February 24 Workshop

The final February workshop concentrated on websites. We looked first at PhotoTree.com where you can learn about the types of early photographs and get some help deciding when your ancestors' photos were taken.

How to use Ancestry to locate photographers in the 1870-80 and 1900 censuses was explained, as well as a few links to learning more about those early photographers.

Annie also suggested taking a look at VintageAerial.com for photos of farms taken all over the country mainly during the 1970s.

We viewed a second group of websites to help in locating passenger lists. Ellis Island has updated its holdings and we can now access arrivals from the 1850s. Steve Morse's one-page websites can be helpful as well as another called German Roots.

As always, the FamilySearch Wiki page is a great help for any subject matter. 

March Plans

Here are all the opportunities for adding to your knowledge in March.

March 3:  FamilySearch Night

March 5-7   RootsTech2026

March 10:  Family Tree Maker Features

March 12:  Field Trip -- Family Search Center

March 17:   Land Records in Ireland

March 21:  Arizona Genealogy Day

March 24:  DNA Revisited

March 31:  Summer Sendoff

Working With Photos

Last week Diane presented ideas for preserving and cataloging photographs. She provided several examples to help in deciding whether to keep or discard family photos. There were also techniques we could use to identify when photos might have been taken.

Diane included a handout for photo inventory and analysis that will be extremely helpful for making decisions about your family pictures.

Thanks, Diane, for that educational presentation!

Arizona Genealogy Day

 

ARIZONA GENEALOGY DAY

                 Saturday, March 21, 2026                  8:30 - 3:00               FREE              

9:00          Honoring Ancestors: Native American Genealogy

10:15         Finding Family: Genealogy in the Arizona Memory Project

11:30         Add a Snapshot to Research

12:45         Liberate Your Research: Using Collaborative Family Trees

2:00           How the Weather Affected Your Ancestor

Google "Arizona Genealogy Day" to register for this free online event.

Workshop - February 10

The main topic this week was a comparison of the three main cemetery websites: Find A Grave, Billion Graves and Interment. Since Find A Grave is the largest, we suggest trying that site first. They are all free and have different goals and perspectives. One other idea is to use the "cemeteries" selection under the Search tab in FamilySearch.

This workshop also included a trip "down the rabbit hole" of research. We used one family name in each cemetery website to compare results and then followed different sources such as death records, census pages, marriage records, etc. to discover more information.

Who Was Frederick's Father?

This week Maureen told the story of her research into her grandfather's ancestors. We heard first about the extensive resources she had used to locate records for Frederick and his mother. When the brick wall continued to expand, Maureen decided to try DNA testing. It was quite a surprise to learn that no Crittenden appeared in the results. 

She showed us the DNA results and the work she has done to analyze the two surnames that seem to be connected to her grandfather's family. 

Thanks for sharing your interesting story and good luck with further research, Maureen!

January 27 Roundtable

This week's meeting was in roundtable form. We were asked to share a new or unusual research discovery or present a current brick wall problem.

We learned that John's grandmothers both wrote their own histories. Roger found that a middle name turned out to be a female ancestor's maiden name. Diane got started in genealogy because her mother didn't know much about her ancestors.

Some of the puzzles included a great grandmother who changed her name and an obituary that did not include enough information about the female survivors listed. Another problem was a father who was raised by grandparents. One member is just beginning to try to locate villages in Europe.

Other topics included suggestions for newspaper websites, "the formidable genealogist" on Facebook, full-text searching, visiting the Family History Library for specific help in researching foreign locations and various immigration ports.

Clusters and Collaterals

Last week's topic was "Clusters and Collaterals." Basically, this is looking for information about friends, neighbors and "shirt tail" relatives to locate facts that aren't available in our direct ancestors' records.

There was also a case study about three men with the same surname who settled in the same county in Wisconsin after traveling there via very different routes. Could they be related?