Genealogy Tip of the Day

Quite a few genealogists overlook court records. Doing so can limit your research and create artificial brick walls. Testimony and depositio...

Even if you don't purchase anything, Ebay can be a virtual treasure trove of images for your genealogical research. While finding a pict...

Our sponsor, GenealogyBank , has a special offer for our fans/readers that ends on 31 July. Don't wait! We appreciate their continued su...

A patent for a federal land purchase was issued to Clark Sargent of Winnebago County, Illinois on 1 March 1848. This is not evidence th...

The longer you wait to type up or organize your onsite research, the colder it gets and the more likely you are to not completely remember w...

Our daily tips come to me as I'm doing actual research. That's why sometimes it may appear there are certain geographic or other the...

If you can't find a deed of sale for your ancestor's real property, consider the fact that he didn't sell it. If your ancestors ...

photo of Michael John Neill, (c) 2014 Do you handle original documents and photographs carefully while scanning, photographing, or copyi...

When was the last time you cleaned your genealogy "space?" Are there items buried at the bottom of a pile that you found a long ti...

Laws and statutes differ from one state to another. State and local taxing procedures, intestate probate practices, local record requirement...

We are offering two new webinars at the end of August: Meyers Orts-- rescheduled for 26 September Transcribing an 18th Century Estate In...

People don't always live on the real estate they own (or on which they pay taxes). Try and use other clues to make certain your ancestor...

Our sponsor, GenealogyBank , has a special offer for our fans/readers that ends on 31 July. Don't wait! We appreciate their continued su...

If your ancestor's estate had enough value to require a probate, the inventory of that estate may list more than household goods. Are th...

Record offices usually record items in the order in which they are brought into the office, not the order in which they took place. For this...

Not everyone who submits DNA to the "determine your ethnicity" type of sites or databases is really interested in the details of t...

Those "wrong" names may simply be in the wrong place. One branch of one of my families has mixed up the maiden name of the mother ...

When reading that deed where your relative sold real property, pay close attention to where they acknowledged the deed to be their own true,...

While any census can contain incorrect information, keep in mind that census questions were to be answered as of the date of the census, com...

If you enter in your genealogical database that a relative died in "about 1847," put down something in your sources or notes as to...

Clerks love to abbreviate. Sometimes those abbreviations are common and sometimes they are not. The phrase "Appraised in Old Ten" ...

If possible, find out what level of screening is required before entering a courthouse to search local records. You may save yourself some t...

German words sometimes contain letters ä, ö, or ü. Sometimes when the umlauts are not used an additional "e" is used, resulting in...

If your relative's ownership in a piece of real property is referred to as a life estate, then typically that means they could use the p...

When writing your "notes" about relatives that you remember, write down those words they said that "weren't quite proper,...

Sometimes genealogists want to get as much new information as possible when interviewing relatives. That's fine, but asking questions wh...

Before asking some one to help you figure out what something means or says, ask if you are giving them enough to help you. That usually mean...

If you have been accumulating information and records, when was the last time you stopped gathering and wrote about what you have located? D...

You found an image of a document on a website--it looks like a copy of an original document and it very well may be. But....ask yourself: ...

Microfilmers and digitizers are human. When "reading" books or other printed material online or on microfilm, I always look at the...

If the last name on which you are working is not all that common and you can't find where the family was from, have you considered searc...

Our sponsor, GenealogyBank,  is offering a discount for new subscribers. Take a look and see what newspaper discoveries await .

The first time you use any "new" record, ask yourself: what was the purpose of this record? who was the intended audience? ho...

I recently purchased a post card on Ebay of a church my family attended. When it arrived, I realized that my family probably wasn't atte...

Online translators serve a purpose, but remember that the documents genealogists usually use are not modern documents. There may be terms in...