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In 1974 I was working for the Genealogical Society as Supervisor of the European Microfilming Operations. As the archive records were filmed in each European country, they were sent from the filming location to an Emery Air Freight station in that country, and from there air freighted to the Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City. There they were developed, inspected, and processed for cataloging. Following the completion of the work in Vesoul, France, the last batch of films, representing several weeks of work by two camera operators, failed to arrive at the air freight terminal in Paris. Several weeks passed, and plans were begun to re-do the […]

In 1969, the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosted The World Conference on Records. This event brought together people from all over the world who were interested in and responsible for the safety and preservation of archived vital records. The records of primary interest included recordings of births, baptisms and confirmations, marriages, deaths, and burials, as well as probate records and other records helpful to genealogical researchers. The theme of the Conference was “Records Protection in an Uncertain World.” It was held to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee year (75th Anniversary) of the Genealogical Society of […]

I’d like to share a good example of the benefits of having access to vital records on films. Several years ago, as my wife and I were working as volunteers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I was struggling with the library’s computer system to locate a town in the Netherlands called Renswoude, where I had learned one of my ancestors, Antje Konink, had been born. I was grumbling, apparently somewhat loudly, at not being to find Renswoude. Behind my back a lady whom I recognized as a native of the Netherlands and one of the […]

​In the course of my correspondence with a retired Catholic priest in New Brunswick, Canada with whom I had common Acadien ancestry, he expressed delight at learning that I was a “descendant of pirates”. It seems he translated the word “privatier” as pirate instead of privateer, which is a seaman authorized to plunder enemy shipping, in this case British shipping during the mid-1700s. The priest saw the events from a Canadian point of view. I started taking interest in my ancestry in 1960, but delayed engaging in any serious research until 1968. When I finally did get interested in researching […]

What’s New?By Dale E. Lee2022.09.28 One of the frustrating yet wonderful problems using Web Repositories to answer Genealogical questions is the fact that they are adding record holdings continuously. The Wonderful part of it is if you find your relative’s records in their database it saves you a tremendous amount of time. Instead of needing to go to the location, you can do a simple search using their database and if found, it will list information in the record. The image of the record may even be available for viewing. However, on the flip side, they are adding to their […]

Simple Research StrategiesBy Dale E. Lee2022.09.21 Certain things in Family History are important to consider. They are called strategies. Each strategy I discuss below indicates something important to consider in order to reap the benefits and to avoid the problems attendant in not considering them. Hopefully you’ll find them useful in your research efforts. They are not a comprehensive list of all strategies possible, but are a good start for beginners. Use Surrounding Information Surrounding information is information that may not be related to births, deaths and marriages, but which includes activities the person has been involved with during their […]

Organize Yourself ElectronicallyBy Dale E. Lee2022.09.14 In the past I’ve discussed how to organize your paper documents and computer data. Here I’ll discuss how to organize yourself electronically. Organization is one of the most important things you can do in Family History, as in most efforts. The lack of organization can greatly degrade your ability to accomplish tasks. There are many applications on the market that offer help with organization. The following are only some of the ways to organize. Examples of the kinds of methods and apps are given below, but are no means a comprehensive list of them. […]

Family History ProjectsBy Dale E. Lee2022.09.07 Before I begin the post today, I want to mention that the FamilySearch project to index the US 1950 Census is almost complete. To view the results and search on people that have been indexed, see https://www.familysearch.org/1950Census/. Most of the efforts we do in Family History are Project based, whether writing our personal history, or reviewing gravesites, or researching information on our ancestors. Projects should have clearly defined objectives, so that distractions will not side track you from completing them. They should be planned, executed, tracked and reviewed. But those new to Family History […]

Family Organization NewslettersBy Dale E. Lee2022.08.30 OK. I feel a little silly. I don’t know why I didn’t think if it before. I’m sure someone somewhere else has, but it’s still a good idea. I’ve been writing a newsletter for some time now, to help up and coming Family Historians. But today the thought struck me, why don’t I suggest Family Organizations create their own newsletter? Although you may already have a Family Organization, you may not have thought about creating a newsletter for it. There are many benefits to creating a Family Organization Newsletter. Here are the top 10 […]

Intro to Family History is comingBy Dale E. Lee2022.08.24 Just wanted to drop a note to let you know that Seekerz LLC will be soon offering an Intro to Family History Course. The course has been developed and is currently in beta testing with live participants. One of the most difficult things to deal with in Family History is to know where to start. Most mistakenly jump in the deep end of the Family History pool and quickly get overwhelmed. As I was discussing this issue with a friend, he mentioned that what he really needed was a step by […]