Ancestral Findings

The founding of the United States is often treated as a closed chapter, something contained in a handful of documents, a few familiar names, and a short list of dates that everyone is expected to know...

6 Apr 16min

Easter is on a different date each year. It can get confusing. How do you keep up with a holiday whose date is constantly changing? It can be especially confusing if you have a calendar that doesn't l...

5 Apr 8min

In the years surrounding 1776, the American colonies were not shaped by a single voice or a single source of information. There was no unified message that reached everyone at once, and no system that...

4 Apr 9min

The founding of the United States is usually told through public moments. Documents, debates, and decisions take center stage. The Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress, and the argume...

31 Mar 8min

When the United States first began to take shape as a nation, it didn't just need laws and structure. It needed a voice people could recognize and trust. That voice, more than anyone else's, came from...

27 Mar 6min

By July of 1776, the arguments had been building for a long time. Tensions with Britain were no longer new. Colonists had already spent years listening to speeches, reading newspapers, hearing sermons...

25 Mar 13min

When people think about the founding of the United States, they usually begin with the Declaration of Independence. That is understandable. It is the best-known document of the nation's early history,...

24 Mar 17min

Artificial intelligence is showing up almost everywhere now, and genealogy is no exception. It is being used for transcriptions, translations, document summaries, handwriting recognition, search tools...

18 Mar 12min