Melanie Mayo

From Pension Applications to Bounty Warrants: Free Revolutionary War Records Online

Do you have ancestors that served during the American Revolutionary War? A surprising number of records exist from this period and there are now numerous free collections online that will allow you to uncover records about these ancestors and their families.

From War Pensions and Bounty Warrants, to the collections of the Daughters of the American Revolution – we have gathered together some of the best free Revolutionary War collections online and linked to them below for easy searching.

FamilySearch to End Microfilm Distribution, Plans to Digitize All Records by 2020

On Sept 1, 2017 FamilySearch will make a big change to how they handle their vast collection of microfilmed genealogy records by no longer distributing them to the thousands of Family History Centers in the US and elsewhere.

Currently, researchers can request microfilms of millions of not-yet-digitized records to be delivered on loan to a local center. This service is provided at a nominal fee and allows researchers access to these records without having to travel to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Tens of Millions of British and Irish Genealogy Records Are Free This Weekend Only

UK genealogy research leader Findmypast has announced that they are offering nearly all of their British and Irish records completely free of charge this weekend. From now until midnight Monday you can access these records without cost and without entering a credit card. Findmypast is only requiring a name and email address. We love that. Start by searching here and then easily view and download records of interest.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Needs Your Help Researching Old Newspapers

On March 22, 1933 The State in Columbia, South Carolina ran an article titled “Treatment of Jews by German Regime Stirs Washington” about the first Nazi concentration camp, Dachau. This early article covering the horrors of the Holocaust was one of countless published by U.S. papers in the 1930s and 40s. And now, a project from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is attempting to find them all.

This Site Has Hundreds of Millions of UK and Irish Records No One Else Has

Are you one of the tens of millions of Americans whose heritage can be traced back to Britain, Ireland or both? If you are, you are not going to want to miss the collections at Findmypast. Among Findmypast’s 8 billion records are hundreds of millions of British and Irish records that you can’t find anywhere else online. And right now you can research these records for a full 50% off. That means an entire month for just $5 or $10 (depending on your level). Get the discount only in this post before it ends on Monday.

The “Secret” Codes on Death Certificates That Can Tell You How Your Ancestors Died

Finding death certificates for our ancestors is a critically important part of family history research. These important records contain information about when and where our ancestor lived and died and often include names of a spouse, parents, witnesses and, of course, a cause of death.

But the causes of death on death certificates are notoriously hard to read. Certainly, the more we research the better we get at deciphering the meaning of these sloppily written medical texts, but, very often, we are still left scratching our heads. Luckily there is a “secret” code on many of these documents that can help you make sense of this information and more fully understand how your ancestor passed.