School Enumerations: A Treasure Trove of Information

Ask any genealogist what record they wish they could have access to today and many will mention the 1890 United States Census. This is true since genealogists rely on the decennial documents to construct families and follow their movements throughout the decades. Unfortunately, this critical census was destroyed when a fire ravaged the United States …

Tools for Taking the Tears out of Deciphering Handwriting

If you have been following me on social media lately, you have probably noticed that I have been participating in Genealogy Girl Talks’ “Genealogy Photo a Day”. Basically, she posts a prompt for each day of the month and followers can then post their pictures using the hashtag #genealogyphotoaday. It is a lot of fun …

Homestead National Monument

After our stop at Alcove Spring, Kansas (you can read about Alcove Springs in my previous blog post), we headed north into Nebraska. We planned to camp at Fort Kearney for the night, however, we decided to take a minor detour to visit the small town of Beatrice, Nebraska. Mind you, Beatrice is nowhere near …

Wednesday Wisdom

Hello y’all, my summer cold is kicking my butt and I am traveling again this week, so I have not had time to write my second post about my Oregon Trail vacation. However, I did not want to leave you hanging without any content, so I decided to share a little Wednesday Wisdom. As a …

Jumping Off: Day 1 on the Oregon Trail

Well, my family and I have returned from our epic 4500-mile road trip across the American west via the Oregon Trail. If you haven’t noticed, I have been missing in action since returning I came down with a debilitating summer cold, thankfully it wasn’t anything serious like cholera or dysentery that many overland pioneers experienced. …

Oregon or Bust

Tomorrow my family and I will embark on our annual two-week summer vacation and this year’s destination is more of a journey. In honor of the Oregon Trail’s 175 anniversary, we will be traveling along the backroads of America by car following the original Oregon Trail as closely as possible. As it happens, I will …

Genealogy Facebook Groups

As many of you know, I attended the National Genealogical Society’s conference this year up in Michigan. While I was there I attended society night, and it was there that I made an extraordinary new friend. Her name is Katherine R. Wilson and let me tell you, she is amazing. Katherine is a professional genealogist …

Family Recipe Friday

As a way of keeping the blog updated and making good use of my time during this brief break from school, I have decided to post at least once a week, possibly twice. Not quite knowing what to write about, I found a list of prompts, one of which I really liked since it went …

Day 4 of the National Genealogical Society’s (NGS) 2018 Conference

Last day of the National Genealogical Society’s (NGS) conference was a short one for me since I left before the conference ended. I wanted to tackle the nearly five-hour drive sooner rather than later in the day and after four straight days of conference sessions, my brain needed a break. The first session of the …

Day 3 National Genealogical Society’s (NGS) 2018 Conference Recap

Day 3 of the National Genealogical Society’s (NGS) 2018 conference was filled with nationally recognized speakers and all but one of the four sessions I attended were part to the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) skill building track (the skill-building sessions were also live-streamed). The day began with Angela Packer McGhie CG, her presentation …