That little newspaper item saying your ancestor was “visiting relatives” may be much more than social news. The names and places mentioned in travel and visiting notices can reveal married daughters, siblings, cousins, former hometowns, migration connections, and relatives you didn’t know existed. Old newspapers were filled with ordinary comings and goings. “Mrs. Johnson is […]
Author: Kenneth R Marks
Kenneth R Marks was born and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, receiving a BS in Mathematics in 1968. His career was in Information Technology; with the last 20 Years as a software executive with Boeing, Pearson, and NASA. His genealogy career began in 2004. He is an expert in newspaper research for genealogy, as well as additional genealogy topics. He regularly conducts webinars on the subject and has authored three genealogy books. See the About page for more details.
The Ancestor Hunt, founded in 2008, is focused on helping genealogy and family history researchers of all skill levels to achieve their goals, by providing links to free online genealogy collections, and search tips and techniques, largely via easy-to-understand Quick Reference Guides.
The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection regularly adds or updates newspaper titles to the collection. Last month, 15 titles were added or updated (Information provided by Veridian Software, which powers the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection website). Here is the list of titles: To access the site, go to Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection
Veridian Software has many clients with collections of digitized newspapers that can be searched for free. Over 250 million pages currently. They power the newspaper collections of California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. And country-wide collections, such as Estonia, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland. Veridian is the name of […]
Found your ancestor described as an “inmate” in a census or other historical record? Don’t immediately start looking for the crime. Historically, an inmate could simply be someone residing in an institution—and that institution might have been an almshouse, hospital, orphanage, asylum, soldiers’ home, or other facility rather than a prison. The Myth If a […]
Are you doing Texas genealogy research and looking for Free Online Texas Genealogy Records? Click on a link for your desired category’s free collection links: NewspapersYearbooksBirthsMarriagesDeathsBMD RecordsAlumni RecordsCemetery RecordsChurch RecordsCoroner RecordsCriminal RecordsDigital ArchivesDirectoriesDivorce RecordsImmigration RecordsInstitutional RecordsMilitary RecordsMortuary RecordsNaturalizationsObituariesPhotosProbate and WillsSchool RecordsTax RecordsVoter Records Good Luck and Happy Hunting! Want All of the Texas’ Genealogy Resources […]
Your ancestor may not have migrated alone—even if the records make it look that way. Relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers, and families from the same community often moved together or followed one another. Finding those migration companions may help you discover where your ancestor came from, why they moved, and where other family members went. When […]
Are you doing New Jersey genealogy research and looking for Free Online New Jersey Genealogy Records? Click on a link for your desired category’s free collection links: NewspapersYearbooksBirthsMarriagesDeathsBMD RecordsAlumni RecordsCemetery RecordsChurch RecordsCoroner RecordsCriminal RecordsDigital ArchivesDirectoriesDivorce RecordsImmigration RecordsInstitutional RecordsMilitary RecordsMortuary RecordsNaturalizationsObituariesPhotosProbate and WillsSchool RecordsTax RecordsVoter Records Good Luck and Happy Hunting! Want All of the New […]
If an ancestor “died intestate,” does that mean there was no estate to settle? Quite the opposite may be true. Intestate means the person died without a valid will—not without property. And that can make the resulting probate records especially useful to genealogists. The Myth A person described as having “died intestate” died without an […]
Your ancestors may have left family clues in the names they gave their children. Repeated given names, unusual middle names, and surnames used as first or middle names can point toward grandparents, relatives, family friends, and earlier generations—but they are clues, not proof. When genealogists identify the children in a family, their names usually become […]
MyHeritage continues to add or update its record collections at a fast pace for us to search. For August 1-31 2026, there are 19 new and 10 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!