Roberts Roots & Branches

Here is a really valuable resource if you have ancestors in the state of Washington.  It is the Washington State Archives - Digital Archives .  I found this site very easy to use and helpful.  I was able to locate the marriage record of Sidney Jones (243) and Pearl May Hittle (247) who were married in Seattle, King, Washington.  Sidney is the son  of Sarah Ann Roberts (11) and Joseph Jones (19) and he is the grandson of Hugh (1) and Margaret (2) Roberts. I still don't know why Sidney was in Washington state, however maybe that will be one of the many answers I am able to find on my upcoming family history trip! If you have relatives from Washington, go check out this site! Have a great day.

This is a personal story where I learned a valuable lesson. I had been doing genealogy for several years when my husband passed away.  Many expected things have changed because of Joe's death, but I am surprised about the unexpected way his death has affected my genealogy research. The after day my husband was killed I vaguely remember sitting in the funeral home; I was lost in grief and shock as the funeral director began asking questions.  After seveal questions I mumbled I wasn't sure then I asked him why he needed the information.  He kindly explained it was for the death certificate.  The genealogist in me snapped to attention and really concentrated on giving correct answers. . .after all, this was very important source documentation!   Funny, I  first figured I would just write up the obit, because I wanted it to be a tribute and a good source of information; after all I had read many, so I felt like I kind of knew what a good obit should ...

Jay Verkler, past president & CEO of FamilySearch, gave the keynote speach on Thursday. Mr. Verkler spoke about the transformations that family history has made and the improvements it still needs to make. Mr. Verkler was inspiring and helped envision futuristic "Jetson" type research and recording of genealogy! Very exciting! I also attended an informative class by Kory Meyerink titled, "Effective Database Search Tactis." This class was pretty advanced for me, but I know it will help me in my database searches. Mr. Meyerink discussed advanced searching techniques, such as truncation, keyword searches, fielded data, proximity, phrase, fielded, and finally wild word searching. I'll have to write more about this later! The last class I took was "Galaxy Girls--Three Genealogists & Their Android Tablets". This class listed the types of applications available and what their favorites were. I was hoping for more information about their ...

picture from here Way back in the early days of my research I sent a letter to the Wyoming Archives with a list of several Roberts family members whose death certificates I wanted.  I enclosed a check and my contact information. About a week later, I received a call from a very sweet and kind woman at the Wyoming Archives.  I worried there was a problem as this was my first request for certificates. However, she explained there was no problem she just though it might be easier for her to read through all of the Roberts Wyoming death certificates from Uinta and Sweetwater County she had, so I could decide which ones I wanted.  She read through the list, I mailed her another check, and that is the story of how I received so many Roberts death certificates!