“Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In searching through early 19th Century newspapers, time and again we find historical obituaries about the passing of “Revolutionary Heroes,” as America’s newspapers recorded the honored service of those who fought to secure this country’s freedom from England.... (Read More)
Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this guest blog post, Gena shows how historical newspapers provide excellent coverage of disasters such as earthquakes, including detailed casualty lists helpful to genealogists. Living in California as I do, earthquakes are a fact of life. Because of... (Read More)
Introduction: Scott Phillips is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past® genealogy services. In this guest blog post, Scott tells about doing genealogy research on an author—and finding a surprising, direct link to one of his own ancestors. Recently I was searching the Internet for genealogy resources relating to the early... (Read More)
This is a bittersweet family story, about an abandoned blind baby and the kindness of strangers. But it is also an interesting story about family history research, telling the tale of a genealogist finding the facts about her grandmother. Melissa Archibald wrote us about the brick wall on her family tree involving her grandmother—and... (Read More)
Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega provides practical advice for genealogists planning a trip to Salt Lake City for doing family history research. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” Want to go to Salt Lake City in Utah? If you are like most genealogists that question is... (Read More)
Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this guest blog post, Gena provides three ideas to help genealogists break through the “brick wall” they sometimes run into while searching their family history. Do you feel stuck? All genealogists come to a point where they just... (Read More)
Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this guest blog post, Gena explores one of her many interests: the connection of food and cooking to family history, revealing how much oysters were part of our ancestors’ diets. What did your ancestors eat? Is this something... (Read More)
Introduction: Scott Phillips is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past® genealogy services. In this guest blog post, Scott tells about finding the only-known photos of two of his ancestors in old newspaper wedding announcements—and a surprising engagement notice that told him something he never knew about his own mother! Summertime!... (Read More)
You can learn a lot about the Americans who fought in our country’s wars—from the Colonial Indian Wars down to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq—from GenealogyBank’s online newspaper archives. Revolutionary War Hero Lives to Be a Centenarian This old obituary gives us many details of the life of John Peters, a Portuguese American... (Read More)