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Research in Ireland Part 1: Roman Catholic Parish Records
If you have Irish immigrants in your ancestry and have attempted to trace them back to Ireland, you already know the challenges of this quest. Many Americans who have Irish lines only know that...
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Irish on the Move
Hello to all my readers! I wanted to wish you health, safety and well-being during these times of the pandemic and economic disruption. I have not been writing on my blog during the last year (July...
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Immigration to America
Immigration is a world-wide issue today, but it is not new. Throughout human history, people have been migrating to other places. This movement of people has always fascinated me. One particular...
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Chicago Settlers: The Europeans, Métis and Americans
Two barriers to settlement of the near empty, muddy, swampy site called Chicago were removed between 1825 and 1833. This removal caused a trickle of settlers to turn into an unstoppable torrent of...
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The First Peoples of Chicago
To get an idea of how Chicago began, we need to understand the settlement of the North American continent and how the area we know as our great city fits into this history.The earliest peoples who...
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Locating an Ancestral Homeland in Ireland
In an early Chicago history from 1912, Josiah Seymour Currey mentions James Carney as one of the earliest Irish settlers in the muddy, swampy area that was to become Chicago. He joined with other...
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Chicago’s Earliest Industry – the Fur Trade
You never know where you will end up when you start researching some aspect of Chicago history, but it will certainly surprise you. This phenomenon happened to me when I was researching James Carney,...
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A Thirst for Early Chicago History
I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of Chicago history. And I just discovered five books, and a re-issued early city directory that have gone a long way to quenching my deep thirst to know...
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City Directories: the Who, the How and the Why
By engraved by John C. Moss - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44967267If you want to learn about a city, a great source is the city directory. Even after doing some...
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1909 Greektown Chicago -- You are There
One of my most fervent wishes is to get as close to my ancestors as possible. I yearn to look into their apartment windows, listen to their dinner conversation, or shadow them as they go about their...
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Mining DNA data with GEDmatch
My readers may have wondered where I have been for the last six months. I have been analyzing my autosomal DNA using GEDmatch.Dna by Виталий Смолыгин,...
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Seeing Greece the Best Way
One of the greatest joys of the journey to learning family history is meeting fellow travelers. Never has this come so clear as when we (my husband and I) visited Greece this September of 2015.Map of...
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Destination: Greece
Well, the time for our departure to Greece is coming closer. Now we’re getting out the checklists to be sure we have everything we need for a comfortable trip, including medicines, electronics, and...
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Grave Disturbance in Early Chicago Cemeteries
It always amazes me what a rich resource we have in the genealogy community-- the people who generously share the information they work so hard to find. I am continually on the lookout for information...
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Getting Carded at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., United States, West Front, right wing, CJStumpf, 2007, WikimediaIn February of this year (2015) our close friends from California invited my husband and me to...
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Tracking the Hanneman Family: Uncovering Local Resources in Pennsylvania
Questions, Oberazzi, December 9, 2006, Flickr.comIs it Henrietta Hausman or Henrietta Hanneman? What is the correct spelling of a target ancestor’s name is a question that faces many researchers. In...
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Wanted: Greek Research Guidance
Irish United Nations Veterans Association house and memorial garden (Arbour Hill), William Murphy, 2011,Creative Commons, flickr.com.This is the story of how one resource can open the door to many...
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The Poor in Early America
As my readers know, I am interested in the lives of my Irish ancestors who came to Chicago, IL in the mid-nineteenth century. Because they were part of the new urban poor (a group made up of rural...
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You Are There: Chicago 1837-1920
Yesterday's Main Street, Kathy, January 2, 2025, Creative Commons, Flickr.com.When I was a young child living in Chicago in the early 1950s, my parents brought me to the Museum of Science and Industry....
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Academic Journals: A Powerhouse of Research
Most genealogy researchers are very familiar with the journals of genealogy societies: local, regional and national. An example of a local society journal is the ChicagoGenealogist, a publication of...
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