Chapter Thirteen of The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy (Fourth Edition) is all about vital records and their use for genealogy. Author Val Greenwood explains why most states outside of New England were so slow to require and standardize records of birth, marriage, death, and divorce. In fact, for a number of states vital recordkeeping[…]Read more
As we have noted on a number of occasions, Val D. Greenwood’s Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy discusses and explains in detail all the major sources for genealogy research in the U.S. The volume devotes two chapters to census records that explain the contents of and differences between the official U.S. censuses 1790-1940, colonial censuses,[…]Read more
The new Second Edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States identifies 600 major historical figures in its 1,700+ pages. These celebrities range from W. H. Auden and Jane Austin to Thomas Mann and Karl Marx, and from John Kerry and Robert E. Lee to Aristotle[…]Read more
Subscribe before April 29, and $ave 15% on our Annual and Semi-Annual Subscription Packages Beginning in 1952, we changed the field of genealogy by reprinting the best books covering the last three centuries and making them available and affordable. In 1973 we published the first modern, comprehensive textbook in the field and, ever since, have […]Read more
The following article is excerpted from the book, Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children in Colonial Court Records, by Richard Hayes Phillips. Drawing on records found in county courthouses, Dr. Phillips has compiled incontrovertible evidence of 5,000 children who were kidnapped from Ireland, Scotland, England, and New England and sold into slavery in Maryland[…]Read more
Did you know that boundaries of the State of Arizona were not finalized until the Gadsden Purchase of 1853? Gold strikes played an important role in enticing Americans to settle in Alaska. Can you name the dates of the strike at Sitka, Sindham Bay, or the Yukon? Following the American Revolution, a number of the[…]Read more
(Excerpted from Michael J. Leclerc, “Crafting Family Histories,” Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed.,Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018), 519–44.) Writing family histories is one of the most meaningful ways we can communicate the results of our research to our family members and even ourselves. Our projects can be large or small.[…]Read more
English-speaking researchers and historians working with Spanish documents, as well as native speakers unfamiliar with early Spanish handwriting, face two hurdles—understanding the handwriting and vocabulary, and grasping the records’ institutional, historic, social, and cultural context. The new book, Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents: 1520-1820, by George R. Ryskamp, Peggy Ryskamp and H. Leandro Soria, addresses[…]Read more
Drew Smith’s new book for Beginning and Intermediate genealogists, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy have begun to come in and are uniform in their high praise. Below are three examples. Thomas MacEntee, writing on his blog, “Genealogy Bargains” on March 8, remarks that, “Over the past year or two,[…]Read more
Genealogical Research in Ohio. New 3rd Edition! – By Kip Sperry Ohio has an abundance of resources available for genealogical and historical research–statewide indexes and personal name finding aids, biographies, local histories, vital and church records, probate and court records, census and military records, land records, newspapers, naturalization records, gravestones, genealogical manuscript collections, and many[…]Read more
