The Whole is Greater We’ve talked a little in the past about looking at the censuses during your ancestor’s lives as one collection. Let’s take a closer look. This is where the old saying, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” holds true. Questions Yield Results Since each decade’s census, for the […]
Digging In Some More First Things There wasn’t room in the First Things First blog to give you all the background information about the census, so allow me to share some more now. The U.S. Census is available to the public seventy two years after it was recorded. In the last several censuses, there has
Free Tools to Aid Census Research When researching the census, there are two tools that will make researching easier and save you time. They are two free books, Measuring America and a book (made by you) of blank census[1] forms. Measuring America Measuring America is a free download from the U.S. Census Bureau. You can
First Things First Before we dive into the census, let’s talk about where the census comes from and things we need to keep in mind as we use the census. The U.S. Constitution directed the Congress to count the population every ten years. The census has been conducted the first year of every decade ever
One Stop Census Shop If you have been discovering your family’s history for a while you already have a favorite place to access the census. It is available by subscription to most of the online family history sites and through many local libraries. If your just starting, you may want to investigate one of these
Ready, Set, Research! My oh my, I can hear the groans already! I’m not talking about hard research, I’m talking about fun research. The kind any of us can do that will tell us about our past family. Research that guarantees our family histories will be true. And the place we are going to start
Just Say No! Time is valuable for us all. Most agree, like stated in this Linked In article, that it’s one of the most precious assets we possess. It’s free to all of us, but once it’s gone we can never get it back! Whether it’s working at a j0b, taking care of the kids,
The Tree After you have learned about your family from your family, it’s time to start attaching all those leaves to your family tree. For that we need a pedigree chart. While I firmly believe in keeping your family history on a computer, I think it helps to begin by filling in a paper pedigree
Now for the Fun Stuff! Over the past weeks we have seen why it’s important to know our family’s history. Now let’s look at how we get started. The answer may surprise you! Talk to Your Family The first place to turn when beginning your family history is … your family! We often don’t realize
The Past Becomes the Future Weve already talked about how learning about our family’s history can help us feel grounded and give us a sense of belonging to a larger family. But what about the future? We know it’s important to pass those stories on to our children, but how do we make those practices
