Member Blogs

Last week NPR ran a segment on their show, Marketplace, entitled “Coming Soon, The Cash Peters Story” which was a look into the world of video biographies spotlighting one Los Angeles firm, Legacy Flicks, that charges $20,000 to put your name on the marquee for 30 minutes.

The segment was humorous and played upon the egotistical aspect of making a movie about your own life. Citing concerns about personal biographies being too gooey or saccharine, Peters poked fun at the vanity of having a movie m

Born in Kingston Upon Hull in 1848, Samuel Ainsworth Perry’s family ‘s origins were in Stockport. He was one of 9 children to John Perry and Mary Ainsworth. Samuel’s family  lived in Hull for some time before returning to Cheshire.

Soon after returning to Cheshire , Samuel and wife Annie had children of their own, including Samuel junior. With Samuel juniors parents being employed as  Cotton Operatives  in  local Cotton Mills , the family stayed in the Stockport area for several generations and a

Today I've been sick, matter of fact, I've been sick for the last several days. Despite it all, today has been a good day.  Why?  Today I put photos on my GenealogyWise page.  Photos that are vivid because I can remember when some of them were taken.  

Looking at pictures of my grandmother, Maud Wise Hairston, and putting them on this site.  Aiming that not only does her life continue because of her children, their children, but her name continues because I won't let it die.  She died October 31,

I'm searching for an answer to a story that only I was told, or so I believe because no one else knows about it.  One day in the late 60's my grandmother told me story.  It wasn't a made-up before you go to bed story.  It was with wistfulness and cloudy eyes.  The kind that you share and it makes you happy and sad at the same time.  Why me and why that day, could it had been preordained that genealogy would be my forte?

She spoke about when she was little and how she and her brothers and sisters

I have found information on Nellie & Joseph FINALLY. Thanks to me FINALLY getting on Ancestry.com & my Grandma had their Marriage Certificate & Death Certificates. Which was a BIG help! However, Now I have found Joseph & Nellie! I know now that James & Mary Ramey are parents to Joseph Ramey & he had two brothers: James & Isaac Ramey. I'm kind of at a big stop with anything past James & Mary. I know James died early on. I know Mary was from New York. I think James was from Pennsylvania. They ende

I wish I didn't see things.  Pictures in my mind of what a place once was, used to be.  You were once here, you walked these streets.  Back and forth, to and fro.  Wasn't it natural that you tried to find more in life, and now I'm trying to find you.  

You never questioned me.  How do I know because I only think of my own children, and the children they will have.  Until now, and who will I be, I pray they will remember my name.  Never before had I thought of the next and next generation; but in

Our language is changing almost every day and what means one thing today meant something completely different to our ancestors. Occupations are a great example of that , for example take a look at this list of 10:

Carrier – I always think this conjures up an image of Typhoid Mary when I see it but it is in fact a person who had some sort of transport (normally horse drawn) that enabled them to move goods from one place to another. As transport became heavier and it was hauled from place to place

On Saturday, June 25, 2011 PARI at the Polish Mission is offering three free lectures in honor of the U.S. Civil War.

Join us in the Wotta Building, Panorama Room (first floor) http://www.polishmission.com/campus-map

9:30 am-12:00 pm
Stay for an afternoon of research or take a self guided tour of campus.
We have 8 online workstations and wireless.

RSVP: phone: 248-683-0323

email: cjensen@orchardlakeschools.com

Why at the Polish Mission? Our campus was developed by the Michigan Military Academy and,

I find dead people.  I try to find dead people.  It is my hope that I'll find someone who is alive that will tell me more about that dead person.  In my own equation of life, I question my sanity.  Looking for something/someone who's life is buried.  Always asking the question "who were you?"  

Tempting as it is to stop, it's hard.  Could it be my addicted personality?  Perhaps, but finding them helps explain who I am.  My own existence is based on past ancestors, not just from my mother and fath

Every genealogist must be an eternal optimist.  How else would one continue the search?  With a dead end around every corner, there are as many disappointments as there are corners and dead ends.  I find that genealogy research is a lot like golf or bridge or any other pursuit that can never be perfected.  At every attempt there is at least one good shot or hand that lifts your spirits, bolsters your confidence and makes you come back for another try.  My most recent encouragement came in the fo

We can help organize your genealogy research trip to Denmark. There will be opportunity to visit the church where your ancestors were baptized, married or buried. There will also be able to visit the archives so you can search the original documents for traces of your ancestors.

Please contact us and let us know what we can do for you!

I offer you a guided Genealogy Trip in Denmark with possibility to visit some of the churches where you ancestors were baptized or married.

Please let us know what we can do for you!

www.slaegtenshistorie.dk

I didn't post anything here for quite a while now. I guess I felt like, if it wasn't helpful, why waste anyone's time? But, I think I need to also remember how important it is to stay in touch with the genealogy community, to give as well as take (or, wait until someone provides something to take, ha ha). To connect is also important. As Red Green says, we're all in this together, etc. Much of what I know about my ancestry was provided by others' research, even if just indirectly, by clues, hint

I have been blogging on four years now and I often surprise myself how much I really have to say about this subject of capturing one’s story, one’s history, for posterity. It is something that I have been passionate about since I started Legacy Multimedia in 2003 after seeing just how much film and photos and other bits of our past were floating off into oblivion in garbage dumps, recycle bins, vintage shops and other places where I would continue to find entire abandoned photo albums, cast off

  Burbank's Jamboree, had comments a plenty on Migration and Migration Routes, how to locate in census, how to locate in land files, BLM land Records and about any way you look migration can be picked up and pulled out to add to ones family history what they did, where they went and how to find if we loose them on the trail.

Leland M did a fast, packed, and paced talk on routes across the eastern seaboard coming later into the mid west to the Pacific Ocean.

 Almost every lecture I listened to had

A couple days ago, my friend and client Jay Steinfeld, CEO and founder of Blinds.com posted a “tweet” on Twitter (Jay is @BlindscomCEO) that read: “If you think hiring an expert is expensive, just try an amateur!”

I found myself laughing in that “I get it but it’s really not very funny” way because it’s so true. Just that day I had had two experiences with people that were trying to do it themselves and ended up calling me hoping to get some technical support. One was a junior high-school teacher

Looking for info on Thomas Jefferson Holmes born 1850 St. Louis (?) and his family.  His father was John Holmes, a native of St. Louis (abt 1824)and his mother Anna Hanna(h) was from Ohio.  Cannot find them in any census before 1870 (New Orleans, LA).

Thomas and John were both marine engineers.

There is a story in every document.

The more I am involved in family research, the more I love it. My personal research aside , the stories uncovered never cease to amaze me. I mean the fact is , what lay dormant  in the archives , is someone’s fascination of the future. Here are three brief examples of just some story lines discovered in my research this week:

My recent assignments have taken me to the parish archives of a number villages in   Northern Britain, where original church documents mak