Books of the Week – Donald Lines Jacobus

Millions of books are going online.Entire libraries – that never close; available 24/7. It is now possible for genealogists to read, download and keep genealogies, local histories – publications of all types and sizes. Instantly accessible online and easily stored on your personal laptop or handheld computer. Donald Lines Jacobus (1887-1970) – well known... (Read More)

City Directories

Thousands of city directories are going online. City directories are a basic tool for genealogists. City directories are like an annual census of the cities and towns across America. Now – thousands of them are being digitized and put online. Read about the history of city directories here: Williams, A.V. Growth and Development of... (Read More)

GenealogyBank – Where Everybody Knows Your Name

I had a basic question yesterday that reminded me of one of the core values of GenealogyBank – it’s flexible search engine. A woman wrote asking for the obituary notice of her father – who had died in December 2008 – but she had not included her father’s name. So I wrote back asking... (Read More)

Happy Birthday GenealogyBank!

GenealogyBank is 3 years old today!Wow – and has it grown. GenealogyBank has gone from 1,300 newspapers to over 3,800 newspapers – that’s the equivalent of going from 160 million articles to 346 million articles, documents and reports – GenealogyBank now has more than 130 million obituaries and death records. If you haven’t checked... (Read More)

Washington, DC Captured – President Flees on Horseback

Washington, DC was captured and burned August 24-25th, 1814. Illustration: National Archives Identifier 531090 With British troops overwhelming the city “…a retreat was ordered, when the President, who had been on horseback, with the army the whole day, reared from the mortifying scene, and left the city on horseback accompanied by Gen. Mason and... (Read More)

Obituaries – From Annual Reports – Congress has chartered many national associations – among them the American Instructors of the Deaf.

Congress has chartered many national associations – among them the American Instructors of the Deaf. Their annual reports routinely included details about the schools for the deaf and their faculty. GenealogyBank has the back file of these reports.Here are the obituaries that appeared in the 1908 report.Deem, Charles S. (1861-1908). Jackson, Mississippi. p. 218... (Read More)

The Old Cemetery – a tour in 1822

Newspaper articles can tell us about our ancestors and also the details of the cemeteries where they were buried. “English names often startled us as we walked through the alleys of tombstones…” (Photo: Craig Patik, 2000) I found this article giving a detailed tour of the Père Lachaise Cemetery (Cimetière du Père-Lachaise) written in... (Read More)