januar 30, 2015 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 25 Comments

7 Reasons to Hire a Genealogist

With so many technological advances and record availability these days, one question we get fairly often is, “Why should I hire a genealogist? What can you do for me that I can’t do myself on [insert the name of any online genealogy site here]?”

There’s really no quick answer to these questions, but there are a lot of reasons people hire a professional. Some of them include the following:

Hire a Genealogist to Save Time.

Learning more about your family tree can be extremely time-intensive. It’s not as easy as just clicking the little hint leaves on Ancestry.com. While those can be very helpful as a foundation, it’s important to have a primary source document that proves each piece of information (birth, marriage and death dates and places, parents, children, etc.) in your tree. These records are not all available online, nor are they always easy to find. A professional genealogist knows the most efficient and cost-effective ways of compiling all the sources you need to have an accurate family tree. Plus, if you have a special event coming up, like a birthday or anniversary of someone you love, a family reunion, or a trip overseas to the home of your ancestors…you might not have the time to do all the research on top of your already busy regular life!

Get Help With Genealogical Brick Walls.

Most people who have spent time working on their genealogy have at least one line that seems to be at a complete dead end – known as a “brick wall” – that they need help breaking down. Professional genealogists have experience solving difficult genealogical problems, and have the knowledge and skills necessary to get past them. Many brick walls require in-depth research in land, tax and/or probate records, and most of those records are still not available online. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah houses the largest collection of genealogical records in the world, so a genealogist who has ready access to that facility, in addition to a network of researchers for record access worldwide, will be able to search many additional records that you may not have access to.

Language Barriers/Foreign Research.

For those who live in the United States or Australia, and many who live in other parts of the world as well, it’s a fact that at some point your ancestors came from another location and spoke a language you may not know. You’ll also find that within one country you might have records written in a variety of languages. For example, one project we’ve worked on in Lithuania has involved records written in Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and Latin, all depending on who created the record and where the political boundaries were drawn at the time. Professional genealogy companies have team members who speak and read many different languages, so we can trace your ancestry beyond their immigration and into their country of origin. We also have onsite agents that we work with worldwide who can visit archives and libraries in other locations when needed, rather than you having to plan an expensive trip overseas to find that one record about your great-great-grandmother.

Lineage Society Applications.

Many people are interested in joining lineage societies such as the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution (SAR/DAR), Mayflower Society, etc. Each of these societies has different requirements for membership, but they all have fairly strict policies on documentation. A professional genealogist can help you collect the documentation you need to submit a successful application to whichever lineage society you might be interested in.

Team Approach.

Sometimes when you’ve been working on your genealogy for a long time, all you need is a fresh set of eyes. Maybe there’s a clue in that death record you found 20 years ago, but you’ve looked at it so many times you just don’t see it. When you hire a professional genealogy company like Legacy Tree, not only will we review what you’ve done and assess what other options are out there, but we peer-review each other’s work, so your family tree is seen by at least 2-3 different professionals.

Hire a Genealogist for DNA Analysis.

With DNA playing a bigger role in genealogy in recent years, many people approach us with questions about DNA testing. Some have taken the test but aren’t sure what the results mean. Others have heard that DNA testing might help them break down a brick wall, but they’re not sure which test would be best for their particular problem. Our team includes DNA specialists who can give advice on which test(s) would be most beneficial to you, and can analyze the results of your test(s) to determine what the next steps in your research should be.

Validation.

Finally, you might want to hire a professional genealogist just to see if the research you’ve done on your own is right. Maybe you’ve inherited the work done by other family members, or maybe you’ve found quite a bit of information online that appears to be correct…but you’re just not sure. A professional genealogist can review your information, determine the quality of your sources, and help you fill in holes where things might be lacking. If we find an error in your tree, we can help you correct it before you spend the next 5 years researching the wrong line!

Your reason for hiring a professional genealogist might be one (or more) of the above, or it might be an entirely different reason not listed here. Whatever the reason, learning more about your family history can be a very rewarding experience.

When you are choosing a professional to work with, it’s important that you feel confident and comfortable with their knowledge and skills, and make sure they’re the right fit for you. You’ll want to find out things like how long they’ve been in business, what kinds of certifications or accreditations they have, and what kind of reviews they have received from other clients.

Along those lines, here are a few facts about Legacy Tree Genealogists:

Legacy Tree Genealogists was founded in 2004 and is the highest rated genealogy research company in the world.
We’re based in Salt Lake City, Utah and have ready access to the Family History Library and its vast collections of microfilm, fiche, and books.
With contacts all over the globe, Legacy Tree regularly accesses records worldwide through onsite agents.
Each member of our core team has a degree in Family History/Genealogy or Genetics, 10+ years of genealogy experience, and/or is professionally accredited in genealogy. We also hold our team to a high standard of research, writing and analysis skills.

We Do the Research.
You Enjoy the Discoveries.

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januar 22, 2015 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 10 Comments

How to Find Family Photos Online

Finding photos of ancestors is one of the best ways to bring their heritage to life. Here's how to find family photos online.

As professional genealogists, our job is to seek out the details of ancestors' lives so that our clients are able to understand the people with whom they share a connection. These bits of information can include occupation, military service, education, immigration, religion, and more. A question we get pretty often is “Can you find photos of my ancestors?”

One of the best ways to make the history come alive for both our clients and ourselves personally is to find photographs of those ancestors, so we definitely love to try! However, this can be challenging since photography was in its relative infancy during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Having a picture taken was far less common, and it can be difficult to track down who ended up with it 150 or more years later. As with most things in genealogy, however, sometimes it just takes a little creativity and knowing where to look!

How to Find Family Photos

The first recommendation is to reach out to distant relatives. Great-aunts, second cousins, and even your grandparents may have old photos you didn’t even know existed. Many genealogists have had the experience of reaching out to a previously-unknown relative and being showered with stories, pictures, books, and other family artifacts that they simply had not known what to do with otherwise.

Second, use the wealth of the internet! There are now several wonderful sites that exist for people to share their historical photos. Some specialize in taking in “orphan photos” found in attics and antique shops and working to find out the identity of the person pictured. Here are a few:

1. Dead Fred Genealogy Photo Archive

This free site contains both a searchable index to identified photos uploaded by users as well as a mystery section of those whose names are not yet known.

2. Ancestorville

Debra Clifford has amassed an impressive collection of 19^th century photos, along with other memorabilia and artifacts like posters, papers, journals, family Bibles, and other treasures. Each contains an image, the quality of the item, and the name of the person identified in it. These are then for sale, typically in the $10-$20 range.

3. Ancient Faces

A bit like a genealogy Pinterest, Ancient Faces allows you to search, upload, and even comment on others’ historical family photos, all for free.

4. Just a Joy

Having met the owners of this site at the National Genealogical Society conference in Richmond, Virginia last year, we can attest that JustaJoy’s heirloom collection is worth checking out! They describe themselves as “antiquers” and sell not just family photos, but other heirlooms as well. Like many other groups of the kind, JustaJoy’s collections are too massive to post each individual item on their website. However, they keep their surname index up-to-date.

5. Facebook

Yes, the popular social network site can be used for genealogical purposes! There are tons of groups organized around the genealogy of a particular place – Tennessee, or Madison County, Indiana, for example. Although these are generally places where people researching in those areas can collaborate, get help, and meet relatives, they frequently also post photos. Simply search for the geographic region you’re seeking in the search bar at the top of the page and request to join the group you’ve chosen.

And finally, definitely don’t neglect the mainstays of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. Both have user-generated trees containing thousands of photos and stories uploaded by patrons. You never know what you’ll find.

Happy hunting!

We’d love to help you with your family history, whether we’re breaking down brick wall mysteries, finding your biological parents, or just starting from scratch finding the stories about your ancestors. Contact us today for a free consultation.

januar 15, 2015 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 41 Comments

Research Pitfalls of Beginning Genealogists

Avoid these common research pitfalls that many beginning genealogists fall into!

If you’re looking for ways to improve your research skills, it’s always best to take a personal inventory of your research practices and habits. Following are some errors that many beginners and hobbyists make which, if eliminated, could save time and increase accuracy immensely.

Collecting Ancestors

This is one of the most common mistakes. Simply copying down someone else’s tree or taking their information at face value without sources or explanation is a quick way to perpetuate untrue lineages and family stories. A good rule of thumb is to be able to give a solid reason for every bit of information you add to your database/tree/chart. How do you know that John is the son of Robert? And how do you know that that Robert is the right one when there is another man by the same name a county over? Traditions handed down can be helpful and even true, but a good genealogist always double checks! (And P.S. – use special caution when attempting to tie into “royal lines”; many are known to have been fabricated long ago.)

Fishing for the Famous

We encounter this fairly frequently, and it involves trying to prove a relationship to a notable person simply because you share the same last name. “I am from the South and my last name is Lee. We are probably related to the famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee.” Such an assumption is not a sound approach and is very seldom true. The best course of action is to start with your recent family and move backward. Avoid beginning with a celebrity or historical figure and trying to force him into your tree!

Tunnel Vision

It is usually difficult to find direct-line ancestors if the rest of the family is ignored. In your research, build complete families, not just single lines of descent. Don’t just know who your ancestor was and who he married, but research who his siblings and their spouses were. Even studying his unrelated close friends and associates can often be the key to solving a brick-wall problem. If your ancestor didn’t leave much of a paper trail, there’s a good chance that one of his siblings did, taking you back to the next generation you couldn’t have found only researching one man or woman.

Incomplete Research

Lone records can often contain inaccuracies, or at the very least, a fragmented part of the story. Be sure to make the effort to confirm information that you find with multiple records whenever possible. Find a headstone? Great! If possible, also locate a death certificate, parish record, obituary, and/or will.

Being Disorganized

Do you have notes scribbled on three different notepads and tucked away on Post-Its, backs of envelopes, and other random slips of paper? This one is for you! Your research experience will improve if you make a concerted effort to keep everything in one place. The same can go for Word documents scattered around your hard drive. Make folders, keep notes in your pedigree software, and always back-up your files externally! No one wants to lose ten years’ worth of research because their computer crashes!

Don’t be discouraged if you find yourself making these mistakes from time to time! Genealogy is a fun field, but it can also be exacting, with a steep learning curve. Even as professionals, we are constantly growing and figuring out better ways of doing things, and everyone benefits from raised standards!

We want to hear from you! In the comments, feel free to share some of the things that you have learned over time – perhaps even some trial and error you experienced in your own research.

If you need help breaking through your genealogical brick walls, please contact us and we can help evaluate your specific circumstances and identify how we can be of assistance.

januar 7, 2015 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

When Pension Files are Genealogy Treasure Troves

Pension files can provide a wealth of information for genealogy research. We'll show you details pension files can contain to extend your family history.

As a genealogist, I enjoy working with military records and documents and really like it when a client is interested in their ancestor’s military history, too. Tracing an individual from his enlistment, through his actual service and on to his discharge can provide a thrilling – and occasionally sobering – glimpse into the life of an ancestor.

Sometimes, these records can be useful beyond their ability to tell us about a person’s wartime service. Sometimes, a military record can provide clues to help us trace an ancestor back in time. One such example that has the potential to offer a lot of information is a pension file, created as an application by the elderly or injured veteran, his widow, or child to the government for financial support. The process could be long and very involved, since the government required lots of specific documented proof that the applicant was who he or she said they were, and that injuries incurred actually resulted from active, qualifying service.

The Goldmine of Pension Files

As a result, pension files can include the actual application, medical records, vital records (like marriage, death, or divorce certificates), and depositions from the applicant and his friends and neighbors. One of the biggest, and most helpful, records I recently used was a military pension file for a man who had served in the Mexican American War of 1846-1848. The file contained over 150 pages of forms, letters, depositions, and more.

For this particular man, we knew that he was born in Maine, but we didn't know in which city or town. Nor did we know exactly when he was born, having only an estimated year. His pension file included a copy of his application for a pension in which Henry* stated that he had been born in Portland, Maine on 1 October 1813. Having been born so early, this is a date of such specificity that we would be hard-pressed to find in many other places.

Another question we had was regarding exactly when Henry died. We knew that he was alive in 1880 and that his wife was a widow according to the 1900 U.S. Census. But we could not narrow the probable date any further than that 20-year interim.

Henry’s pension application was made on 11 April 1887, narrowing down his date of death to 13 years. He also applied for an increase in his pension amount, based on his illness and inability to work. This was dated 11 June 1894, even further decreasing the original 20 years to less than five years. Finally, Henry’s wife applied for a widow’s pension. Part of her application included the date of Henry’s death: 16 January 1895.

Understanding Our Ancestors' Lives

Pension files can provide information not only about the soldier, but also about his wife, particularly if she filed an application for a widow’s pension. In the case of Henry’s wife, there were questions about her original surname as well as her date of birth. Some family records indicated one maiden name, while others reported an entirely different one. Census records suggested that she was born between 1826 and 1830.

It appears that the same questions which perplexed us about Henry’s wife also concerned the Pension Office. They sent a special investigator to talk to Henry’s neighbors as well as his wife and other family members, to determine if Henry had been married once or twice, and if the woman who was claiming his pension was actually his widow, or if she and Henry had been divorced. The investigator also asked her to provide proof of her age and date of birth, but she replied:

I have no record of the time of my birth but I have been told by my mother that I was born on April 5^th and was 73 years old this past April instead of 72 years old.

The investigator proceeded to question several siblings regarding the date of Henry’s widow’s birth, and those depositions were included in the pension file, too.

However, the bigger question was the identity of Henry’s widow and her maiden name. At least three different times she was questioned about her name. In the initial interview she stated that her maiden name was McClendon. In a follow-up interview, the investigator asked her why she stated that Sims was her maiden name in her original application but claimed it was McClendon in her deposition.

She explained that it was a mistake to state that her name prior to marriage was Sims, “Sims being nothing but my middle name.”

Two months later Henry’s widow requested an additional deposition in order to provide more clarification regarding her maiden name. She stated:

I want to explain about something in my prior statement as to the name Sims. I understood that my mother had remarried to a McClendon when I was a year and a half old. Elias McClendon by name and that her husband before that was James Sims who was my father. I never knew anything about my father.

This statement helped to clarify her maiden name (and also contradicted her earlier statement). Her father was James Sims, but he was no longer around by the time she was about 18 months old. Her mother married Elias McClendon and she adopted that name, most likely for simple convenience and expediency. Technically, her maiden name was indeed Sims, but in actual practice, it was McClendon.

Her explanation must have rung true to the examiner as well. In a letter to his supervisor he explained that he believed Henry’s widow was suffering from senility and that she made an “honest conscientious effort” to tell the truth and explain her situation to the best of her ability. Ultimately, the Pension Office awarded Henry’s widow her pension.

Pension Files Revealing More Than War Service

While it is easy to assume that a military record will only apply to the time of the soldier or sailor’s military service, it is clear that military records can provide important information about his life both before and after his service. Pension records can provide even more facts and richer detail about the lives of our ancestors.

So, where do you find these goldmines of information? It depends on the conflict!

Revolutionary War: FamilySearch.org has a free index, but the images of the entire files are available completely digitized on subscription sites Ancestry.com and Fold3.com.
War of 1812: Some of the most widely requested documents at the National Archives, these are in the process of being digitized by a massive fundraising campaign. With over 7 million file pages total, not even a quarter have been put online yet. Those that have are free at Fold3.com. Otherwise, they can be ordered from the National Archives for $55.00.
Civil War (Union):Ancestry.com contains an index to the pension files, but the actual packets themselves must still be ordered from the National Archives at this time. The current rate is $80.00 for the first one hundred pages, and a fee per-page beyond that. This only applies to Union veterans, as former members of the Confederacy understandably did not qualify for money from the federal government.
Civil War (Confederate): Most Southern states later implemented their own pension programs at the state level, independent of the federal government. Many of these states’ application files can found online at Ancestry.com.

At Legacy Tree, we make a point to check for these records ourselves and are more than happy to locate and order them as part of a research package. If you’re interested in expanding your family tree, contact Legacy Tree Genealogists for a free consultation.

*Name has been changed.

december 30, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Denied Access to a Vital Record? Try the Newspaper!

When privacy laws prevent researchers from finding genealogy records, newspaper records may provide the information you're searching for!

Strict privacy laws, designed to protect both the living and the dead from having their identities stolen, can create some serious problems for a genealogist. Some states permit the acquisition of birth, marriage, or death records when the individuals named in those records have been dead for 50 years, or 100 years after the event was recorded. Other states allow only immediate family members to have access to birth, marriage, or death records. When you need the information contained in a vital record but are denied access to that record, what can you do?

Case Study: Paying Respect to a Wonderful Teacher

Recently a client asked us to help him locate the burial place of a favorite teacher from elementary school. He hoped to place flowers on her grave when he next visited his hometown.

The client was able to provide her date of death in 1964, and indicated that her last place of residence was in Missouri. He had contacted the State of Missouri in an effort to acquire her death certificate, which would include the place of her burial. However, due to privacy laws, he was unable to secure this important document. The client asked that the office of vital records simply provide him with her place of burial, but he was again rebuffed. He even went so far as to write to the governor of the state, seeking his intervention, but to no avail. So he turned to us and asked if we could help.

Sometimes the most straightforward searches are the best ones, so we began with a search of Findagrave.com, a free, volunteer-powered database with over 120 million memorial pages from around the world. We searched for the teacher and discovered seven women with the same full name in their database. Unfortunately, of the two who died in 1964, one was buried in Australia and the other was buried more than 800 miles away in Ohio.

The Power of Newspaper Records

Next we turned to newspapers. Obituaries can provide a wealth of information regarding the deceased, including where they were buried. Because we knew not only the teacher's name but also the year of her death and the state in which she lived, we were able to narrow our search to Missouri newspapers between January of 1964 and January of 1965.

Fortunately for us, this teacher was a well-known educator and her obituary was printed on the front page of one of the newspapers we searched. In addition to facts about her life, the obituary reported that she was cremated in Kansas City prior to her interment in the Olive Branch Cemetery in Harrisville, Ohio. Harrisville was her hometown, and that Ohio burial we had found on FindaGrave.com turned out to be the right one after all.

So, the next time that your request for a vital record is denied, try using the newspaper’s obituaries, birth notices, marriage announcements, or even social columns to discover the facts you seek.

Legacy Tree Genealogists has helped thousands of clients find long-lost family members and solve multi-decade mysteries. Our staff of highly-trained experts is ready to help you with yours. Contact us today for a free quote.

december 19, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 3 Comments

5 Tips for Finding Female Ancestors

Are you struggling to find female ancestors in your family history? We share 5 tips for locating those elusive ancestresses!

“The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband.” – William Blackstone, English jurist and judge

Such a quote sounds grating and out-of-place in our twenty-first century society, but it was the legal and cultural reality under which American women lived during most of history, due to our heritage of English common law.

Blackstone’s quote above is in reference to an old concept called coverture, in which a woman’s rights and property were swallowed up in her husband’s when she married. The husband essentially became her guardian and representative, and with few exceptions, had sole power to buy and sell property, vote, sue in a court of law, and make decisions for the family.

With this background in mind, it is easy to understand why it can be difficult to find evidence of female ancestors, especially the further back one goes. For example, federal censuses pre-1850 listed only the names of the male heads of household (with the rare exception of those run by widows who had only minor children). Women in early American history were less likely to be literate and leave diaries or letters. Most wills were written by men with, again, the prime exception being widows who had been left property by their deceased husbands. And in most cases, women led quiet, domestic lives that left them out of the spotlight covered by contemporary historians.

So what are some things you can do in order to coax those hidden women out of the woodwork in your genealogical research?

1. Thoroughly Search For Marriage Records

Marriage records will often be the only documents that will state a woman’s maiden name explicitly. This includes not only searching online indexes but getting into microfilm and even contacting the historic church your ancestors attended. Get creative! Keep in mind that while resources like the internet and the Family History Library are wonderful, there is still so much more tucked away in small archives, tiny old churches, funeral homes, and public libraries that we don't have access to without asking.

2. Get to Know The Men in Her Family

Pay close attention to the people with whom your Mrs. and her husband interacted. Frequently, a marriage union would also cement ties between the families as a whole. Keep an eye out for land transactions, people mentioned in wills, and naming patterns within the family. If you can find a brother, you’ve also found her maiden name. For example, a father might leave land to his daughter and new son-in-law. A woman may give her son her maiden name as his middle name. Or a brother might be living temporarily in the family’s household. For example: If Mary Smith names her son William Bateman Smith, that could be a lead! It’s not smart to automatically assume, but it holds potential.

3. Find an Obituary

Admittedly, these can be more difficult to locate in the earlier days of our history, but they are invaluable when you find one! Sometimes you’ll get lucky and the obituary will note her maiden name. But even if it doesn’t, look out for the names of surviving brothers. An example from my own family tree: my third great-grandmother was a German immigrant to Indiana. She was born in 1822 and had been married twice – first to my ancestor, Christian Kramer who she had married back in Germany, and second to a man named Friedrich Schroeder. I was now in search of her maiden name and her obituary provided the needed clue. Tucked away at the end was a note that “[t]wo brothers also survive her, Messrs. D. and William Brandt of Malcolm, Neb[raska].” This example also provides another piece of cautionary advice: look for more than one obituary. In this case, the family had published the death notice in two separate papers. The first one I found contained no mention of these brothers. It was only when I found the second that I was able to solve the mystery.

4. Read County Histories

These books were popular in the 1880s and 1890s, and often include biographical sections on early or prominent citizens of that county, even reaching back decades. Since the information in them was generally gained by interviewing family members or neighbors, it is seldom that they don’t include mention of the wife’s maiden name, father, or brothers. Example: I have used these to discover an ancestor’s first wife who died young and did not appear on any censuses or in the marriage index with him. Without that county history, I may not have known about her existence.

5. Look Closer at Male-Dominated Records

A woman may not have been able to sell land on her own, but she could (and often did) appear in deed books alongside her husband. Be on the lookout for “…between Robert Taylor and wife Jane, and John Jacobs…” It may not give the maiden name, but even just a first name can help – especially in the colonial era, when even that simple bit of information can be hard to come by. A man will often also name his wife, minor and married daughters, and even daughters-in-law in his estate.

These are just some ideas to get you going in a side of genealogical research that involves 50% of your family, but can in many instances be 100% more difficult to trace. Identifying women in a family tree requires the researcher to be both thorough and creative, but there is very little more rewarding than finally finding that elusive lady and restoring her to collective memory.

The team at Legacy Tree Genealogists is experienced in thinking “outside-the-box” to leave no stone unturned in extending your family history. If you'd like assistance with your genealogy research, contact Legacy Tree Genealogists for a free quote.

december 15, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 2 Comments

Give the Gift of a Family History Christmas

Family history research makes the perfect Christmas gift! Here are 4 ideas to create a memorable and enjoyable holiday season with your family.

With Christmas coming up, you may feel the desire to give the gift of family history research. But how can you compete with the shiny toys and brand new things that Santa will undoubtedly bring to your family? Here are a few fun ways that you can share your genealogy with those you love around the holidays.

Give The Gift of Research

If one of your loved ones shows an interest in doing some family history research for him or herself, you can gift them a subscription to a family history database such as Ancestry.com. If you know that they will be doing a lot of research in England and Wales, findmypast.com would be a wonderful gift. From that website, they can access England’s census records and thousands of other records, including parish registers. Of course, Legacy Tree Genealogists also completes many amazing family history Christmas gifts each year. Information on our projects can be found here.

Tell Stories

Compile a book of stories about your shared ancestors. There are many companies that will help you self-publish a book. If your relative is computer-savvy, you could type up the stories in a Microsoft Word document and give it to them on a flash drive for Christmas. Stories about ancestors can help us get to know their personalities, as well as fill in the gaps that documentation leaves about their lives. It’s always fun to learn about ones grandparent as a child, or to hear about an ancestor that came to America and created their own version of the American dream. Stories about courtship and marriage are also cherished treasures, and giving the gift of family stories can ignite an interest in genealogy within your own immediate family.

Create a Photo Album

If you are lucky enough to have a collection of old family photographs, you can use websites like Shutterfly.com to create your own, personalized, photo album. You can customize the layout of the photographs and their captions, and the company will print it out and send it to you in a hardcover, high-quality book. Make sure that you label each photograph with the date it was taken and the names of the people in it. You could also include fun stories about the people in the photos. If your relatives are not well-aware of the people in their family tree, it may be helpful to include a copy of their pedigree chart with the album so that they can figure out where the people in the album fit into their own genealogy. Not only would such a gift increase a family’s knowledge of their heritage, but it would also preserve those fragile photos digitally for subsequent generations.

Share Family Traditions

Even though you may not have known a lot of the people in your family history personally, you probably know at least a few things about them, including their country/culture of origin. It can be fun to research the customs of their homeland and incorporate them into your own holiday traditions. For example, if you know that your great-grandmother came to America from Poland in 1906, you may want to find out if there are holiday traditions that are unique to Poland, such as the oplatek. An oplatek is a thin wafer made of flour and water that is reminiscent of the wafers used during a Roman Catholic Mass. In Poland, they are embossed with a scene from the nativity and shared during the Christmas Eve meal. Each family member breaks off a piece of the oplatek and says a prayer for a loved one. If you are of Polish descent, the oplatek could be a sweet way to remember your ancestors around the holidays.

Family history research is an experience that can bring families together, which is something that Christmas does beautifully. If you are looking for meaningful gift ideas this holiday season, you may just find that your inspiration lies in your own family’s past.

Our experts and onsite agents give the gift of family history research, regardless of the time of year. Contact us today for a free quote!

november 28, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Google Searching Tips for Genealogists

In the digital age, searching for your ancestor's records is easier than ever. Read our 5 tips on using Google to navigate your genealogy search.

You may be surprised what amazing genealogy finds you can discover using just Google alone! Thousands of photos, scanned books, and online genealogical collections are available that aren't at the usual big websites like Ancestry or FamilySearch. A reasonably exhaustive search should include a plunge into Google. Most know that you search for an exact phrase by enclosing the search phrase in quotation marks (i.e. “Lafayette Johnson” if you are searching for a person by that name). But there are other search terms you can use to make your searches more successful as a genealogist. Here are a few:

1. Exclude Words

If you are searching for a man named Lafayette Johnson from Arkansas but many of your search results are for a man by that name in Surrey, England, use the negative sign (-) in front of the word (or search phrase) you wish to exclude in your search results.

Example Searches: “Lafayette Johnson” -England
or
“Lafayette Johnson” -“Surrey, England”

2. Similar Words and Synonyms

If you are looking for death, burial, or cemetery records for Lafayette Johnson, use a tilde (~) in front of the word or search phrase. The use of the tilde will return results with words similar to the one you used.

Example Search: “Lafayette Johnson” ~burial

3. Site-Specific Searches

If you find that a genealogical site has a dozen links to burials that are posted on that site, rather than clicking each link to search through each list, simply do a site search.

Example Search: “Lafayette Johnson” site:johnsonburials.com

4. Date Ranges

If you are searching for records for Lafayette Johnson between the years 1659 and 1730, just put two (2) periods (and no spaces) in between the two years. (This one is my favorite!)

Example Search: “Lafayette Johnson” 1659..1730

5. Definitions

If you come across a new vocabulary word, use the “define” command of Google.

Example Search: define:nuncupative

(This word refers to a will that is “announced” [i.e. given orally] rather than written, usually due to the extreme illness or wounding of the testator.)

Give these different techniques a try and see what new things you're able to find! Looking for more Google search tips? Check out our article, Google Books: An Untapped Genealogy Resource.

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