National Archives – Genealogy Research Topics

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 […]

Finding Your Ancestors in the Ellis Island Database

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 […]

Find Newspaper Titles in 21 Largest Free and Subscription Databases

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 […]

32 Reasons Why Searching for Obituaries is Like Finding Gold

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 so many “facts” and clues that can be retrieved from these artifacts if we just pay attention. And they are just sitting there staring at […]

11 Things You Can Find by Researching Alumni Records

I contend that alumni records are part directories, part newspapers and magazines, part biographies, part obituaries, part yearbooks, part vital records, etc. You get the idea. If you are seeking genealogy clues, these “records’ are full of them. All of the information is derivative, but it can provide leads for you to search for original […]

24 Reasons to Research Institutional Records and Where to Find Them

Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain the two-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of what information you can find and where to look for Instututional Records, you can download it by clicking on the Download button below: For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets.  Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions

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 […]

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 […]

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 several questions that you […]

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 for the government to determine what resources needed to be applied to these special subsets and to obtain […]