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I have a big fish story. But, what does swimming with sharks have to do with genealogy? Everything! Genealogy is tracing one’s line of descent. But memories add spice to merely a name and birth date. I was in the Army, stationed on an island in the South Pacific. The island was only 2 miles long, ½ a mile wide and 7 ft above sea level. The island was man-made. Made of Coral dredgings, you could look out your room and imagine it was snow. Shorts, Flip Flops, and a Polo Shirt was “Off Duty” Formalwear. The trade winds blew […]

At one point, the microfilming that remained to be accomplished in Scandinavia was left for me to organize and oversee personally. The first project I had to organize in that area was about six weeks of filming in the Faeroe Islands, a cluster of small islands in the North Atlantic between Norway and Iceland. The logistic problems were such that I had to spend time in Denmark getting things sorted out prior to accompanying a camera operator from Germany to get the project started. While in Denmark I attended a church service in Aarhus. Two ladies came into the row […]

During the nearly three years I worked as Supervisor of the European Microfilming Operations, I was constantly aware of and amazed at the millions of U.S. Dollars being spent annually by the Genealogical Society to acquire photographs of millions of pages of records of births, baptisms/confirmations, marriages, deaths and burials of people who had lived many years ago in faraway places. And remember that 1972-1974 U.S. Dollars had considerably more purchasing power than the 2020 U.S. Dollars. On one occasion I asked the Manager of the genealogical Society how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints justified the great […]

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. […]