Category: Other

Researching Patents in Genealogy

Several years ago, genealogist Midge Frazel began investigating family stories that her late father-in-law, Wilbur H. Frazel, was an inventor. Her husband Steve “had observed his father working in his home office on a patent,” Midge says. “Steve’s brothers knew little about their father’s work...

Home-Run Heritage: Researching Athletic Ancestors

Score a big win for your family history by researching the sporting days of your athletic ancestors.

Find Genealogy Clues in Old Home Movies

Your old home movies are filled with family history. Learn how to preserve these treasures and mine them for research clues.

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...

Genealogy Workbook: Tax Records

Tax records can be instrumental in tracing ancestors between US census years and before the first federal census in 1790. We'll get you started researching in this valuable genealogical resource.

Time Capsule: A Hopeless Place

Read a brief first-hand account of a prison for females in the 1800s.

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Document Detective: Voter Registration

The right to vote is a cornerstone of our American civil rights. You can register in person to vote when you reach the legal age of majority. The state board of elections, a county supervisor of elections, or a voter registrar is responsible for reviewing and processing your registration. If...

College Records 101

Is information about your ancestors languishing in dusty university files? Take our genealogy crash course in finding and accessing academic records.

AncestorNews: Letters as Genealogy Gems

E-mail is one of the greatest inventions to come down the pike. It's kept me in touch with more people, more frequently, and made communicating genealogy information a breeze. However, as I dash off a quick e-note, I often compare my sparse prose with letters written long before cyberspace...

Analyzing Family Bible Entries

If you've found a family Bible, you're no doubt ecstatic about the discovery, but you need to look for a few things to determine the Bible entries' accuracy. Just because you found Great-grandpa's birth date in the family Bible doesn't mean it's, well, gospel. First, always check the date the...

Ways to Find Family Bibles

Of course, assuming your ancestors kept a family Bible and it still exists, finding it is your biggest challenge. Here are some places and sources to check, but remember to also look for allied family lines-those who married into your family. Perhaps none of your ancestors kept a Bible, but...

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 […]

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