An obituary can provide really special insights into your household’s past, and are an excellent method to add information and richness to the people in your family tree. They are also a terrific way to find more about a particular person who has actually passed more recently. And an unexpected variety of sites use a…

“What is a suffix in a name?” It is among the genealogical mysteries no one really discusses: What to make of those pesky letters and abbreviations that arbitrarily appear after an individual’s name in old files and records. These letters, frequently and collectively called a suffix or name suffix, can supply game-changing clues as to…

Don’t feel bad; figuring out cousin relationships can be complicated– even the most experienced genealogists still have to seek advice from a cousin chart every now and then. And while you might only really discover yourself caring about these classifications throughout a family reunion or after taking a DNA test, it can be really helpful…

Genealogy was a fair bit different when I began working on my ancestral tree in 1990. Email and the Internet weren’t readily available, and personal computer were huge, bulky, and too pricey for this newlywed. Instead, I depend on my local library, the generosity of others, and the services of the postal system for records…