Category: Other

Researching Orphan Children and Adoption in Your Genealogy

Somewhere between the 1850 census and the 1860 census, Benjamin and Luranna Gilbert acquired a 12-year-old child named Mary Lackey. Who was Mary?

Genealogy Workbook: Institutional Records

Tuberculosis sanatoriums. State hospitals. Poor farms and almshouses. “Insane” asylums. Old folks’ homes. Orphanages. Prisons. Almost everyone has a relative who—whether willingly or not—became a resident in an institution for a short period or even the better part of a lifetime. Or perhaps an ancestor or relative...

How to Find Your Ancestor’s Will

Q I’m not sure if my grandparents ever had a will drawn up. They died 10 years apart. How would I go about checking to see if they ever filed a will? Whose death should I check first? A We asked Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, author of Long-Distance Genealogy (Betterway Books, out of print), to weigh in […]