October 11, 2024 Vital records – birth, marriage and death information – are the roots of any family tree. Beginning genealogists often assume that finding these records will be as simple as ordering certificates from a state or county health department. For some ancestors, ordering those kinds of records can be that simple. For …
Black Sheep Ancestors
October 4, 2024 Recently I’ve heard several genealogists bemoan the fact that their ancestors are boring. These folks say their ancestors didn’t do anything exciting. They were born, married, had children, and died. Genealogists want a few “Black Sheep Ancestors”- those characters that bent the rules and broke the laws and were anything but boring. …
Naturalization and the 1920 Census
September 27, 2024 If you have ancestors who arrived in the United States after the Civil War and before World War I, you’ve probably looked for their naturalization records. You may also have learned that these records are not always easy to find. There are several reasons for this. The earlier the naturalization record …