Carol Stetser
Author's posts
Naming Patterns
September 29, 2023 Parents in modern times often seek to use creativity and imagination to give their children unique and special names. That wasn’t the case a few generations ago. While parents have always given serious thought to the names they gave their children, in earlier eras those names often followed specific patterns. In …
You Never Know with Genealogy
September 22, 2023 One of my favorite parts of genealogy is its unpredictability. You never know exactly what you might find when you sit down to research. Maybe today will be the day that a distant cousin reaches out to you. Perhaps someone will respond to a twenty-year old post. If, like me, …
Using the pre-1850 Censuses
September 15, 2023 The federal censuses are a basic resource for genealogical research in the U.S. They have been taken every ten years since 1790. However, many genealogists focus their attention on the censuses taken in 1850 and later. That’s because since 1850, all household members have been identified by name. The censuses taken …