Imagine – 6,700 genealogists (and that’s just those who pre-registered) in one building for a conference! The RootsTech conference is the largest of its kind held in the United States, with attendees from forty-nine states (what’s wrong with Delaware and why didn’t even one person attend from the “first state?”) and seventeen countries, with another 10,000 participating [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley I have to admit that I find Irish research more difficult than other immigrant-related genealogy. It is not enough to know the unique record categories of Irish genealogy – Title Applotments, Griffith’s Valuation, and the Spinning Wheel Premium Bounty List–to name only a few. Instead, to do Irish research well [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley Having just finalized a hotel reservation for a trip to Fergus, Ontario, for the summer, I realized that many of us in the United States know little about the history and genealogical research of our neighbor to the north. We need to rectify this shortcoming, particularly if our research has [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley I’d like to introduce you to a new product from Gale/Cengage Learning – Genealogy Connect. This product currently provides online access to 579 titles from genealogical.com (the parent company of Genealogical Publishing Company and Clearfield). Over the next twelve to eighteen months, the collection is projected to grow to over 1,500 [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley The 2013 RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City is just a month way (March 21-23). If you are planning to attend, surely you will also be planning to squeeze in as many hours at the Family History Library as possible. Planning is essential. Planning an effective and efficient research trip has [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley When I was in elementary school, February was fun. First, the month was short. Then to make it seem even shorter, Massachusetts schools had an entire week off ( known, obviously, as “February vacation”) and we lost it only if we had already experienced an excessive number of snow days). Best [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley We should never underestimate the ability of newspapers to add detail to our research or, perhaps, loosen the mortar in a research brick wall. I recently had a critical breakthrough after forty years of searching – with no success – for information about the family of my great-great-grandmother (Kate Dodd, née [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley If you are a regular reader you know that the Civil War era and research in its records are passions of mine. I have written about my two Dodd ancestors who served in the 6th Connecticut Infantry and my Smith ancestor who did not serve and my effort to find out [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley In April 2012, I posted an article about cemetery research resources. This fall, as I visited cemeteries in both Massachusetts and Virginia, I was reminded how much I enjoy walking their paths, surveying the gravestones, and gleaning family information where I can. As I walked in a Virginia cemetery with a [...]
By: Carolyn L. Barkley This article marks the fifth anniversary (and the 259th article) of GenealgyandFamilyHistory.com. There is something about the dark days of winter that turns our thoughts to organizing our piles of family documents, artifacts and research notes. This year I am determined to do more than think about the project, as [...]