Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

The beauty of wedding photos

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Arthur and Rhoda Brown, October 18, 1905Yesterday, I did a consultation with a 74-year-old man in need of organizing assistance. He proudly pointed to the wall in his hall where framed family photos were hanging. I looked at pictures of his kids and grandkids. But really drew my attention were the wedding photos. Each was such a snapshot of time.

I saw his own wedding photo, circa 1971. The bride’s dress stopped well above the knee. Fantastic. Then I saw his parents’ wedding photo, which was taken about 40 years earlier. The contrast was remarkable. It was so clearly of another era. More somber. More formal. More clothed. And absolutely beautiful.

It makes me want to find more wedding photos of my ancestors. A quick look through the small cache of photos that my mother has given me revealed the photo above, of my great grandparents, Arthur John Brown and Rhoda Wheeler. It was taken on the day of their wedding, October 18, 1905, in Nebraska. (Please forgive my crude photo of a photo.) It’s also a snapshot of an era.

One of my favorite department in Family Tree Magazine is Photo Detective, written by Maureen Taylor. Each month, Taylor points out historical clues in old photos. Taylor has a Photo Detective blog on Family Tree Magazine’s website. If you love looking at the details of old photo, you should check them out.

Need some help? Check out Genealogy Karma

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Back in the day, there was Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, a website where frustrated family historians could request help from strangers. And receive it. It was created by Bridgett and Doc Schneider in 1999, but closed down in 2011.

The subscription site Mocavo has created a similar site, Genealogy Karma, in tribute to the Schneiders and the volunteers who made Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness so valuable. Launched just last week, this site allows people to make requests for genealogical help in far-flung areas and be matched with volunteers who can help them. When you go to Genealogy Karma, you have the opportunity to either volunteer to help someone or to submit a request for help. You can also read the current requests and responses.

Reading the responses to the requests has been very educational (and rather enjoyable) for me. I haven’t seen any requests directly relevant to my research, but I’m fascinated by the resources mentioned in the responses. It’s very inspiring!

If you’re looking for help, if you want to help others, or you just want to learn about some ways to go about getting past brick walls that you may not have thought of, Genealogy Karma is definitely worth checking out. Bravo to Mocavo for making it available!

Livescribe: A potentially great tool for genealogy researchers

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I recently purchased a Livescribe smartpen. (That’s a referral link; if you buy from it I get a small commission.) I bought the pen in anticipation of attending the national conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers, which I attended earlier this month in New Orleans. I’ve also used it in client appointments. Now that I have had it for a couple of weeks, I realize it could potentially be very helpful with my family history research.

What’s a smartpen? (Surely that’s a term coined by Livescribe.)  As you take notes on its special paper, it records the audio of what you’re listening to and links it with your notes. So, in replay mode, when you touch the paper with the pen, you hear what was being said when you made that note. You can also upload the recording and images of your notes to your computer (or the cloud, depending on which version of the pen you buy). When you click on your handwriting in the uploaded images, you hear what was being said as you were writing.

Think about that. It’s an audio recorder that’s linked to your written notes. So when you interview a family member, you can find what you want in the recording, based on your notes, instantly. If you attend a genealogy lecture (or conference), you don’t have to rely on your memory to understand your notes.

I feel like I have seen the future and it is the Livescribe smartpen.

There are a few versions of this pen. I bought the Livescribe Echo, which is the penultimate version. (The Pulse, which is no longer for sale, was the first and the Sky is the latest.) The Echo requires plugging in a cable to get the data off the pen and onto the computer. The newer version, the Sky, has wifi and uploads directly to Evernote. I chose the Echo because I wanted to make a smaller investment and don’t mind plugging in the cable.

On the advice of a Livescribe-loving friend, I also purchased the 3D recording headset, which produced really clear recordings, even in a noisy conference setting.

Here’s a video about how the Echo (the version I bought) works. My investment was only $100, including the headphones, thanks to a referral discount and special going on earlier this month. To me, it was well worth the investment!

 

Ancestry Livestreams: A great free resource

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Thanks to Facebook, I stumbled on the free webinars that Ancestry.com puts on. They’re free for anyone to watch (you don’t have to be an Ancestry.com subscriber). It’s a really wonderful resource.

Last week I watched Genealogy Brick Walls, a half hour webinar presented by Christa Cowan, “The Barefoot Genealogist.” It was terrific. It’s inspired me to research more family records, rather than focusing on working straight up my tree. (Watch for a future blog post on breadth versus depth in working on my family tree.)

If you’re not familiar with these webinars, I’d encourage you to check them out. There are other archived webinars available–at the current time I see six.