I asked a colleague to recommend a researcher in a specific area that’s too far for me to travel to and a little outside my area of expertise.  He wasn’t able to give me the name of a researcher and, because we occasionally share attempts to be funny with each other, he included the following in […]

FamilySearch is indicating that it’s 1860 census has been “last updated” on 24 March 2017. The question is “how?” I realize that FamilySearch provides access to a vast quantity of information at no charge. I appreciate that. I just wish that I had some inkling of how this database has been updated? There’s several ways it could […]

The Ancestry.com DNA submission kit has arrived.  Before I send back the sample, it would be a good idea for me to review the terms and conditions I agreed to before I ordered the test. I need to read through those terms and conditions again and determine if I am comfortable with them. I suggest […]

How much it will help my writing is yet to be determined and I probably should not admit to it publicly, but I finally took the plunge and purchased The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition. I have a reasonably firm grasp of the English language and grammar, but a printed reference will be nice to have. […]

Determining the origin of pieces of information that have been shared and reproduced endlessly can be difficult. Sometimes it is seemingly impossible. It is made even worse when using compiled materials that do not cite sources or provide any references as to where they obtained material. One can find a seemingly endless set of sources […]

To get me up to speed, I’ve purchased The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine Bettinger. It’s another book to add to my reading list, but I do want to make good use of the results of the DNA test I’m having done. In response to a some emails that […]

The FamilySearch database  contains more than the vital records that were extracted to make the index to these records. There are tax lists, election results, tax levies, road surveys, and a variety of other record documenting town business. A search for Samuel Sargent when querying the database brought no results. A manual scan of the town records […]

[Note: these church pews were written about on the old blog, but we’ve updated the post] Estate inventories can provide a wide variety of clues about the deceased. Sometimes they even reference church membership. Upon his death in 1819, Samuel Sargent owned two and a half pews in the “Baptist Meetinghouse.” One pew was in […]