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Ancestors by Occupation I

Family trees come in all forms and styles.  In addition to the traditional chart that identifies ancestors by name, one can also create tree diagrams emphasizing a particular aspect or feature of one's ancestors.  Genetic trees, for example,…
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Display Your Ancestry Over the Fireplace!

There are lots of ways to display your family tree, but here's one I bet you never heard of.  My father, Nelson Jonnes, had the idea 20 years ago to create a fireplace mantel that displayed the key surnames in his ancestry.  He asked his good…
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My Alsatian Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic in 1827

Oh my goodness ... when it rains it pours.  Without really expecting to, I found the ship passenger record for Lawrence & Rose Whaley when they immigrated from France! As the previous two blog posts have discussed here and here, I've…

Photo Colorization Tool Makes Big Splash

MyHeritage launched a new feature on 11 February called MyHeritage In Color™.  It became popular so fast that within 5 days over 1 million photographs had been colorized, according to their website.  I noticed a lot of comment about it right…

Marit Tredahl Redux

In December, I posted about the Norwegian roots of a friend's great-grandmother.  See it here.  In the post, I was able to identify my classmate's ancestor as Marit Andersdatter Tredahl (1864-1928), born at the Skrøen under Trædal Farm…
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John K. Vermilyea was neither Danish nor Lutheran

I've always been saddened by the way John Knickerbocker Vermilyea (1851-1925) died.  He is a 2nd great-grandfather (2GG) and one of very few direct ancestors who died in an accident. I happened to be looking at him again recently and was…
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The Mystery of an Antique Immigrant Trunk from Nordmøre

I recently helped a high school classmate with her Norwegian ancestry.  We both graduated from Stillwater High School in Minnesota and, although I didn't know it at the time, she has a Norwegian first name: Maret.  I always liked the name,…
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Discovery: 1885 Bonn Census Record

Talk about solving a mystery fast! Last week, I outlined some of the new information revealed by the homestead file of my 2nd great-uncle Christ O. Bonn (1858-1943).((Christ O. Bonn, (Marshall County) homestead file, final certificate no.…

How to Order a Federal Land Entry File

Historic land records in the U.S. are amazingly well-preserved and access is surprisingly less difficult than one would think.  This is especially true for federal land records in the 30 states considered part of the public domain.((The 20…
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SLIG 2020 Courses Revealed

The 2020 schedule of courses for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) were revealed at the Friday night banquet on January 18.  I encourage anyone interested in genealogy to attend.  These are top-flight courses taught by the world's…