Zalewski Family Genealogy

I wrote this for another site, so it may have more general genealogy info than I would have written if it was on this blog. But, you already know about all of this stuff.

As you know from other posts and podcasts, I do enjoy genealogy and the research that goes into unraveling my family tree. Last year, I came across a show on BBC Television in the UK called Who Do You Think You Are? I was able to watch most of the last (seventh) season and scattered other episodes from different seasons in the English and Australian versions via YouTube and other methods. (Since it’s only on British television and the DVDs are only Europe and UK region-coded, so I can’t watch them easily.) I have yet to watch an episode didn’t completely captivate me. Maybe it’s my love of Genealogy, or my love of hunting down a mystery, but the show grew on me.

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I ran across a very cool history/genealogy website via The Genealogy Guys podcast called Footnote. They put together a very slick historical document archive system and they are working on scanning important historical documents into it. You’re able to search through them, annotate them, and also create your own “Story” pages with your information.

But at Footnote, finding an image is just the beginning.

We have created powerful tools that let you interact with and enhance what you find. Annotate important information on the image, easily organize and share your findings or collaborate with people who have similar interests.

If you have original source images of your own that you want to share with your colleagues, classmates, friends and family, simply upload them to Footnote and use our tools to make your images searchable and available to others.

Footnote also gives you an opportunity to share your story, ideas or research with others by creating your own “Story Pages”.

I had signed up for the 7-day trial a few weeks ago and I completely forgot to cancel it before it was over (I’m really good at doing that.) It’s not that there was anything wrong with it, I loved it. I just didn’t find any thing from my family or area at the moment, though they’re adding new stuff everyday. But, now I have a 1-year subscription, so I’ll probably start to use it more. It’s still fun to browse these great documents and also to help othes by annotating them.

Check out footnote.com and see if you find anything interesting.

Wow, it’s been a week. It sure seemed to go quickly. I didn’t get to much family research in the last week, but I did visit my local library and checked out some of their genealogy items.

The first book I checked out was “Your Guide to Cemetery Research” by Sharon Debartolo Carmack. It was one of the only newer books in at the time, so I grabbed it. It was actually very interesting and helpful, even if you don’t plan on doing any cemetery research. She goes over types of stones, types of cemeteries, the different burial ceremonies in each culture, etc. These things will help you pinpoint your ancestors headstone and possibly other information, such as religion and ethnicity.

I recommend it for the genealogy researcher. And you know, we’re always looking for another reason to hang out in a cemetery.