An interesting thing has happened in the last few years: the explosion of social networking and social media. We have been able to be constantly updated about the activities of our friends and relatives like never before…but it’s only a 21st Century manifestation of our tendency to spy on each other.
In historical newspapers, many of [...]

Sometimes people researching their family history seem to forget that there is more to their ancestors than a birth and death date. If we’re truly trying to get to know our forebears, those are among the most boring bits of information since they happen to everybody! We all descend from more fascinating people than we [...]

FYI: This post is admittedly geared towards my fellow Utahns, as well as anyone else who might have genealogical ties to the Beehive State.
A couple of months ago, on a lazy Sunday evening, I decided to peruse Utah Digital Newspapers, a database of digitized Utah newspapers that is free to the public. Specifically, I wanted to find stories about my [...]

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, [...]

Family Tree Magazine has just released their annual list of “101 Best Websites” for 2010 with a bit of a twist. Having published ten such lists over the past decade, the magazine’s editors always provide interesting selections, often with some theme. This year they decided to dispense with references to subscription sites as a nod [...]

It is wonderful that there are so many genealogical databases on the Internet! Each database has different content. Therefore, the information in each is also accessed differently depending on what the search engine allows. I have learned that it is important not to give up on your search, and I’ve learned that I can be smarter than the [...]

So, some folks got up this last weekend, before the sun, and stood in long lines outside stores, hoping for a great deal. Big screen TV? New smart phone? Clothes for the children who will grow out of them before the next “Black Friday?” In America, we are bombarded with advertisements that invite us to [...]

This lucky grandmother has a brand new grandson! The morning of his birth I received a text that my daughter was at the hospital and that they expected the baby soon.  Then shortly thereafter I received a photo on my cell phone with the message, “we have a baby.” Of course, because of the prevalence [...]

I’ve always enjoyed using newspapers to do genealogical research. There’s something about scrolling through rolls of microfilm and looking at the advertising while searching for the marriage announcements and obituaries of my ancestors. The articles and advertising provide great context for the time periods in which my ancestors lived, not to mention that some of [...]

I was recently “over my head” in tracing the origins of some former slaves – that is, “over my head” in both the sense that slave research is difficult (emotionally and academically) and the research was even more complicated because of the specific goal the client had in mind.
While I can’t help anyone with the [...]