Genealogy Helps, Vol. 1 offers practical ideas for finding and learning more about your ancestors. Explore records you may have overlooked, including old tax rolls and lesser-known archives. You’ll...
Latest Articles
The Real Goondocks: The History of Astoria, Oregon, Behind The Goonies
I have always enjoyed The Goonies. It has everything I want in a fun adventure movie: an old treasure map, secret passages, booby traps, criminals, a pirate ship, and a group of kids who decide that...
The Lost Treasure of Francis Wainwright (Free eBook)
Francis Wainwright, an early Puritan settler in New England, was one of the wealthiest men in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century. His unusual headstone in Ipswich’s Old Burying...
The Ten Best Genealogy Websites for Beginners
These ten websites are among the best for genealogy beginners. Everyone has to start somewhere, and in the era of modern genealogy, you can do much without having to leave your house. Save that for...
Free Book Giveaway: Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew (ENDED)
This giveaway has concluded. Stay tuned for our next giveaway.
We Spend So Much Time Looking Back: What Are We Leaving Behind?
I spend a great deal of time looking for things people left behind. Sometimes it is something important, such as a will, a family Bible, or a letter that explains a relationship. Other times it is...
Am I Researching My Family or Just Collecting Records?
Recently, I realized I was doing something I’ve probably done many times without noticing. I found a record I’d been searching for, downloaded it, named the file, put it in the right folder, and...
The People I Almost Walked Past in the Family Tree
When I am working on the Moneymaker side of my family in Virginia, there is always a pull to keep going backward. Find the parents, then their parents, then see whether another generation is waiting...
I Know Their Names, But Do I Really Know Them?
Every once in a while, I look at someone in a family tree and realize I have done a pretty good job documenting them. I have birth, marriage, and census records, children, an occupation, and a death...
How Road Petitions Can Reveal Your Ancestor’s Neighborhood
Most family research begins with records created around major events such as births, marriages, deaths, land purchases, and military service. A request to build or repair a road may seem far removed...