Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about finding records in archives. Maybe you have already exhausted all the online records and are ready to find those additional records that haven’t been digitized yet. In repositories like courthouses and archives, you may be able to find unique and relatively unknown records. Join us as we talk with Melissa Barker, the Archive Lady, about how to find records like manuscript collections, voting records, photographs, school...
Have you wondered what is behind the scenes at an archive? Any idea what work goes into preserving the records that we use for our genealogy research? I recently presented a class on using probate records at the Family History Workshop sponsored by the Utah Division of Archives and Records Service and was treated to a tour of the archived records. My guide opened an innocuous door and when I entered the archive I was...
You’ve searched Find A Grave and Billion Graves. You’ve visited your local cemetery and taken photos of the headstones. What’s left for your cemetery research? Answer: the records kept by the cemetery office or sexton’s records. You may be surprised at the details in these records. I recently discovered a collection of cemetery records at the Utah Archives for my Kelsey family and today I’m sharing what I found. I’ll also give you three tips...
Have you ever wondered what is at your state archives? Tucked away in a corner, could you find a clue to your ancestor’s life? Every state has a physical location that hosts a treasure trove of artifacts, documents, books, and more. The National Archives provides a list of state archives and don’t despair if you don’t live near the one where you need to research. Many of them are digitizing their collections and making them available on...
“Well-behaved women seldom make history” was penned by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in 1976. Do you have a well-behaved woman in your family’s history? A woman who lived through the astounding changes of the 20th century and quietly worked to make a difference? To celebrate Women’s History Month, you might want to reexamine her life from a different perspective and tell her story. I discovered a single scrapbook page that my grandmother, Florence...
