Last year, while going through boxes of old photos at my dad’s house, we came across a plastic bag containing hundreds of photos taken by...

My great-great-great-great-grandfather, James Luke, emigrated from Birmingham, England in 1816 at the age of 20. I’ve been lucky enough to find a couple of d...

I recently drove from Maryland to New England for a week of genealogical research with the NEHGS Research Tour in Hartford. I went up a day early to start my...

Back in April I attended the biennial conference of the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium (NERGC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Knowing that I ha...

Growing up, I remember having two huge old family bibles in the house. They were in terrible condition with detached covers, loose pages, and other damage. M...

I have developed a soft spot for two of my great-great-grandparents, Domenico Caldarelli and Maria Tavano. They were born in Italy, Domenico in Naples and Ma...

My great-great-great-grandfather, Elijah Dickinson, enlisted in Union Army in 1862. He was joined by both of his brothers, Atwood and James, as well as their...

My mother was born with an unusual last name – Cottuli – which has been both a blessing and a curse for my research. The blessing is that when I find someone...

It is said time and time again that our immigrant ancestors came to America for a better life. What I often find in my research is that once they made the jo...

As an avid genealogical researcher, I am keenly aware of the role that tradition plays in history. In all cultures, each new generation largely expects to fo...

In the fall, I blogged about the restoration of a family bible which was published in the late 1800s. Because no births, marriages or deaths were recorded in...

My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Dorothea Brooks Dickinson. When I started researching that branch of the family tree, I eventually discovered that ...

James Luke was my 4th-great-grandfather, and for quite a while I had a very hard time finding any info on him. I knew that he was born in England and immigra...

Two of my favorite ancestors, for no particular reason, are Porter & Sophia Cross, both born in 1807. They are my 4th-great-grandparents. Porter was the 6t...

I finally received the court file in the mail! It primarily contained witness statements and the charging document. The first item of note is Domenico’s stat...

After my last blog post, I turned to the members of the Italian Genealogy group on Facebook to help me decipher the last name of the man that Domenico Caldar...

This week Eli is in New York City on business, so I came up to visit the NYC Municipal Archives. Dad took a train in from Massachusetts and met me here. My g...

Just a few final photos of our incredible trip.

I found this piece, written by Della M. Cumming in 1943, and it really expresses the motivation behind genealogy research. We Are The Chosen My feelings are ...

Having had the Dickinson Family Bible restored earlier this year (see earlier blog post here), I was eager to see what Leonard’s Book Restoration could do wi...