Zazzle binder from OldeWorldGifts: Isola Bella III, Lake Maggiore, Pie...

The perfect place for keeping your treasured family tree and important records and documentation. Family tree binders featuring vintage photochrom prints from around the world - choose one where your ancestors come from. Easy to customize to show your own family name.

This binder features a picturesque image of Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore in Piedmont, Italy.

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Zazzle binder from OldeWorldGifts: Isola Bella III, Lake Maggiore, Pie... Gallo Family Tree Binder - Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy Visit OldeWorldGifts's store Join OldeWorldGifts's fan club	View "Isola Bella III, Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy" by OldeWorldGifts Create your own products @ Zazzle.com

Family Research - Tips and Hints #1

One of the most important resources you can use for researching your family tree is your family and they should be where our family research starts.

A good place to start is with your parents - ask them for information about their own births, places where they lived growing up, marriage information and see if they have easy access to their own birth and marriage certificates. Ask them about their parents and try to get as much information from them as possible. If possible, talk to your grandparents - they may have much more information to share and give you keys to searching further back in your family tree.

Write down all the information they give you - this is the key to good genealogy research. Check this against any official records they may have.


The key to building your family tree is having a good base - solid and reliable. From this base, it is much eaiser to continue to research and trace your family tree back through the generations.

Family Reunion Invitations

One of the great things about researching your family tree is that it often puts you in contact with family members you may not have seen for a long time and gives you the opportunity to share information with everyone.

A few of my extended family are also researching the family tree, and the sharing of information has been a definite bonus. It wasn't until a family reunion that we all realised the common interest in our ancestry.

Here's a sample of the great family reunion invitations available on Zazzle - which is easy to customise to suit your own occasion.

Family Tree Reunion Invitation-+ 

by NightSweatsDiva

Free Geneology Resources - Hugh Wallis

One of the resources that I have used consistently throughout my family research is the International Genealogy Index (IGI) available at www.familysearch.org - I generally use it as one of the first places to find information and then move to other sources if I think I am on the right track.

One of the limitations of the IGI is the inability to search by surname only unless it is a single batch or an entire country. This can be frustrating if you are looking for siblings and do not know their names and results for an entire country can be very time consuming to scroll through.

Hugh Wallis has developed a way of using IGI which allows you to locate the batch numbers based on country, country, town and date ranges for births/christenings and marriages. This has become an invaluable resource in my genealogical research and has allowed me to find family members of my tree I may otherwise have never found.

His site can be found here - I am sure that you will find it as useful as I have if you are researching ancestors in the British Isles, America and Canada.

Common Mistakes in Genealogy Research #2

We all have those wonderful family stories passed down through the generations, such as links with nobility or a famous historical figure. While these stories hold some fascination, it is important not to accept the story as fact - we must search for evidence that may either prove or disprove the theory.

Growing up, I was always told that our family had links with the Scottish nobility. As a child, I accepted this story as fact and would tell anybody that would listen that I was a descendant of royalty.

My father's paternal ancestors were in Scotland, but were in Ireland prior to this. The story was that the Duke of Hamilton's daughter ran away with the Irish coachman (my ancestor). A fairly dubious link, but a link to nobility nonetheless! 

I was always intrigued by this story and previous attempts by my parents and extended family members to trace our family tree had uncovered a Margaret Hamilton who married my Irish great-great-great grandfather. But it always seemed to stop there.

I have tried many avenues to see if there is any link between our Margaret Hamilton and the Duke of Hamilton, but have yet to uncover anything that would prove the family story. Conflicting places of births given in the Scottish Census for Margaret has made it even more difficult. So for now, it remains a story - an intriguing story, and one I haven't given up just yet. One day I hope to either be able to accept the story as fact or completely dismiss it, until then I will keep looking.

So, no matter how tempting it is to assume the family story must be true, it is always important to look for the facts.

Genealogy is T-R-E-E-rific!

Researching your family tree is addictive and once you are bitten by the bug, it is difficult to let it go. There are a number of stores at Zazzle which have designs on a wide range of products dedicated to people who love genealogy. Visit gedcom, one of the great stores on Zazzle, to see the wonderful designs they have for the keen genealogist.
gedcom

Genealogy is T-R-E-E-rific! by gedcom