Genealogy Research
Explore genealogy research articles and how-to tutorials designed to help you trace your ancestors and grow your family tree.
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3 Strategies For Examining the Family Bible
Please note that this post contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission if you decide to purchase a product/service. This does not cost you extra. Be assure d I only recommend products/services that I use and think you would like too. Are you one of the fortunate researchers to have the family Bible in your possession? Yes? You are a lucky one! The family Bible can and often does provide birth, marriage and death dates for family members. But… Have you ever considered what else the Bible may or may not tell the researcher? Is the information found in the Family Bible accurate? Is the information a primary or…
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Finding Children Between the Census Years
Your family tree is full of couples with their children listed underneath. They make up a nice complete family group. Right? Are you SURE you have found the whole family group? Let’s clarify that family group a bit more. Your ancestor’s family group is made up of the husband and wife and their known children. [Note: For this post, I am assuming the usual course of events related to marriage and the birth of children.] Unfortunately the infant and child mortality was high in the years of our ancestors. Visit any older cemetery and you find many infants and children did not survive past childhood. Children themselves in the 1800’s and…
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Is Your Slave Ancestry in My File Cabinet?
I came across this blog post “The Importance of Sharing the Slave History From Your Family Tree” from Genealogy with Valerie recently. I found her post thought provoking. Could I have someone else’s family history – i.e. slave history – in my file cabinet? It turns out the answer is “Yes”. Anyone who researches their southern family lines will bump up against the issue of slavery at some point. Whether your ancestors were slaves, slave owners or slave traders, the issue is there. It’s uncomfortable, but it is there. We cannot ignore history just because it is uncomfortable. History is just that …history. Much of my personal genealogy research centers…
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Using School Records for Genealogy Research
This week many students in our North Carolina headed back to school. Soon report cards, certificates of all kinds and by the end of the year, yearbooks will appear. Hmm…..what genealogical information can be found in these school records. While not a record source I use regularly, school records can provide important information on our ancestors and those around them. Report Cards Report cards are often the first thing we think of when we think about school records. They can tell us what type of student our ancestor was. We can learn their strengths and weaknesses. The following is the fifth grade report card for Elma Talbott, daughter of Boss…