ancestor

  • Some Serious and Wacky Genealogical Sayings

    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...

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  • American Battlefields of Our Ancestors

    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...

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  • ‘Peopling of America Center’ on Ellis Island

    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.  ...

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  • Is There A Civil War Veteran in Your Tree?

    May 28

    The American Civil War, 1861 to 1865, was one of America’s most bloodiest conflict with brother against brother in many cases. For genealogical researchers it also today one of the most fascinating aspect of looking for ancestors; to see who served on which side and what happened. In beginning any such journey, first list those known ancestors...

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  • Assistance in Locating an Ancestor’s Obituary

    May 24

    One of the main type of documents a family history researcher looks for is the newspaper obituary on an ancestor. It really only became a common practice to place an obituary on a deceased relative in the late 1800s in America. The late 1800s into the early 20th century was the Victorian and Edwardian eras when things were to be done in a prope...

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  • Ancestor Attended Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

    May 22

    Working on one’s family history, even for decades, can still yield some thrilling and revealing new information. Yet, the key to such a new discovery can lie in reviewing documents one has had in hand for years. I recently had such an exciting find which I just happened to stumble on. A fellow researcher had requested some direct quotes from...

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  • How To Ask the Right Questions

    May 20

    An important and serious approach to learning more about your family history is by doing an interview with a relative. It could be with your parents, an aunt, grandparents, cousin, even a godparent. Generally you need to question a relative who is of a different generation, one that is older and can provide some insight to people and events you m...

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  • English Ancestors in Workhouses

    May 10

    The Poor Law Union of Great Britain referred to special laws enacted about the 1530s for England and Wales to care for the citizens too poor to care of themselves. This system of assistance remained in England and Wales until 1948. Prior to 19th century the aid for the poor was provided by each parish in the form of local workhouses. There were som...

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  • Message Boards at Rootsweb

    Apr 26

    Due to the wide-spread use of the Internet and the access people around the globe have to computers the use of 'Message Boards' like that are found on Rootsweb are marvelous references for locating data, records and hints to other sources previously unknown. Not just for certain ancestors is the message board useful, but for surnames and other cat...

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  • Akron, Ohio – Relatives from 1859 to 1969

    Apr 22

    [gallery] One of the very best primary sources of information on an ancestor can be located in a city directory of the ancestor's hometown. Many public libraries carry the local city directories, some of which date back to the 1800s. Historical societies in communities might have microfilmed copies of old city directories or even in digital form...

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