Alex Haley (1921-1992) was a famous African American author who had more impact on genealogy than any other person in the past 50 years. He was born 11 August 1921. Haley would be almost 92 years old if he were alive today. After the release of his book Roots: The Saga of an American... (Read More)
American volunteers are out in cemeteries across the country, working to document the lives of bygone generations whose graves were not permanently marked with a tombstone. When these dedicated good Samaritans identify a veteran, the volunteers often request a headstone from the National Cemetery Administration which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs.... (Read More)
Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary shows some of the unique historical maps that can be found in old newspapers, and proposes a fun “gencaching” game to find more of these maps. Some of the greatest tools of genealogical research... (Read More)
We routinely see lists of immigrant passengers coming to America published in newspapers. Historical newspapers also published passenger lists of people going the other way—travelers leaving America. Here is an old passenger list of people going to Ireland that was printed in the Irish American Weekly. Irish American Weekly (New York City, New York),... (Read More)
We are often asked if GenealogyBank includes newspapers published in other countries, such as Canada, various countries in Europe, or in the Americas. No, we don’t. But, there is a bright side. U.S. newspapers routinely published news of marriages and deaths from overseas that they felt were of high interest to their U.S.-based readers.... (Read More)
Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this guest blog post Gena writes about a resource beloved by genealogists, the local library—and how thousands were built thanks to the generosity of businessman, steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Many genealogists are thankful for a resource... (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)
In celebration of Irish Heritage Month, here are some interesting facts about Irish heritage facts. Irish in America; Population Statistics There are 34.5 million people who claim Irish ancestry in America Approximately 11% of the total United States population is Irish American There are over 7 times more people of Irish descent in the... (Read More)
Irish American newspapers are a great source of the genealogical information we need to document our family trees back to Ireland. Part of GenealogyBank’s 6,500 newspaper archives is a special collection of 8 Irish American newspapers, providing coverage from 1810 to Today. These historical newspaper archives contain exclusive genealogy records that cannot be found... (Read More)