Tuesday's Tip -- Historyline.com

I recently learned about a new site that has launched called HistoryLines via Randy Seaver over at Geneamusings.  You can read Randy's post here.

I decided after reading Randy's post, to jump on over to HistoryLines and play around myself.  You can create a free account and create two stories for free.  After creating a story for myself and for my father, and having great fun doing so, I decided to sign-up for the one year subscription with unlimited stories for $59.00.

Here is my Dad's Story.

As I scroll down the screen I see both world events, local events and personal events that took place during my Dad's life time.

For me this is a very useful tool to have at my disposal!  I have been working on writing my family history and this tool offers that added touch I've been wanting to implement in my book.  I want not just names and dates in my family history, but also detailed mention of historical events that had an impact on each of my ancestors.  While I will never know for certain the thoughts and feelings of my ancestors on such historical events, with HistoryLines I can get a pretty good idea of society in their time.

For my own personal story, I like that I can edit each historical event provided by HistoryLines and add my own thoughts, feelings and memories of each event and how it truly impacted my life at the time.  

HistoryLines will certainly help me to create the family history book that I have longed to do with ease.  I highly recommend this tool to any genealogist interested in more than just names and dates!

*I was not approached by HistoryLines for this review and was not provided any compensation by any parties mentioned.

Bloggers Helping Bloggers

A couple days ago (July 13th to be exact) I found a genealogy blog The Olive Tree Genealogy written by Lorine McGinnis Schulze.  I spent about an hour reading various post and easily became hooked.

After reading several post I discovered another blog written by Lorine called Ask Olive Tree Genealogy.  Here her readers can email her questions and ask for assistance in their genealogy research.

I decided to ask Lorine for any tips and advice regarding research on my Great-Great-Grandfather Henry Arthur Bolton, who first immigrated to Canada before moving into the United States.  I have hit many brickwalls in my quest to find evidence of Henry in Canada and locating his arrival in the US.

After submitting my email request, I received an automated response email confirming my submission had been received at Ask Olive Tree Genealogy.  Below is what the email reponse stated......

"Thanks for submitting a genealogy question to AskOlive Tree!
I can't send a personal response but if your query is chosen, I will
answer it on my blog Ask Olive Tree at
http://AskOliveTree.blogspot.com/
Not all queries are chosen. I wish I could choose every one but the
number of questions makes that impossible.
Your query stands a better chance of being chosen if you follow a few
simple "Good Query" rules:
1. Make your query concise and to the point
2. Provide NAMES, DATES and FULL LOCATIONS
3. Tell me WHERE you have searched already
4. Tell me exactly what you want to find
*** Please feel free to respond to this email and provide details if
you think you left them out the first time.
There are two ways to find out if or when your query is answered.
1. Watch for weekly updates on my Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter. You
will receive emails approximately once per week. To subscribe to this
free newsletter, go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OliveTreeGenealogy/
Follow the instructions given at that page.
2. Keep checking http://AskOliveTree.blogspot.com/ to see if your
query is posted. It can take weeks before you see it so don't give up.
Good luck and I wish you genealogical success!"



So with that I was ready to wait and see what would come of my request.

Then yesterday, I was reading through blogs I subscribe to via email, The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog being one of them and imagine my utter and excited surprise when I found the recent post was about my inquiry to Ask Olive Tree Genealogy!!!

Lorine gave me so many great tips on tracking down additional information on Henry Bolton, that I can't wait to dig in and see what I can find!! I will be keeping Lorine updated and I will be discussing my quest here at Telling Their Tales as well. 

If you are in search of another genealogy blog to follow, and have not already found Lorine's sites, I highly recommend them!!!!