Journal
30 articles on finding ancestors, reading records, and keeping the story with the evidence.
December 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
While I have rarely been one to make a promise to myself at the New Year, last year at the end of 2021, I decided that I would make an effort to change something about my life. I decided I should read more. I have always read things for work or school, but inspired by my sons...
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December 20, 2022 · Christopher Hall
The Winter Solstice takes place in the Northern Hemisphere tomorrow 21 December. It is the day when the sun is at its lowest point and furthest away from the North. It is the so-called shortest day of the year when the time between sunrise and sunset is the least of the year....
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December 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
6 December 2022 was the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Free State. The path to the Free State was fraught with peril. Ireland had been under foreign control since the Norman Invasion. Even after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in December of 1921 there w...
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November 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
As a computer programmer I have been working with programs, applications, and websites for decades. I have been a full-time programmer since the mid-1990s. The vast majority of programs, including websites and apps, use data in some way. The programs are used to store, retriev...
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November 10, 2022 · Christopher Hall
Research logs are an important part of genealogical research. We log our searches including any results positive or negative. The log helps us track and reduce our work. We do not want to unnecessarily repeat previous research. This saves the client money. Also, because it is...
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October 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
Have you ever come across old family records that mention Prussia? Did you try to find it on a map? Unless you look at maps from the late 1700s up until the end of World War II you will find no trace of it now. Have you wondered what is the history of Prussia and what happened...
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September 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
In our last blog we were discussing the surviving parts of the 1890 census. While most of the census was destroyed in a fire on January 10, 1921 there were six parts that survived. Last time we discussed the General Population Census Schedules, the List of Selected Delaware Af...
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September 10, 2022 · Tracy Hall
Anyone who does genealogy knows that there was a fire on January 10, 1921 in the Commerce Department building in Washington DC. In this fire the 1890 census was destroyed, or so most people think. However, parts did survive and can be very useful for genealogists. There were s...
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August 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
For years we have grappled with conflicting evidence from the trees of others like FamilySearch, on findagrave.org, and other data about my grandmother’s great-grandfather. His name is Isaac Bruce. He had a son named Thomas Joyner Bruce who had a daughter who was my grandmothe...
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July 30, 2022 · Christopher Hall
We do family history research. We write family history reports and narratives along with our many other services . These tasks generally take us into the facts, figures, and statistics of a person or family. It is extremely valuable and important information. But it is informa...
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July 20, 2022 · Tracy Hall
I know the last blog was about German farming. Well guess what this one is about, things you should know about farming in Ireland. Farming in Ireland played such a social, economic, and cultural role for those who lived in rural areas. Yet, there are a few farming type things...
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One thing I have learned over the last few years is there are sometimes varying definitions for the same thing. Not only is that true for each country (that makes sense, right), but within a country each region or even each village could have their own definition or term. How...
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