Vote for the next Topic Challenge!

Question

Our History SE counterparts were the first to run a Weekly Topic Challenge and from time to time we use a similar concept here to see if it can help us to generate more questions.

Here's how it works:

1. Suggest topics in the answers below.
2. About every two weeks, the organizer* picks one of the topics, based mainly on your votes, and writes up a new meta post introducing the challenge period which is usually two weeks. This is an example Challenge question.
3. Anyone who wants to participate asks one or more questions about the challenge topic.
4. At the end of the challenge period, the person who suggested that particular challenge (and/or the organizer) posts an answer to the challenge with a count of how many questions were asked and anything else they feel like highlighting (e.g. favourite questions or notable achievements). This is an example of a Challenge answer.
5. The organizer picks a new topic and starts back on step #2.

People are free to add new topics at any time and when the list of topics is exhausted, the challenge series ends.

Please let me know what you think and suggest some topics for the months ahead.

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* Either myself or someone who volunteers in an answer below.

Answer 1

In the USA, September 15th through October 15th is celebrated as German-American Heritage Month, to commemorate the arrival of German immigrants to the US on October 6th, 1683.

One of the special challenges if you have immigrant ancestors in your research is bridging the gap between the records in their new country, and the records in their old one.

The tag immigration is well-represented with 46 questions, but we have only 7 with the tag naturalization. However, naturalization records often have the most precise information about the place of origin of our immigrant ancestors.

Let's write some Q/As and work on our skills so we can find these important resources.

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #1: Weekly Topic Challenge: Let's ask about Naturalization (and Citizenship)?

Answer 2

I just searched for mentions of Family Legends and found only one such question for which I duly coined a new tag of family-legend.

That question came from @Fortiter and was Where do I look for a woman who vanished for 17 years?

By family legend I mean a story/legend that has been passed down to you (most likely) by word of mouth, or perhaps has been written up somewhere, but currently lacks any or sufficient corroborating evidence for you to be confident that it is true.

I think there must be many amazing Family Legends that could either stand up or fall to closer scrutiny, and am hoping that, if/when this answer floats to the top of the list of yet to be undertaken Weekly Topic Challenge suggestions, you will have at least one to ask about.

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #2: Weekly Topic Challenge: Let's ask about Family Legends?

Answer 3

What about Vital records that seem not to exist?

Things like elusive birth, death or marriagerecords... Every genealogist has at least one example!

Note: @ColeValleyGirl originally had birth, marriage and census records in this answer but @PolyGeo has split out Census records to see whether people want to focus on Vital or Census records first by using their votes.

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This answer became:

• a Topic Challenge in May 2015
• Weekly Topic Challenge #3 in October 2014:

using this Meta Q&A:

• Are you still looking for one particular Birth/Baptism/Marriage/Death/Burial Record?

Answer 4

What about Census Records that seem not to exist?

Every genealogist has at least one example of an elusive census record!

Note: I've split this one out of @ColeValeyGirl's answer (suggestion) in order to see whether people would like to focus on elusive Census or Vital records first (by voting).

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #5: Is there a census record that you've looked and looked for but cannot find?

Answer 5

We currently have 9 questions with the tag probate.

Wills are an especially rich source of names, which is a great way to jumpstart cluster or FAN (friends, associates, neighbors) research. Even something as simple as an entry in the National Probate Index can provide important clues.

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #6: Making the most of clues from Probate Records and Wills?

Answer 6

Well, I've already posted two questions on this topic already, so I don't know how many more Q/As could be added, but what about tutorials on old scripts / old handwriting?

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #7: Who needs help deciphering some old handwriting in family history documents?

Answer 7

We have some questions about the Masons already. There are MANY other fraternal organizations. I'm sure if we scoured our records, we could find people who belonged to the Masons, other fraternal orders, or other social organizations.

The orders themselves may have indexes of members with just a few dates involving their membership in the organization, but they can provide vital clues to residence in a particular area, and membership information may lead to hits in newspapers or city directories, yielding names of associates for cluster / FAN group research.

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This answer became the subject of a challenge topic in May 2015:

• Was your ancestor in a fraternal organization?

Answer 8

I would like to propose a challenge to identify details in an old photograph that you need help with.

The photographs will preferably be of an individual (or small group) and include any details that your research already suggests about who it may be, and where and when it was taken.

Additional information like a scan of the reverse side should be included wherever possible, as well as how you came to be in possession of the photo, etc.

Looking back, examples of the types of question that I am thinking of are:

• Dating this photograph of a younger Emma (Vig) Froiland
• Dating/identifying a Duryea (mid-late 19th century) photograph from South Australia?
• Help determine date of photo from Tuscaloosa

We could use a tag of unidentified-photograph for this challenge when it floats to the top.

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This answer became Weekly Topic Challenge #4: Who's that in your old family photo?

Answer 9

I have posted special Conference Room chat topic for this weekend in hono(u)r of this weekend's WWI centenary.

See the Meta question Conference Room chat: WWI centenary and finding records about WWI service members for details about special online events and free access weekends. To encourage people to write up their questions and findings, I'd like to suggest finding WWI records and relatives as a topic challenge.

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A "Gallipoli edition" of this answer ran as a Topic Challenge in the weeks leading up to its 100th anniversary on 25 Apr 2015: Ask your ANZAC ancestry questions on 100th anniversary of Gallipoli landing! but there is plenty of scope to re-run this challenge as 100th anniversaries of other battles loom (feel free to add more):

• Verdun February-December 1916
• Somme July-November 1916
• Ypres July-November 1917
• Caporetta October-November 1917

Answer 10

I would like to propose that we have a topic challenge every now and again which is focused on location.

For instance: this week FamilySearch's British Isles team is holding a series of webinars on Scotland Research. In July, they will conduct a series of classes on research in Wales. I am taking these classes even though I am not really in a position to get back to Scotland or Wales because I have no data to go on and the surnames are very common, but I want to be prepared in case I can make the connection.

One thing I have neglected so far is research in Canada, in part because the I am missing a lot of 'obvious' records like passenger lists that weren't kept during the period I need them. I would love to see more Q/As about Canadian research so I can learn more about record groups I may have missed.

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Edited to add: I surveyed the tags to see what kind of numbers we had for the Commonwealth countries:

• england 110
• australia 28
• scotland 25
• wales 22
• canada 17
• ireland 17

For the purpose of voting, consider this a proposal for questions about Canada. If you'd like to see other countries, please write your own answer for the country of your choice.

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This topic became the subject of a challenge that began on 30 May 2015: Are you interested in Canadian genealogy and Family History?