Black History Month

To mark Black History Month in the USA (the UK equivalent is in October), there are plenty of free resources on offer. Here are just a few:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars are showing five themed presentations on African-American research from the days of enslavement up until the present day. Find out how to reconstruct an enslaved family, use plantation and court records, and learn about the origins of Juneteenth.

Ancestry, as well as hosting webinars to help those starting out on researching African-American ancestors, have other talks to help you get more out of your DNA results and building your tree on the website.

The U.S. Family Tree magazine's website also features plenty of helpful articles on topics like Freedmen's Bureau Records, and case studies in tracing enslaved forebears. The site also offers free genealogy charts and forms to help you record and plan your research. You may have to sign up to an e-mail to receive the downloads, but you can always unsubscribe immediately afterwards if you don't want the e-mails.

To begin tracing African-American ancestry, a great place to start is the FamilySearch Research Wiki, with loads of ideas for online resources you can explore and helpful tips.

Gifts of Genealogy and Love

 I've recycled my previous years' seasonal posts with some gift ideas for the genealogist in your life, plus a new postscript for 2022.

It’s approaching the time of year when “What can I buy X for Christmas?” becomes the most pressing question.  If your nearest and dearest happen to be into family history, I have some gift ideas that don’t (a) include a DNA kit or (b) cost a fortune.  Homemade, personalised presents are the most thoughtful of all, I reckon.  And the gift of heritage is hard to put a price on.  Here are my suggestions:

A framed family tree.  There are many ways to present this; if you have a steady hand and good penmanship (or a decent Italic pen), your costs can be limited to finding a suitable frame and paper – both available at budget stores.  Or your local charity shop might have some pictures for sale whose frames can be re-used.

FamilySearch Keepsake Tree

Another option is to print a chart.  Family history computer programs can do this, with varying degrees of eye-catchingness.  If you have photographs of the people who feature on your tree, these can be mounted on a chart, with or without name labels. 

FamilySearch lets you create keepsakes by freely printing out your tree, in a range of attractive formats.
 
Photographs.  Compile an album for an older relative to prompt memories, and perhaps some heart-warming recollections too.  Frame any number of photographs to make a conversation piece for the hall, stairway, or living room – either in a collage frame or individually.
 
This Is Your Life.  The photo album idea could be taken a stage further to include mementos such as programmes, letters, postcards, certificates and so on, forming a record of the recipient’s life.  An appropriate presentation ceremony would add to the occasion!

Frame an heirloom.  This isn’t as unlikely as it sounds.  Medals are an obvious choice, and can be combined with photographs.  These could be military or sports awards; my father's army photograph and World War 2 medals hold pride of place in my home.  Other heirlooms might include a wedding favour, a piece of fabric with a special meaning, or even an item of jewellery.

 
A Gift For My Grandchild.  Although these types of books are available commercially, a homemade version would be something to cherish.  Starting with the grandparent, it can tell the story of how the family has grown to include the grandchild.  Make it even more personal with lists of favourite music, books, food etc., and include blank pages for the child to add their own artwork and memories.  You can find plenty of inspiration online for creating a unique family keepsake.
 
Keeping A Diary.  Generic notebooks can be transformed into the gift of a personal journal, diary or travel log – or you can buy ready-made ones quite cheaply.  Personalise the book by adding a photograph or the recipient’s name or initials to the cover.  To get them started with their writing, include a journal jar in the gift.  Any decent-sized jam jar can be transformed with ribbon or other embellishments.  Write “prompts” on small slips of coloured paper to put in the jar.  These can be questions such as “What did you most enjoy about today?” or ideas like “Write a description of your garden”. 
 
This idea might also be applied to someone writing their own life history.  Again, there is no shortage of suggestions on the internet; just search for “journal jar”.
 
Give Them Their Story.  This may require a bit of pre-planning, and co-operation from your relative, but it can be very worthwhile for the giver too.  Over a number of occasions, chat to the intended recipient about their life, using photographs or other memory-joggers, and (with their permission, naturally) record their recollections.  This could be on paper, if your shorthand’s up to it, on audio or video recording.  Follow up by transcribing the conversation and then typing it up, printing out and compiling a book(let).  Add photos as above, bind in a folder, and gift-wrap.  Or, if you have good video editing skills, compile a customised recording of your relative's life story and save it on DVD to present to family members.

As a prelude to Christmas, I’d like to finish with this video by Martin Lewis which, if you’ve not seen before (or even if you have), I would urge you to watch.  Being frugal isn’t just about saving money, it’s about peace of mind, and what says more about Christmas than peace on earth?

2022 Postscript: And this year, I've chosen to give to charity in place of Christmas presents to friends. Having recently received successful treatment for breast cancer, I'll be making my donation to Breast Cancer UK and would like to invite you to do the same, if you feel you can.

My latest family history money-saving tips

 Sales

The Irish News Archives are offering 50% off their annual subscription from 21 November for “a short time only”. Keep an eye on their website and social media accounts for any necessary discount code.

Check out the reviews and upcoming “Black Friday”/”Cyber Monday” deals on DNA testing kits.  If you’ve been thinking about investing in one, this is a good time to nab a bargain and beat the post-Christmas rush when everybody who gets one from Santa sends in their sample for analysis!

But bear in mind the sage advice of the original and best Moneysaver, Martin Lewis  : “If you were going to buy it anyway and it's half price, you've saved 50%. If you weren't going to buy it, but do because it's half price you've wasted 100%”.

 

Events

I’m all for free genealogy events, so ScottishIndexes’ free online conferences have been amazing.  Their next one is on Saturday 26th November, and as usual it’s available via Facebook or Zoom, and will run to a schedule that allows viewers in all time zones to take part without losing any sleep.  I’ll be speaking at this one so try not to miss it…

While not free, The Genealogy Show’s virtual winter event is offering 25% discount on its ticket prices, and 50% off for students. 

 

Courses

FutureLearn run some excellent online short courses on genealogy and other historical subjects. I’ve just begun their new course “Genetic Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree Using DNA” and am finding it explains things quite clearly. All the courses are designed to be used at your own pace and with whatever level of involvement you choose. There are discussion sections where you can ask questions and interact with other learners.  Some course topics which may interest you are “Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree” and “Early Modern Scottish Palaeography”.  Search their course listing and see what they have to offer.

 

Charts

Free charts are always welcome! There are some at  

         Cyndi’s List – Charts & Forms 

         Family Tree Templates  

         Misbach (click on “Free PDF” tab at top of page) 

         Ancestry – UK, US and Canada census blank forms 

          

2020: Gifts of Genealogy

I've recycled last year's seasonal post with some gift ideas for the genealogist in your life.

It’s approaching the time of year when “What can I buy X for Christmas?” becomes the most pressing question.  If your nearest and dearest happen to be into family history, I have some gift ideas that don’t (a) include a DNA kit or (b) cost a fortune.  Handmade, personalised presents are the most thoughtful of all, I reckon.  And what could be more personal than the gift of heritage?  Here are my suggestions:

 A framed family tree.  There are many ways to present this; if you have a steady hand and good penmanship (or a decent Italic pen), your costs can be limited to finding a suitable frame and paper – both available at budget stores.  Or your local charity shop might have some pictures for sale whose frames can be re-used.

Another option is to print a chart.  Family history computer programs can do this, with varying degrees of eye-catchingness.  

FamilySearch allows users to freely print out their trees in a range of attractive formats. 
 
If you have photographs of people featured on the tree, these can be mounted on a chart, with or without name labels.
 
Photographs.  Compile an album for an older relative to prompt memories, and perhaps some heart-warming recollections too.  Frame any number of photographs to make a conversation piece for the hall, stairway, or living room – either in a collage frame or individually.
 
This Is Your Life.  The photo album idea could be taken a stage further to include mementos such as programmes, letters, postcards, certificates and so on, forming a record of the recipient’s life.  An appropriate presentation ceremony would add to the occasion!

Frame an heirloom.  This isn’t as unlikely as it sounds.  Medals are an obvious choice, and can be combined with photographs.  These could be military or sports awards; one of my great-uncles took part in a police tug-of-war team, and I still have the medal to show for it.  Other heirlooms might include a wedding favour, a piece of fabric with a special meaning, or even an item of jewellery.

 
A Gift For My Grandchild.  Although these types of books are available commercially, a homemade version would be something to cherish.  Starting with the grandparent, it can tell the story of how the family has grown to include the grandchild.  Make it even more personal with lists of favourite music, books, food etc., and include blank pages for the child to add their own artwork and memories.  You can find plenty of inspiration online for creating a unique family keepsake.
 
Keeping A Diary.  Generic notebooks can be transformed into the gift of a personal journal, diary or travel log – or you can buy ready-made ones quite cheaply.  Personalise the book by adding a photograph or the recipient’s name or initials to the cover.  To get them started with their writing, include a journal jar in the gift.  Any decent-sized jam jar can be transformed with ribbon or other embellishments.  Write “prompts” on small slips of coloured paper to put in the jar.  These can be questions such as “What did you most enjoy about today?” or ideas like “Write a description of your garden”. 
 
This idea might also be applied to someone writing their own life history.  Again, there is no shortage of suggestions on the internet; just search for “journal jar”.
 
 Give Them Their Story.  This may require a bit of pre-planning, and co-operation from your relative, but it can be very worthwhile for the giver too.  Over a number of occasions, chat to the intended recipient about their life, using photographs or other memory-joggers, and (with their permission, naturally) record their recollections.  This could be on paper, if your shorthand’s up to it, on audio or video recording.  Follow up by transcribing the conversation and then typing it up, printing out and compiling a book(let).  Add photos as above, bind in a folder, and gift-wrap.

As a prelude to Christmas, I’d like to finish with this video by Martin Lewis

which, if you’ve not seen before, I would urge you to watch.  Being frugal isn’t just about saving money, it’s about peace of mind, and what says more about Christmas than peace?

The World's Largest Shared Family Tree

☙ In this, the latest in my series of posts about doing genealogy from home, I hope you'll find at least one new direction in which to take your family history research or skills. ☙

Opening a free FamilySearch account is a bit like opening up a box of different tools that will help you to be more productive in tracing, recording, sharing, and researching your family tree.  Even seasoned users of the website are constantly being surprised by the range of things they can use it for.

Once you’ve signed up, you can

☙  Add your relatives to the Family Tree. This aims to be one unified record of the human family.  You’ll probably have some ancestors already featured in it, because of the records FamilySearch have collected from around the world.  Build your part of the tree around those existing records

☙  Find more records for your family and attach them to your tree. Use the Catalog to identify resources to help build your research, as well as the suggestions that appear in your family’s entries in the Tree.

☙  Upload your family photographs, stories, memories, and sound clips

☙  Print off fan charts and decorative trees to display your research

☙  Read digitised books from many sources, available through the Digital Library.  Browse or search them for your family.

☙  Set up alerts to be notified when another FamilySearch user makes changes to an entry on the tree that you’re interested in

☙  Use the Activities section to engage young people in family history

☙  Improve your research skills using the resources found in the Research Wiki and Learning Centre – all available via the Help menu, where you'll also find how-to videos for using the website itself

☙  Join the FamilySearch Community and get answers to your research questions as well as collaborating with other genealogists

☙  Add to the available records by volunteering as an indexer 

☙  Download the Family Tree mobile app for those unexpected genealogy moments or research trips

And this is by no means a comprehensive list of what you can accomplish.  Explore the site and discover for yourself just how it can help your family tree to grow.

Free family history worksheets ... and where to find them

This week, I thought it would be useful to share some free family history charts, forms and worksheets to help you plan your research and record what you find, whether you’re visiting a record office or interviewing a relative about their recollections.  

Below are a few websites where you can freely download a variety of document templates specifically designed for use in genealogical research.  You can find many more of these online, but be aware that some websites exist solely to get you to download documents that may harm your computer.  Always check that the site is trustworthy before using its resources.  If you have a subscription to a family history website, it may provide downloadable forms you can use.  

☙ Be sure to check out my tips at the end of the post

for more ideas for creating and using your templates ☙ 

·         FamilySearchWiki: Use appropriate forms  Family group records, pedigree charts, research logs, and the very focused research assessment form.  This helps you to set research goals and then make plans to achieve them. 

·         Irish Genealogy Toolkit: Free family history forms  Individual, family, and multi-generation charts; a relationship calculator for when you can’t figure out how many times removed your cousins are; suggested questions for interviewing relatives; and Irish 1901/1911 census worksheets for good measure.  Note: the Irish census has different column headings from the rest of the UK so for other parts of the British Isles census, use the templates in the next link.

·         FamilySearchWiki: Genealogy research forms  Blank census worksheets – rather than spend money on printing images, copy the information you need from a census page onto one of these Ancestry templates for the UK and North American census returns.  Having a different template for each year is particularly useful when it comes to the British 1841 census.

☙  Draw up your own charts, worksheets and diagrams in a plain notebook for convenience when out and about researching. 

☙  Birth, marriage and death certificates tend to follow the same format throughout the years, within each country.  Blank templates of each of these, with all the column headings pre-printed, would save a lot of time when working at a record office.

☙  Make copies of worksheets (printed or handmade) and store them in a "road trip" ring binder - handy to lean on when copying down a gravestone inscription or war memorial information.  Filing your sheets in polythene punched pockets will keep them safe and dry.

Being prepared with these forms ready to pick up at a 

moment's notice will save you time and frustration later on!

Fan-Shaped Genealogy

There aren’t many genealogy websites that give everyone totally free access and tools, but FamilySearch does, including creating your own free account which you can use to share your family tree.  One of its other offerings is the printable charts, of which the fan chart is the most attractive (well, I think so, anyway - see the example above).  So here’s how to make yours.  First of all, take a couple of minutes to register your FamilySearch account if you don’t already have one.

Before adding your own family tree to the website, always search it for ancestors who may already appear in the huge shared Family Tree, saving you from adding them again.  Given the vast amount of records FamilySearch has acquired and shared, there is a fair chance that at least one individual in your own tree is represented in the FamilySearch tree.

Then, once you have identified the person whose ancestry you want to illustrate (this can be yourself), navigate to that record in the tree view.  Select the drop-down menu at the top left that says “Landscape”, then click on the type of chart you want to print – in this case “Fan Chart” – and display the number of generations you wish to include.  At the right of the screen, click on “Options” and choose “Print”.  A copy of the chart will appear on the screen in PDF format.  You can then save it to your computer, allowing you to view it on-screen, print it out, or email it to a relative. 

If you want a really large chart for your wall, you can print it in four A4 segments.  I printed mine in colour on A3 paper and framed it – good enough to display anywhere!