documents
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The Outlandish and Unusual Given Names
Feb 23
The current 21st century practice of many celebrities and common folks to give their infants some very strange and unusual given names is NOT a new event. Rather it has been going on since given names have been used. In fact checking your own family lineage may reveal a few odd names also. Some names at one time would have been quite common and ...
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The Panama Canal Zone
Feb 3
If you came across a relative, especially a young male, who did not appear on specific census records between the early 1900s and the 1930s and you don't know what happened to him during those years, you might need to exam the records held by the FamilySearch.com site on the American Panama Canal Zone. With the construction of this massive proj...
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The Past on Paper
Jan 3
A site online titled 'The Past on Paper' is just like it sounds. It is a database of images of family Bible record pages, journals, letters, Wills, photos, deeds, documents, postcards, directories, newspapers, etc. This site primarily has items from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia regions, however there are a few from the United States. ...
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Avoiding Mistakes
Dec 3
Be careful now to produce mistakes in your family history research or in turn to place mistakes (unknowingly) into your family database. A major problem is when you locate a whole family tree lineage online and accept / copy every person with every date because some it matches what you know about your family line. Too many times, just about all ...
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Lesser Used Records
Dec 1
Think you searched every official document -- well there just might be some other records you didn't think to try. First, your ancestor may have owned a dog and the hometown they lived in required a dog license. On that official form could be information (address and names) you didn't know about. Another overlooked resource are other census reco...
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Gen Gathering – Acts of Kindness
Nov 21
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) was a very valuable asset for many family history researchers to have a photograph of an ancestor's headstone, copy of a death certificate, a microfilm copy of an old newspaper clipping, etc. Unfortunately the former RAOGK had to close down awhile back due to the death of its creator. New on the Interne...
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NC Confederate Pensions
Nov 3
Being able to view pension records for ancestors who served in the military can prove to be very enlightening. Just as important, filled with information, can be widows' pension applications. The North Carolina archives have the Confederate Pension records available online with the '1901 Confederate Pension Applications'. The law was passed in N...
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Madison Co., Ill – Immigration & Naturalization Documents, 1850-1959
Oct 27
This database is searchable by names of individuals, alias names, spouse or child names, specific years and type of documents for Madison County, Illinois. All together there are 122 volumes. This is an important collection because the full documents cover over the general St. Louis area, right at the Missouri/Illinois state line. The details in...
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Land Records on Ancestry.com
Oct 25
There might be one of your ancestors that appears in the U.S. General Land Office Records, 1796–1907 database on Ancestry.com. One this fee-based site, there are about 2.2 million land patents (applications for land - homesteading). Most do cover the 19th century (1800s) when the majority of land paid with cash or homesteaded property was acquire...
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New Biographical Resource from Australia
Oct 23
Any ancestors who lived or were native to Australia, the newest database, 'Biographical Database of Australia', (BDA) may be just what you need. It has half a million names and it is just starting. Some of the early records used come from convict, muster, census, baptism, marriage and burial manuscript records for most of the New South Wales pop...