welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 245 are
you looking for genealogy projects to keep your research tune in today and I'll give
you ten suggestions that you should do and your research will love you for it [Music]
it's time to start figuring out what genealogy projects you want to tackle for May each month
holds its own best genealogical practices that you can incorporate into your regular genealogy
research here are the ten must-do genealogy projects for May each of these will make your
genealogy research and family history narrative richer and more informative for you and others
enjoy doing these fun and important genealogical projects number one research how your ancestors
celebrated Mother's Day Mother's Day has been celebrated since the early 20th century which
means at least three generations of your family and maybe more has celebrated it look into your
family history by talking to older relatives looking at old photographs and even reading
old newspaper articles to discover how your own family traditionally celebrated Mother's Day then
include this information in your family tree number two put on a traditional Mother's Day
celebration if your ancestors celebrated Mother's Day in a significantly different way than you do
put together a traditional celebration if that involves inviting a lot of relatives over or
just keeping it intimate with the immediate family do that also include traditional foods
decorations party games gifts and other things that your ancestors used in their own Mother's
Day celebrations number three design a Mother's Day photo montage you can include this in your
Mother's Day celebration or give it as gifts to all the mothers or women in your family gather
all the photos of past Mother's Day celebrations in your family and put them into a montage on your
computer set to music choose a song that you believe conveys the message of Mother's Day
the best and set each photo to appear in the montage for just long enough for them to all
make an appearance by the end of the song you can label the photos and include special effects as
optional details if you choose everyone in your family is guaranteed to love this tribute to the
mothers in your family tree number four research your ancestors who fought in wars with Memorial
Day being this month it is time to celebrate the veterans of wars in your family tree this
includes any ancestor who fought in any war in any century since this is an American holiday
you might prefer to focus on those ancestors who fought in American wars though you can include
ancestors who fought in Foreign Wars as foreign nationals if you choose look up their war records
and/or information on the wars they fought in and the roles they played and include this information
in your family tree notes section number 5 visit the graves of ancestors who fought in wars most
veteran organizations will go out and put flags on the graves of known War veterans if you know of an
ancestor who fought in a war but who doesn't get a flag each year either let the local
organization putting out the flags know about them or do it yourself you can also put wreaths
or other patriotic to the times decorations on their graves it may only be possible for
you to visit local graves in person however you can look up other graves on findagrave.com and
leave a special Memorial Day note for them on that site use the patriotic sticker graphic in
your note for extra respect and honor number 6 read a new genealogy book you should always
be improving your genealogical skills reading books on genealogical research techniques is a
good way to do this reading one new book on genealogy research each month keeps up your
skills and allows you to find new information on your ancestors number 7 read a new history book
learning the history of the times and places your aunts Esther's lived is important to understanding
them and their lives read one book each month on a time and or place in which an ancestor lived to
improve your knowledge of your forbearers number eight write a new chapter on your family history
book if you are planning on publishing your family history writing one chapter a month will make it
more manageable you'll be ready to publish before you know it and it will be easy to do collect and
organize your books May is when graduation happens or is approaching for most schools collect all the
yearbooks for your family members going as far back in time as you can and organize them nicely
on a shelf with labels on the spines to indicate who they are for and what year they were published
it makes it easy for relatives to look at the lives of your ancestors in high school number
10 put together a photo album of graduation pictures get a small photo album and use it
just to put graduation pictures in graduation pictures started to become common in the late
1800s after the Civil War collect as many as you can find for your family going as far back in
time as you're able and put these in an album in chronological order and labeled on the back of the
photos and below them on the album pages it makes a nice tribute dear families graduates [Music]
genealogists inherit a lot of old photos in the next episode we'll talk about how
to properly label those photos correctly thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on
the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com