The following excerpt is from the book, Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes, by Rachal Mills Lennon. This body of work has been the best-selling guide to a very difficult area of research for over a decade. Ms. Lennon, M.A., CG, specializes in resolving difficult Southern research problems and reconstructing obscure lives, especially those of Native[…]Read more
(Originally published in February 2013, this article is still full of valuable tips to bear in mind—before you go to the cemetery!) In April 2012, I posted an article about cemetery research resources. This fall, as I visited cemeteries in both Massachusetts and Virginia, I was reminded how much I enjoy walking their paths, surveying[…]Read more
No Passenger List? No official U.S. government passenger lists exist prior to 1820. What miscellaneous lists that have survived and been transcribed or published cover only a fraction of the immigrants who arrived in the Americas before 1820. If you do not possess a passenger list for your immigrant ancestor, are you at the end[…]Read more
Editor’s note: The following post is by William Dollarhide, who has not only provided excellent tips of both the serious and witty variety, but is an accomplished Genealogical Publishing Company author. As Mr. Dollarhide excels not only an author but also as a gifted speaker and award winning genealogist, we are always delighted to share his[…]Read more
Cemeteries can be an incredibly rich source of information for your family history research, and just one of the places where you can collect your dead relatives. Whether you are there for research or just to visit, cemeteries can also be incredibly beautiful, with meaning built into the landscape. Atlas Obscura spent time uncovering the meanings behind some of[…]Read more
Are you getting the most out of tax lists for your genealogy research? Do you even know where to start? As Cornelius Carroll states in the beginning of his book, The Beginner’s Guide to Using Tax Lists, “Tax lists are one of the most valuable, but most neglected sources of genealogical information. They cannot only be[…]Read more
Utilizing census records are a fundamental resource for any genealogists. There are two situations discussed here where the federal census records leave information gaps. Namely, when you’re searching for a relative before the federal census of 1790, and when you can’t find someone you know should show up on a federal census. A relative who predates[…]Read more
The following post is from author, Denise Larson, who has offered her expertise on other topics such as Maine Genealogy in two parts, as well as the recently posted piece about Canada’s upcoming anniversaries (from 2016). This year, 2016, marks the sesquarcentennial—350th anniversary—of the first official census taken in Canada. Only 163 pages long and enumerated in part by[…]Read more
The US Library of Congress (LOC) is the greatest repository of published works in the country including genealogy, local history books and periodicals. Whether or not you are planning to visit the LOC, located in Washington, DC, in-person soon, it will benefit you to visit its website. To get on the LOC site, start at its homepage:[…]Read more
Editor’s note: The following post on the importance of knowing the county in order to properly utilize census records, and how shifting boundaries can affect that search, is written by author William Dollarhide. An excellent source that can be used to visualize the county boundaries for every county in the U.S. and for each census year[…]Read more
As a body of records, naturalization and denization records are of considerable value, but, until recently, were very difficult to access. Comparable in many ways to census records, naturalization records are a mine of priceless information and include such items as place and date of birth, foreign and current places of residence, marital status, names, ages[…]Read more
By Carolyn L. Barkley When I first began to attend genealogical conferences, I heard a speaker from the North Carolina State Archives say, “When I hear someone ask for marriage records or wills, I know that the individual is a genealogist; when I hear someone ask for land records, I know that the individual is[…]Read more
