Archives: March 2018

New App for Storing Genealogy Documents: Tropy

I am gearing up to digitize my family history archival materials, including scans of documents, as well as scans of photo prints, digital photos, and even videos. I have acquired a copy of Denise May Levernick’s book, How to Archive Family Photos: A Step-by-Step Guide to Organize and Share Your Photos Digitally. I purchased my copy from Amazon.com,

Read on »

Success Story: Converting a 79-year-old 8-mm Movie to Digital

Last Saturday (17 Mar 2018), I attended an indoctrination session for the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Memory Lab at the South Euclid/Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. The objective: learn how to convert old home movies to digital files. The Memory Lab has a Wolverine Film2Digital MovieMaker unit that library subscribers can

Read on »

What Are Double Cousins? Wikipedia to the Rescue

I just ran across a reference to double cousins and didn’t know what the reference meant. To find out, I went to Wikipedia, my go-to source of information when I have access to a computer or other digital device. I wasn’t sure what I would find or how detailed the explanation would be. But wow,

Read on »

Walfrid Huskonen’s Dream: Andover Pattern Co.

My mother, Mary Jane Huskonen (born Dingman), passed along to us the promise that my father, Walfrid Herbert Huskonen, made to himself to be in business for himself by age 45. He achieved that goal when he quit working as a patternmaker at Glauber Brass in Kinsman, Trumbull, Ohio, and founded Andover Pattern Co. in

Read on »

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

Read on »

DNA Testing FAILS at Living DNA — Three Times

Today I received an email from Living DNA stating that my THIRD attempt at testing with Living DNA had failed. Here is the text of the email:https://www.livingdna.com Following on from the testing of your third sample, we are very sorry to have to tell you that this third attempt has also generated a LOW CALL

Read on »

A Sneak Peek into the MyHeritage DNA Lab

Today I received an email from MyHeritageDNA reporting that a test kit for a relative is being processed. Here is the text of the email (I have blocked the test subject’s name for privacy). Hi Wallace,‎ __________’s DNA sample is currently being processed in our CLIA-certified DNA lab. Status: DNA extraction in progress We wanted

Read on »

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

Read on »

RootsTech 2018 Is Over, But Presentations Are Available Online FREE

As this is written, RootsTech 2018 has concluded and thousands of genealogists have already headed home from the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. We don’t have attendance figures, but we can indicate the scope of this annual convention by pointing out that there are 182 exhibitors listed on the RootsTech 2018 website.

Read on »