When you go about researching a family line, what are the first records you look at? Probably census, birth, marriage, and death records – and rightly so, since they can so neatly fill in the blanks on your charts. However, if you look at what records are available for a particular place and time, there [...]

A close loved one of mine recently passed away. At the time of the death a treasure trove of documents pertaining to the family was created though the estate was very small. There are more death records than the modern death certificate provided by a county or state government agency:

The assisted living facility, nursing home, [...]

Some of the oldest existing vital records for Southern States research are marriage records. Laws and customs regarding marriage records and vital statistics for many of the states of the Mid-South region have roots in the Commonwealth of Virginia or North Carolina. Bordering areas of North Carolina and Virginia both influenced each other. West Virginia [...]

I recently posted about the genealogical value of newspapers, and how newspapers can add a lot of life to our ancestors. In my experience, this has been particularly true of newspapers that have been indexed. Instead of just relying on the vital dates about my ancestors to look for applicable articles, I can find any [...]