I ran across a quote recently that got me thinking about the extraordinary. In an episode of Cosmos Carl Sagan said, Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It is a catchy phrase. I think it is fairly clear what that little statement is trying to get across, though it perhaps isn’t so precise. What is missing […]
The Sagan Doctrine Read More »
Work I’ve been doing for some clients recently has got me thinking about a way that I sometimes do research when connections are hard to make. I think of this method as “painting ancestors.” I don’t mean portrait painting. I mean something more along the lines of house painting. These days painting woodwork with oil
Painting the Past Read Read More »
All the holidays at this time of year have gotten me thinking about interviewing relatives. Part of the art of interviewing relatives is to recognize when the flow of the interview is going in an good direction even if it isn’t where you planned for it to go. It may not be the information that
Holiday Interviews Read More »
Presumably everyone reading this has heard of the Renaissance—the great flowering of learning and investigation that followed the medieval period and went back to and improved upon Western Culture’s classical roots. Few know that this was at least the second try at a renaissance since the fall of Rome. The first try didn’t go quite
Paleography and the “G-Word” Read More »
I’ve seen some pretty impressive walls in my life. I admit I’ve never visited the Great Wall in China but I have seen Hadrian’s Wall. It was built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian to separate Roman Britain to the south from the tribes living in what is now Scotland—short on the scale
Thinking Outside the Bricks Read More »
Timelines can be a great tool for genealogy. Timelines of general history give a quick overview and put events into their proper sequence. They can point out things in the sweep of history that may have influenced an ancestor. They can provide a quick-to-grasp framework for further understanding. Making your own timelines can crystallize thoughts
A Line to Draw the Time Read More »
Anything that isn’t sufficiently complex to look at from many different angles probably won’t hold a person’s attention for very long. There are certainly many ways to look at genealogy and the process of genealogical research. Genealogy, I’ve noticed, has been known to hold the attention of a researcher or two. One rather basic way
Three Steps to a Better (Ancestral) Life Read More »
Yesterday, I was looking at a roll of microfilm. All I was trying to do was locate a will and get a list of grandchildren that I thought I would find there. This will I knew would be buried in the minutes of town council meetings. Eventually, after stumbling upon a few useful tidbits in
You Never Know Who Is Hiding in those Details Read More »
One of our physicist friends dropped in to visit last week when she was in Chicago for meetings. It’s always nice to catch up with someone you don’t see very often and also with what is happening in physics. As usual one thing reminds of another and eventually I find myself thinking about genealogy. Sometimes
Building an Ancestor Read More »
When I mentioned the reuse of the names of deceased children in a recent post (Geneanthropology), it got me thinking about naming patterns. As genealogical evidence goes, I wonder if evidence from naming patterns, onomastic evidence, isn’t both one of the most underutilized and most overly valued indications of relationship. It is valuable if given
Making Names for Ourselves Read More »