Forget handheld computers, filing cabinets or stockings full of tombstone-rubbing wax. Genealogists get even better gifts this time of year. Nostalgia flows freely during family get-togethers, and relatives' stories often bring unexpected presents for family historians — for instance, Aunt Mabel might casually mention that one Thanksgiving the family visited the Dalrymple cousins in eastern Kentucky: “You know, Great-great-grandpa built that farm in the 1830s after they moved from Virginia …” Eureka!

The last time I visited my dad and his parents, my grandmother — the quintessential family storyteller — related details of how her father's family emigrated from Germany in 1888. Apparently, her grandmother Elise (Bauer) Essel made the journey while pregnant with twins. Fighting seasickness on a trans-Atlantic journey would have been difficult enough, but imagine coping with tight quarters, seven children and morning sickness. My great-grandfather Charles Essel was just 5 years old; it must've been exciting and terrifying to make such a monumental voyage at such an early age.