Can you trace your ancestors back to Colonial America? If so, you may find that searching for your family during this time period is more challenging than you expected. But there is hope of discovering new insights – you just need to know where, and how, to look.
Recently I have been searching diligently for my husband’s German ancestors and I’ve run into that age-old genealogy problem – how do I distinguish between two unrelated people who have the same name, similar ages and live near each other? Or two people from the same family with the same name?
Having a difficult time uncovering an ancestor’s occupation? You’re not alone. This detail is a welcome addition to a family tree but if it doesn’t show up in an obvious place – like a census record – it can easily go undiscovered since many of us are unsure where else to look for this information.
For the family history researcher, finding a stash of old family photographs can be a true genealogy jackpot! And while our first inclination might be to hang them right up on the wall for everyone to see – this may not be the best idea. Here’s how you should handle them.
As family history researchers we often get caught up exploring the people in our family tree and we forget to take into consideration the impact locations had on these people’s lives. But, often, location research can reveal as much or more about an ancestor as the vital records you’ve likely already collected.
Back before the days of welfare, food stamps, and long-term disability insurance, people who were unable to support themselves financially sometimes had to live in these places. This article will explain what poor houses and poor farms were and how to find your ancestors who may have lived there.
These days, millions of people have family trees online, with facts and sources gathered from the many online databases that are available. But, be aware, some of these sources could just disappear. No warning, just gone – because online record collections are not guaranteed to stay online, or publicly accessible, forever.
While most people find FamilySearch’s site pretty intuitive, there are a few buried elements that many overlook – ones that can have a huge impact on your research. It only takes a minute to try them out. Go see how they can help your research today!
Family History Daily recently reviewed the free family tree site RootsFinder, because its modern design and robust functionality makes it a great choice for anyone in the market for a new place to store their research. One of the features of RootsFinder that really stands out is its Web Clipper, an extension that works with your browser to extract genealogical records from other websites and copy them to your RootsFinder family tree. This extension is free and is one of the most useful tools you will find online for genealogical research.