Genealogy Gold by Ancestral Findings

There's a part of genealogy that I think is harder than reaching a conclusion in the first place: changing one. Once I've worked on a person for a while, the dates, places, relationships, and records begin to feel...

The longer I work in genealogy, the more I realize something about family tree research: a family tree isn't simply something I find. I build it. Records give me names, dates, places, relationships, occupations...

Columbus Day and genealogy make me think about one small word with a big meaning: first . The first ancestor to come to America. The first family to settle in a county. Or the first name we can prove on a branch of the...

I was thinking recently about all the libraries I have visited over the years while doing genealogy research. Some had large genealogy departments. Others had a small genealogy or local history room tucked away...

German genealogy changed the way I research. I didn't plan on changing anything. At first, I was simply trying to follow another branch of my family tree, but I soon found that some of the habits that worked well for me...

A photograph can change things quickly. Until then, I may know a person only through census entries, deeds, handwritten records, or a name on a family tree. Then I see a face. I notice the eyes, the clothes, the way...

I deleted a sentence the other day because I realized I had gone farther than the records allowed. The sentence fit nicely with the story I was putting together, and based on everything I knew about the family, it even...

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 best response...

It is time for another Ancestral Findings free book giveaway. This month, I am giving away a copy of Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew . This true family story combines genealogy, World War II history...

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 much smaller: a name...

I caught myself doing something recently that I have probably done many times without thinking. I found a record I had been searching for, downloaded it, named the file, put it where it belonged, and almost immediately...

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 in an older record...

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 date. There may be...

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 from genealogy, yet...

Labor Day arrives each September, signaling the close of summer and the approach of autumn. Many people see it as a three-day weekend for rest, cookouts, or back-to-school shopping. Yet beneath the sales and...