Author Archives: Lorelle VanFossen

About Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen hosts Family History Blog covering her ancestors and related family members. She is one of the top bloggers in the world, and host of the Lorelle on WordPress, providing WordPress and blogging tips for bloggers of all levels. A popular keynote speaker and trainer, she is also editor, producer, contributor, and official disruptive thinker for Bitwire Media which includes WordCast, Making My Life Network, Stories of Our Journeys, Life on the Road, WordCast Conversations, and the very popular WordCast Podcast.

Distant Family Connections Can Help Trace Your Ancestors

Last week’s Relatively Speaking column of the Norman Transcript newspaper featured “Finding Immigrant Ancestors”, a great story about how to research your ancestors by beginning with their arrival, moving forward to today, and then going back in time over the … Continue reading


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Wilson’s Comparison of Genealogy Software Programs

While it might be slightly out of date, Richard Wilson’s Comparison of Genealogy Software Programs is a good review and comparison of the various family history and genealogy software programs available. He compares Ancestral Quest, Family Tree Legends, Family Tree … Continue reading


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DNA Testing for Ancestors Can Help You Find the Living

In an article by The Eagle newspaper online, “Local Group Uses DNA in Genealogy”, a local genealogy group is using DNA to help trace their ancestors, but also their living cousins. “The process starts when you join a surname organization, … Continue reading


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Writing a Family History Book For Your Family Begins With a Plan

The Albuquerque Tribute’s Mary Penner has written “Planning Will Save Your Family History Project”, a really good overview of why and how you need to plan your family history research project. Consider these obstacles: You want to cover 200 or … Continue reading


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Your Brother Kings: Preservation and Dissemination

Your Brother Kinds has an interesting post on “Preservation and dissemination” that caught my eye. Canterbury5 writes about how a recent purchase of old family history documents promotes a great deal of thought and consideration: What I have been thinking … Continue reading


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Nishimura, Sannomiya, Kobe, Japan

On the first pages of the old photograph ablum of my grandfather, Howard W. West, and his time in the Marines and military, much of which was spent on the USS Arizona during the 1920s, I found a lovely signed … Continue reading


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Migrating Across the Land: Tracing Your Family’s Path Begins with Why

In Citizen Times’ “FAMILY HISTORY: Land transaction records can help trace your lineage”, an article on tracing family history through land transaction records and other methods, I spotted something that made me really stop and consider how and why my … Continue reading


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List of Online Searchable Death Indexes

Online Searchable Death Indexes for the USA is a great resource for a variety of links to online resources and indexes for researching death records from obituaries, cemeteries and the Social Security Death Index for various states and counties within … Continue reading


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Bringing History to Life – Annotated Genealogy

The Carroll County Comet of Indiana shares “Bringing Family History to Life” by Jennifer Archibald and tells of Phyllis Hornback Myers and her family history research. Myers doesn’t call herself a genealogist. Myers says her historical research goes beyond genealogy. … Continue reading


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1900 Galveston Storm – Over 7,000 Killed

The Galveston and Texas History Center, Rosenberg Library has extensive information on the Galveston Storm of 1900 in which 7,000 to 8,000 people were killed. The storm struck Saturday, September 8, 1900, and the combination of 80-100+ mph winds, high … Continue reading


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