2020’s hardest decision
Hunkering down for the holidays It's not quite two weeks to Thanksgiving here in the United States (November 26 this year). And just six weeks -- exactly -- to Christmas Day. Times when The Legal Genealogist traditionally gets together in joy with as many members of...
For a good cause
Ancestry and others matching NGS donations The merger of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) under the NGS umbrella has created unique opportunities... and unique challenges. Taking advantage of those...
Veteran’s Day 2020
Honoring those who served In the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 -- one hundred and two years ago today -- the guns fell silent. On the battlefields of Europe, where war had raged for more than four years, and throughout the world,...
The uncommonly good Commons
The Commons on Flickr An announcement that crossed The Legal Genealogist's desk a short while ago brought to mind an uncommonly good resource for genealogists and historical researchers of all stripes. It's called, simply, The Commons. And its goal, it says, is “to...
Vote 2020!
Get out and vote! It's election day 2020 in the United States. And here's The Legal Genealogist's #1 Election Day rule: It's not over until ALL votes are counted. Seriously... if you didn't vote, I'm not going to listen for one minute to any complaints about the...
Tarheel thanks
NCGS Member Appreciation Day We sometimes forget, as genealogists, just what goodies we get when we join the genealogical societies in the areas where we live or where our ancestors came from. Things like -- in one case in particular -- a subscription to a quarterly...
The other Judy
The truth of a family story It's a story The Legal Genealogist heard often. One my mother loved to tell. It's about the day we moved into the house in New Jersey where I grew up. The lot our house was on faced one street. The lot to the right as you stood facing our...
Emphasizing consent
Consent is still consent There seems to be a wee bit of confusion about a line in an announcement by the Board for Certification of Genealogists about a key change in its DNA standards adopted at the Board's October 2020 meeting. And, of course, since The Legal...
Speak out now!
... for NYC records access and use The deadline is coming up fast for public comments on a proposed rule by the New York City agency in charge of the Municipal Archives that -- unless it's changed a lot -- will impact the rights of researchers, historians and...
BCG modifies DNA privacy rules
Standard 57 & ethics code amended One of the big issues genealogists have faced in recent years is applying ethical considerations to using DNA in family history. It's not that ethical issues are anything new: doing family history research has always posed the risk of...
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