Reclaim the Records is a non-profit organization that strives to obtain genealogical record collections that “ought to be” in the public domain but are restricted by government organizations. They file FOIA and Open Data requests to obtain the records and if that fails to succeed, they go to court. Once records are obtained, the organization […]
Category: QuickSheets
NARA has a great list of 35 Genealogy Research Topics, which has links to further detailed discussions about the topic, as well as guides to other relevant resources and links to collections (both online and offline). The following PDF lists all the Genealogy Topics, along with the inks to the NARA site. Download the Quicksheet […]
The Ellis Island Database is one of the most popular databases for researchers trying to find their immigrant ancestors who arrived at the Port of New York. It has passenger records and ship manifests for about 65 million people, and it has records from 1820 to 1957. The following PDF discusses how to search the […]
In order to succeed at newspaper research, you must search in the right location, and you must search in the appropriate date range. You MUST know before you search if the database includes titles in the locations that you are searching. You must know where to find the titles to match the correct locations and […]
OK – you won’t get rich when you find an obituary, but your genealogy research will benefit, and your family history research will get richer. We have a tendency as researchers to underappreciate the value of the documents or articles that we already have acquired, and spend our time looking for new “stuff.” There are […]
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, […]
Institutional records are a record set that is sometimes overlooked and a record set that can be difficult to locate and acquire. Many people don’t think to look for institutional records as part of their genealogy research as in the past people who spent time in institutions were not always talked about out of misguided […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 several questions that you […]