--- title: Generatio longa, vita brevis description: Welcome to Vita Brevis, the blog of American Ancestors. image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Building_exterior_night-076-200x300-Apr-21-2023-05-19-04-1008-PM.jpg --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Generatio longa, vita brevis [January 02, 2014](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/01/generatio-longa-vita-brevis) [News](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/news), [Research Methods](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods), [Family stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories) [American Ancestors](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/nehgsnt) ![american ancestors building](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/american%20ancestors%20building.jpg?width=5242&height=4000&name=american%20ancestors%20building.jpg) Welcome to *Vita Brevis*, the blog of American Ancestors, a national nonprofit center for family history, heritage, and culture based in Boston, Massachusetts, that has been setting the gold standard for family history research since its founding in 1845. Today, American Ancestors serves more than 400,000 members and online subscribers through AmericanAncestors.org, one of the world’s largest online collections of free family history resources, scholarship, educational programming, and events.    *Vita Brevis* is designed to offer the reader short essays by our expert staff on their own research and experiences with doing family history, as well as news of the greater genealogical community. We also have several long-time member authors—professional and amateur genealogists alike—who contribute to the blog. We will include posts on research methods and results that are applicable to a variety of genealogical subjects, as well as stories of serendipitous events connected to the joy we all get from genealogy. The tone here is less formal, sometimes humorous, and always interesting. Like a mosaic, these posts will, in time, form a new collection for the genealogical researcher to explore and enjoy.   ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/01/generatio-longa-vita-brevis](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/01/generatio-longa-vita-brevis) - - - More - - ![American Ancestors](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/AmericanAncestors_October2018/images/gold-leaf.png) ## About American Ancestors To advance the study of family history in America and beyond, we educate, inspire, and connect people through our scholarship, collections, and expertise. Founded in 1845, the New England Historic Genealogical Society is the country’s leading resource for family history research. We help genealogists of all skill levels improve their knowledge and understanding of their family and its place in history. We provide our award-winning website, AmericanAncestors.org, as the online repository for more than 1.4 billion searchable names from America and beyond. Although our name says New England, we provide expertise and research across American family history.[View all posts by American Ancestors →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/nehgsnt) [← Human nature writ large](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/01/human-nature-writ-large) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ### Recent Posts [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) [The Norwegian folge](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/the-norwegian-folge) [Research…in a Miniskirt? 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