Amazing Ancestry.com deals.
Ancestry.com has some amazing deals for the Genealogist in your family. These are good through Christmas 12/25.
Free Shipping on Ancestry DNA Kit w Code: FREESHIPDNA
25% Off Family Tree Maker at Ancestry.com!
Genealogy
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Ancestry.com, brick wall, digital photos, digital print, digital scrapbooking, family historian, family tree, Genealogy
Who Do You Think You Are?
I just finished watching Who Do You Think You Are on TLC with Christina Applegate. As a Genealogist it was fun watching her go through the processes of researching her Grandparents. During the 40’s just at the peak of the Depression, and beginning of WWII, life was so difficult for families. Right now through September 12, you can Watch Who Do You Think You Are? On TLC Tuesdays at 9/8 Central and get 14 days FREE on Ancestry.com!
What family secrets or photos will you find? I found this photo of Mary Agnes Cunningham with her family. She is the wife of Enos Akin, Mother of Gip Akin, my Great Great Grandfather.
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US History Pocket Reference
Family Tree has a special on this handy Genealogist resource, The Genealogist’s U.S. History Pocket Reference. In this book you will find resources that will help you better understand the eras in which your ancestors lived. You will also have a quick reference of historic events that your Ancestors may have been part of. My Grandma and her parents were very involved Roman Catholic and participated in the Annual May Crowing each year.
There are lots of history-related trivia and fast facts that you will really enjoy. This book is also great for students or teachers focusing on History.
It is important to understanding the historic events of your ancestors’ eras and how they can unlock many additional records in your family history research. In this pocket reference it covers the major political, military and social events in the United States from the colonial era through 1940. Also included is immigration trends and census dates to help you narrow your research focus and find genealogy records faster.
The pocket reference is packed full of Timelines, charts, quick lists and maps, popular foods, songs and books of each era. There are timelines of wars and other military events; along with dates for federal, state and special censuses. You will also find Immigration data including major ports and countries of origin. This is a must have in your Genealogy Collection.
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RootsTech Conference
This weekend is the RootsTech Genealogy Conference. If you can’t attend the conference they are offering some fun streaming classes online, here is the list and times that these will be streaming.
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers
11:00 a.m. The Future of Genealogy – panel
1:45 p.m. Tell it Again – Kim Weitkamp
3:00 p.m. The Genealogists Gadget Bag – Jill Ball and panel
4:15 p.m. Finding the Obscure and Elusive…- James TannerFriday
8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers
9:45 a.m. Researching Ancestors Online – Laura Prescott
11:00 a.m. FamilySearch Family Tree – Ron Tanner
1:45 p.m. Google Search…and Beyond – Dave Barney
3:00 p.m. From Paper Piles to Digital Files – Valerie ElkinsSaturday
8:30 a.m. Keynote speakers
9:45 a.m. Using Technology to Solve Research… – Karen Clifford
11:000 a.m. Digital Storytelling: More than Bullet Points – Denise OlsonAll streaming sessions will be at Mountain Standard Time. You can see descriptions on the class links on the schedule page of the website.
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Vintage Shamrock
🍀 Vintage Shamrock Traditions: Preserving Irish Family Memories
Every March, I find myself drawn to the same simple symbol—the shamrock.
Not just for luck, but for the memories it carries.
There’s something about the soft green tones, the delicate shape, and the quiet history behind it that feels… familiar. Like something passed down, even if we don’t always know the full story.
For me, the shamrock isn’t just a decoration. It’s a reminder of how small traditions connect us to the people who came before us.
🌿 The Meaning Behind the Shamrock
The shamrock has long been associated with Irish heritage and storytelling. Over time, it became more than just a symbol—it represents connection, resilience, and family roots.
Even if your family isn’t Irish, we all have symbols like this—small traditions that carry meaning through generations.
📜 A Personal Connection to Irish Roots
Some of my family’s roots can be traced back to Ireland and Scotland, when my Akin ancestors migrated to America in the 1700s.
I’ve been blessed to have a lot of this history preserved through my Great-Great Aunt Lovella. She was only a few years older than my grandmother, and the two of them were like sisters.
I remember spending time at her home in Corona, New Mexico, where she lived her entire life. We would sit together going through old stories and photographs she had carefully collected over the years from her father, Gip Akin.
Those moments—quiet, meaningful, and full of history—are something I carry with me. They are a reminder of how important it is to preserve not just names and dates, but the stories behind them.
🍀 Creating with a Vintage Shamrock Kit
Here is another wonderful vintage kit from Touched by a Butterfly—Vintage Shamrock.
When I saw this kit created by Celeste, I immediately knew which photos I wanted to use. It felt like the perfect way to bring together both my love for vintage design and my family’s Irish roots.
There’s something special about taking old photographs and giving them a new life through creative layouts. It becomes more than just a project—it becomes a way of honoring the past.
I hope you enjoy these creations as much as I enjoyed making them.
Mary Agnes Akin 
Laura May Akin, sister to Gip Akin 
Mary Tryon and her sons 
Grandma Ola & Grandpa Elmer, at their Holy Communion celebration. Both were Roman Catholic. 💻 How I Preserve These Memories
Over time, I realized I didn’t want these traditions and stories to fade away.
So I started capturing them—photos, seasonal inspirations, and family moments—and turning them into something lasting.
One of my favorite ways to do this is using MyMemories Suite.
It allows me to:
- Organize family photos
- Create beautiful digital scrapbook pages
- Preserve the stories behind each image
Instead of everything sitting in boxes or folders, it becomes something meaningful—something that can be passed down.
✨ A Simple Way to Start
If you’ve been wanting to preserve your family memories but aren’t sure where to begin, start small:
- Choose one tradition
- Gather a few photos
- Write down what you remember
- Create one simple layout
That’s it. Just begin.
💛 Holding Onto What Matters
The older I get, the more I realize—it’s not about perfection.
It’s about remembering.
The shamrock may be simple, but the meaning behind it isn’t. It’s a quiet reminder that our stories matter, and that even the smallest traditions are worth holding onto.
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October is Family History Month
Happy Monday, it is amazing that the year is nearly over. October is Family History Month, and with the Holidays around the corner there will be plenty of time to share memories, both past and present with family. This year I met a distant relative through my Grandfather Tryon’s side. We have been exchanging information about Andrew E. Tryon, when some of the information sounded very familiar. It was familiar, but not because it was the same person, but because a relative on my Grandma’s side was in the same location as Andrew’s father Jeremiah Tryon was during the Civil War.
Great,Great Grandfather Jeremiah Tryon died in Shelby Co. TN during the Civil War, d. Oct 20, 1863. 10 months prior to Great Great Grandfather( Augustus Williams) on Dec 19, 1862. Both these gentlemen were the Great Great Grandfathers of Elmer(June) Tryon and Ola Mae Durbin(Tryon). If my cousin and I hadn’t started sharing information we would have never connected that our families had possibly known each other during the Civil War. I am looking forward to visiting with more family and discovering more about our family.
Here are some helpful tools to preserve and share your family history. How to Archive Family Keepsakes and my favorite the Flip pal.
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Mastering Ancestry.com
This month Family Tree Store mega kit is Mastering Ancestry.com. Each month Family Tree has wonderful kits that are perfect additions to your Genealogy Collection. This months collection includes:
Ancestry.com Web Guide Digital Download
- an in-depth description of how to use Ancestry.com and its collections
- a quick-start guide and vital statistics
- step-by-step search secrets
- a cheat sheet of quick links, resources, hacks and shortcuts
Retail: $4.00
Official Guide to Ancestry.com (book)
- master the Ancestry.com search
- create keepsake books with MyCanvas
- use the Ancestry DNA genetic genealogy service
- create and develop your own Ancestry Member Tree
- explore obscure databases you didn’t know existed
You’ve always known Ancestry.com was a valuable resource. Now you can learn to use it like never before.
Retail: $24.99
Your Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com on-demand webinar
Once you’ve learned a bit about Ancestry.com, now you need to now how it really works. With 5 billion historical records, Ancestry.com can unlock valuable information about your family—if you know how to make the most of its search and other tools. In this hour-long webinar, Family Tree Magazine contributing editor and seasoned Ancestry.com user David A. Fryxell shows you insider tricks and techniques for teasing out ancestor information from the site’s tens of thousands of databases.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to efficiently navigate Ancestry.com
- Tricks for finding the databases you need
- Strategies for locating hard-to-find ancestors
Retail: $39.99
Tutorial: Searching Immigration Records on Ancestry.com digital download
Do you need specific help finding passenger lists of your ancestors’ voyage to America? This quick guide shows you how to locate your kin in Ancestry.com’s vast collection of immigration records.
Retail: $4.00
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1940’s US Census Index Program
It has been a little while since the the project has ended, boy it was a FUN project.. It left me wanting more documents to transcribe. I honestly love browsing through old papers and seeing how similar our lives are to those from decades ago. All of 1940’s US Census records are available to view on many sites, such as Free access to 713 million U.S. census records begins Wednesday August 29th – Monday September 3rd, 2012 on Ancestry.ca
and Ancestry.com
. This is a perfect time to catch up on new information, compare it with your records on truly the Greatest Generation of the 20th Century.
Thank you gift I received from the 1940’s US Census Community Project. If you were part of the index project you to should have received this bag.
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Genealogy Deals
Living social is having another great deal for Archives.com, only $10.00 for a three-month membership.
Getting in touch with your roots takes more than a shovel. Begin digging into your family’s history with today’s deal: Pay $10 for a three-month membership to Archives.com (a $20 value). This easy-to-use site collects more than 2.1 billion domestic and international records all in one place, including US census data, newspapers, birth records, obituaries, marriage announcements, and more dating as far back as the 1700s. Your membership lets you access them all, allowing you to unearth your family tree, save scans and images of vital records, and even connect with long-lost living relatives. Search by married and maiden name, geographic location, and date — with Archives’ simple tools, you can do a lot more than scratch the surface of your family’s history.
And here is this months Family Tree Genealogy Collection. The Ultimate Time-Saving Tech Tools Collection. A 165.96 value reduced to 59.99, a 64% savings.
The collection includes:
Want more time for your genealogy research? Here’s the secret: Become a more efficient genealogist. This kit is designed especially to help you do just that, by teaching you how to use online and computer tools that will speed your search, help you research smarter and streamline tasks that would otherwise suck up your valuable genealogy time. With the tutorials in this kit, you’ll accomplish these five goals:
1. Learn computer tricks that will save you time and increase your confidence with technology.
Frustrated by too-small text on webpages? Confused by the alphabet soup of computer files? Wish you knew a faster way to print, find files, search and perform other tasks? The independent study course Computer Boot Camp for Genealogists will show you how to become a whiz at genealogy computing tasks. This class is ideal for anyone who wants to build basic computing skills, whether you’re a neophyte or just looking to gain confidence and learn some new tricks.2. Organize your genealogy computer files.
Photos, documents, notes, emails, your genelaogy database—how do you keep track of all that data so what you need is always at your fingertips? The downloadable Step-by-Step Guide: Organize Your Hard Drive will help you set up a filing system that keeps your computer tidy and your essential genealogy files just a few clicks away.3. Transform your note-taking.
Evernote is a free tool you can use on your computer, the internet and even your phone to jot down genealogy notes, save clippings and annotate web pages, create to-do lists, share findings and much more. Watch the 30-minute video class Using Evernote to learn how to get started–you’ll be amazed how it can make genealogy faster and easier!4. Set up a personalized genealogy toolbox.
Overwhelmed by the plethora of genealogy tools? Build Your Research Toolbox, a 30-minute video class, will show you how to combine your favorite resources into a single, easy-to-access “dashboard” in the format that best fits the way you work.5. Protect your work.
You can never predict when a computer crash might wipe out all your years of research. Don’t let that happen to you! Our downloadable Resource Roundup: Online Backup Services will show you where and how to back up your data safely and regularly.Another great kit is the Organize Your Family History Value Pack, a $176.96 marked down to $69.99
Finally, an all-inclusive bundle to keeping your genealogy records, memorabilia, research findings and more — ORGANIZED! Many genealogists struggle with keeping their research and findings in a centralized location. With the “Organize Your Family History Value Pack” you are sure to be on your way to creating a file-friendly, clean, relaxed atmosphere that will help you make the most of your research.
The Organize Your Family History Value Pack includes:
Organize Your Genealogy: Family Tree University Independent Study Course (Download)
A successful genealogist often ends up with an embarrassment of riches: too much information in too many places. Whether you work on paper or do everything online, getting your research organized is essential to keeping track of ancestors and making sure you know where to put new ones in your family tree. This course will rescue you from unhelpful habits and get your workspace (virtual or physical) tidy again.
RETAIL: $99.99Organization Made Easy: 5 Simple Ways to Get Your Family History in Order OnDemand Webinar
Presented by, Allison Stacy, Publisher & Editorial Director of Family Tree Magazine
Are you struggling to tame the piles of paper, mountains of memorabilia and deluge of data generated by your family history research? Achieve your New Year’s resolution to get organized with the tips, tricks and tried-and-true solutions presented in this hour-long online workshop.
What you’ll learn:
- • Methods for filing paper records and printouts
- • Ways to cut computer clutter and organize digital photos, documents and e-mail
- • Tips to make tough organization jobs manageable
RETAIL: $39.99
Organize Your Genealogy Life! CD
This CD has Family Tree Magazine’s best advice and tools for getting your research in order and keeping it that way – making you a more-efficient genealogist. This space-saving, PC-and Mac-compatible CD lets you click right to recommended Web sites, search the entire text and print pages for reference.
RETAIL $19.99CLUTTER HAS A COST. It steals your storage space, robs your time and energy, and takes away the peace and beauty of your home. Don’t pay for it another minute—get organized, now!
This updated and expanded edition of the bestselling Organize Now features even more quick, effective organizing ideas. Easy-to-follow checklists show you how to organize any part of your life in less than one week. You spend more time organizing and less time reading—a perfect fit for your busy lifestyle! Long-term goals help keep the clutter away for the months and years to follow, so you can maintain the order you create.
You’ll find help with everything from time management and routines to mental clutter, paperwork, pets, purses, toys, rooms and life events such as moving, and celebrating the holidays.
Special money saving tips show you how to use your organizing efforts to cut costs around the house and even make a little money.
Don’t let piles of paperwork, overflowing closets and overbooked schedules drain your resources and energy anymore. Take control with Organize Now!
RETAIL $16.99And don’t forget to take an additional 10% off your order with code Family10F
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1940 US Census Project- Volunteers Needed
Community Outreach
1940 Newspaper ArticleHistoric Census to Shed New Light on the Greatest Generation
What do General George Patton, John F. Kennedy, Dan Rather, Betty White, and Jesse Owens have in common?
They can all be found in the 1940 U.S. Census, newly released by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The challenge, of course, will be finding them in the hundreds of thousands of digital images of the census pages online until a searchable name index can be created. Unless you know the state, county, and street address where they were residing in 1940, locating them without a name index will be daunting. Fortunately, that challenge is being resolved by thousands of good-hearted volunteers online at the1940census.org. If you are looking for a meaningful project for your next act of community service, The 1940 US Census Community Project is a great one.
Supported by genealogy giants archives.com, FamilySearch.org, and findmypast.com, and local and national genealogy and historical societies, the project is trying to rally tens of thousands of individuals to join an online community of volunteers to create a free, high quality, searchable index online of every single name found in the 1940 census. Volunteers use an Internet application found at the1940census.org to look at digital images of 1940 Census pages and type in the names and information highlighted on the screen. About 30 to 40 minutes is all that’s required to do one census page. The data extracted by volunteers is saved online immediately and ultimately made available as a free, every name, searchable index at FamilySearch.org. With enough volunteers, the project aims to complete the index before the end of the year.
Researchers and family historians will have a heyday with the census once the index is completed by volunteers and made freely available online. Volunteers have previously indexed the 1790 to 1930 U.S. Censuses. Those free indexes can already be searched online at FamilySearch.org. “The 1940 U.S. Census is significant because practically everyone knows a family member—parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle—who was alive in 1940,” said David Rencher, Chief Genealogy Officer for FamilySearch, a nonprofit organization sponsoring the online community project to index the 1940 Census.
“Once you’ve found a relative in the 1940 Census, it can be fairly easy with that information to then find them or their parents in the 1930 U.S. Census index already online at FamilySearch.org, then the 1920, 1910, 1900, etc., all the way back to the 1790 U.S. Census. Before you know it, without ever leaving your computer, you’ve traced your family back multiple generations over 100, or maybe even 200, years,” Rencher added.
Can you imagine the gregarious Betty White as an 18-year-old? Wonder what she was like or doing at that time! Or how about Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens (birth name James Cleveland Owens)? He would have been 27 years old in 1940. Then there’s stoic General George Patton, who would have been 55. He would pass away 5 years later in 1945 at the age of 60. Dan Rather, popular news anchor today, was just 9 years old, and his family might not have even owned a TV in 1940.
Think about it. The 1940 Census provides a snapshot of 135 million people living in the United States at the time. It is nestled in between the Great Depression and World War II in our country’s history. Hidden in the census’s pages, until now, are the people that have been so fondly and appropriately coined as “The Greatest Generation ever known.”
As a nation, these individuals survived the Great Depression, would soon fight in the Second World War, innovated technology (TV, Microwave), practiced thrift and compassion, and understood hard work and industry. They inspired Tom Brokaw, popular national TV newscaster, to later author a book about them, The Greatest Generation. Ironically, Tom Brokaw was an infant himself when the census was taken, born February 6, 1940, in Webster, South Dakota.
Many are all familiar with the 2010 Census just completed, but it will be of little use to family historians until 2082, when the 72 years privacy right expires. The 1940 U.S. Census, however, is now available, and family researchers can’t wait to unlock its long held mysteries. In addition to name, age, gender, race, education, and place of birth, 1940 census takers also asked individuals for their place of residence 5 years earlier, their level of education, occupation, and income.
Coupled with the earlier census indexes (1790 to 1930) now available online for free at FamilySearch.org, it will be easier than ever for family historians to extend their genealogical trees beyond their living memories. The 1940 U.S. Census index online will most likely become the most searched online database for the next decade, and a boon to growing consumer interest in genealogy.
The Greatest Generation would be proud of The 1940 US Census Community Project.
For more information or to participate, go to the1940census.com/society and register to participate with the project team in your area, <society name>. Simply select <society name> on the profile screen when creating your account. You’ll be on your way to contributing in an impactful way to this national service project.
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