Oct 11
The first state penal institution, covering 47 acres, west of the Mississippi River back in March 1836 was the Missouri State Penitentiary. It remained a functional penitentiary to September 2004, located in Jefferson City. This prison also known as M.S.P. also had the nickname of 'the Walls'. It also had the reputation of a very crude or brutal pr...
Jul 3
It was so common in medium size and especially small towns with a newspaper to print all types of details about businesses, events, churches, social items, recording of land deeds, and just ordinary citizens. Newspapers did not do just the wedding news and obituaries, but rather everyday life. An excellent source is to spend time and look for the ...
Jun 15
For your ancestors in the 1920s into the 1950s, what was science fiction stories, illustrations, or movies has inspired technology that we use today. Little did our ancestors really imagine that today's everyday devices were first illustrated decades earlier. It is amazing how 'close' to maybe predicting the future many of these stories and illustr...
Jun 9
The opportunity has now increased to view some of the vintage neighborhood maps done over the early years of the 20th century by the Sanford Fire Insurance Company. Placed online by the Library of Congress are about 25,000 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps representing over 3000 city sets online. Each month additional maps will be added until 2020 bring ...
May 27
William Deming Hornaday over his years of the late 1800s into the 20th century he collected about 5,818 photographs, photographic postcards, photo engravings and negatives. They covered sites across Texas, particularly Brownsville, El Paso, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley but also photos of places outside the United States. It is housed no...
Apr 29
Newspapers of any time period can be so helpful in doing your family research. For example, I just came across an article from July 1930 in Texas for a friend that proved that her mother and aunt did go out to California after winning a beauty contest in Florida for a movie screen test. They had stopped to visit a family friend in Texas and because...
Mar 7
The online, free site of FamilySearch.com has a large database of records from Germany. If you have identified ancestors coming from Germany especially between the early 1800s into the early 20th century, you may be in luck in locating additional information. Some of the types of databases on Germany and its residents include: births-marriages and...
Jan 23
Everyone is familiar with Eastman when it comes to film and photos. To preserve such a legacy, there is the George Eastman Museum. It was George, a pioneer of popular photography and a leader in the development of motion picture film, who saw the need to preserve everyday and the unusual events on film. The Museum has a vast array of photos. One o...
Jan 5
Do you have any relative born in the state of California between 1905 and 1995 (most of the 20th century)? Those records are in the form of an index collection which includes the name of the child, name of the mother, date of birth, and county and covers about 24,614,871 California births. The index is part of the online 'American Ancestors.org'. ...
Dec 21
At the United States Library of Congress they have recently put online more than 6,000 old full color “photochroms” from around the United States and many locations in other parts of the world. The images date from the 1890s to the 1910s showing many scenes of hometowns. If you had an ancestor from one of these locations, it will be of special ...