Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Genealogy Roadshow coming to PBS this fall

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genealogyroadshowlogoI know I’m not the only one excited to watch Genealogy Roadshow on PBS this fall. The network just announced the on-air talent for the show, which includes Los Angeles-based broadcaster Emmett Miller as host, along with genealogy experts Joshua Taylor and Kenyatta Berry.

The show will shoot in four cities: Austin, Nashville, Detroit and San Francisco, each episode shot in a historical location. Participants in the show will “explore unverified genealogical claims, passed down through their family history, which may (or may not) connect them to an event of historical figure,” according to the PBS website page linked above. Does it make me a true genealogy nerd that I think that sounds like a fun and fascinating idea for a show?

The show will air Monday nights on PBS September 23 through October 14, 2013.

Mapping my family

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I feel the need to have a better sense of the geography of my ancestors. In my research so far, which goes back as far as 10 generations, all ancestors but one were born in the U.S. The fact that I’m dealing with just one country makes me feel like I can get my arms around this.

I decided that I wanted to be able to see where my ancestors lived on a map. I’m sure I could probably map them online and create something to look at on my computer screen. But that’s not what I want. I want a big map, on my wall, with pins on it. I want to sit back in my chair and gaze at that map. And I want the satisfaction of putting in a new pin when I identify a new person.

So I bought a large map of  the U.S. on Amazon. I need to mount it on some foam core and hang it on the wall and start sticking pins into it.

I’m still pondering what to pin. Birth places? Burial places? Both? I’m figuring I’ll color code by branch of the family using one color for each of the branches starting with each grandparent. It might be the kind of thing I have to try before making a final decision.

I find myself itching to get this project done. Just today I was looking at information on an Iowa Genealogy Crash Course webinar being offered by Family Tree University. I do have Iowa ancestors, but off the top of my head, I don’t know who they are (or which branch of the family they’re from), nor what part of Iowa. I want to just glance at the wall and get that information. That will be satisfying.

I’ll post again (with a photo) after I finish this project and let you know how I decided to use the pins!

Found my first immigrant ancestor!

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I’ve been systematically working my way back through my family tree and I recently made an exciting discovery: my first immigrant ancestor! He’s James Brown, who was born in Ireland around 1810. He’s listed in the 1870 census as having been born in Ireland. At the time of that census, he was living in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, Martha. She was also was born in Ireland around 1820.

What’s interesting to me is that my family has always seemed quite devoid of ethnicity (most of the ancestors, I believe, came to the US much earlier than the 19th century) and when, as a child, I asked my parents where we were from, England was always the answer. In fact, I surprised my mother when I told her about her great, great grandfather having been born in Ireland. That was news to her.

I feel like this is opening up a new chapter in my family history research!

When names become people

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I wrote a month ago about finding my grandmother on the 1920 census and being surprised that at the age of 13 my grandmother was classified as a farmer. I noted that her brother, Wilson, also a farmer, was 7 and didn’t know how to read or write. I noticed that in the 1930 census, after they’d moved to Washington state, Wilson was in school and could read and write. That seemed like an achievement.

Just now I discovered that Wilson is William Wilson Rasco, aka my father’s Uncle Bill. I remember him when I was a child. He was loads of fun and would howl in pretend pain when my brothers and I would give him “Indian burns” (i.e. rub his wrist in a twisting motion that’s supposed to hurt.) I knew he was a minister, but he never seemed like one to me, because he was so much fun.

As part of my family history research, I came across an obituary for Uncle Bill, in the Seattle Times. He died in 1996 and was a very accomplished and prominent leader in the United Presbyterian Church in Washington, North Idaho and Alaska.

So thanks to the joys of family history research, this person has gone from the name of a seemingly illiterate boy farmer in Texas to an influential minister with a doctorate in divinity. And a man whose infrequent visits delighted me as a little girl.

Incidentally, the obituary contained this nugget:

A 1978 Seattle Times story noted that Rev. Rasco’s fate was sealed at a young age. His mother, wife of a Yakima County orchardist, almost died in childbirth and vowed to commit her son to the ministry.

Since I’m not directly descended from this William Rasco, I haven’t been researching him. But finding his obituary led me to a newspaper story that let me know my great grandmother almost died in child birth and that my great grandfather was an orchardist. Of course, I need to verify this information, but it’s just another tantalizing thing to look into.