United States
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Extinct Family Names
Jan 23
Many things can become endangered or eventually extinct. Many species of animals from the dinosaurs (from over 100 million years ago) to a specific type of lizard today can decrease in numbers so they no longer exist. However, did it occur to you that family surnames could also become extinct? If a family name has approximately less than 200 pe...
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Collections of U.S. Historic Photos
Nov 7
There is a saying: "A photo is a window into the lives of your ancestors." Never were there truer words. Many of us would given anything to have some image of a grandmother, great uncle, etc., but don't give up -- many people have located images of ancestors they never knew existed. Yes, there will be some that were never taken, so of course don't ...
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Japanese-American Confinement Camps of the 1940s
Jul 21
From the University of California at Berkeley is available online a database of Japanese-American Evaluation and Resettlement that occurred in America during the early years of World War Two. Many people are not truly aware of the events that happened to whole families who just happened to be Japanese ancestry, how they were forced to moved from...
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Languages Across the United States
Jun 19
Generally you think of everyone speaking English in the United States, in the past and today. If you had ancestors coming from Italy at the beginning of the 20th Century, they may have never learned English and only their children or grandchildren were the first to speak English and also know and understand Italian. This same situation happened ...
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Map and Chart Tools
Apr 21
There are types of specialty maps and charts today to help better understand how our ancestors lived. The University of Oregon's Mapping Project has a wealth of historical time periods and events in digital maps to see the progress and changes over the decades. It starts off with North America and where were the early English, French and Spanish s...
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Common Surnames. European origins.
Apr 5
You could guess the most common surnames in the United States, more than likely you have one or more ancestors with that surname, making it difficult to track the right relative. Some of those family names in the U. S. include Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. However, if your ancestors originally came from a western or eastern Europe...
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Expansion of America
Mar 23
The American frontier has never been only the 'wild west' as many people think. The 'frontier' - the wilderness, untamed lands of America started with the first Europeans to come to the shores of what would later be the United States. The Spaniards came to the eastern coast to create St. Augustine in what was later named Florida. The English ca...
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USA — Cyndi’s List
Mar 3
With ancestors who lived in one or more locations across the United States, you will need to search each of those states and the counties in those states to learn more about those relatives. To assist in locating resources for each state is Cyndi's List on all the states in the United States along with the District of Columbia (Washington). Wit...
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English, American & Canadian Occupations in 1891
Nov 16
As you have done your family research you may have come across the titles or names of various occupations done by your ancestors, possibility some names you have never heard of. That is very possible since new products and services are created over the years as the ideas and needs of a society change. An excellent example would be a blacksmith,...
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Surnames in USA
Oct 28
National Geographic Magazine online has an interesting map of the United States where you can see the most common and frequent surnames throughout the country. Being an interactive map you can zoom in on a specific region, then a state and even to a certain portion of a state; such as the state's panhandle region. Besides the 48 states also Alas...