Tag: friday’s faces from the past Page 1 of 2

Friday’s Faces from the Past and Genealogy News

On 26 December 2014

This trip home, I was able to meet up with a recently found Raifsnider cousin! Thanks to my blog, we started emailing a few months ago and we were finally able to meet up when I made the trip back for the holidays. Her parents were both avid genealogists and they had quite a bit of information on the Raifsnider side of the family including this amazing gem:

Benjamin Raifsnider happens to be her 2x great-grandfather and brother to my 2x great-grandfather Hezekiah Raifsnider. That makes us 4th cousins. However, she isn’t sure if this is her 2x great-grandfather OR Benjamin and Hezekiah’s father – also named Benjamin (of course). So I’m going to do some sleuthing with this picture to figure out a time frame of when it was taken. I love new projects 🙂

I have no pictures of Hezekiah and only knew of this brother because Hezekiah lived with him at one point during a census. Now, however, I have a slew of names of possible brothers and sisters! I am very excited to see where this new information takes me.

GENEALOGY NEWS!

Here are some news-worthy items in the genealogy world:

Holiday Sale from Genealogical.com! – all of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ titles are on sale right now! So scoop up a copy of Evidence Explained and Professional Genealogy!
Geneabloggers also listed a ton of sales that are new today and ongoing! RootsMagic 7 is also on sale (that’s the program I use). Check it out!
Geneabloggers is also beginning a Genealogy-Do-Over that starts Jan 2nd! Thomas MacEntee from Geneabloggers is starting over from scratch because let’s face it – in the beginning how many of us actually wrote down where our information came from? Or just copied and pasted someone else’s tree without checking the facts? How many times have we needed to re-find something because of these errors only to find out we had something wrong? Well this is hopefully going to fix that and he has prompts/tips/roadmaps for those who wish to join him. It sounds like something I may also participate in too!

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Faces from the Past and Genealogy News

By NikiMarie

On 19 December 2014

In Friday Finds, Pictures

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!

Friday’s Faces and Genealogy News

By NikiMarie

On 12 December 2014

In Friday Finds, Pictures, Resources

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!

Friday’s Faces from the Past: Meeting New Grandson

By NikiMarie

On 5 December 2014

In Pictures

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving 16 November 1954 (the day the family celebrated, not the actual day). This is Ada (Raifsnider) and Ollie Hummel holding my dad, who was a bit over a month old. My Aunt Roxanne is the little girl; she was almost three.

This picture surprised me because of how much smaller Ada looks compared to other pictures I have of her. However, this was taken a month before Ada died, and she had been quite sick by this point so it makes sense. My dad had said that his grandma got the chance to hold him at least once before she died and I’m sure that was a comfort to his mom, my grandma, afterwards. I know losing her mother was very hard on her from how she used to tell me stories of her parents when I was younger.