Sharon Tate Moody has written an article about an often-overlooked source of genealogy data: bankruptcy records. She writes, "Today's economic troubles offer us the chance to understand some of our ancestors from an enlightened perspective." She then goes on to describe the types of records available and how to access them.
Continue reading "Bankruptcy Case Files Can Reveal A Wealth Of Data" »
Leslie Wagner has some great tips on how to visit cemetery and find genealogical-relevant information there. She advises that "Take a camera to photograph the headstone. Headstone rubbings will actually cause chemical damage to the stone."
Continue reading "Practical Tips For Gravesite Searching" »
"Mary L. B." has placed an interesting article on the EOGN Discussion Forum that I wish all genealogy newcomers would read. Entitled, "Pitfalls That Can Create Brick Walls or Cause You to Claim the Wrong Ancestors," Mary details several bits of "misinformation" that most of us struggled with when we first started.
Continue reading "Pitfalls That Can Create Brick Walls or Cause You to Claim the Wrong Ancestors" »
A biological disorder of the brain that runs in families, schizophrenia is the most severe of all the mental illnesses, one characterized by auditory, visual and even tactile hallucinations.
Patrick Tracey has written an interesting article about inherited schizophrenia. In this case, it has been handed down from generation to generation within his family. He even went back to old Ireland to stalk the madness that stalks his family.
Continue reading "Stalking the Insanity that Stalks My Family" »
Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and many others assume that their ancestors immigrated to the new lands. However, we don't often think about immigrants to the "old country" in Europe or the British Isles. We seem to assume that they were always there. New research now shows that more than half of Britons have immigrant ancestors. In fact, 23 per cent originated from Ireland.
Continue reading "Half of Brits Have Immigrant Ancestors" »
Toss a paper keepsake into a pile, and in months it can yellow and crumble like papyrus from Tut’s tomb. But there are things you can do to keep paper keepsakes safe.
Most printed paper “contains the seeds of its own destruction,” says University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries archivist Michael Doylen.
Continue reading "Preserving Old Newspapers" »
Sharon Tate Moody has published an article in the Tampa Bay Online web site that should be required reading for all beginning genealogists. She writes:
Genealogy is all about names. We find most records through surnames, and then narrow the search with given names. But too many of us search only for the perfect match. Close counts not only in horseshoes but also in heritage hunting.
Continue reading "Close Spellings Count Toward Matches" »
Genealogists constantly pore over old records. Of course, the biggest provider of old records in the U.S. is the U.S. government. The government even maintains a listing of significant record collections available for genealogists. The list also mentions many state and local archives.
You can view the listing at: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History_Family/State_Genealogy.shtml.
Continue reading "Genealogy Resources by State" »
I have been collecting URLs (Web addresses) of various online dictionaries and lists that are useful to genealogists. These are useful when trying to decode foreign or obsolete words often found in genealogy work. Here are a few of my favorites:
Continue reading "Online Genealogy Dictionaries and Lists" »
Here's a great quote from an article by Eilis O'Hanlon, writing in the Independent (a newspaper and web site in Dublin, Ireland):
Trace a line back 600 years and what you have is 16 million ancestors. Go back 80 generations and the figure rises to a trillion trillion (which is actually greater than the total number of people who've ever lived, but that's maths for you).
The US National Centre for Biotechnology Information puts it as bluntly as it gets by pointing out that, if you trace the line back far enough, every single human on the planet would eventually be shown to be related.
Continue reading "I Want to See THIS Family Reunion!" »
One of the fundamentals of genealogy is the various numbering systems used to make quick and easily-read lists of ancestors and descendants. Perhaps the most common method of listing ancestors is to create an ahnentafel. Yet I suspect that word confuses many newcomers. Here is a (hopefully) simple explanation.
Continue reading "Ahnentafel Explained" »
Are you having difficulty reading this web page? or any web page? Many people do not realize how simple it is to increase and decrease the display sizes of web pages. Here's how you can easily zoom in (magnify), zoom out, and reset the zoom level back to its default condition in seconds:
Continue reading "Increase or Decrease Web Page Text Size" »
I have a four drawer filing cabinet that is mostly full of paper. Two drawers are full of genealogy documents: a mixture of my handwritten notes and of photocopies, all of them made years ago. I now scan electronically and transcribe onto a computer; I no longer collect paper. However, there must be several thousand sheets of paper in that filing cabinet that I made in "the old days" before I started computerizing.
I really need to scan those documents, get them into a proper genealogy database, and then file and organize them properly. The longer I procrastinate, the bigger the problem. I don't dig into that filing cabinet often but the last time that I did I noticed that many of the photocopies are fading. Some are already difficult to read and the problem will become worse the longer I procrastinate.
Continue reading "Have Your Documents Scanned the Easy Way" »
I frequently mention the acronym "GEDCOM" in this newsletter. This week a reader wrote to me with an excellent question: "What is GEDCOM?" I realized that I haven't explained this buzzword in a long, long time. So, here is a brief, non-technical explanation of the term for the newer subscribers to this publication.
GEDCOM is an abbreviation that stands for GEnealogy Data COMmunications. In short, GEDCOM is the language by which different genealogy software programs talk to one another. The purpose is to exchange data between dissimilar programs without having to manually re-enter all the data on a keyboard.
Continue reading "GEDCOM Explained" »
Writing in the Tampa Bay Online web site and the Tampa Tribune newspaper, Sharon Tate Moody offers some sound advice about disaster planning for genealogists. She writes:
I have a zillion paper files and notebooks full of old correspondence (from pre-e-mail days) and copies of so many deeds and wills that I'll be 90 before I find time to scan all of them.
Continue reading "Plastic Bins Can Help Save Precious Documents" »
No, this isn't the kind of program you run in a Windows or Macintosh computer. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security is planning to create a new methodology (they call it a "program") to simplify the the process for acquiring historical records of deceased individuals.
Continue reading "Department of Homeland Security Plans to Create a New Genealogy Program" »
Julie Miller is a certified genealogist, researcher, lecturer and a prolific writer. She recently wrote:
The year is only half over, and already there have been numerous natural disasters that have hit close to home: The tornadoes in northern Colorado; the floods in the Midwest; the wildfires in California.
Watching the people on the news who have been affected has been heart-wrenching. Many folks have lost everything. Some of their possessions can easily be replaced, such as clothes, appliances and dishes. But what about all those things that cannot be replaced? I look around my house and see the wedding quilt made by Great-Grandma Ivy, the baby photo of my mother, the file cabinets of family history documents and notes. No amount of insurance money could bring those items back.
There is a precaution to safeguard your family history should disaster strike. I recommend creating and implementing a written genealogy disaster plan.
Continue reading "Julie Miller's Genealogy Disaster Plan" »
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