Thursday 29 December 2016

Week 52: "52 Weeks=52 Ancestors"

As we draw the 2016 genealogy challenge “52 weeks=52 ancestors” to a close it reminds me of years ago, on New Year’s Day, the local pop radio station would do a countdown of the top 100 songs of the previous year.  The excitement and build-up of which song would they select as number one would keep me glued to the radio!

Wouldn’t it be great if I could do the same thing today?  Create a top ten countdown of our Palin ancestors.  Granted there won’t be pop songs, but ten Palins from our site selected for having made their mark in the history books or made a difference in their world.  What a fun idea!  So without further ado….

Thursday 22 December 2016

Week 51: Christmas of Days Gone By

Every family has their own unique way of spending Christmas and have their own traditions, but chances are some of the traditions could have been handed down from generations gone by.  Do we know how our ancestors would celebrate Christmas and is there a way we can find out?

I thought it would be a far fetched idea but I would check the newspapers and see if I could find anything there.  Sure enough, I found a couple of articles. 

Thursday 15 December 2016

Week 50: Head Scratcher

Sometimes when searching for family members in the family tree, it is not as easy as connecting the dots.  There could be all kinds of brick walls that a genealogist could face from incorrect dates of birth to names being misspelled.  Sometimes even the first name is given incorrectly. 

Thursday 8 December 2016

Week 49: Palin vs Palin

Some family trees have beautiful leaves, and some have just a bunch of nuts. Remember, it is the nuts that make the tree worth shaking. (author unknown)

Not everyone in our tree can be a respected farmer, a doctor, a policeman, or a soldier.  Every once in a while we will come across a person in the tree, who, let’s just say, walked on the wrong side of the street.

Thursday 1 December 2016

Week 48: Minsterworth Court

Family history is not just about when a person was born, who they married and when they died, but also how they lived and perhaps where they lived.  The five “w’s” certainly apply when it comes to family history and telling their story.

Who –    What was their name, their parents, their siblings, their spouses, their children?
What –   What is their story?
Where – Where did they live as a child, as an adult, where did they work?
When -   When were they born, married, died?
Why -     Why is this person of interest and why did an event take place?

This blog is about looking and searching deeply into the where question.