Looking at one’s family at any particular point in time can be educational. Recently, I was interested in 1881 because three of my grandparents were born that year and the fourth was born in December 1880, which is close enough. I was wondering what their parents would..
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Frequently, patrons will come into the library to prove or disprove a long-standing family story. These stories may involve larger-than-life characters who survived major battles, were accused of dastardly deeds, or men and women who..
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Earlier this week I was scrolling through my newsfeed and I saw a blog post where the author scolded herself and urged her readers to “practice what you preach.” I often think this, especially when I teach the first class of my three-part series on "Getting Started in..
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When I was young, my mother mentioned that in her youth her parents would sometimes..
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Waiting for the cold spring to turn warm, I was thinking ahead to my mother’s birthday, on May 10, which I always remember as a wonderful spring day with the lilacs in full bloom. That got me to thinking about how old my mother would have been – I thought at first it..
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As someone who has been doing her genealogy since the 1980s, I can remember a time before there were many genealogy software options, let alone online databases. In fact, I started my genealogy on forms in a big legal size binder that I would take with me to the..
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Many Americans are familiar with the popular and scenic Ring of Kerry in Ireland. They might be less familiar with a peninsula just to the south, in County Cork, called Beara. Those who are attempting to trace their roots to the Beara Peninsula are among the most..
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[Author's note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 19 December 2014.]
Consider sending a holiday letter out via email to your relatives. Then print a copy for posterity. – David Allen Lambert
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Genealogists and historians of Massachusetts are indebted to the works of nineteenth-century antiquarians: that is, compilers or collectors of historical..
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