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 [...]

Most people know more about their family history than they think they do. I often run into clients who assure me that the minimal information they’ve provided is ALL they know. Usually after a brief review of their information, I come up with several questions that I think they can probably answer. They usually can.
I [...]

Is a godparent the same thing as a baptismal sponsor? Who can be a godparent?
Yes, generally the term godparent is equivalent to baptismal sponsor. Who, then, can serve as a baptismal sponsor at a Catholic baptism? Technically, canon law (church law) requires only one sponsor for baptism, but there can be two sponsors, one male [...]

What is a “conditional baptism”?
Consider the language of the following baptismal record from 1913 in Quebec Province, Canada:
“We, the undersigned parish priest, have received the abjuration from heresy of _____, Protestant, adult: also her profession of the Roman Catholic Faith. We have given conditional baptism and absolution.”
This individual was a Protestant being received into the [...]