Introduction: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows how to determine the date of undated, Civil War-era family photographs using revenue stamps affixed to the back of the picture. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. Do you have Civil War-era photographs of your ancestors that are undated? As this... (Read More)
State laws required that a legal notice of a probate action be posted in local newspapers. This was the state’s method to get the word out to all interested parties that an estate was going to be disbursed to the heirs and creditors. These legal requirements varied across the country, but we can reasonably... (Read More)
Keep your research simple. Knowing the first step to take when doing your family history searches can save you time and effort. Here’s one good genealogy search tip to keep in mind: target your relatives using GenealogyBank’s online Social Security Death Index. What if you know that your family has lived in a certain... (Read More)
Want to search the local newspapers from only one state, city or town? It is easy to do that in GenealogyBank. In the middle of GenealogyBank’s homepage is a list of all 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. Simply pick the state you want to focus your genealogy research on. In this... (Read More)
Now that it is November, the holidays will be here before you know it. You want to prepare now. That’s what Rose Briggs did. Her hard work set the tone for how Thanksgiving has been celebrated since 1921. Rose’s Thanksgiving preparation is just one of the many great stories in GenealogyBank’s online newspaper archives.... (Read More)
Here is a fun family tree puzzle shared with us by Get er Done. Do you see the faces? How many ancestors can you find in this family tree puzzle? Hint: people we’ve shown this to are reporting they can see from 8 to 11 faces. Tell us how many faces you find! .. (Read More)
With Hurricane Sandy pounding the United States East Coast, we are experiencing right now how hurricanes can cause pain and destruction. It is true today and was true for our ancestors. Some of the bright spots in the major “Grand Isle” hurricane of 1909 that hit Louisiana are told in these newspaper hurricane rescue... (Read More)
GenealogyBank has a fresh new look with enhanced search features to help you find information about your ancestors faster. We created this GenealogyBank “Guide to Searching for Your Ancestors” Infographic to quickly introduce you to some of our recent website improvements so that you can get the most out of your ancestor searches. Click... (Read More)
Beginning genealogists sometimes write us and say: “I put in the correct information for my search—full name including middle name, birth date, last known place of residence, etc.—everything I know about my ancestor, and yet I found no matching records. I did this search for a few other ancestors after I was told that... (Read More)
