January is a new starting point for a lot of things. It coincides with very cold weather where I am and usually a little more free time than at other times of year, so I naturally turn to my genealogy hobby in my cozy office. This year I resolved to be more rigorous about family…
This is the final part of my story about my great grandmother, Charlotte Browne Gradwell Marshall. The story begins here and continues here. A few months after her older boys were placed there in 1905, Charlotte asked Father Hudson’s to take little Freddy, now two and a half. Her sister, Jane Talbot, couldn’t care for him any more…
This is the story of Charlotte, my great grandmother, widowed in 1905 in Birmingham, England, with six children under age 10. See Part 1 of this story. Within 2 months of her husband’s death, Charlotte was desperate, desperate enough to ask the local Catholic orphanage, Father Hudson’s, to take in her three oldest boys. Her parish priest…
Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you a story. This story begins in Birmingham, England. In the 19th century, factories and shops attracted workers from all over, including Samuel Browne, who moved there from Derbyshire and married a local girl. This story is about his youngest daughter, Charlotte. Born in 1873, Charlotte grew up in a back-to-back…
Well before RootsTech 2011, I was considering whether or when to get a genealogy DNA test done. I think it was at a Toronto Ontario Genealogical Society event that I first listened to an excellent presentation on new discoveries in the field. The presenters were so enthusiastic that I couldn’t help thinking that maybe the…
Genealogy rockstar Josh Taylor gave an excellent webinar last night for the Illinois State Genealogical Society, detailing how he organizes his digital files for his professional and personal genealogy research. He uses a number of tools to make his research time more effective, such as spreadsheets, file naming and embedding metadata within image files. These…
My week in Salt Lake City is a wrap. At a post-RootsTech dinner last night hosted by Dick Eastman, I was asked my opinion of the conference. Several people nodded in agreement when I said some sessions were great, but there were too few for the intermediate and advanced genealogist. Two of the three keynotes…
The last three days were intensive, but fascinating. I had prepared for my research time at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City by reviewing the family lines that needed more information (basically all of them) and looking up some of the films that might be helpful. Using Evernote, I tagged census images and…
It seemed to take forever to get from Owen Sound to Salt Lake City, but that was partly because I did an overnight stop in Toronto. It wasn’t essential, but it allowed me to visit family and make sure that the forecast snow squalls didn’t get in the way. On the way from the SLC…
It turns out that going to a genealogy conference in February has a galvanizing effect on January resolutions. Like many others I resolved to get my genealogy stuff organized this year and, guess what, I really have to do it so I can make the most of my trip to Salt Lake City for RootsTech ….
