Genealogical Gems

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) will hold elections for its officers and directors at the annual meeting on Saturday, 12 May 2012, at the NGS Family History Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. M embers who cannot attend the annual meeting may cast their vote online at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/members_only between 1 April and 1 May 2012. 

Ancestry.com Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Archives.com, a family history website, for approximately $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities, the company announced yesterday.  Ancestry.com will welcome a team of talented engineers, digital marketers, and family history innovators into the Ancestry.com fold and also gain access to a proprietary technology platform that has supported Archives.com's rapid growth. Archives.com is owned and operated by Inflection LLC, a Silicon Valley-based technology company. Since Archives.com's launch in January 2010, the site has rapidly grown to more than 380,000 paying subscribers who pay approximately $39.95 a year. Archives.com offers access to over 2.1 billion historical records, including birth records, obituaries, immigration and passenger lists, historical newspapers, and U.S. and U.K. Censuses. "Archives.com has built a fantastic and fast-growing business that we think is highly complementary

Maiden names are not always the easiest to determine. We all have the one stubborn woman who married into the family and was simply always referred to as Mrs. So and So. Here are some suggestions to help find her maiden name and that next branch: Marriage certificate and/or license application. Social Security application. Children's birth and/or death certificates. Obituary - perhaps a father or brothers are listed. Church records. Engagement and marriage announcement. Census records - often neighbors were related.

Today's Motivational Monday is a cleaning out of sorts. It is filled with random tips and tidbits. Feel free to add your own tips and tidbits in the "Comments" below the article. Great resource for fellow Poles is the PGSA - the Polish Genealogical Society of America. Membership is open to anyone doing research within the borders of the old Commonwealth of Poland. Eastman's Online Genealogical Helper did an article  on indentifying an unknown Civil War soldier. That reminded me that I need to get back working on my Van Horn line. My third great grandfather had a brother BENJAMIN VAN HORN who served the UNION in the CIVIL WAR. I know very little of his service however and would love to delve into that are more. I received this picture above from a family member descended directly from Benjamin. The plaque shows he was a Prisoner of War.   Social Security Numbers. We all have one - or at least we should! The Ancestry Insider wrote " Social S

I love collecting genealogy and local history books. It doesn't matter if it pertains to my specific lines or not. There is just something exciting about looking through physical books and finding information pertaining to the family or the location. I also lately have been storing up my emails. My mail server has told me - very nicely - that it is high time I sort and delete. /sigh Under my Inbox I have several folders. One of which is titled Genealogy. As emails come in they get thrown into their respective "deal with it later" folders. Unfortunately genealogy does not pay the bills; it merely feeds the soul. Hence, many genealogy related emails go in that folder to be dealt with later. Today is later! As I go through them I would like to include here random tidbits that appear helpful in a general sense. In other words if I find a link specifically on Ruczhaks, that would be interesting to a select few people. However if I find something on "The Moving Bord

The 1940 Census has finally been released. Ancestry.com, and other genealogy help sites, are still indexing the images and making it all pretty so it is easier for all of us. I chose 1940 under the census choices. It them asked me to select my State and county then municipality. Since I knew my grandparents were living in Rock Run at the time, I chose them to start with. I chose then Pennsylvania - Chester County - Valley Township. I found them! There was Gigi - my grandfather! Joseph Ruczhak, age 21, shows up married to my Baba (grandmother) Anna, age 19. The couple above them - John and Catherine Yuzwiak - are Baba's sister and brother in law. Notice the circle "X" next to baba's name? That indicates that she was the one who provided the information to the census taker. One question I do have concerns with the schooling. Baba shows that the highest grade she attended was 8th grade which was normal for that time. Gigi however has an "H4" in that colu