Ancestral Findings

AncestralFindings.com
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These brief historical and informational snippets about genealogy and history should encourage and help you advance your family tree.

  1. 2d ago

    Free Book Giveaway: Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew | AF-1318

    It is time for another Ancestral Findings free book giveaway. This month, I am giving away a copy of Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew. This true family story combines genealogy, World War II history, immigration, family secrets, old records, DNA research, and a decades-long search to understand a man's beginnings. The giveaway is open now and ends at midnight on September 30, 2026... https://ancestralfindings.com/mason-a-man-with-no-beginning-giveaway/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway

    Free Book Giveaway: Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew | AF-1318

  2. 2d ago ·  Bonus

    Introducing: The School of Greatness

    Introducing Your Phone Is Stealing the Life You Actually Want | Cal Newport from The School of Greatness. Follow the show: The School of Greatness You have been trained to reach for your phone the second you get bored, and it is quietly costing you the ability to think. Cal Newport, a computer science professor and the author of Deep Work, sat down with Lewis and explained why he has never once had a social media account. He also wrote Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, and to test the idea he ran a 30-day declutter with about 1,600 readers who sent back reports on what happened when they stepped away. The results are hard to shake. Roughly half found no real value in social media and dropped it for good. Of the half who did find value, like visual artists who needed Instagram to see other people's work, about 95% moved it off their phones entirely and onto a scheduled desktop session, sometimes twenty minutes on a Sunday night. Cal also points to college mental health centers that saw anxiety cases jump around fivefold the same year students started arriving on campus with smartphones. Lewis tells his own story here too. Fifteen straight years with a phone on him every single day, then a trip to Hawaii where he left it at home. He got lost, asked strangers for directions at a gas station, and by day two he was floating in the ocean with zero anxiety. Cal calls that the baseline, not a breakthrough. Listen and you will start noticing the small reach for your pocket at dinner, in line, on a walk. Then you will try leaving the thing at home once, and find out what your own thoughts sound like again. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love Cal's YouTube In this episode you will: Reclaim the ability to focus deeply at a moment when concentration is becoming rare and therefore economically valuableConfront the hard personal questions your phone lets you escape, instead of numbing boredom with a constant digital companionUnderstand why campus anxiety disorders spiked once students arrived carrying smartphones, and what that means for your own mental healthPractice productive meditation, the walking based cognitive pull ups that train your brain to think through problems without a screenRebuild real connection by trading likes for sacrificed time and attention, the only currency that makes relationships deepenFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1982 More SOG episodes we think you’ll love! Get More From Lewis! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

    Introducing: The School of Greatness

  3. 3d ago

    We Spend So Much Time Looking Back: What Are We Leaving Behind? | AF-1317

    I spend a great deal of time looking for things people left behind. Sometimes it is something important, such as a will, a family Bible, or a letter that explains a relationship. Other times it is much smaller: a name written beneath a photograph, a few lines in a newspaper, or a note in the margin of an old document. Those small pieces can become surprisingly valuable because they tell us something the official records did not. Somewhere along the way, that got me thinking about what we are leaving behind ourselves...  Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/we-spend-so-much-time-looking-back/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    We Spend So Much Time Looking Back: What Are We Leaving Behind? | AF-1317

  4. 5d ago

    Am I Researching My Family or Just Collecting Records?

    I caught myself doing something recently that I have probably done many times without thinking. I found a record I had been searching for, downloaded it, named the file, put it where it belonged, and almost immediately started looking for the next one. The strange part was that I had spent more time finding and saving the record than reading it. I had what I wanted, but I had barely stopped to ask what it was telling me... Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/genealogy-research-collecting-records/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    Am I Researching My Family or Just Collecting Records?

  5. Sep 14

    The People I Almost Walked Past in the Family Tree

    When I am working on the Moneymaker side of my family in Virginia, there is always a pull to keep going backward. Find the parents, then their parents, then see whether another generation is waiting in an older record. That part of genealogy can be hard to resist. But sometimes, while following that line, I notice someone sitting just off to the side: a sister who never married, a brother who moved away, a child who died young, or a relative living in the household whose connection is not immediately clear. I have learned that these are often the people I should stop and look at before moving on... Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/the-people-i-almost-walked-past-in-the-family-tree/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    The People I Almost Walked Past in the Family Tree

  6. Sep 12

    I Know Their Names, But Do I Really Know Them?

    Every once in a while, I look at someone in a family tree and realize I have done a pretty good job documenting them. I have birth, marriage, and census records, children, an occupation, and a death date. There may be land records, military records, an obituary, or a few other pieces as well. From a research perspective, the person appears complete. Then I sit there, looking at all of it, and realize I still know very little about the life that took place between those dates. I think this is easy to do in genealogy because records train us to look for facts. We want the correct date, the correct place, and the right parents. We compare records, sort through conflicting information, and work until we are confident we have identified the right person. That work is necessary because a good family history needs good evidence. Once the basic facts are in place, though, another question starts to interest me: What was it actually like to be this person? Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/understanding-your-ancestors-lives/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    I Know Their Names, But Do I Really Know Them?

  7. Sep 10

    How Road Petitions Can Reveal Your Ancestor's Neighborhood

    Most family research begins with records created around major events such as births, marriages, deaths, land purchases, and military service. A request to build or repair a road may seem far removed from genealogy, yet these records can put an ancestor into a specific community and introduce you to the people who lived around the family. For generations, roads were local businesses. Residents asked county or township officials to open new roads, change existing routes, build bridges, close roads, and make repairs. Those requests often created petitions, reports, surveys, maps, court orders, and lists of local people. Your ancestor may have signed one simply because the road affected everyday life. A road connected farms with towns, churches, mills, stores, ferries, courthouses, and markets. If residents wanted a better route, they often had to put their names on paper. More than a century later, those names can help us rebuild a neighborhood that has otherwise disappeared from the records... Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/how-road-petitions-can-reveal-your-ancestors-neighborhood/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    How Road Petitions Can Reveal Your Ancestor's Neighborhood

  8. Sep 7

    Labor Day: A Legacy of Work, Rest, and Family

    Labor Day arrives each September, signaling the close of summer and the approach of autumn. Many people see it as a three-day weekend for rest, cookouts, or back-to-school shopping. Yet beneath the sales and celebrations lies a deeper meaning—one that connects directly to the lives of our ancestors. It is a holiday born of struggle, built on sacrifice, and sustained by the ongoing dignity of work. Last year, I looked back at the history of how Labor Day began and why it was created. This year, I want to look at it in a more personal way—through the eyes of our ancestors, through the forgotten jobs they once held, through the local parades and traditions they passed down, through the transformation of the holiday itself, through family stories of work, and through the immigrant experience that shaped the American workforce. Taken together, these perspectives show us why Labor Day is more than just a long weekend. It is a remembrance of the labor that shaped our families, our communities, and our nation... Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/labor-day-work-family-immigration/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.youtube.com/@ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

    Labor Day: A Legacy of Work, Rest, and Family
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These brief historical and informational snippets about genealogy and history should encourage and help you advance your family tree.

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  • Creator
    AncestralFindings.com
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.4K
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    Ancestral Findings

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