The central premise of our new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Guide to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith, is that rookie genealogists will fare better when they commence their research with the record categories most likely to produce results. For this reason, the second half of the book discusses the research process vis a vis the era in which your ancestor lived. Chapter 8 covers Generations after 1950. Chapter 9, Generations from 1880 to 1950, And so on. As the new genealogist moves further and further back in time, Mr. Smith introduces him/her to the richest group of records for those generations.
To illustrate further, let’s say you’re hoping to find out something about an ancestor who was alive after 1950. Since no federal census has been made public beyond 1950, one valuable source that is available to the newbie are obituary notices and related information found in newspapers.
Here are some examples as to how Drew Smith introduces the reader to the potential payoff in newspapers and how to access them:
