Got Records and Good Notes? Try these ideas to help.

A mark of a good genealogist is their attention to detail while researching records of the past. This means keeping good notes and being organized with your information.  Some techniques I have honed over the last 30+ years is to adapt different technologies to genealogy.

For example, if you are on a research trip, it helps to have several good maps, such as a: USGS topo map or BLM map, contemporary map from last 10 years and a period map for the era you are researching.    You can get most of these online or at the library for free. 

Family Roots - We all have them

We all originate from some place and its great to also discover these locations when talking with friends and relatives.    What is even better is finding out where someone has visited and what they liked about those locations.  Today, we can usually produce several pictures of locations visited, in a snap... but back in the 19th century, travel was a challenge and everyone had to have a vivid imagination to accompany the stories that were told over and again.   Images and details were left to specialists.

When it comes to our family roots, we must also tap into that imagination and explore the world that was before us.  You can start with doing the research yourself.   But like travel, that takes time, money, and frankly skill.   Some commercials may imply that you can sign up, log in and with a few clicks, you can find your family tree right away, but again some things are left to specialists.

Finding details on a paid subscription website can be great, but if not careful, you may end up chasing false leads, that eventually tell the wrong story.    What's worse is it get compounded by others if you publish those details.   That is why hiring a specialist with years of experience in genealogy can help save you time AND money.

If you are interested in finding out more about your family roots, I would suggest checking out Ancestral Family Roots.   They offer full service genealogy research and include many other services, such as your own family website, photo restoration, and more. 

All for now... your cousin with some imagination.

Tracking your 19th Century Ancestors using 21st Century Technology

MyMaps - GoogleMaps

Finding your ancestors is like finding a needle in a haystack - and decades ago, it was even harder.

Today we have geosynchronous satellites using GPS, 24x7 access to knowledge across the globe, databases with index's to help us find the elusive document, and Googlemaps.

In all genealogy or family history trips, I use googlemaps (among other features, tools) to help preplan the trips.   One important element is in locating hotels, families, cemeteries, historical societies, court houses, and more.  The benefit of googlemaps is that you are able to also create your own personal map, showing details that are important to your research and it also helps you to really connect the past with the present.

One powerful feature lets you overlay an image, like an old map and this can be useful for locating forgotten places or helping paint the landscape of what it looked like so many years ago.   In one case, I was able to use the overlay feature to help me to locate an old cemetery from the 1800's that was no longer on any present day maps. The local families remembered a cemetery but it seems it was moved 75+ years ago. Of course, this happens occasionally, but when and where are sometimes harder to determine if records are sparse.

Another unique feature of googlemaps is that it allows you to use terrain to help visualize what you can see today and what your ancestors might have seen. Using google's Sketchup, I was able to render a 3d image of my great grandparents home, based on homestead records and old pictures. I actually integrate the 3d home into googlemaps and was able to get a 360 degree view of what it looked like, including time of day and time of year.

These powerful features help us truly visualize the places our ancestors lived to make a life for themselves and for their future generations. Future posts will tell more details about how to use these tools. If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Isolating a Common Surname

Wiley & Martha (Maloney) Johnson

Some families get all the luck - THEY have ancestors with unique surnames that sound and spell like they are supposed to, which means finding them is a census search can be a little bit easier.   With a common surname like Johnson, Smith, or others, doing searches for quality data nuggets is always a challenge.   But there are a few simple tricks to help isolate, identify, and confirm your genealogical ancestors, cousins, inlaws and outlaws.  

Family Heirlooms Everywhere

Ever wonder what happened to all your ancestors' family treasures?  Your great-great grandmothers picture, the family bible, the old wooden spinner or even all the original marriage, birth records?   Don't be surprised if they are still around.   It's happened to me.   Some distant relative usually has them tucked away, and someday plans to give them to a close family member who will admire them for their sentimental value as much as they did.    

Grandpa Hamar

I have been fortunate and lucky to have located many of my family heirlooms, through near and distant relatives.   How did I find them?    

Lost Your Ancestors? Get an Old Map!

1872 - Illinois, Prophetstown Township

Maps are wonderful works of art and technology.  Imagine not having a map or GPS navigation system today. We would still be able to get around, but when we had to travel "long" distances, this would prove to be a challenge, if we had not been there before  (or were unable to stop and ask for directions, like most men have been stereotyped).

Having a map helped our ancestors get from the east coast to the west coast, but early on, before maps existed, people hired a guide".   These intrepid early explorers actually followed paths they had taken, but also along the footsteps of the native Americans, over terrain that had been used for hundreds of generations.

What Did My Ancestors Look Like?

For some people, we will never know how our ancestors looked - they just never stepped in front of a Camera Obscura or had a painting done.   For those who did, we can get a good idea of features, but it is tough to know exactly what their eye, hair color was.   

Pictures from the 19th century were black and white, so if you had dark eyes, they would appear dark, so brown and black eyes look the same.  If you had light eyes, like blue or hazel, they would appear very light in the photos.    For hair, the same is true: black, red, brown, looks like shades of black with blonde hair pretty easy to tell.

But, if you have NO pictures or paintings or would like to know exactly what your ancestors hair or eye color was, you might have another source.   If they served in a war, many details about their physical appearance were recorded.

For example, records from the American civil war contains physical details about the person enlisting, including eye, hair, skin color, height.   WWI draft cards showed weight, eye, hair color and build. 

These finer details are important as they are what make up you and me, if they are direct descendants - those genes are in you and that may be why you have the color of eyes or hair.   It also tells another dimension about our family.   

Here is an example:

Charles Foy c1891

My GG grandfather, Charles Foy, served in the Illinois 34th Union Army.   I have only a few pictures of him, but they are important for telling his story.  He lived from 1844-1918.

As you can see from the picture to the left, he had light colored hair and eyes.   I would guess he had brown or light black hair and possibly blue eyes, just from this black and white.

His registration record shows his hair color was light, his eyes were blue, height 5'10" and his complexion was "sandy".   He was single, 19 years old, and entered as a private in 1864.

Of course, getting these records is not as easy as one might think as not everything is listed on the internet, yet.

In the course of finding your roots, it is always great to have those connections with a picture or image.   Finding them, can be the challenge.   I will have another post about that in the near future.

Who's in YOUR Closet?

We've all heard the expression regarding "Family skeletons in our closet".   Sometimes there are stories that you just don't want to repeat, because they embarass you or other relatives.  Well, if something happened a long time ago, then why would this be something to be ashamed of?   You didn't do anything wrong.

We all have them - skeletons.  In fact, I have one that I will share, but before I do, I always consider the context and impact to the individual, that family, and of course any descendants.  

Twitter, Facebook, and Sanders Family Genealogy

Yes, it's true.   You can now follow me on Facebook and Twitter.   I recently setup accounts to allow everyone to track my updates, making it even easier by a factor of 42.  

If you are familiar with social media accounts, then you know what to do - click and enjoy, please.  I welcome your dialogue as I move through the netverse with social media.  


If you are not familiar with Twitter or Facebook, then please read on. 

Note: To encourage people to follow me on twitter and Facebook, I will be running an awesome promotion where one lucky person will get their family tree researched for FREE!   This will go for 30 days and whoever is following me on Twitter and Facebook has the chance to win (details and condition to be posted soon).    Follow me now, before its too late!  

Genealogy, the Family Frontier...

Imagine a future, in a galaxy, far, far away.... and a voice sounding like William Shatner saying

Genealogy, the Family frontier.
These are the voyages of the Genealogists.
Their continuing mission;
To explore strange new locations,
To seek out new relatives and new ancestors,
To boldly go where no Genealogist has gone before!

Cousin President Andrew "Andy" Johnson

Cousin President Andrew "Andy" Johnson

President Andrew Johnson

From a young age, I was told I was related to President Johnson and a famous actor - perhaps that's why I sometimes get the urge to Act like a Politician?   Growing up, I felt a sense of pride as I often wondered about this unique connection to history, after all, I thought, how many people can say they are related to a President of the United States?

My search for the connections to President Johnson started in earnest around 2001.   The challenge was the limited access to sources of reliable information. I kept pushing on.  “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth", as Sir Conan Doyle would state in the Holmes stories.  This line of thought applies to fictional thriller mystery cases in 19th century England as well as stories about your cousin President Andrew "Andy" Johnson.

Enhancement to Ecosystem - Update

WEBSITE:  After 5 years, a fresh new look and new features to the Sanders Family Genealogy website.  www.SandersFamilia.com/index.php   The plan was to have this finished by December (end), but completed way ahead of schedule. 

TWITTER:  Tweet, tweet - you can now follow me @thatGenealogist!    And to help encourage more followers, I'm offering a special promotion, starting 11/28/11.  This will be a free genealogical basic package to one lucky person, if you are one of the first 1000 people to follow me.  This promotion will be for 30 days or until I get 1000 followers on my twitter (@thatGenealogist).   Details will be posted on a separate blog, but don't wait!   Get started now!!!  Tell your friends too.

FACEBOOK: Social media is what it's all about and now, you can see the latest on Sanders Family Genealogy Facebook page.    Help spread the word.... while your here, head over to the facebook page and LIKE it... go on, it won't hurt.

The cousin you thought was missing
Brian

Thanksgiving Thoughts

THANKSGIVING

Remembrance

Laughter

Together

Celebration

Thanks

Life

FAMILY

()

May your day be bright and your burden light.

Honor memories of the past and present.

Live in the moment as you won’t have another chance to experience it again.

Have a Wonderful Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

Ehancements to Ecosystem

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving,
The Sanders Family Genealogy space is getting a few changes over the next few months. This should only help enhance your experience.

Get to know your Family Stories

If I asked you to tell me a story about your family, what story would you extol and who would be the center of that story?   Your parents, grandparents, or someone else?

Henry and Clara Sanders Family

The challenge with family stories is like fables and myths, they merge into the fabric of the past generations.  Over time, the story becomes filtered and tend to ameliorate the plot line and unfortunately, many stories get "lost", so we end up telling fewer of them.   

A story doesn't have to be moralistic or have a valiant outcome.   Today, we are all more hurried in our actions, work, eat, family time, sleep, repeat.   Our ancestors didn't have the same technology we do, so their family time was spent telling stories. 

Book Signing at Tampico Historical Society - Dec 5 2012

Tampico Area Historical Society and Ronald Reagan Birthplace will host author Peter Hannaford for a Book Signing of his new book: "Reagan Roots". The signing will take place on Monday, Dec.5 at 2 PM in the Historical Society Museum located at 119 S. Main St.: Tampico, IL. 

Tampico Area Historical Society - Tampico, Illinois

Author, Public Relations Expert, Former Aide to President Reagan, Peter Hannaford's career spanning over four decades, includes a long association with Ronald Reagan; representation in Washington of foreign heads of state and some of the nation's and world's largest companies; senior roles in presidential campaigns and Republican National Conventions; and authorship of numerous articles and seven books. Four of his books are about Ronald Reagan (1983 - The Reagans; A Political Portrait) (1994 Remembering Reagan) ( 1997 Recollections of Reagan) and (1998 The Quotable Ronald Reagan).  

Joan Johnson, Director of Ronald Reagan Birthplace and President of Tampico Historical Society cordially invites the public to come meet Mr. Hannaford on Dec. 5.  

For more information, call 815-622-8705 or e-mail - garyjoan@thewisp.net.

Written by Joan Johnson

Reprinted with permission

The Phrenetic Phonetic Phoenician Nose

Most people may already know the meaning of their names, but did you know that many were (mis)spelled differently several generations ago?   

Take for example the name SANDERS.

Sanders is a patronymic surname derived from the given name "Sander," a medieval form of "Alexander." Alexander comes from the Greek name "Alexandros," meaning "defender of men" from Greek alexein "to defend, help" and aner "man."  source: about.com

Alexander the Great was widely respected and known throughout ancient times.  His name was used for cities across the lands he conquered from India to Egypt and Greece, with many still in existence today - over 2000 years later.  

SANDERS ranks as the 87th most popular name in the USA; the most popular surname is SMITH, followed by JOHNSON, according to the census of 2000.  

Hit a Family Road Block? Take a Family History Trip

For those who have hit a road block in their research and exhausted their search on the internet as well as their immediate area, what do you do next?  

You take what I call a Family History Trip.

Details about your family are not going to come to you, although in the past decade, there have been incredible changes in this industry and information that previously would take months to get (if at all) is now at your fingertips.

The benefit of a Family History Trip are the new doors that will open as you uncover facts that you couldn't (or wouldn't) find online or easily through snail mail/email correspondence.   This type of trip is really not a last resort, but a critical step in the ongoing search for answers, especially when you reach a road block. 

Family History with Veterans

Today we Honor the memory of those United States military men and women who gave of themselves to protect and preserve our Republic.   This is a duty that many do without question and some who give the ultimate sacrifice.   We can not forget what this country was founded on and how it has shaped us.   The rights we cherish today we owe to so many men and women of our past who defended our freedoms.

The words written on paper over 200 years ago still show the brilliance that were our founding fathers.
 
From the Declaration of Independence:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." 


From our US Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
 
Many countries around the world look to us for leadership and inspiration.   We have a lot to be proud of and thankful for.  

How I got started in Family Genealogy

I am usually asked how I got started doing family genealogy and my quick answer is "I caught the genealogy bug".   This bug has been fairly virulent and hard to get rid of.  

As a child, I was a little bit different growing up (according to some sources, with questionable intent).  I had loving parents and grandparents and 2 younger brothers.  

How exactly I caught this "bug", can be traced back to about 1975, when I was 10-11 years old.    Fortunately, I was held back in kindergarten, because I couldn't color within the lines so in the fall of 1975, I was starting 5th grade.   At that time, we were living in North Dakota, which is VERY close to the north pole than most would think!

Like most 5th graders, my interests were diverse:  I liked riding motorcycles & snowmobiles, building forts, watching cartoons on Saturday, playing sports, astronomy, archeology, math and the general sciences.

My curiosity about my origins was also somewhat skewed, probably because my folks sometimes joked I was adopted, simply because I had blonde hair, and the rest of my family had dark hair.  Well I have no doubt I am my father and mothers son, but this might have had something to do with why I wanted to know more about "who I was". 


In the spring of 1976, we moved to Kentucky, where I finished 5th grade and started growing more interested in collections, like coins, stamps, and books.  We lived in Kentucky for more than a year and in the summer of 1977, we moved to Colorado.   

My "bug" was becoming more infectious, as I started interviewing my grandparents about my history.   I would write down questions, about each ancestor, and then do a regular interview with a living family member, while recording the interview.  Even today, the digital recorder is by far an invaluable tool to collecting stories about my past, and it helps when you are on the move, to have it on, because memories can often be triggered by something indirectly that you might miss.

By 1977, before personal computers, I had amassed a good deal of information on my families past, and was considering how to best put this into a format that would help people see it.  That same year, Roots came out: a TV mini-series about Alex Haley's family history and I was enthralled with the story and how he was able to trace his family back so far.   I had only traced my line back to the mid 1800's and the details about those grandparents were very sketchy at best.  

In the fall of 1977, I started 7th grade in Colorado and likely because of the Roots TV mini-series, one of my teachers had all of us do a family tree.   I couldn't wait to get started and worked on it for several days.  My "family tree" was hand written on butcher block paper showing all the connections, that ended up being 16 feet long, by 3 feet wide (and wider still with an extension in the middle).  I had over 300 names, going back 5 generations, with over 33 hand written double sided 8x11" biographies of each person.  I still have this family tree coiled up in my archives.  Needless to say, I was fully infected by the "bug" at this point.

Today, I still have that same passion to pursue my family roots.  It is very rewarding and certainly helps me understand more about who I am.  I also find a lot of my family through the wonders of technology, when they happen onto my website, at SandersFamilia.com.   In fact, I have made connections with 5th and 6th cousins through facebook even!

If you are interested in finding your own roots, you just need to be a little curious.   Ask questions about your family from those people in your family, such as your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  It is also important to record the stories about who your ancestors were, not just the dates, as they can help guide you.  Personally, I have many family stories that are part fact and part fiction, so it is up to you to determine the truth, but finding it is half the fun!

You may be the family genealogist in your family, and just don't know it yet.  If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me for advice through my website.  

Until the next post. 

Your likely cousin, a few times removed.
Brian