Category Archives: Brick-walls

Notes on Robin Williams's ancestry

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When public figures die, I sometimes undertake research on their ancestry as a kind of summing up. In the days since the death of comic and acting icon Robin Williams, for example, I have been thinking about his potential connection..

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Twentieth century research in Massachusetts

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Massachusetts is one of a handful or so states that allow relatively open access to vital information. It is certainly possible to conduct family research after 1930 for Massachusetts using a combination of resources. FamilySearch.org..

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Brick Walls

Judge John Lawrance (1750-1810)

My most recent immigrant ancestor was a great-great-grandfather, William Boucher Jr. (1822–1899), who followed his father from Germany to Baltimore in 1845. One generation back, I have three unknown great-great-great-grandparents and..

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Some recent discoveries

My grandfather Frederick Jackson Bell (1903-1994), named for his mother's family

I have written here about some of my research strategies, and I thought it might be interesting to inventory a few of my recent discoveries (and brick walls).

It is easy to get..

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