The Day the Old Photograph Spoke

 

String Prairie, Texas 

There are moments in genealogy when the past suddenly stops being distant.

Most family historians have experienced it at least once. You are carefully sorting through an old box of photographs, perhaps one that has sat untouched in a closet, attic, or dresser drawer for decades. The images are faded. Some are bent at the corners. A few names may be written on the back in nearly invisible pencil. Others have no identification at all.

Then suddenly, one photograph seems to “speak.”

Not literally, of course. But something about the image reaches across time and captures your attention in a way the others do not.

Perhaps it is the expression on someone’s face.

Maybe it is the resemblance to a living family member.

Or perhaps it is a tiny detail hidden in the background that tells an unexpected story.

That moment is one of the true joys of genealogy.

For years, many people think of genealogy as simply collecting names, dates, and places. Census records, birth certificates, marriage licenses, and obituaries are all important pieces of the puzzle. But photographs bring something entirely different to family history research. They bring emotion. They bring personality. They remind us that our ancestors were real people who laughed, worried, worked, struggled, and hoped—just as we do today.

An old photograph can reveal far more than we first realize.

A studio portrait may show the style of clothing worn during a particular decade. A military uniform might identify wartime service. A store sign in the background could reveal where a family once lived. Even hairstyles, jewelry, automobiles, or furniture can help date a photograph and place it into historical context.

Sometimes the smallest details become the biggest clues.

I have often found myself studying old family photographs far longer than I intended. What first appeared to be an ordinary image slowly began to reveal details I had never noticed before. A familiar family resemblance suddenly becomes obvious. A handwritten note on the back provides a forgotten location. An unknown child standing quietly beside an adult may later become identified through additional research.

And occasionally, an old photograph can stir powerful emotions.

You may find yourself staring into the eyes of a great-grandparent you never met, wondering what kind of life they lived. What were their dreams? What hardships did they endure? Did they realize that generations later, someone would still treasure their image and wonder about their story?

That is when the photograph truly “speaks.”

It reminds us that genealogy is not simply about building a family tree. It is about reconnecting with human lives that time might otherwise forget.

In today’s digital world, preserving old family photographs has become more important than ever. Many aging photographs are fading, cracking, or deteriorating. Some exist only in a single fragile copy. Scanning and preserving these images ensures that future generations will still be able to see the faces of those who came before them.

But beyond preservation, we should also share the stories connected to those photographs.

First,  use a label to write the names of the people, and a place if you know it, as well as the year taken.  Don't actually write on the back of an old photograpgh - which can leave marks on the front image. Record memories while older relatives are still living. Ask questions. Identify locations. Preserve family traditions connected to the people in the images. A photograph without a story is still valuable—but a photograph with a story becomes priceless.

And sometimes, if we look carefully enough, an old photograph may still have something left to say.

 

Six months later ... let's relook at genealogy resolutions

I did pretty well this year on resolutions - including my quest to get reorganize my genealogy files and website bookmarks. That was quite an accomplishment, despite it being time-consuming!

So.... how did you do on your resolutions? Here's a quick list of 10 basic ideas that may help you "rethink" your resolutions and stragegy! There are so many more to consider. !!

1. Cite your sources! We all get in a hurry, and you may think that referencing your sources isn't important. Trust me, doing so is very important. I didn't in my very early days, and had to

redo my listings. Hopefully, your software has a built-in tool to document your sources.

2. Take some time to rethink your organization of files. Go through those scraps of paper and records. Enter the information for each person in your database.

3. Identify your photos! I cannot stress this enough! Hopefully, you have family members who can help you identify. Do not (!) write on the back of the photo. Write on a label, then place it on the back. You do not want a marking imprint on old photos!

4. Establish some time, at least once a week or twice a month, to work on research. It doesn't have to be an all-day event  (but it helps!). Perhaps it's a library event, online research, or an all-day or afternoon event that fits your schedule.

5. While your asking your relatives and identifying photos, that's a perfect time to ask them about that person.  Do not miss this opportunity, before it is too late - and you're left with a box

of Aunt and Uncle "Somebody."

6. Stay up to date with genealogy websites and newsletters, in particular - Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter www.eogn.com, Genealogy Gems at https://lisalouisecooke.com/ and Family Search Magazine. A basic Google search of genealogy newsletters and blogs will provide a plethora of sites.

7. Now that your photos are identified, consider digitizing them and storing them on your hard drive. When I was digitizing mine, under my Genealogy, I organized by surnames. Some of the families were so large that each surname needed its own folder.

8. Organize your family heirlooms. Grandma or your Auntie Emma's jewelry needs a safe place for storage. Nice or expensive items should be in the bank's safe deposit box, or a secure place in your home for a safe.

9. Back up your files - regularly!!! Do not take a chance of losing all your work. Your files and photos should be backed up at least once a month. Save copies also to an external hard drive.

10. Create a master family tree to keep you organized. This will make it easier to check and share what you're missing.

A nostalgic reminder to enhance your cemetery research

 

Lafayette Cemetery # 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana

"LOCATING & VISITING CEMETERIES," by William Dollarhide

GENEALOGY RULE #21: To understand the living, you have to commune with the dead--but don't commune with the dead so long that you forget that you are living! (From "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil")

Although I would not consider myself to be obsessed with death, burials, or other ghoulish activities, I have had some wonderful experiences in cemeteries. I am sure I am not alone. Since visiting cemeteries is part of what we do to find information about our ancestors, every genealogist has a cemetery story. These stories may include the weird problems associated with cemeteries as well as the wonderful discoveries that can be found there. 

To most genealogists, the first problem is always that of finding the exact location of a cemetery where an ancestor was supposed to have been buried. But once the cemetery has been located, other problems prevail, such as finding a gravestone in an old unkempt graveyard with no finding aids available. 

Here are some thoughts on finding and visiting cemeteries that may be of use to genealogists:

Finding-Tools for Locating a Cemetery:

Death Certificates and Funeral Homes. A death certificate may give the name of a cemetery where the deceased was interred, as well as the name of a funeral home. The funeral home (or its successor) is probably still in business and should be contacted. To do this, use the "Yellow Book" (a directory of funeral homes) to find a funeral home today. Funeral home directors are clearly the best experts on the location of cemeteries in a particular area. 

The "Yellow Book" is distributed annually to every funeral home in North America. Anyone should be able to call or visit a local funeral home and request to use their directory to find an address and phone number for any other funeral home. Fortunately, the same "Yellow Book" database is now on the Internet at www.funeralnet.com where the address and phone number for virtually every funeral home in the U.S. and Canada can be found online.

GENEALOGY RULE #3: When visiting a funeral home, wear old clothes, no makeup, and look like you have about a week to live--the funeral director will give you anything you ask for if he thinks you may be a customer soon.

Obituaries:

Another possible source for locating a cemetery where an ancestor was buried is to see if a printed obituary for the deceased person includes information about where the body was interred. Obituaries are found in newspapers published near the place where a person died. Many old newspapers are available to genealogical researchers on microfilm, and they usually are located in a public library, college library, archives, genealogical society, historical society, or some other institution near the place of death of the subject. 

A two-volume publication, "Newspapers in Microform," published by the Library of Congress, is the best listing of what newspapers might be found on microfilm. The publication acts as a means of identifying and then borrowing rolls of film, which can be used at a local library through the national Interlibrary Loan System at more than 6,000 libraries in the U.S.

In addition, state libraries or state archives usually have the best collection of newspapers for a particular state. Most state archives now have a website on the Internet, where you may discover a detailed review of county newspapers. 

The Internet is also a good place to search for obituaries that may have been published for a particular area. Check www.cyndislist.com under that category, or use your browser to search the web for the keyword, "obituaries."

Using the GNIS to Find a Cemetery:

There is another great tool for locating a particular cemetery that may not be obvious to researchers. The most complete listing and locations of named cemeteries in the U.S. can be found at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website at http://nhd.usgs.gov/gnis.html. 

This site has the USGS's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which encompasses some two million place names (map features) in America, of which about 107,000 are cemeteries. The GNIS includes the largest list of named cemeteries published anywhere. (A few years ago, a very expensive printed publication advertised as the "most complete list of cemeteries in America" was produced, showing about 25,000 cemeteries--less than one-fourth the number that can be found in the GNIS listing.) 

The GNIS cemetery names were taken from the detailed maps of the 7.5 x 7.5 minute series published by the USGS. (Each map in this series covers 7.5 minutes of latitude and 7.5 minutes of longitude, a rectangle representing an area about 6-7 miles wide by about 7-8 miles deep.) For the 7.5 series, more than 50,000 maps were required to show the entire U.S. and its possessions. 

In addition to cemeteries, all other named features from the maps were extracted, including cities, towns, villages, hills, mountains, valleys, oil fields, airports, post offices, streams, lakes, and any other place on a map with a name. For years, genealogists were compelled to pay up to $3.00 per map for the USGS 7.5 series maps. Today, they are all accessible from the Internet and can be downloaded directly to your printer.

Visiting a Cemetery:

Typically, a cemetery of interest to a genealogist will be either too big in size or too small. The very large cemeteries, such as Forest Lawn in the Los Angeles area, are not user-friendly to genealogists. They have restrictions on giving out information about the interred--unless you go through a time-consuming process of inquiry. The very smallest cemeteries are a problem because they are without any official maintenance or sponsorship and sit neglected (and often invisible). 

The commercial and viable cemeteries today are those that are supported by a good-sized population base for a community, city, or county. These cemeteries have an endowment or trust that supports perpetual care and a staff of administrators and maintenance people. For a genealogist, these are the best cemeteries because they are well maintained and have a full-time staff of people who can locate the exact burial for any person interred there. These types of cemeteries are the ones a genealogist can visit without any advance notice or research because the information is readily available once they have arrived and have found the cemetery sexton's office.

Most cemeteries, however, are those in between the largest and smallest in size. These are the ones that are maintained by some governing body, such as a cemetery association, or a county, city, or church. Although most of these cemeteries have an official sponsorship and in most cases have written records of the interments, there is usually no sexton's office at the site. So, a genealogist should try to find out who is the keeper of the records before actually visiting the cemetery. 

Can You Get Help from Your Ancestor?  

Some years ago, I was able to visit a cemetery outside the little town of Edna, Kansas, where my great grandfather, Benjamin Watkins, was buried. I was accompanied by my genealogy friend, Joyce Hensen, of Linden, Kansas, a well-known genealogy witch. Joyce uses divining rods to "witch" for unmarked graves. She can find exactly where a burial is located by using this method, including the size of the grave and whether the burial was for an adult or a child. It may sound a bit oija-oija, but I have seen it work and have become a believer. (The divining rods do not work when I am holding them--it takes a person with the "gift" to do it, just like witching for water). 

Joyce Henson believed in ommunicating with her dead ancestors to assist her in finding the exact location of their graves. I have been with her in several unindexed cemeteries, where she instructed me to stand at the entrance to the cemetery, put my hands over my head, turn in a circle, and yell out to my dead ancestor something like, "Lafayette Black! Where are you?!"--then sense a direction to walk and find the tombstone. In at least two previous occasions, this technique worked beautifully. One time, while at Liberty Cemetery near McFall, Missouri, after yelling out to Lafayette Black, I headed in the first direction that came to my mind--and I walked in a straight line to his grave, some 200 feet away. 

Now, I know this may sound a bit far-fetched, but it has worked two different times in two different cemeteries. The other time, Joyce and I were visiting a cemetery outside of Waco, Texas. When we yelled out the deceased's name, we both turned immediately and walked, simultaneously, in the same direction. At the same instant, we both spotted his gravestone less than 20 feet away. We looked at each other with our mouths open, amazed that the direction had come to both of us at the same time.

So, as a believer, I was with Joyce again, this time in Edna, Kansas, attempting the same technique to find Benjamin Watkins' grave. Since we approached the cemetery driving out of town, we saw that there were three entrances to the I.O.O.F cemetery. So Joyce, who was driving, raised her hands and cried out, "Benjamin Watkins, where are you?" a few times. (I had to hold the steering wheel so we wouldn't go crashing into the ditch!) She immediately slowed and turned into the second entrance, stopping about halfway into the cemetery. We got out of the car and repeated the hands-over-the-head thing, turning in a circle and calling out, "Benjamin Watkins, where are you?" but neither of us could get a strong sense of a direction to walk. In fact, after about an hour of walking aimlessly around the cemetery and not finding Benjamin Watkins' gravestone, we gave up and went back to the car. 

I talked Joyce into going back into town so we could visit that little coffee shop we had passed on our way through town. She agreed, reluctantly, and we discovered that the coffee shop was occupied by several retired farmers, all of whom were dressed in bib overalls and baseball caps and were having a grand afternoon gab session. I asked one of them if he knew who was in charge of the cemetery and whether there were any records of the burials there. I was told immediately that Charlie Brown, who happened to be on the local cemetery district board, was the keeper of the records. With the retired farmer's directions, in just a few minutes Joyce and I were knocking on Charlie Brown's door. 

Charlie took us out to his garage, where he had a length of PVC pipe over his workbench in which was a rolled-up blueprint diagram of the Edna Cemetery, showing all the burial plots and the names of all interments. We found the name "Benjamin Watkins" in no time and had an exact plot location for his burial, so off we went again to the cemetery.

Now, with a little sketch map Charlie had made for us, we knew where to look for Benjamin's grave, which, as it turned out, was fairly close to where we had entered the cemetery the first time. We took the second entrance, went into the cemetery over half way in, and found Benjamin Watkins' tombstone in a matter of seconds. 

The reason we didn't find the grave marker the first time we entered the cemetery was because Joyce, who had been communicating with Benjamin, had stopped the car where she thought Benjamin was telling her to go. We didn't find the grave marker the first time because it was underneath the car!

Although I still believe my method was the surest and most logical way to find the grave marker for Benjamin Watkins, Joyce proved to me, once again, her uncanny ability. But in this case she was too accurate. She had parked the car over the grave!

I'm not saying that everyone will find their ancestors' burial sites using Joyce Hensen's techniques, but it is certainly worth a try. In the meantime, when you are ready to visit a cemetery, there should be someone in the local area who has information about the burials. If a cemetery has obvious care, someone knows--and finding that someone should not be very difficult. It is a matter of contacting someone in the community to learn who has the records of that cemetery. A local genealogical society may help. Or, start by contacting a local funeral home to see who may have the records of a particular cemetery.

GENEALOGY RULE #4: The cemetery where your ancestor was buried does not have perpetual care, has no office, is accessible only by a muddy road, and has snakes, tall grass, lots of bugs, and many of the old gravestones are in broken pieces, stacked in a corner under a pile of dirt.

Cemetery Resources on the Internet:

Not too long ago, I stumbled onto a website called "Cemeteries, Graveyards, Burying Grounds: Resources on Cemetery History and Preservation." This is a very interesting place to learn about cemeteries in general, including the preservation of tombstones, cemetery history, culture, and more. Visit the site at www.potifos.com/cemeteries.html. Included are dozens of links to cemetery sites on the web, including some with indexes to burials in cemeteries all over the country. This is also a good place to find out about historical cemetery associations, statewide cemetery preservation groups, and so on. You can even find out where famous people are buried, including all of the presidents of the U.S., beginning with George Washington.

=======================================================

TOOLS FOR LOCATING DEATH RECORDS

Speaking of death records, any of the following books would be an asset to anyone hunting for death records.

INTERNATIONAL VITAL RECORDS HANDBOOK. 4th Edition

Divided into two parts, this fourth edition contains the latest forms and ordering information for birth, marriage, death, and divorce records for each of the 50 states and also furnishes details about the records that were created prior to statewide vital records registration. Then, in alphabetical sequence, it covers all the other countries of the world, giving, where available, their current forms and instructions. Since many nations have neither a centralized vital records registration system nor application forms of any kind, this work provides as a substitute a list of national and provincial record repositories or key addresses of other institutions that might be of assistance.

http://www.genealogical.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&item_number=3148&NLC-GenPointers1

THE RESEARCHER'S GUIDE to American Genealogy. 3rd Edition

Among other things, THE RESEARCHER'S GUIDE contains an in-depth discussion of death and other vital records in the U.S., including where and how to find them. This third edition incorporates the latest thinking on genealogy and computers, specifically the relationship between computer technology (the Internet and CD-ROM) and the timeless principles of good genealogical research. It also includes a new chapter on the property rights of women, a revised chapter on the evaluation of genealogical evidence, and updated information on the 1920 census. Arguably the best book ever written on American genealogy, it is the text of choice in colleges and universities or wherever courses in American genealogy are taught.

http://www.genealogical.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&item_number=2362&NLC-GenPointers1 

(Genealogy Pointer 5/29/07)

Your Photos - to Videos With AI?

 

This morning I discovered another AI concept for genealogy, which can transform your treasured photos to a video! 

The website states, "Join thousands of people who have experienced the joy of seeing their cherished photos come alive with natural, lifelike movement."

For additional information, go to : https://themomento.co/us

MyHeritage promotes the Deep Nostalgia which animates the faces in your family photo. https://www.myheritage.com/deep-nostalgia

Facebook also offers a video and description at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=648958857469368

So what are your thoughts on this ... the opinions differ from family members and genealogist!

Using AI to Enhance Your Genealogy Research

 

Genealogy has always been a rewarding challenge, but now AI technology is helping us make new discoveries faster and more easily than ever. Here are some beginner-friendly, low-cost AI tools you might find helpful as you explore your family history!

Genealogy has always involved patience, detective work, and digging through mountains of records. Today, AI (Artificial Intelligence) can make parts of that process faster and even reveal connections we might otherwise miss. Here are a few exciting ways AI can help family historians:

Photo Enhancement and Colorization:

AI-powered tools like MyHeritage's Photo Enhancer or Colorize can sharpen old blurry family photos and even bring them to life with realistic colorization.

DNA Matching and Interpretation:

Some DNA services now use AI to analyze your DNA matches and suggest likely relationships (e.g., AncestryDNA’s ThruLines or MyHeritage’s Theory of Family Relativity). These tools can propose how you and a match might be connected based on shared matches and family trees.

Record Searching and Hints:

Platforms like Ancestry.com and MyHeritage use AI to automatically search for records that may match your ancestors. Instead of manually hunting, you’ll get "hints" based on name, location, and dates.

Transcription Help:

Reading old handwritten documents can be tough. AI-driven transcription services like Transkribus can help read and transcribe historical handwriting, saving you hours of effort.

Storytelling and Summarization:

New AI writing assistants (like ChatGPT!) can help you turn dry lists of names and dates into flowing family narratives—perfect for writing family histories that future generations will want to read.

Smart Record Suggestions:

FamilySearch’s AI tools will often suggest similar records, even if the spelling is a little different—helping find ancestors you might otherwise overlook due to indexing errors.

Keep checking this blog for continued ideas for using AI in your genealogy

Ancestry testing AI to aid in your research

 

Ancestry AI Assistant

The Ancestry AI assistant is in a testing phase (called “beta testing”) and hasn’t yet been widely released. Because it’s in a testing phase, Ancestry AI assistant may change based on feedback. 

Frequently asked questions

 

What is the AI Assistant?

The AI Assistant is a new beta tool provided by Ancestry that uses artificial intelligence to assist you with Family History and DNA-related questions and research. It can answer general Family History and DNA-related questions, offer suggestions, and guide you through your research based on information from our help content.  

 

How can I use the AI Assistant?

Please visit the DNA pages (like origins, matches, and traits) to view the AI Assistant (in the bottom right). Tap the  icon to open the AI Assistant. You can select from a list of popular questions (based on the page you're viewing) or enter your own questions using the chat interface.

To view additional information about using AI go to: https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ancestry-AI-Assistant?language=en_US

 

150 Years Later, a Family Bible Comes Home

 

At the Reunion of the Kimball Family Association (KFA) held in August 2023, a Kimball family Bible from the 1800s was reunited with direct descendants of the people whose births, marriages, and deaths had been carefully recorded on its pages. Over 150 years after John H. Kimball (1827-1917) began memorializing his family, the Bible was returned to the hands of his great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson.

In February 2023, I was contacted by an astute member of the KFA who had seen a posting on Facebook from someone offering a Kimball family Bible to anyone who wanted it. Member Dorothy Greene contacted me to determine if the KFA would want it. As a genealogist with the KFA, I replied, “Of course!” Dorothy then arranged for Jane Wescomb, the gracious donor, to mail the Bible directly to me. Apparently, Jane had found the item in a box of books she had recently purchased and realized that the Bible needed a good home. When the Bible arrived, I found the carefully packed, leather-bound study Bible to have been well-kept—it would have been a treasure for any family. I eagerly opened the Bible to discover its genealogical secrets!

Additional story at: 

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/150-years-later-a-family-bible-comes-home?utm_campaign=The%20Weekly%20Genealogist%20&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_IIIgVNUKsPP9Y4acwT9_ZBmXVlORO6Rrjf9Fb60O76qigKoGWd1jqId25ikUnfzDGFRjWI89vnYKF4YYbdmhypy-g7A&_hsmi=335806362&utm_content=335806362&utm_source=hs_email

Tiny URL: https://tinyurl.com/nms7v3be

Test Your Skills on an 18th Century Deed

Let's do something different this week. Let's put your skills to the test!

The images listed below are two pieces of same deed from the Nathan Brown brick wall case. As some of you may recall, Nathan Brown is Geoff Rasmussen's ancestor. This deed was one of the documents that was uncovered as we built a case for his parents being Jeriamiah Brown and Rebeckah Miller.

This should be considered an intermediate challenge.

In this document, particularly in the first image, you will see use of the long 's' which looks like an f.

See if you can answer the questions. The answers will be posted in one week, on Thursday, August 22, 2019.]

Want to try the Skill Challenge ? Go to: https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2019/08/test-your-skills-on-an-18th-century-deed.html

Merry Christmas !

 

        Merry Christmas to fellow family historians ... and thanks for following my family blog!

Don't Forget! Always Cite Your Sources !

 

Top Five Reasons to Cite Your Sources in Your Genealogy

Are you citing your sources in your genealogy research? If you are not, you should be. Citing sources may seem like a chore, but there are some very important reasons to make sure you always do it. Here are the five top reasons why you should cite your sources in your genealogy work.

Listen to the podcast at https://ancestralfindings.com/genealogygold/

Other researchers who may use it, particularly those in future generations, to know it is accurate, so they will feel good about putting your research to use in their own family trees. You have probably come across research that you were not sure was correct. This is probably because the information seemed suspicious, and/or no source for the information was cited.

Additional text at https://ancestralfindings.com/top-five-reasons-to-cite-your-sources-in-your-genealogy/

Family Tree has revised its website

 

Explore articles on everything from research strategies to DNA testing, to heirloom preservation. Also, be sure to check out our collection of free downloadable forms and worksheets.

Take a browse, and you'll find links to Family History Interview Question Ideas, Create a Family History Website, Family Tree Podcast, and much more.

You won't be disappointed.

https://www.familytreemagazine.com/

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy

Special thanks to DNA Testing Guide, for directing me to their website - I hope readers find this useful.

The idea of doing genealogy research might make you cringe because you imagine yourself spending hours trapped in a library or a town hall as you dig through dusty books and tall shelves. You can now do much of the research that you like from home.

The internet made it easy for you to access the public records of town halls and community centers located thousands of miles away.

Additional information on What Can Genealogy Tell You ?  and more, go to:
https://www.dnatestingguides.com/blogs/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-genealogy/
(DNA Testing Guide)

Finding Treasures and Fun in Garage Sales

In the United States the 2nd Saturday of August is National Garage Sale Day. The timing of this yearly event makes sense. August marks the approaching end of summer and families are enjoying their final weekends before the start of the school year. It’s a good time to sell what the kids have outgrown or search for what they will need. The holidays are just around the corner which means most people have an eye towards purging unwanted items and making some money for the expenses that they will face in the upcoming months.

Whether you call it an estate sale, tag sale, yard sale, or garage sale, the sale of your unwanted household items, toys, and clothes in front of your home is something that most of us have either done or gone to looking for deals. For the genealogist, yard sales can mean some great deals on vintage items that we remember our families owning or wish we kept.

Additional story at: https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2019/08/garage-sale-weekend-national-garage-sale-day.html

A Simple Explanation of Cloud Computing

The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

Many of the articles in this newsletter refer to “the cloud.” Feedback from several newsletter readers indicates that not everyone understands what a “cloud” is in the Internet world. I thought I would publish this introduction to cloud computing and also explain how cloud computing is used to provide digital images of census records to millions of online genealogists.

Additional story at: https://blog.eogn.com/2019/07/22/a-simple-explanation-of-cloud-computing/

Is it genetically safe to marry your cousin ?

The Genetics of Cousin Marriages
James MacDonald

In much of the world, consanguineous marriage between cousins is very common. For most Americans, however, marriage between cousins is at best a punchline, at worst a taboo. In many states, it is illegal for first cousins to get married. The objections are ostensibly based on the risk of genetic problems. But is there an actual risk?

In 2005, Owen Dyer reported in BMJ that “A Labour MP has called for a public debate on the genetic risks of marriages between first cousins in Britain’s Pakistani community, after reports of an unusually high rate of autosomal recessive disorders among children near her constituency. Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire, said on the BBC television program Newsnight: ‘We have to stop this tradition of first cousin marriages.'”

The genetic risks in question are related to something called unmasking. It goes something like this: We each receive one copy of each gene from each of our parents. Thus, we inherit two versions of each gene (called alleles); one is dominant and one recessive. For a recessive gene to actually manifest in an individual, both copies of the gene must be the recessive allele. If an individual inherits only one recessive allele of the gene, the individual is considered a carrier who can pass on the illness to their offspring. But when an individual inherits two copies of a dangerous recessive allele, they the gene is said to be unmasked and inherit the condition.
Additional story and graph at: https://daily.jstor.org/the-genetics-of-cousin-marriage/
https://daily.jstor.org/the-genetics-of-cousin-marriage/

Roots Web Site is Currently Unavailable

We have been in the process of improving the site throughout 2017, and as a result of an issue we recently became aware of, we have taken the site offline while we work to resolve it. We take the security of our contributors and our viewers seriously. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but protecting our users’ personal information is our top priority.

Update: January 9, 2018

We have spent the last few weeks reviewing the functionality on RootsWeb and have created a plan to bring many of your contributions back online over the next few months. As we stated before, our first priority is security, and ensuring that every part of RootsWeb meets our stringent security standards. Our next priority is getting you, the users of RootsWeb and its services, access to your content.

Right now, the best way for us to meet both goals is to begin bringing portions of RootsWeb back online in a read-only state. This means you will have access to content, but you will not be able to load new content in these sections. While this may not be ideal, it is the best way for us to protect RootsWeb users while also providing the ability to use the content you value. This is an interim step while we continue to evaluate the potential for bringing more of the RootsWeb services back online in a more complete manner.

Here’s our current plan:

Hosted Web Sites: Soon we will begin bringing Hosted Web Sites back online. We will start with a few hundred and then add more over time, giving us a chance to scan the content.

Family Trees/WorldConnect: Family Trees or WorldConnect allows you to upload a GEDCOM file and publish it for others to see. It is currently being reviewed by our software engineers and security team and we plan on having a read-only, searchable version up in the next few weeks. The ability to upload new GEDCOM files will be available in the coming months.

Mailing Lists: Mailing Lists have been functioning as normal, but the archives have been unavailable. We plan to make the archives available to you once we have WorldConnect available to you in a readable version.

We will be making decisions about other functionality over time.

We appreciate your patience as we bring the different pieces of RootsWeb back online in a secure manner. You, our contributors and viewers, are what has made RootsWeb the vibrant free genealogy community it is.

The RootsWeb Team

Six Google Search Tricks

1. Apply Quotation Marks
Also known as a string search this is one of the best, and most obvious ways, to limit search results in Google. When you type in a name like James Wilcox, Google will search the entire title and text of pages for those terms. They do not need to be related to each other – so you may turn up a page with James and Wilcox, but not necessarily a page where these terms appear together.

Use “James Wilcox” or “Wilcox, James” to limit results (remember that many genealogy related sites place the last name first). Also apply quotations around terms like “obituary” to make them exact — otherwise Google will substitute other words like ‘death’ or ‘died.’ This can be helpful in some situations, but for others is can be a big hassle and turn up many unwanted results.

2. Use the Minus Sign
Oftentimes when we are searching for ancestors, especially those with common names, we may find that a certain person or location we’re NOT looking for turns up again and again, clouding our results. For instance, a James Wilcox who lived in Somerset keeps coming up for us. He’s definitely not our guy, so we’ll exclude the term Somerset.

Place a minus sign before a term to exclude these unwanted results (Example: “wilcox, james” 1837 mahala -somerset). The minus sign can be placed in front of many terms to further refine results ( -dunbar -somerset -1907) or term strings (-“Wilcox, James Robinson”). Just make sure that the minus sign is placed directly before the term with no space in between. This works to exclude specific sites as well (-rootsweb).

3. Get Site Specific Results

Would you like to get search results only for a specific website, such as FamilySearch?

Use ‘site:SITEURL’ before a term or terms to do this. Example: site:familysearch.org “wilcox, james” –note that we didn’t place a space between ‘site:’ and the url and that we didn’t include the ‘http://www’ part either.

4. Search Only Page Titles

When looking for a specific ancestor is can be very helpful to have the pages you turn up only be ones that focus on that individual alone. Or, when searching for a surname, to find articles centered around that specific last name. Making sure a search term appears in the title of the page is a good way to do this. This isn’t always true of course, and you’ll miss a lot of results this way, but when looking for discussions about a person, biographies or in-depth data it can be a very helpful trick.

To search only web page titles use ‘allintitle:’ Example: allintitle: “Wilcox, James.” You can also search only the text, and exclude the titles, by using ‘allintext:’

 5. Search a Date Range

This is one of the best and most underused Google search tips for genealogists. This super cool trick lets you search multiple dates at one time without having to enter them individually. This is hugely helpful if you are looking for birth, marriage or death records (or any date based source) but don’t know the exact date of an event.

Just add DATE..DATE to your search box to accomplish this (two periods in between the dates like this 1900..1910).  For instance, we know that James Wilcox was most likely born between 1835 and 1839 based on the information we have, so we could search for “Wilcox, James” 1835..1839. This will bring up only pages that include one or all of the dates 1835, 1836, 1837, 1838 and 1839. It will not exclude pages that include other dates (which we usually would not want to do.) But if we did want to do that we could exclude any date by typing -DATE, such as -1840 after our other terms.

6. Search for Terms Near Each Other
One of the most frustrating things about searching for ancestors in Google is that, while the engine will search an entire page for your terms, your terms may not have any association to each other. As mentioned early on in this article, that can cause major problems for genealogists since many pages include long lists of dates and names. It is entirely possible, for example, to find the exact names, dates and other details you’re looking for — but not in relation to each other in any way. For instance, our searches for James Wilcox and 1837 turned up pages that include James Wilcox and the date 1837, but that date was often applied to other people on the page.

However, there is a way to ask Google to find terms near each other! Enter AROUND(1) between terms to do this. An example would be: “James Wilcox” AROUND(10) 1837. That means we want Google to look for pages where the exact name James Wilcox appears within 10 words of the date 1837. You can change the modifying number to anything you want (“James Wilcox” AROUND(3) 1837 or “James Wilcox AROUND(1) Mahala) a lower number means a closer association and thus, usually, fewer results. We can also apply this to multiple terms (Example: “Wilcox, James” AROUND(10) Mahala AROUND(5) 1837). You will be blown away by how much this helps you find more relevant results.

 We hope these ‘secret’ tips help you in your Google genealogy searches! Don’t forget to combine them to maximize your results. And, when you’re done trying these out, check out our Google Image Search for Genealogy help article for more tips. 

Note: Sometimes when you apply these operators, especially if you do so several times in a row, Google may check to make sure you’re a real person and not a computer by transferring you to a captcha verification page. Don’t worry, just type in the characters and proceed  — and try not to get too excited that you’re geeky enough to be considered a computer by Google.

 Also note that when you’re at the Google.com home page, there is a “Settings” link in the lower right-hand corner. Click it and you’ll get a drop “up” menu. From there, click “Advanced Search.” There, you’ll find fields that you can fill in for all of these six helpful hints and more.

(LVH/Family Roots & Branches)