If you're having trouble finding a marriage record for your ancestors, take note of a term called "Gretna Green," which could help you expand your search and finally break through that brick wall. The Old Blacksmith Shop, Gretna Green, Scotland The term "Gretna Green" comes from the name of a town that was close to…
Map of Lake County, Illinois, 1861, from Library of Congress Every genealogist, at some point or another, will need to use a map. A recent Legacy Family Tree webinar covered some online map websites with land ownership maps. The sites are worth knowing; put them in your genealogy tool box for future reference: Library of Congress has a Map Collection…
We enjoyed another evening of genealogy conversation last night at our Genealogy Networking Group. We shared research successes and tips and we brainstormed as well. High points of the evening include: Coming up with ideas for one of our group who is doing a one-name-study on his surname and who wants to contact living relatives…
1816 Illinois county boundaries, from the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries 1829 Illinois county boundaries, from the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries We who live in the 21st century find it difficult to imagine that the counties we live in now have not always been in existence. For example, before Illinois became a state in…
If you've been putting off purchasing a DNA test kit, this weekend might be the time to do it. Many DNA testing companies have sales on or around April 25, which is National DNA Day. To see what the sales are, check out Your Genetic Genealogist's blog post. This is a great chance to get started using…
City Directories can be a great source of information on ancestors who lived in the 1800s and early 1900s, especially in big cities where it's hard to find anything on the average Joe. Ancestry and Fold3 both have a collection of directories for Chicago, but we found recently that the 1910 directory is incomplete in…
Recently FamilySearch hosted their British Isles Research Seminar, featuring experts on Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English records, both from civil and parish sources. You could attend in person or watch online as the sessions were aired. The FamilySearch folks have now made the individual sessions available for anyone to watch, still free of charge. And…
One of our members gave a great presentation at our Genealogy Networking Group meeting last night. He shared how his DNA results helped him connect with a previously unknown branch of his family. This prompted lots of discussion and a list of websites and organizations to turn to for help in understanding and making the…
Did you know that many of the Chicago Archiocese's early church records are available on FamilySearch? Some are indexed, but you can view them all by browsing the digitized records. Here's how: Go to the FamilySearch website. Sign In to your free account. If you don't have one, click "Free Account" and sign up. You…
Your digital photos and images are vital to your genealogy research. Make sure you have them stored safely and in an organized manner. Attend Get Organized: Online Digital Photo Storage on Tuesday, March 28, at 7 p.m. at Aspen Drive Library. While this is not specifically genealogy-related, you and your genealogy research will benefit from…
