Some time ago a friend who had been adopted as an infant asked for my help in finding their birth parents. After a good bit of sleuthing, I identified and politely messaged a person who, according to DNA results, was most likely a very close relative.
Grave marker symbols can provide a fascinating look at your ancestors’ lives. This guide will help you decipher what they mean.
Whether you’re hoping to find the obituary, death or funeral notice of someone dear to you, or to uncover more facts about an ancestor, the following guide will help you locate the records you’re looking for.
As original as a child’s first name might seem, it often offers clues into a family’s near and, sometimes, very distant past. Given names link generations of family through repetition and can be a powerful tool to push our research to greater depths. To shed an even brighter light on this research opportunity we must understand the influences behind naming traditions.
Ask any seasoned genealogist and they will tell you just how important old maps are to their research. In fact, almost no other resource paints a better picture of your ancestor’s world. Here’s where to find them online.
When you are new to family history research, it’s easy to imagine that every ancestor will fit neatly into a perfect family group: married father and mother – and their children. It doesn’t take long to discover, however, that our ancestors’ lives were as complicated as ours are today.
If you’re lucky enough to have an original letter written by one of your ancestors, it’s most likely one of your most treasured belongings. But there’s more to discover than just letters when it comes to postal records. See if you can find your ancestors in these unique collections.
America has a long and disturbing history of mass racial violence against Black people. In this guide, we explore some of the major episodes of this violence and how to discover if your ancestors were impacted.
Anyone who has spent time doing family history research knows the many challenges involved in building a family tree with complete and accurate information – but researching African American ancestors can present its own unique set of complications. In this guide we talk about how to get started, discuss common challenges and highlight the best resources to help you uncover your family’s roots.
These records can become a highly prized source of information for researchers since they often contain a surprising amount of detail, including elaborate personal statements or court findings.