When researching our ancestors, one of our most important goals is to determine where they lived. This information is key to finding other aspects of their lives, whether they be local or state vital records or newspapers where there might be further information about them. Most folks limit their search to the obvious repositories, whether […]
Category: QuickSheets
If you are like me, you want to know as much as possible about the lives of your ancestors. Determining their stories is a challenge, especially if no one is alive who remembers the ancestor you are researching. But fortunately, many documents record at least, the occupation of the target ancestor, and that can tell […]
Do you research school records? I’m not talking about yearbooks. Those can be found on the Yearbooks Page. I’m talking about actual school records, such as enrollment, attendance, and grade reports for example. These are interesting source documents because they might record the student’s age, birth date and location, and possibly their parents’ names. All great […]
Old school yearbooks are not just a place where you can find your ancestor or relative’s photographs, candid photos, or photos where they looked goofy. Yearbooks from high school or college are one of the most fun sets of records for a genealogist to search. It provides you with a ton of story-like information about […]
Some of the often-overlooked genealogy documents for us to research are naturalization applications and other necessary documents used to become a U.S. citizen. Do you research naturalization records? No? Why not? Does the thought of going through paper files in dusty court basements turn you off? Well – I’m here to tell you that it […]
There are a bunch of different documents and records that the genealogist and family historian can utilize to find out more about one’s ancestors, no matter whether they be related to life event dates or locations or include other information. I have found that funeral and memorial books hold a ton of interesting information, much […]
The Vitals section of the newspaper is generally the most pursued by genealogy newspaper researchers – primarily because that is where death notices and obituaries reside. But there are more than just obits in this important section. Below is a list of the keys to getting the most for your family history research out of the […]
In old newspapers and other genealogically-related documents (especially census records), nicknames were frequently used, as those names were more often used than the “formal” given name of the person. Your search index database is not smart enough, for example, to interpret ‘Sadie” for the formal given name of “Sarah”. Thus, you will need to use both names separately in […]
When looking for our ancestors in the United States we typically look for a “city” name, a “county” name, and the state. Did you know that not every state uses the term “county” to describe that administrative/political subdivision? And did you know that in some states there are independent cities that are not a part […]
Have you checked out History Hub (https://historyhub.history.gov) to visit their communities and ask questions that could help further your genealogy research? History Hub is sponsored by the National Archives and was developed in 2016 as a community crowdsourced support platform where people can ask questions, get help with research, and share their knowledge and information. […]