Genealogical research is really fun. It’s the closest I will probably ever get to time travel. It’s interesting, because I always hated my history classes in High School and college. But, as it turns out, I actually really love history as it pertains to individual people. Local history is fascinating. Studying the lives and events of…
Category: personal
Patrick McQueen Research
I haven’t posted for a little while. It is not for a lack of genealogy related pursuits; just a lack of Czech related genealogy pursuits! For the past two months I have been working as hard as I can to solve the mystery of my husband’s 5th great grandfather’s village of origin in Ireland. Patrick McQueen….
How do you distinguish genealogy from family history?
I wanted to share what I wrote in answer to this question. It was part of an assignment for the ProGen study group I’m in. We are studying Tom Jone’s new textbook Mastering Genealogical Proof. I think that it’s good to emphasize Family History. Everybody can participate, and their participation is helpful both to current and future…
Czech out this house!
This is a picture of me with my daughter (then 2) and my son (then 1) at the Hluchanek House located in the Czech Village at the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center in La Grange, Texas. My husband took the picture and was holding our other son (then 0 years old). I really feel a…
Long lost gold: “Centennial History of St. John the Baptist Parish, Ammansville, Texas 1890-1990”
I was recently hired to work on redesigning and enhancing Arabic 041 (the first year High School Arabic class) for BYU’s Independent Study. It has been a really fun project, and between that and our upcoming move to Iowa in two weeks, I have had very little time to work on family history. Because I…
Czech Land Record Transcription Process
I want to publicly pat myself on the back for correctly transcribing and translating page one (of two) of a 1799 Czech land record written in German current script, in Czech. This record is like a cross between a deed and a will; it has lots of information about the land, and who was going…
Find-a-Grave and giving back
Hey! So, a lot to write about. Today I went to the 3S Genealogy Symposium hosted by the Friench Simpson Memorial Library in Hallettsville, TX. There were some excellent speakers, and I learned a lot. Enough for several blog posts. During the break, I went to the Hallettsville City Cemetery. I have some collateral lines…
Discrepancy between standards for temple submission and the GPS
I am working on submitting my ancestors’ names to the temple, where temple ordinances will be done in proxy for them. Here is a link that explains more about temple ordinance work. The purpose of this blog post is to point out an interesting discrepancy that I see between the bare minimum requirements to submit a name…
The purpose of this blog
Edited 2017 I am a fifth generation Texas Czech. I am passionate about history, research, and languages. I love the mystery of deciphering old documents and analyzing the information they contain to form an understanding of the past. I am particularly interested in Czech records and research. My enthusiasm and energy for genealogy is driven…