The Handwritten Past

Great to see efforts like this.

Make a Difference This Memorial Day: Help Identify Unknown Sailors from the USS Arizona - Fold3 HQ Help spread the word! Efforts are underway to find relatives of the fallen who served aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/04/24/prince-william-american-revolution-princess-diana/

Prince William has American ancestors — dating to the Revolution Prince William is part American through his mother, the late Princess Diana, records show. The family traces to the Revolution — and rebels against the crown.

Make your voice heard to keep public records accessible to future generations!

Records, Not Revenue // Don't let USCIS hold our history hostage! U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) wants to raise fees by 269% for copies of historical records — charging researchers up to $340 for a single paper file.

Gotta love this very thorough Donald Duck family tree!

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/11/tracing-the-ancestry-of-donald-duck/ -19177

Tracing the Ancestry of Donald Duck Have you ever wondered exactly how Scrooge McDuck is related to Donald Duck? Or where Huey, Dewey, and Louie fit into the equation? And what of Donald’s second cousin, the little-known Gus Goose? D…

A new book lists 125,284 names of Americans of Japanese descent who were forced to live in incarceration camps during World War II. It is the first complete list of these individuals. Volunteers searched thousands of records to verify these names. They are "99.5% certain" they got everyone. The book is on display at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Families are encouraged to stamp the book next to the names of their ancestors and relatives to honor them.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/11/japanese-americans-incarceration-second-world-war

‘Proof I was there’: every Japanese American incarcerated in second world war finally named Ireichō, a sacred book of names, lists all 125,284 people of Japanese descent who were held in camps across the US and is on display at an LA museum

Free record access! From October 17-October 31, GEDmatch users will get free access to all the databases on AmericanAncestors.org. The American Ancestors site is especially useful for finding early New England records, and it covers other areas as well. For details, see this page: https://www.americanancestors.org/gedmatch-trial

Free Trial of American Ancestors for GEDmatch Users | American Ancestors Save the Date Access Your Free Trial October 17th–Oct 31st For two weeks, GEDmatch users will have FREE access to all databases at American Ancestors.org. You must sign up no later than October 31st to take advantage of the free trial. No credit card is required. Sign up today by filling out the f...

The 1921 UK Census is available now at Findmypast!

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census

1921 Census of England & Wales is Available Now Exclusively online at Findmypast - Discover the most extensive census ever and discover the lives of 38 million men, women and children in 1921.

If you have ancestors who lived in Europe in the early 1800s, this record set may be worth a look.

https://en.geneanet.org/genealogyblog/post/2021/12/geneanets-community-has-indexed-over-a-million-of-napoleons-soldiers

Geneanet’s Community Has Indexed Over A Million Of Napoléon’s Soldiers! Two hundred years after the death of the emperor on Saint Helena, we are excited about a major milestone: Geneanet’s community of genealogists...

Do you often ask yourself "What is That Weird Word as Cause of Death?" when looking at death certificates or the like? Yes, there were totally different names for the illnesses that we suffer from currently. Here is a list of links to hundreds of old names and equivalences to help you. Download a Free Pdf of the common ones at https://bit.ly/3lWQywU

A huge project now finished, with more to come.

FamilySearch's 2.4 million rolls of microfilm are now digitized. Here's what this milestone means The Genealogical Society of Utah — known today as FamilySearch — began microfilming records in 1938. Now, 83 years later, the entire microfilm collection is available online.

Research leads young woman to discover that her birth father died on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. Incredible story.

https://www.twincities.com/2015/09/08/from-the-archives-sept-11-heros-daughter-premonition-then-grief-gratitude/?utm_email=6444F5F6220EA45D249FB4E29B&g2i_eui=zLzlob7FiSIDtVwYEIzJh6UFrQwxwv%2be&g2i_source=newsletter&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.twincities.com%2f2015%2f09%2f08%2ffrom-the-archives-sept-11-heros-daughter-premonition-then-grief-gratitude%2f&utm_campaign=stpaul-morning-report&utm_content=manual

From the archives: Sept. 11 hero’s daughter: Premonition, then grief, gratitude On Sept. 11, 2001, Mariah Mills told her adoptive mother, “I think one of my parents is dead.” The St. Paul teenager’s premonition was the start of a journey filled with grief and…

Most of the 1890 census was destroyed as the result of a fire in the Commerce Department Building in 1921, but recently a logbook was realized to contain fragments of the 1890 census from Alaska.

Frank Lowell was the special agent for the Second District. He kept a logbook of his activities in Alaska from June 11 to September 28, 1890. He began at Kodiak by hiring sailors and preparing a schooner for the voyage. Each entry on pages 1 through 9 typically includes his location(s), expenses, wind direction, and numbers of persons enumerated, hours worked, and census forms used.

Lowell likely ran out of census forms, and therefore improvised by recording information about some households in his logbook. Therefore, 13 families in nine houses were enumerated in his logbook on pages 10 through 35.

These records have now been digitized and can seen in our online Catalog.

You can read more in the Text Message blog: https://go.usa.gov/xM3rb

Findmypast has announced over a million of the British newspapers in their database may now be searched for free.

https://www.findmypast.com/blog/new/free-newspapers?utm_source=fmp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ReachOut&utm_content=US+NEWSLETTER+REACH-OUT-100821&utm_term=408647583&M_BT=99065712657847

Explore over one million historical newspaper pages for FREE | Blog In partnership with the British Library, we've made over a million newspaper pages completely free to search and view. And there's much more to come...

May the fourth be with you in your search for your ancestors...

https://www.familytreemagazine.com/entertainment/star-wars-family-tree/?trk_msg=TCDPFB25MKV4LD0QNQE0EO1PIC&trk_contact=B1L53DV3EB09JL2J5B6TI5CS4C&trk_module=new&trk_sid=GK6GVGL0RHGOUS8O6M2J014530&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=The+Star+Wars+Family+Tree&utm_campaign=FT+Newsletter&utm_content=Family+Tree+Editorial+Newsletter+05-04-2021

The Star Wars Family Tree “I am your father” was just the beginning. Here’s the multigenerational saga of the Skywalker family tree.

We made an amazing discovery recently. The homeowner of a stately old mansion In South Carolina discovered the signatures of Union soldiers beneath layers of wallpaper and paint. The home once served as a Union hospital during the Civil War. We've researched some of those soldier's stories. Read about it on our blog: http://fnote.it/6xhy

Looks like the huge USCIS fee hike on genealogical immigration records has been reversed...for now.

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2021/02/08/cautious-good-news/

Cautious good news About that USCIS fee hike It's called EO 14012. EO for Executive Order. Signed on 2 February 2021. Published on 5 February 2021. With an official citation of 86 FR 8277 and the fancy title: “Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts

A great comic on the special difficulties encountered in African-American genealogy research.

https://thenib.com/roots-to-fruits/

Roots to Fruits | The Nib …Meditations on when you think you found the people who owned your people via DNA test.

"Nothing is more magical than seeing the holidays through the eyes of a child. For nearly 150 years, letters to Santa have appeared in newspapers. Some are sweet, some are funny, and some tug at your heartstrings."

https://blog.newspapers.com/letters-to-santa-found-in-the-newspapers/

Letters to Santa Found in the Newspapers - Fishwrap The official blog of Newspapers.com Nothing is more magical than seeing the holidays through the eyes of a child. For nearly 150 years, letters to Santa have appeared in newspapers. Some are sweet, some are funny, and some tug at your heartstrings. We searched our … Continue reading →

Research published just last year revealed that Winston Churchill was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Samuel Fuller. DNA testing revealed a "surprise" in the paternal descent of one of the Fuller lines, aiding in this discovery.

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/11/churchills-mayflower-line/ -15705

Churchill's Mayflower line - Vita Brevis Last year I made a post teasing about an upcoming article I had written that showed, with the assistance of Y-DNA evidence, a Mayflower descent for Prime Minister Winston Churchill (among other notable figures).

"Every Wednesday night at 8:15, 16 of my wife’s family members gather around computer screens in their homes in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; New York City; and Chapel Hill, N.C., to look into their collective past."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/style/family-archives.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

Family History, Uncovered in Quarantine As Americans splinter into isolated Thanksgivings, some are taking the opportunity to examine their pasts.

"While only one president never married (James Buchanan), several presidents had no children, or their children died young or as adults, and in one case a president’s descendants died out after several generations."

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/11/presidents-without-posterity/

Presidents without posterity - Vita Brevis After our recent presidential election, and following up on my recent post regarding some interesting facts about presidential descendants, this post relates to our presidents who do not have any descendants.

Access to New York City’s records—including birth, marriage, and death records—is under siege by proposed changes!

We need your help to protect access to these important materials.

"DORIS operates under New York City’s rules and has an existing practice which requires licensing fees when reproducing materials from their holdings.

"Proposed changes to these rules modify the language to mandate licensing fees when using these public records for educational, scholarly, non-profit, and media use.

"As proposed, this general statement limits individuals including genealogists, biographers, and other researchers from sharing or publishing these public records with others.

"While we understand the need to pay a reasonable fee for the reproduction of a record, we strongly object to any language that even hints at limitations on our rights to use and share these public records."

https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/access-alert?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=records+access

Stop Licensing Fees for Public Records Access to New York City’s records—including birth, marriage, and death records—is under siege by proposed changes! We need your help to protect access to these important materials. A brief summary The New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) holds millions of materi...

"In 1864, railroad engineer and cartographer Simon G. Elliott visited the battlefield of Antietam and prepared a detailed map that documented the burials of 5,844 soldiers—2,634 Union and 3,210 Confederate. After the war, Elliott’s map found its way to the archives of the New York Public Library (NYPL) where it remained largely forgotten."

https://blog.fold3.com/discovery-of-a-forgotten-antietam-map-ignites-civil-war-researchers/

Discovery of a Forgotten Antietam Map Ignites Civil War Researchers! In 1864, railroad engineer and cartographer Simon G. Elliott visited the battlefield of Antietam and prepared a detailed map that documented the burials of 5,844 soldiers—2,634 Union and 3,210 Conf…

https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/06/unmasking-pandemic-masks-then-and-now/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=404383_newsletter_202008&utm_term=Unmasking+the+masks+of+the+pandemic&utm_content=EN&tr_date=20200809

Unmasking Pandemic Masks, Then and Now - MyHeritage Blog As people around the world begin to emerge from sheltering in place, they find themselves in a strange new reality: one where half of our faces are hidden. Though they are here to protect us, the presence of masks can pose some new challenges — and the way we choose to cope with those challenges [...

"The letters bring to light a detailed and heartwrenching account of the 8 months Daniele spent in the Coroneo prison in Trieste."

https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/08/signed-your-father-in-a-nazi-prison-an-extraordinary-collection-of-letters/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=404383_newsletter_202008&utm_term=Trieste+letters&utm_content=EN&tr_date=20200809

Signed, Your Father in a N**i Prison: An Extraordinary Collection of Letters - MyHeritage Blog The BBC recently published a piece about a remarkable story the MyHeritage Research team stumbled across in 2015. At the time, the team was hard at work searching for Jews from the island of Corfu, as part of a project to reconnect the descendants of a Jewish family of Holocaust survivors with the r...

The Battle of Gettysburg occurred 157 years ago this week. Our ancestor, Newell Elijah Gile, received a wound in this battle, as did many others. What will genealogical research reveal about your ancestor's story?

https://thehandwrittenpast.com/2018/07/02/battle-of-gettysburg-genealogy

How My Ancestor was Wounded at Gettysburg My great-great grandfather, Newell Gile, was wounded at Gettysburg. I'd heard rumors about his wound, but only genealogical research was able to verify it.

Get some genealogy education while you are stuck at home. We have gathered together several free genealogy webinars from around the web happening in July 2020.
https://thehandwrittenpast.com/2020/06/30/free-genealogy-webinars-july-2020/

Get some genealogy education while you are stuck at home.We have gathered together several free genealogy webinars from around the web happening this month.

https://thehandwrittenpast.com/2020/05/30/free-genealogy-webinars-june-2020/