Category Archives: research tips

If you don’t find it – look some more!

We all know that the last place you look is going to uncover precisely what you’re searching for whether it’s your house key, sunglasses or a record. It feels like I’ve been searching for some elusive information about my grandfather’s … Continue reading

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And over and over again

At the beginning of any research, as that tree begins to grow, the twigs, roots, and branches all fill out, documents are found so fast, sometimes it’s like magic. And then… suddenly, with no warning, you hit the proverbial brick … Continue reading

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In the blink of an eye!

At the beginning of the pandemic, I thought, as we all moved to remote work, that I would fill the time I previously spent commuting writing in my blog about research questions, challenges and those eureka! moments that inevitably occur. … Continue reading

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Retracing our footsteps – Jawornik Polski and Rzeszow: May 23

I keep mentioning the rain – somehow we haven’t been able to get ahead of it and the news on TV is filled with reports of flooding. We’ve been fortunate to only get caught in downpours, not stuck in flooding.  … Continue reading

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Missing Records, Missing Connections

As a genealogist, I recognize the importance of going back to databases I’ve previously reviewed. If the database is digital, online, there’s always the possibility that there will be additions made to it, or that transcriptions have been updated and … Continue reading

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Tuesday, 7 Aug – last full day in Warsaw

Tuesday afternoon I had the honor of presenting a session at the Warsaw conference in memory of Ruth Ebner. Ruth died in Phoenix, way too young while I was at the 2016 IAJGS conference in Seattle, which I chaired. This … Continue reading

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So, what’s in a name?

Shakespeare said it long ago – a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.  However, in order to connect the word with the object, we need a clear path. In my mother’s family, my great-great grandfather seemingly arbitrarily … Continue reading

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Turn it and turn it again…

Without sounding too irreverent, there is a Talmudic statement found in Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 5:22 – Ben Bag Bag used to say, “Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. ”  Ben Bag Bag was referring … Continue reading

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Where would we be without our connections?

Genealogical research is a wonderful way for those of us who love jigsaw puzzles to work on a large-scale picture that has practical use.   However, just like in the TV show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” we often need … Continue reading

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Untangling Family Stories

Remember playing telephone as a kid?  Perhaps you did it with cans strung together or perhaps you whispered a message to a person near you who repeated that message to someone else and so on – by the time the … Continue reading

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