/ Family & Parenting
Family Tree
January - February 2020Family 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
Editor Andrew Koch Art Director Lori Pedrick Photo Editor Heather Marcus Digital Editor Courtney Henderson New Media Editor Rachel Fountain Contributing Editors Lisa A. Alzo, Rick Crume, David A. Fryxell, Nancy Hendrickson, Sunny Jane Morton, Maureen A. Taylor VP Production and New Media Paul Belliveau, Jr. Production Director Dave Ziarnowski Production Manager Brian Johnson Senior Production Artists Jenn Freeman, Susan Shute Senior Ad Production Coordinator Janet Selle New Media Designer Amy O’Brien Digital Marketing Specialist Holly Sanderson eCommerce Manager Alan Henning President and CEO Jamie Trowbridge VP Finance Sandy Lepple VP Human Resources Jody Bugbee VP Production and New Media Paul Belliveau, Jr. VP Consumer Marketing Brook Holmberg VP Single Copy Sales Sherin Pierce VP Sales JD Hale, Jr. <www.ypi.com>…
out on a limb
New Year’s is all about new beginnings, where we all resolve to improve in the new year. Maybe now, after the holidays, you want to make more time for family. In this issue, Contributing Editor Sunny Jane Morton shares her favorite online tools for planning a family reunion (page 48). And if you want to preserve your own story in the new year, you’ll love Richard Campbell’s tips for writing a memoir (page 42). No matter what your resolution is, our Goal-Planning Worksheet (page 15) will help you accomplish it. At Family Tree, we’re resolving to provide you with great genealogy advice in even more ways: › The Family Tree Podcast, hosted by Lisa Louise Cooke, made a return in November after a hiatus. Listen for free each month <www.familytreemagazine.com/podcasts>. › Our Family Tree…
tree talk
We asked about your genealogy goals. Here’s how you responded. I’m still trying to locate my biological paternal grandma. She is very, very good at hiding. Sandi Sibona via Facebook MY GOAL THIS MONTH is to finish editing, and adding photographs to the book I have been researching for over 40 years. I plan to donate the over 400-page book to the historical library of the county where these ancestors lived. Beth Hanson via Facebook Fill in the blanks! I have names but not all the important dates. Then making sure I have all my sources cited correctly. Lisa Collins via Facebook I’m separating out my family tree. I had a combined tree of maternal and paternal families all in one and have decided to make four separate trees and while I’m at it, fill in any…
everything’s relative
“I HOPE THAT IN THIS YEAR TO COME, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.” Author Neil Gaiman shared this New Year’s wish on his blog to commemorate New Year’s Day 2012. Our genealogy goal-setting worksheet (page 15) will help you “Do Something” with your genealogy in 2020. Gaiman’s body of work includes the novel American Gods, in which the Old World gods that immigrants brought with them to North America live and breathe as long as they’re believed in.…
history coming to life
Historic Hot Spot As family historians, who among us hasn’t wished our pioneer ancestors wrote up accounts of their lives? Thankfully, Laura Ingalls Wilder penned hers, and through them she gives us a glimpse into the days of homesteading and one-room schoolhouses. You can visit the original schoolhouse where Laura notoriously rocked the school desk on behalf of her little sister, Carrie, in The Long Winter. The First School of De Smet, South Dakota, is located on the corner of First Street and Olivet Avenue. During my recent visit, we were even invited to rock the desks ourselves! Digital Collections You may have searched old city directories and address books in the United States, but have you searched internationally? Ancestry.com has been digitizing and adding old German address books to its “Germany and…
what’s new
UNITED STATES: WWII DRAFT RECORDS US DRAFT REGISTRATION RECORDS for 1942 have long been available on major genealogy websites. But these are only from the fourth of several registrations held between 1940 and 1945. Additional registrations from the other series are coming online gradually (state by state) for males who were between the ages of 18 and 45 during this time period. FamilySearch is posting state-level collections of indexed images, and subscription site Ancestry.com < www.ancestry.com> is adding to an index-only multistate collection, “U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947” (linking to images on its partner site, Fold3 <www.fold3.com>). SCANDINAVIA: CENSUSES AND VITAL RECORDS MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> continues to publish more records for Denmark, Norway and Sweden—and is the only major genealogy site to offer full support in all three languages (meaning that your cousins…
