I was searching for Olive (Slade) Twogood’s parents and siblings.   I found her in the 1850 U.S. census, age 45, born in New York.   On the next page of the census but living next door is Gideon Slade Jr., age 38, also born in New York[1] I formed the premise that Gideon might be Olive’s [...]

Are you having trouble finding a woman in your family line? Most of you have at least one where you still don’t know the maiden name of some member of your family, or a daughter married but you don’t know her married name. You searched all the online sources you know about and still struck [...]

Bruce and I traveled to England for a week of genealogy research in London and Derbyshire. The flight over the Atlantic was long and we arrived at Heathrow Airport in the early morning. Though it was June, cold and fog seeped into our bones. We rented a car. It was tiny.  After loading our bags [...]

Census records show Joseph Mullin and his wife, Mary Ann, five children born between 1866 and 1881. Margaret A. Mullin (1871 age 4 and 1881 age 14) Jesse Mullin (1871 age 2 and 1881 age 12) William Mullin (1871 age 2/12 born Feb., and 1881 age 10) Ida Mullin (1881 age 4) Archie Mullin (1881 [...]

Sometimes in our genealogy searching we just stumble on something we weren’t even looking for.  That happened to me one night as I surfed the internet searching for a way to access the records of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Livesey St., Manchester, England. My ancestor, Thomas Francis Farrell, had married Winifred Moran there on 28 [...]

Some things may not be what they appear to be.  For instance, take the Wenzel Mueller family in the 1880 U.S. census for Cincinnati,  Ohio: Name Relation Age Birthplace Father’s birthpl Mother’s birthpl Wenzel Mueller   38 Bremen Bremen Bremen Pauline Mueller wife 34 Baden Baden Baden Anna Mueller daughter 10 Ohio Bremen Baden Elizabeth [...]

When I talk about genealogy, Bruce’s eyes glaze over, and he makes grunting noises to make me think he’s listening to me, but I know he’s really thinking about how he’s going to plant the garden, finish building the shed, or plan our next trip. Imagine my surprise then, when I came home from a [...]

Have you hunted here, there, and everywhere, and still cannot find your family in a certain census?  Here are some of the reasons why you may not have been able to find them:  1.  They moved from where you thought they should be.  For instance, I found Thomas Francis Farrell and his family in the [...]

On a hot summer evening, Bruce and I packed our bags for a six week trip researching in England and driving around Europe.  Bruce donned shorts and a t-shirt and put his jacket in his suitcase.  We boarded the plane late at night and landed at London’s Heathrow airport early the next morning.  Of course [...]

On this Father’s Day, I think about my dad and the last time we were together.  Bruce and I had arrived in Los Angeles after a long flight from Sidney, Australia.  We had a few hours’ layover before boarding a flight to Portland, Oregon, where we lived at that time.  We were flying standby and [...]