Oct 2015
Working Around the National Personnel Records Center Fire of 1973
Millions of personnel records for members of the U.S. armed forces who served during the twentieth century were destroyed as a result of the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in Overland, Missouri. These records had not been duplicated or microfilmed, so the loss was tremendous. Many genealogists researching men and women […]
Oct 2015
Using Autosomal DNA To Help Establish Proof
DNA testing has become increasingly popular in the genealogical community over the past few years, and test results are now often used to help establish proof of relationships. In his case study, “Too Few Sources to Solve a Family Mystery? Some Greenfields in Central and Western New York,” which appeared in the June 2015 issue of […]
Sep 2015
Documentation: The Backbone of Genealogical Research
Many beginner genealogists get caught up in chasing their ancestors back in time, and fail to record where they found the information they discovered. Eventually, they realize they should have been doing this all along—perhaps after sifting through papers in search of the source of a specific piece of information. Documentation and source citations are […]
Sep 2015
Don’t Miss the NGSQ Editors’ Corner
Some readers of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) may be so focused on getting into the newest case studies that they skip over an important piece of NGSQ—the Editors’ Corner. Written each issue by NGSQ co-editors Melinde Lutz Byrne, CG, FASG, and Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, the Editors’ Corner offers […]
Jul 2015
Civil War Pension Files: Understanding Pension Laws
From the beginning of the Civil War through the twentieth century, Congress passed many laws that impacted pensions for Civil War Union veterans and their dependents. (For more information about pension files and how to access them, see last month’s NGS Monthly article, “Civil War Union Pension Files: Contents and Access“). Pension laws concerned everything […]
Jul 2015
Techniques for Researching Common-Name Ancestors
We often struggle with solving problems and making connections as we research our ancestors with common surnames—for example, the Johnsons, Smiths, and Joneses in our family trees. Our struggles multiply when these men and women also have common forenames. The primary challenge we face when researching these individuals is telling them apart from others with […]
Jun 2015
DNA As a Genealogical Source
Over the past five years, an increasing number of National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) articles have incorporated a new genealogical source: DNA test results. While not necessary to solve every genealogical problem, there are instances when DNA test results supply information that couldn’t be uncovered through traditional research, confirm a conclusion suggested or reached by a paper trail, […]
Jun 2015
Civil War Union Pension Files: Contents and Access
Many veterans who served for the Union during the Civil War received federal pensions.[1] These pensions provided support to those who qualified based on disability, service, and old age. In many cases, upon the death of a soldier, his widow or other dependents were able to collect a pension. The process of applying for a […]
May 2015
What Do Genealogists Gain From Reading NGSQ?
We read National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) case studies, even though these articles cover families, places, and ethnicities not found in our own ancestral lines. Why spend time reading about someone else’s ancestors when we have so many of our own to research? We need to develop problem-solving skills. One way to do this is […]
May 2015
The Big Picture and the Small Details
As genealogists, we are encouraged to uncover the small details about our ancestors’ lives, as well as look at the bigger picture to learn more about who they were associated with throughout their lifetimes. Why do we examine our research subjects up close with a magnifying glass, but also pull back to get a bird’s-eye-view […]