Jul 29
Learning of any ancestors who served during the American Civil War is essential. For those researchers with family ties to New Jersey there is an online database which makes the search much easier. The Records of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War, 1861 to 1865 is part of the N. J. State Library Information Center. The digital databa...
Jul 27
Boy, that question may have been asked of you more than once. You may have even now questioned yourself why you are putting in the time and effort to research about your ancestors. You should re-examine your motives from time to time, especially during those times when you hit nothing but road blocks in your research. Well, hopefully the foll...
Jul 25
It is great to discover any new method for organizing one’s family information, images and stories. One such new software site is titled Tpstry, which allows a family researcher to simply put together online general information about family members, and include stories, images, timelines and events in a family’s history. What is created i...
Jul 23
Everyone might assume the City of Atlanta has been around as long as the United States has existed, but not so. Not until the southern train terminus was established in 1837, did any type of community exist in the area. It was originally just named ‘Terminus’, then in 1843 renamed Marthasville and by 1845 finally named Atlanta. The first news...
Jul 21
Using software programs on a computer such as Family Tree Maker, Legacy or RootsMagic are great methods to organize the collection of ancestral names, dates, location and detailed information. You put a good deal of time into researching and organizing the data on the software programs, you certainly do not want anything to happen to that hard ...
Jul 19
You have worked for hours, weeks and months on the family tree. The pedigree chart is slowly taking shape, but there are still many blanks, with no clues to learn further. Patience is the most important aspect of family history research. That is one reason it can take a very long period of time before you feel you have made a dent in unraveli...
Jul 17
With the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, many researchers are learning more about their relatives who served either for the Confederacy or the Union during this war on home territory. Because the fighting spread from Pennsylvania, to Florida, to Kentucky and out west to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; there are numerous locations of small...
Jul 15
A fun way to share family history is by creating a family newsletter. This need not be a complicated and elaborate undertaking. A newsletter is simply a way to keep family members up-to-date with genealogical research that has been done and what is still being searched. It also provides a platform to keep family members knowledgeable of current f...
Jul 13
Since 2008, the National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation has been working on a state-of-the-art $20 million project to honor those millions of immigrants to America. Since all Americans are either an immigrant or descended from one, this touches everyone. This special project is named Peopling of America Center. ...
Jul 11
With so many online messages boards available: Rootsweb, GenForum, WikiTree, Facebook, Twitter, Surname Societies, local genealogical societies or historical societies; you have some excellent opportunities to locate new information, photos, charts, documents, records, journals or artifacts you had no idea existed. However, you have to make any req...
Jul 9
Researchers too often just think of their immigrant ancestors landing in Ellis Island in New York. Yet, this major port for new arrivals did not open until January 1, 1892. From that point until 1954, millions of immigrants were handled at Ellis Island, the first Federal government processing center. Before 1892, millions of earlier immigran...
Jul 7
Once you have viewed, photographed and made a rubbing of an ancestor’s headstone, you need to study very carefully the symbols and designs placed by the family to represent that person’s life. Dates and words tell the family researcher a good deal, but those symbols can open new prospects of understanding one’s ancestor. The engraving of...
Jul 5
All family history researchers check for vital records, but one source many times overlooked is the headstone of an ancestor. Locating the cemetery and then the headstone of an ancestor just might produce some answers to a few long sought questions. A popular practice when visiting a family plot at a cemetery is to make some rubbings of the head...
Jul 3
This is the time of the year many family history researchers reflect on the possibly that they may have some ancestors who lived during or even served during the War for American Independence. Before beginning, one must have verified that they had ancestors who lived between 1776 and 1783, the war years. Many people immediately figure if they ...
Jul 1
A family researcher spends a great deal of time looking for primary vital documents to learn about those relatives who have passed away. However, one of the aspects of looking for those who have died, are also finding living relatives. By learning of a cousin or an aunt, previously unknown to the researcher and who could still be alive is just as...