Why Does Genealogy Interest Me?

Me, preparing for future genealogy.

I have sometimes thought about this question. Why does genealogy interest me so much? I was never really much into history classes. I usually did enough in them just to get by, even in college when I was already doing some genealogy research. I remember being bored out of my skull in my US History … [Read more...]

Czech’ing Out the Records

Click for larger version

I hit up FamilySearch this weekend to do some miscellaneous research. I happened to see their collection of records for the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia) and since my wife's great-grandmother, Anna (HUIZEL) COLLINS, was born there, I thought I'd browse them. Unfortunately, I didn't find … [Read more...]

Ireland Loses a Daugther

Richard & Mary Jane Zalewski

Mary Jane (Corrigan) Zalewski April 27, 1926 - August 10, 2011 Today we lost my grandmother, Mary Jane Zalewski, one of the world's biggest fans of Irish heritage. Born in Ashland, Wisconsin on April 27, 1926 along with her twin brother, Tommy, to Maurice & Agnes (Braatz) Corrigan. Story … [Read more...]

Looking for Genealogy on Netflix?

I've been a customer of Netflix for many years now. Back when I first signed up, it was only DVDs by mail. Now you get instantly streaming shows and movies into your living room through a PC or an XBox or a Wii console and it's glorious. I've run across a bunch of different history and genealogy … [Read more...]

US Navy Muster Rolls

USS Shangri-La, 10 Oct 1946, Ancestry.com. U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011.

Ancestry just recently add a massive collection of U.S. Navy Muster Rolls from 1938-1949. My grandfather, Richard Zalewski, served with the Navy from about 1940 to 1946. Here is their description: This database contains U.S. Navy muster rolls and associated reports of changes for U.S. Navy enlisted … [Read more...]

Arriving By Ship

Baltimore

The last few days I've been doing a lot of searching through old newspapers for hints of information, obituaries, articles, etc. On a whim, since my ZALEWSKI ancestors arrived in Baltimore, I decided to see which newspapers Google had from Baltimore. On a side note, as amazing as Google is at … [Read more...]

Tip: Searching Milwaukee Newspapers

JSOnline

If you have any ancestors that lived in the Greater Milwaukee area from 1884-2007, you're in luck. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website has access to search and view newspapers from its history, specifically: The Milwaukee Journal from 1884-1995 Milwaukee Sentinel from … [Read more...]

How to Find Purchased Land

I thought I would write a post on how to convert one of your ancestor's Land Records into an actual physical location. Right now, I only have the information on how to do this in Wisconsin with the resources that they have available. Other states may have these items available too. Your mileage may … [Read more...]