This marriage license comes was dated 14 Dec 1925 and is from the county records of Fallon County, Montana–it was located on FamilySearch in their Montana, County Marriages, 1865-1950 for Levi L. Demar. It indicated that the father “is” with “was” crossed out. Question is: is this “evidence” that L. J. Demar was still alive on 14 […]

“1 Broken Mug one Gill Cup One bowl” Some readers might wonder what type of cup a “gill cup” is. The gill is referring to the size of the cup, not some special design or anything else. A gill is a unit of measure equal to one half cup. This image comes from Harford County, […]

FamilySearch recently announced that “Iowa, Records of Persons Subject to Military Duty, 1862-1910” was new or had been updated. A search of that database for the last name of Cawiezell indicated one individual in the database with that last name. There were a total of 37 results, but none of the other thirty-six had the Cawiezell […]

I had a great time presenting a remote webinar for the Tazewell County Genealogical Society in Pekin, Illinois, this evening. Given the weather it was better to be holed up in my house than driving. The discussion was search strategies-including Soundex approaches (don’t forget to get the list of Soundex codes for your ancestral names). […]

Part of a 1796 deed in Harford County, Maryland, from James Rampley to Jesse Kent states: “…Bargain and Sell unto the said Jesse Kent his Heirs and assigns all that part of a Tract of Land originally Granted to the said James Ramply by the State of Maryland on the first day of December seventeen hundred and […]

People throw around the phrase “deductive reasoning,” but I’m not certain that everyone really knows the true meaning of the phrase. “I looked at other handwriting by the clerk and using deductive reasoning I concluded that the letter that was difficult to read was an ‘M.’” The conclusion that the letter was an “M” may […]

When I first started working on the matches for one of my DNA tests, I discovered that one of my correspondents was adopted and was trying to locate her birth parents. No big deal. Their test results had a tree attached to it (with the name of the birth parents and nothing else). We corresponded […]

I’ve been reviewing several tombstone photographs we took several years ago. There are a few things I would do differently: take a picture of the entryway, sign, or something identifying the name of the cemetery if possible. rename all the pictures so I know whose stone is in the picture and the cemetery it was […]

Our genealogy offerings include a half off discount on my AncestryDNA class. We have more details on our order page. 5-session class on AncestryDNA–low rate ends 9 Feb 2019 Other DNA offerings  

I’ve researched my family’s genealogy for over thirty years. A lot has changed  in that time and a lot has not. But this is not one of those mundane posts about how technology has enhanced our access to records while requiring us to become even more devoted to responsible research methodology than ever before. It’s […]