Several years ago I developed a talk called “Grandpa’s Probate Solves the Case of the Disappearing Daughters,” based on what I learned from the probate records of David West (1823-1898)....
Dec142017
Case Studies
Nov142017
Trying a New Tool for New York Immigration Records
MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) is an Israeli-based family history website that offers record searches, family trees, and DNA testing. The company’s strengths include participation by many genealogists from outside the U.S. and high-performance technologies for matching and search described here. Recently MyHeritage announced the addition of Ellis Island and other New...
Oct312017
Sakusky DNA–Segment Data!
These are my great-grandparents Anthony Sakusky (1878-1921) and Cecelia “Tillie” Buscavage (1883-1922). They lived inShenandoah and Tamaqua, coal and railroad towns in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Anthony was a coal miner. Both Anthony and Tillie were born in Lithuania, but neither left documents specifying their family places of origin. Tillie...
Oct092017
An “Easter Egg” in Some Pittsburgh Church Records
Sometimes in computer software we find an Easter egg–“an intentional inside joke, a hidden message, or a secret feature of an interactive work (often, a computer program, video game or DVD menu screen). Apparently they occur in online genealogical...
Sep052017
In Honor of Labor Day 2017
For Labor Day 2016, I wrote a blog post highlighting ancestors who belonged to labor unions. For 2017, I thought I’d highlight a few labor-related resources I’ve found helpful in researching my ancestors who worked in northeastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal industry. Ancestry, “Pennsylvania, Coal Employment Records, 1900-1954“ This collection...
