Which genealogy site is the best for your research?

While working on a research project recently, I ended up with a long list of original (mostly digital) records I had checked for the group of individuals. I had also consulted family trees posted by other people and few had sources. Nothing pointed me to learning more about the background of some of the people before they were in the target place. THEN I did a few searches on https://www.myheritage.com.

We can’t guess which one will provide the most help at a given time and with what search parameters you use. Genealogy standards include reasonably exhaustive research. To that I add, check once, twice, and then again and again.

That led me back to some trees on Ancestry that had not come up in other searches. I did learn where the ancestors were in the 1700s into the early 1800s and that led to some great historical material in the U.S. and Canada. So, which is the best of these and other genealogy sites to join? Every dang one of them as your budget allows. Don’t forget to check public, academic, and historical society libraries to see what genealogy subscriptions they may hold. Check FamilySearch.org to see what may be at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City or at a local FamilySearch Center. Then look at what a specific country may offer via its libraries and archives. It does take time, but whichever place we overlook may have been the one that led to some clues.


News update on GRIP (GRIP Genealogy Institute) for 2024

More genealogical education planning for your 2024 calendar! The coming year’s edition of GRIP will feature one week of courses online in June and in July an in-person lineup of courses in Pittsburgh. View the course titles for each week at https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/. In case you haven’t heard yet, the founding directors of GRIP, Debbie Lichtner Deal and Elissa Scalise Powell, have retired from GRIP. They founded GRIP in 2012 and it’s still going strong. The National Genealogical Society now runs GRIP. In a few weeks, complete details on each course will be online.

I am still coordinating and teaching in the Digging Deeper course that I began in 2012. Each year there are some updates and 2024 will have them too. I will be doing some sessions in the other two courses listed below. All three will be virtual the week of June 23-28. Sunday evening is a Welcome session, followed by full days on Monday-Thursday, and a half-day on Friday.

  • Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills (Coordinator and instructor)
  • Not Just Farmers: Records, Relationships, and the Reality of Their Lives
  • Midwest Family History Research: Migrations and Sources




2024 peek at Legacy Family Tree Webinar presenters: genealogy galore!

I hope you have your Legacy Family Tree Webinar membership ready to go for 2024. Today they released the photos of the big lineup of 2024 speakers. The speakers are in alphabetical order by first name. I follow Paul and Paul and am followed by Paula. As always, that makes me sing a few bits of the 1963 song “Hey Paula” by Paul and Paula. It was a song of my teens and friends often forced me to dance with another friend who was named Paul.

Now, back to the important matter at hand. Watch for the full details soon. One hint: I present a new lecture at the end of summer. A full year’s membership is still a bargain at $49.95 and you get to view all the past webinars. My affiliate link for joining is http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=1739

Legacy Family Tree Webinars genealogy education 50% off for new members

2,106 excellent webinars on genealogical education. 8,030 pages of syllabus. Where? Legacy Family Tree Webinars. If you don’t have a membership, this offer is for you. What offer? A half price fee through December 15, 2023. 50% off the usual fee of $49.95. You may then watch and listen to the growing list of webinars for one year. Then rewatch them to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Please let others know about this offer.



New memberships only and the offer is just through December 15, 2023. Use my affiliate link to join and help support this blog. Thank you. http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=8992

Tip: Watch for the usual end of the year announcement about the 2024 new webinars.


Native American Heritage Month should be observed every day

November was designated as Native American Heritage Month. I was not able to fit in a blog post about it because I was doing some Native American research for a client. I am doing the post now because too many people in the U.S. and elsewhere ignore the Indigenous heritage of our lands on which we reside. Some of you may know that I am a fan of baseball, soccer, and hockey. What does that have to do with Native American Heritage Month?

I applaud sports teams that have some game days designated to honor many specific groups including Native Americans, Black Lives Matter, Stand Up to Cancer, and the LGBTQ+ community. One sport seems to quash much of this that players wish to observe. That would be the National Hockey League.

I recently observed one of our NHL Minnesota Wild goalies, Marc-André Fleury, and the honor he paid to his wife Véronique and their children who have Abenaki and Mi’kmaq heritage. He wore a specially designed face mask that was designed just for this purpose. He (and the team) was threatened with fines and more by the NHL, but it was important to him to show his support. The mask was then auctioned off for charity and that benefitted the American Indian Family Center in Minneapolis and the Minnesota Wild Foundation. I love that the mask was specially designed by a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community, Cole Redhorse Taylor. It’s a Mdewakanton Tribe here in Minnesota.

Fleury’s own French-Canadian heritage might have drawn my attention too. One of my Great Great Grandfathers was French Canadian.

I understand a sport league’s need to have guidelines for what is worn during games but to honor a group and deny any outwardly visible representation is not an honor. It’s not the NHL’s first flub on such directives. Two of the many articles about all of this are linked below. It’s also where you can see a photo of the beautiful mask.

https://www.si.com/nhl/2023/11/25/wild-marc-andre-fleury-custom-native-american-heritage-month-mask-nhl-rules

https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/shut-up-and-dribble-marc-andre-fleury-is-the-latest-player-to-expose-nhls-hypocrisy



Closing out my 2023 genealogy presentations and doing contracts for 2024 and 2025

Last evening I had the honor of presenting “How to Drag Your Family into Genealogy” during the virtual annual meeting of the Texas State Genealogical Society (TxGS). I was impressed at the reporting of the extent of educational activities and volunteerism in the TxGS. It was also nice to see some long-time friends from Texas and elsewhere via Zoom. Some of us have known each other for 30 years.

This was my last presentation for 2023. It’s been a wild year with presentations for historical and genealogical societies, a group from an apartment complex, and in four different institute courses plus Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Be sure to join LFT Webinars for just $49.95 to enjoy the 2100+ webinars, 8000+ pages of syllabus materials, and lots of great worldwide education My affiliate link to join for a year: http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=1739

I’ve been updating my 2024 speaking calendar and have a couple more to add soon. If your organization is looking for a single presentation or an all day event (3-4 topics), let me know and I will send you my preliminary information with my background, rates, and some other details. Email: PaulaStuartWarren @ gmail.com

I will be updating my list of topics to note some that have been updated and adding a couple new titles. Several of the topics have added content depending on the area to which I am presenting.

Are you ready to start writing 2024 in a few weeks?

Latest round of Minnesota Historical and Cultural Small Grants

ST. PAUL, Minn. (November 14, 2023) – The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is pleased to announce the newest recipients of 36 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants ($10,000 and less), totaling $313,062 in 24 counties.

Small grants are awarded quarterly to help nonprofits, educational organizations, government units, and federally recognized tribes to preserve and share Minnesota history. This cycle of awards was approved by the MNHS Executive Council on September 14, 2023.

Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants are made possible by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008. The Legacy Amendment supports efforts to preserve Minnesota land, water, and legacy, including Minnesota history and cultural heritage.

A few of the grants.

St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, $10,000
To hire a qualified architect to conduct a conditions assessment of the 1911 St. Olaf’s Norwegian Lutheran Church, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Todd County Historical Society, Long Prairie $1,792
To add 22 rolls of microfilmed Todd County newspapers to make primary records more accessible to the public.

Belle Plaine Historical Society, Belle Plaine, $9,950
To purchase a microfilm reader/printer/scanner to make microfilmed records more accessible to the public.

Fillmore County Historical Society, Fountain, $9,945
To provide better organization of the museum collections, allowing for greater public access to the community’s historic resources.

Minnesota Discovery Center, Chisholm, $9,996
To hire qualified professionals to produce short manuscripts on significant topics of Iron Range history.

For the full list of grants: https://www.mnhs.org/media/news/small-legacy-grants-july-fy24


DNA and genealogy membership sales galore

It’s that time of year for sales related to family history research. My email and ads on genealogy websites, and various social media are full of discount sales.

DNA testing is a big focus of the sales. Half-price and more are the discounts available from all the testing companies. For example, MyHeritage is offering a $33 DNA test price through November 24. Some other sites go a bit longer. MyHeritage blog post about the sale https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/11/black-friday-deal-on-myheritage-dna-is-live/.

Next check the various subscription genealogy database sites for membership sales! Some are for new memberships but read all the fine print to see if there are ways around this to extend your current membership or add a new one when your’s expires.

Free evening hybrid presentation on Railroad Records on November 16th

Join me for “Railroad Records and Railroad History: Methods for Tracking” this Thursday, November 16, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. CT. It will be online and in-person in Muskogee.

I will be online for this presentation sponsored by Oklahoma’s Muskogee County Genealogical Society and the Tulsa Genealogical Society. Both are great groups and deserve your support for sponsoring this webinar that they have graciously opened to non-members that evening. Members of the societies will be able to rewatch the webinar for two weeks after the 16th.

My description of the presentation:
Did great-grandpa or another family member traverse this nation as he worked for the railroad? For which railroad did he work? Where did it run? Are there railroad records that may give us personal details? Visuals and references demonstrate the wealth of historical materials available all across the U.S. and with some specifics for Oklahoma and surrounding states. The railroads helped to develop places and other businesses. When this lecture is over you will know where to turn to find out more about the railroad, its records, and where to find them.

More details and to register for this event: https://www.muskogeecountygenealogicalsociety.org/


Minnesota Digital Library honors Veterans Day with online exhibits

This Veterans Day, the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) joined the rest of the country in honoring military veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces with a six-part online exhibit series titled “War Stories.”  “The “War Stories” exhibits include the perspectives of Minnesotans who lived through wars, from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. Veterans recorded their experiences in letters, diaries, photographs, and interviews, which are highlighted in each exhibit.” This excerpt is from the Minnesota Digital Library News which includes links to the exhibits by war. https://minitex.umn.edu/news/minnesota-digital-library/2023-11/learn-about-minnesota-veterans-through-war-stories-exhibits. Each war’s links has more links for additional information and images.

All six online exhibits can also be found on The Minnesota Digital Library as War Stories under the Exhibits section https://collection.mndigital.org/exhibits/. Even more can always be found in the collections of libraries, archives, and historical societies around the state.

I was a Naval Reserves and Viet Nam Era Navy Active Duty wife when my husband was in the Navy, my father served in World War II in the Army Air Corps, my father-in-law served in the World War II era Army, uncles and cousins served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Our family lost an uncle to torture in a Korean War POW camp and a cousin was a POW during WWII. A Great Granduncle served in the Civil, Spanish American, and first World Wars, A Great Great Grandfather served in the Civil War. Earlier generations served in the military in Canada and other countries.