The following one-page history of the Carlin clan associated with County Donegal and County Derry is indicative of what the reader can expect to encounter with each of the 300+ histories of surnames compiled by Brian Mitchell in his book, The Surnames of North West Ireland: Concise Histories of the Major Surnames of Gaelic and[…]Read more
The Florida Genealogist is the quarterly journal of the Florida Genealogical Society. In its June 2023 issue (Volume XLVI—Number 1), the journal’s staff posted the article, “Using Books to Advance Our Research.” Three of our recent publications are reviewed in the article, so we wanted to share some of the comments about those books with[…]Read more
Since the Spring, we have been describing the features of our new eBook subscription program, MY GPC LIBRARY. We have placed our nearly 800 eBook titles—a $40,000 value in print–on this exciting new platform. For the first time, subscribers can look for names or places across all our eBooks–not just book-by-book—in a single search. The[…]Read more
Why is history beneficial to genealogists? For one thing, history can help you understand the challenges and context in which your ancestors lived and possibly thrived. Just as important, history offers clues about elusive ancestors. Knowing that a smallpox epidemic occurred during the 1840s may explain why some youngster ancestors do not appear in the[…]Read more
Following is a discussion of some of the things I have learned from studying the migration of people from Scotland and Ireland into the Maritimes. Books about emigration usually talk of the forces that drove people out of their homelands – what we call the push factors: Highland clearances, breakdown of the traditional clan system,[…]Read more
Over the last year and a half, Genealogical.com has consolidated two series of books by Dr. David Dobson that were originally published in multiple installments. The first of these was Scots-Irish Links, 1525-1825: Consolidated and Indexed Edition. In Two Volumes, originally published in 15 parts but lacking an index. To rectify these shortcomings, we re-numbered[…]Read more
One of the most fascinating chapters in the Fourth Edition of The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, by Val D. Greenwood, concerns women’s property rights. Chapter 23, “Property Rights of Women as a Consideration,” while not specifically focused on finding records relating to women, nonetheless explores “the legal considerations that will help you better understand[…]Read more
Chapter Twelve of Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents, 1520-1820 tackles the difficult task of transcribing the 16th-century Cortesana style of Spanish handwriting commonly found in documents created by notaries and other officials of the Spanish Empire. With a nod to Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote, authors George Ryskamp, Peggy Ryskamp, and Leandro Soria introduce the notorious[…]Read more
The new Second Edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States abounds with movie and stage actors (and a few director/actors) who are descended from royal forebears. Most, but not all, are of British provenance. Could you be related to one of them? Here’s the list:[…]Read more
Professional organizer Janine Adams writes the blog, Organize Your Family History. She also has produced a bundle of publications to help genealogists keep themselves on track as they gather more and more information about their family. Janine recently reviewed Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith. Here is[…]Read more
