Free Genealogy Resources and Other Tips from a Pro

We live in a world of information overload, and if you’re digging into family history, that overload threat is potentially multiplied by generations.

Some of us organize our research and learnings in folders, and folders within folders. Nothing other than the name of each folder provides us a clue as to how everything inside relates or where gaps in the content may exist.

Others of us rely on hardcopy photo albums and scrapbooks, often missing the contextual details and stories to bring those books to life when the creator of those books is not there to talk you through them. And how do you modify them once complete?

Whether you’re just getting started with fleshing out your family history or focused on closing gaps, we think timelines are a powerful tool to have in your corner. Dive in with us!

Enriching Family History with Artifcts Timelines

Digital timelines can be hit or miss. Many applications, from Google Photos to specialized genealogy software to Facebook, offer timelines, but they often are rigid in terms of editing and lose the context for each entry. That’s because those timelines simply place photos, for example, in sequential order or display SOME information while leaving other information (documents, photos, ...) in separate, disconnected albums or galleries.

We view the Artifcts timeline as the ultimate way to future proof your history by, first and foremost, revealing gaps in the life moments you've captured with your Artifcts. True story: When our co-founder Ellen first looked at her personal timeline, she realized she’d never Artifcted anything about her wedding! Oops.

Once you know your gaps, you can then create new Artifcts to enrich your history with the stories and memories that have been left out. Another approach would be to start with Artifcts you’ve already created and add in videos and audio and/or supporting documentation for more color and context.  

Here's a great example of enriching a family history. It's one thing to know who created this painting:

It’s another to hear first-hand what the artist was trying to capture and what the painting means, a generation later, to the artist’s son. Listen in -->  

Sharing family history in bite-sized mini-stories via Artifcts means you make feel-good progress a bit faster and family are more likely to tune in and listen to the whole story.

Put Timelines to Work for You!

As you Artifct, we create your timeline automatically.

Assuming you have created a few Artifcts already, you will find your timeline by visiting your homepage and choosing "My Artifcts." You'll see the timeline option marked with a yellow "New!"

If your timeline is a bit sparse right now, check out the public Artifcts in our founders' timelines for inspiration - @Heather and @Ellen have shared many Artifcts over the past few years. 

As you explore Artifcts timelines and think about your family history, test out the built-in timeline features, because you never know from where inspiration may spring:

• • • Switch between annual and decade views.
    • Flip your Artifcts from newest-to-oldest and oldest-to-newest.
    • Drag and drop to move any Artifct to a different year.
    • Add time period notes, per year, about key events or family history research gaps.

We have great FAQs about timelines and a quick video ready for you as well.

Share with Us 

We’d love to hear what you learn about your own history when you look at it anew as a timeline. Had you skipped key life events? Are there whole decades missing? What inspires you to fill in any gaps? You can write to us at Editor@Artifcts.com  to share!

Happy Artifcting!

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October is Family History Month. And that got us talking about the meaning and value of family history. Have you ever thought much about it? What is “family history” to you?  

If you Google “define family history,” virtual AI machines spin out a definition that is seconded, thirded (Is that a word? No, surely not.) and otherwise backed up by a plethora of sites all talking about family health and medical history. Nope, not what we’re talking about. 

Scroll a bit further and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church, defines family history as, “Identifying and learning about your ancestors.” What a convenient definition: narrow and deeply supported by the astounding archival records of the church and its home-grown Family Search software. 

As much as we appreciate our Mormon friends, there's more to family history than our ancestors, which on its own is already overwhelming. Just thinking of all those ancestors and what to track down about each one, from where, and what to do with what we learn makes us sweat.  

But here’s what we so easily miss in that process – our families today, aka ancestors to future generations. And that is much simpler and an easier place to start for most of us.

Family History & You

We want to help you focus on your family history in a much more personal sense.  

Pause and think about your family. Who comes to mind? A spouse and children, furry or human? A larger blended family? Or perhaps you immediately wrap in your parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, too? No matter who you have in mind, now think about the history of that family unit.  

In practicing this approach, our co-founder Ellen came up with these pieces of history for her family: 

Traditional “Family History” Elements 

• • • Lived in WI, NC, DC/VA/MD, and TX, with one daughter who is now more Texan than anything else. 
    • Lots of family travel, mostly road trips, with some far-flung adventures thrown in. 
    • Grounded daily life to work/school, sports, and neighbors. 
    • She and her spouse both worked for the US Federal government and spent the second half of their early careers working from home. 

A lot of what Ellen came up with is covered by public records—birth, death, and marriage certificates, along with newspapers and census and property records. Those are the very same records that genealogists would gather to learn about ancestors from 10s to 100s of years ago.  

Less Traditional, Maybe More Valuable Family History 

• • • Own family language, including regular words that have strange meanings as well as words that are entirely made up. 
    • Message boards, whiteboards and letterboards alike that exhibit the personalities of her family as they fill them in. 
    • The recipes for shrimp de jonghe and coffee cake that were stars of every Christmas at home. 
    • The homemade cards Ellen makes for her husband for every Valentines Day, Birthday, and anniversary. 

While traditional elements can tell you a lot and lead to a lot more questions, such as why all the moves, the less traditional family history gives you a feel for what the family dynamics and day-to-day life was really like. What makes the family tick, if you will. When it comes to family history, we care about both types of information and stories.

Family History: 4 Ways to Fill In and Protect Yours 

We challenge you this October to focus on your own family, however defined, and within a narrower scope of time – try just the last few years since COVID, for example. Less stress on the finding. More emphasis on the memories and the sharing. Pick even just one of the following to get yourself started.

Seminal moments.

CELEBRATE them, document them. How you do this is up to you. Conventional options are photo albums and scrapbooks. Grander options are a family reunion tied to an anniversary of some sort. For us, we’re of course more inclined to Artifct that, perhaps starting with Artifcting our Life Firsts checklist (download free here) and “best of” photos for favorites moments and memories, the details of which always fade too soon. 

Critical details.

We’re talking life, death and everything in between. To protect you and your family and all you have built together, take your first steps toward recording life data in a digital vault of your choice, like that offered by Trustworthy. Enter basics first: drivers licenses, passports, and car titles and/or loans. You’ll FEEL the progress. Let it motivate you to keep going: insurance policies, mortgages, 401ks, and more. 

Your photos.

No, photos are not all worth 1,000 words, but you’ll be devastated if they all disappear. We love the advice we’ve heard often from Cathi Nelson, CEO of The Photo Managers, to back them up to three separate locations, e.g., phone, flash drive, the cloud. You should do this often, and software like Mylio can help, but at the VERY least, back up all those pics this month.

Give a Story, Get a story. 

GIVE A STORY: YOURS! Skip the memoir for now. You’re getting overwhelmed even thinking about it. Write down one story of your own that you love to tell. Now share it with someone, in person and out loud, if possible. Storysharing is more powerful than storytelling because you engage the person in a way that is so much more memorable. Be sure to Artifct yourself telling it too. No one can do it justice the way you do, your voice, your words.

GET A STORY: A FAMILY MEMBER'S. Maybe you remember hearing it once, and you have forgotten the details. Maybe you’ve never heard how grandma came to be a physicist and the projects she worked on. Ask. Record it. Artifct it. Share it. And get more tips from, “Storytellers: Beware!”

Let This Be the Beginning! 

Whether you’re just getting started and want to go deeper or are already in the thick of family history and are looking for more ideas, even new fodder for family reunions and holidays, enjoy this shortlist of Arti Community favorites from ARTIcles by Artifcts: 

• • • Family History Month... Your Way!
    • My Family Wants to Share My Stories. Help!
    • A Family History in 5 Artifcts
    • Rescue Mission! That's More Than a Photo

Happy Artifcting!

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Reading time: 4 minutes 

Do Fall weekends find you cheering on your home team? Whether it’s football, baseball, swimming, or soccer, chances are you’ll catch a game or two either in person or with the 21.4 million viewers who tune in to watch their favorite Sunday night matchups.  

Fall may also find you longing for adventure, whether it’s a short drive across town or across state lines or a flight across the country. It’s a great time to travel before the holiday rush, and an even better time to take in some of our country’s museum-worthy sports collections.  

To inspire your trips, we’ve compiled the list below highlighting some of the best sporting collections our country has to offer. And in case you find yourself staring at your own sports collection, and you're not sure how to keep track of and share it with others, we've prepared tips about how to Artifct those collections, even if they are not destined for a museum.  

Roadtrip Worthy Sporting Destinations

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is one of the most-visited sports museums in the US. The Museum boasts over 40,000 artifacts, including a baseball thrown by Cy Young in the first modern World Series.  

A close second is the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. One of the key features of the Museum is a banked speedway modeled after Talladega Superspeedway, featuring 18 cars and a salute to 46 tracks!  

Want to view artifacts AND try your hand at your favorite sport? The International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum in Newport, RI is adjacent to 13 grass courts open for public play. When not serving up a winning shot, you can watch video highlights from some of the greatest matches in history and learn about Hall of Famers Billie Jean King and Pete Sampras.  

A short drive from Newport, RI will take you to Springfield, MA and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Hall proudly displays artifacts from when James Naismith introduced the sport to his YMCA class in 1891 (!) in addition to interactive exhibits, skills challenges and decades of basketball history.  

Building and Preserving Your Museum-Worthy Collection 

Aside from having amazing collections and rare artifacts, museums tell stories—the stories of their sport, their legends, and the fans that make it all worthwhile. We get a glimpse into the greats, an understanding of their firsts, and maybe even come away with a newfound appreciation for the past times we love.  

Museums preserve and safeguard artifacts for the next generation. But these artifacts, like the everyday objects we all collect and accumulate, cannot talk. There is no way to know by looking at an object that it was a game winning ball, or a record setting car. Absent the context, the details, and yes, even the story, legend, and lore, all artifacts are just that, artifacts, aka ‘stuff.’  

So how do you build, preserve, and share your collection so that, just like the museums, the story, history, and memories live on? Since we’re Artifcts, we’re a little biased, and our first response is going to be “Artifct that!” whatever ‘that’ may be. It takes time and effort to tell the story behind your collection (whether it be sports memorabilia or art!) and add in the details, the who, what, when, where, and why that will one day (if not today) matter. We made it easy and enjoyable.

We’ve compiled tips below to help you get started. (Go deeper with How to Artifct That Collection.)  

• • • Start with the basic facts. What is it, and how did it come into your possession? Does the item have any financial value? If in doubt, request a free valuation from our partners at Heritage Auctions.
    • Next, get nostalgic. Think about your collection this way: If someone were to inherit your collection, are any pieces of particular value to you? Why? 
    • Include photos and videos to augment the description/story. Add audio recordings if you want your family to hear the story the way that you only you can tell it, complete with fun facts. 
    • Now try looking at your collection and natural groupings within it. For example, photos, trading cards, and gear may be three groupings. Start and complete Artifcting for one group before moving on to the next. 
    • Overwhelmed? Start by taking a video of your collection to ensure you have a record of it. You can then dedicate a certain amount of time per day, week, or month to capture details with individual Artifcts for each piece. 

No matter how big or small your collection is, no matter if it is sports ‘stuff,’ or other ‘stuff’ entirely, take a moment to capture at least one piece, one story, one memory. Your family (and maybe even one day a museum!) will thank you.

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.