Finding My Roots (Part III)
This past April (2018). I took myself on a little vacation. Perhaps a vacation is not the best word, for the primary purpose of my trip was to visit my father’s grave, something I...
Finding My Roots (Part II)
Now (if you’ve read the first entry in this series) you know a bit about my mother’s family and the difficulty in finding out more about my maternal Greek ancestry. Invasion, massacre and civil...
Finding My Roots (Part I)
Two weeks ago, I took a week-long trip to southern New Jersey and Philadelphia to try and discover more about my ancestral roots. This is the first of a series of articles detailing that...
Do Not Fall into this Common Genealogy Trap…
This article might start off sounding a little smug. It is not meant to. My intention is to help you to find your correct ancestors, or at least start on the right path, and...
The Original 13
Growing up, from time to time, I would stay with my aunt and her family in Germantown, Pennsylvania. I won’t mention how many years ago that was, but I will tell you those visits...
Verbal Family Histories
All the advice for people starting to research their family history says to go and ask family members what they know. I was lucky that my grandparents provided me with a lot of information...
The Allure of Libraries
With so much focus in genealogy on internet searches, it is important to remember that libraries can be very helpful in your search for ancestry. Some libraries are set up specifically for genealogy while...
Is That You, William? How Do You Know When You’re On The Right Track?
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,...
The Genealogy of Adoptees
I am the only biological child in my family, but my parents adopted five children once I was in college. Whenever I think about genealogy, I think about them. Of course, they are an...
Tax records: a virtual goldmine of genealogical information
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...
