Genealogy Tip of the Day

Occasionally in some church records, the name of the church holiday will be used instead of the year. Make certain you have translated it co...

Identify people on pictures--now! Don't wait, don't linger, and don't delay. In cleaning out my office at work, I discovered two...

When states and counties began maintaining vital records, it was relatively common for many births and deaths to not be recorded. As time mo...

We're running our 60% sale on webinars today--29  March 2013.  Coupon code "sixty" at check out will reduce your order by 6...

Plenty of original records are in bound volumes without page numbers. Frustrating as it is, researchers whose work extends before 1900 will ...

In most cases of births, deaths, and marriages, a discrepancy of one or two days is frequently not crucial. Dates that differ by years, name...

A big thanks to our sponsor GenealogyBank . We appreciate their continued support of Genealogy Tip of the Day ! Be certain to check out the...

Inmate can mean resident or patient. This reference from the 1890s refers to the widow of the veteran as an inmate of St. Mary's Infi...

When you've reached a stumbling block in the research of your long-dead ancestors, consider writing some of your own story--childhood ex...

Be wary of drawing conclusions that are not necessarily supported by the evidence. Witnesses to a will only had to be "of age" and...

If all records indicate the wife of your ancestor is "Mary," keep yourself open to the possibility that the ancestor could have be...

My German born ancestor was George Trautvetter--born in the 1790s. He had brothers Adam, Michael. and Henry. I was years into researching th...

Genealogical databases sometimes want us to know more than we do and encourage us to conclude more than may be actually implied in the recor...

If your ancestor, widow, or minor children, received a military pension, those records could contain a wide variety of information. This cou...

We've brought back our "Tip of the Day" mugs with our logo--along with a tote bag. Our store on Cafepress handles our mer...

We are adding six new webinars to our popular "fundamentals" series. These sessions cannot be attended live, but downloads will b...

My uncle married a woman in the 1870s--she used the name Nancy E. on the marriage record. When she obtained a widow's pension in the ear...

If you are stuck, brainstorm for ideas that may help to solve your problem. Just write down ideas as they come to you. Don't worry about...

aFor those of you who did not know, this is not my only genealogy blog. Here's  list with the links. Enjoy! Daily Genealogy Transcri...

If your ancestor lived near the county line, his "post office address" might have been in the neighboring county. Members of my Ra...

Have you listed your specific research goals? "Searching for Grandma" might be a little too broad. "Finding Grandma's dat...

If you are having difficulty analyzing a document that has several dates of events and ages of people contained within it, consider making a...

Be careful making conclusions solely on handwriting. Sometimes even in one document a person writes letters differently. This image from a...

Recently while searching through a handwritten index to probate records, I noticed that the clerk "stuck" approximately 10 entries...

I occasionally make return trips to the county where I grew up to pick up copies of various records. The last time I got to chatting with th...

Our sponsor, GenealogyBank , is offering a special St. Patrick's Day offer on an annual subscription--25% off! Save some of the gre...

Have the houses been renumbered in the city where your ancestor lived between the time they lived there and today? Have any streets been ren...

Before you make a conclusion or research decision based on a lengthy document or record, consider reading it completely instead of skimming ...

If a document indicates that three individuals are siblings and are all children of one person, remember that they might not share the same ...

Learn the basics or review--these presentations are short and inexpensive. Genealogy Fundamental webinar series was popular with new and e...

If you encounter the word "infant" in a legal document, remember that usually in the legal sense of the word it means someone unde...

If you are fortunate enough to obtain a copy of your ancestor's will, it may be that parts of it are difficult to read. Was there a cont...

Sometimes middle initials are correct and sometimes they are not, but they should always be transcribed and analyzed for potential clues. If...

We're running our 60% sale on webinars today--6 March 2013.  Coupon code "sixty" at check out will reduce your order by 60%...

If any sibling or sibling-in-law of your ancestor received a military pension, especially a widow's pension, consider obtaining the reco...