AncestorSeek

31/03/2025

If you have an account with 23 & Me you should delete your data.

23andMe has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means a new company could acquire its genetic database. Here’s how you can delete yo...

18/12/2024

How about a little census chuckle? I came across this gem in the Wabash Weekly Intelligencer from the 17 May 1860 edition. It’s a witty take on the upcoming 1860 census questions. My favorite? “How many times has your wife wished she were dead, and did you reciprocate the wish?” Classic!

14/09/2024

Great information for searching land records.

Tracing land ownership through time is one of the most important methods for proving generational relationships, particularly in the South. Often, though, we run into a problem where no deed or estate record exists to provide evidence of the sale of land, and we lose track of it. To determine what happened to the land, we then have to start with the current owner and research back in time. That's a very time-consuming process.

Now we have an amazing tool from FamilySearch making it possible to search for words buried within documents--including legal descriptions--that opens the door to answering some of these mysteries.

1. Go to FamilySearch Labs and choose the Full Text experiment (https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/).
2. In the Keywords box, put the text from the known legal description.
3. You can put the words in quotes to search a phrase. You can also use the + sign before words to force entries that contain all the words of interest but not in a phrase.

I've already used this in numerous cases to find deeds for properties with a chain of title that was obscured in the regular deed indexes, just by searching for property descriptions. It takes some practice and it's still an experiment with a lot of imperfections, but it's already an amazing research tool especially where land is involved.

13/08/2024

In old days people wrote books you could buy once. Now it’s a 2 hour informercial, an app, and $$ every month.

23/07/2024

This is a great discounted price.

Ends 7/30. Excludes shipping.

01/05/2024

An "Emergency Soup" idea from 1922! Emergency Soup was thrown together when unexpected guests showed up for lunch or dinner. Recipes (if a recipe was used at all) tended to be quick and simple. Ingredients varied widely, since the soup was usually made from things that were already on hand.

How does this emergency vegetable soup sound to you?

***
Emergency Soup

-One-half cup carrots, finely chopped
-One-half cup turnip, finely chopped
-One cup celery, cut in small pieces
-One cup potato, cut in small cubes
-One onion, sliced
-Four cups water
-Four tablespoons butter or butter substitute
-One teaspoon chopped parsley
-Salt and pepper

Prepare vegetables before measuring. Melt butter, add all vegetables except potatoes and cook over a slow fire about ten minutes, stirring often. Add potatoes and water and simmer about forty minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Add parsley and serve.

See the recipe in the San Francisco Chronical on our site: https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-emergency-soup/146297925/

22/04/2024

Words of wisdom that were found on the wall of an orphanage in Calcutta, India: “If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God … anyway.” - Joy D Jones quoting words attributed to Mother Theresa.

03/03/2024

This one made me cry.

Through her photographic work, Nancy Borowick reframes the narrative around hard experiences, emphasizing the importance of recording the precious moments and memories with family. Watch the whole message https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/rootstech-2024-general-session-2-lynne-jackson?cid=SO-00039368 and grab a box of tissues.

01/03/2024

Great classes for everyone at any level and background.

Watch the opening session of RootsTech 2024 and hear the inspiring messages from FamilySearch International CEO, Steve Rockwood, platinum sponsor Ancestry, and comedian Henry Cho.

23/01/2024

Found this picture taken at a birthday party many moons ago. If you know which one I am, you're doing better than I am.

07/01/2024

01/01/2024