Finding Female Ancestors Is a Family Affair

It's a wonderful thing when the family works together and it can work in our family history research as well...

Read More

Why Can't I Find or Recognize My Ancestral Homes?

My oldest granddaughter and I recently drove past the house I moved out of three years ago. She said it didn't look right with a different paint color, missing trees, missing lilac bushes, the enclosed porch now open, and no deck in back. She visited that house often during a period of ten years and remembers it well.

A few weeks ago I was invited to tour the remodeled house. They wanted to know about the house's history, the past residents, and about what changes had been made. It was a nice tour. Some aspects were quite different, while some have stayed the same.

The new owner wants to compile a history of the house. I knew about a few of the families that have lived there since it was built in 1907. I am surprising him with the 1910, 1920, and 1930 census printouts from Ancestry for this address. I told him that his wife might request something the house had in 1910--a maid!

Continue Reading
http://www.ancestralfindings.com/freea11838.htm

Great-Great-Grandma Was an Indian?

After my 2 July column on the 1880-1940 U.S. Indian censuses at Ancestry.com, I received many questions about tracing elusive American Indian ancestry. While I can't answer each of you personally, the basic steps and tips below should get you started.

Perhaps you have a family legend that Great-great-grandma Pearl had Indian blood. Usually thestory doesn't share a clue whether that blood is from her maternal or paternal side. It's important to note that a specific tribe will not have a master index of anyone who ever had that Indian blood. Nor will the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). There is no "master index." So, how do you go about solving this mystery?

Continue Reading
http://www.ancestralfindings.com/freea11851.htm

German Immigrants to New York

If you can’t locate German ancestors who you think immigrated to New York City, you might just be missing their mark. It wasn’t uncommon for German immigrant boats to dock in Hoboken, New Jersey, rather than New York City. Not always realizing that they weren’t in New York, quite a few of the immigrants just remained in New Jersey...

Read More

Easily Record Source Information on Copies

When you make a photocopy of a page from a pertinent book at a library or archive, make a note of the publication information for your source citation.

Include:
-- Author's name(s)
-- Title
-- City and state (and country if foreign) of publication
-- Name of publisher
-- Year of publication
-- Other appropriate information (volume number, edition, etc.)
-- Repository where you located the material
-- The date you accessed the material
-- When you return home, you can type this information in your word processor in a bibliographic citation format. Feed the photocopies through your printer so that the citation will be neatly printed on the back of the photocopies you made from that source.

- Continue Reading

SSDI Blues

I did something today that I've been dreading. I finally got the courage to search for my mother's name in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). And yes, she's in there, although she passed away only about ten weeks ago.

It still doesn't truly register. I thought it would be a few more decades before Mom would appear in this resource that I use on a daily basis without any thought--without any thought of what it really means. Each one of those millions of entries meant the world to someone...

- Continue Reading

Guillotine Victims of the French Revolution

Those condemmed to death shall lose their heads (Penal Code of 1791, Article 3)

Even though the guillotine stands today as a dark symbol of capital punishment, at the time of its invention it was perceived as a progressive step towards a fair and humane implementation of the death sentence which, previously, had been administered by varying and often terrible means. The first executions by guillotine were actually booed by crowds who were accustomed to long and bloody rituals and who were disappointed by the speed of the process.

This collection includes the names, residences, descriptions and accusers of 13,046 men and women who went to the guillotine starting in 1792 up to the time of the French Directory.

Search the collection >>

In addition to name and date of death, this collection includes:

• Occupation
• Residence

Seeking Your Ancestor's Court Records

I've always wished some of my ancestors had been criminals because, if they had been, I would be able to find more records containing information about them...

Read More

Can You Find Your British Ancestors?

Over 32 million Americans can trace their ancestry to England, butfor most of them, genealogical research is easier in America thanit is across the Atlantic...

Read More

Orphans' Court Records

In most states, the county orphan court's responsibilities included appointing guardians for orphans, overseeing bastardy proceedings, and providing for the poor...

Read More

“Cutting Through the Red Tape” of Military Records

I have learned from visits to the National Archives facilities in Washington, DC and in College Park, Maryland that the Archives of the United States contain far more records relating to a person’s military career than just those records that are contained in his service file and his pension file...

Read More

North Carolina, 1850 Census Microfilm Records

This data set includes an index to the 1850 census of the actual records themselves — in the census taker's own handwriting!

The index references more than 140,000 North Carolina heads-of-household counted in this especially valuable census.

Search Now

You Can’t Just Take Land … Can You?

If the concept of squatter’s rights seems more like lore and legend than like something legal, you may want to rethink your view—squatter’s rights are very much a fact of land law today, just as they were 50, 100, and 200 years ago...

Read More