Writing a Personal History

It's often difficult to begin writing a personal history. What do you say? What's important? Consider using family photos as a starting point.  Bring out old family pictures, then videotape yourself describing what is in each picture and what you remember about the event. Be sure to videotape the photo as you are speaking.

Don't wait for one of your children or grandchildren to ask to interview you! Start now to videotape (or audiotape) your own recollections.  It doesn't need to be a major projection.  Start with one family picture and spend 10-20 minutes (or whatever it takes), describing it. It won't be long before most of your family story is recorded.

Family History isn't just learning about our ancestors.  It's also about preserving our memories and sharing them with our children and grandchildren.

Find Your Ancestor's House Using Zillow

Zillow.com is a real estate web site for people looking to buy or sell a house.  The information available there can also help you learn more about your ancestors.  If you already know an ancestor’s address, enter it (including the city and state/province, or county and country) into the “Neighborhood Search” box and click [enter]. If there a house with that address, Zillow takes you directly to information about that property.  If there is no house with that address, Zillow takes you to the neighborhood.

To see the date the house was built, its approximate value today, and when it was bought and sold most recently, select Details. Click on Views to see what the house looks like today (or if a freeway runs through where it used to stand!).  Zillow can also show you nearby parks and schools that may be mentioned in personal journals or appear in family photos.

If you don’t already know where your ancestor lived, you can discover that information through census records, city directories, real estate records, birth and death certificates and other public records.

Researching LDS Pioneer Ancestry

If you have LDS pioneer ancestors, you may enjoy learning more about them through the LDS Church History Website Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847-1868. The database contains information on approximately 60,000 pioneers, who traveled in more than 250 different wagon and handcart companies. Search for your ancestor specifically, look to see who else they traveled with, or learn more about the families who made up the ill-fated Willie and Martin handcart companies.

To search the database, go to lds.org and select [About the Church] and then [Church History]. Look for the Conestoga wagon in the lower left of the page. 

Free Websites for Cornwall Research

If you have ancestors from Cornwall, you’ll want to check out the Cornwall On-Line Parish Clerks web site. You can search birth, marriage, and burial registers, along with Protestation Oath and voter lists. 

Used in combination with the British Isles information available at FreeBMD (transcriptions of Civil Registrations of Birth, Marriage and Death records from 1837-1983) and FreeCen (transcriptions of 1841-1891 UK censuses), you can learn a great deal about your Cornwall ancestry from the comfort of home!

Alabama On-Line Digital Collection

If you have ties to Alabama, check out the on-line collections at archives.alabama.gov. Collections particularly helpful in family history research include:

• 1867 Voter Registration
• Civil War Service Database
  
• Index to City Directories (1837-2006)
• Index to Church Records Collections
• Newspapers on Microfilm
• Confederate Officers Photograph Albums

Use the Alabama Department of Archives and History site to find out what newspapers have been microfilmed, then arrange to view the microfilms through the public library Interlibrary Loan program.

There may be a Confederate Civil War Pension file, and finding the soldier's regiment and company are key to finding the right pension file.

The search mechanism finds only those entries that have exactly that same string of characters. In the case of a last name, that string of characters can be the whole name, or just part of a name (e.g., searching for "Lay" will yield "Lay, Layden, Layet, Layton, etc.). Because names can be misspelled, try a variety of spellings when you search.

If you find someone you're interested in researching, make note of the Regiment and unit, then go back and search for that regiment and unit (no specific person's name). That way you can see the names of all the soldiers in that unit.