It's a great day for genealogy!

I received an early Christmas present from my cousin in North Carolina.
He sent me a photograph of our 3rd-great-grandparents - Robert and Abigail (Haskell) Starbird of Gray, Maine. Wow.

They lived in the early 19th Century - and until now I had no idea that there was a photograph of them. Now, there it was. Wow.

It reminded me of when I first started putting the online historical newspapers to the test. I picked an unusual name on my family tree and searched for every "Starbird" in the file - letting the computer sift through millions of articles to find over 1,300 "hits" for the surname.

Opening each one - there was one that immediately caught my eye - in the 19 August 1828 copy of the Eastern Argus.

It was the marriage of Robert Starbird to Abigail Haskell in August 1828 in Gray, Maine. I thought - I know that name. After a quick check of my genealogy - sure enough that was them - my 3rd-great-grandparents. I didn't have their marriage date - and now there was the announcement of their wedding in the Portland, Maine paper - the Eastern Argus. Wow.

I was hooked. This was going to work for me. My obscure relatives were actually in these newspapers! Who knew! Well, now I did and I've been using GenealogyBank to find hundreds of other articles about the family. Wow.

It's a great day for genealogy!

PS: Take full advantage of the Thanksgiving Special - and subscribe to GenealogyBank at a great rate - only $69.95 - we'll leave that rate up until Monday :)