genealogy-day

Did you know that there was such a thing as an official “Genealogy Day“? No? Well I did introduce it to our readers last year after I happened to come across it. But to be honest I’d forgotten about it. But I was looking over my old blog posts today, and noticed it.

Anyway, talk about amazing timing … Genealogy Day is held on the second Saturday of March, which is tomorrow, 14th March 2015!

Don’t believe me? Well, here you go …

Established in 1997 as part of Celebrate Your Name Week, Genealogy Day was created to inspire an interest on one’s family history.

Activities you could partake in for Genealogy Day range from a simple family tree, which is a great activity for children, to starting your own research for a larger project. A great starting point for genealogy is interviewing family and family friends, and making notes, then going from there. You’ll be amazed how quickly things can start to fall into place. If you want to try an activity with children, draw a tree and have them write the names of their family onto the braches and leaves, along with pictures.

It is no secret that genealogy or family history, is one of the fastest growing hobbies around. Everyone knows someone who’s doing it, if they aren’t themselves. It has finally become an accepted hobby, so it is nice to see it recognised with a Genealogy Day.

But what should one do on Genealogy Day? Last year I gave you 13 suggestions which were good ones. I have now added to this list taking the list to 21 suggestions.

1. Enter more names into your family tree. Do you have lots that you’ve found, but just have got around to entering into your genealogy program? Ok, well maybe that’s just me then.

2. If searching is more your thing, why not instead of heading to the usual sites you visit try a different one. MyHeritage and The Genealogist are two that have very different records to the others.

3. If it’s a nice day, take a trip to a cemetery (or two or three), and do the grave walk.

4. Visit a relative, and ask them a few questions about their past, and be sure to take notes, or record it  by audio or video.

5. Start (or continue) scanning your photos and documents. The pile will eventually go down, I promise.

6. Filing. I know it’s not a fun job, but it’s even less fun when you can’t find that record that you know you have … somewhere. So spend an hour and do a little filing. You’ll be thankful for it later.

7. Create a timeline of one of your ancestors, and see where you have gaps. It’s quite fascinating to see.

8. Find a comfy chair and read a genealogy magazine or two – or a genealogy book.

9. Watch a Google Hangout on Air, or listen to a Podcast.

10. Visit your local genealogy or historical society.

11. Explore the FamilySearch site beyond just the searching (check out the Wiki, the Photos, the Indexing, the Famiily Tree as so on).

12. Help someone with a query – RAOGK.

13. Do some transcribing. You might head to the Trove newspapers for that, or the NAA Soda site, FamilySearch Indexing or a number of others.

14. Start a genealogy blog.

15. If crafting is more your thing, create a heritage scrapbook page or two, showcasing your family history.

16. Create a catalogue of all books, CDs, programs, maps, microfiche etc. that you have that are genealogy-related.

17. Start (or continue) writing your own life history. Remember that is just as important as the long-ago past.

18. Sadly your photo collection hasn’t sorted itself, so why not get a start on it.

19. While we’re on the topic of photos, why not create show off your ancestors with a “photo wall”

20. If you are into social media, check out all the genealogy-related Facebook groups/pages there are now (4500 at last count). And if you are a tweeter, type #genealogy in the search box, and see what you come up with. It’s a great way to find new people to follow.

21. Go ahead and order that DNA kit that you’ve been wondering about for a while.

That’s just a few suggestions, and there’s literally hundred more that I could write, and I’m sure each of you will find your own way to celebrate. So Happy Genealogy Day for tomorrow. 😉