Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Monday, April 20, 2015

Grandma Has Some Secrets

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles
at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The talented cast members of Studio C have given us another funny comedy sketch to enjoy.

Fellow family historians will no doubt appreciate the fact that these youngsters want to learn about their Grandma's life. What they are about to find out however, is that Grandma has some surprising secrets from her past.

Click play and have fun getting to know Grandma.

To watch more comedy sketches by Studio C, check out their YouTube channel by clicking HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

Friday, April 17, 2015

Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for April 17, 2015

A Note to my wonderful readers: I'm sorry, but Fab Finds will be going on another hiatus. My schedule is filled with many things in the coming weeks including family activities, church responsibilities, and final preparations for the class I'm teaching at our local Family Discovery Day in May. So, Fab Finds will be on hiatus for the next three or four weeks. If my schedule allows, Fab Finds will return on May 15. Otherwise, it will resume on May 22. Thank you!

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order)

SlideShare helps cure my genealogy conference envy… a wee bit by Gail Dever, author of Genealogy à la carte
Grave Collectors: It’s a Numbers Game by Terri O’Connell, author of Finding Our Ancestors
The Day Grandpa Hijacked the Car by Michelle Ganus Taggart, author of A Southern Sleuth
Thursday's Tip: Resource Wrap Up for Researching Your Deaf Ancestors and Relatives by Miriam J. Robbins, author of AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors
Ancestry Academy Launched Today AND MyHeritage Adds "Discoveries" to Your Family Tree by Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings
Orphan Trains A Missed Part Of My American History by Jenna Mills, author of Desperately Seeking Surnames
How'd She Do That?! : Screenshot of a Census by Amie Bowser Tennant, author of My Kith N Kin
Researching Mortuary or Funeral Home Records AND More Irish Genealogy Resources by James Tanner, author of Genealogy's Star
Shhh! A Secret list of Reasons to Attend Your Local Genealogy Conference by Heather Wilkinson Rojo, author of Nutfield Genealogy
A Marital Union at the Dawn of the Civil War by Patricia Desmond Biallas, author of GeneaJourneys
Finding A Family Hero – An Obscure Canadian Database You Might Not Have Used But Should by Ian Hadden, author of Ian Hadden's Family History
Guest Blogger: Beginning Your Tennessee Research by Amie Bowser Tennant, guest blogger at Lisa Lisson
This Is How They Trip You Up by Ellie, author of Ellie's Ancestors
Free Civil War Genealogy Records on Fold3 Through April 30 by Diane Haddad – Genealogy Insider for Family Tree Magazine Blog
KINDLE-ING GENEALOGY: AT THE CEMETERY by Bill West, author of West in New England
I Had An "I'm A Dummy Moment" by Andrea Kelleher, author of How Did I Get Here? My Amazing Genealogy Journey
Three Generations in My Family Wrote to the Same Cemetery by Barbara Poole, author of Life From The Roots
Quickest digitizing set-up ever by Pat Richley-Erickson, author of DearMyrtle

The 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow, author of No Story Too Small -

52 Ancestors Challenge 2015: Week 15 Recap

This week's "May I Introduce To You" Interview on GeneaBloggers.com

May I Introduce to You . . . Matthew Burt

New Blog Discoveries

In Case You Missed Them….My Contributions to the Blogosphere This Week

Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Jana's Place

Yosemite National Park ~ Part 1

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

My Blog Book is Here!

In a previous post I told you about my blog book project that I had been working on. Well, I finished my blog book, ordered it, and it has already arrived! It came even sooner than the estimated delivery date. And I am so pleased with the way it turned out. Blurb.com did a fantastic job.

Here are a few photos of my completed book.

Front Cover

Open Book

Back Cover

I'm thinking of writing a blog post about the process of creating this book. But, that may have to wait a while because of my busy schedule at the moment. I still need to finish my presentation for the class I'm teaching at our local Family Discovery Day in May. I'm happy to say that I was able to finish and turn in my syllabus by the deadline.

In addition to photos of my book, I also thought I'd share the preview of my book from Blurb.com.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Monday, April 13, 2015

Crestleaf.com’s Guess My Family Heritage Blogathon Contest

Crestleaf.com is hosting a contest. It's super easy and there are prizes involved, so yay!

Participants are invited to share a family photo and then ask their readers to reference the photo and guess the family's heritage.

I tried to find a photo that I haven't shared on my blog before. I found one, and here it is.

Photo courtesy of my 2nd cousin Jordan

So...any guesses about this family's heritage? If so, please leave them in the comments below.

If you'd like to participate in this contest, please click HERE to find out more about it.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Friday, April 10, 2015

Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for April 10, 2015

Hello my wonderful readers! As promised, Fab Finds is back from its two-week hiatus. I was able to finish and order my blog book by the March 31st deadline so I could take advantage of the 20% off sale. My book has already arrived and I'm very pleased with it. Blurb did a great job. I was also able to complete my syllabus for the upcoming class I'm teaching at our local Family Discovery Day in May.

This week's Fab Finds post contains blog posts from previous weeks as well as from this week.

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order)

Tuesday's Tip: Finding Deaf Ancestors and Relatives in Schools for the Deaf Historical Records AND Tuesday's Tip: Locating Deaf Ancestors and Relatives in Other Major Record Groups by Miriam J. Robbins, author of AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors
Enter to Win! Guess My Family Heritage Blogathon Contest AND 13 Popular Vintage Toys Baby Boomers Probably Didn’t Know Began with Their Generation by Crestleaf Blog
7 Places to Find Photographs of Your Ancestors Lisa Lisson for Crestleaf Blog
Using old postcards as research….. by Simon Last, author of Charnwood Genealogy
The "When I Was Young" Geneameme by Alona, author of Lonetester HQ
I Have a Complaint Concerning Many Genealogists by Dick Eastman, author of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
Guest Blogger: Researching Your South Carolina Genealogy by Cheryl Hudson Passey, guest blogger for Lisa Lisson
AncestryDNA Launches New Ancestor Discoveries AND Introducing Thomas MacEntee, Guest Genealogist by Lorine McGinnis Schulze, author of The Olive Tree Genealogy
H is for Household Examination Records by Tessa Keough, author of The Keough Corner
Free OCR for Family History Images by Fran Kitto, author of TravelGenee
Tuesday's Tip: DNA webinars from FTDNA by Nichelle Barra, author of Copper Leaf Genealogy
Sticky Fingers by Michelle Ganus Taggart, author of A Southern Sleuth
Putting a Face on Your Ancestors by Marian Pierre-Louis for Legacy Family Tree News
When it is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and you discover that your ancestors' unit served at Gettysburg by Lisa, author of Small-leaved Shamrock
Geneabloggers at Congress – Reflections by Jill Ball, author of GeniAus
Dissecting AncestryDNA Circles and New Ancestors by Roberta Estes, author of DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy
If I had to start again, this is what I would do. by Lynn Palermo, author of The Armchair Genealogist
Join in! Arbor Day: It’s All about Trees! by Colleen G. Brown Pasquale, author of Leaves & Branches
Things I Learned By Participating in the Genealogy Do-Over by Dawn Kogutkiewicz, author of Dawning Genealogy
Announcing Cycle 2 of the Genealogy Do-Over AND MooseRoots Added as Blog Resource at GeneaBloggers by Thomas MacEntee, author of GeneaBloggers
Resurrecting a Genealogy Forum by Jacqi Stevens, author of A Family Tapestry
We Are Getting a New Blog! by Ohio History Connection Collections Blog
HIDDEN GEMS IN NEWSPAPERS - I HIT THE JACKPOT ON THIS WEBSITE AND THE CIVIL WAR–HOW OUR COUNTRY DEALT WITH THE AFTERMATH by Diane Gould Hall, author of MICHIGAN FAMILY TRAILS
Destination America: Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Arrival in U.S. Ports by Juliana Szucs for Ancestry.com Blog

NOTE: I want to let you all know about a very difficult and heartbreaking situation that one of our fellow genealogy bloggers and her family are facing right now. Cheri explains it in her post:

Saying Goodbye Too Soon by Cheri Hudson Passey

A GoFundMe account has been set up for Cheri and her family. Several genealogy bloggers have shared this on Facebook. If you can help at all, it would be wonderful and very much appreciated. Thank you!

GoFundMe Account link ~ The Passey's need your love!

The 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow, author of No Story Too Small -

"May I Introduce To You" Interview from March 23, 2015

May I Introduce to You . . . Jacquie Schattner