When I first started my ancestor research, after I had gotten over the initial excitement of reviewing census records and interviewing my living relatives, I almost immediately began trying to find my immigrant ancestors and how they got to America. Through free repositories such as Ellis Island and Castle Garden and other sites, as well […]
Category: QuickSheets
Another type of genealogy record that provides tremendous value is criminal records. Some of our ancestors, unfortunately, got in trouble with the law. And records were kept from arrests through court cases to prison documents. Now, more and more of these records are being digitized or transcribed and are being made available online. Download the […]
Voter registration records are available online and offline from all over the world and are what I consider a hidden gem of information that can assist you in advancing your family history and genealogy research. Before I get to the 9 reasons why voter records are such a wonderful tool for researching (and finding) ancestors, […]
Some great places to start researching genealogy records are in genealogical and historical societies. There are many ethnicity and nationality-based societies. Each society has collections and records available that will aid in your research. Some are accessible for non-members and even more are accessible for those who have purchased a membership. These societies have an […]
Primarily a North American phenomenon historically, the first yearbook published was the Yale Banner in the early 1800s.I encourage you to research old yearbooks, and not just for yourself and close relatives. What about your ancestors? They went to school too (at least some of them in the last 200 years). And yearbooks have significant […]
Do you like to search for genealogy records for your ancestors for Free? Duh. I have about 100 websites that I use, some frequently, some infrequent. 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. […]
There are 3 types of information available online from the National Archives Social Security NUMIDENT files, which is a computerized database that contains SS-5 Application data, Social Security Claims information, and Death Records. There are almost 150 million records available to search. Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain the two-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference […]
Was your ancestor an inventor? Did they apply for and receive a patent? There are several databases you can search. Google Patents is the most well-known, but there are four others you might want to try out. All are free to search. I knew that my Dad had several patents and that his grandfather possibly […]
As we all know, there are no photos available of all of our ancestors, especially many of those who lived primarily in the 1800s or earlier. On the other hand, we may have photos in our collection in what I call my “Unknowns,” where they have not been identified, and may never be identified. So […]
City and business directories are available online from all over the U.S. and Canada and are what I consider another important (and underutilized) set of information that can assist you in advancing your family history and genealogy research. So, what kinds of directories are available to the researcher? Naturally city and business directories, but also telephone directories, […]