Brick walls – every researcher has a couple. They sometimes stand for years, those annoying barriers between you and that elusive ancestor you have been chasing for what seems like forever. Now and then,...
In my previous article, I highlighted some suggestions for navigating information about ancestors in the pre -1850 census period. One of the most fruitful sources of information for more distant ancestral research is tax...
Last week, I decided to be a tourist in my own backyard: I visited Liberty and Ellis Islands, and toured the Ellis Island museum. The exhibits detailed the history of the immigrant experience both...
When we think of genealogical research, most of us typically focus on finding past records, locating deceased relatives and making sense of historical documents. But family historians often overlook an important resource in their...
Both novice and experienced family historians have likely encountered a common obstacle while researching their histories: hitting a brick wall. You may discover that family records were destroyed, lost or simply unavailable; information...
Suppose you are on a quest for information about your relative, John Smith. You then discover that there are an astounding 31,139 John Smiths listed in the 1900 U.S. census! This might seem...
In many cases, searching for ancestors or documents dated after 1850 will yield a considerable amount of information and resources. The proliferation of data is largely a result of the detailed federal censuses that...
While military records are a great source of information for genealogical research, tracking down the appropriate record requires some investigative work. Identifying the branch of service, the war your ancestor was involved in and...
The website SortedByName.com contains scanned and transcribed documents that may be of great help to you in your genealogical search. The files, such as death and birth certificates, are indexed alphabetically and are free...
For some time, while doing research to create my family tree, I had a very hard time figuring out what my ancestors’ last names were originally. In a couple specific cases, I was wondering...
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