A woman’s name in the newspaper often depended on the event being reported rather than her legal identity. Social columns, wedding announcements, legal notices, and community news frequently used different naming conventions, making it easy for the same person to appear under multiple names. Researchers who search only one version of a woman’s name may […]
Newspapers often reflected the names people used in everyday life rather than the formal names found in official records. Reporters routinely printed nicknames, pet names, and familiar forms that were widely recognized within a community. As a result, researchers searching only for formal names may completely overlook newspaper references to the very people they seek. […]
A missing letter may seem insignificant, but in newspaper research it can completely derail a search. Printing defects, worn type, uneven inking, and aging newspaper pages often cause individual letters to disappear or become unreadable. When OCR encounters these damaged names, it frequently indexes them incorrectly, making otherwise valuable articles impossible to find through standard […]
Alumni records are part directories, part newspapers, and magazines, part biographies, part obituaries, part yearbooks, part vital records, etc. You get the idea. If you are seeking genealogy clues, these “records’ are full of them. All of the information is derivative, but it can provide leads for you to search for original documents. And if […]
Sometimes the most important clue in your research is the record you expected to find—but didn’t. The Insight Missing records are not always dead ends. Often, they are clues that point your research in an entirely new direction. Most genealogists focus on finding records. Experienced researchers also pay close attention to the records that should […]
MyHeritage continues to add or update its record collections at a fast pace for us to search. For June 1-15, 2026, there are 3 new and 5 updated collections. The new and updated collections are: I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for! Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
The records you expect may not exist, but the records you need often do. The Insight Many researchers begin with a mental picture of the records they expect to find. When those records are missing, they assume the trail has ended. In reality, ancestors often leave evidence in places many researchers never think to look. […]
When the dates don’t fit, neither does the conclusion. The Insight Many researchers become attached to a theory because it feels right. The problem is that genealogy is ultimately constrained by time. A person cannot be born after their mother dies. A father cannot appear in two places at the same time. A child cannot […]
FamilySearch continues to add or update its record collections at a fast pace for us to search. For the period of June 1-15, 2026, the added/updated collections are: For a complete list of all added/updated collections, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for! Good Luck and […]
Over 1,100 New titles were added by various Free and Subscription databases in the last month. Here are links to all the updates: