The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA, by Roberta Estes, is now available in print and eBook editions. To say that this new book covers its topic from A to Z would be an understatement. Even the helpful glossary of terms at the back of the book runs to seven pages. To[…]Read more
Let’s say you are looking for the German origin of one of your ancestors, and you’ve exhausted your English-language sources. You are familiar with German genealogical words and phrases because you own a copy of Ernest Thode’s German-English Genealogical Dictionary. You’re reasonably confident that the missing ancestor came to the U.S. from Berlin, so what[…]Read more
To celebrate the release of the new fourth edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, EE’s author offers guidance drawn from the new edition. This is the third in our four-part series. ( View Part 1 | View Part 2 ) Previous posts in this series introduced the concept of layered[…]Read more
Following is a discussion of some of the things I have learned from studying the migration of people from Scotland and Ireland into the Maritimes. Books about emigration usually talk of the forces that drove people out of their homelands – what we call the push factors: Highland clearances, breakdown of the traditional clan system,[…]Read more
Before the Internet was generally in use, people seeking their family trees sooner or later went to an archives in search of information. We spoke with relatives to elicit stories and details about the family. Some hung around cemeteries or called in at the local Registry of Deeds or the Probate Court. Pastors and parish[…]Read more
Consider the following 17th-century Virginia land patent abstract: “MATHEW PRICE, son and heire to JOHN PRICE, late of Va., labourer, 150 acs. Henrico Co., upon Turkey Island Cr., 23 May 1638, p. 558. E. by S. upon sd. Cr., W. by N. toward Bremo, S. by W. upon land granted to his late father, now[…]Read more
To celebrate the release of the new fourth edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, author Elizabeth Shown Mills offers guidance drawn from the new edition. This is second in our four-part series. (View part 1) Technology has complicated the process of citing our sources. With digital images delivered online or through other[…]Read more
Chapter Twelve of Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents, 1520-1820 tackles the difficult task of transcribing the 16th-century Cortesana style of Spanish handwriting commonly found in documents created by notaries and other officials of the Spanish Empire. With a nod to Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote, authors George Ryskamp, Peggy Ryskamp, and Leandro Soria introduce the notorious[…]Read more
In her August 30, 2023 review of Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith, organizational expert Janine Adams observed, “Like Drew, I wish a book like this had been around when I started doing genealogy research. It’s so clearly laid out and clearly written, with bits of humor[…]Read more
To celebrate the release of the new fourth edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, EE’s author offers guidance drawn from the new edition. This is the fourth in our four-part series. ( View Part 1 | View Part 2 | View Part 3 ) Citations are flexible structures. They are not rigid formulas from which we dare[…]Read more
To celebrate the release of the new fourth edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, author Elizabeth Shown Mills offers guidance drawn from the new edition. This is the first in our four-part series. Basic Rule 1: We Cite What We Use This bit of wisdom is one most of us[…]Read more
One of the most fascinating chapters in the Fourth Edition of The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, by Val D. Greenwood, concerns women’s property rights. Chapter 23, “Property Rights of Women as a Consideration,” while not specifically focused on finding records relating to women, nonetheless explores “the legal considerations that will help you better understand[…]Read more
