101 Best Genealogy Sites from Family Tree Magazine

Olive Tree Genealogy is very excited and honored to be chosen as one of Family Tree Magazine's Top 101 Genealogy sites for 2017.

Olive Tree Genealogy was chosen in the category Big Genealogy Websites along with FamilySearch, Heritage Quest, Access Genealogy, Library of Congress, NARA, Rootsweb and US GenWeb. Wow! I'm super thrilled to be in such esteemed company!




This is what Family Tree Magazine said about my site:

Each year, Family Tree Magazine publishes the 101 Best Websites for family history to guide genealogists to the top websites where they can make family history research progress, and to honor the individuals and organizations who create those sites. This year, they focused on websites that provide genealogy information and records free to researchers.

The full list of 101 Best Websites, including my site, can also be found at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/best-big-genealogy-websites-2017

The Top 10 Genealogy Influencers You Should Follow on Twitter

To my great surprise (and delight!) I found myself ranked as #5 of 2,573 in the Top Genealogy Influencers! 

I'm in good company, just check out the names of those in the top 10:

Here's the top 10 and their Twitter Handle in case you aren't following them yet: 

1. Ancestry.com @ancestry

2. Geneabloggers @geneabloggers
3. National Archives UK @uknatarchives

4. Family Tree Magazine @familytreemag

5. Yours truly! Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy @Lorinems

6. Kirsty Wilkinson @genealogygirl

7. Library of Congress @librarycongress

8. British Newspaper Archives @bnarchive
9. Genealogy Bank @genealogybank

10. Megan Smolenyak @megansmolenyak

Did President Truman Pardon a Turkey?

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. We Canadians have already celebrated our Thanksgiving back in October but no matter when you celebrate, it's a day of gathering with family and enjoying the holiday feast! 

And of course the traditional Turkey with Stuffing appears on almost every table today. 

Not all countries or cultures celebrate Thanksgiving but if you do then I wish you the happiest of holidays today! 

But did President Truman once pardon a turkey destined to be dinner one Thanksgiving many years ago? 

Read the story at A History of the Presidential Turkey Pardon

Credits: Image  Thanksgiving turkey for the President, 11/26/29 from the Library of Congress
http://hdl.loc.gov/

Civil War Photos Turned into Color

I hope everyone has seen the story and photos of Civil War Photos Reddit America Amazing American Civil War Photos Turned Into Glorious Color

On the Colorized History Subreddit, Redditors use photo manipulation to add color to historical black and white images. Using photos from the the Library of Congress website they have turned some Civil War photos into amazing images that seem to jump off the page






Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-american-civil-war-photos-turned-into-glorious-color-2013-10#ixzz2h4FzJM7E



Credits: Color by Mads Dahl Madsen/Photo From Library Of Congress

Lots of Drama and Tragedy in Chronicling America Newspapers online

The Salt Lake Herald.  October 15, 1889

If you haven't visited the Library of Congress website for Chronicling America, you should. You can search historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922 for free. It's pretty incredible

In fact I just spent an enjoyable couple of hours finding all kinds of data on my extended Vollick and Follick ancestral lines. The great thing about this website is that the search terms you use are highlighted on the newspaper page so it's easy to find and enlarge to read.

Some of my new finds included a sad story of a 15 year old boy's death - the result of a hunting accident in Utah.

Another was a scandalous story of one of my Follick branches - a married man whose wife just had a baby, they go to live with her Follick parents, she is very ill and her husband seduces her 16 year old sister! He went to prison for 2 years over that affair. It's all very tragic but we all love those little tidbits don't we?

One obituary I found for Nancy Follick nee Parker included a photograph of her. How I wish I could find something like that for my direct ancestors!

So start your search and enjoy!