All of these beautiful baskets

were made by my sister-in-laws.

They have been gifts throughout the years.

I love baskets! I love decorating my home with them, even when it’s not in fashion.

I just do my own thing, because I like to surround myself with things that mean something to me. I have native american ancestry. My 5th great grandmother came from the Ojibwa tribe, I know they used baskets and I’m sure many of my other ancestors used baskets.

There was a time in history when everyone used them for something.

Collecting eggs, carrying things, collecting maple syrup, holding a precious newborn baby, going on a picnic, etc.

I love the idea that they hold things, that you can carry something valuable in them, because someone took some strips of reed and weaved them together and put a handle on it. To me they are a work of art and will always be displayed in my home.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

                                           My Dad! If we were using patronymic’s,                                                  I think my name would be Joy Emilsdatter! (Don’t quote me on that.)

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Patronymic is the a name showing decendancy by adding a prefix or a suffix. It comes from the fathers name. For example,

Fitz, English (Norman); son of, comes before the name (Fitzgerald),

or Son, Swedish; son of, comes after the name (Swenson),

or Wiecz, wicz, Polish; son of (Karkowicz).

How does this help you do your Family History? It can give you great clues to help in the search for more family names. Knowing that you have ancestors with patronymic naming, also requires that you search more carefully. You will want to use other information to help in your search, for example: Where do they live? Is there a farm close to where they live? What was their occupation? What are their siblings names?

Family Search has great information about searching using patronymic’s. You can read more about it here! 

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

The best primary source for birth information of an ancestor is a birth certificate. But what if you don’t have a birth certificate for your ancestor? You can get information about their birth from others sources, but they may not be a primary source.

What are Vital Records?

“Vital records include birth certificates, death certificates and marriage records. They are records which document the birth, marriage or death of a person and can be very beneficial in genealogical research. Certified copies of vital records can be used for many things such as verifying age, getting social security benefits and in receiving death benefits from life insurance policies. They are used widely in genealogy in verifying dates and other information.”  www.vital-record-online.com

  If you need or would like a copy of a birth certificate. Family Tree Magazine has a great article about finding and obtaining your ancestors birth certificate. You can read it here! After you obtain your ancestors birth certificate, don’t forget to put a dot in the color your have chosen for that family on the upper right corner, and then file it in your history book for that family.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

So here is another post about color coding your Family History. Continued from the post found here. This is my pedigree chart. As you can see, my grandparents are Blue, Green, Red and Yellow.  Now on the bottom line, my maternal grandmother’s line is Yellow, but when you get to the great grandparent’s on that line, the Yellow continues back on the White family line, while the Dye family line is now Orange.  The reason why the Dye (maternal) line is Orange is, because I have a ton of information on these two families. On all of the other lines, I only have enough to fill up one book, for each grandparent’s family. Someday, when I have a ton of information on all my families, I will add another color to the maternal side of all of my great grandparent’s.

Now some people say, “Why color code your family lines?” Here are the reason’s I do it:

1-I am a very visual person.

2-While organizing my papers, I just put a dot in the color (I use permanent markers) of the family they go with in the upper right corner of the paper and then I know, at a glance what family that information goes with. Also when researching, I make a copy of the source, (e.g. census, maps, birth certificate, etc.) and simply put the dot in the upper right corner, and now I know which family to file that copy with when I get home.

3-When you get back a ways in your pedigree, there are going to be more and more sir names. How will you know which family they are connected to and how they are connected to you? You would know, if they had a color assigned to them. Or, you can just memorize all of them.

4-What if your family lines connect, like cousins married etc. or have the same name? Once my mom met a woman whose maiden name was Green, she married a man named Green. How hard would it be to keep those records straight? Ouch! This woman was thrilled to learn how to color code her family history, and said that neither one of the Green lines would be assigned the color Green. They would be Red and Blue! I love that!

So take a little time on Sunday or whenever, go through all of the papers you have inherited and start to organize. Pick a color for each of your grandparents and go from there.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

This is  a post I originally wrote on May 16, 2009, about color coding my Family History. That was 98 Family History Friday’s ago!! Can you believe it? I thought I would remind you about the way I started to color code my families, and give some information about how to continue on from there.

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-May 16th 2009-

I’ve decided to have every Friday be a Family History post. Those who know me, know that I love Family History. Some people don’t know what Family History is. Well, it’s like genealogy, learning about your roots, but more about the history of our ancestors. I love these people, because I know them. I know life is better because of them. I enjoy getting to know them by reading their histories, and learning about how life was in the places they lived. So what I plan to do is talk about one of my ancestors or a Family History topic every Friday. Have an open mind and you may be bit by the Family History bug, too!!
I thought I would tell you my favorite way to keep my Family History organized. I am a visual person. One of my objectives in organizing my Family History is, first, so I can find the information I’m looking for when I’m researching, but also, anyone can find the information. So, here it is- I color code my ancestors. I know it’s not a new thing, but it works for me! To start out with, I use only the primary colors, plus green. Green in not technically a primary color. So, I have four grand parents. Most of us do. Some may have more if they have blended families. Then I pick a color of out of the primary colors plus green that reminds me of my grandparent or of the place they are from. So, my paternal grandfather is blue, they came from Norway. It is a country surrounded by the ocean and is very cold. My paternal grandmother is green. They are Native American, and came from the Great Lakes area. They were Woodland Indians. My maternal grandfather is red. They came from Wales and England. They were miners and life was very hard. My maternal grandmother is yellow. They are also from England and the Channel Islands, in the English Channel. They were pioneers. They joined the LDS church and came across the American plains, sacrificing much, sometimes everything. In doing my organizing in this way, I know at a glance which family names belong together. If you’d like, pick a color for your grandparents. Use this color by putting it somewhere on each piece of paper or document that pertains to that family. Good luck! Happy Family History Friday!!!

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-Today-

So, after doing much research, or accumulating more information you may feel like you need to separate your grandparents into two different colors. I have only done this with one family. That is my maternal grandmother’s line. All of the other lines, I just don’t have that much information on them, so I don’t feel like I need to. Someday I might. 

                               I thought I would let you know how I will separate them                                  when I do have enough information that I feel like I need to. 

When doing Family History research, you will have different sources where you find the information about your family. There are two types of sources, Primary and Secondary.

Primary Sources are a record of unedited information recorded when it happened by someone who witnessed the event. Examples are: family records, family Bibles, family Vital Records, correspondence, Memoirs and diaries, unrecorded Deeds and Wills, Diplomas, Certificates, and Testimonials, Public Records, Census, Federal Pensions. Military Records, Passport Applications, Passenger lists, Church Records, Cemetery Records, Educational Institutions, etc.

Secondary Sources are second hand versions. They represent someone else’s thinking or recording of the event. Examples are: Manuscripts, printed materiel, Family Histories, collected Genealogies, local histories, other printed material, etc.

When doing research, I always like to have at least two primary sources that agree on information about the ancestor I’m researching. If I find two primary sources that don’t agree, then I need to find at least one more, and hopefully it agrees with one of the first two. If not, you need to keep looking. All of the Secondary sources just support what you have learned from the Primary Sources.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

If you live in Northern Utah, this will be a great way to spend your Saturday!!

Do it, and have fun learning how to find your “roots”!

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

“What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had achieved? some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.” -Spencer W. Kimball

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“I urge all of the people of this church to give serious attention to their family histories, to encourage their parents and grandparents to write their journals, and let no family go into eternity without having left their memoirs for their children, their grandchildren, and their posterity. This is a duty and a responsibility, and I urge every person to start the children out writing a personal history and journal” (Spencer W. Kimball, in Conference Report, Apr. 1978, 4; or Ensign, May 1978, 4).

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Start a journal if you haven’t done it, your children will be so glad! I have mentioned in other posts, my darlin’s dad has Alzheimers and he can’t tell us any stories of his life, because he can’t remember. I am glad we have the stories and memories that we do have of him. But a journal would be awesome!

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy