Randy's challenge this week sent me digging and while this isn't the oldest confirmed document I have, it's certainly, to me, more interesting than many of the earlier ones: 1) What is "Your Oldest Confirmed Record?" What is one of the oldest documents you've personally found for any ancestor? 2) Share your oldest confirmed record: what it is, where it came from, and what it revealed.

Turning Points Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It’s Saturday Night again – time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): Family stories are often about “Turning Points” and “Major Decisions.” This week, please describe a turning point in the life of one of your parents (or grandparents).

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):1) Write a story using the phrase "ancestor I really admire" in 200 words. My grandmother, Winnie Currey Crawford, is an ancestor I really admire. She unknowingly set me on my genealogy path when she wondered aloud where her own grandmother was buried.

Another great exercise from Randy this week: Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  Pick one of your ancestors that you want to know more about.  Based on your knowledge of their life, what story lines do you want to explore? At this point in my research, it won't surprise regular readers of this blog that my choice for this mission is Elizabeth Fuller, my 6x great-grandmother (redacted for privacy - click image to enlarge):

I've been working on this post for more than a week (a difficult one during which we said goodbye to our beloved cat, Cleo), but I've just realized it also fits into Randy's most recent Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge - An Unusual Newspaper Article About Your Ancestors - though mine comes with a twist: 1) Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors?

Randy has us looking at a male ancestor this week: 1) Who Is Ancestor #50 in your Ahnentafel list? What were his birth date and place, his parents, death date and place, spouse's name, marriage date and place, and how many children they had, and which of his children do you descend from? 2) Share your information about #50 (or other) ancestor…

Randy has asked us this week about the sessions we're really looking forward to during this week's RootsTech event: 1) Are you registered for RootsTech 2026 yet? It's less than six weeks away - March 5-7, 2026. 2) What are you looking forward to either attending in-person or online? What keynote talks, classes, or other events are you planning to attend?

A thought provoking assignment from Randy tonight: 1)  Review the last three or four "Best of the Genea-Blogs" posts (see 2)  Pick one of the articles listed that either helped you with your research or your writing, and/or that touched your emotions, and/or you are really impressed by. Similar to Randy, I found examples of all three: A)  I was touched by Doris Kenney's post…

While in general I don't use generative AI (for a variety of reasons), I decided to accept Randy's challenge for this week. Here's the assignment he set us: 1) Select an ancestor, and a genealogical sketch (or research notes, or a timeline, or Ancestry Member Tree profile, etc.) for that ancestor and create a PDF of the sketch/notes/timeline/AMT Facts page/etc.

Randy's challenge this week forces us to narrow down our list of reference books for beginners to only 5! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:   1)  What five reference books (and only 5) would you recommend to a beginning genealogy  researcher to have on their bookshelf? It's definitely tough to limit my list to only 5 books, but I persevered - here's my list: