By Kathrin Kweseleit When it comes to Germany there are a few known facts on German history and some well-meant prejudices that are common worldwide, like Germany is actually some sort of giant Bavaria with us all wearing ‘Lederhosen’ and ‘Dirndl’ while eating ‘Sauerkraut’. Or, that the last Emperor was a humorless weirdo and that…
By Nydia Hanna Early on in the quest for answers to ethnicity and DNA, thousands of Puerto Ricans tested with the earlier DNA companies in order to identify their diverse ethnic roots. Puerto Rico is a mixture of the original Taino Indian culture, the white European Spanish who came from Spain, and the negro slaves…
by Jayne McGarvey, Senior Genealogist with Genealogists.com When we succeed in going further back in our family history research, it is likely we will start to encounter words and phrases that are unfamiliar or appear to be “out of context” according to modern usage. Some of these words may be now obsolete jobs, others archaic…
by Jayne McGarvey, Professional Genealogist with Genealogists.com Regardless of whether you use a subscription service like Ancestry or Find My Past or a free service such as Family Search, it is tempting to pop their forename and surname into the little boxes and press Return, and then when you get a return of several thousand…
Written by Anne Sherman, Genealogists.com Genealogist The following eight tips will help ensure you get started correctly on the path of finding your ancestors. 1. Always start with yourself. Early on in my professional genealogy career I was contacted by a client who had already started on his research but wanted my help to go…
Birth certificates show they were born. Death certificates show they died. It’s the details in between that show how they really lived! Sometimes in the rush to explore the details of our ancestors and in particular their origins we forget the importance of just how much information can be gleaned from the original records pertaining…
Answers to Genealogy FAQs Are you new to genealogy? If so, then you probably have a lot of genealogy research questions. Some genealogy-related questions are more common than others. Here are answers to a few of these important questions to help you along your genealogy research journey. 1. How do I begin researching my…