Ancestor Roundup in Seaside, CA – Feb 3, 2018

~ Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail" ~ Leave a comment

Just thought I’d put a good word in for the 37th annual Ancestor Roundup, to be held in Seaside, California on February 3, 2018. It’s a bargain at only $20 if you opt for the e-syllabus, and that even includes lunch!

I’ll be presenting four classes:  Evernote Research Tricks, Dayna’s Genealogy Toolkit, Archives and Libraries – Successful Research Onsite and Online, and Washington, D.C. Research Online in Your Jammies.

The keynote speaker will be Karen Clifford, AG, FUGA.  Her keynote presentation is entitled, “New Tools for Successful Research.”  Address for the conference is 1024 Noche Buena, Seaside, CA.

Here is a preview of the class schedule, and the registration form.

 

Where to Download Thousands of Free eBooks

~ Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail" ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a post on the Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter I thought would be good to share, because who doesn’t like “free”?

Dick Eastman's avatarEastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

It would be a stretch to say this article relates to genealogy; however, I have found that many genealogists are also avid readers with a broad range of literary interests. With this in mind, I thought I would share some ideas for those times when you want to enjoy reading a good book on a different subject.

Did you know you can obtain thousands of free ebooks to read online, download to your computer, or transfer to your Kindle, iPad, or other ebook reader?

Many of the available ebooks are electronic versions of classic literature. In other words, they are old books and are out of copyright. However, mixed in with these are quite a few more modern books where copyright permission has been obtained.

Most of these books can be read on a Kindle, iPad, or Nook, as well as on the screen of any Windows, Macintosh, Chromebook, or…

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Associated Daughters of Early American Witches…and other lineage societies worth joining

~ Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail" ~ 3 Comments

It’s October, and we of course are all celebrating “National Family History Month.”  Have you decorated yet?  I noticed everyone is getting into the spirit of National Family History Month with skeletons, witches, and even a few headstones springing up in front yards.  Well done!

As part of my own celebration I decided to finally join a lineage society.  You know, those organizations that only accept members with ancestors who meet certain elevated standards, like Daughters of the American Revolution, or Colonial Dames of America, or… the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches.  Yes!

Looking through The Complete List of Active Hereditary Societies I discovered oh so many organizations for the rest of us. And they sound like their meetings must be way more fun:

  • Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons & Daughters of the Kings of Britain
  • Associated Daughters of Early American Witches
  • Flagon and Trencher (descendants of early tavern or innkeepers)
  • Order of Descendants of Pirates and Privateers
  • Registry of Infamous and Famous Relatives in American Families
  • National Society of Saints and Sinners

Alas/fortunately, I do not qualify for any of those societies.  Looking forward to the next big holiday I love to celebrate—Thanksgiving (because I was born on Thanksgiving and I really like pie)—I plan to apply to The General Society of Mayflower Descendants or National Society of Old Plymouth Colony Descendants.  They don’t let you join just because you like pie, however, so I will need to come up with some proof of descendancy from my 10th great-grandparents, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.  I will let you know how it goes.

Bacon’s “Landing of the Pilgrims” on Pilgrimhall.org

Check out the Complete List of Active Hereditary Societies—I’ll bet you qualify for at least five organizations.  Let me know what you find.

Wonder Woman’s (other) Secret Life

~ Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail" ~ Leave a comment

wonder-woman3

Were you excited when the Wonder Woman movie hit theaters recently?  I was!  Like you, I was obsessed with the thought of, “What kind of records can I find for Diana Prince?”  Lucky for us both, it was not as hard as one might expect for someone who was born on a magical island inhabited by Amazons and once worked as a military intelligence officer.

Not surprisingly, her military records were not easy to locate, but the “island with Amazons” story led me to uncover her super-secret life as a wife and mother—and her never-before-revealed Italian roots!

As always, the Fairy Tale Genealogist has the records to prove it! Just get a load of this Brazilian immigration document for one Vittorio Piccinini:

wonderwoman_facebook
“Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900-1965,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KNGK-S32 : 1 December 2015), Vittorio Piccinini, Immigration; citing 1948, Arrivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (National Archives, Rio de Janeiro).

If your Portuguese is rusty it is still better than mine, but here is what we learn: Vittorio Piccinini, who was born in Milan, Italy in 1914, arrived in Brazil in 1948 and is the son of none other than Angelo Piccinini and Diana Principe!  Of course we all know Diana Principe—later anglicised to Diana Prince—as Wonder Woman.

With Vittorio coming to Brazil there is no doubt his parents were right behind him.  It is easy to see how the whole confusion about Amazons (a race of immortal super-women that lived on the magical Paradise Island) and the Amazon (a tropical rainforest that is part of Brazil) thing got started with Diana once a few publicists with over-active imaginations dicovered she had lived in Brazil.  And come on, she named her kid Vittorio—Italian for conqueror!