ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for the next two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns (Oct 28) we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”
Genealogy tip for today: I’m Related to Johnny
Appleseed!
I had a patron come in the
other day and asked me a question: We’ve always been told we are related to
so-and-so. How can I prove that?
Believe it or not – that’s a
very big question. Or at least the answer is. I think we all have some famous
person to whom we are supposed to be kin. How do you prove that? Well the best
way to do your genealogy regardless of what the family stories have said, is to
start out with what you do know-yourself! You start with yourself and start
working backwards. And gather copies of those vital records as you go. You
might as well start out the right way. It’s a bugger to have to go back and
redo research you thought you already had done.
Don’t be too concerned yet
about proving a connection to Miss Famous. Kinda set that aside in your mind
for the time being and work on your family line. Granted every generation you
go back, the number of people you need to work on, doubles!
Work on one line for a while
but keep the others in mind. Quite often you may find records or information in
the same area for both the father and mother. After all, they had something in
common or they would never have met. Then work on another line. If there is a
particular line, like Mom’s grandmother’s line start here. The one where
great-grandma said she was related to Teddy Roosevelt. He and Grampa used to go
hunting together, and Ma said he was a cousin…
Eventually you will get back
far enough that you will have proven to yourself whether the famous person is
your ancestor or not. Or even related.
Now I will admit when I first
started, I didn’t know anything and had no one to guide me so I started with
the famous person and worked forward. I did disprove the connection, though.
Now that brings up something
else. There usually is a little kernel of truth in the family legends. The
catch is to figure out what. It could be that you are not a descendant of… but
related to… which is what I think is the case in my family.
So don’t give. Keep that
tucked back in your head. But you need to prove whether it is true or not, what
great-granny said.
Happy Hunting.
MANGO ONLINE LANGUAGE LEARNING
Ever want to someday learn a foreign language? Well, someday is here. The Rogers Public Library has signed up with Mango! – an online language learning system.
You can learn Spanish, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Italian and more. Go to our website: rogerspubliclibrary.org and scroll to the bottom of the page. There you will see an icon that says Mango! Click on it and it will take you to the sign in/sign up page.
It is easy to sign up; no cost i.e. it is FREE! Just need your library card
number, email address and a password.
Then pick out what languages you want to get started on and go for it!
This program has many, many languages; even has Koine Greek and Biblical
Hebrew and also – Pirate! So next time Pirate Day comes around you can be ready
to talk like a pirate. Argh!
Mango makes learning fun!
If any of these posts are helpful drop us a line in
the comments section below. We just want to know if the information we provide
to you is helpful in anyway.
ENJOY!
