William Hutchison – 3rd Great Grandfather (for family reference, this is Robert Lee Updegraff’s great grandfather) Missing 1900 census Unknown death date (estimate Unknown birth date (estimate 1821-1825) No actual sources for connection to parents (DNA has confirmed though) Williams parents were Forgus Hutchison (1798-1860) and Jane Campbell (1800-1872). William appears in the Census from 1850-1880 […]
Hidden Habitats
Cemeteries are incredible historical resources. They reveal information about settlement patterns, historic events, lifestyles as well as specific details on your ancestors. I love visiting cemeteries. The peaceful atmosphere provides the perfect setting for reflection and contemplation. Cemeteries are also “hidden habitats” with all types of plants and animals. You never know what you […]
Contacting Distant Cousins
Have you ever followed a lead by contacting an unknown non-genealogist cousin? Websites like ancestry.com, findagrave.com, footnote.com etc make it very easy connect with distant cousins that share an interest in genealogy. The rewards of those connections can be quite great. Here’s an example: Last year I found a story on ancestry.com involving my Davis […]
An Unusually Attractive and Popular Girl
On occasion, while researching my family history, I’ve come across a person, photo, or event that touched me personally. Often it was completely unexpected, and mostly about ancestors that I wasn’t even that closely related to. One such instance occurred while reading about my great grand aunt Alma Catherine Updegraff. Thanks to the New Castle […]
Shaking the Family Tree by Buzzy Jackson
Shaking the Family Tree by Buzzy Jackson is not your typical genealogy memoir. I found it both delightful and annoying, yet I couldn’t put it down. Buzzy begins her family research by purchasing plane tickets and traveling across country to visit some distant relatives. After all, the first steps of genealogy is to interview family members… Buzzy then […]
Family Photo Album
Hello! I’m just getting back to civilization after a very busy work week/weekend and am desperately trying to manage my “flourishing” genealogy to-do list. First things first, do something with the growing collection of family photos. Thanks to family members that have posted photos to Facebook and a recent trip to my parent’s house, I […]
My Mom’s Great-Greats
I got this idea from Genea-Musings and Family Tree Magazine and thought it would be interesting. Charts and graphs are fun to make, not to mention this entire blog post took about 15 minutes to do. Here’s what I did: 1. Listed the birthplaces of all 16 2nd great grandparents. For simplicity, I’m used my Mom’s […]
Who Do You Think You Are?
Just finished the book “Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History” by Megan Smolenyak-Smolenyak. Megan is one of America’s top genealogists; she consults for the show Who Do You Think You Are?, is the author of five books, and is a cold-case researcher for the Army, NCIS, and the FBI. Three […]
Trend of the Times-Robert Lee Updegraff
In my collection of family records, obituaries, marriage announcements, etc. there are a small group of items that I consider little “gems.” My grandfather, Robert Lee Updegraff served in the United States Army during World War Two. He was a Platoon Sergeant in a Special Operations Group and spent the majority of his service in […]
Don’t Believe Everything That’s Tree’d
One of my goals for this blog is to share best practices and lessons learned (mistakes made). My biggest mistake and probably the most reoccurring issue in genealogy, was copying trees and accepting them as fact. With the initial excitement of finding new details and connections, checking sources was not on my mind. I don’t […]
Katie's Grove 