Researchers who take the time to go beyond an index to land records may find many items of interest in a particular volume that may have not been indexed by the clerks of the county court. For example, some indices may omit some references, such as depositions and ‘posted wives,’ but one should double check[…]Read more
Category: Genealogy Tips
What Your Relatives Can Tell You about the Great Depression & WWII
As Emily Anne Croom writes in her book, Unpuzzling Your Past. The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy, “Collecting family history also means trying to fit the family into the history of the community, county, state, and nation. You can find the political, economic, and social history of these areas in books and contemporary newspapers, but[…]Read more
“Who Fired the First Shot,” by Jack Darrell Crowder
The American Revolution commenced with the faceoff between British regulars and the Patriot militia that occurred on April 18, 1775. To this day, no one can say with certainty who fired the first shot in that momentous engagement. Readers can make their own determination, however, thanks to the second of Jack Darrell Crowder’s new books[…]Read more
“The City Directory: A Genealogical Gold Mine,” by William Dollarhide
City directories may be one of the most underused genealogical sources available. Old city directories exist for virtually every community in America, often going back to the establishment of a community. Many of the privately published city directories date back over a hundred years, and some of these collections are complete for every year in[…]Read more
New Study Concludes that Teaching Family History to Children Builds Personal Resilience
According to a survey of young people conducted by psychologists at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, “children who know more about their families and family history are more resilient and tend to do better when facing challenges life.” Researchers also learned that youngsters who knew more about their family’s past had more self-confidence and a[…]Read more
“Fair Use” Explained in Carmack’s Guide to Copyright & Contracts
When you find information in a book, article, or online source and you want to quote or paraphrase it in your genealogy, when must you cite the source? If you quote the information and cite the source, can you use as much of the information as you want? The answers to these questions fall under[…]Read more
55 Remarkable Descents, Kinships, or Near Kin-to-Near Kin Genealogical Connections Outlined and Charted in The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies . . .
By Gary Boyd Roberts We’ve written on several occasions about Gary Boyd Roberts amazing two volume work, The Royal Descents 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States(RD 900). This collection of royal lines possessed by North Americans represents Mr. Roberts’ magnum opus, and it is truly the product of a lifetime[…]Read more
Genetic Genealogy & the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)
Using DNA to find your family heritage has become an everyday topic of conversation. If you haven’t personally sent a saliva sample in the mail, you know someone who has. And you can barely miss a day without seeing a commercial from Ancestry or My Heritage advertising one of its DNA products. Just a few[…]Read more
Proof Arguments & Case Studies
We couldn’t have been prouder! It seemed like everybody who visited our booth at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, was talking about Professional Genealogy. Preparation, Practice & Standards, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills. A number of people mentioned that they had signed up for a home study course based on Progen PPS.[…]Read more
New York State Census Substitutes & Selected Name Lists
Bill Dollarhide’s New York State Censuses & Substitutes belongs on the reference shelf of every individual and institution concerned about the Empire State. Why? Three reasons: (1) Census records and name lists for New York are found mostly at the county level, (2) New York State Censuses & Substitutes shows precisely which census records or[…]Read more
“Clues in Names”
(Excerpted from Unpuzzling Your Past. Fourth Edition, Updated, by Emily Anne Croom, pp. 37-39.) Naming practices vary from place to place and generation to generation. However, certain consistencies have existed for nearly four centuries in the area we now call the United States. Children were, and still are, often named for parents, grandparents, and other[…]Read more
“Census Substitutes,” by the late Carolyn Barkley
This article originally appeared on our prior website/blog in March 2010. It is reprinted here with minor alterations. In January of 2010, Ancestry.com announced to its subscribers the introduction of the “1950 Census Substitute” and urged us to “discover your parents, grandparents – – maybe even yourself.” Taken at face value, this announcement was pretty[…]Read more