category_outlined / Family & Parenting
Family Tree
September 2019Family Tree Magazine will help point the way toward the best research tools and practices to trace your family's history. Each issue includes tips on locating, collecting, and preserving photos, letters, diaries, church and government records, and other documentation, plus fun articles about creating scrapbooks, organizing family reunions, and vacation ideas that combine history with leisure!
IN THIS ISSUE
family tree
SEPTEMBER 2019/VOLUME 20, ISSUE 5 Publisher Patty Craft Editor in Chief Andrew Koch Art Director Julie Barnett Editor/Content Producer Courtney Henderson Web Producer Rachel Fountain Contributing Editors Lisa A. Alzo, Rick Crume, David A. Fryxell, Nancy Hendrickson, Sunny Jane Morton, Maureen A. Taylor F+W, A CONTENT + ECOMMERCE COMPANY Chief Executive Officer Gregory J. Osberg SVP, General Manager F+W Fine Art, Writing, Outdoors and Small Business Group Ray Chelstowski Managing Director, F+W International James Woollam VP, Consumer Marketing John Phelan VP, Digital Jason Revzon VP, Product Management Pat Fitzgerald Newsstand Sales Scott Hill, scott.hill@procirc.com VP, Advertising Sales Kevin D. Smith Advertising Sales Representative Tim Baldwin Advertising Services Assistant Connie Kostrzewa Family Tree Magazine, published in the United States, is not affiliated with the British Family Tree Magazine, with Family Tree Maker software or with Family Tree DNA. EDITORIAL OFFICES: 10151 Carver Road, Suite 300, Blue Ash, OH 45242, ftmedit@fwmedia.com.…
out on a limb
This might be controversial, but you won’t hear me talking about “online genealogy.” In this day and age, all genealogy research involves the Internet, so saying “online genealogy” is redundant. Even if you aren’t building a family tree using Ancestry.com you likely have a software program that has syncing capabilities with the site. And where would we be without libraries and archives, many of whom catalog their holdings online? Whether we like it or not, the Internet has revolutionized how we research. So instead of focusing on “online” genealogy, we’re showing you how to do genealogy in the 21st century—which, inevitably, involves the Internet. This issue contains our 20th annual list of the 101 Best Websites for Genealogy (page 18). Though its rogues gallery of websites has changed in the past two…
tree talk
Ancestry <www.ancestry.com> because of familiarity, but it’s gotten so expensive I’ve dropped my membership.Donna Welch via FacebookBesides many of the previously mentioned sites, I like Fulton Post Cards <www.fultonhistory.com>. Their newspapers have revealed a lot of info on my family. And, it’s free!Nora Frateschi Miller via Facebook One?!?! Francine Griffis via Facebook I’VE BEEN USING ANCESTRY AND ROOTSFINDER <www.rootsfinder.com>, but I’m a total newbie so I’m interested in others’ opinions!Vernell Williams Schutte via Facebook FINDMYPAST <www.findmypast.com>. My main tree is on Ancestry and I do have resources from them, but a lot of my resources are from Find mypast and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>. I also subscribe to MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com>, but I don’t know why as it’s not so useful for British ancestry. I guess [I do] because it has a chromosome browser. Rebekha Balsdon via Facebook JOIN…
back to (genealogy) school
Social Media Genealogists, assemble! A new Facebook group called The Genealogy Squad <www.facebook.com/groups/genealogysquad> offers expert advice and resources for researchers of all experience levels. The group’s superteam of administrators includes Blaine T. Bettinger (author of The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy), Cyndi Ingle (the mind behind Cyndi’s List <www.cyndislist.com>), and George G. Morgan (co-host of the “Genealogy Guys” podcast). Name Games Find an unusual name in your family tree? Check out its profile on Behind the Name <www.behindthename.com>, which contains histories for thousands of first names. Each name profile details the name’s origin, including its meaning in the native language. You can also learn how the name’s popularity has changed over time. Mary, for example, is the English version of the Greek Mariam and the Hebrew Miryam. The name…
paper pushers
GUTENBERG’S 15TH-CENTURY INVENTION of movable-type printing gets all the press (so to speak) for launching mass communication. But without innovation from a Chinese eunuch more than 1,300 years earlier (and several inventors in the centuries since), Gutenberg wouldn’t have had anything to print on. According to legend, Gutenberg’s business partner offered 20 copies of his printed Bible to a Paris bookseller—only to flee for his life from an angry crowd. The mob believed that the only explanation for so many identical books was witchcraft. 751 Captured Chinese papermakers reveal their secrets in Samarkand, bringing papermaking to the Arab world and making Samarkand a center of the trade. Through conquest, the Moors bring papermaking to Spain in the 12th century. Then Egyptians bring it to Italy in the 1200s. 3000 B.C. Egyptians produce papyrus, a mat…
reading the good book
“A lightbulb went off. I knew exactly where this family Bible was!” When Lauren Peightel’s surrogate grandmother gave her a book, she unknowingly gave Peightel part of her family history—and the identity of a mysterious treasure in the family archive. The book, Indian Eve and Her Descendants, was written in 1911, and features a woman from Bedford County, Pa. Peightel, of Indianapolis, Ind., received the book because of her interest in genealogy and Native American history. She started reading, but got sidetracked and didn’t finish it. Several months later, an online tree connection led to a woman who was reportedly Shawnee. Peightel was skeptical, but followed up with research. “I found a record or two and thought one name sounded familiar,” she says. “So I opened Indian Eve [again] and realized this random…
