| FHC Info | |
Hours of Operation:
Mon: Closed
Fri: 9:30 am-1:00 pm
Saturday:
9:30 am-4:30 pm
Tues, Wed, Thurs:
9:30am-4:30pm, & 7-9:30 pm
Directors: Linda & Kurt Christensen Washington DC Stake Carol & Gary Petranek, Silver Spring MDStake |
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WDC FHC News
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New Hispanic Special Interest Group Formed
A Hispanic Special Interest Group has now been formed with two initiatives:
- Every Thursday evening from 7:00 - 9:30, (beginning January 7), an English-Spanish bilingual staff member will be at the FHC to assist patrons who are Spanish-speaking, and/or who need assistance with researching Hispanic records.
2. The Hispanic Special Interest Group meeting will meet the 2nd Thursday evening of each month from 7:00 - 9:30, with a lecture or presentation. The lecture on February 11 will be "Getting Started on FamilyTree," and the presenter is Clay McVeigh. The lecture will be presented in Spanish, and one-on-one assistance will be available afterwards.
Please help us get the word out to those who are engaged in Hispanic research, and those who could use assistance from a Spanish-speaking member of our staff.
Saturday Classes - 2016
January 16, 9:30 a.m.
How I Built My Own Brick Wall
Presented by: Rebecca Koford
You believe you are doing everything right until you hit a wall. Learn what you should do to avoid creating stumbling blocks in your research.
February 20, 2016
"Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memory"
African-American Genealogy Conference
Laurel Maryland Family History Center, 9:00-5:00
Flier with details can be found here.
Registration will begin on January 15.
March 19, 9:30 a.m.
Social Media and Genealogy
Presented by: Carol Petranek
If you think Facebook is for cat videos and Twitter is for politicians, you are missing out on valuable genealogical resources! This presentation will cover how today's family historians are using social media and blogs to further their own research and connect with new cousins.
April 16, 9:30 a.m.
Writing Your Narrative with Social History
Presented by: Rebecca Koford
Rebecca will demonstrate how to enhance and enrich your family's stories by grounding them within the events of their times.
May 7, all-day
WDC FHC Annual Conference
Please join us to enhance your research skills
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WDC FHC Special Interest Group Schedule
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Join a Special Interest Group to Enhance Your Research Skills
African-American: Meets weekly on Monday mornings at 10:00. Every 2nd Monday, there is special training to learn how to index Freedmen's Bureau records.
Beginning Genealogy: Meets weekly on Tuesday mornings at 10:00. Contact Lorraine Minor at ldgene@verizon.net for further information.
DNA Group: Meets bi-weekly the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7:00. January will have one meeting on the 27th at 7:00 p.m.
Eastern European Group: Meets monthly on the 4th Saturday at noon; focus countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Hispanic Group: Formal meetings with lectures/presentations on the 2nd Thursday evening of each month; bilingual staff member works every Thursday evening from 7-9:30.
Irish Group: Meets bi-weekly on the 1st, 3rd & 5th Tuesday evenings at 7:00.
RootsMagic Users Group: Meets monthly on the 2nd Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
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5 Steps to Verifying Online Sources
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by Kimberly Powell
...The Internet is a great resource for tracing family trees. The trick is to learn how to separate the good online data from the bad. Follow these five steps and you too can use Internet sources to track down reliable information about your ancestors.
- Search for the Source
- Track Down the Referenced Source
- Search for a Possible Source
- Evaluate the Source & Information it Provides
- Resolve Conflicts
To read the full article, click here.
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Explore Your Ancestors' Lives in Old Newspaperst
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By Stephen Anderson
...It is said that each person gets 15 minutes of fame in his or her lifetime. If fame is based on the appearance of a person's name in the newspaper, I submit that our ancestors got much more than 15 minutes. Here are a few of the events in a person's life that could have appeared in the newspapers.
- Births
 - Marriages
- Divorces
- Deaths
- Name Changes
- Employment
- Addresses
- Significant Events
- Daily Life Events
- Court Cases
- Immigration
The full article with examples can be read here.
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Deeds
| | by Alicia Crane Williams, New England Historic Genealogical Society
Deed formats and terminology vary from colony to colony, county to county, time period to time period and from the handwriting and style of one clerk to another, all of which makes this a complex topic. As a basic primer, we are using a deed from Plymouth County, Massachusetts, chosen because it is short and legible!
It is important to remember that the recorded copy of a deed is a copy, not the original. The transaction could take place without the deed being recorded, but it was in the best interest of both parties to have it placed on official record in case the original was lost and/or any questions about title should come up in the future. The deed would be copied into the "copy book" by the recording clerk and the original would go home with the grantee. There are, therefore, opportunities for errors or omissions to have been made in the copying. The recording clerk may have also written the original deed, but few of these survive because they disappeared with long-lost family papers.
This is a 3-part article as follows:
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by Jim Bartlett, DNA Specialist
[Note: To help readers better understand the use of DNA in genealogy research, this newsletter will feature extracts of monthly posts from Jim Bartlett's new blog, Segment-ology.]
Common Ancestors (CA) and Most Recent Common Ancestor (MCRA)
Shared IBD segments come from a Common Ancestor (CA). Matching & overlapping IBD segments form Triangulated Groups (TGs). Every Match in a TG with significantly overlapping shared segments will have the same CA! And closer Matches (cousins), will also have a closer CA. So how can we have a close CA and a distant CA when they are in the same TG? When they are all in the same ancestral line!
To read Jim's detailed article, click here.
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Index vs. Original: Are You Getting the Whole Picture?
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by Jenny Lanctot
More and more historic records are being digitized, indexed, and published online. Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing! You can make significant strides in moving your research forward with online records. It definitely saves a ton of time and money. But it can also cause some pretty major headaches if you aren't careful.
People are human. (I know ... shocker, right?) Mistakes will be made. This is especially true when indexing historic records. Handwriting issues, spelling issues, language issues, and poor quality originals can cause indexes to contain erroneous information. So, how can you ensure you're getting the whole story? Always look at the original document (or the closest thing to it, if the original isn't available). [This article covers the following common issues found in indexes] - Errors on the Index
- Index is Lacking Information
- Index has Assumed Information
To read the full article, which includes specifics and images, click here.
(Special thanks to the Logan FamilySearch Library newsletter)
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3 Ways to Use Instagram for Family History
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| | Video: From Shoebox to Instagram |
It's no secret that technology has changed the family history industry for the better over the past several decades. Finding, preserving, and sharing your family's history is now easier than ever thanks to online databases and dozens of social media sites. If you're interested in telling your family story online, consider starting with Instagram.
Instagram, a social networking app that allows you to share pictures and short videos, has quickly gained popularity in recent years. In fact, according to a studyfrom Digital Marketing Ramblings (DMR), more than 75 million people use Instagram daily. Many family historians enjoy this platform because of its simple-to-use interface, intimate feel, and social-sharing possibilities.
While there are many ways to use Instagram to do family history work, here are three tips to get you started: - Utilize the power of the hashtag
- Connect with other genealogists
- Tell a compelling family story
Source: FamilySearch Blog, December 23, 2015
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Those Maiden Names of our Female Ancestors
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If you can not locate the family birth name (maiden name) of some of your ancestors, here are some reasons why and some ideas to find it.
With the US Federal census which started in 1790, it was only the head of household, a male, whose name was listed. No females or even other family members' names were used....Even with the 1850 census when all names were used, a married woman would have her married name listed.... Other places overlooked when checking for a maiden name are the marriage records, listings in the family Bible record, and sometimes the maiden name will appear in an obituary....
When checking marriage records or certificates, check other family members' wedding certificates.... Many who received a pension for service during the American Revolution or the Civil War, had to complete a detailed pension application. Most of the time, if there was a wife, her full name, including her maiden name was placed on the form. Many times a woman's maiden name was continued by naming a baby with that name as a given first or middle name.... A female many times made her middle name her maiden name after she married.... . Check at the family hometown cemetery. If you know of some family branches buried there, look over all the surround headstones. There might a familiar name or two, that with a little further research could yield your female ancestor's maiden name.
To read the full article, click here.
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3 Simple Strategies to Back Up Smartphone Photos
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by Denise May Levenick
You're not alone if the photos of last year's holiday dinner are still on your smartphone or buried in a cloud backup service. But unlike forgotten leftovers, those pictures can still be saved.
Professional photographers track thousands of images with a dedicated workflow that includes routine file import. Genealogists face similar challenges with downloaded and scanned images, but when it comes to the pictures we take every day with our smartphone cameras, we tend to be a bit lax in managing those digital images.... Basic Backup 3-2-1 It's tough to back up your family photos if you don't know where they are. A true backup, after all, is more than just a single copy - on a cloud service, a flashdrive, or your computer. To be secure, a backup should include: - three copies on
- two different media
- one copy stored offsite
To read the full article, click here.
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A Dozen Places to Find Immigrant Origins
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by Juliana Szucs
There's a unique thrill that comes when we identify an immigrant ancestor in our family tree. That ancestor's decision had a huge impact on who we are today. Finding a connection to your immigrant's place of origin in the old country can fuel our passion for family history. Here are ten places to look to find that "old world" location.
1. Family Correspondence and Memorabilia
2. Birth Records
3. Marriage Records
4. Death Records
5. Religious Records
6. Gravestones
7. Newspapers
8. Local Histories
9. Naturalization Records
10. Passport Records
11. Passenger Lists
12. Military Records
To read the full article, click here.
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Genealogy Tip of the Day
| | | by Michael John Neill
Enumerated Twice in the Census
While it is possible for someone to be missed in the census, it is also possible for them to be counted twice. This can happen if the person is moving around the time of the census, has a job that requires them to live away from home for part of the week, or other reasons. My grandmother is enumerated twice in the 1930 US census-once with her parents and once in the household where she was working as a hired girl. Her brother and his wife are enumerated twice as well-once in the town where they were from and had gotten married, and another time in a town thirty miles away where he had gone looking for work.
How Long They Had Known Them
Pension affidavits often indicate how old the affiant was and how long they had known the person about whom they were testifying. That can sometimes be a big clue in tracking migrations. Think about what year they were supposed to have "met." Could it have been when one of them was born? Were both of them children? Where would they have been living when they met? All good questions to ask.
Read the Back of Every Paper in a Case File
Always make certain you have read or seen the front and back of every page in a packet of court papers, pension papers, etc. Sometimes notations or comments on the back can be significant clues. Don't ignore them.
Crop with Care
Don't get "crop happy" and cut away too much of a document. There may be clues in the edges that may not be immediately relevant. The illustration has obvious clues in the license plate and the home. Neighbors in the census may be relatives, cutting them out of the image you save may cause to miss that clue years later. Handwritten records where just the "entry of interest" is saved can be hard to analyze without the context of other records to serve as a guide.
It is a Naming Pattern Not a Naming Law
Certain ethnic groups tend to follow certain naming patterns when choosing names for children. Keep in mind that these patterns are cultural norms. They are not set in statute. They are not part of an ecclesiastical edict. There can be exceptions, particularly when both grandfathers (or grandmothers) have the same first name or when there has been a significant argument with a certain relative.
Use the naming patterns as a suggestive clues not as an established certainty.
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Research Tips & Resources
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Russian Genealogy: A New Russian-American Digital Archive
Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center of New Jersey
National Archives Military Personnel Databases
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Thank you for subscribing to Generations. We hope this publication will motivate you to successfully begin or continue your family history research. We would like to hear from you! Please submit your questions, research tips, and favorite websites to us at info@wdcfhc.org
Sincerely,
Carol Petranek, Newsletter Editor
Linda & Kurt Christensen
Gary Petranek
Co-Directors, Washington DC Family History Center
10000 Stoneybrook Drive, PO Box 49
Kensington, MD 20895
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