Our ancestors have made the long trip to America starting with the days of the Pilgrims. These were not easy journeys and some ended in disaster. Here is a riveting newspaper account from an article written in 1837 showing just how brutal the trip to America could be. The barque Mexico left Liverpool, England,... (Read More)
More than one hundred years ago the renowned Boston Athenaeum librarian and author Charles Knowles Bolton (1867-1950) counseled genealogists to document their family histories by putting the generations in the context of their times. At what generation was “white sugar” a staple in the family diet? What were their political views? What about the... (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 recipe contests that ran in local newspapers can turn out to be a surprisingly good source of genealogy information about your female ancestors. Have you ever won a contest sponsored by... (Read More)
Today’s Wall Street Journal (21 November 2012) has an op-ed editorial by Melanie Kirkpatrick: Thanksgiving, 1789 about the nation’s first Thanksgiving proclamation. It was also President Washington’s first proclamation—he had been sworn in as the nation’s first president just a few months earlier, on 30 April 1789. Washington’s proclamation making Thanksgiving an officially recognized... (Read More)
One of the oldest newspapers published in America was the Boston News-Letter. The origins of this historical newspaper were detailed, handwritten reports by John Campbell. In 1702, John Campbell became the Postmaster in Boston. “As part of his job, Campbell had the official task of writing letters of important information to the main office.” (Sloan,... (Read More)
With Thanksgiving just six days away, I thought I would search for any articles in GenealogyBank’s archives that mentioned Dr. Samuel Fuller—who was one of my Mayflower ancestors. I searched putting the terms “Mayflower Samuel Fuller” in the “Include Keywords” search box. Bang—GenealogyBank returned over 1,800 records. That’s great; I can spend a long... (Read More)
State laws required that a legal notice of a probate action be posted in local newspapers. This was the state’s method to get the word out to all interested parties that an estate was going to be disbursed to the heirs and creditors. These legal requirements varied across the country, but we can reasonably... (Read More)
Keep your research simple. Knowing the first step to take when doing your family history searches can save you time and effort. Here’s one good genealogy search tip to keep in mind: target your relatives using GenealogyBank’s online Social Security Death Index. What if you know that your family has lived in a certain... (Read More)
Want to search the local newspapers from only one state, city or town? It is easy to do that in GenealogyBank. In the middle of GenealogyBank’s homepage is a list of all 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. Simply pick the state you want to focus your genealogy research on. In this... (Read More)
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.
Get Helpful, Usable Tips for Your Genealogy Research.