Have you found heaven lately?  I did.  I spent this last week at the 43rd annual BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy.    I felt I’d found heaven as I listened to the plenary speakers, learned from the lecturers, viewed products from the vendors, met new people, and made new friends.     Here’s a recap: The [...]

As you go about your genealogy research, what technology questions do you have?  I’m sure you have at least one.  Maybe you want to know how to use your cell phone to take tombstone photos and upload them to the internet with GPS coordinates?  Or, what do you look for in purchasing a scanner? I [...]

If your family has been in the United States since the 1940s chances are you are related to someone who served in World War II or helped the cause at home.  This war affected EVERY household. Most people tried to find a way to help contribute to the war efforts.  With the men at war, [...]

If your family lived in the U.S. when the bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor that early December morning 1941, chances are someone in your family stepped up to serve.   Just about every U.S. household was affected in some way by World War II.   My dad, David Farrell, joined the Army Air Corps.  His brother Stephen [...]

During World War I Whitney McQuire served in Company I of the 339 Infantry. As part of the Polar Bear Expedition (the A.N.R.E.F. or American North Russia Expeditionary Force), Whitney was sent to Arkhangelsk, Russia, to fight against the Bolsheviks.   Though greatly outnumbered by the enemy, Whitney lived to tell his story. Reconstructing a World [...]

In 1792 Joseph Chaplin moved his family from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, to Cortland County, New York. His son, Daniel Chaplin, moved from Cortland County, New York, to Jones County, Iowa in 1838. About 1860 Daniel’s son, Daniel Chaplin, moved his family from Jones County, Iowa, to Plumas County, California, then to Butte County, California, by [...]

(This contest closed August 10, 2011) Sign up for my free email newsletter by August 10 and I’ll enter you in a random drawing to win Elizabeth Shown Mills work, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. Mills is a nationally renowned genealogist/historian who has lectured at numerous genealogy conferences, edited a national journal, [...]

Charles F. Smith was born in Ontario, Canada. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles, age 16 1/2, went to Michigan and enlisted in Company E, 2nd Infantry, Michigan Volunteers. After his discharge, he went back to Ontario and lived there the remainder of his life.  Even though he was not a U.S. citizen [...]

Did your ancestor receive a bounty land award for Revolutionary War military service? If you ancestor served in the Revolutionary War, he may have applied for and received a bounty land award.  You can check the “Revolutionary War Pensions” and Bounty Land Application Files at Footnote for your ancestor. If your ancestor did not serve [...]

Jonathan Smith fought fifteen days in the War of 1812. The federal government passed several acts to award bounty lands for services rendered, but Jonathan was not eligible for any of them because of his short term of service. Finally in 1855, the federal government passed the “Act of 3 March 1855″ granting 160 acres [...]