As a genealogist, one thing I have to be constantly aware of is variant name spellings. There is nothing worse to me than having spent an hour searching a complicated name index for several variants, only to get to the end and realize I forgot one variant of the name. And then have to go [...]

Last week I was researching an Irish family. From the 1911 census, I knew that Michael was married to Mary, was born in County Westmeath in about 1850, was married before 1892 (oldest living child was born 1892), and I knew the names of their living children. My plan was to go after the couple’s [...]

Searching for a birth or death record in Arizona? The Arizona Department of Health Services has made it very easy with their online “Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates” website.  This site allows access to the digitized images of county or state issued birth and death certificates. You can search the database for births that [...]