Finding Ancestors for Free
When I decided to create a free online genealogical service, I wanted to make sure to expose the methods a person can use to uncover their family and ancestors. These are methods I found...
Pedigree Charts for Education and Sharing
A pedigree chart is a simple enough thing but they are also very personal and I don’t just mean they are personal because of who is shown on your pedigree chart. The number of...
Read All About It: Where to Find Obituaries
Generally, major, national, and most large-city newspapers only publish obituaries for the famous, the prominent, or people considered significant. Local newspapers usually publish, often in long-form, an obituary for any local resident upon their death....
War Pensions as a Genealogical Resource
When researching ancestors who were enlisted in the armed services, certain documents can shed some light on their military and personal lives. Along with the National Archives and Records administration website, genealogy sites like...
Seventh Generation
The piece of information that provided a lot incentive for me to find out more about my family history was a copy of a descendant list which included two direct ancestors seven generations from...
Discovering Ancestral Roots through Technology and Genealogy
A new industry has been created from the human curiosity to know who our ancestors are and where they came from. From the entertainment and mass media spotlighting genealogical stories, like Alex Haley’s Roots...
Obits as Research Tools
One of the most helpful documents readily available to the amateur genealogical researcher, and often an underappreciated source of information in constructing a family tree, is the obituary. Basically a posthumous news article, obituaries...
O Cousin Where Art Thou? Making Use of Genealogy Message Boards
I’m not sure that I like the relatives that I know, so why would I want to find more? Those are my husband’s words, not mine. I, like most family tree historians, thrive on...
The Oral Interview
Introduction: Countless civil, military, and religious records are available for family researchers looking for information on ancestors, yet right under our nose is an often overlooked free genealogical repository: The Oral Interview. Nothing better...
Discovering Names
What does your name mean, where does it come from, how else could you spell it? They are questions I have been trying to ask some of my long deceased ancestors. They generally don’t...
