Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog post, Mary shares some of the responses her social media friends gave when she asked the question: “Just what frustrates everyone about genealogy?” Earlier this year, the GenealogyBank blog published my article “Why Do You Love Genealogy?”... (Read More)
You’ve been working on your family history for years and have gathered a lot of information. You keep careful notes and are consistent in putting down full bibliographic citations so that others may quickly know where you found each of your facts. But—how are you adding the places of birth, marriage or death for... (Read More)
Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog post, Mary searches old newspapers to learn more about a special day coming up this Sunday: Mother-in-Law Day. They say that there is a holiday for everything—so it should come as no surprise that Mother-in-Law Day is... (Read More)
Obituaries often celebrate lives well lived—but rarely with the enthusiasm this recent obituary does. His obituary states: “Sal measured out at 73 1/2 inches, and a bouncing 232 pounds, 9 ounces.” After reading a few lines from Salvatore’s obituary, you quickly realize that he was someone very special to many people. His newspaper obituary... (Read More)
Last week, we posed this question to our GenealogyBank friends on Facebook: “What’s the funniest name or surname you’ve ever come across?” Well, your responses were wonderful: 98 of you have commented so far sharing your funniest name finds! We enjoyed some laughs reading these names so much that we decided to compile them... (Read More)
I was reading this old newspaper and noticed that obituary after obituary was for young children. So many reports of very young children dying early deaths in this old newspaper article: Martha Banks, aged 1 year, 11 months and 2 days Arthur Lincoln Vaughan, aged 6 months and 12 days Caroline E. Hein, aged... (Read More)
In this article, Scott Phillips shares some of the family stories he’s learned by searching through old newspapers... (Read More)
Here’s a tip for your family history research: Use old photos of your ancestors to generate family stories. Start the Conversation This past weekend I took this old family photo off the wall to scan it and add it to my family history collection online. It shows my great-grandparents John and Mary (Brown) Kemp... (Read More)
Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this blog post, Gena shows some crossword puzzles and other games from old newspapers, giving a glimpse into the times our ancestors lived in—and, potentially, providing genealogy help because some of the names and addresses of contest winners... (Read More)
