Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Research your ancestors on their special days

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April 19 has always been a special day for me. It’s the birthday of my grandmother (Beatrix Flournoy Rasco Adams, 19 Apr 1907 to 23 May 1987) and it’s also my brother’s birthday. He turned 60 yesterday!

Taking note of April 19 reminded me of the great method of deciding what to research shared by Laura Aanenson on the Genealogy Research Loggers Facebook group last year. I blogged about it on January 20, 2017, in a post called Using a calendar to introduce variety into your research. (Laura’s blog is where2look4ancestors.)

In a nutshell, in 2017 Laura was using the calendar function in Family Tree Maker to help her decide to research every day. Each day, the names of those ancestors who were born or married or who died on that day came up on the calendar.  She would choose her research subject from that list.

I use Reunion, which also has a calendar function, but a commenter, Kim, shared the idea of using the Reminders feature in Reunion for the same purpose. I hadn’t even noticed the the Reminders feature. Since I’m pretty focused on my Adams line, I haven’t adopted this procedure. But I love the idea.

If you find this idea intriguing, I encourage you to read that post and to take in the comments as well. Thank you, Laura. This is such a great idea!

Have you seen Relative Race?

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When I was at RootsTech, I enjoyed a brief presentation about the BYUtv show Relative Race. I’d never seen it before, but was enticed enough by the clips I saw in the presentation to give it a look. So far I’ve seen just one episode, but I enjoyed it.

Relative Race brings together four teams of two people (the current season has two married couples, two sisters, and a father and son) who have taken DNA tests. The couples compete against each other to find (living) relatives they’ve never met before. They’re given clues to find their DNA matches, who might be located anywhere in the US. They’re given two challenges a day, and they’re allowed only the paper map, loaner car, and flip phone they’ve been supplied with to aid them. Then they spend the night each night in the home of their new relative. Teams are eliminated along the way and the last team standing at the end of the ten-day journey wins $50,000.

It reminds me of a less-exotic Amazing Race, with a genealogy twist. The introductions of the contestants with their heretofore unknown cousins makes the show especially fun for genealogists.

The third season began March 4. The current season, along with the episodes from previous seasons, are available to watch at this link. (You can read more about the show in this press release.)

If you watch it, I’d love to know what you think!

2018 RootsTech livestream schedule

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I’m excited that I’m attending RootsTech, but for those who can’t make it, RootsTech is livestreaming a small selection of the keynotes and breakout sessions at next week’s conference.

Here’s the schedule. The sessions will be streamed live on the RootsTech homepage and then afterward recordings will be posted on the website for a limited time.

Visit the Livestream page on the RootsTech website for descriptions of each of these sessions.

Wednesday, February 28

9:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m. | Family History in 5 Minutes a Day
Speaker: Deborah Gamble

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | DNA–One Family, One World
Speaker: David Nicholson

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Organizing and Preserving Photograph Collections
Speaker: Ari Wilkins

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Finding the Answers: The Basics of WWII Research
Speaker: Jennifer Holik

4:30 a.m.–5:30 a.m. | Wednesday General Session and Innovation Showcase
Speaker: Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International

Thursday, March 1

8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. | Thursday General Session
Speaker: Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | MyHeritage DNA 101: From Test to Results
Speaker: Yaniv Erlich

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Google Photos: Collect, Organize, Preserve, and Share
Speaker: Michelle Goodrum

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Unlocking Roman Catholic Records
Speaker: Brian Donovan

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | A Gift of Life: Who’s Writing Your Story?
Speaker: Deborah Abbott

Friday, March 2

8:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. | Friday General Session
Speaker: Scott Hamilton

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. | findmypast’s British and Irish Hidden Gems
Speaker: Myko Clelland

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Finding the Right DNA Test for You
Speaker: Jim Brewster

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | How Not to Leave Your Genealogy Behind
Speakers: Amy Johnson Crow and Curt Witcher

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Finding Elusive Records at FamilySearch
Speaker: Robert Kehrer

Saturday, March 3

8:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. | Saturday General Session
Speakers: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Natalia Lafourcade

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Civil Registration Indexes of England and Wales
Speaker: Audrey Collins

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Advancing Your Genealogy Research with DNA
Speaker: Anna Swayne

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Pain in the Access: More Web for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Curt Witcher

That’s a lot of free information available to you! I heartily encourage to attend as many of these talks as you can, from the comfort of your computer, tablet or phone. In my experience, RootsTech presentations are top notch.

 

A fun way to link family history with the Olympics

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Ancestor Olympics!I was contacted by Ann Golightly Jeffs of the crafty blog Ivory Bloom about the free printables she’s created in honor of the Olympics. They’re Ancestor Cards, like baseball cards, that you can download and then add your ancestors’ names and birth/death dates and places and even their pictures. (You can do the adding either in software or by hand, after printing.) The idea is that you root in the Olympics for the countries your ancestors are from.

The blog post is full of advice on ways to incorporate family history into the Olympic celebrations (including making Olympic torches!). I think if you have kids or grandkids, it would be a great way to teach them an appreciation for their roots.

Included among the printables is a medal count chart, which would be a fun way to see ancestors competing against one another.

I think these are great ideas. I’m definitely in favor of anything that helps promote an appreciation of family history!