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Write What You Know: Research What You Don’t & Beware of Artificial Intelligence Generated Answers.
Posted on February 15, 2024 5 Comments
If you are a follower you know I encourage you to turn your family trees into stories. But sometimes it is hard to know how to do that. Well you start with what you know about an ancestor or family. That is where tools like Family Group Sheets, Individual Research Checklists and Timelines come in […]
THE MOSERS IN BAVARIA: Wißenkirchberg, Hetzweiler, Kloster Sulz, Altengrueth
Posted on January 18, 2024 4 Comments
If you haven’t read the previous blog post BAVARIAN Hans MOSER c1623-1696 was from Austria, not Switzerland you should read it first. When last we met Hans MOSER he was part of a mass migration of “exulanten” or exiles having been expelled from Catholic Austria and resettling in a Lutheran part of Mittlfranken or Middle […]
German Migration to America: Johan Martin MOSER 1693-c.1743 Part Three
Posted on January 11, 2024 2 Comments
Please read the following Preamble and Part One and Part Two before reading this one. If you have been following this saga we left the Martin and Magaretha MOSER family in Rotterdam about to board a ship to America. The year is 1728. Martin is 35 and Margaretha 37. I failed to mention that Martin’s […]
German Migration to America: Johan Martin MOSER 1693-c.1743 Part One
Posted on January 6, 2024 3 Comments
This is the story of one of my many German ancestors. If he isn’t one of your ancestors this may not be of interest to you on it’s face. But if you have German ancestors who immigrated in the first half of the 18th century, there may be some things that you will want to […]
STARTING FROM SCRATCH: You
Posted on January 3, 2024 2 Comments
It is a New Year and I have promised my Genealogy class some beginner’s lessons. This one is an adaptation of one I did many years ago. It is a lesson in context and social history and it is about searching things you think you know but maybe don’t. Once you do this exercise for […]
Resurrecting the Dead Part Two: Bringing them to Life “Peter P HALL”
Posted on November 28, 2023 8 Comments
With our time line in place and our research into Peter HALL’s Pension we can begin to sketch out as much as we can of Peter Hall’s life. We don’t have to start at the Beginning I jumped into a more familiar part of history and will back fill as I go. This has been […]
A Tornado in November: Remembering
Posted on November 18, 2023 2 Comments
Dorothy repeats after the good witch, Glinda, “There’s no place like home”. Dorothy then clicks her heels three times. The makeshift sheet otherwise known as the stage curtain drops and we scurry about. The curtain rises, “Where am I?” asks, a bewildered Dorothy and in a blink of an eye we are bowing to raucous […]
Writing Challenge: Where were you when Kennedy was shot?
Posted on November 7, 2023 1 Comment
One of my Genealogy class students, Frank, suggested that we write a piece on what we remember of where we were and what we were doing when President Kennedy was shot. November 22, 2023 will be the sixtieth anniversary of this national tragedy. As luck would have it they were both Wednesdays before Thanksgiving. It […]
Writing Challenge: Playing with Sentences
Posted on October 26, 2023 1 Comment
I tried this out on my Genealogy Class and the results were terrific. So I offer it up for your consideration. This is a true beginners exercise, but even seasoned writer’s can have fun with it. Ground Rules Okay once you have your one or two sentences you are going to revise them as many […]
Family Heirlooms: Egyptian Cosmetic Spoon
Posted on August 27, 2023 5 Comments
This is an example of starting to write about a particular object and ending up with much more than you bargained for. All the memories of a beloved place come streaming back. So no matter the writing—let it take you where it wants to go. This figure sat on the coffee table of my grandparents […]
Wheaton Wood 