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The next workshop in the sequence honoring America250 and the partnership with FamilySearch, and timed to come right before we celebrate Independence Day: This workshop will explore US military records as aids to genealogical research. Draft records, service records, military grave markers, and military transport records, can sometimes provide clues we need to learn more…
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Next in the continuing series of free workshops to celebrate America250 and the connection between America’s history and personal family history: Ask you relatives about their stories of the past. Father’s Day June 14th is a good day to remember our ancestors and talk to them about their memories. This workshop will discuss best practices…
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In continuing to celebrate America250 with FamilySearch, this workshop will discuss resources for locating German-speaking ancestors. Bring a laptop or mobile device. Bring names to look up. After the presentation, question and answer period at the end.
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As my mother, an avid genealogist, taught me when I was young: every person needs a name, a date and a place. I touched on names here, and places here, so today’s contribution is about dates. How dates were recorded on documents was a function of what kind of record was being kept, what kind…
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To make specific connections between people, you need to fix them in a specific place. Each individual needs a name, a date, a relationship and a place. When professional genealogists start a research project, we start out by asking a question structured like the following: If you ask me for help, the first thing I…
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In English legal history, a married woman was “covered” under her husband, who was authorized to act in their shared interests. This concept called “coverture” explains why a woman in England and former English colonies like the U.S. took her husband’s surname, and often was known only by her husband’s name (Mrs. John Smith) instead…
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The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is also partnering with America250 to celebrate our nation’s founding and history. Family history is America’s story. They have a free download booklet (“toolkit”) with dozens of good ideas that you can implement, or help your neighborhood, community group or church group to implement, to help honor your ancestors. The…
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Here is a great resource I just ran across. If we want to know what we can learn about our immigrant ancestors, we need to know a bit about the laws in place at the time they came
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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, yes, but is your ancestor Jon or John? Doing genealogy, we need to understand our ancestors in their own historical context. Names and proper spellings have evolved over time. With the advent of the computer for record keeping in the 20th century, it became essential…
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Too many people with the same name, from the same town. Too many public trees with guesswork instead of research work. As a professional, I begin work on a client’s tree by verifying existing relationships and dates and places. If you tell me another professional has verified a certain branch, I can accept that and…