This holiday season, give the gift of family history—and get a little something for yourself, too! When you purchase an American Ancestors gift membership, you'll also receive a FREE coupon to the NEHGS Bookstore.
Note: Member Services will contact you to deliver your coupon after your purchase.
Tomorrow! Finding the Living: Doing Descendancy Research
FREE event Thursday at 3 p.m.: Genealogist Hallie Borstel will discuss how descendancy research—tracing all descendants of an individual to the present—can help you further your research. Whether you are building out your ancestors’ network of extended family, hoping to understand DNA connections, working on a study project, creating a family association, or just want to connect with distant family, this webinar will give you the necessary tools and strategies for finding living relations.
Have you used our Digital Library & Archives? Let us know!
For an upcoming article on our Digital Library & Archives, we are seeking feedback. If you have explored the website, we’d be interested in hearing from you about the resources you’ve used and any genealogical discoveries you’ve made.
Norton County is located in northern Kansas on the Nebraska border. The city of Norton is its county seat. The Norton County Genealogical Society has made a number of resources available on its website. Click the links in the Resources contents list on the right side of the homepage to access them. The resources include the following: early births, marriages, deaths and obituaries; Norton County maps (1878-1917); an index to landowners from the 1917 Standard Atlas of Norton County; and a number of local history volumes. There are several cemetery databases that researchers can access by going to the Cemeteries webpage. The genealogical society has also provided researchers with an annotated bibliography of Norton County resources. Explore Now
Database News: New volume of American Ancestors Magazine available in online database
A new volume of American Ancestors Magazine is now available in the online database for this publication. Volume 20, from 2019, is now searchable and contains a wealth of information for family historians. This update contains over 280 pages and 2,800 names. Search Now
Last Chance!
Free webinar: Winter and Christmas at Castle Howard
Happy National Letter Writing Day! Letters can reveal a wealth of information about family history. Check out this story from Vita Brevis of how genealogist Katrina Fahy solved a puzzle using family letters:
Roots: Lost... and Found! “Sometimes the solution to a family history mystery is hiding in plain sight.”
How to Gather the Oral Histories of COVID-19 “The Federal Writers’ Project offers vital lessons for capturing the oral histories of ordinary Americans living through the coronavirus pandemic.”
Last week's survey asked about whether you've written an autobiographical account of your life. We received 2,837 responses. The results are:
20%, Yes, I've written a few pages.
5%, Yes, I've written a chapter-length account.
7%, Yes, I've written an account that contains several chapters.
2%, Yes, I've written a book-length account.
2%, Yes, I have published an account.
18%, No, but I plan to write one.
50%, No, I have no plans to write one.
This week's question asks about architectural features in your house and your ancestors’ houses. Take the survey now
Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Readers Respond: Autobiographical Accounts by Lynn Betlock, Editor
Last week's survey asked whether you’d written an autobiographical account. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Laurice Johnson of Menifee, California: I have been writing letters to my granddaughter for the past six months. They contain stories about me and my childhood and remembrances of big events in my life and the lives of my parents and grandparents. I’ve also written about my husband (her grandpa) and our son (her daddy). Both my grandmothers were great storytellers, so I have started to write their stories as well. I’ve written 20 letters so far and I expect there will be about 100 when I finish. My intent is to leave a record so that my granddaughter will know me. She is our first grandchild, born last March, and I am 68. While I hope to be here when she graduates high school and college, that might not happen. So, my letters will be there for her. Along with 40 years of family history research.
Beverly Douglas of Coppell, Texas: I have not written an autobiography. However, I have saved, in chronological order, every email I sent to, and received from, family and friends for the past 20 years. I also used to write in journals, and I have saved all of those (1991-2000). Anyone curious about or interested in my life after I’m gone will have a wealth of information to dive into.
Bill Haas of Sturgis, Kentucky: I discovered an unfinished autobiography written by an uncle in the 1960s. I then researched, edited, and annotated his account. One chapter of it, ““Boyhood Days on the Glenheim Ranche: The Memoir of Maurice C. Haas,” was published in the South Dakota History in June 2017. I then started writing my own autobiography, which is now almost 300 pages and includes lots of pictures. I encourage everyone to write one, even if it is short.
Nancy Freeman Powers of Galveston, Texas: One way that the Texas Society of Mayflower Descendants commemorated this 400th anniversary year was to publish a book, Gone To Texas: How Mayflower Descendants Got To Texas. We were asked to write about people in our Mayflower lines who first arrived in Texas. Most of the stories reached back a few generations, with Mayflower descendants arriving in Texas as early as 1824. My account was autobiographical since I moved to Texas in 1990 when my husband took a job with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. (A famous NASA alumni and Mayflower descendant who also lived in Texas was Alan Shepard, the first astronaut in space.)
Susan Roose of Springfield, Virginia: When I moved from a large house after 55 years, I gathered all kinds of papers and notes, including report cards and SAT scores, and records of family and church activities and trips. I put these papers in plastic sleeves and filled two three-inch notebooks. So, although I haven't written much, I have left a good accounting of my life.
