Is it life or is it décor? Being a genealogist changes us. Even the walls of Cracker Barrel breathe and talk, reminding us of the value and fate of every man and woman.
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A Genealogist at Cracker BarrelRead More »
A Genealogist at Cracker Barrel Read More »
UPDATE: The problem has been solved by the solutions presented here.
You’ve been waiting for me to make up my mind about the Big Three in my Desktop Dilemma Series, and I’ve been waiting for one last — and most important — evaluation: Can RootsMagic effectively sync with Ancestry.com? …
RootsMagic’s TreeShare for Ancestry–hopeful solution for those API errors?Read More »
RootsMagic’s TreeShare for Ancestry–hopeful solution for those API errors? Read More »
The Golden Rule — the law of reciprocity — offers a great maxim to apply to our world of genealogy. Most of us live far from the places our ancestors lived. We depend on others to make the local records safe, organized, and available — preferably in digital online form. The Golden Rule suggests we first do for others what we hope they’ll do for us. How many of us are doing that?
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The Golden Rule of Genealogy VolunteerismRead More »
The Golden Rule of Genealogy Volunteerism Read More »
You’ve invested a day off and a tank of gas to have a precious four hours at an ancestral county courthouse, state archive, or local library. You want to make the most of every minute. Here’s my high-powered hit-and-run data grabbing technique to get home with maximum ancestral data in minimum time. …
High-powered hit-and-run data grabbing techniqueRead More »
High-powered hit-and-run data grabbing technique Read More »
If you post your genealogy to online trees, you’ve undoubtedly had that jolting moment when you see a precious photo of your parent displayed on a stranger’s page. You know they got it from your tree, but no one else does. Most are borrowing and forward-sharing without awareness of proper genealogical etiquette and protocols. The world is then losing its path back to the original image. Here’s a way to improve your chances that the desired information will travel with the image. …
Embedding origin captions into your imagesRead More »
Embedding origin captions into your images Read More »
Some of you started long ago. I started six months ago. Perhaps some of you will start today. When it comes to the very difficult and incredibly rewarding challenge of documenting America’s enslaved populations, we who descend from slaveholders are the logical ones to do the work. It makes sense at so many levels. Welcome, GEGs, to the Beyond Kin Project. …
Descendants of slaveholders, we have a job to doRead More »
Descendants of slaveholders, we have a job to do Read More »
Most genealogy software tools offer an embedded to-do list feature–useful, as far as they go. But for me, they don’t go far enough. Most are not accessible away from your computer. If you have to move or restore your data via GEDCOM, you will usually lose your to-do items. The tools aren’t designed to let you apply a single to-do item to multiple people. Zotero, on the other hand, provides the ideal research to-do list. It fully integrates with research notes, and it’s free.
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Research To-Do List in ZoteroRead More »
Research To-Do List in Zotero Read More »
The GEG in me emerged in the summer of 2015, when I finally committed a week of my life to the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. I returned in 2016 to an even better experience. This year I’m registered for Course 3, and we’re relocating to the University of Georgia. Join me in Athens July 23—28 for IGHR 2017 — the best value your genealogical education dollar can buy. …
IGHR 2017: Seats going fast. It’s that good.Read More »
IGHR 2017: Seats going fast. It’s that good. Read More »
In genealogy, a rose by any other name may not smell sweet. A feud broils over what is acceptable, when it comes to naming conventions. Do you use question marks for unknown portions of a name? Do you write helpful information in the suffix field? Congratulations, we’ll call you a Montague! Do you get annoyed when you see people doing the above, fearing trashy data transfers — a messed-up GEDCOM? You, friend, we’ll call a Capulet. In determining how to use the name fields in our software, we find ourselves having to choose the house of Montague or Capulet — expedient practicality or clean data sharing. Some want both, and we call ourselves GEGs. Starry-eyed GEG I may be, but with the right tools and rules, I think Romeo and Juliet can have a future together.
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What’s in a name? Conflicting practicalities.Read More »
What’s in a name? Conflicting practicalities. Read More »
You hear rumors that courthouses can yield ten times what you’ve learned about your ancestors from online sources. Ten times! But still you don’t go. “I’ll get around to that,” you say to yourself. “Let me just check one more database.” Well, friend, it’s time to overcome your dread. Pack your laptop and hit the road to a place where Wifi rarely goes. I dare you. I double-dog dare you to face your dread of courthouse research. You’ll thank me.
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Facing your dread of courthouse researchRead More »
Facing your dread of courthouse research Read More »
