Thomas Terrell was a lawyer born in Louisa County, Virginia in 1761. His plantation in Greene County, Georgia and the people he enslaved there have connections to a Civil War battlefield, the University of Georgia, Wells Fargo, a United States Congressman, and northern enslavers from Connecticut and New Jersey. Thomas’ death in 1822 created the only comprehensive list of his enslaved population, requiring the use of unconventional sources to gather more information about them. Many were separated due to devastating slave sales, but 200 years later, their descendants have been reunited by DNA testing.

As with its predecessor webinars, which all focus on 50 “Hot off the Press” and “Overlooked” genealogically relevant websites from around the world, we’ll continue to explore new or recently stumbled across online resources genealogists WILL want to check out. Some of these weren’t even developed with genealogists in mind. With the explosion of online content from individuals, societies, and repositories from many diverse perspectives, it can be overwhelming to identify what websites are genealogically leverageable and which may just bust your “brick wall.” This webinar will help you focus on these off-the-beaten-track online platforms where many “names are named,” hopefully including those of your ancestors.

The most important path an ancestor blazed along the way from his place of birth to where we first find him is usually not a trail that cartographers have conveniently charted for us. Successful researchers learn to recognize and analyze the elements of an ancestor’s life and times, as well as people, that serve as pointers to his path. This session examines the nature and causes of stalemates in our research; ten common traps and ways to avoid them; and innovative methodologies for working smarter, not harder!

In this lecture, Daniel will recount how MyHeritage was able to utilize a few surviving clues, MyHeritage’s research tools, and some logical deduction to reunite a pair of sisters who hadn’t known of each other’s existence for 70 years due to the tragic events of World War II and the Holocaust.

Prior to the 20th century, the vast majority of Irish people lived in rural areas, leasing land and property from the landowners who owned large estates, some of which were thousands of acres in size. These estates, often managed by land agents, generated large amounts of records, a number of which are particularly useful for expanding the knowledge of your ancestors. If you have exhausted the civil registration and church records, these records could be very useful in providing further information about earlier generations who lived on an estate and where exactly they lived through records such as rentals, leases and estate maps. Other valuable documents within estate records include military muster rolls, correspondence, land agent notebooks, wage books, account books and emigration records, all of which have the potential to provide information about your ancestors. Following the Great Famine, many landlords fell into financial difficulty and the government established the Encumbered Estates Court which allowed for the sale of their estates. The records generated include information about tenants and their leases that often contain really valuable information to expand your family tree.

Learn the 10 top tips and tricks for deciphering the old German script! With tips on how to easily recognize certain letters, how to tell tricky letters apart, abbreviations, spelling variations, names, and more, you’ll be amazed at what you can do after only an hour of learning!

Church record research is a must for any genealogist. Many of our archives have church records available to researchers. There are also independent church archives for specific religions or denominations that can help you discover your ancestor. Learn from a seasoned genealogist and archivist how to find church records in archives.

This talk will discuss how to obtain deceased 20th century veterans’ claims files, of which 1.1 million boxes are languishing in warehouses around the US.

Nous avons récemment dévoilé les nouvelles pages de profil avec indices sur MyHeritage. Ces pages de profil, zone centrale regroupant toutes les informations disponibles sur un individu, sont désormais l’un des meilleurs moyens de rechercher un ancêtre spécifique. Les pages de profil demeurent une fonctionnalité gratuite et viennent d’être améliorées. Lors de cette session, Elisabeth Zetland, membre de l’équipe de Recherche chez MyHeritage, vous montrera ces pages de profils mises à jour et d’autres fonctionnalités utiles de l’arbre généalogique.