Mar 31
The use of the U. S. Federal Census or any of the state censuses conducted in-between the each decade of the federal population count are a wonderful source of data about our ancestors. It is a way to gauge who was living with their parents, ages, occupations, property values and birth places. Following each decade that an ancestor lived is a min...
Mar 29
Working on family history is not just names, dates, locations and family stories. Various family members can have heirloom pieces which can be displayed in a shadowbox rather than tucked away in a closet. A shadowbox is an enclosed case where specialize memorabilia is sheathed for display. Encasing the objects does protect them from light on mos...
Mar 27
There are some interesting services offered by the United States Federal government for those interested in their family history. One branch is the U. S. Geographic Services with their Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). With 2.1 million geographic names in their database, nearly the full spectrum across the United States and US territori...
Mar 25
There all types of ethnic and racial groups and many different web sites to assist individuals interested in a specific group. The site AfriGeneas made it their mission to provide as many resources to people searching their African-American ancestry. The assistance they offer features a searchable database of surnames. This easy engine search a...
Mar 23
A family historian is always on the outlook for treasured family photos. There are long lost cousins who just might have photos of your great grandmother you had never seen. However, there are other people, not related in any form who also looking for old photos. They think of themselves as collections of antique family photos. They also look fo...
Mar 21
Everyone has wished they could speak to a certain ancestor to learn more about them. Since that is not possible in most cases, the best way is through what our ancestors wrote. Not all, but most of our relatives from decades ago communicated by writing. Either by penning their thoughts in a diary, letter or journal more can be learned about that in...
Mar 19
You may have been given by a relative a partial family tree with a few names and dates and you would really like to make that tree grow. You just might need one general search site to help you weed through the countless web sites available. At 'Live Roots' they have created a specialized search engine to all online sites with an easy click to acces...
Mar 17
For those researching ancestors from Australia, the National Library of Australia has placed online in digital form newspapers from 1803 to 1954. This wonderful collection has newspapers from New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Not every year with every newspaper is available, ...
Mar 15
Family historians are always looking into the past to learn more of their ancestors, yet examining and being aware of what is happening in the world today can be just as important. There is an online site, 'Worldometers' which cooperates with the 'Real Time Statistics Project' to provide statistics of all types of events in real time. The site is m...
Mar 13
One of the overlooked collections held at the U. S. Library of Congress with their American Memory section are hundreds of panoramic maps of towns and cities across the United States and four Canadian provinces. They range from 1847 to 1929. Some of the maps are artworks drawn showing the streets and buildings of a town. Key landmarks and buildings...
Mar 11
The genealogy website called MyHeritage has just launched some brand new software called Family Tree Builder 5.0. It's free, and easy to use. This software offers you new ways to organize, document, and showcase your family history, and has features that the previous versions did not have. You can download it directly from their website. When I ...
Mar 9
Researching for information about one's ancestors within the United States can be a challenging task, however you will reach the point where you are ready to search in an ancestor's native homeland. The National Archives of Norway have established an online site with many of their documents in digitalized format. The site is in the Norwegian lang...
Mar 7
Do you have an old photo of a home, building or structure and ever wonder what is there now? The online site 'What Was There' helps you find an answer to that question. There is a long list of locations, most within the United States, but some from Scotland, England, The Netherlands and France to select from. Once a place is selected, click on ...
Mar 5
There were many possible ports of entry into the United States that our ancestors may have gone through in the 19th century. Most people first think of Ellis Island, however that did not serve as a New York entrance port until 1892. Prior to that date it was Castle Garden, also known as Castle Clinton, at the tip of Manhattan, New York City where m...
Mar 3
You have a long list of family surnames and given names you have collected over the years. One thing that can add an interesting note to that research is where in the world your family name is used in the naming of a town, river, county, province, a hill, a valley, an island, canal, city, mine, creek, mountain, etc. This can be answered with the ...