A Grave Mistake - Even if it's Written in Stone it Could be Wrong

My article A Grave Mistake - Even if it's Written in Stone it Could be Wrong is now on Legacy Family Tree News. 

Everyone Makes Mistakes: Why You Should Review Your Research Notes

A few days ago I decided to have another look at some census records I obtained many years ago for my Peer ancestors in Pennsylvania. When the 1830 census first became available online I had quickly found, and copied, the information for the family. I wanted to verify what I’d copied.

I headed for Ancestry.com to search their census records. Using their wildcard feature which picks up variant spellings, I searched for Edward P*er in Pennsylvania in 1830.
An index transcription popped up. I was quite puzzled because the indexed notes did not match what I had copied a few years ago. Was it possible I had made a mistake in my entry?

Please see the rest of my article on Legacy Family Tree Everyone Makes Mistakes: Why You Should Review Your Research Notes

April Articles on Legacy Family Tree

If you missed these, here are my April articles I wrote for Legacy Family Tree.

Was Great-Grandpa’s Name Changed at Elllis Island?

Break Down Those Brick Walls

Legacy Family Tree Article Why Do We Do Genealogy?

Olive Tree Genealogy's latest article on Legacy Family Tree is proving very popular. If you haven't read it, you might want to take a few minutes to do so.

A friend asked an interesting question. "Why do you do genealogy?" The answer should be simple. One would think it would be something along the lines of:

"I do genealogy because I want to know who my ancestors were."

But guess what? Like most questions in life, the answer is not that simple. There are a myriad of reasons why we delve into genealogy research. Wanting to find out who our ancestors were is just the tip of the genealogy iceberg.

Continue reading at  Why Do We Do Genealogy?

Don't Miss My February Legacy Family Tree Articles

I hope my readers enjoy my February articles on Legacy Family Tree!
  
Original Sources: Are They Always Accurate?
 
Is your genealogy accurate? Genealogists strive for accuracy. We want to be sure we have the right great-grandmother, the correct year of birth or death, the correct parents for our 3^rd great-grandfather. 

We spend hours, days, weeks, even months looking for original sources. But what are original records and sources? They are documents and records that were created at or around the time that an event occurred. These include such documents as vital statistic registrations, newspapers, tax lists, court records, church records, land records, funeral home documents, census records, personal letters and diaries, and other more obscure items such as funeral cards, coffin plates, and so on.

Continue reading at Original Sources: Are They Always Accurate?



Getting Real With Naming Patterns 
 

 Genealogists have strong opinions. But are they always correct?

I've been following some online genealogy discussions recently and noticed that we genealogists often answer questions with an emphatic point of view. Very often the answer is an extreme leaning one way or the other, with no middle ground or room for a “perhaps…”
One recent discussion began after a seemingly simple question -- were there naming patterns for children in the 1800s in [fill in blank with any country]. 

Continue reading at  Getting Real With Naming Patterns

Easy Steps to Organizing, Scanning, Preserving & Sharing Family Photos

 In November and December of this year I wrote a 4 part series of articles for Legacy Family Tree on Organizing, Scanning, Preserving and Sharing Family Photos. They may be helpful for any of my readers wanting to create some structure and organization out of a mess of family photographs! 

I've followed my own advice and made giant leaps in my own chaos of shoeboxes of stored family photos and old photo albums tucked into corners of the attic.
 
In "10 Easy Steps to Organizing Family Photos" Part I and  Part II I will walk you step by step through easy ways to sort your family photographs and get them ready for scanning. Graphics such as the one I created below add a visual component to aid in following the steps.

 

In "10 Steps to Scanning, Preserving and Sharing Your Photos" Part 1 and Part 2 I explain resolution, file format, types of scanners and other details you need to know before you begin to scan those treasured photographs.

One of the first steps is  deciding on a file structure on your computer. Screenshots of my own directory setup should help in following my suggestions

You've probably heard of meta data but might not know what it is. That is all explained in my series and screenshots of using meta data will be helpful.

So don't wait - take a bit of time before the New Year and add organizing and scanning your family photographs to your 2016 New Year's Resolutions

New Blog Post on Legacy Family Tree

I have a new article published on the blog “Legacy News”.  I think my readers might enjoy it! 

 It's called “What Kind of Genealogist Are You?” 

Take a peek and weigh in with an answer! Where do you fit in the categories I came up with?

 Writing this article (which is based on a similar article I wrote several years ago) made me stop and think about what I'm lacking in my genealogy methodology. 

It's time for me to try to incorporate one or two into my research methods. 

Search Alternates to Ships Passenger Lists to Canada Before 1865

Barbara asked about finding a ships passenger list for her great-grandmother Elizabeth Hayes, born 1841 in Newcastle, England.

Read my answer at Search Alternates to Ships Passenger Lists to Canada Before 1865

Legacy Family Tree recently tweeted about my latest blog post  Find Your Ancestor on Ships Passenger Lists to Canada after 1865 at  http://bit.ly/1LydBpm

Find me on Twitter @LorineMS 

 

Join the Chatter on My Article on Legacy Family Tree

There's a lot of chatter over on my most recent article for Legacy Family Tree. If you haven't seen it, please do take a look and leave your own comment! There are some very interesting stories from readers of my article and I'd love to hear yours.


Don’t Let Mythology Guide Your Genealogy Research!  

I have written other articles for Legacy Family Tree:
 
Have You Used this Unusual Genealogy Resource?    

I Found My Great Great Grandfather Online -- Now What!!??? (Verifying Records Found On Webpages)  

Find Ancestors in Upper Canada Land Records   

5 Tips to Help You Navigate the Confusing Maze of Surname Variations


Image credit: Image by stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net