On Wednesday evening I saw an article at Twincities.com that told of a tombstone being found in St. Paul and that the police had been unable to determine where it belonged. It read “Marie Olsen 1879-1932.” The article stated police had done a search of birth and death indexes but had not found her. I […]
As some of you may know, I came on board in January as co-chair of the Federation of Genealogical Societies 2011 Conference that is being held September 7-10 in Springfield, Illinois. This Saturday you have a chance to listen to me and my co-chair, Josh Taylor, on FGS “My Society” talk radio. It’s as simple […]
I love to sit at my computer checking Ancestry.com, Facebook, NewspaperArchives, American Ancestors and a bunch of other websites. Today I was thinking about some other research ventures that involved on-site researching. I find it exhilarating to touch original records, get my fingers dirty paging through an old volume of court records, view an original […]
“Illinois Department of Public Health officials are bracing for a flood of requests in November when a new law will allow thousands of adult adoptees to obtain their birth certificates. The law passed in Illinois last year could give some adoptees the names of their birth parents for the first time. Birth parents can remain […]
If you are thinking about registering for the 2011 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference for the Nations’ Genealogists you might want to look at all the recent news. The FGS Conference News Blog has been busy lately and many more exciting posts are on the way between now and early September. The conference takes place […]
In case you haven’t heard the great news! Cyndi Ingle Howells has done a major upgrade of Cyndislist.com to celebrate 15 years of service to the genealogical community. As I blogged earlier, she does this by herself and I bless her everytime I make use of a link from her site. EDGEWOOD, WASHINGTON (June 6, […]
Thanks to my cousin, Dave Gustafson, for sharing this picture of our grandmother. She was also known as Grandma Toots!
Today I have pride in an extremely good deed done by a fellow genealogist. Sandra M. Hewlett (Sandi) returned some missing early Surrogate’s Court records to Brooklyn according to today’s Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The article states, “The record books, Brooklyn’s “Bonds of Guardianship, Vol. 1 through 4,” date back to 1830 and record the details […]
This is a photo of my great grandmother Betsy Peterson Carlsen and three of her grandchildren, including my father. She arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1882 as a single young woman. Born in Sweden, she married Niels Christian Carlsen and they raised a whole houseful of daughters! I work on my family history to […]
Did you get that call, too? You have been asked to run for a position on the board of the genealogical or historical society, the friends of the library, or maybe at your church or school. If you feel flattered, that’s wonderful. If you feel that it’s nice, that’s great, too. If you don’t understand […]