It is generally rare for families to change the spelling of their names (although some immigrant families did so in an attempt to make their names sound more familiar to American ears, so be aware of this possibility). When doing your family history research, however, you may encounter variations on the spelling of your... (Read More)
Sometime during the next few weeks, as we continue to add new content to our online archives, GenealogyBank will reach a milestone: we will have 1 billion more records than the total we launched our website with five years ago. Wow, that’s a lot of additional genealogy records! I wanted to see what I... (Read More)
Every day we get interesting genealogy questions from our members via our Ask the Genealogist service. The following is a good example: a member asked for help finding information about a great-grandfather. Question: I am looking for more information on my great-grandfather, Edgar Rhue Harner. He was born in Berks Co., PA, in 1860.... (Read More)
With GenealogyBank adding more records at the rate of 10 documents a second, we hear from genealogists every day sharing their excitement about their family history discoveries. Here is a genealogy research success story we received today from GenealogyBank member Michele Lewis. Michele wrote us: Here is a newspaper success story for you. My... (Read More)
The old Colonial newspapers let us look back and see our country’s news as it happened. We get to see the early American history as it unfolded in our ancestors’ day. Imagine the utter shock in 1799 upon hearing the grim news that General George Washington was dead—America’s military leader during the Revolutionary War... (Read More)
This week marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles John Huffam Dickens, the famous English novelist who created such memorable characters as David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Tiny Tim. Born on Feb. 7, 1812, Charles Dickens remains one of the most popular and beloved writers in the world—in fact, his... (Read More)
Online genealogy research is endlessly fascinating—you never know what you will find. I was doing some family history research in GenealogyBank’s newspaper archive when this double obituary caught my eye. Baltimore Patriot (Baltimore, Maryland), 25 July 1834, page 3. Just a short, simple notice, 4½ lines long—and yet what a sad story it tells.... (Read More)
When researching your family history, it can be very difficult to find information about women in the early 19th Century—finding genealogical resources that actually give women’s names and family details is challenging. It was common in the 19th Century for newspapers and government records to be brief and give only the basic information about... (Read More)
Every Memorial Day we see the familiar poppies and remember our nation’s war dead. Recalling those that died from the Revolutionary War down through today. In Flanders fields the poppies grow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid... (Read More)