Education

Connections to 2020 Cleveland Presidential Debate

Tomorrow night I will be watching the first Presidential debate leading up to the 2020 Presidential election on TV. For the record, I have some connections to the site of this debate in the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion at the Health Education Campus at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. For example,

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Jumping into German Genealogy–An All-Day Seminar at WRHS

On Saturday, November 16, Western Reserve Historical Society will host an all-day seminar for beginning and advanced genealogists interested in researching their German ancestors. In four seminar sessions, James M. Beidler will cover the following topics: “Your Immigrants’ Germany,” “German Research Online,” “German Names and Naming Patterns,” “Online German Church Registers, Duplicates, and Substitutes.”  

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Do You Know the Origin of “Cut and Paste”?

This post doesn’t have much to do with Collecting Ancestors, but it does have to do with my own history and I want to record it here for other folks to read, especially younger ones. On Facebook today, I saw a post asking viewers if they had ever used an upright mechanical typewriter. I learned

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Workshop: Getting Help with Your Genealogy Research

I have been doing genealogical research for over 20 years now (Wow! Has it really been that long?). Along the way, I sought and received information about blood relatives — and collateral relatives — from other researchers both in America and abroad. On Saturday, Sept 8, 2018, I plan to share some of my experiences

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Back to School: Understanding DNA for Genealogy

In a couple days I plan to attend the Ohio Genealogical Society’s 2018 Conference in Columbus, Ohio. I’m particularly looking forward to a number of conference sessions on using DNA for genealogical research. In the process of reviewing the background information I have on hand, I learned about several webinars created and broadcast by MyHeritageDNA

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As Cursive Writing Becomes a Lost Art, What About Reading Cursive?

I was spurred into writing this post by a post on “Rootdig,” the genealogy website of Michael John Neill, posted on April 4, 2018 It was titled “Scripting An Answer–Palmer and Spencerian Handwriting” and was intended to give information on the timing of the two main handwriting systems that have been used in America until recently when

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Making Sense of My DNA Test Results

I have tested with AncestryDNA, MyHeritageDNA, and FamilyTreeDNA, so I have a lot of results to study and work with. Today, I discovered two YouTube videos by Crista Cowen at Ancestry.com. In them she explains two key aspects of my DNA test results: 1.You Received Your Results. Now What? (Part One) | AncestryDNA 2.You Received

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More About Fred Holzhauser

Today, my son Kurt and I traveled to Vermilion, Ohio, for the graveside ceremony for Frederick L. Holzhauser, Kurt’s step-grandfather. Fred passed away at age 98 on 5 Feb 2018. His cremains were interred next to the graves of his parents in Maple Grove Cemetery. Kurt and I represented the family of Meta, Fred’s wife who

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Learning about German Genealogical Research

While attending the Monday (7 Aug 2017) evening meeting of the East Cuyahoga County Genealogical Society,  I announced that the Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society would be holding a FREE seminar on German genealogical research on Saturday, 9 Sep 2017, at the Independence (Ohio) Civic Center. I mentioned that the presenter was a representative the Palatines to

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Married almost 57 Years

Yesterday would have been 57 years of marriage for my wife and me. Mary Jane (MJ) and I were married on 25 Jun 1960. Unfortunately, she passed away on 19 May 2017, just 37 days shy of that 57th wedding anniversary. It was tough not being able to celebrate this latest marriage milestone with her. Several

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