Blog Content
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Menus and Photos 1851 to 1930
Dec 30
In a past FamilyTree.com Genealogical Blog, I had written about cruise lines, railroad and airlines menus and locating them online in a digital format. The New York Public Library has an even greater collection of menus from restaurants, hotels, banquet rooms all over New York and other locations – also in digital format. It is the Miss F...
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Civil War Widows’ Pensions
Dec 28
Those researchers with ancestral veterans who served during the American Civil War will want to find as many additional sources of primary information as possible. One good location is the pension applications and case files completed by the widows and dependent children of veterans. The United States government granted pensions to widows of men...
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Photos & Documents from Kansas
Dec 26
The 'Sunflower' state of Kansas is in the heart of the United States. Its name comes from the 'Kansa' Native Indians. However many different Indian tribes lived on these great plains. The hunting of the plain's bison was the core of their existence. In 1854 the US government opened up the Kansas land for settlers. It became a state of the Union i...
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Family Photo Albums & Hometowns
Dec 24
A perfect opportunity to identify photos in family albums is during the holiday week when you can visit with relatives. Never attempt to label all the photos, but even a handful will help you later in some additional research. If you are going to a relative's house and they don't have any family photos and you do, bring them along. Share them with ...
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National Roots Day. December 23.
Dec 23
It's the holiday season and everyone is preparing their homes around the globe in celebration. Some are spending the holidays with their parents or grandparents, others with their adult children or grandchildren. There are all types of family styles now-a-days; from two parents, to a single parent, to adopted parents, to a family being sisters, bro...
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Images of Old San Francisco
Dec 22
The San Francisco, California Public Library has online a large historical photographic collection of the city by the bay. These images starting around 1850 come from cabinet cards, lantern slides, photo albums, postcards, panorama, glass negatives, stereograph and general scenes of San Francisco and California subjects. There are about 40,000 of t...
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Google Newspapers Around the Globe
Dec 20
The search engine on the Internet is a valuable tool. One of the most well-known and innovated search engines is Google. It can be extremely useful for family history research. Their newspaper collections are outstanding. Since newspaper, big and small circulation are the window to a community, the use of newspaper articles for family research has ...
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Cushman Photos and Slides 1930s to 1972
Dec 18
It is nice to come across a large collection of photos that cover or represent a certain region or time period. Photos are the best method to get an idea of how our ancestors looked, dressed, their activities and what their state, region or community looked like at a certain time period. The Indiana University Archives – Digital Library Progra...
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Our Ancestor’s Menu – Please !
Dec 16
There are collections of all types of items – just about any time period and any location. This includes menus. Yes, the card stock folder, the sheet of paper or the booklet – many different type of food menus used by airlines and cruise ships. This online collection from Northwestern University Library has about 400 menus from across the Uni...
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Finding Published Family History Books
Dec 14
FamilySearch.org has collected some 40,000 digital family history books along with periodicals and gazettes all relating to genealogy and individual family research. This makes it very simple to locate, read and even download the material if you desire. The seven sources for this collection range from the Allen County Public Library, to Brigham ...
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Upper New York State Newspapers
Dec 12
Today is 12-12-12 You may wonder where are the best sources for information on your ancestors or their hometown. The one research that generally yields the most and many times some very unusual bits of information are the local newspapers. The more localized you can make your search many times is where the best results occur. There is an onli...
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United Kingdom Postcards
Dec 10
The sending and receiving of postcards became a very popular activity for people around the globe beginning in the 1870s and especially by the late 1880s and into the 1910s. The postcards were not just sent while one was traveling, visiting other places, but also just as a method to share scenes of what their own hometown or region looked like. Ph...
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The Fun Our Ancestors Had in 1880s
Dec 9
Knowing more about the types of interests and sources of entertainment for our ancestors really adds to getting to know our relatives. One very popular and fashionable form of entertainment actually came about due to the improvement in 1884 of ball-bearing roller skates. With superior development in the skates, the public roller or skating rinks s...
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Types of Researchers
Dec 8
Working on your family history is not an exact science with only one method to research your ancestors. For as many different ancestors you may have there are that many varied ways to be a researcher. You want to be the type that your are most comfort with and brings you the greatest satisfaction. So what are these types of researcher? See if ...
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Genealogical Holiday Sayings for the Season
Dec 7
In these weeks leading up to the holidays, as you write those Holiday Newsletters, fill out cards, decorate, wrap gifts you might like to add a special genealogical touch. So the following are a collection from numerous sources of genealogical sayings you can use during this holiday season. If you are into designing gift paper or cards...
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