The recording of today's African Diaspora Webinar Series webinar by Calvin Dark, "McMasters’ Will: The Scheme That Made Us Virtually Free" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Recently I was giving a presentation about social history and telling the stories of our ancestors. Those stories can/should include the heirlooms we inherit. One of the participants asked, "how do I ensure my grandma's china remains in our family?"

Good question. We all have that question. The automatic answer is probably, "you can't." No matter how much you love a treasured family heirloom you can't control what happens to it once you shake off this mortal coil. That's just reality. We all treasure different material objects and assign meaning to some while viewing other things as disposable. However, this is a subject that weighs on us, especially for the family historian who has seen countless articles and books in the last five years about downsizing your life and what your kids want and don't want to inherit.

My take on this subject is simple. No one wants to inherit something they need to store long-term. Your children or other family members have their stuff; they don't have endless storage space for your stuff. So what does that mean for your treasured items, and how you decide what to do with them?

I think people are more likely to keep and treasure something that has meaning for them, no matter the inherent or perceived value. What does this mean for grandma's china (or apron, jewelry, furniture, etc...…)?

If it's not fragile and falling apart, use it. People will treasure what they see. That means they need to know the item, so display it, use it, tell stories about it, so they can build memories to it. When I consider my "treasures," it doesn't matter that an inherited item means a lot to me. It needs to mean a lot to my kids who didn't know my grandparents or have any memories of them.

I use my grandma's china. I need to use it more, but I use and display it. Could I accidentally break a piece? Absolutely. I'm surprised I haven't. But it's there for my family and me to enjoy. It does us no good hidden in a cabinet. Despite using it, my kids may not want it when I pass. That's ok. I won't be around to give them my opinion. I’ll write down what my wishes are and approach the person I think would want those pieces. I would love for my kids to want the china, but in the end, I need to enjoy using something that brings back memories of my grandmother, who I dearly loved.

Is there any guarantee that a treasured heirloom will remain in the family? No, nothing is guaranteed, and as life changes, so do people's attachments to specific items. People have circumstances that dictate what they keep, like, etc. Taste changes (if it didn't, there wouldn't be antique or thrift stores). But when something is meaningful, it is more likely to be kept and treasured. Telling the stories of our ancestors should include the treasures that remind us of their lives.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

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About the presenter

Calvin Dark is a writer and historian who regularly gives presentations and leads discussion groups on genealogy, African American folklore, and history. He is the author of the forthcoming book, McMasters’ Will: The Scheme that Almost Freed Us, detailing the life and freedom fight of his enslaved Great-Great Grandfather Amos McMasters. Calvin is a proud native of Siler City, North Carolina, a graduate of Duke University, and a former Fulbright Scholar to Morocco. He currently resides in Washington, DC where he is principal and co-founder of RC Communications, a public relations and marketing firm.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Friday, May 6, 2022 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of today's webinar by Dana Leeds, "Quickly Organize Your DNA Matches with the Leeds Method" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Join us at Legacy Family Tree Webinars as we honor those with Jewish American heritage.

Through the end of May, three of our Jewish Genealogy classes at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/Jewish are free to the public.

Watch these three classes for free in May (unlocked from our member library)

Jewish Genealogy with JewishGen.org by Deborah J. Kroopkin. 

Debbie Kroopkin will explain the structure and purpose of the many components of the website. She will address how to connect with other researchers, how to identify and learn about your town overseas, and how to search for ancestors. Her presentation will provide details that will help researchers glean as much information as possible from JewishGen.org.

Click here to watch.

Jewish Genealogy's Other Side: Sephardic Research by Schelly Talalay Dardashti

Just a few short years ago, those looking for accessible Sephardic resources were simply out of luck. However, thanks to the internet, there are specialized websites, new books, online archival resources, Facebook groups, dedicated conferences and much more. We will analyze archival documents, discuss many websites, educational resources and new research.

Click here to watch.

Jewish Resources on the Genealogy Giants by Ellen Kowitt and Sunny Morton

Learn about Jewish record collections across Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Findmypast and MyHeritage–and JewishGen! This comparative analysis tells you not only what records are where, but recommends best versions of similar record collections and additional tools on each site that are especially relevant to researching Jewish ancestors. Sunny Morton, expert on the “giant” genealogy websites, teams up with Ellen Kowitt, Jewish records expert, to bring two knowledgeable voices to this important topic.

Click here to watch.

Also, check out these two additional webinars that are always free in our library.

Finding Jewish Records in the MyHeritage Search Engine by Daniel Horowitz

MyHeritage Search technology has been thoroughly updated recently. Join MyHeritage expert genealogist Daniel Horowitz in a fast-paced session on this new technology. Learn how it works, and how it can benefit your Jewish research. Learn how to effortlessly cover thousands of important repositories in a single search.

Click here to watch.

Jewish Ethnicity & DNA: History, Migration, Genetics by Schelly Talalay Dardashti

Learn about Jewish history, migration and genetics. Also hear from the first-hand experience of Maria Apodaca.

Click here to watch.

View all of the Jewish webinars in the Legacy library here.

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Dana Leeds started researching her family tree in 1998. She bought her first DNA kit in 2016 and solved her first unknown parentage case in early 2018. While working on another case that year, she created the innovative genetic genealogy tool known as the Leeds Method. This method quickly sorts DNA matches into clusters allowing the user to see which matches belong together. Dana quickly became a nationally known genetic genealogy speaker, and she enjoys helping others to easily understand and work with their DNA results.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

We've tallied the numbers and made a list of the Top 10 FamilyTreeWebinars.com classes for April 2022! Are your favorite topics or instructors among the list? Need something new to learn? Use the list to get inspired!

Each month thousands of Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers head for the library to learn new skills and techniques to help improve their genealogy research. Among the now-1,765 genealogy classes in the members-only library, these were the most frequently played during the month of April 2022.  They aren't necessarily the newest classes but rather the topics that were sought out by our members.

Have you seen any of these classes? Are these among your favorites too? Some of these classes (and topics) might be new to you! Get inspired to learn more and make your genealogy journey more fun!

The Top 10 for April 2022

1. Proving Parentage Two Centuries Later Using DNA Evidence by David S. Ouimette, CG, CGL

2. Simply using timelines will make a difference in your research! by Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy

3. Family Stories in 30 Minutes or Less by Brenda Hudson, Ph.D.

4. Wringing Every Drop out of Mitochondrial DNA by Roberta Estes

5. 'What are the Odds?' An online tool that can help solve DNA puzzles by Jonny Perl

6. Where Did That Come From?! Tracing the Origins of Unique Ethnicity Admixture by Paul Woodbury

7. Using Chromosome Browsers, Segment Data and Triangulation by Michelle Leonard

8. The Beginner's Guide To DNA Testing For Genealogy by Michelle Leonard

9. From Piles to Files: Organize Your Genealogy by Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, CG

10. 'We Were Supposed To Be Neals:' Reconstructing an Enslaved Family Using DNA by Renate Yarborough Sanders

The Runner-Ups

11. Spinsters and Widows: Using Women to Reconstruct Families by Shannon Green, CG

12. Writing as You Go is the WAY to Go! by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG

13. Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians–Oh, My! by Sunny Morton

14. 3 Clues Found in Every Land Record by J. Mark Lowe, FUGA

15. Who were the Scots-Irish? by Natalie Bodle

16. The Lady of the Scrapbook: A Newspaper Case Study by Mary Kircher Roddy, CG

17. Four ways DNA Painter can help with your family history research by Jonny Perl

18. Doing Time – Prison Records as Genealogy Resources by Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL

19. Smarter Searching: Refining Search Parameters for Genealogists by Cyndi Ingle

20. Using WikiTree's DNA Features in Your Family History Research by Mags Gaulden

The 2nd Runner-Ups

21. Family Discoveries in Minutes by Devin Ashby

22. Supercharge your Research Spreadsheets with Airtable by Francine Crowley Griffis, CG

23. Expelled from Nova Scotia: Researching the Acadian Diaspora to the Colonies by Ann G. Lawthers, Sc.D.

24. Everything You Need to Know About the 1950 Census by Lisa Louise Cooke

25. Hard drive and SSD drive failure rates and what to do by Andy Klein

26. Stump Craig! by Craig R. Scott, MA, CG, FUGA

27. My Top 20 Free Australian Genealogy Websites by Shauna Hicks

28. Identifying Unnamed Free Born African Americans - A DNA Case Study by David Rencher, CG, AG, FUGA, FIGRS

29. Finding your ancestors in Irish land valuation records by Natalie Bodle

30. The Geography of Genealogy in Europe by Dave Obee

Access to classes in the Legacy Family Tree Webinar library are available with an webinar membership. Not a member? Become one! Or watch one of our free classes here.

There is little doubt that a library is essential for genealogists. Still, with the emphasis on researching at a library, we may be forgetting about an essential part of its online presence, digital collections.

I realize not every library website includes digital collections, but enough do to include them when considering the public library located where your ancestors lived.

A digital collection is an online collection of digitized material that range from newspapers to historical photographs, books, and documents. While these collections aren't typically described as "genealogical," they have genealogical value. These collections will be found on the library website under a research or collections heading (for example). They may also be referred to as a digital archive or digital collection.

Let's look at an example from the Evansville, Indiana Public Library. While it's probably more apparent that a large public or academic library hosts digital collections, don't assume a local public library would not. In this example, their digital collections are found by clicking on the word Collections at the top toolbar, and then under Special Collections, choose Digital Archive.

"The Digital Archive collection created by the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library contains images of photographs, postcards, cartoons, and documents representing people, places, and things in and around Evansville, Indiana.

Original images in this collection are from the Indiana Collection, located at Central Library in downtown Evansville, or from local residents."

So, what has genealogical value here? Almost everything, but pay special attention to the directories and yearbooks. Once you find the collection you're interested in, you can browse it to find the exact item like any digitized book collection you are familiar with. Once you select a singular directory, you can search within that book.

Once you're done exploring those, the homepage for the Digital Archive includes links to other collections, including genealogical.

Although I chose to start with a US example, any online library may include digital collections. Consider this example from the Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada public library. In this case, the digital collections are part of a more extensive offering the library has, combining free and paid subscription databases. Not clearly labeled, this one took a little more effort to find, but it was under Books & More at the top toolbar and then All Online Resources.

Like most libraries, this one includes their subscription-based offerings, accessible with a library card, but they also have links to free collections, including the Alberta Heritage Digitization Project which is "free online access to cultural and heritage materials. Browse newspapers from 1885, read entire books about local communities, research legal documents, view historic photographs, and explore much more!" Yearbooks are just one of the genealogical finds you'll see in this collection.

Libraries are vital for genealogists but don't forget what they can offer your research virtually. An online search of your ancestor's local public library (or even another one nearby) might reveal historical photographs, newspapers, directories, or digitized books that can help your genealogical search. Don't stop at the library homepage or even the catalog. Explore the entire website to see what genealogical items might exist.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

The recording of today's webinar by Roberta Estes, "Wringing Every Drop out of Mitochondrial DNA" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for over 25 years, as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978. In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing individual analysis of DNA results and genealogical assistance.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!