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Hitting The Bricks (Part I)
My great-grandfather Joseph F. Haigney has long irritated me by his refusal to be found in the 1900 census. Or in the 1900 anything, despite my diligent efforts. Talk about ingratitude.
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Hitting the bricks: Part II
I do hate that genealogy cliche, “brick wall”, but only because it’s a sad reality for so many of us. So it is satisfying to be able describe how a tiny opening developed in one of mine. My...
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Follow Friday: ConnorsGenealogy.com
Listen, I like Ancestry.com just fine, but every once in a while I get a little bug-eyed at how much it just keeps growing and growing, merging into everything that lies in its path. Some days it’s...
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Ephemera and Why They (It?) Are (Is?) Cool
Ephemera: Items designed to be useful or important for only a short time, especially pamphlets, notices, tickets, etc. In the genealogy world “ephemera” can include everything from school attendance...
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Occupation of the Day!
Corn labor! It turned up last week on a census hunt related to my frustrating, elusive Connors line in Watervliet (maybe) N.Y. I kept squinting at the handwriting, but really all that a reasonable...
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Tuesday’s Tip: Turn That Page. Seriously.
Modern census database searching is great. Many mis-indexed ancestors have been found by the ability to throw wild card variables into a tricky surname or, when all else fails, to abandon names...
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Mystery Monday: The Butt-Factory Update
My butt-factory mystery is solved. (“Yay!” cry the readers. “We can all relax now!”) After posting a cri de coeur about my ancestors in the 1870 census for West Troy, N.Y., I thought some more about...
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Census Sour Grapes, 1855 Edition
I just noticed something irritating in the 1855 New York State census entry for my Connor great-great-grandparents of Watervliet. New York State’s 1855 census form is really detailed in contrast to the...
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Timeline Traveling
I’ve joined an upcoming study group focused on Thomas W. Jones’ instant classic Mastering Genealogical Proof, a book that I sincerely urge you to read, and I am not even Dr. Jones’ agent. I had the...
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Vitals: Gems, A Dud, And Wishful Thinking
The Big Brown Envelope of New York Vitals from Albany lingered in the pile of post-vacation mail for about a second. That’s because getting vitals from New York State is about as carefree a process as...
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To my online tree viewers, once I go public
I’m one of those people who struggles with the decision to take an Ancestry tree public. I’ve been torn between the desire to connect and share, and the reluctance to become part of something that’s...
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Hallowed Ground in Jersey City
I never pass a cemetery without a second look, or a third, or even pulling over to take a fourth. So when a chance came to tour two landmark Catholic cemeteries in Jersey City, I put on my sturdiest,...
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Hold On To That Thought
Hold on to that thought. I heard that phrase many a time in my grade-school days, when I could have been a prototype for Hermione Granger, Harry Potter’s perpetually hand-waving buddy. Well, “hold on...
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Lost Lambs
It’s tough to explain the satisfactions of genealogy to nonparticipants. And I completely understand their bewilderment. Why does anyone want to traipse around cemeteries cooing over tombstones? What...
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Five Years …
… That’s how long it’s been since this little blogging endeavor got off the ground. What’s happened since 2009 in my personal genealogy hunting, you might ask? Well, I’ve had my share of discoveries,...
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