That would be very neat to hear!
You can read more about the conference and key note speakers here.
Free E-Book for Kindle!
If you have a Kindle and are interested in DNA, there is a free e-book on Amazon just for you! It is free for the next five days so get it while you can!
The book is called Guide to DNA Testing: How to Identify Ancestors, Confirm Relationships, and Measure Ethnic Ancestry through DNA Testing by Richard Hill.
I plan on posting a review of the book once I’ve finished.
Have a great weekend!
Since the majority of my family is from Saginaw County (some lines since the Civil War), I do a lot of my research in the county. The librarians now recognize my face and name whenever I come in or email them! Although, some of the librarians there knew me as a child (my family went to the library every Saturday when I was growing up) so I guess that isn’t much of a stretch 🙂
The Obituary Index above has been a wonderful resource and I want to spotlight it to show what a library can do with their resources. It’s always a good idea to see if something like this is available as it’s becoming a bit more common.
The Public Libraries of Saginaw went through their extensive newspapers for the city of Saginaw (there were MANY newspapers over the years) and have created this wonderful database. You can search by name, a name and a year, a year, or a month and year. It also allows wildcard searches in case your ancestor has an oddly spelled name.
The information then provided varies. Here is one that doesn’t have much (and sometimes you can get less than this!):
And one with a lot more:
Sometimes it’ll even mention parent’s names as well.
In the upper right corner of the information, in the yellow, it’ll tell you what newspaper it came from. If the space is blank, like Gerald’s, that means it came from the Saginaw News which became (and still is) the only paper in Saginaw. It also gives you the date and the page the mention can be found on (not always accurate but if it isn’t, it’s only a page or so off). Sometimes you’ll see more than one newspaper mention too. For example, one of my relatives was killed in a car accident so it has the first report and then later a memorial note.
This is a wonderful resource and goes back as far as the newspapers do! If you have questions, the response time from the staff is quick and has been a great help in my research (especially since I can’t get there often to actually see the obituary!).
Even if this particular website isn’t useful for you, it’s always a good idea to see what kinds of resources are available through the library because you can find gems like this one! Even if your family came from a rural town without a newspaper, like some of mine did, they could still be mentioned in the bigger city newspaper so check the next biggest city’s library for information as well.
Happy Searching! 🙂