family

  • Women Postmasters

    Mar 13

    Only until recent decades have women really had opportunities to pursue just about any occupation. For the most part they were expected to be housewives and care for the children. Some jobs such as a teacher were acceptable. We generally don't think of our female ancestors as 'postmistresses' but rather many ladies did hold that position by off...

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  • How Many Cousins Do You Really Have?

    Mar 10

    One of the first things that a genealogist begins researching is his or her family tree. Most people can figure out how many first cousins they have. You probably are very familiar with at least a couple of them. Ask your relatives to fill in the blanks about your cousin's names and birthdays. A.J. Jacobs wrote an opinion piece for the New Yor...

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  • Find Your State

    Mar 4

    Pride in one's hometown state is just as strong now as it was decades ago. Since most of our ancestors generally remained in the same state their whole life, it is very important to learn as much as possible about that state and go over all available resources. Begin with a super overview of each of the 50 states from FamilyTree.com. If you had...

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  • Finding Those Female Ancestors

    Feb 25

    One of the toughest aspects in doing your family tree just might be locating information on a grandmother, great aunt, great grandmother - the female line. Because of those who marry, taking a new surname, the maiden name can get 'lost'. Here are a few ideas of how to locate some information on the ladies. Look over carefully birth, ma...

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  • Writing For Information

    Feb 24

    The numerous locations for data, records, photos and documents vary between governmental agencies, private individuals and genealogical societies. Contacting these individuals and organizations has become much easier by using electronic communications - emails and the Internet. Still acceptable are requests sent through the l vice. The followin...

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  • Starting Your Family Research

    Feb 24

    At the initiation of any family research, start with yourself. Using the basic pedigree chart, list your full name, birth and marriage dates and locations. It is also good to add your siblings with their information. You might be surprised to see a given name, such as; Nicholas, Elizabeth or Myrtle, appear in an earlier ancestor’s name, so you do...

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  • Variety of Hometown Newspapers Resources

    Feb 23

    It is great to have a variety of local hometown newspapers scanned and online at your fingertips. This is the case for the 'Historical Newspapers Online' done by Penn State. All the states are listed with the available newspapers, their locations, the years covered and any additional information. They have combined the national Chronicles Newspa...

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  • Your ‘Old Kentucky Home’

    Feb 7

    The Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives has online a great e-Archives referred to as Electronic Records Archives. There is wide variety of government documents from Kentucky now in digital format that you can view. The categories include Kentucky agriculture, Governor's Office, local government, WPA, Secretary of State records for Kent...

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  • What to Do with Half-Siblings?

    Jan 17

    The term "half-sibling" is used to represent the family relationship of two or more children who share only one biological parent. One parent due to a divorce or widowhood, may remarry and a child or children are born to this new union. The original or oldest child and any new additions are considered half-siblings; a half-brother or half-sister. C...

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  • Resolve to Locate Obituaries

    Jan 15

    There may be a project you have put off or never thought to start -- that of finding all available obituaries for your ancestors. 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 ...

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