Find My Genealogy

Join me in a half hour!

I’m teaching a class via zoom for the Genealogical Forum of Oregon on following your ancestors through Swedish church records.

It’s at 1 pm PST/ 2 pm MST
Click on the link below and scroll down until you see the class and click register.

You will get an email with a zoom link.

GFO Open House Mar 16-24 Genealogy Open House for 2024 is all virtual. 20+ free classes. Come join us!

I will be presenting a free Zoom class with the Genealogy Forum of Oregon on Following Your Swedish Ancestors Through the Swedish church records this Thursday at 1 pm PST. Use the link below to register for the free classes.

https://gfo.org/learn/open-house-2024.html

I am in a class on the cutting edge technology that FamilySearch is releasing and working on.

Incredible! Full Search Text is now available to try out for US Land and Probate Records, Mexico Notarial Records and Plantation Records. FamilySearch will continue to get all of the unindexed records fully searchable using this amazing AI technology.

This will allow you to access records faster than ever in the history of the world. I just did a test and found this deed record for one of my husband's ancestors. I am blow away at this tool to help us discover and connect with our ancestors.
FamilySearch

When I went to work out today I saw the most interesting tattoo! I had to turn around and talk to the guy.

I told him my grandpa was a Bagley from Greenwich. He said his grandpa was from Greenwich. He said his grandpas name was Rowland. I looked it up on FamilySearch and his grandpa and my grandpa Bagley were first cousins! Is that not crazy??

So that makes me third cousins with him!!

FamilySearch

99 dollars for the 3 day conference until midnight tonight!

Type in register for RootsTech in your search bar! You can also register for free if you want to do it virtually.

But, it is so good to be there in person!!

This book! Full of typed out Norwegian genealogy information back into the 1600’s. Bless the compiler!!

The families for my client kept coming and coming and coming! It was incredible!

If you need help with your Norwegian research, I can help!

Day 6 - Have you started your family tree on FamilySearch? If not create a new account and see if you can connect a few generations.

If you already have a tree, take a second and find a story about an ancestor and read it. Or if you don’t have any, add one of your own memories.

There is power in the connection!

A study at Tulane university concluded that children who see photos of themselves have higher self esteem than those who have not had photos of themselves displayed.

“When a child goes through the portrait process with their family and then sees the family's portrait hanging prominently in their home every day, with them in it, this gives them an incomparable sense of security and unity with their loved ones.” - William Branson

Made my grandma’s raw apple cake.

I love having her picture next to the recipe. I made this photo book of family recipes a few years back. It’s such a great way to preserve the past to be used on the present.

This is the month to celebrate you and your family and your history!

Day one - what is the origin of your family name?

If you don't know, you can go on FamilySearch and find out!

Have a wonderful October!

Occupations are especially important to note when doing reasearch in the United Kingdom. There are so many similar names and occupations help to distinguish one Thomas Smith from another.

Look at this job!

Fancy waistcoats weaver.

And below that Fancy skirts.

First time I’ve seen those occupations.

FamilySearch Friday!

Did you know that Family Search is constantly acquiring and adding more records online for you to discover from the comfort of your own home?

These three countries are the biggest addy in the month of August. These are also three countries that can be difficult to research.

If you have ancestry from here go take a look!

On the main page click search.
Then click records. Then tripe your ancestor’s country of origin in the Search by Place section.

You’ll also find online classes there as well to help you!

Do you remember my reel about finding my husband’s great grandparents gravestone under three inches of sod?

And the bonus was their grandson John Bright Jackson was also in the stone, dying at 5 months old in 1864.

The only problem was we didn’t know who his parents were. Ancestry had two records, but with no parents listed.

FindMyPast had a more detailed record that listed the mother’s maiden name as Gore. We ordered the death certificate and the father’s name was John Jacskon. John is the oldest son of my husband’s 4th great grandparents!

We finally had conclusive evidence of who he belonged to! Remember to search in more than one place when trying to put the puzzle pieces of your family together!

This is beautiful!!

You can upload a gedcom file or build your own tree within FindMyPast.

Just like you can in Ancestry.

The beautiful thing is that it will search for records for you while you sleep! Making it so much easier to trace your ancestors in the United Kingdom!
And then you can attach those sources to your tree.

Did you know that each of these apps are so simple that you can save a memory in as much time as it takes to read this post?

My life is full, but I want to remember all of it. The good, the hard, the lessons learned, and the joys.

On our trip to England most days I was so tired I didn’t have any energy to journal. So I would just add a couple of pictures and call it good. Now I am going back and journaling about those pictures. Super easy.

I don’t have time to scrapbook. I love Chatbook because I can sync it with my instagram and then print photo books whenever I want by setting it and forgetting it. I can also use their simple app. To make more customized photo books. But, really I just love the set it and forget it.

I love to use FamilySearch Memories. I get texts from my family with photos all the time. I’ll take 30 seconds and add the pics from my siblings or kids to my memories to guarantee they are saved forever! For free.

And Project Life is awesome to create collages and even photos scrapbook pages that are no frills simple and fast. I can even use them on social media.

Don’t let lack of time prevent you from recording your life. It’s never been easier!

I know I’m a bit late on sharing this.

But I thought it was pretty funny!

When it’s National Tell A Joke Day, I pretty much wake up and run to my computer to share this one. I love it. What are your favorite genealogy jokes?

Sometimes you have success.
And sometimes you don’t.

Help someone else have success by volunteering and photographing graves with the BillionGraves app before it’s too late.

I’ve never seen this on a grave😮
BillionGraves

Never underestimate the power of books in a local library! Look at this amazing old picture.

It’s not my family, but I just love this peek into history, to the time when my family lived in the area.

Some examples of what you can find when you visit and archive in your family’s home county.

This is in Hertfordshire, England.

Old maps.

Wills.

Cemetery maps and tombstone transcriptions.

Old court records.

Cool old books that were handwritten.

Receipts with ancestors name on them.

Newspapers. Family genealogies. And so much more!

You can find a lot online. But it’s just the tip of the ice berg.

Need help planning a trip to your ancestors home land? I’m here to help! I’ve got tips and tricks.

Do you have ancestors from Birmingham?

It is a massive city with these cute canals it also has lots of churches.

So finding your ancestor may involve a little more digging.

The sad thing is that within the city there are cemeteries with very few gravestones left.

Use the BillionGraves app to see the map of the cemetery before you go. It’s awesome. BillionGraves

I totally forgot about doing this as a kid!

Ivy is a super invasive plant. It’s terrible for headstones.

If you find a headstone with Ivy on it, gently pry it from the bottom up to reveal the beautiful writing underneath.

Then snap a pic with your free BillionGraves app!

Look how clear this headstone is!

It was lying in the ground next the Emley church wall in Yorkshire England.

We added the cemetery to BillionGraves and started the photography.

Going back with tools to clean off graves.

We found several family graves! Can’t wait to connect them in FamilySearch.
FamilySearch BillionGraves

Remains of an old church and it’s cemetery in Moffat, Scotland.

Photographed it all. I felt the pull.

BillionGraves

This little flyer was found in a packet of history items just inside the Beguildy church.

Isn’t it cute? There was also the transcription of a reverends diary and memories from a woman who went to school and church in the parish, including who her family was.

Ever underestimate the power of returning to you familial churches. You may find more than a gravestone.

Narrow, windy roads.

Lots of sheep and green fields.

No Wi-Fi.

But, I had my BillionGraves app! And you can photograph without internet access. Just upload the photos when you are back at Wi-Fi.

These were some of the old treasures we found in my husband’s great +++++ grandpas church in Wales where he served as vicar for about thirty years.

If you’ve thought about visiting your ancestral homelands. Do it! It is absolutely life changing.

There was wood work in there from at least the 1600’s when he was vicar there. An old chair. An old wagon. And a very old chest.

I was tempted to ring the bells but refrained. 😂