For more than 25 years, I’ve searched for the family above, the family of a man named Campbell Barnes. He left Hardin County, TN, and migrated to McNairy Co. where he married Alice Jones in 1868 and presumably had 4 daughters. Then, nothing. I’m sure you all have had this happen on one of your […]
Using Finding Aids From Afar
My goodness it has been awhile! I promise you all I haven’t forgotten about my genealogy community, I’ve just been busy with two things: parenting a teen (argh), and tackling my goal to write up almost 30 years of research. I have tons of topics to blog about, but only so many hours in the […]
A Master Class in Genealogy
Melvin Collier’s powerful new book, From Fragments to Foundation: Uncovering a Buried History of Tragedy and Triumph, is officially out. When I received my book, I asked my son to answer the door for trick-or-treaters, grabbed a hot tea, and curled up with the good read I knew it would be. Melvin does not disappoint […]
6 Big Mistakes Genealogists Make
At the beginning of our genealogical journey, we all make mistakes—I certainly have. Mostly, it’s because we are new and simply don’t yet have the experience we need. Genealogy is a skill and like all skills, it improves with training. Notice I didn’t say it improves with time. Of course, we grow and learn […]
Malinda Found with FamilySearch Full-Tex...
After decades of research, I finally know how Giles Holt acquired my ancestor Malinda. This is thanks to the transformative power of FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search. I hope you are using it. Using FamilySearch Full-Text Search There’s no doubt that most genealogists have heard about this new tool, but I know that not everyone has tried […]
History in the Freedmens Bureau Records
I’ve been neck deep in Freedmens Bureau research the last few months! Most genealogists know about this extraordinary collection of records, and their importance to all researchers and not just African-Americans. I’ve blogged about them many times before, for example here and here. However, I’d like to illustrate how to utilize these records to uncover […]
The Value of Court Records
Court records can expand our family research in unexpected ways. We often spend decades of our lives researching our roots and only pension records come close to the amazing finds I’ve had in the many records of the court. Here’s a great example of how doing reasonably exhaustive research (which includes relevant court records at […]
Good Work at the Post Office
Almost every family has an ancestor or relative who worked for the U.S. Post Office. Shown above is a nice photo of my cousin Eugene Prather in his postal uniform with one of his co-workers. Lately, I’ve been revisiting the post office records I got from the National Archives in Washington, DC about 20 years […]
Using Ledgers and Account Books
Recently, I got re-acquainted with the joys of a little utilized genealogical source: the store ledger. A wonderful local historian in Somerset County, Maryland shared ledger pages of a store in the community where my Eastern Shore ancestors lived for over 150 years. Here is a ledger page showing the 1859 purchases of “John Waters […]
A Terrific Newspaper Table
The fact that I still read actual newspapers every day marks me as over a certain age, for sure. I suppose old habits die hard. But the joy of newspaper research never gets old. My problem is that they are also being digitized at a rate much faster than I can keep track of easily. […]