Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Ethnicity: The fun byproduct of my DNA test

By 9 Comments

DNA test. Now what?Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I never felt much of a connection to March 17 until I had my DNA tested through Ancestry DNA. Then I discovered in that test that I’m 38% Irish. (That’s my pie chart in the picture.) I knew that Ireland was in my family tree, but I haven’t researched much that far back to realize that it was an important part of my heritage.

Growing up, Irish roots were never mentioned. All that came up was vague mention of England, though in reality our heritage wasn’t much discussed. That’s probably because there were  no immigrants recent enough for my parents or grandparents’ to have known them. We always just felt American.

When I had my DNA tested, it was in an effort to meet cousins and further my genealogical research. (Understanding those results is an ongoing project.) The ethnicity component of didn’t even enter my mind. But today, St. Patrick’s Day, it feels nice to have a kinship with my Irish forebears, though I’m still learning about who they were.

If you’ve had your DNA tested were you surprised by the ethnicity results?

Have you created a longevity pedigree?

By 5 Comments

There’s a fun idea making the rounds of twitter and genealogy blogs in the last week or so. It started with a tweet by David Allen Lambert (@DLGenealogist) who sketched a pedigree with his ancestors’ ages at death on the back of a napkin.

the longevity pedigree

I first read about it on the Genealogical Gems blog. Jeanne, the Genealogical Gems author, added cause of death to her longevity chart. I was captivated by such a simple, but revealing idea.

It took just a few minutes for me to grab a scrap of paper out of the recycling bin and sketch my own. It’s not the most beautiful document, but I didn’t get all perfectionistic about it. Here it is (click the image to get a better view):

Creating a longevity pedigree

It was a fun and useful exercise. Here are some of the things it revealed to me:

  • My people tended to live a long time. (But I knew that already.)
  • My ancestors tended to die from disease or old age, not accidents.
  • I have Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and stroke on both sides of the family (though I bet that’s not too unusual).
  • I haven’t noted the cause of death for a good number of my ancestors.
  • I have yet to discover an ancestor who died in war.
  • I have more death certificates to find!

I’m glad that David Lambert’s simple idea has become so popular, because I really enjoyed making mine!

Have you made a longevity pedigree? If so, what did it reveal?

Competing priorities

By 10 Comments

IMG_4877 (1)I’m happy to announce a new family member, but not one who will show up on my family tree. It’s our eight-week-old standard poodle puppy, Bix, who comes with his own impressive pedigree. (We got him from Dianne Janczewski of Clifton Standard Poodles.)

What does this have to do with organizing your genealogy? Well, Bix has proven to be an adorable distraction. Thanks to the constant vigilance I keep over him (house training is an all-encompassing activity), not to mention all the playing, training and socializing we’re doing, I’m not finding much time to blog, let alone conduct family history research. Or, really, do anything else. (Somehow I do find time to post pictures of Bix on Facebook and read all the comments about his cuteness.)

I should mention that my husband works from home, so I share the puppy duties. But Barry sleeps later than I, so my precious early morning hours–the time I ordinarily devote to things like blogging–is eaten up with puppy care. Bix is in his pen chewing on a chewy as I type this morning. He’s a good boy.

Bix’s time as a puppy is precious and socialization is critical. My genealogy’s not going anywhere. So I’m going to cut myself some slack and probably just satisfy myself with thinking about genealogy, rather than doing research, for a little while. I will keep blogging, of course, but I’ll ask your forgiveness if my blog posts are shorter or less meaty than you might hope.

A tangible gift idea for genealogists

By Leave a Comment

A beautiful gift for a genealogy enthusiastLast week I wrote about giving clutter-free gifts for genealogists and had a list of suggestions, mostly of non-tangible items. But today, I can’t resist telling you about one of my very favorite pieces of jewelry, one that think would make a great gift for a genealogist.

It’s the Family Tree Necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs. I blogged about mine in September 2014. The necklace, I think, is intended to be worn by moms whose children’s first names are stamped on it. The one I ordered one for myself had my grandparents’ surnames on it instead. I love the connection to my ancestors I feel when I wear it. And I think it’s a pretty piece of jewelry.

My Family Tree Necklace, purchased in 2014, was made of pewter. I see that the current offering is in sterling silver. If you have a pendant-wearing genealogy enthusiast on your list, you might consider this lovely gift. Since the item is hand-stamped, I’m not sure if it will be ready in time for Christmas. But I’m sure it would be appreciated, even if the gift arrived in January.

Hint: If you sign up for Lisa Leonard’s email newsletter, you’ll be send a 15% off coupon (or at least that was the case when I signed up!).

Join the mailing list!

When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.