AF-033: How to Order Your Ancestor's Social Security Application

A passenger list may name a relative left behind. A citizenship petition may give you the hometown you have been trying to find. Immigration and naturalization records can add those details to a famil...

20 Okt 14min

There's a part of genealogy that I think is harder than reaching a conclusion in the first place: changing one. Once I've worked on a person for a while, the dates, places, relationships, and records ...

16 Okt 11min

The longer I work in genealogy, the more I realize something about family tree research: a family tree isn't simply something I find. I build it. Records give me names, dates, places, relationships, o...

14 Okt 9min

Columbus Day and genealogy make me think about one small word with a big meaning: first. The first ancestor to come to America. The first family to settle in a county. Or the first name we can prove o...

12 Okt 7min

I say "thank you." Someone answers, "No problem." The exchange is over in a second, but lately I've been thinking about those two words. Whatever happened to "you're welcome"? My curiosity about the h...

9 Okt 9min

I was thinking recently about all the libraries I have visited over the years while doing genealogy research. Some had large genealogy departments. Others had a small genealogy or local history room t...

7 Okt 5min

German genealogy changed the way I research. I didn't plan on changing anything. At first, I was simply trying to follow another branch of my family tree, but I soon found that some of the habits that...

2 Okt 8min

A photograph can change things quickly. Until then, I may know a person only through census entries, deeds, handwritten records, or a name on a family tree. Then I see a face. I notice the eyes, the c...

1 Okt 7min