What I Look for When I Return to an Unfinished Family Search | AF-1329
An unfinished family search can wait for months or years. When I return to one, I start by finding the question I left behind, reading the r...
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Ancestral Findings (Genealogy Gold)
Genealogy is the most wonderful of pastimes. I love it, and you should, too. There are endless reasons why. Genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the western world, as more and...
Episodes
20 of 1,360 episodes
Immigration and Naturalization Records: Tracing Ancestors Across Borders | AF-1328
A passenger list may name a relative left behind. A citizenship petition may give you the hometown you have been trying to find. Immigration...
What Happens When New Evidence Changes What I Thought I Knew? | AF-1327
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...
How Much of My Family Tree Depends on My Own Judgment? | AF-1326
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 buil...
Columbus Day Makes Me Rethink the Word "First" | AF-1325
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 f...
Whatever Happened to You're Welcome? | AF-1324
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. Wha...
When Was the Last Time You Thanked Your Genealogy Librarian? | AF-1323
I was thinking recently about all the libraries I have visited over the years while doing genealogy research. Some had large genealogy depar...
What My German Research Changed About the Way I Do Genealogy | AF-1322
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 m...
Why Do Some Ancestors Feel Closer Than Others? | AF-1321
A photograph can change things quickly. Until then, I may know a person only through census entries, deeds, handwritten records, or a name o...
Would My Ancestors Recognize the Story I Wrote About Them? | AF-1320
I deleted a sentence the other day because I realized I had gone farther than the records allowed. The sentence fit nicely with the story I...
The Real Goondocks: The History of Astoria, Oregon, Behind The Goonies | AF-1319
I have always enjoyed The Goonies . It has everything I want in a fun adventure movie: an old treasure map, secret passages, booby traps, cr...
Free Book Giveaway: Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timothy Mulgrew | AF-1318
It is time for another Ancestral Findings free book giveaway. This month, I am giving away a copy of Mason: A Man with No Beginning by Timot...
We Spend So Much Time Looking Back: What Are We Leaving Behind? | AF-1317
I spend a great deal of time looking for things people left behind. Sometimes it is something important, such as a will, a family Bible, or...
Am I Researching My Family or Just Collecting Records?
I caught myself doing something recently that I have probably done many times without thinking. I found a record I had been searching for, d...
The People I Almost Walked Past in the Family Tree
When I am working on the Moneymaker side of my family in Virginia, there is always a pull to keep going backward. Find the parents, then the...
I Know Their Names, But Do I Really Know Them?
Every once in a while, I look at someone in a family tree and realize I have done a pretty good job documenting them. I have birth, marriage...
How Road Petitions Can Reveal Your Ancestor's Neighborhood
Most family research begins with records created around major events such as births, marriages, deaths, land purchases, and military service...
Labor Day: A Legacy of Work, Rest, and Family
Labor Day arrives each September, signaling the close of summer and the approach of autumn. Many people see it as a three-day weekend for re...
Using Bastardy Bonds in Family Research
A missing father can stop a family line very quickly. You may know the mother, where she lived, and what happened to the child later in life...
10 Perfect Genealogy Projects for September
The air is crisp, the leaves are beginning to turn, and children have returned to their classrooms. It's September, and what better time to...