Elyse's Genealogy Blog

Today would have been my Mom’s 51st Birthday.  I miss her. Happy Birthday Mama.

Zacheus Downer is my 4x great grandfather and one of my brick walls.  Below is a quick listing starting with my paternal grandmother to Zacheus Downer. + Nancy Jean Rogers (b: 1924) + Julia Margaret Morris (b: 1893) + John Morris (b: abt. 1861 ) + Julia Ann Downer (b: abt. 1831) +Zacheus Downer Starting [...]

Every genealogist knows that it can be difficult to keep your genealogy papers organized.  Disorganization can lead to having to re-do research that you’ve already done because you can’t find it, retracing your steps when you don’t need to do so, or accidentally researching someone else’s tree.  But how is a genealogist to keep it [...]

Note: I apologize for how long it has taken me to get this post up.  I had so much fun at Jamboree but I also barely slept.  It has taken me a few days to recover from the whirlwind weekend and a few days to process everything that happened.  But without further ado, here is [...]

Today has been a beyond wonderful day.   Words can truly not describe it.  Last night I could barely sleep from all the excitement and today still turned out better than my wildest dreams. I graduated at 4 P.M today with my Associates Degree in Liberal Studies.  Then I had a FANTASTIC time with my [...]

An easy way to stay organized and keep our research time efficient is to create a research to-do list.  The to-do list can be organized by task type, surname , or individual. With technology, there are many different ways to create a to-do list.  The list can be done the old fashioned way with pen [...]

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog has written an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G blog post entitled, The Rock Star’s Guide to Genealogy Conferences.  For anyone going to Southern California Genealogy Society’s Jamboree conference this weekend or to anyone ever planning on attending a conference, this is a must read!  Her tips and suggestions are fantastic. If you [...]

As researchers, it is easy for us to get distracted.  We have so many interesting ancestors to research, databases to check, books/articles to read, and cousins to email.  It isn’t uncommon for us to sit down with one genealogy task in mind only to find ourselves a few hours later doing something completely different. So [...]

The excitement is building with Jamboree right around the corner – only 8 more days!  Southern California’s Genealogy Society’s Jamboree will begin on Friday, June 11, 2010 in Burbank, California. I will not be at the conference on Friday because I will be graduating from college with my A.A degree in Liberal Studies.  After my graduation, [...]

Most of us genealogists don’t have as much time to devote to our research as we would like.  Sometimes the only genealogy time we have in a night is a half our during our lunch break or 20 minutes after the kids go to bed.  Even a small time slot is effective genealogy time.  Here is [...]