Native American Heritage Month: Research Part I: Getting Started

Any month is important when learning more about personal Native American heritage. November is Native American Heritage Month. The National Congress of American Indians states it’s more commonly “referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.” The White House issued a proclamation about it, as have some states, like my own state of […]

The Society of Descendants of Presidents of the U.S.

A new society based on genealogy: The Society of Descendants of Presidents. The members are descendants of Presidents of the United States, and some members are descendants of Presidential siblings. Roxanne Roberts produced an interesting newspaper article about the inaugural dinner of the new society and stories told by descendants. The article is in the […]

Halloween is time for free death records at MyHeritage

A bit morbid, but exciting for family historians! Daniel Horowitz at MyHeritage sent a Press Release for Halloween. He shared that the site is “opening up all the death records added to MyHeritage before October 2021 for free access during the week of Halloween, from October 27–November 2, 2021!” He also shared that since last Halloween, […]

The 1921 census of England and Wales is coming to us on January 6, 2022!

20th Century family in England and Wales? The 1921 census for those places will be released online at Findmypast in cooperation with the UK National Archives on January 6, 2022. Said to show 8.5 million households and 38 million people, this means lots of good researching. I will have to delve into it for the […]

The 2022 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh

The Course Coordinators have signed their contracts and have been busy the last couple of weeks creating, updating, and finalizing our individual classes and courses for next June and July. The Instructors of the individual sessions have been working with us to be sure the titles and descriptions are accurate and, of course, tantalizing. For […]

Smart moves in genealogy: join genealogical and historical societies

To help celebrate National Archives Month and Family History Month, I have renewed some memberships in societies. At the top of my list are the Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS, member 39 years) and the Minnesota Historical Society (member for 36? years). I’m also a member of other such organizations. with membership renewals spread throughout the […]

Reminder of discount on U.S. Government Records 101 and a special offer for genealogists

I think Family History Month should really be Family History Year or Every Year. If only more people would get involved in learning more about the research, records, analysis, and making sure that records back up what you think you know. I realized today that I don’t have the marriage date for my paternal grandparents. […]

Historic Minnesota statutes for genealogists and historians

We cannot do smart family history research without knowing what laws and related information govern the compilation and preservation of records. We need to understand the background of a record and why it differs by years and location. My friend and colleague, Debbie Mieszala, writes a series of blog posts to direct us to many […]