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The National Archives and Archives.com pretty much miscalculated demand and ease of use for the 1940 census search site. I don’t know how it went for the rest of you, but the first day was a bust for me....

Easter is April 8th this year, a joy, a holiday. Holidays create family atmosphere like nothing else. A break from routine, holidays are a time of gathering of the clan and rejuvenating of spirits. Some holidays are set dates:...

I am the only person in my immediate family interested in family history, genealogy or research. However, all of us are interested in playing Can You Top This, or I remember when we lived in…, Do You remember when...

A distant cousin, Kim Livaditis, recently asked me about P.E.B.C. Henritze of Abingdon, Washington Co., Virginia and specifically about his second wife and daughter. I have researched nearly every known Henritze descendant of Balthaser Henritze and Dorothea (Rapp) Henritze,...

Marriage records are not all retrievable. When you are frustrated about the lack of information regarding a marriage; when civil marriage records can not be located, sometimes the reason is easy, obvious and still unsolvable: The Big Lie to...

 Favorite Top Ten Genealogical Research Libraries in the United States   My favorite research libraries in order from East to West: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. D.A.R. Library, Washington, D.C. Western Reserve Historical Society Library, Cleveland Allen County Public...

Born At Sea A couple of weeks ago, a television commercial by Ancestry caught my attention. The actor wondered why his grandparents never mentioned they lived next door to the Wright brothers. How could that fact, amongst all others,...

Large City Research Sometimes researching in a large city is problematic, too many people with similar names, hard to differentiate. Various immigrants with strong accents made the census much harder to use. The Soundex program was a huge help...

Last month to the shock of his family and friends, my brother-in-law, Paul Shea Zak passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. He was the youngest; we were stunned. Unlike his brothers or me, Paul was gregarious, hundreds of...