Do you know why it’s called the North Star conference? Time for some online sleuthing to figure out why. Registration is now open for the 2026 North Star Genealogy Conference and pre-conference, to be held October 29-31, 2026, at the Eagan Community Center in Eagan, Minnesota., ALL of this is included in your conference registration! […]
I will be one of the volunteers at the event on Friday, July 3, 2026 during the afternoon as we share about tracing family history, answer questions, and celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!
Indexes, transcripts, and added knowledge are great to find in our family history endeavors. In Minnesota, we have a unique collection that fits that sentence. Do you know about the Dalby Database? Many years ago I discovered this as I was working on my Faribault, Rice County, Minnesota Cooks. My Great Grandfather, John Thomas Cook, […]
Only 2 weeks left to register for the June 22-26 virtual “Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, & Skills” virtual blockbuster course. I lead this long running course and teach along with 4 specialists in the field of genealogy. We cover 19-21st century US records, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, & methodology. This course can prepare you […]
On May 1st, I presented the topic “Insight into State Archives: ARCs, IRADs, ONAHRs, and Other Branches” for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and mentioned JSTOR. It wasn’t the focus of the presentation. I cover it in other presentations, but it wasn’t the main aim of this webinar and I received a couple questions about access. […]
My next two presentations are: The afternoon of May 13th, I am doing a basic Family History Research session in-person here in Minnesota about 40 minutes from where I live. It is sponsored by the St. Michael-Albertville Community Education and the Crow River Senior Center. It is designed for beginners or those genealogists who need […]
I’ve had several questions about the course Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills that is part of the virtual week of learning via the GRIP Genealogy Institute this June 22-26. Others may need the same information. This is a rather long post, but it should help. I’ve pulled this out of some responses to emails […]
Do you check for updates on genealogy related websites? If not, you might miss a new or expanded collection, indexing, or AI search capability on something for records of a city, county, state, province, or country that you have been hoping for. Reading the blogs, e-newsletters, and free social media of these free and subscription […]
Sunday is for updating my speaking calendar that can be viewed by clicking on the Speaking tab at the top of the blog. A few dates are waiting for the organization to fully execute our contract and to make their own announcement. If your organization needs a speaker in April, July, and months beyond, I […]
Every time I see someone posting on social media or saying out loud something akin to “I avoid those online family trees.” That may be followed by a comment that they are useless and baseless. Oh, do I disagree. Do I trust all family history details that someone told me, wrote about today or 120 […]