research
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Useful Ideas when Searching on Google
Jan 25
Google is a great search engine for finding just about anything, but not necessarily your family tree. However, here are a few ideas to improve your chances of finding more about a hometown, a business or an ancestor using Google. First, narrow the search. Place quote marks (") around the names or keywords you are searching. If it is a person's na...
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Baffling Ancestors – Some Hints
Jan 15
Everyone has more than one elusive ancestor in their direct lineage or extended family line. It can be quite baffling for a family researcher to find our details on that person. Here are a few hints and suggestions to help in the process. If you have found their death date and a possible location, search for a Will on file. Those legal documents ...
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A Little Productive Time Pays Dividends
Dec 31
For the new year here are ideas to increase your knowledge of your ancestors. How about setting aside a short period of time once a week, every other weekend or even once a month to do some research on your family tree? Here are a few approaches: Create a 'To-Do List' - start with just a few of the resources (census, state archives, military reco...
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Using Rootsweb.com
Dec 15
Rootsweb.com is a free genealogy website providing worldwide source for learning, collaborating and sharing for the expert and novice alike on family trees. The site, (part of Ancestry.com, but free) provides access to huge transcribed records from volunteer researchers, and contains extensive interactive guides and numerous research tools for trac...
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Lost Cause?? No Way.
Oct 7
You may have tried or even been afraid to attempt to work in depth on your family history. However, maybe all you needed were some clues of how to search. If you have family surnames that are quite common (Smith, Jones, Johnson, Williams, etc) you need to add some keywords to help in the search. Place the given name with the surname in quote marks...
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Book about Stuart, FL and Vintage Photos
Sep 25
Family photos are such a treasure for the relatives to share. However, there are others in a hometown that would love to look over vintage photos of citizens, places and events where their ancestors also lived. For a year, I went to the descendants of pioneer families in Stuart, Florida (just north of West Palm Beach) to gather and scan their coll...
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Genealogy You Can Accomplish On Your Lunch Hour
Sep 22
It isn't always possible to set aside several hours in a row to do genealogy research. You can, however, make use of smaller chunks of time. Does your employment situation include a lunch hour? That's a perfect time to do some quick, genealogy related, tasks. Check Your Email Use your lunch hour to go through your personal email (not your work ...
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Common Wrongdoings to Avoid
Sep 17
Anyone can overlook certain items in their family history research which could be classified as 'mistakes'. If you are aware of such particulars it is easier to avoid them or correct them. A common one that needs to be avoided is mistakes relating to an ancestor's given names or surname. Whoever wrote down the information for a document is not inf...
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The Power of the Press
Jul 13
There is nothing more interesting than finding a newspaper article about an ancestor. They didn't have to be a celebrity, a hero or well-known even in their hometown. Small and middle-sized town newspapers were always writing of everyday happenings relating to citizens or even strangers in a town. This happened in larger towns / cities also. Taking...
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Ways to Prevent Your Relatives From Trashing Your Family History
Jun 13
You may have read the story about the woman whose family threw all of her genealogy and family history work into the trash after the woman passed away. It is easy to see why this story is shocking to genealogists. Here are some ways you can prevent your family from trashing your family history. The story may have first appeared on the Deseret Ne...