DIG into Your Family History
A BIG thank you to Deanna Reeves for speaking at the Library on beginning your search for your ancestors. She gave us some great ideas on where and how to being, and some interested tips and hints.
Some of the information Deanna told us:
* start your research at home. Look in family Bibles, scrapbooks, photo albums for information like birthdates, marriages, and deaths.
* the county courthouses, libraries, and historical societies are excellent places for research.
* the internet can be a resource as well with websites like findagrave.com and rootsweb.com, along with ancestry.com
* magazines are also a research tool, like Family Tree magazine and the quarterly from the Montgomery County Genealogical Society and other historical societies.
* one of Deanna's favorite things is to go into cemeteries to find the grave of relatives. She carries a "cemetery kit" in her car, just in case she has the urge to scout around!
* some common genealogy myths: surnames were changed, but not necessarily at Ellis Island ; not everyone has a famous relative or Native American ancestry ; just because a name is spelled different than yours doesn't necessarily mean the person isn't "yours"
* she also suggested some genealogical etiquette, like using all capital letters for surnames, spelling out middle names, listing women with their maiden name included, and using the correct format of dates (day, MONTH with 3 letter abbreviation, then year)
THANKS AGAIN to Deanna Reeves for getting us started DIGGING into our Family History!