The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database (CWSS) is one of the most widely used — and frequently misunderstood — Civil War research tools. It does not contain full-service records, pension files, or images. Instead, it functions as a name-and-unit identification database designed to answer a critical first question: Did this person serve in the […]
Category: QuickSheets
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) maintains burial and memorial records for U.S. service members who died outside the United States, primarily during: If a U.S. service member died overseas and was not returned home, the ABMC is often the only centralized burial record available. For genealogists, the ABMC database is essential for: Download the […]
The National Cemetery Administration (NCA), part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, maintains burial records for millions of U.S. veterans and eligible family members buried in VA national cemeteries and other federally administered burial grounds. For genealogists, the NCA is most valuable for: The Nationwide Gravesite Locator is the key search engine that makes […]
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 ink on the newsprint and foul up your research because of […]
The SAR Patriot Research System is one of the most authoritative — and least understood — genealogy databases available online. It is not a general military database, and it is not a cemetery website. Instead, it is a lineage-society research tool created to document men and women who rendered qualifying service during the American Revolutionary […]
I have been researching online historical newspaper sites for several years, both the free ones as well as the subscription-based sites. Their software capabilities, independent of the size and quality of their scanned collections, break down into two parts: 1. How do you search the site and find “stuff” 2. How do you download and save the […]
Google Books remains one of the most powerful — and most misunderstood — genealogy tools available online. It contains tens of millions of digitized books, including local histories, county biographies, city directories, church publications, military histories, government reports, school catalogs, and family genealogies. However, the Google Books interface has changed significantly over the years. Despite […]
The Hamburg Passenger Lists are one of the most important — and most underused — immigration resources in genealogy. Covering departures from the port of Hamburg primarily between 1850 and 1934, these lists document millions of emigrants leaving Europe for destinations around the world. Because these are departure records, they can reveal information that never […]
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is one of the most important — and most misunderstood — genealogy tools available online. It doesn’t contain names, records, or images of ancestors. Instead, it solves a problem that derails countless research efforts: Knowing exactly where records were created and kept at a specific moment in time. Counties […]
If you are trying to add to your ancestor’s life stories, what better way than interesting newspaper articles about their lives? Absent direct accounts from your living relatives, seeking these hidden gems in old newspapers will tell you things about your ancestors that there is no other way, absent a biography or autobiographical book, that […]