Money. It’s everywhere in the documents we use for genealogical research: census reports, wills, bills of sale, and in the newspapers. I get excited when I see the notation of an amount of money, because it provides some insight into the lives of the people I am researching. That level of insight can be pretty detailed if you know how to convert the historical dollar amounts into their modern equivalents. One of my favorite tools for doing this is called MeasuringWorth. This free website … [Read more...]
Legacy Tree Onsite: The State Archive of Hamburg, Germany
Legacy Tree Genealogists works with researchers all over the world to access records. We asked Rieke from Germany to write this post, discussing what it's like to conduct research at the State Archive of Hamburg. Take a look! Family history research in Germany can be very confusing because of the bureaucratic and variable complex structures of the different types of archives. The organization and preservation of documents is not consistent, which sometimes makes locating a repository for the … [Read more...]
A Discovery in India
Completing genealogy research in India leads to surprising discovery for one of our clients. Shared with permission. Though genealogists and those interested in genealogy reside around the globe, much of the genealogical world today is Eurocentric. This means that research, resources, and the collections of major websites are heavily devoted to records of European countries and those settled by Europeans (including large portions of both North and South America). There are several reasons for … [Read more...]
The Basics of Australian Genealogy Research
Do you have Australian ancestry? Our researchers have compiled an overview of helpful resources to assist with Australian genealogy research. Australia is one of the world’s largest immigrant-based countries, meaning that the majority of the people living there have family trees that originate from somewhere else. Thus, unless someone is a descendant solely of Australian aboriginal peoples, most research will ultimately end up working back to European origins. Because of this, Australian … [Read more...]
German Immigrants in American Church Records
If your family tree has German immigrants, include American church records in your genealogy research efforts. Do you have German ancestors who lived in the Midwest? Were they Protestants? If you answered yes to those questions, then you need to know about the German Immigrants in American Church Records (GIACR) series. Compiled by Dr. Roger P. Minert of Brigham Young University, the first volume of the series was published in 2005 and has since expanded to include 18 volumes, the most … [Read more...]
Legacy Tree Onsite: The Chodovec Archive Complex, Czech Republic
Legacy Tree Genealogists works with researchers from across the globe to access records for our clients. We asked Helena, one of our onsite researchers from the Czech Republic to share an inside look at genealogy research at the Chodovec Archive Complex in Prague. At the outskirts of Prague, you can find a giant building complex housing three large archives – three genealogical eggs in one basket! Completed in 2001, it has research rooms, conference halls, exhibition areas and … [Read more...]
How Genealogical Records Get Online
We've all perused historical records online, but have you ever considered what is involved in digitizing historical documents? We'll show you the process! Historical records are the lifeblood of genealogy research. Created for a myriad of purposes, records come in a variety of forms such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, obituaries, christening records, censuses, newspaper articles, wills, deeds, draft registrations, passenger lists, and muster rolls – to name only a few! The list goes … [Read more...]
How a 200-Year-Old Family Feud Solved a Brick Wall Problem
In a recent case we worked on, a dispute over land led to identifying the parents of an individual and solving a family brick wall problem. We share this story with permission to illustrate the importance of thorough searches - not just in vital records, newspapers, and censuses - but in land, probate, and court records. Our client asked us to trace the ancestry of his Boykin family, and research had stalled with a direct-line ancestor named William T. Boykin of Southampton County, Virginia, … [Read more...]