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
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the American Revolution; however, it was the British surrender to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, that set the stage for American Independence. Indeed, Yorktown was the final decisive battle of the conflict, but nothing about it was preordained. For one thing, General Washington wanted[…]Read more
The new Third Edition of Genealogical Research in Ohio, by Kip Sperry is not only completely up to date but also comprehensive in its coverage. The new edition examines the holdings of major Ohio archives and libraries and identifies the many resources available to researchers, such as census records, church records, military records, land and[…]Read more
The vast majority of Irish census records prior to 1901 no longer exist. Consequently, as Brian Mitchell explains in his New Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy, census substitutes are of great importance to Irish researchers. Perhaps the most important, and certainly the most famous, substitute is Griffith’s Primary Valuation. Conducted between 1848 and 1864, the[…]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
Excerpted from: Nancy A. Peters, “Research Reports,” Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed., Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018), 417-450. Genealogists conduct research. They must then communicate the results. Professional researchers are judged not only by the outcome of their investigation, but by how well they present their findings through their primary work product—the research[…]Read more
The central premise of our new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Guide to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith, is that rookie genealogists will fare better when they commence their research with the record categories most likely to produce results. For this reason, the second half of the book discusses the research process[…]Read more
The history of Belgium is entwined with the religious and political wars of early modern Europe. Part of the Low Countries–which today comprise Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg–Belgium was ruled by Hapsburg Spain from 1516 until 1713 and was an important battleground in the extraordinarily violent Thirty Years War from 1618 to 1648. Over the next[…]Read more
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
This new consolidated edition brings together all ten Parts of David Dobson’s series, Irish Emigrants in North America. A comprehensive index of names has been added to facilitate the reader’s search through all ten Parts. Moreover, the index identifies the many other Irish persons—wives, children, parents, ships’ captains, indenturers, etc.–named in the emigrant profiles who[…]Read more
As author Robert Bell notes in his learned Introduction to The Book of Ulster Surnames, “The surnames of Ulster stem from many different peoples and many eras and can be difficult to unravel.” Surnames came into common usage in the Province of Ulster in the Eleventh Century; since then, the following groups and historical events[…]Read more
English-speaking researchers and historians working with Spanish documents, as well as native speakers unfamiliar with early Spanish handwriting, face two hurdles—understanding the handwriting and vocabulary, and grasping the records’ institutional, historic, social, and cultural context. The new book, Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents: 1520-1820, by George R. Ryskamp, Peggy Ryskamp and H. Leandro Soria, addresses[…]Read more
