The Legacy Tree team loves animals, and recently some of them shared stories of ancestors who had pets, or worked with animals, and even had close encounters with dangerous beasts! A cousin’s pet calf Many of our ancestors lived on farms, or in rural areas, and grew up around livestock. This photograph from Washington state in the 1930s clearly demonstrates a family member’s attachment to one of the calves. Unfortunately, this friendship had to end when times became tough (or perhaps simply … [Read more...]
Using History to Tell Your Family Story
Everybody loves a good story. Here is one experience where genealogy was brought to life by developing and understanding local history and culture of the time. Everybody in my family - at least on my dad’s side - is a storyteller. Every event in their lives was and is a story. You never simply got up and went to school. Every day was a potential epic adventure. To hear my dad tell it, his life as a boy on the farm was one narrow escape after another, followed by record-breaking … [Read more...]
11 Do’s & Don’ts of Writing Family Biographies
Our team has completed thousands of hours of writing client biographies. Review our tips for writing family biographies that will help make your ancestors come to life! Recently, we published a post on tips for writing a family biography that others would want to read. Perhaps that article inspired you to begin your own, or to dig up an unfinished manuscript and take a closer look. Maybe you’ve got the organization part figured out, but your writing itself needs some polishing. At Legacy … [Read more...]
Using Historical Context to Learn About An Ancestor
Understanding the historical context of the stories of your ancestry can provide important insight into your personal family history. I recently had a project come across my desk where the client wanted to learn more about his father’s life during a 5-year time span that he was in the United States. Unfortunately he arrived and departed between census records, so there was no way to locate him in the U.S. that way. However, by locating him on a passenger list we were able to learn the … [Read more...]
Writing Family Histories
Writing family histories is an exciting and fulfilling role! Here are our 5 tips for getting started, and making the most of this meaningful experience. Perhaps you’ve spent years gathering materials and information about your ancestors. You might have boxes of old photos, file folders of records, and a computer database bursting with names. Or maybe you are just getting interested in genealogy and would like to get to know your ancestors better. Writing a family history is a wonderful way to … [Read more...]