You may have run across a phrase something along the lines of “Genealogy without documentation is mythology.” It is a nice catchphrase and it certainly is out to make an important point but I must admit that I don’t care for it all that much. Myth First, I think our catchphrase is rather disparaging to […]
Genealogy Without Documentation Is… Read More »
The more research I do the more interested I become in what it is even possible to know. It is not an insignificant question. Genealogists, especially beginners, often oscillate back and forth between believing they know the absolute truth to being totally unsure, depending on whatever information has just turned up. Proving anything that is
Starting in 1880, the US Federal Census enumerator recorded the relationships within each household relative to the head of the family. What a boon! The child that didn’t quite seem to fit into the family in the 1870 census is now clearly labeled “nephew” in 1880. Eureka! From 1880 onward we can be a bit
Census Relationship Cryptography Read More »
Not so long ago, I started using a new camera, the first truly good camera I’ve ever tried. It’s an interesting process getting to know a camera. There are all the buttons and dials, of course, but there is also a lot of just plain experimentation to be done. How will the camera perform under
I just gave my talk “Space-Time for Family Historians- Time warps and curved space aren’t just for physicists” for the first time at my local genealogy society meeting (Lake County Illinois Genealogical Society). I had a lot of fun with it and I have to admit that by the time people had finished complimenting me
Space-Time for Family Historians Read More »
Awhile back I got a pleasant surprise. I had ordered a microfilm roll from the 1871 census of Ontario and got more than I realized that I would. I knew that the family I was interested in was on the roll but what I hadn’t realized is that the roll contained not just the population
Some Good Fortune with the 1871 Census of Ontario Read More »