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Did My Ancestor Serve in WWI?
Updated 15 October 2023 In the past, I answered that question by recommending searching for information at home, searching through the U.S. Army Transport Records that documented a veteran’s trip overseas, consulting state service abstracts or contacting the National Personnel Records Center. Now, one of the most helpful sets of records to answer that question has come online. It is the U.S. Veterans Administration Master Index from NARA’s Records of the Veterans Administration [VA] (Record Group 15). So, gather up...
read moreThe U.S. Military Records That Never Burned
No, NOT all the WWI and WWII military records for your ancestor were burned! We often hear the misinformation and read many posts on Facebook claiming that all the military records burned. This post will help shed light on just a few of the records about your ancestor’s service that are still available. We have already blogged about the Official Military Personnel Files OMPFs beginning here, and hope you had a chance to read about them. From that post you will have learned that Navy and Marine Corps personnel files from WWI and...
read moreGenealogy and the 2020 U.S. Census
You have probably received, or are about to receive, your invitation to complete the 2020 U.S. Census online. One thing I always recommend at census time is saving a paper (and electronic!) copy of the census after you fill it out. Since the censuses are closed for 72 years, how great would be researchers to have copies of our censuses for those years? I’ve seen a lot of comments about how disappointing it is that you cannot print out all the responses when you are done completing the online forms. With that in mind, here...
read moreRootsTech 2020 Videos
Rootstech 2020 is over and if you did not make it, you can still be inspired by viewing some of the videos and all of the handouts at the link below. It is great that Rootstech lets us all be a part of it. The video archives is here. To get right to the videos for some sessions go...
read moreResearching Alabama WWI Ancestors
WWI service summaries are incredibly useful when researching our military ancestors. For Alabama, we have two choices to access these online: The Alabama Department of Archives and History and FamilySearch. For the centennial of WWI, the Alabama Department of Archives and History conducted a crowdsourcing effort to transcribe the records of Alabamians who served in the military during WWI. These records can be browsed by county here. Click on a county to view the list of WWI service cards in alphabetical order. From the...
read moreBook Review: “How To Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records”
I was excited at the opportunity to review “How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide” by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, CG. The book contains specific resources for researching ancestors in major Christian Denominations before 1900 in the United States. That excitement lasted throughout the whole book. While censuses are great for providing us with a backbone of an individual’s or family’s timeline, Church records can help us learn the web of connections...
read moreCemetery Research: Interview with Tina Simmons
We recently had a chance to catch up with researcher and author, Tina Simmons, about her work in cemetery research and in cemetery preservation. How did you become involved with the field of cemetery research? Long before I understood genealogy terms I would attempt to determine connections between family members fueled by knowledge that her mother had a number of unknown relatives. I joined the Anne Arundel Genealogical Society to research my family history and took on a project working with cemetery records. I have been...
read moreRootsTech London 2019 Videos and Handouts
Rootstech London 2019 is over, but we can still enjoy it. You can download the syllabi from the presentation list here. Click on the arrow next to the name of the presentation to see the description and a link to the syllabus (if there is one). There are links for RootsTech London 2019 Keynotes & General Sessions and some selected Sessions here. More videos from past RootsTech presentations can also be found on that page....
read moreNational Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair 2019
Are you looking for an easy way to learn about using the National Archives? Would you like to know more about researching your genealogy at NARA? The 2019 National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair has come and gone, but the videos have been posted on YouTube, and the handouts are still available. You can learn directly from NARA personnel in the videos and have the handouts for reference. This year’s topics are the History Hub, Preserving Personal Collections, Immigration Records, WWI Navy and Marine Corps Records, Indian Affairs School...
read moreResearching Washington WWI Ancestors
As you may know from my lectures and book, it is important to find your WWI ancestor’s military organization to unlock learning about his military service. An online way to find out about your Washington WWI Ancestors is to search the Washington State Archives – Digital Archives website. If you have Washington ancestors, check out all the online collections. In the Search by Name box, look at the dropdown menu for Collections dropdown menu on the left. You can certainly search from the homepage, but I wanted to narrow down my search to...
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