With Mother’s Day just past and Father’s Day approaching, genealogists would love to have a complete family history—to find and document all the members of their family.

And—as the following family story illustrates–so would the police!

Richard Dugdale (1841-1883) was studying prisoners for the Prison Association of New York. In reviewing the prison inmates at the Ulster County Jail he was surprised to find that 17 of them were members of one family.

He began a genealogical study and found that the Jukes family descended from a man named “Max Jukes,” who was born in New York in the early 1700s. The Jukes family tree grew to 1,500 criminals or other relatives—many of whom had a history of trouble with the law or with society in general.

According to Wikipedia the Jukes family study was picked up by Arthur H. Estabrook who brought that number up to 2,820 criminal relatives.

Read about the Jukes family history of crime here:

• “A Bad Family Tree Grows One More Criminal to the Defective Jukes Genealogy.” Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), 1 November 1913, page 1.
• “Genealogy of Crime.” Daily Chronicle and Sentinel (Augusta, Georgia), 22 September 1875, page 1.

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Over the past 50 years I have heard of many ways to source and document our ancestors.

Genealogists will “dig up” all types of sources but the solution that the Phillips family used has to be the most unusual.

I recently came across this, the most unusual genealogy sourcing story I have ever heard of. I found it in the Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 15 April 1891, page 1.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 15 April 1891, page 1

In 1891 the Phillips literally dug up their Family Bible that had been buried in the grave of a niece 25 years earlier.

This unusual story begins with Isaac Phillips (1766-1834), who was born in Easton, Massachusetts. He left his hometown in 1813 and moved to the South where he was “engaged in the slave trade and accumulated an enormous fortune.”  He kept his money—over $5 million at the time—at the Manhattan Bank of New York.

Isaac died in 1834, “his wife and only child having previously died.” For the next 70 years his relatives tried to prove their right to the fortune Isaac left behind. They had a lot of difficulty in tracking and documenting their genealogy and finally determined that the Family Bible had the answers.

But there was a problem: the Family Bible was buried in a cemetery. It seems that it was buried in the casket along with Isaac’s niece Susana Phillips, who died 4 June 1866.

The money was still safely in the bank, accumulating interest all the while. It was now worth more than $6 million—so the family secured permission to exhume Susana’s body and remove the Family Bible.

When they opened the grave the Family Bible was found and, although a little decayed, the family history “record [was] still perfectly legible” and gave them the information they needed to prove their genealogical connection and claim the family fortune.

Moral of the story: Keep an accurate and complete family history and preserve your documentation, like Family Bibles, that prove the record.

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Genealogy Research Tip: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Carefully read every genealogy record of your ancestor’s life—you never know what you will find. I recently made some surprising discoveries about the Morse family after digging deep into genealogy records online.

I found the obituary of Daniel Morse, published in the Cherry Valley Gazette (Cherry Valley, New York), 15 June 1819, page 3. It’s a simple obituary, just one line: “At Herkimer in an apoplectic fit, Daniel Morse, Esq. formerly of Brookfield, Mass. aged 60.”

Cherry Valley Gazette (New York), June 15, 1819

Then I found another version of Morse’s obituary, published the next day in the Commercial Advertiser (New York City, New York), 16 June 1819, page 2.

Commercial Advertiser (New York City, NY), June 16, 1819

This obituary is even shorter than the first one, omitting the cause of death and his age, simply stating: “At Herkimer, N.Y. Daniel Morse, Esq. formerly of Brookfield, Mass.”

Another New York City newspaper ran Morse’s obituary two days later. That death notice appeared in the Spectator (New York City, New York), 18 June 1819, page 3.

The Connecticut Mirror (Hartford, CT), June 21, 1819

Three days after that, the exact same death notice was published in a newspaper from a neighboring state, The Connecticut Mirror (Hartford, Connecticut), 21 June 1819, page 3.

Again, no mention of the cause of death, but his age is included: “At Herkimer N.Y. Daniel Morse, Esq. aged 60, formerly from Brookfield Ma.”

So here we have four obituaries, and from them we have some basic genealogical facts:

• His name
• His age
• Where he died
• A hint about his occupation (“Esquire” often meant lawyer)
• His former place of residence

But we don’t know more about him—or his family—than that.

Digging deeper into my genealogy research with GenealogyBank, I wanted to see if there is more information about him.

There is.

A Sermon of the Funeral of Daniel Morse, June 04, 1819

I found a copy of the sermon preached at his funeral.
Wow—the actual funeral sermon?
Yes, word for word.

What a terrific genealogical find this turns out to be—a document packed with family history information.

For starters, we learn that the funeral service was held on 4 June 1819, led by Rev. Hezekiah N. Woodruff, A.M., Pastor of the churches of Herkimer and Little Falls, New York. This gives us a good clue where we might find church records about Daniel Morse and his family.

This 16-page funeral sermon outline pamphlet includes extensive biographical material about Morse, as well as information about his family.

On page 13 of the funeral sermon outline pamphlet I read that:

• Daniel was born on 2 August 1759
• His wife was Lois Groat, born 18 March 1758
• Both were born in Massachusetts
• They married in August 1782 and had “several children”
• They moved to Herkimer, New York, in 1800

The narrative goes on to describe the final days before he died 4 June 1819.

Reading more, I discovered that the pamphlet also contained a lengthy extract of the funeral sermon for his wife Lois (Groat) Morse! Suddenly, the second paragraph just leapt off the page at me: Lois died just a few weeks after her husband because of a fit of her own, a “paralytick” one.

Wanting to know more, I turned to a new search in GenealogyBank, looking for her obituary.

I found it in the New York Columbian (New York City, New York), 6 July 1819, page 2.

New York Columbian (New York City, NY), July 6, 1819

Now we know much more about Daniel Morse and his wife.

When I started searching I quickly found Daniel’s death notice. It was a lucky break that GenealogyBank also had scanned in his funeral sermon.

But, don’t judge a book by its cover. The title page states that it is the funeral sermon of Daniel Morse—it does not say that it also includes the funeral sermon of his late wife, Lois (Groat) Morse.

A Sermon of the Funeral of Daniel Morse, June 04, 1819

I had no idea that his wife Lois died less than four weeks after her husband. And since the title page of his funeral sermon made no mention of his wife, it was only by carefully reading the entire funeral sermon pamphlet that I learned the rest of the story.

The brief biographies of both of the Morse’s, Daniel’s funeral sermon, along with a lengthy extract from the sermon preached at Lois’s funeral, are welcome additions to the family record.

So now we not only know when and where the Morse’s died, we learned the tragic circumstances of how close in time their deaths were. They’ve become more than just names and dates on a family tree—we’ve come to know something about them as real people.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Always be prepared to go beneath the surface—dig deeper with your family history searches and find as many genealogy records about your ancestors as you can. And then read them all, thoroughly. You never know what you’ll find!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

Every day, GenealogyBank is working hard to digitize more newspapers and obituaries, expanding our collection to give you the largest newspaper archives for family history research available online. We just completed adding 24 million more U.S. genealogy records, vastly increasing our content coverage from coast to coast!

Here are some of the details about our most recent U.S. newspaper additions (we actually added new content to thousands of newspaper titles, but the following is a representative sample):

• A total of 152 newspaper titles from 42 U.S. states and the District of Columbia
• Newspaper titles marked with an asterisk (*) are new to our online archive
• We’ve shown the newspaper issue date ranges so that you can determine if the newly added content is relevant to your personal genealogy research

If a recent addition to our archive interests you, simply click on that newspaper’s title: it is an active link leading to that paper’s search form on GenealogyBank.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

Every day we receive questions from our members regarding their family history searches. We are here to help!

Here’s a genealogy question we just received.

GenealogyBank Member Question:

My grandfather Hugh Cornwell was born in Prairie Grove, AR, 4/6/1883. I have been searching for a birth record for the past 20 years with no luck. Any suggestions?

“Ask the Genealogist” Response:

Arkansas vital records do not begin until 1914.

So, while you can possibly obtain a church baptismal certificate, you won’t be able to find a government birth certificate for your grandfather.

I found your grandfather’s California death certificate, which does give his date of birth along with the family surnames of his father and mother. His death certificate is available online on the FamilySearch website at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VPW3-9Q3.

There is another record for your grandfather in the 1900 census, which also states that he was born in April 1883. His census record is available on FamilySearch.org at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M9PK-R7K.

Here is a third document with genealogical information about your grandfather: his World War II draft registration card, also showing that he was born on April 6, 1883. You can view your grandfather’s military record at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V48Y-54Q.

So, while you cannot get a formal birth certificate—here are three U.S. government documents, created over the past 112 years, that give his date of birth. That should be the evidence you are looking for.

Let’s see how we can help you make progress in your own family history research.

All the best in your genealogy research.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

With its large collections of newspapers, historical books and documents, and government records, GenealogyBank provides a wealth of genealogical resources to help you research your family history.

One handy genealogy resource in GenealogyBank is the register of Revolutionary War Burials. The Daughters of the American Revolution issued a report every year of the burial sites of military veterans that served in America’s war for independence.

For example here is the military register entry for Solomon Titus, taken from the Forty-eighth report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1, 1944, to April 1, 1945, page 228.

Graves of the soldiers of the Revolution, from 1944-45 Daughters of the American Revolution burial report

This DAR report tells us that Solomon Titus was:

• A private in the Revolutionary War
• In the Battle of White Plains (October 28, 1776)
• In the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778)
• Buried in the Pennington, New Jersey, Presbyterian Churchyard
• There is a file on him at the Veteran’s Administration (now at the National Archives)
• W-2491
  

  Casualty list from the Revolutionary War Battle of White Plains, published by the Freeman's Journal (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), 3 December 1776, page 2

We can then dig into GenealogyBank’s newspaper archives and find articles about each one of the military battles Titus fought in as the Revolutionary War unfolded. Historical newspaper articles such as this one, providing a summary of the soldiers killed at the Battle of White Plains, published in the Freeman’s Journal (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), 3 December 1776, page 2.

Or the many old newspaper articles about the pivotal Battle of Monmouth, such as this one providing George Washington’s own account of the famous military battle, published in the Continental Journal (Boston, Massachusetts), 23 July 1778, page 1.

Collage of the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Monmouth, featuring a newspaper article from the Continental Journal newspaper and a painting of George Washington by Emanuel Leutze

(Painting, Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth, by Emanuel Leutze. Wikimedia Commons.)

GenealogyBank is the only genealogy website complete enough to let us read about our ancestor’s experiences—like those of Solomon Titus in the Revolutionary War—day by day.

The Daughters of the American Revolution report said that the U.S. government had a file on Solomon Titus, and in the last column it gives the reference number W-2491.

W-2491. What does that mean?

It means that the widow of Solomon Titus applied for a military pension based on his service in the Revolutionary War. We learned in this report that he died on 19 December 1833. Looking in GenealogyBank we find that his wife applied for a widow’s pension and that it was approved in 1839.

Page from the December 2, 1839, Journal of the House of Representatives showing recipients of Revolutionary War pensions

(Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States: being the first session of the Twenty-sixth Congress, begun and held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, in the sixty-fourth year of the independence of the said states on page 175.)

So, now we know that his wife’s name was Susannah Titus. A quick search of the early New Jersey marriages shows that her name was Susannah Read and that she and Solomon married in April 1779 in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

We can see a copy of Solomon’s military personnel file, available from the National Archives. Use “Standard Form 180” to make your request.

National Archives military records request form 1080

National Archives pension application request form 85

We can also request a copy of Susannah’s pension application by using Form 85. Be sure to include the pension number: W-2491.

We can gather so much information about our ancestors in the Revolutionary War era!

The Daughters of the American Revolution report also told us that Solomon Titus was buried in the Presbyterian Churchyard in Pennington, New Jersey.

A quick search on Google locates a wide-angle photo of that cemetery on flickr.

Grave of Revolutionary War veteran Solomon Titus

Searching Google more, we find a photo of his grave on the website Find-A-Grave.

(Photo by Therese Fenner Boucher on Find-A-Grave.)

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

GenealogyBank keeps expanding our online archives of historical newspapers, books, documents, and government records—continuously adding new material for your genealogy research at the astonishing rate of 10 more records every second.

In the next few weeks GenealogyBank will be adding more newspapers and filling in gaps for over 2,800 U.S. newspapers providing you more family history coverage online than ever before.

We are adding so many newspaper titles that there isn’t space to list every one that will soon be added into our genealogy archive. As such, we selected out only a few dozen of the newest paper titles and date ranges coming to GenealogyBank. These new research resources will be added to our archive over the course of the next few weeks.

Nome Nugget (Nome, AK)

• Obituaries:  01/20/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

La Voz Weekly: De Anza College (Cupertino, CA)

• Obituaries:  05/15/2000 – Current

Ledger: Blogs (Lakeland, FL)

• Obituaries:  07/17/2007 – Current

Cherokee Ledger-News (Woodstock, GA)

• Obituaries:  08/18/2010 – Current
• Death Notices:  08/18/2010 – Current

Bay Windows (Boston, MA)

• Obituaries: 12/10/1998 – 2/2/2011

Mission Hill Gazette (Jamaica Plain, MA)

• Obituaries:  01/16/2009 – Current

Detroit News: Web Edition Articles (MI)

• Obituaries: 10/28/2005 – 12/30/2010

Oxford Eagle (Oxford, MS)

• Obituaries:  02/22/2012 – Current
• Death Notices:  02/09/2012 – Current

Mount Olive Tribune (Mount Olive, NC)

• Obituaries:  02/22/2012 – Current
• Death Notices:  10/06/2011 – Current

Beulah Beacon (Beulah, ND)

• Obituaries:  01/13/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

Center Republican (Center, ND)

• Obituaries:  07/21/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/27/2011 – Current

Hazen Star (Hazen, ND)

• Obituaries:  01/13/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

Leader-News (Washburn, ND)

• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

McClusky Gazette (McClusky, ND)

• Obituaries:  04/14/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

McLean County Independent (Garrison, ND)

• Obituaries:  02/10/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

McLean County Journal (Turtle Lake, ND)

• Obituaries:  02/17/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

Mountrail County Record (Parshall, ND)

• Obituaries:  03/11/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/07/2011 – Current

New Town News (New Town, ND)

• Obituaries:  03/11/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/07/2011 – Current

Underwood News (Underwood, ND)

• Death Notices:  01/06/2011 – Current

Velva Area Voice (Velva, ND)

• Obituaries:  04/12/2012 – Current
• Death Notices:  01/20/2011 – Current

Chester County Press (Oxford, PA)

• Obituaries: 1/21/2009 – 2/16/2011
• Death Notices: 11/5/2008 – 1/19/2011

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos – Upper Darby, PA)

• Obituaries: 4/1/1994 – 1/1/2009
• Death Notices: 4/1/1994 – 3/23/1995

Chattanooga Times Free Press (Chattanooga, TN)

• Obituaries:  04/01/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  04/01/2011 – Current

Irving Rambler (Irving, TX)

• Obituaries:  08/20/2011 – Current
• Death Notices:  07/02/2011 – Current

Living Lake Country: Blogs (Hartland, WI)

• Obituaries:  01/10/2011 – Current

It’s a great day for genealogy!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

This week, the world is commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the British passenger liner RMS Titanic. The massive ship went down at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic shortly before midnight. There weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone on board, and 1,517 passengers and crew lost their lives.

Another passenger ship, the Carpathia, picked up the Titanic survivors and brought them to New York City, docking on April 18. It was then that the world began to learn details of the disaster from some of the survivors, whose stories were published in the newspapers.

Here’s a newspaper article with some amazing survival stories from the last moments on the Titanic. This copyrighted news article was published by the Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), 19 April 1912, page 1:

Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), 19 April 1912, page 1

Graphic Stories of Real Heroism

Many of the Survivors Tell of Last Moment on Titanic

Skippers Were Told

Conduct of John Jacob Astor Deserves Highest Praise as He Gave His Life for His Wife

New York, April 18.—E. Z. Taylor of Philadelphia, one of the survivors, jumped into the sea just three minutes before the boat sank. He told a graphic story as he came from the Carpathia.

“I was eating when the Titanic struck the iceberg,” he said. “There was an awful shock that made the boat tremble from stem to stern. I did not realize for some time what had happened. No one seemed to know the extent of the accident. We were told that an iceberg had been struck by the ship. I felt the boat rise and it seemed to me that she was riding over the ice. I ran out on deck and then I could see ice. It was a veritable sea of ice and the boat was rocking over it. I should say that parts of the iceberg were 80 feet high, but it had been broken into sections probably by our ship.

“I jumped into the ocean and was picked up by one of the boats. I never expected to see land again. I waited on board the boat until the lights went out. It seemed to me that the discipline on board was wonderful.”

Saved at Last Moment

Colonel Archibald Gracie, U.S.A., the last man saved, went down with the vessel but was picked up. He was met tonight by his daughter, who had arrived from Washington, and his son-in-law, Paul H. Fabricius. Colonel Gracie told a remarkable story of personal hardship and denied emphatically the reports that there had been any panic on board. He praised in the highest terms the behavior of both the passengers and crew and paid a high tribute to the heroism of the women passengers.

“Mrs. Isidor Straus,” he said, “went to her death because she would not desert her husband. Although he pleaded with her to take her place in the boat she steadfastly refused, and when the ship settled at the head the two were engulfed in the wave that swept her.”

Colonel Gracie told of how he was driven to the topmost deck when the ship settled and was the sole survivor after the wave that swept her just before her final plunge had passed.

“I jumped with the wave,” said he, “just as I often have jumped with the breakers at the seashore. By great good fortune I managed to grasp the brass railing on the deck above and I hung on by might and main. When the ship plunged down I was forced to let go and I was swirled around and around for what seemed to be an interminable time. Eventually I came to the surface, to find the sea a mass of tangled wreckage.

“Luckily I was unhurt and casting about managed to seize a wooden grating floating nearby. When I had recovered my breath I discovered a larger canvas and cork life raft which had floated up. A man, whose name I did not learn, was struggling toward it from some wreckage to which he had clung. I cast off and helped him to get onto the raft and we then began the work of rescuing those who had jumped into the sea and were floundering in the water.

At Break of Dawn

“When dawn broke there were thirty of us on the raft, standing knee deep in the icy water and afraid to move lest the creaky craft be overturned. Several unfortunates, benumbed and half dead, besought us to save them and one or two made an effort to reach us but we had to warn them away. Had we made any effort to save them we all might have perished.

“The hours that elapsed before we were picked up by the Carpathia were the longest and most terrible that I ever spent. Practically without any sensation of feeling, because of the icy water, we were almost dropping from fatigue. We were afraid to turn around to look to see whether we were seen by passing craft and when someone who was facing astern passed the word that something that looked like a steamer was coming up one of the men became hysterical under the strain. The rest of us, too, were nearing the breaking point.”

Col. Gracie denied with emphasis that any men were fired upon and declared that only once was a revolver discharged.

“This was for the purpose of intimidating some steerage passengers,” he said, “who had tumbled into a boat before it was prepared for launching. This shot was fired in the air, and when the foreigners were told the next would be directed at them they promptly returned to the deck. There was no confusion and no panic.”

Contrary to the general expectation, there was no jarring impact when the vessel struck, according to the army officer. He was in his berth when the vessel smashed into the submerged portion of the berg and was aroused by the jar. He looked at this watch, he said, and found it was just midnight. The ship sank with him at 2:22 a.m., for his watch stopped at that hour.

“Before I retired,” said Colonel Gracie, “I had a long chat with Charles H. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railroad. One of the last things Mr. Hays said was this: ‘The White Star, the Cunard and the Hamburg-American lines are devoting their attention and ingenuity in vying with them to obtain supremacy in luxurious ships and in making speed records. The time will soon come when this will be checked by some appalling disaster.’ Poor fellow; a few hours later, he was dead.”

Conduct of Colonel Astor

“The conduct of Colonel John Jacob Astor was deserving of the highest praise,” declared Colonel Gracie. “The millionaire New Yorker,” he said, “devoted all his energies to saving his young bride, nee Miss Force of New York who was in delicate health. Colonel Astor helped us in our efforts to get her in the boat,” said Colonel Gracie. “I lifted her into the boat and as she took her place Colonel Astor requested permission of the second officer to go with her for her own protection.

“‘No, sir,’ replied the officer, ‘Not a man shall go on a boat until the women are all off.’ Colonel Astor then inquired the number of the boat, which was being lowered away and turned to the work of clearing the other boats and in reassuring the frightened and nervous women.

“By this time the ship began to list frightfully to port. This became so dangerous that the second officer ordered everyone to rush to starboard. This we did and we found the crew trying to get a boat off in that quarter. Here I saw the last of John B. Thayer, second vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and George B. Widener, a capitalist of Philadelphia.”

Colonel Gracie said that despite the warnings of icebergs, no slowing down of speed was ordered by the commander of the Titanic. There were other warnings, too, he said. “In the 24 hours’ run ending the 14^th,” he said, “the ship’s run was 546 miles, and we were told that the next 24 hours would see even a better record posted. No diminution of speed was indicated in the run and the engines kept up their steady running. When Sunday evening came we all noticed the increased cold, which gave plain warning that the ship was in close proximity to icebergs or ice fields. The officers, I am credibly informed, had been advised by wireless from other ships of the presence of icebergs and dangerous floes in that vicinity. The sea was as smooth as glass, and the weather clear, so that it seems that there was no occasion for fear.

No Indication of Panic

“When the vessel struck,” he continued, “the passengers were so little alarmed that they joked over the matter. The few that were on deck early had taken their time to dress properly and there was not the slightest indication of panic. Some of the fragments of ice had fallen on the deck and these were picked up and passed around by some of the facetious ones who offered them as mementoes of the occasion. On the port side a glance over the side failed to show any evidence of damage and the vessel seemed to be on an even keel. James Clinch Smith and I, however, soon found the vessel was listing heavily. A few minutes later the officers ordered men and women to don life preservers.”

One of the last women seen by Colonel Gracie, he said, was Miss Evans of New York, who virtually refused to be rescued, because, according to the army officer, “she had been told by a fortune teller in London that she would meet her death on the water.”

A young English woman, who requested that her name be omitted, told a thrilling story of her experience in one of the collapsible boats which had been manned by eight of the crew from the Titanic. The boat was in command of the fifth officer, H. Lowe, whose actions she described as saving the lives of many people. Before the lifeboat was launched, he passed along the port deck of the steamer, commanding the people not to jump in the boats and otherwise restraining them from swamping the craft. When the collapsible was launched, Officer Lowe succeeded in putting up a mast and a small sail. He collected the other boats together; in some cases the boats were short of adequate crews and he directed an exchange by which each was adequately manned. He threw lines connecting the boats together two by two, and all thus moved together. Later on he went back to the wreck with the crew of one of the boats and succeeded in picking up some of those who had jumped overboard and were swimming about. On his way back to the Carpathia he passed one of the collapsible boats which was on the point of sinking with thirty passengers aboard, most of them in scant night clothing. They were rescued just in the nick of time.

Whether you had ancestors directly involved with the Titanic disaster or simply want to learn more for your own interest, historical newspapers provide stories and details you cannot find anywhere else. GenealogyBank’s online archive of more than 5,850 newspapers is full of interesting survival stories, family history facts and more!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

Every year I like to re-read Val D. Greenwood’s “Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy” (for a copy call: 1-866-641-3297).

It is a good review of core genealogical records.

With that in mind, let’s review the core value of newspapers: obituaries.

Obituaries are a key genealogical resource, providing a wealth of detail about the specific ancestor you’re researching as well as clues to push your family history searches into new—and sometimes unexpected—directions.

GenealogyBank recently held a webinar covering how you can best use obituaries in your genealogy research. The video recording of the genealogy webinar and the accompanying obituaries PowerPoint presentation are available below.

Watch the genealogy webinar about researching obituaries for family history information now!

We can do this! It’s a great day for genealogy!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.

Every day, GenealogyBank is working hard to digitize more newspapers and obituaries, expanding our online collection to give you the largest newspaper archives for family history research available anywhere.

Here are some details about our most recent additions (we actually added new content to thousands of titles, but the following is a representative sample):

• A total of 99 newspaper titles from 29 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia
• Titles marked with an asterisk (*) are obituaries only and are new to our archive
• Those marked with a plus sign (+) are historical newspapers new to our archive
• We’ve shown the date ranges so that you can determine if the new content is relevant to your personal research

If a recent addition to our archive interests you, simply click on that newspaper’s title: it is an active link leading to that paper’s search form.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Blog.