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
This is going to be a different kind list of items for new (and newish) genealogy researchers and family historians. I am not going to try to suggest how or what to research. There are tons of places for you to find information about researching. But hopefully, this list will help you in a different […]
One of the many – and often overlooked genealogy documents for us to research are passport applications and the passports themselves. Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain the one-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of what kind of information is available from passports and applications, and where you can find information about your ancestors’ passport […]
Another of the growing number of subscription newspaper collections is My Heritage. They have over 50 million digitized newspaper pages available to research! They have their own collection of newspapers from the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands, and access to the Trove collection in Australia and Chronicling America, all via My Heritage’s search features. To […]
I have always been mesmerized by my ancestors’ photographs. Just to see what they looked like and to compare their facial features with those of my close relatives has been a very interesting endeavor. But as I have been able to collect these old photos, I have also been quite interested in the surrounding “information.” […]
When researching our ancestors, one of the most important events is their marriage(s). Determining their spouse and the date and location of marriage is important as we document the major events in their lives. Most folks limit their search to the obvious repositories, whether online or not, focusing primarily on marriage certificates and licenses. There […]
When researching our ancestors, one of the most important events, especially if they immigrated to America in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is their immigration and naturalization. The laws have changed multiple times and can be confusing if your ancestor is a woman or is non-white. The first Naturalization Act was passed in 1790. […]
When researching our ancestors, one of the most important events is obviously their birth (otherwise they wouldn’t be ancestors – but I digress). Determining the date and location of birth is important as we document the major events in their lives. Most folks limit their search to the obvious repositories, whether online or not. But there […]
When searching old newspapers and census records, we are often faced with unusual names of occupations, and we have no clue as to their meaning because the terms are not in use today. I have collected a list of about 280 old occupations and their meanings from a variety of sources. Dan Burrows and Jan […]
