Beginning in 1907, the Roman Catholic Church worldwide required that a Catholic person’s marriage be reported to his or her place of baptism. The 1907 decree Ne Temere required that marriages be noted on one’s baptismal record. They are usually noted on the side of the baptism record. Compliance with this decree varied, especially in [...]

With the holiday season in full-swing, I thought it would be fun to use various holiday words and phrases and see if I could find people in historical records that carried these words and phrases as actual names. Here are a few that I found:
1. Mary Christmas
There are many instances of this name appearing, but [...]

Most people upon hearing the term “vital record” instantly assign it a credibility that it may not deserve.  For example, Massachusetts has a series of vital records books affectionately called “the tan books” also known as Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850. The books are organized by town and as one would expect, they list births, [...]

One overlooked genealogical treasure when researching modern ancestors is modern day pension benefits. Recently, I was put in a position to place my mother, who had lived with me many years, in an assisted living facility. My husband had sustained an injury that needed my additional care and attention.
As I went about arranging my mother’s situation, [...]

My husband and I are currently moving and he is, unfortunately, often traveling for business. This presents some challenges as there are many things to do and he is only here occasionally to help. In a recent late night conversation over the phone he asked if I had put up Christmas lights yet. Silly me–all [...]

Recently when I was doing German parish research at the Family History Library, I heard a woman’s voice with a slight accent thanking someone for their help with someone else’s research problem.  It sounded like they were working to identify the family’s place of origin and they had either eliminated some of the possible locations [...]

The other day I was researching in the parish registers of St. Cuthbert’s, an Anglican church in Darlington, County Durham, England. As I was studying these registers, I came across a curious baptismal entry that was recorded in the early eighteenth century. Which of the entries do you think it is?
Look at the entry that reads “A [...]

I had the pleasure this month of visiting the Archives de Paris, the public archives of the city of Paris. It is located on boulevard Sérurier near the Porte des Lilas metro station. That metro station is on metro lines 11 and 3bis.
During my visit, I was impressed by the records available at the Archives [...]

Shhhh! I have a secret that I want to share with you. But don’t. tell. anyone. If I’m in a hurry to get a death certificate that isn’t available at the Family History Library, I’ll often order it from Vitalchek.com. This can be difficult sometimes because they ask for a specific date of death in [...]

Polish Marriage Records Online
Kyle J. Betit
Finding an ancestor’s home village or town in Poland can be a difficult job – especially because there are few large databases of Polish records to check online. Recently, however, some marriage databases have become available that are impressive and a good start on indexing Polish marriages online. Beware that [...]