Non-Traditional Family Trees: Adoption in Ancestry

This tutorial is about adoption. In this case, adoption refers to when a child is raised by someone other than their parents, whether or not their last name was changed or any official adoption process was carried out in the court system. (In many cases, especially going back to the 19th century and before, officialContinue reading “Non-Traditional Family Trees: Adoption in Ancestry”

Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Contacting Archives

This is a continuation of my previous two posts about my ancestor, Hannah Lathrop Keith. She lived for a short time and did not show up by name in census records or vital records. I had a few family sources about her, but I wanted to see what else I could find online. My firstContinue reading “Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Contacting Archives”

Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Online Sources

This is a continuation of my previous post about my ancestor, Hannah Lathrop Keith. She lived for a short time and did not show up by name in census records or vital records. I had a few family sources about her, but I wanted to see what else I could find online.

Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Family Sources

How do you find more information on your ancestors, besides just names and dates? Here’s how I did this with one of my ancestors, Hannah Lathrop Keith, using family sources.

Interpreting Your Ancestor’s Civil War Pension File: The Pension Certificate

We’ve talked generally about the laws behind Civil War Pension records, and outlined how to order copies of them. Once you receive your ancestor’s pension file, a new challenge arises. Many at this point find themselves sitting before a large, intimidating stack of papers all shuffled together, unorganized and difficult to decipher. The next fewContinue reading “Interpreting Your Ancestor’s Civil War Pension File: The Pension Certificate”

How to Order Your Ancestor’s Civil War Pension File (Union Side)

We’ve talked about how to find out whether or not your ancestor fought in the Civil War. We’ve also talked about how to discover their military unit, and even how to find their card in a pension index. We’ve even talked a bit about what pensions are and what you might expect to find inContinue reading “How to Order Your Ancestor’s Civil War Pension File (Union Side)”

Researching Your Civil War Ancestor, Part IV: Understanding Civil War Pensions

The next section of our series on researching your Civil War ancestor will focus on pension files: what they are, how to get them, why you want them, and what they will tell you. We’re going to be pretty thorough in this section, so buckle up. The rewards for investigating your ancestor’s pension file canContinue reading “Researching Your Civil War Ancestor, Part IV: Understanding Civil War Pensions”

Finding Your Luxembourgish Ancestor: Civil Birth Records

Luxembourg genealogy research recently became much easier, thanks to large numbers of records being made available online. The bulk of Luxembourg birth records come in two different types: civil registration records (zivilstandsregisters) and Catholic church records. Because of these records, my wife’s family has finally been able to trace their Luxembourgish-American ancestor, Mathias Groos, backContinue reading “Finding Your Luxembourgish Ancestor: Civil Birth Records”