Linking to Digitized Genealogy Booklets

When I began my genealogy journey in 1998, I had access to a photocopied edition of a Larimer family history booklet printed in 1959. My late mom-in-law had marked changes/corrections/additions, giving me a head start on tracing this line. Years later, I inherited the original (a silvery booklet) and now I can see the changes even more clearly. Plus I feel free to mark up my photocopied version 😉

Not all Larimer researchers know about this booklet. If I hadn't had the Wood family's photocopied edition, I probably would not have known! 

Yet this Larimer booklet has been available via Family Search for a long time; only in recent years has it been digitized for easy access by anyone, from anywhere. Now I've been including links to it on Larimer ancestor bios, hoping to help other researchers interested in the family's background. 

As shown above, I included a link to the Larimer book on the MyHeritage bio of Brice S. Larimer. Anyone can follow the link and see the entire book. There are other ways to add such links: as a link along with other sources, for instance.

I also included the link on Brice S. Larimer's profile on the public tree I posted on Ancestry (as shown above). 

Over time, I'm adding this link to other Larimer ancestors and on other genealogy sites, including WikiTree and FamilySearch--making it a snap for others to access the digitized booklet. Despite its limitations, the booklet has plenty of clues for researching the Larimer line. My good deed is sharing the link far and wide.

Good deed is the week 51 prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's fun #52Ancestors genealogy challenge. I've already joined Amy's challenge for 2025. If you want to join, here's the link. 

Sharing Ancestor Bite-Sized Bios More Widely Because LOCKSS

Another post about bite-sized ancestor bios! Many of my husband's US, Canadian, and UK ancestors served in the military over the years. Researching them over the past year, I prepared bite-sized bios as part of a family history booklet for the family. 

Most of the bios are 4-8 sentences long. I mention parents' names, birthplace, spouse, children, not just military service. Sometimes I include a sentence or two about significant military battles or awards, if appropriate. But even a couple of sentences will help flesh out a bit of the life of each military ancestor.

The next step was to share the bios on multiple websites so these ancestors and their military service is not forgotten. Remember, LOCKSS (lots of copies keep stuff safe).

Bite-sized bios on Fold3

You don't have to subscribe to post a bio on an ancestor's memorial page on Fold3, which is owned by Ancestry and focuses on military records. Searching the Honor Wall of service men and women is free, as is adding a bio. Search the wall using this link. Also on that page is a link to create a new memorial (free) if none shows up in your search. Sharing ancestor/veterans' bios on that site has been an ongoing project for me.

As an example: For my husband's great great uncle Benjamin Franklin Steiner (1840-1924), I added a bio by clicking the add button on his memorial page (see yellow arrow in image above). You can either type it in or copy from a document and paste it in. Once you save it, you can edit if you like by clicking the pencil tool (see green circle on above image). 

Be sure to bookmark or tag the memorials so you can easily return to them later. The tag tool is at top right (orange circle on above image). You can tag with a phrase like "US Civil War" or use a bookmark tag for a later visit.

Bite-sized bios on Find a Grave

Many (but not all) Fold3 memorials include links to the person's Find A Grave memorial. Since the bite-sized bio is already written, it's easy to copy and paste onto that person's Find A Grave memorial. Above, a slightly edited version of the bio I wrote for Benjamin Franklin Steiner's Fold3 memorial is also posted on his memorial at Find A Grave. 

Benjamin's memorial page is managed by someone else, so I submitted the bite-sized bio using the suggest edits function...also indicating that this man was a veteran. The edits were accepted. A small V shows next to this ancestor's name, a visual symbol of military service that any visitor to his Find a Grave page will see.

Wash, rinse, and repeat

You can post bite-sized bios on even more sites. I added Steiner's bio to WikiTree (above), FamilySearch (below), and MyHeritage (at bottom).  

LOCKSS in action! I don't want family history to fade away--I want to perpetuate it for future researchers and descendants.

Wrench or Sliders Offer Options for a Fresh View

I needed a fresh view of this 1800s/1900s naturalization document for Louis Mandel (1862-1914), whose son married into the Roth family, cousins of my Farkas family. Louis's grandson and namesake is my 2c1r. 

Above, the original document as it appeared in the Ancestry database, with white print on a black background. I found the dates a little difficult to decipher. 

At far right of screen, I clicked the wrench symbol to see various tools for viewing this document. (See image here --> for a close-up of the wrench.)

When a document has a dark background and white print, maybe "invert colors" will make it more readable. 

After inverting, I found it easier to read about Louis Mandel, a tailor living on Stanton Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, who arrived at the port of New York on November 20, 1890. He declared his intention to seek US citizenship on July 22, 1896 . . . and he became a US citizen on July 19, 1906.

Even better, as I clicked through the multiple documents in Louis's file, all were inverted to black on white after I inverted the first in the series. 

For other documents, I've used other tools, such as rotating left or right when a document has writing in more than one direction or a photo doesn't appear right side up. Not new tricks, but good tools to keep in mind, available under the wrench symbol on Ancestry. 

Similar tools are available on FamilySearch, as shown in image directly above. Here, the symbol is a pair of sliders leading to this menu (see red outline). Adjust  brightness and contrast, invert image colors, rotate image. Such handy tools.

PS: Teresa notes that Find My Past has similar tools (invert colors, contrast, etc) for use by subscribers.

"Symbol" is this week's #52Ancestors genealogy challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. 

So Many Sites to Memorialize Ancestors

After 25 years of genealogy research, I've learned a lot about my ancestors--and I want to be sure this information isn't lost in the years to come.

For the past few years, I've been writing bite-sized ancestor bios and posting on key genealogy sites. The idea is to share family history more widely, and bios are also possible cousin bait. 

Above, four websites where I've posted the same bio and photo of my paternal grandmother, Henrietta "Yetta" Mahler Burk (1881-1954). 

Clockwise, from top left:

WikiTree is a free collaborative tree site that's growing fast and has the added benefits of sources and (if you wish) DNA connections. I also appreciate the ability to link to profile pages for each parent, each child, each spouse, each sibling. Plus WikiTreers are a friendly bunch!

MyHeritage.com is a subscription site that designates a place on each ancestor profile for a biography. If you want to learn more about how to post a bite-sized bio on MyHeritage, please read my article in the Knowledge Base. Bonus: MyHeritage has many nifty photo tools for enhancing/repairing/colorizing old family photos.

FamilySearch.org came online in 1999 and is the world's largest free collaborative tree site. Grandma Henrietta is well represented with photo, bio, research. A great site, and I'm glad that MyHeritage includes FamilySearch tree results when I research my ancestors.

Find a Grave, now owned by Ancestry, is another free place to post ancestor bios. I especially like that the 226 million+ memorial pages from this site are indexed and appear in search results on Ancestry, Family Search, Fold3, and more. 

Reader Diane asks whether I'm going to use Ancestry's new Storymaker Studio or MyHeritage's DeepStory for telling ancestors' stories. I tried DeepStory, and found it engaging but I do need more experimentation to refine the story and choose the right ancestor photo. It would intrigue the younger generation, but it can't be put on the bookshelf like a photobook, ready at any time for any audience. So far, I haven't yet tried Storymaker Studio but it's on my list to investigate this year.

PLUS: On Ancestry, there is a convenient space under "LifeStory" to type or paste in a full bio! I just did that for Henrietta Mahler Burk, as shown above. Another great way to share family history in narrative form.

Happy 142d birthday, Grandma Yetta, on May 9th. Your name, face, and life story are not forgotten! I'm currently creating a professional photobook about you and Grandpa Isaac, as a keepsake for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

LOCKSS via Find a Grave

After I join my ancestors, I don't want my family history to be forgotten or lost. That's why I've been sharing far and wide, knowing that LOCKSS - lots of copies keep stuff safe.

In addition to documenting my family tree and hubby's family tree on multiple websites, I've made Find a Grave a big part of my LOCKSS plan. Membership in Find a Grave is free: register, create a member profile (you can list surnames you're researching, great cousin bait!), and get started. 

Create memorials, link relatives, add bios

I'm steadily going through my trees and checking for Find a Grave memorials. I add a page for ancestors who have none, when I know where those people were buried (or cremated or memorialized on a cenotaph, like hubby's cousin here). Little by little, I'm also adding bite-sized bios, as shown on hubby's cousin's page.

If a memorial already exists, I link the memorial pages of ancestors who were related to each other. That way the memorial will show an ancestor's parents/spouse/children/sibling(s) as family context--and clues for other researchers. This also gives me a push to conduct a bit of research if I'm missing a date or a relationship.

Nearly all the memorial managers I've dealt with have approved my edits quickly and completely. The wonderful manager whose bio I show here holds a few ancestral memorials from my tree. He's posted all suggested edits within a day or two, and also made one transfer at my request. He is the ideal manager IMHO. I've heard so so many complaints about managers who won't transfer memorials, won't make edits, but rarely have I had a bad experience and I'm not easily deterred from my mission of LOCKSS.

Once or twice I had to explain my edits to a memorial manager by showing documentation. For instance, when there was no headstone, I proved someone's name was wrong in the cemetery's index and the manager changed the page. This doesn't happen often, but I can understand a manager striving for accuracy might want to know "how I know."

On the other hand, I disagreed with an edit suggested by a researcher trying to be helpful. The edit suggested adding "Jr" to the ancestor's name because his father was "Sr." Um, the younger guy had a different middle name than his dad AND never in his life did he use the "Jr" suffix (lots of documentation on this guy). We had a polite exchange of messages when I rejected the proposed "Jr" change, explaining my reasoning and thanking the researcher for other edits I did approve.

Find a Grave index is widely available

Now back to LOCKSS. At top is a screen shot of the Ancestry catalog entry for Find a Grave. This, this, is a big reason why I invest so much time in Find a Grave. 

See how many millions upon millions of Find a Grave memorials are indexed and searchable on Ancestry?

Anyone researching an ancestor of mine via Ancestry is highly likely to see a link to the Find a Grave memorial page. They'll fill out their tree, and may even connect with me to share info (remember my Find a Grave profile shows surnames researched). My ancestors on multiple Ancestry trees--LOCKSS.

FamilySearch also makes the Find a Grave index available on its free website. Millions of people use FamilySearch--meaning any of them could potentially notice the Find a Grave memorial I created OR a link to a relative on Find a Grave. Quite a powerful incentive to add my ancestors to Find a Grave and improve existing memorial pages!

Is Find a Grave perfect? Of course not, and there are any number of legitimate concerns. But the many pluses make it an important part of my plan for LOCKSS, which is why I'm an active member.

"Membership" is Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy prompt for week 12 of #52Ancestors.