A silver bullet from FGS

Looking through my notes again today before heading out to work, I find the best quote that I heard from my time at the FGS 2011 conference.  It was from Dr. David McDonald’s session on Wisconsin history:

There is no silver bullet.  We’ll show you where to mine the silver and how to make a bullet out of it.

My last day at FGS 2011 in which I scare the bejeebus out of a genealogist

Yeah, sad to say that I finished my visit to the FGS 2011 conference today.  The conference will continue tomorrow, but I’ve got another meeting in another state to get to tomorrow morning.  So this will be my last update from the show.  But, it won’t be the last post with information and resources gained from attending the show.  As to how you scare a genealogist, read on…

A little more from Thursday at FGS

Well, hanging out with other Geneabloggers is certainly much more entertaining than sitting around in my hotel room writing the next post.  I said there would be more from Thursday, so here is a bit more before I head out again to attend FGS today.  Also there’s a time-sensitive promo code in this post…

FGS day 2 (for me)

Okay, so I’ve got an hour or so before the blogger reception across the street from the conference location, which should be enough time for today’s recap.  I didn’t get any photos yet; there may be a few later tonight at the blogger reception, so watch tomorrow.  I was able to talk to the FamilySearch rep about what I missed on Tuesday, so there’ll be some of that in here too….

Can you guess where I am?

I got up early and drove for five hours this morning.  Just before lunch, I arrived here….

WTF is Fold3?

So I logged in to my various news readers and social networks today getting ready to write about something I noticed in the 1865 New York state census (which I still plan to post, just not today), and I saw a news release announcing a “new” site called Fold3.  Actually, it’s not a new site, but a rebranding of a site that many genealogists have come to know well, Footnote.

Project advice from a veteran researcher

In my current work assignment, I have the opportunity to listen to quite a lot of audio as I edit photographs for an online retailer.  One of the podcast episodes I listened to this week, although not specifically about family history or genealogy research, should be required listening for every genealogist that is working to create a narrative document for future generations.  The show was Stuff You Missed In History Class and the episode (get the mp3) was the second part of an interview with multiple Pulitzer Prize winning history author David McCullough.

A little more on today’s Mystery Monday…

So I did a little more digging around to see what other records I could find on Francis Lamb and Anne Quinn and family today.  I came across the family listed in the 1850 U.S. census as well, without any Thorntons in the same household.  However, there were Thorntons elsewhere in the building in 1850…

Mystery Monday–Who was Mary Thornton?

So I know that my Lamb ancestry traces through New York City, specifically Harlem, back to Ireland.  The family legend is that my ancestors emigrated during the great potato famine.  The 1860 U.S. census for New York supports all of this, but adds a mystery that I have yet to solve.

Another record set of note

Yeah, it’s been a while since my last post.  As usual, life got in the way, but things are settling a little again (just in time for another disaster, but more on that later), so it’s time to update the blog.  I was listening to Genealogy Gems episode 114 this week and heard about all the new record sets available to search.  In the discussion on the British Library digitizing a massive amount of public domain materials (news: Reuters, Engadget, Guardian, HuffPost), I was reminded of another project that was mentioned recently on the BBC History Magazine podcast this month - the fine rolls from King Henry III's reign.