YouTube has become another one of those traditional sources of information for me.  I never cease to be amazed by the good historical film footage available and easily identified. If you were not already aware, I am a big fan of gathering, providing, and attempting to understand historical context of genealogical events and activities.  I believe, very strongly, that context helps place family decisions in a more realistic light. And videos, when done well provide visual, audio and even textual …
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I’m absolutely thrilled about the feedback that I’ve received on my new oversized family tree charts that were added to the website a few weeks ago.  As exciting as some of the feedback is, I have also received some e-mails from people that are confused about how to take a PDF from my website and turn it into a work of art, a family tree chart that can exist on your wall fully framed. For those of you looking for …
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One of the ‘forgotten’ aspects of recent world history involves the Ethnic Cleansing of Eastern Europe by the Allies after World War 2.  Reports and numbers vary with regards to the numbers of people impacted by this horrific, involuntary expulsion.  Generally, it is believed that more than 10 million people were involved and as many as 4 million people were lost, killed, or died through the process of ethnic expulsion. If your family is of East or West Prussian, Silesian, …
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This has been a long time coming, but finally, the first pages of Free Ancestry Records and Resources are online with more to come in the next few days! We all know what it’s like, you buy a subscription to an ancestry website with the hope that you will find every document you need to prove your genealogy.  But a few hours or days into it, all you have is a pile of printouts that may or may not be …
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Now you can show your lineage in an awesome presentation that spans up to 16ft. Check out my new extra large free family tree templates.  If you’ve ever wanted to display your family history at a family reunion but found it too awkward to lug your files around and show your research on a standard sized family tree, you’ll love these large tree charts.  They come in 8ft and 16ft widths and can be as high as 5.5 ft but …
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What is a traditional genealogical source? To me that seemed to be a good question. So naturally, I Googled the term ‘Traditional genealogical source’ to see what I would find. The first item I came up with was the topic of a January/February 2003 issue of Ancestry Magazine by Mark Howells: Tombstone inscriptions have been a source of genealogical information for centuries. I could see tombstone inscriptions as being considered normal and traditional. Although with the way my brain works, …
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I’d like to introduce to you, Mark Rabideau, a genealogist who specializes in the genealogy and family history of both the Rabideau and Henss families.  His website, Many Roads has become the largest online archives for helpful and interesting information including the largest collection of data for the region of Prussia.  I’m very excited to announce that Mark has agreed to contribute to this blog.  Look for his upcoming posts!

A while ago, I told you about Google News Timeline to help you with your genealogy research.  You can research specific events in history and all the related information in a timeline.  While the Google News Timeline is an excellent tool, sometimes you just have to go to the source itself.  Newspapers are valuable tools for filling in your family tree. Here’s how they help: