Family History Month

October is Family History Month. You could celebrate by organizing your research materials to bring for our meetings and workshops in 2025-2026.

We plan to return to a workshop format that was popular in the past: organizing into groups with similar research goals. Some of the suggestions: website exploration, Canada research, DNA suggestions, software tips, and/or any miscellaneous brick wall problems. We welcome other ideas from members.

The first Vista Grande genealogy class was held this past Monday. The topic was how to organize and produce a family cookbook. Classes will continue throughout the season on the first Monday morning of each month.

A few of the topics planned for the coming year include Irish land records, how weather affected your ancestors, collateral research, adding your ancestors' photos to your computer, as well as several case studies to provide research guidance. 

 

FamilySearch Full-Text Search

FamilySearch has announced that the Full-Text Search option has "left" the Labs area and can now be accessed under the Search Tab. We have demonstrated and recommended its use over the past year. If you haven't yet tried it, now is the time!

Webtember 2025

Legacy provides a free annual September group of genealogy classes. This year's classes will appear each Wednesday of the month. You can register to attend live and if you are a Legacy webinar member you will have access to the syllabus.

September 3 classes focus on German research; September 10 classes address writing and publishing; September 17 classes are all about My Heritage; September 24 classes teach about U. S. records.

Here is a link to more information and the sign-up page.

https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/?category=webtember&list_view=true&multiple=true

Club 1890

Were you invited?

Ancestry has just introduced a new, invite-only membership tier: Club 1890.

The price? $5,000.

Listen to Amy Johnson Crow's analysis at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9DJgT2-J5Q

July 1

 

Cemeteries Tab

FamilySearch sent a Memorial Day email reminding us of the tab for cemetery research under the Search function. Mine said "You have 17 ancestors buried in the Scandinavia Lutheran Cemetery." Their names, relationship to me, birth and death information was all included. Scrolling down led to a map where you could explore other graveyard locations. 

It was a good reminder of that fairly new feature on FamilySearch.

March Roundtable

During our final meeting of the season we held a roundtable to share new information learned about an ancestor OR a goal for the coming months. Here are some responses:

Nancy - learned a lot from researching Canadian vital records for her presentation and is still working on transferring names and records to the FamilySearch tree.

Beth - is continuing her research and has a list of people to contact regarding DNA results. She also hopes to visit a local family search center near her home.

Roger - continues to work on finding what happened to his great grandparents at the end of the 1890s in Texas.

Maureen - plans to work on a presentation about her Frederick Crittendon research. She has recently made a contact/new friend in Northern Ireland through a DNA connection.

Annie - found a clipping on a tree in Ancestry that helps to explain a mystery in one of her family lines.

Dick - continues to attach sources on the Family Tree and work on merging duplicates.

Roger - is new to FamilySearch and is making great progress. He has learned more about his mother's adoption and her birth parents.

Don - will continue to consolidate information from other trees.

Bonni - visited the coal mining museum in Trinidad and learned a great deal about mining in general and about the mining accident involving her grandfather.

Workshop - March 25

Nancy did a great job with a difficult task! Every Canadian province has different regulations regarding vital records, and she managed to give us a clear understanding of the "whats" and "wheres" of those records. 

Her best suggestion is to start at the FamilySearch Wiki, where you can learn where to find online records, understand the requirements about privacy and link to websites where you can order copies of your ancestors' birth, marriage, and death records.

Nancy used several examples from her own research that demonstrated what information might be available on a particular record.

Thanks, Nancy, for that educational class.