20th century

  • Importance of the US Census

    Mar 9

    The first census in U.S. history took place in 1790, and it continues today. The census is conducted every decade (10-year counts), meaning if your ancestors lived in America (states and territories) as of 1790 or after, then it’s likely they’re in the U.S. Census. Such a treasure chest of information. Only problem, not every person's name wa...

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  • City Directories for Westfield, NJ

    Feb 29

    City Directories are very important in learning more about where your ancestors lived, their occupations, and names. Now if you had any ancestors from the Westfield, New Jersey area any time between 1885-1896, 1901-1930, 1936-1939, 1941, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971-1980 and 1982 – you are in l...

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  • Provides Dates to Kodak Slides

    Dec 19

    Everyone has boxes or carousels filled with family slides. A photo slide is a specially mounted individual transparency intended for projection onto a screen using a slide projector. This allows the photograph to be viewed by a large audience at once. Taking slides instead of print photos was very popular for years, especially in the 1940s wi...

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  • Telephone Directories – Library of Congress

    Nov 17

    A very nice addition to the Library of Congress digital collection – Vintage Telephone Directories. At the site there are state and city directories for; Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the city of Chicago....

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  • Ancestry.com – School Yearbooks

    Aug 26

    Starting August 27 and running to September 2nd you will be able to asset the vast Ancestry.com database of school yearbooks. This includes middle schools, high schools and colleges with approximately 400,000 yearbooks from across the United States. The years covered are 1900 to 1999. Who knows what type of new information you can find ...

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  • US Naval Ships Personnel

    Aug 13

    You might have an ancestor who served on a US Naval ship either in the 19th or 20th century. There is available a database of personnel, some 36,991 and growing. Included is the person's full name, their rank, their years of service, the name and where they were stationed – such as the Atlantic coast, African coast or Pacific region. ...

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  • Camphor Glass Jewelry

    Apr 13

    You may have seen photos of some of your female ancestors wearing a piece of camphor glass jewelry or you might have inherited a piece, but did you know about this once very popular style of jewelry? Camphor glass is clear glass that has been treated with hydrofluoric acid vapors to give it a soft, lovely frosted, whitish appearance. This effect r...

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  • Ontario, Canada – BMD

    Mar 15

    The newest databases to search from Ancestry.com is for Births-Marriages and Deaths in Ontario, Canada. With it being on the northern border with the United States, many individuals on both sides have been in the US and / or Canada, especially in Ontario. Using the subscript-fee site with three important area – births – marriages – deaths, y...

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  • Handling Family Photos from Black Page Albums

    Nov 29

    So popular … all family albums were long narrow black sheets of paper with the treasured photos totally pasted to a page or later the use of the four corner small tabs to whole a photo in place without placing paste on the back. The album covers were leather or thick cardboard material. These type of albums dating back to the 1870s and for 50 to ...

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  • American Slang to Family Stories

    Oct 25

    As you gather information on your ancestors and even do a bit of writing short stories about a specific branch or relative, keep in mind the time period they lived in. You will include about historical events that may have affected their lives but one item you may have not thought of – the American slang phrases that ancestor used during their li...

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