The world first learned of the Titanic disaster through survivor stories published in newspapers. Read some of these incredible Titanic stories... (Read More)
Every year I like to re-read Val D. Greenwood’s “Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy” (for a copy call: 1-866-641-3297). It is a good review of core genealogical records. With that in mind, let’s review the core value of newspapers: obituaries. Obituaries are a key genealogical resource, providing a wealth of detail about the specific... (Read More)
It is generally rare for families to change the spelling of their names (although some immigrant families did so in an attempt to make their names sound more familiar to American ears, so be aware of this possibility). When doing your family history research, however, you may encounter variations on the spelling of your... (Read More)
Sometime during the next few weeks, as we continue to add new content to our online archives, GenealogyBank will reach a milestone: we will have 1 billion more records than the total we launched our website with five years ago. Wow, that’s a lot of additional genealogy records! I wanted to see what I... (Read More)
Every day we get interesting genealogy questions from our members via our Ask the Genealogist service. The following is a good example: a member asked for help finding information about a great-grandfather. Question: I am looking for more information on my great-grandfather, Edgar Rhue Harner. He was born in Berks Co., PA, in 1860.... (Read More)
With GenealogyBank adding more records at the rate of 10 documents a second, we hear from genealogists every day sharing their excitement about their family history discoveries. Here is a genealogy research success story we received today from GenealogyBank member Michele Lewis. Michele wrote us: Here is a newspaper success story for you. My... (Read More)
Newspaper articles about the 13th Amendment being ratified on 6 December 1865, permanently banning slavery everywhere in the United States... (Read More)
The old Colonial newspapers let us look back and see our country’s news as it happened. We get to see the early American history as it unfolded in our ancestors’ day. Imagine the utter shock in 1799 upon hearing the grim news that General George Washington was dead—America’s military leader during the Revolutionary War... (Read More)