11 Things You Can Find by Researching Alumni Records

Maybe it’s just me, but I have never heard anyone write or talk about using Alumni Records in their genealogy research. I use them personally and have discovered mountains of information in these gems. I contend that alumni records are part directories, part newspapers and magazines, part biographies, part obituaries, part yearbooks, part vital records, […]

24 Reasons to Research Institutional Records and Where to Find Them

Institutional records are another class of collections that should be part of one’s genealogy research repertoire. Although most of your ancestors may not have spent time in an institution, I’ll bet that almost every family tree has several that have. So they are worth your effort to research. This Quicksheet discusses the many types of […]

Historical U.S. Draft Registration and Enrollment Rules

Especially when trying to search the content-rich documents, such as World War I and World War II draft cards, it is often puzzling why a specific person cannot be found. Beyond tricky names and such, it is often difficult because the rules for who needed to register changed several times during each of those wartime […]

Top 40 Free Online Genealogy Websites You Should Be Visiting Now

Do you like to search for genealogy records for your ancestors for Free? Duh. I have about 40 websites that I frequently use. Some have digitized records in their collections. Some have links to collections that can be searched or browsed. Some include transcribed records. And some have useful genealogical educational information. All of the […]

How to Get the Most from Chronicling America

Chronicling America is a very popular website that provides free online digitized newspapers from the United States. It currently has almost 20 million digitized pages. It helps to understand the background of this website as well as some features that are not widely known. This QuickSheet tells you about how Chronicling America gets its database […]

Are You Using Mortality Schedules from the Census Records

What’s a mortality schedule you ask? Well, the U.S. Census Bureau, starting in 1850, began preparing special Non-population Schedules. Population schedules are the ones that we are always using and we tend to call them just “Census Records”. There have been several Non-population schedules, including Agricultural Schedules, Manufacturing Schedules, Social Statistic Schedules, Business Schedules, and […]

Mastering Chronicling America’s Advanced Search

Essentially, there are two methods to search Chronicling America for historical newspapers. Basic Search, available from the Home Page as well as the “Search Pages” tab, allows you to enter your search criteria, and restrict results to a single state and to a range of years. The Advanced Search, which I highly recommend that you […]

Obituary Search FAQs

Are you trying to find Obituaries for a relative, friend, or ancestor? People will tell you that it is easy – just look in old newspapers, or if it is a recent death, just Google the person’s name to see if there is an online obituary, tribute, or memorial. Here are some Frequently Asked Questions […]

How to Use the United States Federal Non-Population Census Schedules

Non-population schedules were census schedules that were created as an adjunct to the “normal census” that was gathered every ten years and still is. Essentially they were gathered to obtain information on special subsets of the population in order for the government to determine what resources needed to be applied to these special subsets and […]

8 Ways to Mess Up Your Newspaper Research

Finding information and articles in newspapers about your ancestors is incredibly rewarding. And the amount of information about your ancestors in old newspapers is likely more than we can find. But if you are not careful you can make assumptions about what is in the ink on the newsprint and foul up your research because […]