Contributed by Tom Hennessy, Desoto, Texas This is a picture of my grandmother, Freda Becker, born 1891. The photo was taken in Cincinnati around 1897. When my grandmother was about nine, just after 1900, the family moved to New Jersey. Click on an image to enlarge it. Contributed by Saundra Robert This is a picture of my grandmother, Mary Trcka Duba and her twin daughters Frances and Rose. The photo was taken in 1902 in St. Louis, Missouri. Grandmother was born in 1859 in Olsovice, Bohemia. My mother, Frances, on the left, died in 2001.

Making a Breakthrough in your African American Research, presented by Marjorie Sholes Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 9 PM EDT African American research poses unique challenges. That’s why Ancestry.com and Wal-art have partnered up to present a free, one-hour webinar on researching your black roots. African American research specialist Marjorie Sholes will take you step-by-step through the process she used to trace one of her own ancestors, showing you the tips and tricks she discovered along the way. In particular, she’ll focus on how to identify slave owners to unlock the ...

World’s Leading Online Family History Resource Adds More Than 4 Million New Records to Its Civil War Collection, Including More Than 20,000 Letters Written to and from Lincoln PROVO, UTAH – Feb. 12, 2009 – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, announced today it will commemorate the 200th birthday of one of the nation’s greatest Presidents – Abraham Lincoln – with the addition of five new databases to its Civil War Collection. This historically significant collection includes unique content such as photographs, ...

RootsTelevision has announced the “In Search of Our Roots” Contest. Entering is super-easy. Just leave a comment on the Og Blog post here . The winner will receive an autographed copy of the just released, In Search of Our Roots, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The book retraces the steps taken in researching the family histories of Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones, as they were featured in the PBS Series African American Lives.

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” ~ Helen Keller, 1880-1968

U.S. Deluxe Selected U.S. Naturalization Records-Original Documents, 1790-1974 U.S. City Directories (Updated) World Deluxe London, England, Marriage Licences, 1521-1869 More… View a list of all new and updated databases Learn more about what’s new at Ancestry.com Search the Ancestry.com Card Catalog

Did your spouse, father, or grandfather propose marriage in a romantic location or in a unique way? Is there a funny story of how grandpa finally won grandma’s heart? Or vice versa? How did you meet your sweetheart? These are the stories that typically can’t be found in records. Take a few moments to document them so that future generations will know the story too. Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Last weekend, I got a note from Sandra in Florida. She was looking for her grandfather’s cousin, who was a Catholic nun in the Pittsburgh area, but she didn’t have a lot of information to work with. Since I’ve had a little experience in tracing nuns (we have three in our family tree), I thought I’d give it a shot. But before I could dive into the search, I got an e-mail from a very happy Sandra who had found her grand-aunt in the 1910 census . Many people have family members who served in religious communities. Learning something about their lives can greatly enrich ...

In the previous article , we talked about finding clergy in the census by using titles in place of a given name. This can also be a solution for lay people. Search for Mr. or Mrs. and you’ll turn up plenty of hits. (Click on the image to see an example from the 1930 census for Boston, Massachusetts.) And the town doctor could be listed with Dr. as his first name. Dr. and Mrs. Cooneery of Chicago, Illinois, are a good example of this situation. Here are some more tips for census searching. Search for Initials Sometimes the census taker decided that listing an initial was enough. In ...

I suspect many of you begin your day like I do, browsing through my local newspaper over breakfast. I know some of my ancestors did the same thing. I can remember my grandparents coming to visit and poring over every item in the newspaper, exchanging sections, and discussing items of interest. In a letter he wrote home during World War I, my grand-uncle requests that my great-grandfather send him copies of the local newspaper to read while he was stationed in France. These days we not only have the current news available online, we can travel through time and read the same news that our ...

Moving Between Censuses Never assume that a family resided in the same place between censuses. When available, another good resource is the state census. Some states such as Illinois and Kansas had state censuses which were done every ten years, between federal censuses (1825, 1835, etc). For many years I tried to figure out why a few branches of my husband’s line left Dunklin County, Missouri, and ended up in Alexander County, Illinois. I looked at the 1865 census to see if they had moved there by that time. I didn’t find them in Alexander County but did find them in Massac ...

The year was 1836 and the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico was hurriedly drawn up even as General Antonio López de Santa Anna and 4,000 Mexican troops surrounded the Alamo where less than 200 Texans were besieged for eleven days. At the end of the siege, more than 180 of the rebels were killed and “Remember the Alamo!” became a rallying cry in the fight for Texas independence. Texans were even more enraged when nearly 400 more rebels who had surrendered were executed and burned at Goliad, Texas . The tide turned when 900 Texans under the leadership of General ...

Contributed by Lavender Borden This is a photo of my third great-grandfather, John Foxall Wathew, born 1805 in Walsall, England, died 1872. He was a goldsmith and watchmaker. I was sent the photo by someone I have never met, through the Internet. Click on an image to enlarge it. Contributed by Carri Maioriello, Los Angeles, California This is a photograph of my third great-grandmother, Mary Higgins Dowd, born 1822 in County Cork, Ireland. She immigrated to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1891. The photo was probably taken between 1860-1880 in County Cork, Ireland.

This week I was thrilled to see the addition of 987,415 U.S. Naturalization Records to the site. These are images of the original documents, which are loaded with great information. This release includes records from the states of New York, Pennsylvania and California. In an effort to get these records out to you sooner rather than later, Ancestry released the images with a light index including name, state, record type, court type, court, court location, naturalization number, roll description and archive series. To capture the remaining rich information (birth date and place, country of ...