Write On!

              24 can give you will be welcome, as the further back you go the more names and people go onto your tree. What started as a small hobby is now a large hobby. When looking for living relatives, recruiting family members living in the country or place of origin can be most useful. My first cousin in England provided me with eight names from the Nottingham telephone book with the surname I was seeking. Writing to these eight people enabled me to find a fellow genealogist who had information to share on my family tree, and a second cousin once removed who provided information on a whole branch of my tree with which I was unfamiliar. He was quite surprised to find cousins of whom he had no knowledge. I am now regularly corresponding with these two people and believe I have found a link between all of us. Genealogists are very friendly and helpful people but it is

prudent to be aware of some of the pitfalls and the code of ethics
necessary when researching genealogy. Never share information on living relatives without their consent. It is possible to omit living relatives on family trees that are being shared. When uploading family trees to websites such as One Family Tree, make sure that they have a strict code of ethics. This code of ethics should state that they never divulge information on living people. In this age of identity theft it is more important than ever to be very careful with the information of living people. There are a number of interesting world wide projects in which anyone can become involved. One is the photographing of headstones. Headstones contain important about deceased relatives. My second cousin in Nottingham has already offered to go to the local cemetery where he is sure there are more of our relatives buried. My husband's cousin, just this week, sent a photograph to us of the headstone of my husband's great-grandfather's grave in Vandalia, Illinois. Photographs and genealogy go well together. developing a pictorial history by entering old photographs and genealogy into a scrapbook will make a meaningful resource for future generations. Scrap booking is currently a popular hobby with stores dedicated to providing acid free papers and embellishments to make pages beautiful, informative and well-preserved. Joumaling of stories can add interest to old black and white photographs, baptismal certificates, copies of birth certificates and maps. I have photos from the 1890's; one is a metal photograph of my grandmother and her siblings. The oldest original document in my possession is the marriage certificate of my great