Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog post, Mary shares comments that she and her fellow family historians have exchanged on social media about why they love genealogy. I was browsing social media pages recently and saw that my friends were commenting about why... (Read More)
Most genealogists use newspaper birth notices, marriage announcements, and obituaries in their family history research—but there are many other good sources of family information in newspapers, such as tax lists. For example, the town of Tamworth, New Hampshire, took out this ad in the Sun (Dover, New Hampshire), an area newspaper, in 1816. It... (Read More)
Census and other government records can give us dates and facts about our ancestors, but where do you turn to find their personal stories, an account of something fantastic, exciting or odd that they experienced? If you are lucky, you may possess your ancestors’ journals or family letters. Even if you don’t have these,... (Read More)
Maybe you have an old cedar chest, or other large object, as one of your prized family heirlooms. We have an old chest that was owned by my grandmother, Adelaide Mildred (Wright) Kemp (1893-1949), and it was said that it had been passed down to her mother, Ida Estelle (Smith) Wright (1873-1963). Now if... (Read More)
GenealogyBank has really been great for finding the personal stories of each family member. I have been systematically going through the old newspapers looking for my Revolutionary War ancestors, and the other day I decided to look for my more recent ancestors and cousins. A quick search found this article. The historical newspaper article... (Read More)
If a genealogist falls in the forest—does she make a sound? What are you doing to ensure that your decades of family history research are preserved and passed down so that others can build on your expertise? For centuries genealogists relied on family tree charts that were carefully prepared on paper, a time-consuming and... (Read More)
One of my family traditions tells us that George Washington made his headquarters, from 4 July to 19 August 1781, at the home of my 5th Great-Grandfather, Joseph Appleby (1732-1792) in Greenburgh, New York, in the Dobbs Ferry section of town, during the American Revolutionary War. Joseph Appleby served as a 2nd lieutenant in... (Read More)
The Richmond Family Bible I bought on eBay recently arrived in the mail. It was exactly as the seller had described it. The eBay description had read: Cover is well worn and torn. A few pages are loose, most still intact. Pages have spots throughout. This is a family Bible which belonged to the... (Read More)
It’s been years since I looked at eBay to find family heirlooms and artifacts. In the past, I have made some spectacular family history finds. For example, I once found an old family letter written by Jonathan Huse (1767-1853) to his mother, and an 1813 sampler created by his daughter Sarah Araline Huse (1807-1825)... (Read More)
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.