Why is history beneficial to genealogists? For one thing, history can help you understand the challenges and context in which your ancestors lived and possibly thrived. Just as important, history offers clues about elusive ancestors. Knowing that a smallpox epidemic occurred during the 1840s may explain why some youngster ancestors do not appear in the[…]Read more
The Midwest Book Review, a longstanding source for acquisition librarians responsible for adding to their collections, recently endorsed the Second Edition of Ellen and David Berry’s guidebook, Our Quaker Ancestors. Finding Them in Quaker Records. The review, which appeared in the August 2022 issue of “The Bookwatch” follows below: “The second updated edition of Our[…]Read more
Just about anyone who takes genealogy seriously is destined to face the challenge of reading original (or microfilm copies of) records written in an unfamiliar cursive style. If your research takes you back to at least the 19th century, you’ll encounter census records, wills, deeds, and multifarious other records that you’ll strain to decipher. Records[…]Read more
Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills, contains innumerable lessons and guidelines leading to successful genealogy results. Chapter 14, written by Harold Henderson covers “Research Procedures.” Mr. Henderson divides his discussion into three sections (before, during, and after research) that describe the steps we should take when implementing a research plan.[…]Read more
In Chapter Seven in our new book, Victory or Death: Military Decisions that Changed the Course of the American Revolution, author Jack Darrell Crowder describes the lengths to which General Washington relied on spies following his retreat from New York in 1776. From 1777 to 1781, the American forces were out-gunned and less well supplied[…]Read more
Anyone familiar with Irish genealogy knows that John Grenham’ textbook, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, available exclusively from Genealogical.com in a hardcover Fifth Edition, is the last word on its subject. One outstanding feature of the book is its 250-page chapter on Irish county sources. Mr. Grenham divides each counties coverage, from County Antrim through County[…]Read more
The 5th Edition of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors is now available in an extremely handsome hardcover edition at $38.50. In fact, you won’t find the hardcover edition anywhere else but on www.genealogical.com. This price represents a $10.50 reduction from the former paperback edition, which we have discontinued. Author John Grenham is the leading authority on[…]Read more
With Specific Resources for Major Christian Denominations before 1900 By Sunny Jane Morton & Harold A. Henderson, CG Records created by the major Christian denominations before 1900 in the United States are an underutilized resource for family historians. In these records, you may find ancestors’ births, maiden or married names, marriage details, deaths, family relationships,[…]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
It is amazing to witness how far Ireland has come in the last decade in terms of making record sources available online! You can now achieve so much online: to name, but a few, you can search 1901 and 1911 census returns at www.census.nationalarchives.ie; historic civil birth, marriage and death registers at www.irishgenealogy.ie; transcripts of[…]Read more
The June 2019 of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ), arguably the most influential journal in the field, has given “thumbs up” to Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards (Progen PPS), edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills; and The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States who were Themselves[…]Read more
