Dash Detectives - Family History Hints & Tips

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Dash Detectives - Family History Hints & Tips

Family history hints, tips and courses for busy parents and children.

24/01/2021

Have you heard of RootsTech? It's a family history expo and in February they're going virtual! I've just registered and you can too - it's free!

Register at rootstech.org

24/01/2021

Who's woken up to snow? Do you love it, or hate it? These are some of the memories I love to record - photos, videos, things that you did... What's the best thing about snow for you?
(PS we are still waiting for snow!)

23/01/2021

One of the things that is at risk of being lost is the keeping of handwritten records, but I love keeping greeting cards and other samples of handwriting...

It's National Handwriting Day - how can you preserve your and your ancestors' handwriting?

I love looking at war records and censuses where signatures or even more writing is preserved, and when my grandmother died just over a year ago, we found that she'd kept some amazing samples of my grandad's writing - a tiny journal that he'd written over several years and some love letters he'd written her in 1954! I really treasure those things!

22/01/2021

Who's working from home? Who's furloughed? How's it going?

21/01/2021

So your journal prompt for this week is about your favourite childhood hobbies... What was your favourite?

20/01/2021

One of the best resources for great family history is interviewing your oldest relatives if that's possible, and if you've been keeping in touch over Zoom, you can do this and record what they say too! Ask them to tell you what their life was like when they were young, the family characters they remember, where they lived, went on holiday, the struggles and the good times. Ask them for stories about their parents and grandparents and other people in the family... Just be a bit careful with family myths, and try to verify that they're actually true!
Who could you interview this week and record their story?

18/01/2021

Today is known as Blue Monday and is supposedly meant to be the day of the year that people feel the most depressed. While I'm sure it is a PR stunt, normally designed to sell more holidays, I have to say that around this time of year I normally do feel a bit more "blue" because it's back to normality and reality after he Christmas break and still a while until the warmer weather returns.

How we are feeling is quite often something that is left out of records but it gives a wonderful insight to the person... so when you're recording your lockdown experiences, don't forget to include the emotions you have and are feeling too, partly because this is therapeutic in itself, but also so you can look back on these days and move on from them.

If you've grabbed the Time Capsule ebook (link in bio), you could also consider putting info on your emotions in there too, so in 10 years time you can look back on them.

Feel free to share a lockdown experience in the comments below.

17/01/2021

Are you looking for a fun activity to do as a family to record what your life is like now, to look back on in 5 or 10 years time? Loads of people created records, time capsules, scrapbooks etc in the first lockdown so they could look back on it in years to come.

I have created this FREE EBOOK The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Timecapsule with your Kids to help you with this fun family activity.

You can download it by clicking on the link below :-)
http://www.dashdetectives.co.uk/time-capsule-ebook/

17/01/2021

I wanted to explain why we are called Dash Detectives... I heard a quote about a year ago, which mentioned that on every headstone there is a little symbol that sits between 2 important pieces of information about a person - the date they were born and the date they died. That symbol - the dash - is universal, and so tiny, most people don't even notice it, but that little dash represents a huge thing. It represents the whole life of that person, all of their hopes, dreams, fears and struggles, the fun times, the hard times and everything else in between.
I then realised that when I did my family history research, I went crazy collecting names and dates of people I found, adding dozens and dozens of people to my family tree, but I had no real connection, and no proper knowledge of who these people were. I then recommitted myself to doing more quality research, rather than quantity, and became a detective of that dash... And so I started Dash Detectives to help other people not only learn how to research their own family history, but how to create amazing stories and histories about those ancestors, because it can be a really fascinating and rewarding journey to learn about their lives.

16/01/2021

So, we find ourselves back here again in lockdown in the UK... Now we've been doing this for a week or so, how are you finding homeschooling (if that's what you're doing)? Today, take a moment to jot down how it's going, what it looks like, how you all feel about it.

Writing down and recording your lockdown experiences, maybe in a journal or otherwise, can form an important part of your own history, both for you to reflect on in future years but also for future generations to learn about life during the covid pandemic.

So today take a moment to write something down either in a journal or you could use a journalling app on your phone.

We will talk more about journalling (yes, recording YOUR history is also family history) another time, but here's a quote from the Zapier blog as to some of the ways journalling at this time can also help you to cope with homeschooling:

"Just jot your thoughts down or record what happened during the day for a simple way to manage stress, enhance creativity, increase happiness, improve health, and increase work performance" (Zapier blog).

15/01/2021

Do you set yourself any goals? Have you set any this year?

INTRODUCING MY 52 STORIES
Every week, I will post a journalling prompt for you with a question to help you write down your own history as it is in the making. One story, once a week, to build up a record of you and your life, which will become your children's (and their children's) family history. Feel free to share yours below, in our community DASH DETECTIVES Community and on our Instagram

My Story this week:
For me, my main goal is to progress in small steps every single day, so as long as I've done that, I can have some down time, chill and feel like I've accomplished something. I've also taken up diamond painting...

14/01/2021

When will you do your family history research? Is this going to be an 'as-and-when' or 'binge/splurge' kind of hobby? Or is it going to become a regular item on your weekly to-do list? You might have more time at home now we are in lockdown (yep, juggling work and homeschooling is tricky, but look for the gaps it's opened up - no activities or school runs!)

Whatever you choose, and it has to work for you and your family, try looking at gaps you have in your week (we'll be discussing this in the DASH DETECTIVES Community in a couple of weeks) and work out when this is going to take place.

For example, last year I decided to put aside one Sunday a month to do my research, and then added in some extra sessions when I could. I was actually busier last year than I was in previous years! Plus, pre-kids and other family stuff (it gets busy doesn't it?!) I'd do some every week, and sometimes every day (I'll warn you now...it can be addictive!)...

So, when will it be? Get it in the planner and on the calendar and make that date with your ancestors!

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