Genealogy

Index to Lost Generations Series By Jeannette Holland Austin JOIN Pioneer News Lost Generations: Emerging Court House Records Fires and wars were the major culprit for destroying court house records. So why do certain books resurface? I was visiting Darien, Georgia during the 1960’s speaking to local families, when a lady came onto her porch with a ledge-style book in her hand. It was an old tax digest book from McIntosh County. The reason she had it? Her grandfather had been the clerk and was in the habit of bringing work home. This explanation is not unique, as the practice was wide-spread during the ... Read Full Story

Even before I began researching my Family History, I loved visiting Cemeteries. Aunt Betty and I once found a grave completely capped in copper. I wanted to know why, but there was no one to ask. In Arizona I saw Tombstones of settlers marked with “Killed by Apaches.” I wondered if Apaches marked their graves “Killed by Settlers.” And the graves of my own ancestors caused me to ask if I looked like them, were they pirates and why were they were buried so far from where we lived? Although Cemeteries have always inspired me to ask questions, Genealogy changed that. Now I go ... Read Full Story

The Emory family of Centreville, Maryland must be in shock to find that their packrat ancestors kept 400 years of documents . Everything from slave records to more mundane receipts. It makes my paltry collection pale by comparison, but I think our records and documents have stood up pretty well considering. I'm trying to estimate just what is my oldest original document, and it might be a land record for Jim Yates from 1907 in Howell County, Missouri. Notice, I said original record. I have copies of many records, including the pay voucher for Richard Osgathorpe for his Revolutionary War service. My most prized ... Read Full Story

Irish history and Irish genealogical research go hand in hand. When you think about it, it’s really impossible to learn about one without learning about the other. In the course of doing regular Irish genealogy research, you’ll naturally pick up all sorts of facts and anecdotes about the history of Ireland and its people. Without even trying, you may eventually become a de facto expert on the subject! However, rather than just picking up random historical details here and there by accident, taking the time to actually deliberately study the history of Ireland along with your genealogy research can actually enrich and expand the ... Read Full Story

A plea for help Margaret Jane LaValle first appears in a census record of Hastings Township, Hungerford, Ontario, Canada as a infant age 1, born in CE. in the household of one Michael LaValle farmer age 29 CE Roman Cath. head and Mary , wife fem age 29 living in same houehold is a Martha Ann Murray age 7 servant, Peter Murray, age 4 CW, RC orphan. This is the quest to find the genealogy and parents of Mary the mother of Margaret Jane LaValle,Infant. Since Michel LaVallee was married a second time to Sophia Genereau 9 Aug 1869 in the St Michael the ... Read Full Story

I hope you enjoy these photos I took while on our car trip to Iowa in July. It took three days to get to Iowa, and three to get back, and there was not a lot of time to take pictures other than out the window when we were going about 80 mph.   Aren’t the garden art pictures just wonderful? We took them in the side yard of the iron works shop, not thinking about anything other than capturing the beauty of the art. The artist happened by, and we complimented him on his craftsmanship. Duh, silly us, we didn’t think about it ... Read Full Story

I might be late with this, but I figured it was “better late than never”, right? FTM doesn’t have a ahnentafel feature that will show just the great-great grandparents, so I had to improvise and do a custom report. It really wasn’t that difficult, other than I hadn’t done it before. Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings did this for Saturday night genealogy fun, but we were home late on Sat. night, so I’m doing it on Monday. Thanks Randy! It kind of goes without saying that I am a combination of English and Swedish. Mostly English, with 6 Swedes. 16 Great-Great Grands of Carol Yates ... Read Full Story