Genealogy Archives – Page 2 of 3 – Organized for Life and Beyond

Genealogy Resource Roundup (Blog Post)

By Hazel Thornton on October 12, 2020 4 Comments

Me (left) with genealogy rock star Cyndi Ingle.

Are you ready to explore your family history?

Here are some genealogy resources to help you get started!

This list is by no means exhaustive! It’s mostly a list of websites and tools I use myself. If you want exhaustive, check out Cyndi’s List below. I have used Cyndi’s List since its inception in 1996, and got to meet Cyndi Ingle in person when she came to visit the New Mexico Genealogical Society a few years ago.

Please let me know if you find something here that helps you!

Ready to explore your family history? Here are some resources to help you get started!

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Categories : Genealogy

Are we all descended from royalty?

By Hazel Thornton on August 2, 2020 8 Comments

Are we all descended from royalty?

Short answer: Probably!

Long answer: Most of us are distantly related to rulers such as Charlemagne, Genghis Kahn, and other historical figures with an abundance of descendants. But can we prove it? And is it important?

Most of us are distantly related to royalty. But can we prove it? And is it important?

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Categories : Genealogy

Tags : family, genealogy, pedigree, royalty

What’s a photo without the story?

By Hazel Thornton on July 19, 2020 25 Comments

UPDATE #1: Mystery solved! (scroll down)

UPDATE #2: I was so taken by my grandmother’s “bathing beauty” photograph that I used it on the cover of my 2021 book — What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy (click to learn more). The book is not about my family, per se, but I do use my own photos and stories as examples of what you can do, too. This is the longest story in the book. Most are one image plus a paragraph or two.

Who is this saucy young woman? Don’t know? Don’t care?

She looks like fun, though, doesn’t she?

What if you found this photo in a bin at Goodwill? For sale on eBay?

Would you buy it? Would you feel vaguely sad that somebody got rid of it, and move on?

What if you found her in your parents’ stuff and didn’t know who she was?

Would you keep, or toss? Would you try to find the story behind the photo?

Every photo has a story. If we don’t know what it is, maybe we can find out!

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Categories : Genealogy, Hazel's Family Stories, Photos & Memorabilia, Tell Your Story

Tags : family history, genealogy, keepsakes, legacy, memorabilia, photos

Black Lives Matter in Genealogy Too

By Hazel Thornton on June 27, 2020 20 Comments

Lydia Mangum, age 70, living with 4 young granddaughters and domestic Carey Cole in 1860 North Carolina.

I recently saw this example of white privilege:

Ugh! That one really hit home.

Genealogy research for the descendants of black slaves differs greatly from that of the descendants of their white owners.

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Categories : Genealogy, Hazel's Family Stories

Tags : genealogy; family history;

Playing Detective: Grandma’s Birth Certificate

By Hazel Thornton on July 11, 2019 2 Comments

AHA! I was RIGHT!

Right about what, you ask?

Right about where my Grandma Hankins was born (Villa Mae Lawrence Hankins 1904-1986).

By playing genealogy detective, I found out where my grandma was really born.

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Categories : Genealogy, Hazel's Family Stories

Tags : detective; genealogy; documentation; research; grandma

Hit a brick wall? 20 reasons why you can’t find your ancestor

By Hazel Thornton on June 25, 2019 5 Comments

Can’t find your ancestor? Getting frustrated?

We all hit a brick wall in our genealogy research now and then.

Or, as we call them here in New Mexico, adobe walls, lol!

Hit a brick wall? Getting frustrated? Need some fresh ideas? You’ve come to the right place!

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Categories : Genealogy

Tags : genealogy; family history; brick wall

Thornton Family Resemblances Revisited

By Hazel Thornton on June 10, 2019 7 Comments

2019 (left) Archie Raymond Thornton Jr. and (right) Michael Ray Thornton

I once wrote an article for APPO (Association of Professional Photo Organizers) called Who Do You Think You Look Like? The Mystery of Family Resemblances. It featured a small selection of photos from both sides of my family.

This time, in honor of Father’s Day, I’ve gathered photos from six consecutive generations of Thornton fathers and sons. I only recently found the oldest two photos — Calvin and Nathan — in the course of my never-ending genealogy research. Once again, I find the similarities between all of these men striking, don’t you?

A Father’s Day celebration: Six generations of Thornton family father-son resemblances. Who are the look-alikes in your family?

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Categories : Genealogy, Hazel's Family Stories

The Gift of an Organized Family Tree

By Hazel Thornton on April 30, 2019 17 Comments

My own 4-generation pedigree chart, and my paternal grandparents, Archie Raymond Thornton Sr. & Hazel Islery Clay, on their wedding day in 1925. Aren’t they a handsome couple?

Who wants their chart done? Family tree pedigree chart, that is?

If you think pedigrees are just for royalty, dogs, and horses, think again! Genealogy makes history personal for everyone. And a family tree makes a great gift for a loved one…or for yourself!

If you think pedigree charts are just for royalty, dogs, and horses, think again!

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Categories : Genealogy

Climbing your never-ending family tree

By Hazel Thornton on April 29, 2019 8 Comments

7 Generation Pedigree Chart with sample projects indicated.

Your family tree is never really finished! It is forever growing on both ends. New descendants of your ancestors are continually being born (even if not to you, personally), and no matter how many branches and leaves you’ve added in the past, there are always more for you to discover.

It’s important to define your genealogy project, so you (or I) don’t work endlessly and randomly.

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Categories : Genealogy

Tags : family history, family tree, genealogy, keepsakes, memorabilia, pedigree, photos, story