Most things that I encounter in genealogy require some level of translation or interpretation.  The obvious is when a record is in German or French.  However, there are other things in genealogy research that require translating and interpreting. One of the most challenging is translating “old speak” into something understandable by  the general public today.   Old Speak?   What do I mean by “old speak?”  This is a term that I use for words

I never knew either of my grandfathers.  Similarly, my dad didn’t know his grandfathers and my mom didn’t know her grandmothers.  It is like a piece of your life is missing when you don’t have the opportunity to know a parent or a grandparent.  All I know is what I learned from family, primarily from my parents, about them.   Grandpa McCracken   Grandpa McCracken died when I was about a month old. From things

Identifying a person’s ancestors isn’t always easy even with records and DNA.  I have worked a quite a few confusing lines in my own families and other people’s families where family information, records, and DNA didn’t all align.  And, in some cases, almost no information seemed to exist.   Louisiana   One of those cases was my great-great grandmother Louisiana Matteer.  My part of the family always believed that her name was Louisiana Johnson and

Some year ago, my uncle sent my family an article about General George Henry Thomas.  He was a well known and well respected general for the North in the Civil War.  Thus, my uncle really wanted him to be a member of our family.  After all, the names George and Henry both show up in our ancestry.   North Or South   George was from Virginia.  He had trained at West Point and  was against

Today when we want to know what is happening with somebody, we check their social media accounts.  If you aren’t connected to a person, it can be a bit challenging to find out what is going on in their life.    Local Items   Back in the day, it was common to print items  in small town newspapers about people from different neighborhoods.  In this case, you could check up on anyone.  However, you were