Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part II

In our last post, we talked about the importance of understanding some of the rituals and traditions surrounding funerals. We looked at coffins, caskets, and common practices that many associate with burying our loved ones. This week, we'll explore floriography, the symbolic meaning of plants and trees, so we can better understand some of what we see at funerals and cemeteries.

Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part I

Perhaps you were among the millions of people who watched the touching but COVID-restricted funeral of England’s Prince Philip on Saturday, 17 April, as it was broadcast on live television. If you did, you couldn’t help but notice how the entire procession was steeped in tradition and symbolism. Of course, unless our family is royal or quite prominent, we are not going to be surrounded by hundreds of military troops nor are we likely to warrant television coverage of our last moments above ground, but most of us will certainly be affected by symbolism and tradition as we deal with the loss of our loved ones. And knowing more about what preceded our ancestors into their final resting places helps us understand them better as well.

Put Meat on the Bones of Your Family History!

You have undoubtedly heard many genealogists talking about “putting the meat on the bones” when it comes to their family history. Just how do you do that and what does it mean? We learn when we start working on our genealogy that it’s vital to capture names, dates, and places for everyone in our family tree. Of course, it is absolutely necessary to find documentation of basic facts and we need specific information to do that. But if we want to understand our ancestors as living, breathing human beings instead of just statistics, we need to know much more. We want to learn about their personalities, their occupations, their leisure activities, and their interactions in their communities. The more “meat” we put on those bare-bones dates and numbers, the more those people who preceded us become real.

Now You Know Your "A, B, C's," Part II

Who hasn’t seen sentimental signs for “Ye Olde Corner Shop” or “Ye Olde House on the Hill” or something similar? Or maybe you have seen the word “ye” in an old document? Are you guilty of pronouncing it as “yee”? If so, it’s because you may not know that once there was a letter called “eth” that was pronounced as “th.” It looked like a small “d” with a line through the stem. Over time, it changed shape and began to look more like our “y” does today. "Eth" is long gone from our alphabet, but it has left us with the commonly seen "ye" that looks like it should be pronounced with a “y” sound but is really “the.” This is just another example of letters that have disappeared from our alphabet. Here are some more . . . 

April 2021 Genealogy Meetings, Classes, and Events

Spring is here! We know the temptation is to get outside, but on those days when it's cloudy, cool, and rainy, or even if it's a sunny day but you just want to continue your genealogy journey, we have you covered! Our 2021 virtual schedule continues, with more interesting online webinars and classes, and, of course, the excitement is building for our annual Family History Conference, which also will be online again this year. Get out your calendars and be sure you have these April (and early May) dates jotted down!

"Now You Know Your A, B, C's," Or Do You?

One of the first songs we learn as children is the “Alphabet Song,” and even though we don’t really understand what “ellamenopee” means, most of us somehow get the sequence of twenty-six English letters down pat by the time we are ready to read. We know, of course, that our language is always changing. Think of all the new words added to our vocabulary just in the past decade. But when you are working with documents generated by previous generations or those created in countries from which your ancestors arrived in America, you may not realize how much alphabets change, and how those changes can affect your family history research.

Free Genealogy Webinars are Just a Click Away!

Twelve months of mostly being at home has given many of us the chance to explore new ways of learning using our computers or tablets. Have you discovered the benefits of free webinars yet? Did you know you can watch thousands of digital recordings without any fees at all? Yes, sometimes there are advertisements, but they are relatively unobtrusive and easily passed over. By now, many of us also know that there are instructions online for just about anything we want to do. In fact, just last week, like magic, a two-minute YouTube video saved this writer a trip to the store and the price of a new pneumatic door closer when just a few squeezes of a piece of metal with a strong pair of pliers was all it needed. OK, that was fixer-upper stuff—what about our favorite hobby? Are there free webinars available on genealogy? Indeed there are, and here are some places you can start to look for them.