I am fortunate to have copies of postcards that some of my ancestors sent. They are a wonderful artifact to have for genealogy, as are handwritten letters. They can also be used effectively to solve research problems. The Harbour Family: A Stubborn Problem Hannah Harbour had two children, Doss and Odie, with her first husband […]
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Category: General Research
Murder in the Family
Violence is certainly not something our generation invented. Murder is not new. There have been many surprises for me over the years of my genealogy research. One is how many instances I discovered that involved murder. Strange, odd and sad, but true. I’m going to try my best not to read anything too deep into […]
Fall In Love With Libraries Again
Oh, my fellow genealogists. We have become blinded by the light, we have taken the wooden nickel. Ancestry. Familysearch. Fold3. Any digital archives. We have left our strong and steady marriage for a fling on the wild side. I’m talking about libraries. Good old faithful brick and mortar libraries. Now, I will be the first […]
Researching Soldiers in World War I
My great-grandfather Lawson Holt served in the Army during World War I. Like most, his were among the records destroyed during the infamous 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center. This post shows how it is possible to still find out more information about your ancestor’s military service, even though those files are gone. […]
Verify Your Oral History
One of the first things we’re instructed when we begin our genealogy journey is to interview our elders. This is by far one of the most important things for us do. Our family members can provide information we may never find in documents. It has always been ironic to me that the time when most […]
Genealogy Resource Recommendations
I’ve talked before on this blog about the importance of reading genealogical books in order to learn about how to use various record sets. I want to highlight two of the best resources for genealogical research that some of you may be unaware of. The book “The Source” has been a mainstay of genealogists since […]
Pauline Waters: Documenting A Life
Yesterday would have been the 100th birthday of my grandmother Pauline Celeste Waters. She was born April 13th, 1915 in the sleepy town of Stillpond, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. Her death in 1997 is the event that started my journey into family history research. Biography Like many beloved grandmothers, she had a tremendous impact […]
Are You Using Your Genealogical and Hist...
Your local Genealogical and Historical (G&S) Society could be holding the key to important pieces of your research. Although the web has certainly enabled us to find things we may have found otherwise, the truth remains that the bulk of genealogical records are not online and likely never will be. This example illustrates how the […]
Remembering Jim Crow
I just finished reading the book Remembering Jim Crow, published in 2001. For those researching African-Americans, we spend a lot of time dealing with the complexity of slave research. I think we all need to pay more attention to the era of segregation. Most of us remember this era or have parents alive who do. […]
Sorting Same-Named People
I had an enslaved ancestor named Rezin Prather. I thought, “What an odd name. I’ll easily be able to find him in the records.” Guess what? It was a very popular name in Montgomery County, Maryland during the 19th century. There were numerous African-American “Rezin Prathers” floating around the county and in nearby Washington, D.C. […]