Sometimes in the course of studying family history it helps when the right sort of inspiration knocks at our door. Blog sites like Vita..

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“Some secrets never leave us alone…” – Diane Capri

In my father’s house, there was a subject we were forbidden to speak of. This was the subject of my grandmother’s adoption and her biological mother.[i] Under pain of reprisal, we were told..

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I did not learn to spell properly until I learned to type at the Katharine Gibbs School. This may have had something to do with my less-than-perfect handwriting. Seeing a word in type instead of scribble helps me spot the errors.

In genealogy, of course, we run into..

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A few years ago, when I first began to make quiet rumblings about selling My Old House and moving closer to my son, most people reacted with horror, surprise, and objections: “You wouldn’t really!” “Would you really sell it?” “What would your father, mother,..

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Early in the new year of 1865, Regina Shober Gray [1] had news to report on her son in Philadelphia and on sad situations closer to home:

61 Bowdoin Street, Boston, Sunday, 8 January 1865:..

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As a researcher at NEHGS, I have learned a great deal about genealogy and have gradually implemented various research strategies as I encountered them, typically by asking my extremely intelligent coworkers what they would do with any..

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While editing an article in Mayflower Descendant, a question came up about the way the testator referred to one of his children in his will. Along these same lines, a grandchild was included in the will who seemed to break the pattern of..

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I have tried to make it a point in my blogs to give heartfelt thanks to indexing efforts of the New England Historic Genealogy Society (NEHGS) volunteers whenever we bring a new or updated collection online. Several people have asked me exactly how volunteers fit in..

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“Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” – William Ralph Inge

In family history, a blissful and naive notion often occurs when we begin to think we have learned all there is to know about any..

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[Editor's note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 6 January 2016.]

Coming from a family of active amateur photographers, the (still) new digital age of photography has significantly changed the way I look at and..

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