Category Archives: Vital-records

The Baby Found on the Doorstep

Illustration of a home in Freetown, Massachusetts, circa 1895

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Forest Lawn Cemetery Burial Records

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York. Photo by user Druszaj on Wikimedia Commons.

I have been researching a group of Irish folks who came to Buffalo, New York by way of Montreal. Although the State of New York did not mandate vital registration until 1881, the..

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Linking Parents and Children—Without the Help of Vital Records

Photograph of children from the author’s family tree. From top left: Amy Hart, Vivian Hart, Harriet Hart (center), Florence Hart, Mary-Elizabeth Hart. C. 1909, Westwood, New Jersey.

On November 2, 2022, my husband and I welcomed our first child: a son, named Jack..

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Finding Clues in Unexpected Places

Handwritten letter attached to Patrick Joseph Morrissey's death record, 1 March 1922. (1)

Death certificates can add depth to a family tree, but when the parent names for the deceased are documented incorrectly, it can lead research down the wrong path—especially..

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