Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians, and archivists, many indexes to obituary information and transcriptions of obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the scanned newspaper clipping is included. Remember, you can always find online […]
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.
Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians, and archivists, many indexes to obituary information and transcriptions of obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the scanned newspaper clipping is included. And remember you can always find […]
School district records are an overlooked but exceptionally rich source of genealogical information. Created to track students, teachers, funding, attendance, and local administration, these records can reveal names, ages, residences, guardians, occupations, migrations, family structures, and even social history details not found in censuses or vital records. Because school districts often kept their own ledgers […]
ArchiveGrid is a powerful but underused discovery tool containing more than 5 million archival collection descriptions from libraries, historical societies, museums, and university archives worldwide. For genealogists, ArchiveGrid is one of the best ways to locate manuscript collections, diaries, letters, photographs, organizational records, business papers, and local history materials related to families, towns, occupations, and […]
This past week (November 28, 2025 to December 4, 2025), the following additions were made to The Newspaper Research Academy: ✅ Free Resources – 0 New Articles were added – 83 Total ✅ Research Guides – 2 New Guides were added – 92 Total ✅ Video Guides – 0 New Videos – 19 Total ✅ […]
Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians, and archivists, many indexes to obituary information and transcriptions of obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the scanned newspaper clipping is included. Remember, you can always find online […]
BillionGraves is one of the only cemetery databases that captures GPS coordinates for every headstone image, creating precise spatial data not available in most genealogy sources. Beyond simple grave lookups, the GPS features allow genealogists to identify family clusters, reconstruct burial patterns, distinguish same-name individuals, and map migration or community ties within a cemetery. This […]
The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection regularly adds or updates newspaper titles to the collection. Last month, 19 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
Have you ever been deep into old court records, probate files, land documents, or early newspaper notices and wondered, “What on earth does this legal term mean?” Many expressions that were once common in legal proceedings have disappeared from modern usage, leaving genealogists puzzled when they encounter them. This list provides clear, concise definitions of […]
Jury lists—whether for petit (trial) juries, grand juries, or venire panels—capture everyday citizens drawn for civic duty. While they rarely appear in typical genealogy searches, these lists reveal residence, occupation, property ownership, race, social standing, and FAN-club networks. Because jury pools were drawn from eligible citizens in a specific time and place, they provide strong […]