[Author's note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 30 December 2014.]

Most families have one: the family historian. Whether or not the focus is genealogical, there is usually at least one family member who keeps..

One night several years ago, I recalled that it had been a while since I last Googled some of my favorite ancestors. Slouched in my chair, I scrolled idly through the..

This time of the year is all about sharing … sharing our time and exchanging visits and gifts with family and friends, perhaps including family history projects. As genealogists, we are always seeking and exchanging information as part..

We all have them, those ancestors who seem to fade into the long-ago background of family history. Perhaps they’re not even our relatives, just names heard frequently but without context, or in a wedding guest book, a newspaper column, or in an obituary. The figures..

[Editor's note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 24 November 2014.]

When I was a child, I became very interested in family history. At the unusual age of seven, the stories of my forebears were more fascinating than the..

“This is war, Peacock. Casualties are inevitable. You can not make an omelet without breaking eggs, every cook will tell you that.”

~ Martin Mull, in the role of Colonel Mustard in Clue (1985)

New England Congregational church minute books from the nineteenth century abound in routine facts: admissions, dismissals, committee reports and the like that do not make for compelling reading. Ivy Dixon, historian of the Pittsford Congregational Church, found this..

Growing up in a suburb outside San Francisco, my family vacationed in Lake Tahoe every summer. I remember driving by Donner Lake and driving over Donner Pass. I..

If you have ever tried to track down distant cousins, especially in foreign countries, you..