Saturday, April 18, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Which Ancestors Would You Like to Talk to?

It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 


Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  We sometimes find we have questions we would love to discuss with our ancestors - the who, what, when, why and how questions that might help with our genealogy research.

2)  Which ancestors would you like to talk to?  What questions would you ask?  

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.


There are so many ancestors I would love to talk to, but I will only list my top 5 ancestors. 💗


1)  My first choice would be my great-grandmother, Clara Loretta Scott Armstead (1904-1998). I would ask her what her biological mother's name is, the reasoning behind why her brothers were placed in an orphanage, and why her ex-husband, Anthony Tony Armstead, was abusive toward her sons and possibly her.



2)  My second choice would be my paternal grandfather, Fletcher Pearson (1919-1986). I would ask him what his experience in WWII was like and what he did after the war.



3)  My third choice would be my 3rd great-grandmother, Loretta Baker (1854-1900). I would ask her who were her parents, where was she born, and if so, why did she leave her first husband and married another man by the name of George Baker.



4)  My fourth choice would be my great-grandfather, Earnest Rogers (1916-1990). I would ask him what is your biological father's name and how was life living in Alabama during Jim Crow.


5)  My last choice would be my maternal grandfather, Thomas Bernard Armstead (1943-2013). I would ask him, how would you describe your mother and father, how did your parents meet, what was life like living in Brooklyn during the 1940s-early 1960s. 


If only we could go back in time and let them answer our questions-our brick walls would become breakthroughs. 



Thanks for reading,





Saturday, April 11, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- The Games Your Family Played

It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 


Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  Think about the games that your whole family would play when you were a child. 

2)  Tell us about one (or more) of them - what was it called, what were the rules (as you remember them), who played the game, where did you play the game, who usually won?

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.


I know that we had a few family game nights, but it wasn’t often. My oldest sister and I are nine years apart, so my parents probably got a lot of time to play games with her. 




My brother, twin sister and I would play card games which include, War, Old Maid, and Gold Fish together. My brother taught us how to play these games. I believe my brother won most of the games because he had more experience.



My family had a lot of board games. Several include Candyland, Sorry, Monopoly, Operation, and Trouble.



When my twin sister and I would play Connect 4, she always had the yellow markers, and I had the red markers. This was because those were our favorite colors.   The rules were the same as listed in the instructions. She would win most of the time since I would not see the spot to block her. 



In our younger years, ages 3-6, we would go outside and play Red Light/Green Light, Duck, Duck, Goose, and several other games. My mom would be the "stoplight" or my brother. These were certainly fun games to play. 





I miss those happy carefree days. 


Thanks for reading,






Monday, April 6, 2020

A Way to Connect with Others

During the times that we are living in now, we are not able to see friends and relatives physically, but we can view them virtually.



This program isn't new to many fellow family historians or genealogists but much so for families getting used to this new normal.




There are other ways to communicate with others, such as Skype, Portal, FaceTime, Google Duo, etc.



If you have attended any genealogical webinar, seminars, or meetings, then you might be familiar with web-conferencing programs like Zoom and GotoWebinar.




For example, if you are going to attend a live webinar on Legacy Family Tree Webinars, you first have to sign up by entering your first and last name, email, and time zone. An email will be sent to you detailing the time in which a webinar will start and the link.


1. Zoom




There is a FREE and a paid version. The free version can have up to 100 people in a session. There are 3 different payment plans with various options and features. You can view the pricing and plans here.


2. Getting Started with Zoom






DearMyrtle posted a video 2 weeks ago about the basics of using Zoom. This video only covers the basic features in Zoom, but it is a good start to get a bit of understanding of the program.




3. GoToWebinar is a similar program to Zoom and has similar capabilities and features as Zoom does.







A difference between GotoWebinar from Zoom is that there are 4 payment plans. You can start a 7-day free trial to test it out and see if you like it. And if so, you can choose one of the four plans to continue using it.


These are just 2 ways to get in connect with others during this difficult time. Both are really great options to get started with web-conferencing.


Have you used any of these programs? What do you think about them? Leave a comment below.  



Thanks for reading,