A Family Tapestry

  If we put ourselves in our immigrant ancestors' shoes, we can see how long a trip those family members endured to arrive on our shores...

  What is it about documents for family history? Somehow, I can't just accept that someone else saw it, or transcribed it, or referenced...

  In looking at the First Families applications we've received in our local genealogical society, I often wonder what drew these immigra...

  Old research problems can be tantalizing and simultaneously frustrating. I thought I'd spend the weekend jumping back to tackle a DNA ...

  If Lorenz Laskowski was the first of the three Laskowski siblings to leave the family home in Żerków for America, his younger sister Agn...

  Timelines are a useful tool for putting an ancestor's life in perspective. Juxtaposing the key dates in a relative's life alongsid...

  It would be so handy in tracing the path of immigrant ancestors if they were careful to leave their homeland and go straight to their new ...

  I'm watching October run quickly through its last few days, which reminds me that I still haven't answered a question I stumbled o...

  Take a name as common as John—or, if you are researching ancestors in Poland, Jan. Could that ancestor, having emigrated from Poland to an...

  What if the research direction you've chosen to pursue doesn't yield any answers? If I can't find further detail on my father-...

  Some books take time to absorb. Back in July , as I was closing out my search for the Flannery branch of my father-in-law's roots, I r...

  There comes a time when chasing our mystery ancestors that we begin wondering why. Why, for instance, did John Stevens, my father-in-law...

  It may come as no surprise to those of us studying our ancestors' immigration to the United States that there were ads beckoning certa...

  To zero in on arrival dates for the immigrant Blaising family—all the brothers and the mother of my father-in-law's step-grandmother T...

  "Come with me, it will only take a few minutes of your time," beguiled a brief family history on the front page of the Spring 20...

  Long before my father-in-law's immigrant grandmother Theresa Blaising settled in her childhood home in Indiana, a group of several imm...

  When thinking about migrating ancestors, one question I concern myself with is how they got from their old home to their new one. With thi...

We all have stories—at least in the New World—of ancestors who arrived on American shores and settled into life, whether following the same ...

  What I know about Hugh Stevens: nothing. Well, that is not entirely true. I do know a few things. Those few things are not very useful, ho...

  Ever so gradually, we take a few steps backwards in time, trying to coax history into revealing the story of our ancestors. In the case of...