Journal
138 articles on finding ancestors, reading records, and keeping the story with the evidence.
October 10, 2023 · Tracy Hall
Do you have German ancestry? If you do you have more than likely run into issues with translating. Maybe it is the handwriting, or abbreviations and it is definitely the language if you do not know German. I would get so frustrated I even asked my husband, who picks up languag...
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September 20, 2023 · Tracy Hall
While the world we live in today is full of divorce and remarriage, it did happen before this last generation. While not in the numbers as today I have run into divorces in the early 1900s. Either way divorce and remarriage happened, how do we add all of this to our family tre...
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August 30, 2023 · Christopher Hall
This is the fifth installment in our on-going series about Robert Austin Shearn - A Criminal in the Family.
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August 30, 2023 · Christopher Hall
This is the fourth installment in our on-going series about Robert Austin Shearn - A Criminal in the Family.
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August 20, 2023 · Tracy Hall
Having just passed the anniversary of a woman’s right to vote, it made me stop and once again contemplate what was available to women as far as work when many of our ancestors were coming to this country. What did my female ancestors who came here for a new life do for work? E...
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August 10, 2023 · Tracy Hall
Do you have a family picture that no one knows who the guy in the back on the left is? While it may not be a guy or in the back row, we all have a picture or pictures where we have no idea who that one person is. Actually, have you ever had a picture where you only knew your r...
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July 30, 2023 · Christopher Hall
This is the third installment in our on-going series about Robert Austin Shearn - A Criminal in the Family.
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July 20, 2023 · Tracy Hall
Have you heard of the Ghost Army of WWII? Have you heard of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops? If you have not it is not surprising because these special troops were kept a secret for 50 years. The 1100 men of this troop were put together as a deception unit that created fa...
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July 10, 2023 · Tracy Hall
What do you know about the people who went from Scotland to Ireland and then ended up in America? What started the immigration? Why are there at least three different names these people go by? With all these changes it is no wonder it is a task to find your ancestors from thes...
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June 30, 2023 · Christopher Hall
Last time we provided a short introduction to Robert Austin Shearn (1877-1940). He lived a troubled life and got into quite a bit of mischief. In that post, I wrote that Robert’s mother, Arabella Cowley, was Robert’s father, Charles Hall Shearn’s, first wife. She was Charles’...
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June 20, 2023 · Tracy Hall
Do you have a brick wall that you cannot seem to break down? What steps have you taken to break it down? I know personally that brick walls can be a lot harder to break down than we can even contemplate sometimes. Both my husband and I have had brick walls that have not been e...
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June 10, 2023 · Tracy Hall
It has been estimated that “50 to 90 percent” of people in west Scotland have some Irish ancestry
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