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I was researching the family of Richard S. Little, the founder of Littleton. I am not related to Richard, but I enjoy researching interesting historical figures in addition to my own family. One of Richard’s grandsons, John Harwood Little, was listed in the 1930 US Census living in Laramie, Wyoming. His household consisted of himself (age 47), his wife, Minnie (age 45), and someone named Henry J Little. Henry J was 18 years old and listed as John Harwood’s nephew.

This puzzled me because I knew from earlier research that John Harwood Little only had one brother and that his brother’s only children were two daughters. In addition to his brother, John Harwood also had two sisters, but their children would have had their husband’s surname and not the surname Little. John and Minnie were themselves childless.

I approached James Jeffrey with my problem. He is a superb genealogist at the Western History and Genealogy section at Denver Public Library (DPL).This is James’ biography from the DPL website:

“James K. Jeffrey has been with the Denver Public Library since 1985 and genealogy collection specialist since 1988. He was the 2004 recipient of the P. William Filby Award for Excellence in Genealogical Librarianship from the National Genealogical Society. James is currently President of the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies and active in the National Genealogical Society. He is passionate about connecting researchers with resources to explore their ancestors and the world in which they lived.”

Anyone who knows James knows he is a treasure to Colorado’s genealogical community. With James help, I was able to discover that Henry J.’s actual surname was Brown, the same as Minnie’s maiden name. Henry J. was John Harwood’s nephew only by marriage. The census enumerator had mistakenly assumed Henry J.’s surname was the same as the head of household and had named him as Henry J. Little in the census.

Fifty percent of all your ancestors were women. Women are often called the “hidden half” of your family history because there are legal and cultural problems that have made them more difficult to locate. Many pedigree charts are full of mothers that are listed by their first name only. The greatest difficulty is that women change their surname and take their husband’s when they get married. Other problems are that women are seldom listed in property records, there are no voting records for women until recently, fewer women than men left wills, and before 1850 few women were listed in the US Census because few were the heads of their household.

But do not despair. You can locate the families of the females in your tree. Below we will discuss some the more useful records for finding the maiden names of the mothers on your pedigree charts:

Probably the best place to find your female’s maiden name is in marriage records. Women are listed by their maiden name on the marriage license, the marriage certificate, wedding and engagement announcements in the newspaper, etc. You may have to start by searching for the husband’s name and look for who he married if a search of the married name doesn’t turn up anything.

Another place to find a maiden name is in death and cemetery records. Often women are listed by their maiden name with the annotation “wife of (husband’s name)”on their tombstone or the maiden name is sometimes used as a middle name. Also you may find parents or other relatives buried nearby a woman so pay attention to those nearby graves as clues to a possible maiden name. Obituaries will often list a woman by her maiden name or they will list relatives who survive or preceded her in death. The death certificate also will usually list the woman’s maiden name.

Even though older census records only list heads of households, there still may be clues to a woman’s surname in them. Look at families that live nearby. They may be the woman’s parents or other relatives. In the censuses that list all individuals in a household, a husband and wife may be found living with the wife’s parents or older parents may be living with a wife and her husband. Sometimes unmarried siblings (or even married siblings) will be living with their sister and give clues to the sister’s maiden name.

Do not neglect wills as a source for locating women’s maiden name. Parents will often leave land or other property in their wills to their daughters. In the deed, look for the Latin phrases “et ux” (and wife) and “et al” (and others) as clues to a maiden name. Also look in deeds for property sold for a dollar or other small amount as this was often the method for gifting property legally.

Each time you find a female’s maiden name, you open up a new surname lineage to research. This adds a branch to your tree of several families on which the leaves grow. If you tree is looking sickly and lopsided, make sure you are not neglecting the mothers. Concentrating on the women, though often challenging, for a period will make your family tree full and robust.

Additional Source:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/surnames/tp/maiden_names.htm

Have you discovered from where your surname originates? Surname origins can give you a clue to the distant past and an insight into your family’s medieval roots. You may learn the geographic region from which your family hails, the trade or profession your ancestors practiced, or even something about their physical appearance or characteristics. Sometimes, genealogy is built right into your surname as is the case with patronymic surnames. (We’ll explain that in a minute.)

Take my surname for instance: “Livermore” is from the old English, laefor mere, which means “lake of rushes or reeds.”  Over time, the spelling evolved into Livermere and two villages were established near this lake, Great Livermere and Little Livermere.  They are located in Suffolk County and both are about five miles from the old town of Bury St. Edmonds. The people from these two villages around the lake were given the surname Livermore or an alternate spelling. When I learn of someone from England with the name Livermore, I immediately think that their ancestors lived in the same region of Suffolk County my ancestors lived.

Livermore is an example of a geographic surname. These names were given to people from a certain area, region, or geographic feature. French and Spanish speaking persons would add the prefix “de” (which means “of”) to the place names, so that Juan from the town of Cordova became Juan de Cordova. Likewise, van Dyke means “of Dyke” in Dutch and Polanski means “of Poland” in Polish. Often, the names were Anglicized for immigrants to American so that Juan becomes Mr. Cordoba and his neighbors are Mr. Dike and Mr. Poulan. You may have to find records from your ancestors in the “old country” to find what these names were originally. Another type of geographic name might be like Hill or Rivers.  It does not give a specific place name but just tells you that your ancestor lived on the hill or by the rivers.

Another type of surname indicates a person’s occupation. Smith indicates a blacksmith or other metal worker. The surname Cooper indicates your ancestors were barrel makers. Other occupational surnames are more obvious like Baker, Farmer, or Taylor (tailor).  By the way, a metal worker is a Schmidt in German and is called Herrera in Spanish.

Surnames can indicate physical characteristics too, like Short, Brown, or  Blanco (Spanish or Italian for “white”). Even if you are 6’ 8,” if your last name is Short, you probably have an ancestor that couldn’t make the basketball team. Color names may indicate complexion or possibly hair color. The surname Green or Greene is probably not a characteristic name but another geographic name of someone who resided near the village green.

Patronymic surnames indicate the father or patriarch of group of people. The surname Johnson is, of course, John’s son. However, John may not be the person’s immediate father, but a significant person in their lineage. John’s son, Richard Johnson who has a son Stephen, would pass on the surname Johnson to Stephen and not Richardson, likewise Stephen’s children would still be Johnsons and not Stephenson. John is not just the father, but the leader of the entire family that descends from him. Other language groups use patronymic surnames too. Severnsen indicates “son of Severn” in Swedish. Mac or Mc is a Scottish prefix for “son of.” Likewise, O’Connor indicates the patronymic Irish descendent of Connor. The Hebrew prefix “bar” represents the Jewish patronymic surname. Barabbas is the son or descendent of Abbas.

Surnames were only used when they became necessary. People in ancient times only had one name. John was simply John and Thomas, Thomas. Surnames were created out of necessity when people needed to distinguish the John with black hair from the John that lived by the brook. So, one was called John Black and the other was John Brookside. Most historians say this happened about the fourteenth century. Thus, we can now trace our ancestors back to the one that lived by the lake of rushes. And we know we are not descended from the man with same first name that made barrels.

Obituaries can be very useful to a family historian or genealogist. In essence, they are a miniature biography of a person. They usually list all or most of the important events and significant relationships in a person’s life.

The first step in mining the genealogical treasures from obituaries is locating the obituary. Not everyone has an obituary written about them, but probably more than you may think do. Here are a couple of websites that will help you find those elusive obituaries for your ancestors:

Cyndi Howells’ excellent Cyndi’s List has an exhaustive list of resources for locating obituaries at http://www.cyndislist.com/obituaries/.

If Cyndi’s collection of resources seems a bit overwhelming, try Joe Beine’s links at http://deathindexes.com/obituaries.html. His list, while not as voluminous as Cyndi’s, is still quite comprehensive.

Once you have located the obituary, here are some things you should be looking for them to reveal:

1. Parents’ names – As the Latin roots of the word genealogy imply, the goal of the genealogist is to study the family. This means we have to link the children to the parents to the grandparents, etc. One thing we may learn from an obituary is the names of the person’s parents if we have been unable to locate those in another way. This can be especially helpful for a female for whom we have not found a maiden name.
2. Birth dates and places – Sometimes a person will seem to have sprouted spontaneously in a certain location and we do not from when and where they originally came. In these instances, an obituary may be the key to learning when and where they were born.
3. Surviving or pre-deceased relatives – A common element in an obituary is the names of spouses, children, siblings, etc. that have died before a person or those that are still living after their passing. These can be great clues that will lead to other discoveries in an individual’s life.
4. Religious affiliations – Often obituaries will name the church of an individual, especially if they have been a long-time member. This can lead to records of other events such as, weddings, births, other family deaths, etc. that can be found in church or denominational records. Even if a person’s church is not directly named, there may be indications from the location of funeral services or burial locations.
5. Location of cemetery – Speaking of burial locations, an obituary may lead to this location that can turn up other information, such as information from a gravemarker, other relatives buried nearby, etc. Often, if a person has died away from their home, their remains will be transported to be buried close to their parents or spouse, or back to the location from which they came. This information will often be found in their obituary.
6. Organizations and affiliations – Obituaries will sometimes list a long-time employer, fraternal organizations, lodges, or military units to which a person belonged. Again, these can serve as clues to further research a person’s life.

Your opportunity to respond:

While I hope this list of things that can be learned from an obituary is fairly comprehensive, I know it is not exhaustive. Tell us some of the fascinating things you may have learned from an ancestor’s obituary in the comments below. Or just tell us what you think of the items I have suggested can be found.

A four-person genealogy team from Ancestry.com released their findings on July 30, 2012 that President Obama is descended from the first African slave in colonial America. Ancestry.com sought independent confirmation of their conclusions from Elizabeth Shown Mills, who specializes in Southern ancestry, and Johni Cerny, an expert in African-American genealogy. While the theory is not rock-solid proof because of gaps in the paper trail, the experts agreed that Ancestry’s theory was the most logical conclusion based on the evidence.

The history behind the genealogy is that a black indentured servant named John Punch, along with two other white indentured servants, ran away from their masters before the time of their indenture was complete. They were apprehended by authorities. The two white runaways were sentenced to an additional four years added to their indenture, but John Punch was ordered to serve his master for the remainder of his life. Historians consider him to be first African slave years before the practice was legislatively sanctioned.

The surprise finding is that the lineage does not lead to Barak Obama’s Kenyan father, but rather his white mother from Kansas. Apparently, John Punch fathered children by a free Caucasian woman. Her children adopted the surname Bunch, linguistically identical to Punch, and eventually the line leads to Stanley Anne Dunham, the President’s mother. Sub-Saharan African ancestry is confirmed in the Bunch family through DNA testing.

Elizabeth Shown Mills said that increased availability of DNA testing and heightened interest in genealogy has made discoveries of an interracial past more common among Americans.  “In the past, very few records were available. Very few people made the effort to do the research,” she explained.

Have you discovered any interracial families in your past? Let us know what you have found in the comments below.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/us/obamas-mother-had-african-forebear-study-suggests.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/purported-obama-link-to-first-american-slave-is-latest-twist-in-presidents-family-tree/2012/07/30/gJQAYuG1KX_story.html

It is becoming easier to find the sources you need locally for your research. A few clicks on Amazon.com, or LittletonBooks.com, will bring any popular genealogy book you need to your doorstep in a couple of days. (Or download it instantly to your Kindle or other device, free Kindle apps available.) For more obscure titles, you can find specific books in digital form in the Google Books library, books.google.com, or at archives.org. (Not to be confused with the genealogical research site, archives.com). More and more libraries are realizing that many of their patrons are looking for genealogy resources and have made many available; some even have entire sections or research rooms for genealogists. Periodicals from genealogy societies around the country are being compiled in PERSI, the Periodical Source Index maintained by Heritage Quest Online. You can often access their database from your home computer for free using your library card. If you find articles of interest, you can order hardcopies from Allen County Public Library for a small charge. This makes it simple to amass an impressive collection with a few mouse clicks or a short drive to the neighborhood library.

However, all this free information does you no good, if you cannot find the data on the person or family you are researching when you need it. You can file and organize your e-books and scanned PDF files at several free sites. One is called LibraryThing, www.librarything.com. Tim Spalding developed this business in 2006. It pulls book information from Amazon and various libraries including the Library of Congress. One of the best features of LibraryThing is the industry news they supply in the right sidebar. You will be one of the first to learn of great books and publish dates before they hit the shelves.1

Another site to organize your digital books and articles is www.goodreads.com. In 2007, Otis Chandler created this application which is very similar to Library Thing, but has a cleaner-looking interface, in my opinion. Goodreads added an algorithm that makes suggestions for the reader based on the books currently in their library. LibraryThing also provides a suggested reading list. Goodreads’ strong point seems to be in connecting a community of like-minded readers with similar interests. In this way It is truly an internet-library social platform.2

If these first two do not fit your needs, try www.shelfari.com, Amazon’s own library software. Shelfari was officially launched in October 2006, but was bought by Amazon.com in August 2008. Shelfari’s most unique feature is the ease of sharing with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers. With one click you can let the world know every time you are reading something new. I, also like the way the book covers are put into a bookshelf graphic with the covers facing front like you might see them in a bookstore.3

You can compile a library of genealogical resources in a month or two that a genealogist fifty years ago would have spent a lifetime accumulating. We truly live in a golden age for genealogical research.

If you have used any of these websites for your library, I would like to hear your experiences with them. Let us know in the comments below.

Sources:

1http://www.librarything.com/about

2www.goodreads.com/about/us

3www.shelfari.com/Shelfari/AboutUs.aspx

At times, it seems that certain ancestors hide from you. They are the ones that the census enumerator  always misses or they suddenly appear in a county where no one of that same surname lives and there are no records that anyone with that surname ever existed. You wonder if they were aliens dropped off by some interplanetary traveler or, as Emily Croom once accused her ancestor, “They set fire to the courthouse on their way out of the county every time they moved.”¹

But there are other times, when you swear the ancestor is leaving you clues. You can almost hear them whispering in your ear, “Look in this book,” or “try searching the adjacent county’s records.” They want you to find them! These are those moments of serendipity; you kind of stumble upon a remarkable discovery without even trying. You may attempt to bluster to your friends that this discovery was the result of your acute genealogical sagacity, but you know it isn’t true.

What I Thought I Knew About My Family Tree

I recently had one of those moments of serendipity. I attended a workshop at a Fairmont Cemetery, an old, but well maintained, cemetery at the edge of Denver. Many prominent people from Denver in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are buried there. I wasn’t trying to find any dead relatives, but as someone interested not only in genealogy, but general history as well, I thought I might learn about some of Denver’s historical figures. I was convinced I didn’t have any relatives from Colorado.

I knew the family history of John Livermore. He had left his wife and children in England in 1634 and traveled with his brother-in-law to America. After serving his indentured servitude to pay for his passage, he established a farm in Watertown, MA, near Boston. He then brought his family to New England and became prosperous and added more children to his brood.

One of his descendants, Moses Livermore, rose to prominence during the Revolutionary War. After the opening of the Erie Canal, Moses moved his family to western New York state. A couple of generations later, some of the children moved on to Ohio where my father was born and raised. The rest of the children stayed in New York, I believed.

A Genealogical Christmas in July Carol?

There aren’t many Livermores in America and most are descended from John who came from England in 1634. As we were touring the cemetery, I noticed a large plot marker that said “Livermore.” I asked our guide if he knew anything about them, since he seemed to know something about everyone there. I explained that Livermore was my surname and I was curious about who they were. He didn’t know them, but he encouraged me to go over and have a closer look.

Let me express the shock I experienced next by paraphrasing a passage from Dicken’s A Christmas Carol:

“The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to one. Scrooge advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape . . .

Scrooge crept towards it; and following the finger, read upon the stones of the neglected grave his own name, CHARLES LIVERMORE and that of his wife, REBECCA LIVERMORE.”²

Puzzle Pieces of Genealogy

It was a little disconcerting seeing my and my wife’s name on a couple of grave markers. However, the middle initials were different and there was a third grave there for Ester A. Gaymon. I fortunately (serendipitously?) had a pen and paper with me and copied the information from the headstones. The name Charles T. Livermore seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t firmly place it. After the workshop, I returned home and pulled up my family tree on my computer. Within seconds, I knew who this was. I told my wife, “This is my great grandfather’s brother.”

My wife questioned it. “How can you be sure so quickly?” she asked. “There must be numerous Charles Livermores out there.”

I responded there were, but not ones with the same birthdate and married to a Rebecca. I looked up his name in a published genealogy from the turn of the twentieth century and it confirmed that this was my great, great uncle. The genealogy said that Charles Theodore Livermore moved to Colorado in 1879 with his wife and daughter, Ester Annie Livermore.³

The daughter was the third tombstone in the plot. Searching online, I found Ester A.’s marriage to Rolla H. Gaymon and also their two sons, Charles and Harold. Tragically, Ester died at age 36 of peritonitis, an inflammation in the abdomen caused by an injury or a ruptured appendix. She died many years before her parents. Harold, her youngest son, attended Colorado State University, married and moved to Florida. Her eldest son, Charles, was in a city directory for Denver in 1917 at age 24. I haven’t found any records for Charles Gaymon after 1917, which leads me to speculate that he may have been killed in World War I, perhaps.

Charles T. Livermore started a successful lumber business in Denver after arriving here. When the lumber business dried up during the economic downturn in the 1890’s, he started a fuel and feed store. His son-in-law worked for him as a clerk for a period according to the 1900 Census. Charles’ wife, Rebecca, died in 1917 and he followed her in death in 1919. Their earthly remains were laid in Fairmont Cemetery next to their daughter where they waited nearly a century for me to discover them.

Look for Serendipity in Your Own Family Tree

Unless I can turn up children of Charles Gaymon, Ester’s son, I probably don’t have any living relatives in Colorado, but I know that I have pioneers from the early days of Colorado statehood in my tree. What relatives are dropping breadcrumbs for you to follow? Our class was split into two different tour groups on that Sunday in Fairmont Cemetery. The other group explored a completely different part of the cemetery. What if I hadn’t noticed the plot marker 20 yards away from the path we walked? What if I had thought it was some other line of Livermores and hadn’t bothered to investigate further? I found a close relative because of a set of random coincidences. Lucky breaks. Serendipity. Or was there someone who is not seen or heard with our physical eyes and ears prompting me and guiding my steps? Did Uncle Charles (or someone else) want me to find him? I wonder.

Use the comments below to tell us about instances of serendipity you have experienced with your family research. Or just tell what you think of this post.

¹ Emily Anne Croom, The Sleuth Book for Genealogists, (Cincinnati, OH, Betterway Books, 2000) p. 1

² Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, (London, Chapman and Hall, 1843) p. 89

³ Walter Eliot Thwing, The Livermore Family of America, (Boston, W. B. Clarke Company, 1902) p. 290

“The entire town gathered in his recognition. But, he was killed when the platform he stood on collapsed.” a cousin writes of his kin’s hanging.

This joke has become almost a cliche’ in genealogy circles, but I still laugh when I hear it (even if it is a little morbid). We all want to talk about our ancestors who were listed in Who’s Who in American Enterprise and Industry or was the Valedictorian of the Class of 1929 at Harvard Law School, but we tend to lower our voice an octave or two when we speak of our ancestor who wound up on the wrong side of the jailhouse bars. But we should not be embarrassed of our wayward cousins. Everybody has them, even from the most prestigious families. And a colorful character or two just makes your family’s history more interesting.

I remember my mom once reconnecting with one of her cousins. We had just moved to a new town. One day as she was reading the local newspaper, she noticed the name of a cousin she had not seen since childhood. He had been arrested for DUI. She was able to contact this cousin and I found out that he had a 10-year-old son, my same age. We quickly became good pals and he probably bears some responsibility for many of the wild adventures I experienced as a teenager. He was, at least, present during most of those adventures.

Photo from author’s private collection

I also remember interviewing my uncle about my grandfather. He told me of listening to the corks pop off the bottles of moonshine at night while in bed. The bottles were in the backyard shed with the still. On the hot, summer nights in Oklahoma, when the whiskey got “ripe,” the corks would start popping. In fact, in my grandfather’s photograph, he looks like a gangster. (Yes that’s a pearl-handled pistol in his hand. And that’s the uncle who told me the story toddling in the background.)

While it may be disconcerting to learn of your relative’s estranged relationship with the justice system, it can be a boon to the genealogist or family historian. One of the talents of law enforcement officials is bureaucracy and that means lots of records. You can not only learn the name, location, and birthday of your great uncle, the swindler, you can often find a physical description with scars and tattoos, next of kin, and a photograph or two, often one facing the camera and one that is a profile shot. For prisoners in Colorado, the state archives has mug shots available from 1893 to 1980 and also the Record of Convicts dating back to 1871. To get records about the specific court cases or crimes they were charged with you may have to get records from the county where they were arrested. For more information, contact the Colorado State Archives at: http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/

People sometimes question whether genealogy should be a pursuit for someone who is attempting to lead a life pleasing to God. It is pointed out that the apostle Paul took a dim view of genealogy and admonished us to abandon such pursuits. He said in his letter to his protégé, Timothy, “nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” 1 Timothy 1:4 NKJV. A careful reading of this passage of scripture makes it clear that Paul was not bashing genealogy, per se, but anything that causes disputes and arguments and hinders the love that believers should show for their fellow men.

If you are pursuing genealogy as a means of proving your own worth, to show your connection to royalty, or in hopes of finding a claim to some forgotten fortune, you should, perhaps heed St. Paul’s warning. A more noble purpose is that of remembering and honoring our ancestors for who they were and the spiritual legacy they have passed to us. This is not prohibited by the Bible, but rather, is encouraged.

Genealogy can be a distraction from more important endeavors and it can cause some to become boastful and proud. Some genealogists may emphasize their noble ancestors. I have a distant cousin who has been called the world’s greatest stock trader, Jesse Livermore. He indeed amassed a great fortune in the 1920’s, but his life is not one to be envied or emulated. Jesse ended his life by putting a bullet into his brain in 1940. Though hit hard by the Great Depression, he still enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. His wife left their home with an estimated 3 million dollars in cash and jewelry the night he died. His children lived lives punctuated by divorce, failed business ventures, and alcoholism.

I tell this story to illustrate a point. We are all descended from successes and failures, noblemen and fools. Often the nobleman and the fool are the same person, just on a different day. Though Paul the apostle cautions against trivial, argumentative genealogies, he was, no doubt, aware of the importance of the Lord Jesus’ lineage from King David, the noble fool, a man after God’s own heart, who lusted, coveted, and ultimately murdered, to take another man’s wife. Despite his foibles, we honor David and his progeny, Jesus, the only noble man to defeat his foolish human nature, and become the example and savior of mankind.*

We must be cautious and approach our genealogy with humility and a teachable spirit. We must learn from the mistakes and frailty of our ancestors, or their success and righteous devotion. We must not forget the sacred mandate given to us as one of God’s “top ten hits” commandments, “Honor your father and mother.” This must be our intention and purpose for remembering the men and women whose blood flows through our veins.

*For those not familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba, it can be read in the Bible at 2 Samuel 11.

It has been a long-standing, unspoken “rule” of genealogy that to find your dead relatives, the best place to start is with the ones that are still living. For some reason, the inclination of most family historians, especially beginners, is to skip back as quickly as possible. You want to learn about your distant cousin, Louis XIV from Paris to whom Aunt Minerva says you are related to by marriage, You ignore the interesting stories of your relatives in the 19th and 20th centuries and head straight for the 17th.

After spending weeks studying the French monarchy and Versailles, you learn your cousin is not Louis the fourteenth from Paris, France but Lewis”‘four teeth” Horton from Paris, Texas. And guess why they called him “four teeth!”

When you start over, you vow to do it right this time. You will want to get a copy of  Jennifer Worick’s book Beyond the Family Tree. Though it is only four chapters, it is 191 pages worth of vital information. The first three chapters deal with conducting interviews with your living relatives. In the first chapter, you learn what equipment you will need and how to prepare your “set.” Chapter 2 gives helpful hints on the actual conduct of the interview, The third chapter provides over 1000 questions that will elicit the responses you want and give you the information to make your family history complete. Jennifer’s take on interviewing family members is not the same old regurgitated information that can be found many places, but it is the final chapter that really makes this book unique. In Chapter 4, she explains how to bring your family interviews into the 21st century and maintain these relationships with your relatives using social media and other technology tools.

In addition to the standards, Facebook and Twitter, Jennifer gives you the scoop on some lesser known sites like cozi.com. She speaks on writing blogs, setting up wikis, and using video skype to take staying in touch into the world of the Jetsons. She ends the book with a Conclusion about taking charge and maintaining the conversation, not just allowing it meander and take a shape of its own. Stay focused on fulfilling your purpose and do not stop at filling in the blanks on a pedigree chart. Go beyond the family tree.