You may be a satisfied owner of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States (RD 900), or you may be considering acquiring a set of these marvelous books. Either way, you may appreciate the following suggestions from author and expert genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts on how[…]Read more
Are you wondering what to do once you finish tracing your personal family tree? Are you helping someone else (maybe an elderly friend) research his or hers? Have you found your bliss in genealogical detective work, and now you want to take it to the professional level? Maybe even make a career out of it? […]Read more
From the late 1600s, in the age of the sailing ships, to the onset of the Second World War in 1939, when the last transatlantic steamer sailed from the port, Derry~Londonderry was one of the principal emigration ports in Ireland. Prior to the coming of the railways and, in the age of sailing ships, from[…]Read more
Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson’s book, How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records, describes the major genealogical sources for Christian denominations in existence prior to 1900. Denominations covered include: Anglican/Episcopal, Baptist, Congregational, Dutch Reformed/Reformed, various German denominations, Latter-Day Saint, Lutheran, Mennonite and Amish, Methodist, Quaker, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. Once[…]Read more
Last week we wrote about a major new resource for Connecticut genealogy, Linda MacLachlan’s Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond. MacLachlan shows that Barbour and his staff omitted any number of sources researchers should know about, and her book is the complete inventory of Connecticut vital records. Besides Ms. MacLachlan’s groundbreaking[…]Read more
Another great feature of How to find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide, by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, is the chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the kinds of records that were kept by the 12 major denominations in the United States as of 1900. For each denomination covered, the authors[…]Read more
“He was excited. Excited and happy, like a dog which has followed a cold trail for a long time, and suddenly finds it a hot one.” Nurse Detective Hilda Adams about Inspector Patton 68 Research in tax records has produced this reaction of excitement for many genealogists and has resulted in many “hot trails.” A[…]Read more
The following list of counties was derived from Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920, by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987). The original purpose of the Map Guide was to show the evolution of county boundaries from one federal census to the next; to allow a better understanding[…]Read more
(The following article was excerpted from Chapter 7 of Sustainable Genealogy, entitled “Military Service of Ancestors.”) “When I hear of some of the wildly exaggerated claims of the military exploits of my own ancestors and anyone else’s, I am reminded of “The Battle of Mayberry” episode of the Andy Griffith Show. In one episode, Opie’s[…]Read more
Unprecedented Biographical Dictionary of Early Virginians puts flesh on bare bones of Founders. “On May 13, 1607, Virginia’s first colonists came ashore on what became known as Jamestown Island. The next day, they commenced establishing an outpost they called James Cittie or Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the United States. The 104 colonists[…]Read more
The Royal Descents 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States(RD 900), genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts’ magnum opus, identifies an awe-inspring number of historical figures from Continental Europe, the British Isles, or the United States who are related to millions of living descendants. Anyone descended from an immigrant in this work can[…]Read more
How many times have researchers kicked themselves for not knowing that someone else had already done their spadework for them? It’s for this reason, if you are about to delve into church records, that you must learn about the WPA Church Inventories. As Sunny Morton and Harold Henderson explain in Chapter Three of How to[…]Read more
