Genealogy has ruined me in the best way. I can be perfectly content all day, and then I see a hint, a record index, a cemetery photo, or a single line in a probate packet, and my brain flips a switch...
Latest Articles
Homestead Files, Hidden Stories
Federal homestead records sit in a sweet spot between law and lived experience. They were created to document a legal transfer of public land into private hands, yet they often preserve day-to-day...
No Records, No Problem
When you first start researching your family, it is easy to believe every question has a record waiting somewhere. A birth certificate, a marriage entry, a census line, a grave marker, a neat little...
How to Find Marriage Records
Marriage records are one of the three core types of vital records every family historian should learn to use. Birth, marriage, and death records often work together like a three-legged stool. If you...
10 “Must-Do” Genealogy Projects for January
Let’s kickstart our genealogical journey this January. From strategic planning to deep historical dives, these activities are designed to enrich your understanding of your family's past.
How To Check Your Family Tree For Errors
Genealogy has a built-in problem that never goes away. You are trying to rebuild real lives from records created by real people, and people get things wrong. Sometimes the mistake is innocent, like a...
Every Mistake I Made in 2025
Genealogy teaches you something early. The record is rarely clean. Ink blots. Misspelled names. Ages that shift from census to census. People who appear, disappear, then show up again decades later...
DNA: A Guide for Family Historians (Book Giveaway – ENDED)
The giveaway runs until December 25.
The Christmas Story
All month, we have looked at how different places celebrate the season, with food, songs, family gatherings, church services, and small customs that show up year after year. Today, we are going to...
So why December 25?
Well, two big reasons show up in history. One reason is a theological calculation that shows up early. A Christian writer named Sextus Julius Africanus (early 200s) argued that...