The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the main repository of genealogically relevant records for the six counties of Northern Ireland, and it also holds records pertinent to the whole historical province of Ulster (nine counties). The PRONI facility on Balmoral Avenue, Belfast, closed in September and is scheduled to reopen on 30 [...]

Some forty-two million Americans identified themselves as descendants of German immigrants in the 2000 United States Census.  Second place, with about thirty-two million descendants, went to Ireland.  From the founding of Germantown in 1683 to today, millions of Germans have come to America.  How did they travel here and what kind of paper trail did [...]

In our fourth installment of Genesis of our Genealogists, meet Neil D. Holden, our only full-time genealogist who hails from another continent. His specialities include English, Irish, Canadian, Immigration, and British Empire research. 
Interview with Neil D. Holden

Where did you grow up?
 
Hastings, England – the murder capital of Europe. It is not a large town, but it does have a [...]

I feel the need to briefly set the mental scene for this post. It seems for the most part that the posts on this blog are generated from the subject matter which the various authors are feasting on at the time they write their posts. Someone asked if I wouldn’t write my next post on [...]

Yes, there’s more we’d like to add to Family Tree Magazine’s recently released annual list of “101 Best Websites” for 2010, Check these out:
“Best Sites for African-American Roots”
The growing interest in, and availability of records, for African-American research deserves more than the seven sites noted in the magazine. As helpful and important as they are, [...]

Research always becomes more real to me when I’m able to get a better idea of the context surrounding a particular event in an ancestor’s life.  As we all know, immigration is a key event that can help link an ancestor to the old country as well as provide other information vital to our research.  [...]

In a recent email exchange with a prospective client, she asked the following question:
“Please can you explain why it costs so much as I have provided you with the exact index number for the one specific record? Number 838308.00; I was hoping you would charge me 50 dollars for the one record. Also I’m not [...]

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 [...]

Recently I spent a lot of time poring over probate records. One particular entry caught my eye. It was a receipt turned in to the court by a guardian for items he had purchased for a child. Among the shoes and the gloves was “a pair of plaid pantaloons!” Can’t you just picture them? Bear [...]

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 [...]