The Year Ahead – September 30

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 30 – The year is three-quarters gone; evaluate your progress.

It’s hard to believe that we are on the last quarter of the year. I have been working on a big project to get a book published on the descendants of one of my 3^rd great-grandparents. I have already done the preliminary research, then generated a rough draft. Now I am doing the secondary research, by going through the book and trying to find glaring gaps of information. I wish I was further on the secondary research step, but life keeps getting in the way.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – September 29

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 29 – Share a research problem with a genealogy buddy. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can see a solution you can’t.

When I lived in Arizona, I had lots of genealogy buddies. We would share our problems and offer suggestions or even tried to do research for each other. I even still meet via Zoom with one of my Arizona genealogy buddies. We share with each other and I feel like it is “divide and conquer” with learning new skills.

I now belong to a genealogy club and we learn about new websites, processes, and share our problems.

Don’t have a genealogy buddy? Do a search for historical society, genealogy society and/or genealogy club near where you live. My genealogy club is free, my genealogy society doesn’t charge much.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 28

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 28 – Planning to get a flu shot? Investigate how the pandemic of 1918 affected your ancestors. Check for articles on Google Scholar <scholar.google.com> and in historical newspapers.

I remember when I first learned about the pandemic of 1918, when I was visiting a cemetery with my father. I noticed a lot of people, especially younger adults who seemed to die between 1918-1920. That is when my father explained the pandemic and stated that it seemed to take a lot of the younger adults. I wonder if they thought they were invincible, or healthy that they could never get sick. Reminds me of the pandemic of 2020.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 27

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 27 – Celebrate Google’s anniversary by learning advance search techniques store.familytreemagzine.com/genealogists-google-cheat-sheet

My favorite advance search is using Site Search. This doesn’t work on websites like Ancestry or FamilySearch but is great on GenWeb pages. You can input the main website address along with a search criterion and it will look in all the subpages of that website. I find this helpful for looking for certain surnames.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 26

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 yourbest research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 26 – Do you have seafaring ancestors? Use online resources at www.archives.gov/research/maritime to learn more about them on World Maritime Day.

As far as I know, I don’t have any seafaring ancestors. Of course, I haven’t found all my ancestors, I have many missing holes in my pedigree chart starting with my 3^rd great grandparents and going back Thus, I may need this link later, so if you haven’t found all your ancestors either, bookmark this site in case you might need it later.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 25

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 25 – Continue your genealogy maintenance: File papers, revisit message boards, and repeat online database searches.

Are you good at gathering items? I know I am? I have created a digital sub-folder in my genealogy folder that I titled “Working”, I need to go through these files and place them where they should be filed in my genealogy document folder. Also, I need to input and source the information into my genealogy software program. I wonder if I have duplicated my research and already have some of my working in my genealogy software but don’t know it. Maybe some sort of breakthrough information exists in your pile of papers.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 24

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 24 – Examine your family archive for any materials that aren’t safe for long-term storage Folders, tissue paper, and boxes should be acid-free.

Everyone should start with their printed photos. Where are they stored? In an old sticky page photo album. Remove them sooner than later. Scan or photograph those important items. Remember from yesterday that I talked about Shutterfly. What a great way to preserve or share your family archive items by creating a picture book with an explanation of the history of the item. Don’t forget those overside baptism, confirmation or marriage records that some churches give for those events.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 23

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 23 – Create a permanent record for future generations: Take some snapshots of yourself, your house and your family members (including pets).

Have you ever tried Shutterfly? You can make books of your pictures really easy. I have done this for vacation trips, instead of buying survivors, take pictures, keep a little scrapbook of what you did each day, you can easily use your phone notes app for this. Then create a vacation scrapbook.

How about a year in review book? You can create a yearly picture book of important or not so important events from the year. Think like a diary but more of a summary of what you did. I think we all could easily come up with 12-24 pages for a year in review book. If you share happenings on your Facebook page, you can always review those posts and this could be a starting point for your book.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 22

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 22 – The autumn weather’s nice, so think of outdoor genealogy activities; cemetery visits, walking tours of ancestral hometowns, and more.

I live in Wisconsin and the weather if very unpredictable. This week the weather is more like July than September. In the mornings, it’s cool, the grass has dew and by the late morning, it is very hot. So please plan accordingly. Perhaps bring more than one pair of shoes, in case one gets wet, also a fresh pair of socks can’t hurt. Dress in layers, so you can be comfortable no matter what time of day. Don’t forget your bug spray and sunscreen. Finally, bring plenty of water and perhaps a few snacks too.

I love being outdoors this time of year, because Winter and snow will be here before we know it.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 21

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 21 – Wire a “thank you” letter to your ancestors or a special living relative to celebrate World Gratitude Day.

When I create my descendant books, it is sort of writing a Thank You letter for that ancestor couple who started that family and created all those descendants. You could add a thank you to your research notes or if you have paper files, add it there. Remember, without your ancestors, you would not be here today. It’s pretty amazing to think of how everything had to fall into place for your to be here today.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 20

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 20 – Research financial records such as those of the Emigrant Savings Bank https://archives.nypl.org/mss/925 and the Freedman’s Bank www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8755.

For the New York Public Library Special Collections, one needs to create a Special Collections Account.

 Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 19

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 19 – Aarrgghh – It’ talked Like a Pirate Day! If ye’d like to research the scallywags among your ancestors. Cyndi’s List www.cyndislist.com/prisons/pirates has a category for that.

Who knows what buried family treasurers you might uncover.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 18

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 18 – Clean out your email inbox. Some programs let you export messages directly, or you can copy and paste them into a word-processing document.

It’s good practice to clean you’re your email inbox. You can create subfolders in your inbox, if there is something you want to save. For example: I created a “Saved” subfolder and I put my special activation codes into this email for some of the software products I own. I print them out and keep them in a special paper folder in case my computer crashes and I need to restore anything. However, I also keep them in my email, because if my house were to burn down, I would still have a copy.

If I want to save an email, I have copy and paste into a word-processing document, however, I have also printed the email as a PDF and then save it on my computer. My automatic nightly cloud backup service makes a backup of this file and any other new file I create.

If we let our email inboxes get too big, you might not receive any new emails. When I was a secretary of various groups and had to send out meeting reminders or other notices to our members, there always seemed to be at least one person’s email who would get rejected because their email inbox was full.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 17

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 17 – For Constitution Day, review the core document that defines the supreme law of the United States www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

As an American Citizen, do we take for granted the Constitution? It clearly establishes the three parts of the Legislative bodies and their powers. Each branch is supposed to have equal powers, with no one branch having more powers than the other two. This ensures our democracy.

When I joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, I became more aware of Constitution Day and Constitution Week.

Did you know that we use vote for the President only and who ever came in second place became the Vice President? Often, the President and Vice President represented different parties. Some states still do this for their Governors.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 16

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 16 – Mexico’s Independence Day is celebrated today. Learn about your Mexican ancestors www.familytreemagazine.com/heritage/mexican/mexican-genealogy-guide

Since I don’t have Mexican heritage, I didn’t know about Mexico’s Independence Day, I always thought it was celebrated on Cinco de Mayo, May 5^th. Thus, I had to look up the difference and found the following.

The main difference between Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day is that Cinco de Mayo celebrates a military victory, while Mexican Independence Day celebrates the country’s declaration of Independence.

The Mexican army’s victory was over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The battle took place during the French intervention in Mexico, which was a response to Mexico’s default on debt payments to Europe.

September 16^th marks the start of Mexico’s fight for independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – September 15

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 15 – Tackle the genealogy task you’ve been putting off – maybe writing to a newfound relative or filing a pesky stack of documents.

We all have those tasks that are not as fun as research. However, if you can’t find something you already have, how much time are wasting researching it again? Thus, just sorting that pesky stack of documents into more meaningful piles is a great first step. Perhaps, you can sort them into family surnames (such as based on your direct ancestors). Then if you are researching that family branch, you can start with that sorted pile and scan, purge, or file that pile and it becomes one less pile on your to-do-list. 

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 14

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 14 – Look for church membership books and newsletters from libraries, historical societies and diocesan archives.

Back on the 10^th, I talked about state historical societies. Check out their holdings online before going there. However, you might be surprise to find smaller local Historical Societies or Research Centers and what their holdings might contain. Again, look online or even give them a call. These people appreciate the chance to talk to you about what they offer. Many are open to non-members and being a member might not be that expensive and you may find you get so much in return.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 13

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 13 – Search the attic (or ask a relative) for overlooked home sources such as autograph albums, address books and checkbook registers.

I think back to when I first started my genealogy research, back in the 1980’s has a young woman and really didn’t know where to look for home sources. My mother had a family bible that she had filled in genealogy pages with her and her first husband’s genealogy. This was my starting point for my mother’s side of the family. I asked my father, her second and last husband, directly for his genealogy and lucky for me that he knew a lot. His aunts were still alive and I wrote them for information. They lived out of state, otherwise, I would have visited them in person. I found that letters were often ignored in my early days of research. Perhaps I asked for too much and they put the letter aside until they had more time to answer.

My suggestion: Visit people in person, if possible, if sending email, calling or writing, don’t overwhelm them with lots of questions, keep your request to one or two questions. You can ask if they think they have anything that might help you in your research and then list items, such as bibles, scrapbooks, photo albums, and such. Don’t expect them to just hand over the items, offer to visit them and you will scan (take pictures with your phone) of the items. Offer to take them out for lunch or dinner as a thank you. While there, don’t forget to ask if they know where their love ones are buried. You will be amazed how many will like to take a drive out to the local cemetery.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 12

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 12 – Angel Island was the West Coast’s equivalent of Ellis Island, processing hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Learn about its history and records www.aiisf.org.

I have to admit, this is the first I have heard of this place. Perhaps because they dealt with a lot of Asian immigrants (not all) and I don’t have any Asian immigrants. This immigration port operated between 1910 and 1940 and they did not only deal with Asian Immigrants, thus if you can’t find the port of entry for your immigrant, this port is worth checking out.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 11

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 11 – Take time out to listen to the 9/11 oral histories at www.911memorial.org/learn/resources/oral-histories.

At my husband’s last class reunion, one of his classmates was at the Pentagon on the day of the attack. In fact, the attack happened near his office. He said they were doing remodeling on the Pentagon and at first he thought the noise had something to do with the construction crew. Even though his office was spared, he went to help find survivors to provide aid. Listening to his story, you almost felt like you were there experiencing the horror with him. We hear a lot about the trade center and sometimes we forget that the Pentagon was attacked too along with the plane that went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 10

 =In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 10 – Now that kids are back in school, reclaim your favorite table at the library for an intensive research session.

Have you every gone to a state historical library? For example: the Wisconsin Historical Society is at the University of Wisconsin Campus and you will find students in this library all the time. Therefore, the library might still be busy, but with your kids or grandkids back in school, you might have time now to actually visit the library. You will find family history books at these libraries you might not find anywhere else. These books, just like on-line trees need to be verified, however, you may get names, dates, places that lead you to records to help in your family research.  

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 9

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 9 – California, which became the 31^st US state on this day in 1850, was a destination for many fortune-seekers. Tap into the digital photo and document archive at www.oac.cdlib.org.

There is a lot of links here, so look at them all and see if you can narrow down your search for whatever goal you might have. Warning: I followed the link for the Downey Historical Society and was blocked. Apparently, they didn’t like the path that I followed. However, when I googled, “Downey Historical Society” one of the suggested links was the same web address and it allowed me access. So don’t panic if the way you try to access a site doesn’t work, try a different method.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 8

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 8 – Remember Grandma and Grandpa on Grandparent’s Day by writing down your favorite memories of them.

Sadly, I have only one grandparent that I remember, my maternal grandmother. She passed away when I was nine years old. I remember visiting her and I would try to be the first to run into the house and give her a hug. I also remember her visiting our house for holidays. My mother, who had nine children, would invite her mother, her aunt and husband, her sisters and her brother—in-law and her niece and nephew for holidays. It was a lot of people in our home. Yes, we had a kids table, and me being the youngest sat at this table many years. Even after my siblings started having children of their own, I was stuck at the table, keeping an eye on them.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – September 7

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 7 – Dust off tapes of oral history interviews (or your now-grown toddler singing nursery rhymes). Transcribe them or convert them to digital files with a tool such as Digital Media Converter www.deskshare.com/dmc.aspx

I don’t have any oral history interviews. For this introvert, that would have meant me having to talk to people. When I started my genealogy journey as a teenager, I was too shy to ask relatives that I didn’t know very well. I also, didn’t know what to ask. Learn from my mistakes, don’t be shy, just pick a person and see if they will share any stories with you.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 6

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 6 – Are you ready for some football? The NF season starts tomorrow. View a timeline of NFL teams at www.familytreemagazine.com/history/timelines/genealogy-timeline-nfl-teams

I live in Packerland. Thus, the only team that matters are the Green Bay Packers that started around 1921. What I did find interesting that the Arizona Cardinals started in Racine (Wisconsin) around 1913. They later moved to Chicago around 1922 and then St. Louis in 1960 and finally in Phoenix in 1988.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 5

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 5 – Summer is winding down. Make a list of indoor-friendly genealogy projects that you’d like to tackle during autumn and winter.

I do find that I get more accomplished during the winter. Living in snow country, means not wanting to venture out into bad weather or driving on bad roads. Thus, I seem to have more time to do genealogy. I hope to get one of my genealogy descendant books done before next Summer.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 4

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 4 – Make a list of relatives whom you would like to take a DNA test.

I have tested several of my siblings who are the oldest generation in our family. I would love to get my granddaughter tested, to find out more about her genealogy. The only first cousins I have are on my father’s side, and many of them or their children have tested.

I already figured my DNA question of who is my biological maternal grandfather. I think it would be interesting to have various male lines tested for their YDNA and even various female lines lest for their MTDNA.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 3

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 3 – Become a school records genius using the resources on our website www.familytreemagazine.com/records/other/find-yearbooks-school-records.

Of my ancestors, my mother was the first to obtain a college degree. I have found relatives who were doctors and dentists.

I was amazed to hear that my mother once went to a one-room school. She said, it was difficult on spelling test day, because the teacher would say a word for each grade before moving onto the next work. So, you had to know what your spelling words were. She also said, it was easy to become distracted because the teacher was trying to teach so many different levels.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 2

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 2 – What did your ancestor do for a living? This Labor Day read up on occupations and check home sources for clues to an employer.

Don’t forget to check census records for their occupations. Did they register for the draft in World War I or World War II, they listed not only their occupation but sometimes who their employer was too.

I have lots of ancestors who were farmers. I have some listed as a laborer. I don’t know if they worked in a factory or was a farm laborer.  

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – September 1

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

September 1 – Time to check your data backups! Hitting your cloud storage limit? Delete unwanted files before paying for additional space.

My nightly, automatic backups go into a cloud storage system. There are many services out there and I am not going to recommend one over another, you can Google and find many people who already have done this. My current yearly subscription has 1000 GB and I have used 450.37 GB of storage. Even though I am not running out of space, I know my backups include some from previous computers I had owned. I have copied those backups and moved them to an external drive, in case there is a file on the old computer that I haven’t restored on my current computer. Do I need those files, I don’t know, but I rather be safe than sorry. I plan on deleting those old computers that are no longer being used.

If you don’t have a cloud storage system, now might be the time to start looking into one. What I like about my system, it offers a “sync” folder. This folder resides on my device and in the cloud. If I store something in this drive, it copies it to the cloud and then I can access it from my other device. I currently have a desktop and laptop computer. I take my laptop to my genealogy society meetings and use it to present programs. Thus, when I create my PowerPoint presentations on my desktop, I can save it to the sync folder and later access the PowerPoint presentation from my laptop.

For a small fee, about $5 a month, paid as a yearly subscription, my computer is backed up every night. This as saved me from tears when I accidently deleted something I should not have, or when my computer died on me.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!