Member Blogs

Genealogy has been a huge part of my life. I have a passion for my own research and a passion for teaching others how to search for their genealogical treasures. I have friends who have been able to break down their brick walls thanks to my counseling and thanks to my education in genealogy I have been able to break down the most stubborn brick walls in my own family tree.

A new opportunity has opened for me to not only expand on my own genealogical education, but also for me to help others expa

These recent images capture the essence of a thriving City centre in Victorian Britain. Each one represents the life and livelihood of our past ancestors and the City’s history from William Gill the shoe maker who operated at 34 Bishop Lane to the now infamous Brown family of High Street. Slave abolitionist William Wilberforce walked these cobbled streets to and from his home and in 1642 the stench of treason would have choked any blue blooded royalist in the City.

The Ancestral Homes of Kingsto

I have hit a brick wall and need some help! My great-grandmother, Teodora Chavez, was born in Solomonville in 1881. This is prior to birth records being priority. I have found on her children birth records that her parents were German Chavez & Maria Nieto..both supposedly of Solomonville. I have traveled there and met with parrish priest who advised me the town was actually called Pueblo Viejo at that time and that the land was Apache & immigrants from Dona Ana, NM. I have search all census reco

My genealogy search started over ten years ago.  I have researched many branches of my line and my husband's but the one that I am focused on is the family of John Thomas Taylor of South Carolina, my husband's great-great grandfather. 

John Thomas and his wife, Julia Nichols, left South Carolina after 1870 and headed to Arkansas via Cleburne County, Alabama.  I have much on our direct line from 1870 until the present, however, the past of John Thomas Taylor has eluded me for years.  I look forwar

After searching Homestead Records of my Grandparents, Greatgrandparents and Great greatgrandparents of my Mother and visiting the house in Hilliard that they lived in, I'm ready to visit Ukraine and walk on the land that they walked on.   My Grandmother, Mary Diduch age 13 came with her Father  George or Yuri (40) and Mother Wasylena Diduch(36) along with Wasylena's parents  Ivan Tofan (54) and Maria Tofan (54).  They left Rusiw near Sniatyn southwestern   Ukraine in March 1900 and sailed out of

Often, on the records, the people listed as "witnesses" to a wedding or "informants" of the information (births, deaths) are close family members. Pay attention to these people. Search them out. Knowing more about them will help you to know more about your ancestors.

For example, my great grandmother's wedding registration lists her sister, Janet, as a witness. This particular sister was one of three sisters that my great grandmother had. But she was the oldest sister and the eldest child. My gre

I was recently telling someone about the work I do and I got some interesting feedback. He said, “you’re an interpreter.”

I have been spending some time with that statement and find it very intriguing. I guess I have always collapsed an interpreter with a translator. But when you look up the definition an interpreter is someone who facilitates communication. From the dictionary… “The interpreter will take in a complex concept from one language, choose the most appropriate vocabulary in the target

The Toll of Time….and Council’s

Still on the theme of local cemeteries. Following a visit to Eastern Cemetery in Kingston, I was astonished to witness in such a well kept cemetery that an eagerness to protect the visitors, the stones themselves were being damaged.
It looks to me as though the sinking of some older graves, very likely due to some flooding and certainly some excessive rain, perhaps caused them to be a little unsafe.

However, the actions of those safety conscious officials has not bee

Is there any better way for a genealogist to spend a Friday night than glued to the telly watching Who Do You Think You Are? The programs have been mesmerising. And although we all know the things that the “experts” explain to the stars, it is once again fascinating to piece it all together and know the story.

Watching Kim Cattrall, Rosie and Steve Buscemi, I have decided that when my great grandfather went off to fight the Boer War and never returned, he likely wasn’t MIA at all, but probably s

I am looking For James Barnett Born 1825 in ten. married Milley Barnett.trying to find james dad.

I have no info on him

 Irish/ Scottish  Research Talk on 1 June by Anne Bowman.  Lemon Grove Library