In the hustle and bustle of the holiday, my birthday is sometimes over-looked. I guess it’s my fault for deciding to be born six weeks early, on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, there is one tradition that is never forgotten. Every year for my birthday dinner, we have Chowder. I grew up in Maine and am a [...]

When I was very young, Thanksgiving meant lots of food, visits with grandparents, dressing up like a Pilgrim, and making hand turkeys with multi-colored construction paper at school. Things were certainly simpler as a child. I enjoy those fond Thanksgiving memories.
As I’ve grown and as life has become more complicated, Thanksgiving means quite a bit more. I started [...]

The records of fraternal orders and other societies are a relatively untapped source for genealogy, with great promise. I was delighted to see that the Kansas Historical Society is hosting a database of Fraternal Order Death Notices from several orders. Over 50,000 individuals are included in the time period 1873-1970. Both men and women (in [...]

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, [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

Recently I’ve rediscovered the joys of city directories. A city directory makes a wonderful census substitute in non-census years. Bear in mind however, that directories, like most records we find for our ancestors, are male oriented. The person usually listed is only the head of household and as you know more often than not that [...]

Continuing our role as “volunteer editor” for Family Tree Magazine’s recently released annual list of “101 Best Websites” for 2010, here are some sites the editors should (and may) have considered this year:
“Best Sites for Western US Research”
The ten websites in the magazine’s list are very helpful, yet they cover only four states, a major [...]

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 [...]