by Katie Rebecca Garner | Sep 26, 2025
Death certificates hold a wealth of information for family historians, and should be one of the key documents in a genealogist’s search. Photo: Eddie August Schneider’s (1911-1940) death certificate, issued in New York. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Prior to civil...
by Katie Rebecca Garner | Sep 19, 2025
Having an organizational system for your genealogy helps prevent it from becoming a mess of information. There are different ways to organize things; each person has one way or another that works for them. Just because something works for my brain doesn’t mean you...
by Katie Rebecca Garner | Sep 12, 2025
When the United States was created, the founding fathers decided it was necessary to make a count of the population every decade. The first census was taken in 1790, counting white males and females, other free persons, and slaves. For the first six censuses, from...
by Katie Rebecca Garner | Sep 5, 2025
I have been transcribing a record from a 1787 murder case. I needed to see such a record for creative writing research. I searched for a newspaper clipping about an execution that took place in Delaware before 1800. I then sent the name of the executed, Sarah Kirk, to...
by Katie Rebecca Garner | Aug 29, 2025
A good researcher will combine evidence from multiple sources to get a picture of what life was like for their ancestors. One such resource is an online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives. Newspaper articles, especially...
