GenealogyBlog

Recently I wrote an article about one of my ancestors, Patrick Fraher. This article has now been published in the December issue of an on-line magazine called Irish Lives Rembered. Irish Lives Remembered is a great resource for researching your Irish Family History.

Patrick was my mysterious black sheep ancestor I always wanted to learn more about. Read more about him in the article in the Irish Lives Magazine.

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The Seymour Historical Society is a truly great small town historical society. They have a large research library all about the town of Seymour and the people who lived there.

One of the true gems of their collection is the School Registers which date from 1891 and runs through 1959. The school register lists all the students who attended school. The register collects the following data points (Name of girl or boy, age in years and months, date of last birthday and the name of the parent or guardian. The image below is a small snapshot of what you will find in this fabulous resource. These records have not been indexed and you will not find this record anywhere else.

Other resources available at the Seymour Historical Society include;

• Old Deeds from Seynmour, vol 1, 4, 16 – 22
• DAR Lineage Books
• School Yearbooks from 1941
• Early City Directories
• Early Town Reports
• The Seymour Record [newspaper] original copies from the late 1800s
• Books of Seymour Vital Records
• Books written by local authors

If you have any ancestors who have any connection to Seymour, Connecticut you will want to make sure you check out this historical society.

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My family celebrates the Christmas Season by getting together on Christmas day, sharing a meal, playing cards and just spending time together. New Years Day is a time for gathering around the television and watching football. Whatever holiday your family celebrates provides a chance to hear stories about your ancestors.

This is another post in a series to help get you thinking about some questions to ask your older relatives at the holiday gathering. Before the family get together this holiday season do some homework and prepare some questions to ask your older relatives. Check out our category of blog posts called “Genealogy Interview Questions”.

This post focuses on preparing questions for learning about the how your ancestors felt about moments in history. Ask your mom, dad, grandparents or older relatives and friends to learn more about how moments in history affected them.

• Where were you when you heard about the (attack on Pearl Harbor)?
• How did you find out about it (radio, television, someone told you)?
• How did you and your family react to the news?
• Did you or any of your relatives enlist in the armed forces because of the attack?
• How was your family affected by the event afterwords (weeks or even years later)?
• Did you know anyone who lost family members during the World War II? How did it affect them?

You can ask these same or similar questions about various moments in history. Here are some other points in history to ask your ancestors about.

• The great depression
• John F. Kennedy’s assassination
• Neil Armstrong Landing on the Moon
• The Space Shuttle Challenger accident

Use these questions or prepare some of your own and you’ll be sure to hear some interesting stories. If you have any additional questions on the day’s topic be sure to reply to this post to let other readers know.

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I recently found the Scottish Genealogy Tips n Tricks Blog. As the name implies the blog focuses on all things to do with Scottish Genealogy. There are fairly regular posts, several per month. The topics cover a variety of subjects.

Below are some subjects of recent posts;

• Upcoming Scottish Genealogy Events
• 13 Scottish Cemeteries Added to Deceased Online
• Scots In Jamaica

If you have Scottish ancestors this is one blog you should check out.

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