The great thing about genealogy is that there is always something new to learn, but even older guidebooks can help you understand the records. Building a personal research library is an expensive pursuit so I buy selectively and use my public library's interlibrary loan program for the rest.

Classes
Even though I've been involved in genealogy for decades that doesn't mean I don't attend workshops and lectures presented by specialists. Many local historical societies offer classes on family history and a few community adult education programs do the same. If you have a particular need, such as learning a language, then try a college or university. Online classes through the National Institute of Genealogical Studies is one route.

Teleconferences and those with an interactive online component are rapidly gaining in popularity. You can find something to fit your educational needs and your budget. Professional advancement is also within reach if you travel to Samford's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research or attend a Professional Management Conference from the Association of Professional Genealogists at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference. Check out the links to other educational venues using Cyndi's List and the category "Education." I believe that learning is lifelong so I continue to study whenever I can.

What About You?
So let's get back to you. I'm sure that each and every one of you has a personal story to tell. I've told you about my life. It's your turn. Share your thoughts on how you've become a genealogist in the Comments section of the blog.

Maureen Taylor is The Photo Detective. She was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal. "Watch and Listen" to her solve cases at www.photodetective.com

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by Michael John Neill

Sometimes those disappearing ancestors did not disappear the way we thought they did. Rather they are right there in front of us waiting to be found. This week we look at such a situation. Our search reminds us of several research techniques that any family historian needs to have in their repertoire when the ancestor seems to vanish without a trace.

Sarah Wickiser Calvert's only known record of existence was an 1862 Delaware County, Ohio, deed where she sold property apparently inherited from her parents. After that, I had concluded she simply evaporated. The question was where she departed as she apparently could not be found in other records. Based upon census enumerations and more detailed information on her known siblings, it was estimated Sarah was born between 1802 and 1810, probably in Pennsylvania. Any other details of her life were unknown, including the name of her husband or her date of marriage (other than the fact that she was married by 1862).

When a relative is "lost," one place to start looking is near other relatives, former neighbors, and associates, particularly ones who have moved. It is often helpful to have a "family map" handy to assist in keeping the various names straight.

A Little Background
Abraham and Katherine Blaine Wickiser were married in Pennsylvania in 1802 and were the parents of the following children:

• George
• Sarah Calvert (the missing Sarah)
• Ellen Green
• Lucinda Kile
• William

Abraham was the son of Conrad and Rosina Wickiser and Katherine Blaine was the daughter of Elam and Katherine Blaine.

In the interest of space (and the editor's patience), we have omitted names of Abraham and Katherine's grandchildren and the other children of Abraham and Katherine's parents. However, these names are important as they may provide clues as to naming patterns and names that might have been repeated extensively in the family. Some genealogists prefer to use a printed descendant listing from their software package to keep family straight. I prefer to create crude "charts." The key is to keep the relationships in your mind or readily available as you search.

Off to Find Sarah
Sarah's brother George Wickiser in 1850 had an interesting enumeration right next door.

1850 Federal Census, Ohio, Delaware County, Harlem Township,

• Elisha Talbot, aged 41 born Virginia
• Sarah Talbot, aged 39, born Ohio
• Silas Talbot, aged 15, born Ohio
• Lucinda Talbot, aged 11, born Ohio
• Catharine Talbot, aged 9, born Ohio
• Hannah A. Talbot, aged 3, born Ohio

Could Talbot be an alternate interpretation of Calvert? Very possible. There are two additional clues here: the names Lucinda and Catharine. Sarah Wickiser Calvert had a sister Lucinda Wickiser and Sarah Wickiser, Calvert's mother, was named Katherine. Both names were used extensively in the family. The names are a coincidence to be certain, but make the entry worth investigating.

Who Is That in the Cemetery?
There is an Elisha Calvert buried in the Hunt Cemetery in Harlem Township, with a tombstone inscription indicating a date of birth of 10 March 1808 and a death date of 17 August 1850. This age is consistent with the Elisha Talbot census entry. Does this mean I have the right guy? No. It means I have a potential match.

The 1850 census at Ancestry was searched again, for a person with the first name of Elisha, living in Delaware County, Ohio, with a year of birth of ca. 1808. None had a last name even reasonably close to Calvert or Talbot, except for the entry already noted. After reviewing my map of Ohio counties and townships, I performed similar searches for Elishas living in Franklin or Licking counties. No matches. This was done to make certain there were not multiple Elisha Talbots/Calverts living in the same general area. Just because a match is found does not mean the correct person has been located.

There now seems a reasonable chance that this entry is for the desired Sarah, but more work needs to be done. We follow the Sarah in 1860 and 1870. Here's what I found:

1860 Federal Census, Ohio, Licking County, Monroe Township

• Sarah Colbert, aged 50, born Ohio
• Hannah A., aged 13, born Ohio

These ages are consistent with the purported 1850 enumeration for Sarah and the death of Elisha in 1850. Licking County is adjacent to Delaware County where Sarah was in 1850.

1870 required a little more work. It appears that the family left Ohio, and they were living in Crittenden Township, Champaign County, Illinois. Sarah Calvert was aged 60, born in Ohio, and keeping house in the household of John Barkus, aged 24, with his apparent children (Silas, aged 9, and Laura E., aged 5). Also listed on the same page is Silas Calvert, aged 35 born Ohio. This Silas Calvert is of a consistent age to be the Silas in the 1850 enumeration with Sarah Talbot.

A search of Ancestry World Tree located a reference to a John Barcus marrying a Lucinda Calvert on 20 October 1859. Unfortunately no location is given. This reference most definitely needs to be confirmed with local records if possible. All it really tells me is that someone else at least believed that a John Barcus married a Lucinda Calvert. The date fits our time frame, but that does not prove anything either. It is a good clue though.

Where Next?
Armed with the death date of Elisha Calvert, courthouse records in Ohio should be checked, particularly estate and court documents. His 1850 census enumeration lists him as a laborer with no real estate, so there's a chance that little was left to settle after his death, but it's still a good idea to look. The marriage of John Barcus and Lucinda Calvert should also be obtained, looking in Licking and Delaware counties initially and broadening the circle out from there.

Death records in Champaign County, Illinois, should also be checked for Sarah Calvert, as it appears she died before the 1880 census enumeration. It is possible that she or other family members are buried there. Our work continues, but there are a few things to keep in mind as far as the methodologies that were employed in locating Sarah:

• The importance of neighbors and family
• The importance of being constantly aware of the family structure
• The necessity of having relevant contemporary maps
• Being aware of alternate name spellings and pronunciations

Keep in mind, so far my case is circumstantial. It looks reasonable and may very well be correct, but additional work needs to be done. The nice thing is most of the census searching could easily be done on Ancestry and now we can take our framework and head off to additional records, both on- and offline.

The author acknowledges and appreciates the help of Wickiser descendant Mary Wickizer Burgess in tracking Sarah down.

Michael John Neill is a genealogical writer and speaker who has been researching his or his children's genealogy for more than twenty years. A math instructor in his "other life," Michael taught at the former Genealogical Institute of Mid-America and has served on the FGS Board. He also lectures on a variety of genealogical topics and gives seminars across the country. He maintains a personal website at www.rootdig.com

Upcoming Events With Michael John Neill

• Salt Lake City Family History Library Trip
  14 May-21 May 2008
• Genealogy Computing Week, 03-08 March 2008
  Computer workshops at Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, Illinois

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The following items were posted to the 24/7 Family History Circle blog over the past week:

• Garcias Are Catching Up With Joneses

Looking for some good wintertime reading? Check out the selections in the Book and Movie section of the 24/7 Family History Circle blog. There are some great family-history-related reads that readers have recommended there-- both fiction and non-fiction.

You can also find some great selections--historical and reference—in the Ancestry Store.

Do you have a book that you'd like to recommend to other readers? Please share your favorites with us. You can send it to Juliana@Ancestry.com and you may see your recommendation in an upcoming newsletter.

Today's image (in the upper, right-hand corner of this newsletter) is from the Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000 at Ancestry.

A New Hampshire sunset / from painting by E. Lamasure

by Sherry Irvine, CG, FSA Scot

There must be dozens of websites offering British Isles census data in amounts large and small. You can also find a proliferation of text about censuses online. For me it is a treat to get away from the computer, relax in a comfortable chair, and read about records and research.

This is what I suggest you do. Earlier this year Ancestry published Finding Answers in British Isles Census Records, by Echo King. It is an easy read and an informative one.

The book follows a logical sequence starting with a chapter that tell the story of the British census. It's an interesting one, from origins of the idea in the 1700s to the first census in 1801, and the change to nominal records forty years later. It was quite an undertaking, collecting so much information and publishing results very quickly, all without any automation to speed the process. Then, several chapters guide you through access, indexes, searching census copies on the Web and on microfilm, interpretation, and the details of individual enumerations. The seven nominal censuses open to public scrutiny are reviewed one by one, 1841, 1851, and through to the most recent available, 1901.

Your research will improve if you read this book. Census work becomes even more fascinating when you know the story behind the records, understand the questions your ancestors had to answer, and realize the way mistakes occurred then and now.

If your research in England, Wales, or Scotland has bogged down, take a break. Since you probably don't like reading a lot of text on your computer screen, I suggest get away from it and read something else. There is nothing like a break from research to help you spot hidden clues, and if that break expands what you know about the records, so much the better.

AWJ Editor's Note: You can buy Finding Answers in British Isles Census Records, by Echo King at 15% off in the Ancestry Store.

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Note Boundary Changes
Recently, I found it necessary to change the genealogy program that I had been using. The instructions said to always record birth, marriage, and death places exactly as they appear on the original record. My database displays a message whenever the date does not match the date of creation for the place specified. However, it may sometimes be necessary to add notes to explain where to find these places. For example:

• Daniel Shipman was born about 1747 in Bladen County, North Carolina.
• 1750: part of Bladen County became Anson County
• 1762: part of Anson County became Mecklenburg County
• 1769: part of Mecklenburg County became Tryon County
• 1779: part of Tryon County became present day Rutherford County

Most websites I've seen state that he was born in Rutherford County. Some of his siblings were born in Anson County; although, the family does not seem to have moved. All of this can be quite confusing without explanatory notes.

James L. McConaughy

Photos Get Identified at Reunions
I am just back from a seventeen-day trip that included three reunions, an uncle's retirement party, and two cemetery meetings. To prepare I dug through my mom's albums and stacks of old reunion photos going back to the ‘50s and mounted them, three to a page on archival cardstock, and placed each page in a plastic sleeve. Six three-ring-binders were filled. At the reunions I placed these on a table and with slips of paper names were written down and taped to the sleeve so attendees could help identify people in the photographs.

Each evening I copied the names to the pages and took the albums back. This in turn helped people remember the names of others in the photo. I also visited with aunts, uncles, and cousins after the reunion and uncovered a lot of information.

An uncle who had been a teacher for fifty years has a yearbook for each year that he taught--a real goldmine that will take many visits to go through.

My genealogy database helped me to add names to some photos that were identified as "Virginia's husband" or "Mandy and her children."

These albums had the effect of getting other people bring photos or albums along. My HP Photosmart printer that also acts as a stand alone copy machine was a valuable tool allowing me to make copies of many photos that I otherwise would not have been able to get. This is much faster than scanning and saving an image, and the photo was available immediately for others to look at. Plus I was not tied up typing and could continue visiting.

This was a popular activity and I will be doing it each year. I also took selected photos to two cemetery meetings with some success and a lot of comments on how it was wonderful to see who was there.

Bill Lewis

Digitizing Slides
I read the article about taking photos of slides. I used the open lid of my flatbed scanner as the screen, so the projected photo was actually very small. My brother and I digitized 6,600 of my parents' slides. We copied the notations on the slides. (My mom was good at documenting the subject matter.)

The name of each file was the year and slide number in the tray. We made a spreadsheet with the file name, and included a column for names, and a column for location. Recently, we used the database to search for and select 500 photos of my cousins and their families to put into a slide show for a family reunion. It was a hit!

We used a computer and projector to display the digital photos at a size the group could easily view. Using the year and slide number automatically put the slides in chronological order, and we watched our generation grow up from infants to adults.

Susan Hintz

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: Juliana@Ancestry.com. Thanks to all of this week's contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Weekly Journal please state so clearly in your message.

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The year was 1831 and in the lands of partitioned Poland, a group of Polish cadets from the Russian Army's military academy in Warsaw gained control of the city and the Sejm declared a national uprising. Russia controlled the Congress Kingdom at that time and would not bow to demands for Polish independence. The first battle took place in February. Although Polish forces were able to defend Warsaw for a time, it was clear that the war was over; the remaining Polish forces surrendered on 5 October 1831.

The failed uprising spurred a wave of emigration westward, particularly to France, but to the U.S., Great Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, and other countries as well.

Late in 1830, Belgium had also risen up to become independent of the Netherlands. But in August 1831, the Netherlands again invaded Belgium briefly during the "Ten Days" campaign of William II, but when French intervention threatened, an armistice was signed and the Dutch withdrew.

In the U.S., there was an insurrection on a smaller scale when a slave named Nat Turner, who believed he was a prophet following a series of signs, led a group of about forty slaves to kill the family of his owner as they slept. The group moved on and killed other whites as they made their way to the nearest town. After killing at least fifty-five people, they eventually met state and federal troops. Although most escaped, the state executed fifty-five people, including Nat Turner, and in the panic that followed, nearly 200 more blacks, many innocent and totally unrelated to the rebellion, were killed by mob violence.

In 1831, Asiatic cholera made its first appearance in Britain, claiming 52,000 lives in England and Scotland.

Victor Hugo gained fame with the publication of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831. The tale, now 176 years old, has been adapted for the stage, screen, and television numerous times.

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If you'd like to see your ancestor's photograph in the Ancestry Weekly Journal, send it to Juliana@Ancestry.com.

Contributed by Marchem3 Here is a photo of Annie (nee Pemberton) Garvis, Thomas Tame, Levi Garvis, and Edna (nee Garvis) Tame--four generations of my family,1935-36. Annie came to Australia from Lancashire, England in 1885.	Contributed by Don Morrison This is a picture of my grandfather, William "Mode" Morrison taken about 1915. He owned a garage in Manteno, Illinois, at that time. I have always liked the picture as the buggy and car show the changing times.

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Has Ancestry helped you make a significant breakthrough with your family history research? If you have an Ancestry success story you'd like to share, please send it to us. We'd love to hear about it! Click here to share your story.

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
by Stanley Weintraub

From an acclaimed historian and National Book Award finalist comes the poignant story of World War I's 1914 Christmas truce — the spontaneous and tantalizingly brief moment when mortal enemies came together as friends. In the early months of World War I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides of the trenches laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration. Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible: Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on both sides shared food parcels from home. They climbed from the trenches to meet in "No Man's Land" where they buried the dead, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer.

Throughout his narrative, Stanley Weintraub uses the stories of the men who were there, as well as their letters and diaries, to illuminate the fragile truce and bring to life this extraordinary moment in time.

Normally this book retails for $14.00, but for one week you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $11.90.

The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People
by Oscar Handlin

Awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize in history, The Uprooted chronicles the common experiences of the millions of European immigrants who came to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- their fears, their hopes, their expectations. In order to bring forward the human story recorded in government records, newspaper accounts, and personal correspondence, the author chose to write this history as a literary narrative unencumbered with notations and academic jargon. The result is literary history at its best. "The New Yorker" called it "strong stuff, handled in a masterly and quite moving way," while the New York Times suggested that The Uprooted is history with a difference -- the difference being its concerns with hearts and souls no less than an event."

Normally this book retails for $24.95, but for one week you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $21.20.

For more titles like these, visit the History section of the Ancestry Store.