I spent the better part of an afternoon last week transcribing some land patents from colonial Virginia. While reading the documents, I let my mind transport me to the land. I imagined two or three men out walking the land measuring out the distance in poles and choosing landmarks to identify the boundaries and mark [...]

Many of you may remember NBC’s recent television series entitled, “Who Do You Think You Are?”  This captivating series dove back into America’s history to find the family heritage of seven celebrities with very different backgrounds.  With the help of genealogists, the likes of Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee and many more discovered the [...]

I recently blogged about Family Tree Magazine’s recently released annual list of “101 Best Websites” for 2010 and their focus on free sites this year. Of course, there are thousands out there. But, given some of their categories, perhaps some others could have been considered. Here are a few overlooked candidates in two of their categories:
“Best [...]

I am not one of those fortunate people who has located diaries or letters written by my ancestors. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found lots of good resources on some of my ancestors, like really colorful newspaper articles. But so far I haven’t identified any journals or personal histories. As I’ve lamented this fact over [...]

The other day as I was perusing deed indexes for some family names, I began to think about all the hours that had been spent indexing those deeds. I thought about the tedious work someone had done going through those deeds page by page trying to carefully note the names of the parties involved along [...]

My colleagues and I at ProGenealogists share some core values that make working together a particularly rewarding experience for us and our clients. I think it comes down to two aspects mainly – our work is very scholarly, and our genealogists communicate directly and often with our clients.
We are expert problem-solvers and family tree-builders who [...]

“I found this great book (or online family tree). It pushed my family tree back five more generations!!” How many times have you heard that and wished, “Where is the book like that about my family?” Well maybe you should think twice about that wish. How reliable is that book?
Oh the joys and frustrations of compiled [...]

Family Tree Magazine has just released their annual list of “101 Best Websites” for 2010 with a bit of a twist. Having published ten such lists over the past decade, the magazine’s editors always provide interesting selections, often with some theme. This year they decided to dispense with references to subscription sites as a nod [...]

If you are anything like we are, you are probably addicted to the Family History Library Catalog. We check the catalog multiple times a day in our research, primarily so we can develop our research plans. It isn’t often that the catalog is down, but when it does happen, it can really thwart our research. [...]

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This lovely message of spell-checker doom appeared [...]