Tag: young genealogists

Faces of NextGen: Meet Breanne Ballard

October 5, 2015

What five words would you use to describe yourself? Genuine, motherly, studious, driven, persistent.

Why genealogy? Genealogy is the perfect combination of intellect and heart. I love history and the “detective work” aspects of genealogy. At the same time, there is something indescribable about the excitement I get and the relationship I feel to these people I find and research.

What’s the coolest discovery you’ve made? Folsom Prison records for my second and third great grandpas, mug shots and all!

What are you working on this week? I found a naturalization record that gave me some great clues to start researching my Lithuanian ancestors.

What’s the number one secret to your success in genealogy? Asking questions and networking. The more people I talk to the more I learn.

What superpower would you want to help you uncover your family history? Time travel.

What are we most likely to find you doing when you’re not researching family history? Being a mom. I’ve got three really cute kiddos that I love to pieces.

The NextGen Genealogy Network is made up of young genealogists with diverse backgrounds, interests, and experiences. Faces of NextGen will showcase a different member of our community each month. If you would like to be considered for an upcoming feature, simply complete our questionnaire and submit a selfie.

Something Worth Sharing: Creating a Family History Book

September 21, 2015

You’ve put countless hours into researching ancestors, digitizing photos and collecting stories. Now what? Of course the family tree with all its records and photos can be thrown onto a USB drive and passed out to interested parties, but there’s a good chance the drive may just sit on a shelf collecting dust. Sometimes the best way to generate interest and appreciation in family heritage is to make a good old-fashioned book or poster.

As the Internet has grown up around us, we’ve begun to discover some amazing ways to express ourselves through the printed word. Services like Shutterfly, Snapfish, and even WalMart offer the ability to design and build a photo book through a web browser. Photos are uploaded to be manipulated and arranged, clip art is available to make frames or embellishments, and text can be added throughout the book as captions for photos or even entire stories. But using these sites to make a family history book may be the hard way to do it.

If you are a user of Ancestry.com, you should be aware that they actually have their own media printing service called MyCanvas. The really, really handy thing about MyCanvas is that all of the family tree work done in Ancestry.com is actually linked up to MyCanvas. To get to it from Ancestry.com, click on “Extras” along the top, then click “Photo Books and Posters.” The site has family history books and poster templates and once a project is chosen (a family history book for example), all of the relevant names, dates, locations, and profile pictures will be pulled from your tree on Ancestry.com and laid out in a book in MyCanvas within seconds. Once the general template has been filled in, pages can be added, layouts edited, media inserted, and stories shared.

I have found that the MyCanvas page editor is easy to use and very flexible for creativity. All Ancestry.com family tree records and media are accessible under each ancestor’s name, and photos not yet in your Ancestry.com tree can be uploaded directly to MyCanvas to be used within your project. Books can be made with up to 250 pages and five generations deep. Posters can be printed in various styles from the standard family tree or descendant layouts as well as a combination poster showing the union of two families. The poster can display from three to nine generations and range from 16 x 20 inches up to 24 x 36 inches.

In my experience, it has taken a lot of time and patience to tweak my books and posters to the way I ultimately wanted them, but an unexpected benefit is that the exercise actually pointed out various holes I had in my own research. It pushed me to find missing dates, spouses’ names, pictures, records, and newspaper articles. The result is something to be very proud of, something which locks context and connections together in a permanent way and gives the family’s heritage a better chance of outliving its author.

Eric Wells is a Missouri-based construction contractor in between his genealogy work. He frequently gives talks about publishing family history to his local society and regional conferences. He has published several books and posters for his family, friends, and clients, and is a volunteer with the NextGen Genealogy Network.

Call for Volunteers

September 17, 2015

Young genealogists don’t always have a lot of time on their hands. Whether we’re preoccupied with school, careers, families, or all of the above, it can be hard to find a spare hour to research our own family history, much less engage with the genealogical community at conferences or online.

We know your time is valuable. That’s why we’ve broken down our volunteer opportunities into bite-sized pieces. Are you squeezing in one genealogy conference this year? You can spend your lunch break there as a Meetup Coordinator. Are you always on Facebook and Twitter? Do double-duty and help us engage with our online community as a Social Media Assistant.

Read about these opportunities and more below:

Content Contributor: If you love to write and would like to expand your professional exposure by reaching out to a growing community of young genealogists, consider writing for us. Learn more…
Social Media Assistant: Can’t stay away from Facebook and Twitter? Volunteer your time online to share content and engage with our active community of young genealogists. Learn more…
Graphic Design Assistant: If dreaming up eye-catching graphics and getting creative on Canva.com is your idea of a good time, help us connect with the next generation of genealogists. Learn more…
Community Liaison: Are you planning to attend an upcoming genealogy conference? Do you love to meet new people? Represent our organization wherever you may be. Learn more…
Meetup Coordinator: Whether you plan to attend a local, state, regional, or national genealogy conference, we encourage you to lead a fun and informal meetup event for young genealogists. Learn more…

Have a different idea? Complete our Volunteer Application and let us know how you’d like to get involved. We would love to have you join our growing team of volunteers – all dedicated to engaging the next generation of genealogists.

Faces of NextGen: Meet Beth Wylie

September 7, 2015

Beth Garison Wylie, 39, Oklahoma

What five words would you use to describe yourself? Focused, determined, traveler, excited (about NextGen!), and family oriented.

Why genealogy? I have always loved history. I majored in it in college. I feel that genealogy makes history more relevant and personal as it connects you to the major and not so major events that shaped the world in a way that a book never can. Also, my grandmother was very interested in genealogy and she passed down that love to me.

What’s the coolest discovery you’ve made? Every month it seems I make the next “coolest” discovery! I suppose that a few of my ancestors were some of the earliest founders of this country, at Jamestown and New Amsterdam.

What are you working on this week? This week I am working on the mystery of my husband’s Wylie line. The story in his family is that his great grandfather was adopted by Scottish immigrants around 1900, but as his great grandfather has been gone many years and never spoke about his origins, it has been difficult to verify. I made some headway this week with census records, a passport application, some city directory listings and a tombstone photo. Now just waiting on a social security application to confirm his parents (adopted or not) are who I think they are. Once I have that, I will request his birth certificate.

What’s the number one secret to your success in genealogy? Patience. A distant cousin once told me that, “Ancestors will let you find them when they want to be found.” Sometimes when I hit a brick wall, I walk away. Either they aren’t ready to be found, or I need to rethink my approach.

Anything else you’d like to share? I am so excited to be involved with NextGen! I wish this group had been around in my early twenties. It is wonderful and inspiring to be involved with other young genealogists!