Old newspapers provide the stories of our ancestors’ lives, helping to flesh out the names and dates on our family trees. What kind of family history can be found in historical newspapers? Let’s pick a typical, ordinary family and find out. For example, what can I discover about the Crofoot family that lived in... (Read More)
Every now and then you run across an interesting marriage announcement in old newspapers about someone who couldn’t travel to a wedding—so they attended by proxy. I once read about Mark Twain and his wife attending the funeral of his mother in law—by listening to it over the telephone 450 miles away! It seems... (Read More)
Genealogists know the frustration of tracking down your Irish immigrant ancestor’s birth, marriage or death certificate, hoping that it will be the document that finally tells you where in Ireland your family came from—only to be disappointed once again. So many census registrars simply wrote “Ireland” on the form, giving no additional clues about... (Read More)
It is easy to find copies of your Georgia ancestors’ marriage certificates and records using two basic online genealogy tools: GenealogyBank.com and FamilySearch.org. If your ancestors lived in Georgia, let’s see how we can find information about them. FamilySearch.org has put Georgia marriage records from 1785 to 1950 online. You may search for these... (Read More)
In this article, Scott Phillips asks our readers for help in deciphering the writing on the back of an old photo identifying his “Uncle L.”.. (Read More)
Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary explains some of the unusual or archaic terms often found in historical newspapers, and provides examples from period newspapers. When I first started searching historical newspapers to help with my family history research, certain... (Read More)
Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary writes about two discoveries she made relating to Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley, and invites readers to join her in breaking through a brick wall in Ripley’s family history. There is a wealth... (Read More)
When using newspapers to find family history information, look at the entire paper—don’t stop with just the obvious articles such as obituaries and marriage notices. Look at all of the articles. Genealogy is everywhere in a newspaper: even in the social columns, as in the following example. Briefs, Locals, Chatter—social columns have different headings... (Read More)
Is the Infographic image above too small? See the larger version. Newspapers offer a variety of genealogy records that you can use to trace back your family tree. Learn about the types of genealogy records that can be found in newspapers and discover the family history information that each record type contains below. Obituaries Obituaries are an... (Read More)
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.