Did you know there were state census records? The information and availability varies per state. Some records may have been destroyed over the years due to fire, water damage or natural disaster. Ancestry.com has many of these state census records … Continued
With the digital age, the soundex is almost extinct. However, if you ever search census records using microfilm it is still good to know. In essence the soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in … Continued
If you’ve ever tried to upload genealogy information onto Ancestry.com or into a genealogy computer program you may have seen the term Gedcom. But, what is a Gedcom? Wikipedia describes it as a plain text containing genealogical information about individuals, … Continued
Today, it the average life expectancy of a woman is expected to reach is about 83 years of age. However, before the 20th Century this life expectancy was much lower. Often in researching your family history, you may discover a … Continued
While researching, I’ve come across family members who had numerous children. However, out of the twelve children born to this family only three lived to adulthood. Today this seems very odd, but before all of the medical advances of the … Continued
When doing research, I continued to find naturalization records for ancestors who lived in the American colonies in the 17th Century and early 18th Century before the American Revolution. Common sense said that this was not my ancestors. They would … Continued
There are days when I do not have a lot of time and I pull up my researcher informer or go to a state archives and I wonder, now who lived here. So, I decided to map where my ancestors … Continued
Have you ever run into an instance where you know without a doubt that an ancestor lived in an area, but are unable to find any records on them? I know I have and it is very frustrating. So, why … Continued
No one likes to run across brick walls in their family history, but let’s be honest we all probably run across one or more at some point in our research. I’ve shared tips on breaking the brick walls and one … Continued
Would you like to host a family reunion, but don’t know where the descendants for a given ancestor are living? When I was hosting the McKee Family Reunion, I ran into this issue on over half of the still living … Continued