Researching Recent Obituaries for All My ‘Mayflower’ Cousins

There is more than one way to find your relatives in GenealogyBank’s massive archive of Recent Obituaries. I’ve noticed that genealogists often go to the Recent Obituaries collection when they are researching a specific relative that died in the past 40 years. They search, find them and go. But wait—there’s more. There is another... (Read More)

Old Obituary Tells War of 1812 Veteran’s Story

Here is the old obituary of Captain Ambrose Spencer (1795-1814), a young man who fought and died fighting the British during the War of 1812. This obituary from the 1800s was a good newspaper research find. The veteran’s obituary was published in this Bennington, Vermont, newspaper because his brother John Canfield Spencer (1788-1855) was... (Read More)

Help Wanted-Female Classified Ads: Working Women Ancestors

Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this blog post, Gena shows how “Help Wanted-Female” ads in historical newspapers can help you learn more about the employment opportunities that were available to your women ancestors—and learn about the places and eras they lived in. What... (Read More)

Getting Your Ancestor’s Obituary and a Bonus, Too

GenealogyBank’s deep backfile newspaper archives are packed with stories—over 1.6 billion of them. I like it when old obituaries give key details in the lives of our ancestors. It’s always a bonus when you find that a photo was included with their obituary. Here are some examples: These great stories and photos were found... (Read More)

How to Use a Thesaurus as a Genealogy Keyword Tool

Introduction: In this blog post, Mary Harrell-Sesniak talks about how important it is to try many variations when using keywords for your genealogy searches—and explains how helpful a thesaurus is for finding those variations. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. A thesaurus is a marvelous writing tool—and an... (Read More)

Find Pictures of Your Ancestors’ Home in Old Newspapers

Do you have old family traditions, places and/or heirlooms? Like Abe Lincoln, did your family live in a log cabin? Do you have a picture of it? If you are related to Robert Dalton of Palo Pinto County, Texas, then GenealogyBank’s newspaper collection has a photograph of their old log cabin (built in the... (Read More)

Old Newspapers Tell the History of Two Manhattan Taverns

Introduction: Duncan Kuehn is a professional genealogist with over eight years of client experience. She has worked on several well-known projects, such as “Who Do You Think You Are?” and researching President Barack Obama’s ancestry. In this blog post, Duncan searches old newspapers to find the history of two taverns in Manhattan that archaeologists... (Read More)