All censuses taken since 1790 are tabulated and organized by the counties within each state or territory. By federal precedence, the county is the basic unit of jurisdiction for census demographics. Alaska is the only state without counties; therefore, judicial districts are used as jurisdictions for the censuses taken there. In Louisiana, the term “parish”[…]Read more
Chapter Two of Morton and Henderson’s How to Find Your Family History in Church Records answers the question, “How can I use church records if I don’t know my ancestor’s denomination?” Given the wealth of information awaiting genealogists who delve into church records, this issue is fundamental to people who have hit a brick wall[…]Read more
It is a postulate of Irish genealogy that the destruction of the Irish Public Record Office in late June 1922, resulting in the loss of a vast collection of Irish source records at the outset of the Irish Civil War, was the greatest tragedy in Irish genealogy. Among the losses were centuries of census, probate,[…]Read more
From time to time we have printed excerpts from the 4th Edition of The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, by Val Greenwood, to illustrate the wisdom and value of the guidance it provides researchers. Here are some recommendations Mr. Greenwood conveys about the importance of wills and probate records in genealogical research, with references to[…]Read more
Although the term Ashkenaz originally referred to a place now in Germany, it is broadly used these days to refer to all European Jews. This guide is intended as an aid to researchers who are searching for Ashkenazic Jewish ancestors from Eastern Europe who immigrated to the United States primarily between 1880 and 1924. In[…]Read more
We were delighted to receive two stellar reviews of our new book, How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records, by Sunny Morton and Harold Henderson. The first appeared in Randy Seaver’s daily column, “Genea-Musings,” and the second, in ‘A Week of Genealogy,” written by Dr. Margaret McMahon. We’ve reprinted both of them[…]Read more
When Americans recall the Irish Potato Famine, they immediately think of the hundreds of thousands who emigrated to the U.S. between 1846 and 1851. But during that famine and at other times, Irish emigrants ventured to many other parts of the world, notably the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, elsewhere in Europe, and Latin[…]Read more
For the past month or so, we have been spreading the word about an extraordinary new reference work for Connecticut researchers, Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond. This is one of those books that one cannot praise too highly, for it is nothing less than a comprehensive bibliography of Connecticut birth,[…]Read more
One of the difficulties researchers with Welsh ancestry face is pinpointing the location of ancestors possessing surnames. Authorities John and Sheila Rowlands have taken some of the difficulty out of this process in the updated version of their book, The Surnames of Wales, by showing the greatest areas of concentration where such surnames do and[…]Read more
Designed to cover the basic elements of Kentucky genealogical research in just four pages, this addition to our Genealogy at a Glance series gives you as much useful information in the space allotted as you’ll ever need. Specially laminated for heavy use, it provides an overview of the facts required to begin and proceed successfully[…]Read more
