The Ninth Amendment states that rights that are not listed in the Bill of Rights still exist, and are reserved to the people. But, this leaves a whole host of questions open about what those unlisted...
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Diaries, Letters, and Photographs: A Closer Look at Civil War Records #4
The most personal types of Civil War records are letters, diaries, and photographs. You can find quite personal, and even intimate information in these records, and with photographs, it is always...
Baptismal Records: A Closer Look at Birth Records #2
If you are searching for a birth record for an ancestor, you might not find one if official birth registration was not required at the time and in the place they were born. However, you will likely...
Birth Certificates: A Closer Look at Birth Records #1
Birth records are some of the first types of records you may look for when beginning your genealogy research. After all, most people in the western world have had some sort of documentation of their...
Martha Washington: America’s First Ladies #1
Martha Washington was the very first 1st lady of the United States. We all know this about her, and that she married George Washington. But, what about her life before him, and after him? Do you...
Where to Find Them: A Closer Look at Civil War Records #1
The American Civil War generated a lot of records of different types. These are records that can often add many beautiful layers of personal detail to your genealogy research, and bring ancestors on...
The Sixteenth Amendment: The Constitutional Amendments
The Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution establishes a federal income tax. There had only been one tax of this type before, to pay for the Civil War, and it was canceled not long after the end...
The Puritans in New England Ban Christmas: Famous Christmases in History #8
The Puritans in the New England colonies, particularly Massachusetts, did not approve of the celebration of Christmas. It was discouraged from the time the colonies were founded, until Massachusetts...
The Birth of Sir Isaac Newton: Famous Christmases in History #7
One particularly famous Christmases in history was the one when Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642. Isaac is one of the most famous scientists in history, and his birth and subsequent discoveries and...
The WWI Christmas Day Truce: Famous Christmases in History #5
On Christmas Eve in 1914, troops on both sides of the war suddenly stopped fighting each other in a small town in Belgium. They sang Christmas carols to each other, then ventured from their fox holes...