agriculture tips

Some of the people are gone but their characters live on in the stories told by the children, grandchildren, family and friends. The "remember when" stories that one never tires of hearing. Each narrator adds just a bit of colour, pageantry, twist and embellishment to their own rendition of the history soaked tale. Given the chance, write down or record these stories and anecdotes before they are lost forever in the minds of the elders and those that have passed on. Take responsibility and become the family or community archivist and historian. Genealogy quests can become an addiction. With the use of computers and some very good genealogical software and web sites, a person can be immersed for hours following one name. In a search that will undoubtedly open more gates than anticipated, be prepared to find out information about family and, yes, friends that may be shocking, most likely laughable and a surprise when blind sided with some facts that were least expected. Defini...

Over the past ten years the popularity of Family History Research has grown exponentionally in the UK and the US. When I started out, family history research was a case of travelling to busy records offices and poring through indexes, old books, dusty documents and microfiche readers. To get a UK birth certificate (etc.) a visit to St Catherines House was often required. This was the equivalent of a long workout at the gym! The enormous, heavy, quarterly index books were deftly pulled from the shelves behind the researchers and slammed down onto the long, lectern height desks. A quick ruffle through the pages to find the required name either resulted in a reference number being written down, or a swift return of the book to the shelf behind, trying not to hit the others waiting to look at the books. It was quite amusing sometimes to see a frail old lady, or a newcomer having problems coping with the massive books and being given dirty looks by those who were making a good income by ch...

1. Be Organized When searching online it is very easy to randomly jump from website to website in your eagerness to find that vital piece of missing information. Or perhaps it's the excitement of finding that potential name match that you need to make a missing link. Make a note of where you've looked and organize your bookmarks carefully. 2. Talk to Your Family If you have older family members who are still alive, their reminiscences can be invaluable. Be aware though that some stories that have passed down through the generations may have got embellished along the way. 3. Surname Spellings Don't ignore alternative surname spellings. They may come to your rescue if you reach a dead end in your researches. 4. Find the Evidence Don't make assumptions. If you are unsure about a find and don't have the time to check the evidence there and then, make a note that it still needs to be verified. Imagine yourself having to prove your findings in a court of law - would you ...

Genealogy research is exciting, and in the process we accumulate numerous documents, files, photographs and notes. But I sometimes wonder what the point of having all this information is unless we have some way of telling the story, the 'what happened', that will interest and inspire the future generations. How do you go from researching your family history to writing a family history? Most of us will have researched beyond the basic birth, marriage and death details, beyond the census, and tried to find the 'deeper' history of our ancestors' lives. However, we all know that this is not always possible. With the best will in the world, sometimes all we have are some dates and places, an occupation, and not much else. How can you construct a life story from such basic details? If you are writing up your family history, perhaps for your children, or as a gift for members of your family, how can you make an ancestor's life sound interesting when all you know is hi...

These days, many people have become interested in genealogy-the study of their family history. Have you found interesting ancestors in your family tree? Perhaps you have a great-great-grandfather who prospected for gold in the California Gold Rush, or a grandfather who flew B-29s in World War II, or a great-aunt who was a vaudeville star in the 1920s, and you are thinking that one of them would make a great subject for a book. Your first step is to select the most interesting candidate and start amassing all the information you can find about him/her. Much information is now available on the internet with a little searching. Hopefully, you have a family tree software program installed on your computer. It is the easiest way to keep track of genealogy. Use the "notes" feature to summarize your findings. A couple of census records are not going to be enough for this project. If you have family records, you are in luck. Create a separate file on your computer where you can stor...

Are you fulfilled? Do you have a sense of purpose and fulfillment? I believe that a connection to our ancestors is vital to our personal growth. The same phenomenon that occurs when you clean, or rearrange a room to function better, shows up when you put your ancestors in order and focus on the hidden gifts they left for you. Call it the Feng shui of your spiritual life! In the wake of natural and personal disaster I automatically think about families and how they are affected. What are the stories of the individuals who were lost? How much do the surviving loved ones know about the lives that were lived? Can we find some motivation to stay connected with the living and use our time better today to learn more about our past? And can we find a way and a reason to leave a more complete record of our lives for future generations? People start doing family history research for many reasons. Maybe you want to know where you came from for medical reasons. Some of you need a better sense of ...

The Irish Diaspora Genealogy has become hugely popular throughout the world in recent decades but has long had an important position in Ireland. Many of the surviving medieval Gaelic manuscripts are accounts of the pedigree of important, powerful Irish families. This was, to some extent, a display by such families of the legitimacy of their position and power but was also a display of the respect for ancestor's which has always been a feature of Irish society. Where did this ancestral respect come from? Well it could be said to have come from the land and the Irish love of the land. Under the ancient Brehon Law ownership of property was not vested in individuals or even necessarily families but in kinship. What you could own depended on who you were descended from. So, yes, it was vitally important you knew who your ancestors were. Despite centuries of British rule and being banned under that rule from owning land this sense of kinship has persisted strongly amongst the Irish. Eve...

Social security death records help you identify a lost friend, look for your family tree or learn about your family background and history. The internet has simplified locating the social security death index as it can now be found out faster and easier. While looking for a person's death records, the retrieved data will bring you the person's social security number, their name or place of residence, the zip code where the certificate was issued, place of burial and funeral and date of birth. The records also indicate the surviving descendants of the individual as well as their occupation, contact details and present dwelling state or city. Checking the death records is one way through which you can track your ancestors and where they died, when they died and their place of burial. Information on your genealogy and roots offers an insight on your sense of self, belonging and fulfillment. Through the records or SSDI, you can locate a distant ancestor who fought great wars. The ...

Do you know the difference between genealogy and family history? When you are a beginning genealogist; taking those first tentative steps in researching your ancestry, it can be difficult to distinguish the difference between them. The terms genealogy and family history refer to two separate but equally significant approaches to exploring your roots. The fundamental difference between the two methods lies in the sources of information used to conduct the research. These sources consist of primary, secondary, and tertiary information. The study of Genealogy refers to the fact based inquiry into your ancestry. It is the concrete process of searching for your genetic origins by gathering and documenting the names, dates and locations of your predecessors. Genealogy requires adherence to the precise information presented within public record to provide irrefutable evidence of your lineage. A genealogist's tools are the source materials such as Statutory Index Records for marriages, bi...

The holidays mean many things to different people, but regardless of what traditions you follow, the holidays have a universal aspect among everyone regardless of religion and that is family. Whether you split the holidays driving between parents and in-laws, spend five hours on a plane trying to get to your parents' house, or spend a quite holiday season with just your spouse and children, family is an important part of the holidays. It was during the holidays four years ago when "family" took on a new meaning for me. I was pregnant with my first son and suddenly "family" wasn't just my parents and grandparents. It was all the people who came before them that made up my family, and I needed to know more about them. I wanted to find my roots so my son could know his. Genealogy has exploded in the 21st century with online databases making it possible to research your roots from anywhere in the world. In the United States much of this is thanks to the Church ...

Investigating your family involves who they are, what they did, where they were born, when they died, and sometimes why they did what they did. It comes down to learning your personal history. It is a great way to teach your children to be aware of their past and to develop an interest so they can learn to search further back. It can be exciting and is a great learning experience. Where should you start? One of the easiest ways to get other members of your family involved is to pull out your old selection of pictures that you probably have stored away in a shoe box somewhere. It is always interesting to scan through these memories of past generations. But do you know who is in the picture and when it was taken? Plan on having a family get together. Place the pictures that you need more information on in an album with plastic sleeves. Number each picture and provide a numbered list to each family member so they can look at the individual pictures and list the name of who they think it ...

Do free genealogy sites and other free family history resources really exist? The short answer is yes. But it doesn't mean that it'll be easy for you to search your family tree. Let me explain... Genealogy research used to be a very time intensive and difficult task. When you began to research who your grandparents REALLY were - their full names, dates of birth, locations of origin, and their siblings, you'd have to begin with the first resource available - normally your parents. You would rely on your parents for stories about your grandparents, but you couldn't necessary rely on these stories as fact. The next step would be to search through old filing cabinets and boxes stored away in various locations for any possible genealogy records which normally included old newspaper clippings, old photos, and similar research. Pending how successful this initial search, the next step would be the time intensive and expensive investment to visit local libraries and review mic...