Lynn Palermo's Blog (15)

Your Family History Research: What’s Holding You Back?

"What have you been putting off and what…

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Interested in learning more about My Canvas to create your family history book. Today at www.thearmchairgenealogist.com Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers guests posts, and tells us of his personal experience with this program by Ancestry.com.

A Family Biography Template

Many people shy away from including too much writing in their family history books, assuming it takes some special talent. Often this results in a quick rendition of the facts of a person's life, born, worked, married, died. Not exactly creative.

Below I have prepared a simple template anyone can use to write a creative biography about an ancestor or a living relative. This template provides an added element, a family element. This tool will help you… Continue

Part 1- Preparing to Write a Family BiographyThis week I have been crazy busy writing family biographies. Three years ago, I began researching and writing the Kowalsky Family History Book. (I may have mentioned it once or twice before) From this process, I have learned a great deal about writing a family biography.



A biography is a life story written by someone other than the subject. A family biography is a bit different. It features more people, all related in some way. It… Continue

Now more than ever, I can appreciate how confusing it can be for a family historian trying to decide on which database they would like to join when beginning their family research. If you’re an armchair genealogist then certainly you want to belong to an online genealogy database. The question is which database to join?



I am here to tell you, only you can know the answer to that. How do you know?



1. Gather as much information about your ancestors prior to seeking out a… Continue

Deciding to create a family history book can be a large undertaking and it can be an expensive undertaking. Often the process can take on a life of its own. Therefore, it is important to set parameters for your family history book. One of those parameters must include a budget. It is very important to decide on a budget for your book in conjunction with deciding on the size and scope of your book. A great way to determine your budget is to ask yourself some key questions.



Do I… Continue

1.Determine Your Genealogy Goals- without a goal and a path you will wander aimlessly, accomplishing very little. Setting goals and creating an action plan for a achieving your goals are imperative to staying the course. Don’t hesitate to revisit these goals throughout the year.



2.Create a Daily, Weekly and Monthly Routine- set time aside each week to work on your genealogy project.



3.Create a Schedule or To-Do-List – break down your goals into actions, schedule your… Continue

Many family historians spend their entire lives collecting documents, pictures and stories of their ancestors. Their project usually starts out as a keen interest in whom they are and where they come from. The journey becomes not only about acquiring the proof of their ancestors existence but it also becomes a journey of personal self-discovery. For this, the proof that exists in the documents, photos and stories that they acquire become very valuable to them. Here lies the problem. This… Continue

Genealogy software is a hot topic amongst family historians. Many have opinions and they are often based on personal experience. I am not going to pretend to know all the ins and outs of all the genealogy software on the market. However, if you are in the market for genealogy software and don’t know where to begin then may I suggest the website Top Ten Reviews. If you have narrowed it down to a few then this website maybe able to help… Continue

If you are ready to start writing your family history book but not sure how to turn your research into an interesting life story then I have some tips to get you started. How do you write a descriptive, creative, narrative story about your relatives when all you have is a list of dry facts and documents to draw on? How do you turn your facts into a story about an individual you never met?



Believe or not before you begin writing your family history, I am going to suggest more… Continue

I came across this job posting and felt some of you may be interested. I thought this was a great way for the genealogy community to give back, to the many who recorded all those wonderful documents we value today in our research. Plus, here’s an opportunity for you to insure future genealogists get accurate information. This is a paying job.



This is a US census so it only applies to my American friends.

You can apply at… Continue

If your looking for some great Genealogy Christmas gifts, check out My Store at the www.thearmchairgenealogist.com

Last week I posted about getting your genealogy research organized so that you can get ready to start writing your family history book. By organizing your information, you should now have a better knowledge of what you have in your arsenal to create your book.

The size of your family history book can vary. It may be a small booklet of a dozen photocopied pages but together in project folder to a large 200-page full colour coffee table style book. Only you can decide which challenge you are… Continue

This week, I read an article in the latest issue of NGS Magazine entitled What is a Family? by Harold E. Hinds Jr. The subject of this article was based on his Grandmother’s two bibles. These two bibles outlined two very different concepts of his family. Like many families, there were sometimes aspects of our ancestor’s lives that were considered in appropriate and so some of our relatives took it upon themselves to rewrite their families’ history.



Today, we have a different… Continue

Before entering into writing your family history book, one thing is key; organization. Hopefully, as you have been researching your ancestors leading up to writing your book, you have put an organizational system in place for your research. However, if you haven't, then it is still not too late to get organized. If your goal from the beginning has been to create a family history book then how you organize your research can aid in the writing of your book. If you haven't put a system in place… Continue