Genealogy-enthusiasts will oftentimes be approached by budding researchers and asked to give lessons, crash-courses, or a few tips on tracing family trees. While there’s no official guideline for research, the following brief outline can be very helpful in introducing newbies to genealogy. It goes over a few of the basic record-categories (census, immigration, and vital records) and discusses free websites to get [...]

Have you created or worked with an Ancestry.com Public Member Tree lately? I have recently started one myself by uploading a Gedcom. I’ve done extensive research on a few lines, and I wanted to be able to share the information with others.
The great thing about these trees is that you can link Ancestry.com records directly [...]

A couple of my friends have posed the question on Facebook recently: Why are some of the news outlets referring to Osama Bin Laden as “Usama?” It’s a legitimate question, and it has an answer that ties in nicely to genealogy.
In essence it boils down to transliteration. To transliterate means “to change (letters, words, etc.) [...]

Until about 1845 German emigrants generally chose Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Le Havre as ports of departure.  By the middle of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in the north German ports of Bremen and Hamburg realized they could increase their income dramatically by filling ships with emigrants bound for America and other destinations.
The Hamburg Passenger Lists that [...]

In this installment of Genesis of our Genealogists, meet Karina Morales, one of our Case Managers who, among other things, specializes in Mexican, Hispanic, North American, and some Irish research.
INTERVIEW WITH KARINA MORALES
1. Where did you grow up?
I was born in San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, but I grew up in Chicago, Illinois.
2. [...]

1. Where did you grow up?
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah!
2. What initially got you interested in family history?
An American Heritage class I took my freshman year of college. We were asked to write a paper on our first ancestor to come to the United States. I knew who was the first to [...]

I recently posted a short article relating why ProGenealogists is the ideal research team to take on our clients’ British ancestry projects. I’ve been meaning to put a brief article online on this topic for a while. At ProGenealogists, we’re invested in helping people make the next step in their family history. We find that [...]

While doing some research yesterday someone pointed out this poem located in the preface to a U.S. Census Book. It was found in the newspaper The Portis Patriot, printed in Portis, Kansas, 20 April 1882. I got a giggle out of it and thought you might as well.
The Puzzled Census-Taker
by John G. Saxe
“Got any boys?” the [...]

This New Year’s weekend I had the opportunity to help a friend with Polish research.  He was visiting a brother in Utah and, just before his trip, was entrusted with his family’s records while he was near the largest genealogical repository in the world, The Family History Library in Salt Lake City. He was anxious to get some [...]

Back in June 2010, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Micheál Martin, announced its intention to make available a Certificate of Irish Heritage for the millions of people worldwide with Irish ancestry who don’t quality for Irish citizenship by descent. Usually one has to have a grandparent born in Ireland to quality for Irish [...]