North Carolina Genealogy

Another challenge that the online world brings for genealogists is the issue of privacy. Family history researchers as a general rule are very open and willing to share lots of information. At least in the part of the country I live that’s how people are. I don’t know how many times I’ve had someone call […]

What if, this moment, as your reading this sentence all of your genealogy data vanished? All your research notes, all the pictures you’ve diligently collected and scanned, all your ancestry and kinship reports? How much time and effort would you have to reconstruct? OK, I know some of you are backing up frequently and are […]

I want to announce a new article series that I’ll be starting this Tuesday. The series focuses on some of the (many) challenges that the digital age presents for genealogists. It is intended to flesh out and expand an article that I have pending for syndication online. I hope you enjoy the series and the […]

The last couple of columns have been about different ways to organize your data. This one is about trying to make sure that your data is here for a long time to come. The first tip here is with regards to backups. If your data is on the computer (all your folders and organization), then […]

There are a few more thoughts I wanted to pass along on getting your research organized. I wasn’t sure if they were emphasized enough in the last article on the topic. The main thing is this. For a good while, I was content transcribing (writing down) what I found in my notebook and having my […]

I guess this counts as a genealogy column. It’s been a while since I’ve formally done one and it’s something I’ve been interested to pass along for some time. I don’t claim to have invented this way of organizing stuff, but thought some of those just getting started might like to see some ideas of […]

Since this is the first Family History column, I thought it would make since to talk about how one goes about researching and discovering their family history. Genealogy is a hobby which many people take up in their retirement years. It is unfortunate that so many people wait so long to learn about their families’ […]

The United States Census is outlined by the Constitution as a means of apportioning representatives to the states. According to the constitution it is to be taken every ten years as a way of counting the population. Over the years, however, it has become more than a simple head count and has grown to include […]

Last time I talked about how important the Federal Census is to the family historian. Now, I’m going to give you a warning about it’s reliability. Don’t believe everything you read. This is something you should keep in mind no matter what source you’re referencing.

I must say that I’ve had a hard time getting started writing about church records. I’d like to tell you that there’s a book that’s compiled most of these into one resource, or there’s one place to write to find the information. Unfortunately, there’s not. However difficult they may be to come by, church records […]