Liv's Tree House

Aside from my brackets being shot after 2 days of basketball madness, my parents' basement flooded. It was a mess.  THANKFULLY about 5 years ago I went on a digitizing craze.  During that time I digitized almost all my mom had as far as family photos and documents were concerned.  Unfortunately, due to my mad organization skills tons of the photos I had digitized got ruined because they were all together in folders and the dampness of the house made the photographs all stick together.  Ironically the ones heaved in drawers were totally fine because they weren't tightly packed. LESSON LEARNED. But after a full weekend of cleaning, sifting, and sorting here's a peak at my mess that I have to sift through now... Apparently after my uncle passed away my mom had inherited a lot of his documents and photos which also had a lot of family history stuff in there. Look at this gem... It's a family log from 1901.  It has tons of names and dates of births, deaths, marriages...

Scanning or digitizing your family treasure trove can seem to be an incredibly daunting task, but it doesn't have to be.  If you take a few minutes to educate yourself on the basics then you can make an informed decision about the best route for you and your archive. I got going on it myself in 2010.  I admit photos was an obsession before family history entered my radar--I'd say photos, digital scrap-booking, and family movies was what led me to discover my love for genealogy.  So I'm pretty sure I am genetically hard-wired this way.  So with 6 years of experience under my belt and research on the subject I'll give you the basics. First of all, assess what you've got, and what you can and want to digitize.  You'll likely be surprised at the things that you'll find as you start to dig.  Things like photos and documents are easy to scan, but many of us have things like film, tape, & heirlooms that can be a little more tricky to digitize. Next, learn a bi...

I'm bound to write more on this subject in the future, but I've gotta give a sneak preview.   Cloud by Daplie is a new product I discovered on Innovators Alley at RootsTech --by far the best addition to RootsTech this year btw, but that's beside the point. The product isn't quite ready for market yet, but I got a sneak peak today giving some feedback on the product to the developers.  For those of you who are sick of paying monthly fees for online storage, you're going to LOVE this product! The slogan they used when explaining it to me was "We're taking back the internet." I love it! Who doesn't want more control and to understand better where their stuff is stored? Basically just imagine being able to purchase as much storage space as you need--NO limits and NO monthly fees--awesome right?!!  You just purchase the hard drive space you need and the attachable server and voila, you can access your files anytime, anywhere, from any device. Plus, the...

After a 2 year hiatus, I'm ready to get back in the swing. I attended RootsTech 2015 and remember I was super motivated to get going on this blog again, because every year, RootsTech just re-motivates me and makes me want to share all that I'm discovering about this constantly changing market. BUT unfortunately, baby #3, demands of mommy life, church life, and community life, overtook MY LIFE, and I wasn't able to rekindle. BUT now it's 2016... I loved this years theme "Celebrating Families across Generations", because as a Mom-o-three, I'm always trying to find new ways to connect my kids to this fascinating work that I love, genealogy.  So RootsTech 2016 was a success. I've already started testing out new products and renewing old ones that I love, shout out to StoryWorth (LOVE it!). So here's to a new beginning with this blog. Being once again updated from sunny Pacific Grove, California.

This is going to be a synopsis of AWESOMENESS that can come from using DNA in your Family History research. Clifford and his sister Jennie Without going into too much detail, my husband's family has been orphaned for well...forever.  His Great Grandfather Clifford was orphaned at a young age after his father James had skipped town, and his mother and sister were taken suddenly by an illness in the early 1900s.  He ended up living with relatives and being very successful in life. But none of his posterity ever knew where Grandpa James had come from or gone too.  Joyce my husband's grandmother, loved family history and had devoted a lot of time in the search for James and his family. She had dug up some details here and there but was never able to prove any theories or feel settled that she'd solved the mystery, even after hiring a professional genealogist to help. So sat our wall... Image from Family Tree DNA After my first year of RootsTech, I felt a new vigor and hope wi...

As you know, I have a serious obsession with RootsTech , and LOVE everything about it.  I'm sitting here listening to the live stream while on my vacation in Pacific Grove, California. I know I'm crazy!  Just sitting here I find myself blogging, pinning, and researching all at the same time. I forget how motivating RootsTech is. I found out shortly after last years RootsTech that they had adjusted the dates for this years events and it happened to be the same week of the AT&T, Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament. Which we've had reservations for since before we moved back to Utah. So I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to make it to RootsTech this year, and I was devastated.  So here I am in my condo catching what I can via live stream. Thank you FamilySearch !!  I'm dying that I'm missing out on the ExpoHall but catching what I can via blogs and other media.... Hope to do some more updates soon. It's been a very busy year and I have much to fill ...

My Why... I referenced this book in my original blog post for this blog, it's definitely MY WHY, why I love this work... Building this book gave me a whole new perspective on the value of researching and learning about your ancestors. I used a program called Heritage Makers to create it. ( If you'd like me to share a copy with you just email me and let me know your Heritage Maker's account number.) Not only did I come to know and love my grandmother in a whole new ways when I made it, but I was also privileged to get to know another special ancestor...My Grandfather Willis A Chatterton, who was obviously a prominent character in her book. He had passed away when I was only 2 years old, so I really don't have any memories of him, and I can only think of one picture that I'm even in with him before he died, so there's not much to go on. I grew up hearing stories from my dad about what a crazy driver grandpa was and from my mom about how he was always the first...