David or Daniel?
Most styles of cursive handwriting leave the words David and Daniel looking way too similar. If you don’t already know the given name, it can be very tough to tell which it might be. If you have trouble telling...
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Did They Move to Florida?
Arizona, California, Florida, North Carolina and Texas all have huge callings as retirements spots. When people retire, they want better weather, fewer chores and less restrictions. Newport, Rhode Island and various shoreline communities in Maine, Connecticut and Long Island...
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James Richards Evans of Jefferson Co., Pennsylvania
Rev. James Richards Evans of Pennsylvania married Hannah Mary Barlet of Pennsylvania in 1941 in Florida. Hannah a distant cousin of mine, third cousin twice removed, was married three times. She and her first husband had two children that...
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Punxsutawney Phil lives in Pennsylvania, But in What County?
I have been reading about Punxsutawney Phil for fifty years including articles in the Weekly Reader, an important, well-known source of news. Wikipedia lists his surname as Sowerby but that is uncorroborated. I have never checked a Pennsylvania map for his...
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Always, Always, Start With What You Know…
Except When You Can’t! You Hit a Brick Wall and Need To Take a Flying Leap Over the Wall, Through the Wall, Around the Wall. You dearly hope a hypothesis will catapult you over the wall or at least build a...
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Caroline County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Caroline County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866.
It is hard to set out families prior to the 1880 census with certainty. The 1850, 1860 and 1870 federal census list household members by name but do not include relationships. Inferences can be made when the male head of...
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