QUICK TIP  

  I don't know if anyone else keeps track of what's going on in the family on a
calendar, but I've been doing it for years. My motto is, "If it's not on the
calendar, it's not happening."  And I have been saving my calendars for about
ten years because someone is always asking me when we moved, when we went on a
certain trip, when someone's baby was born, when someone died, or when we last
saw someone.  I have the calendar log to prove it.  After reading your tips
about sources of family records, it occurred to me that my calendars are a
pretty good source.  Someday I'll go through them and write down the things that
might be of interest to the next "family historian." 
  I like that name: family historian.  Recently, I met someone who replied to my,
"What do you do?" with, "I'm the family historian."  I thought that was really
cool!  That's what I am, the family historian.  It gives a real sense of dignity
to what I do.  So, that's what I tell people now: "I'm the family historian!"

Laraine Hall, Family Historian
from Ancestry Daily Times

A TIP FROM THE UK

  I often wonder how much we really know about our ancestors. I suspect that very
little is known about our parents, and even less about our grandparents and
beyond.
  I am seventy-eight years old, the survivor of three sons, and I decided I wanted
my children and grandchildren to know more about my life than they see on the
surface. So, I have produced a sixty-page booklet of my life from my earliest
memories as a child to the beginning of the year 2000. 
  I also scanned old photos of me as a child, of my parents, grandparents, and
great-grandparents, and of the many houses they lived in. I talked about my
school life, my love of sports, and my successes and failures in life, as well
as my many hopes, ambitions, and dreams as a child, and the realities that were
often quite different.
  I spent around six months writing it, correcting it, and improving it on my
computer, and finally I had just four copies professionally printed, with a
small picture of me at age five on the front cover. I called the little book
"Memories."
  I gave a copy to each of my three children and kept one for myself, and I feel
very proud and fulfilled about the operation. 
  My offspring--never slow to criticize the old man--told me they found the
booklet easy to read, very interesting, and, all in all, an excellent idea,
which they in due course will copy.

Jim Ebling 
Merseyside, England

 U.S. Census Indexes online at: 
 http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/census/ais/main.htm 
(An index to the 1850 California Federal Census is included.)


Cemetery Search Quick Tip
I just wanted to share something my husband and I find helpful when doing
cemetery research.  Usually, each of us will head off in a different direction
when looking for graves in a cemetery, and it always seems like the one who
finds a grave is never the one who has the clipboard, notebooks, etc., and the
person that does have them is usually on the other side of the cemetery.  

To remedy that, we purchased a pair of small walkie talkies that have a two-mile
range.  Now we can confer with each other without losing our place in the
cemetery, or one can sit in the car with the books and the laptop computer and
the other can dictate the findings.  It also gives great peace of mind in
knowing that help is at hand should one of us twist an ankle.

LuAnn Folkers
Des Moines, Iowa