Genealogy Tip of the Day

If you are stuck, you should decide what the problem is, what the sources are, how those sources are organized, and how those sources are se...

Is it possible that the town name is right, but the name of the state is incorrect? Is it possible that part of the name is right, but the r...

I am working on adding tips to the site and am currently just about done with June. Updates will be posted as they are completed. Genealogy...

Because the law did not require it. In 1907 there was reform of immigration and the naturalization process, which resulted in more paperwork...

Sooner or later you will encounter conflicting information in your research. Record the information as it is provided on each source and put...

It is not a tip of the day, but this partially explains why the tips have been on the short side for the past month. I invite regular tip re...

Have you checked for potential records at the town or village, township, county, state and federal level? Focusing on just one level of reco...

When was the last time you reviewed records and conclusions made early in your research? Is it possible that mistakes made early in your res...

Are you reviewing and re-reading what you transcribe or what you put into your genealogy database? Is there the chance you might have made a...

Family traditions can run the gamut from comical to depressing, from reasonable to completely outrageous. Wherever they fit on the scale, th...

If your ancestors were a member of a denomination over any significant length of time, learn something of their history. A broad understandi...

Are you in isolation in your research? If there are not relatives (close or distant) working on your same line, consider joining a mailing l...

We all know this, but forget that sometimes it impacts our genealogical research as well. Early in my research, I was surprised that when my...

Back in the “old days” of research, page by page was often the only way to find someone in a census record. With the advent of every name in...

For every census listing you have for an ancestor, think of other sources and materials that it suggests. A value of real property in an 186...

Do you have your ancestor in every extant census in which she would be enumerated? Skipping one because “it won’t tell you anything” is neve...

I’m not going to summarize Elizabeth Shown Mills’ “Evidence Explained” in one tip, but generally speaking a source citation should provide e...

If you have gotten stuck in extending your family back to earlier generations, consider tracking the descendants of that earliest “unknown” ...

Don’t just research mindlessly. It is bad in more ways than one. Decide what you want to know, determine what you already know and learn ab...

Learn about the geography of where your ancestor lived. It might explain where they later settled, how they travelled, or where they went to...

There are days when I’m out of town that I am in a library all day, largely because I don’t live near a large genealogical library and I hav...

Remember that at the library there are other researchers. Be considerate of them. I’m fairly patient, but here are a few things that have gi...

If you do not know when civil registration starts in the jurisdictions in which you are researching, find out. And if you don’t know what ci...

Keep in mind that paying property tax only indicates an individual owned property in a location. It does not mean that he necessarily lived ...

Before 1922, most women derived citizenship from their husband or their father. Before women had the right to vote, citizenship was not as c...

Never assume a record set won’t hold the answer to any of your genealogical problems unless you have learned about those records, know what ...

Many genealogists are not familiar with the word, but they should be familiar with the concept. Endogamy is the practice of marrying within ...

Different records for the same event may provide different information. While it is not always possible to “doublecheck” everything try and ...

If you do not know a maiden name or a first name of an individual, leave it blank. In your notes and or sources, indicate how you know the i...

Purists would tell you that you should use whatever is on a birth certificate as an individuals “given name” in your genealogy database. Som...

If you find an ancestor's deed in a land record book, check the pages before and after. It was not uncommon for individuals to record do...

I've been working on my wife's English lines lately. Some have been fairly easy to research and I have been accumulating quite a bit...

Do you really know how your ancestors pronounced their last name? Taliaferro and variants are often pronounced to sound like "toliver...

If you can't find your ancestor in the 1840 census and you think he really should be there, look for his 1830 neighbors in 1840 or try l...

It is relatively easy to find the names of those who were godparents for your ancestor's children. Those names are big clues. However, w...