The Legacy Tree Genealogists Blog

Hand-picked, tested and trained, our professional genealogist team knows how to find your story. We search the world for answers. Find the un-findable. And we’re experts at everything from tracking down rare international records to analyzing DNA test results. Based near the world’s largest family history library in downtown Salt Lake City, we also work with researchers and archives around the globe. Contact us today if you would like help discovering your ancestors!

Ancestry’s Cyber Attack and a Look at Perseverance

June 25, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 2 Comments

Ancestry's Cyber Attack, putting an outage to online records for a few days, really put things into perspective for how far genealogy records have come over the years. Last week, a new genealogy research project came across my desk and it was thrilling to delve into a 19th Century Mid-Atlantic States project and have instant access to a vast amount of records online through various online genealogy record websites. Within a few short hours of working on a census survey, I felt a great kinship to this heretofore unknown family, seeing the family structure and where they lived out their lives. From a death certificate, I was saddened by the death of the matriarch who died in her fifties from cancer, and from a newspaper clipping, I was awed when a son left his hometown to work on the Panama Canal.Elbow deep in death certificates and censuses and newspaper clippings and city directories, I was feverishly citing each document on my research calendar, the documents pouring in, when …

State Land Grants or Patents for Genealogy

June 23, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Using state land grants or patents to obtain vital genealogy documents is one way to help tear down your family history brick walls! Learn the order of getting these manuscripts for your own research. We've recently been helping a client discover more about an ancestor who lived in North Carolina in the mid- to late-1700s. Southern U.S. research that's this early requires a careful look at existing documents, especially since often there aren't nearly as many documents available as there are for the mid- to late-1800s. We were happy to find that this particular ancestor had received a state land grant from North Carolina so we could obtain more information about him as we searched for the link to his parents.Where deeds between private individuals generally involve only one document registered with the county, state land grants usually generate four separate documents. First, an entry was made to the state or county office by an individual who wanted to claim a parcel of …

Write a Captivating Family History with the 1900 Census

June 17, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 4 Comments

As you write your family history, don't neglect the wealth of information that can be found in the 1900 census! What were you doing at the turn of the century? Watching the Times Square Ball drop as Dick Clark prattled on? Were you hiding in a closet, worried about how Y2K would wreak havoc on your life? Were you partying like it was 1999?Author Ian Frazier masterfully wove together the happenings of the previous turn of the century with his own genealogical findings in the opening of his book, Family: “The Twentieth Century began on a Tuesday. On that day, all my great-grandparents but one were living in Ohio or Indiana.” What an enthralling way to tell your family history, as opposed to the tedious opening, “I was born...”Tell your captivating family history by describing what your grandparents were doing at the turn of the twentieth century. Discover this by finding them on the 1900 US Census or the 1901 UK Census.What will the 1900 US Census tell you about your …

Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution

June 10, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 9 Comments

Having the honor of joining the Sons and Daughters of The American Revolution is no simple task. Here is what you need to know before you apply to this historical lineage society. We've been in business since 2004, and in that time, Legacy Tree has had countless numbers of people contact us about joining various lineage societies, with the most popular choice being the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution (SAR/DAR).While the documentation requirements for these societies differ slightly, the general steps for obtaining membership are the same. (For more information about the SAR and DAR, and additional details about each step listed below, see http://sar.org and http://dar.org.1) Determine If You are Eligible to JoinThis can seem like a daunting task! In order to join the SAR or DAR, you must be descended from a person who provided support to the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War. A common misconception is that the ancestor has to have actually been …