Journal
30 articles on finding ancestors, reading records, and keeping the story with the evidence.
February 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
I love to browse stories from newspapers. There is so much history in these newspapers that is not taught in schools any more. One such story I happened upon was during the Dust Bowl years. Having grown up in Illinois where we get plenty of rain, especially in the spring, and...
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February 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
One of the blots on the United States is slavery. How do ancestors of slaves find their roots when there is so little information pre-1870? There are no passenger lists of the ships who brought the slaves to a far away land. They would never be naturalized, vote, own land, and...
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February 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
One of my favorite things to do while we lived in the Midwest was to go to Irish festivals and Irish pubs. The music, the dancing, the singing, and the comradery. It was so much fun, and I always wondered what my ancestors did when they were in Ireland. Did they sing these sam...
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January 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
A while back our niece discovered a bit of an interest in family history. She knew we kept a family tree so she contacted us. She wanted to see it. We keep our primary tree in Ancestry.com. We also put it and other trees with other services such as FindMyPast.co.uk, MyHeritage...
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January 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
While researching the other day I came across a new book that documents Maine’s original Acadian families. I had heard the term before but I wasn’t sure what exactly an Acadian was, and the reason for writing the book sounded intriguing. So off to do one of my favorite things,...
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January 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
Did you have ancestors that left Ireland during the great migration years? Did any of them die on the voyage to a better opportunity? It is well known that the ships were not in good condition and many died on the trip to the new life they were hoping to start. This is why the...
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