podcast Podcast Episode 68: How to Get Free Vital Records in Pennsylvania Genealogists don't need to order certified copies or pay monthly subscription fees to get the records they want. Here are three ways to get birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage licenses for free. Watch and Subscribe to PA Ancestors on YouTube Listen to this Your Pennsylvania Ancestors Podcast Episode Your
podcast Podcast Episode 67: 3 Key PA Vital Records and Where to Find Them There are three vital records family historians need for each ancestor. What are they and where do you find them? Free access to public Pennsylvania birth and death certificates for PA residents PA Department of Health to order non-public vital records 9/11 hijackers used fake identification Ancestry. com and
resources 40 Questions to Preserve Your Family History It’s the beginning of the holiday season and time to get together with family. Here are 40 questions you can ask parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to collect your family history.
resources Ditch Your Car and Rediscover How Your Ancestors Traveled Most genealogy research involves trying to find people as they moved from one place to another. Rarely are researchers lucky enough to have a family who lived on one property for several generations. Knowing how people traveled from one location to another is central to doing genealogy right.
resources Misinformation on FindaGrave Can Ruin Your Family History Genealogy websites have been flooded with misinformation over the years. What started off as a small problem a decade ago is now a huge one. Anyone with an account can add any information they want to the profiles and family trees they create. This misinformation problem is most evident on FindaGra
resources Three Tips for Preparing for a Cemetery Trip I love visiting the cemeteries where my ancestors are buried. If you are planning a cemetery visit over the holidays, here are my three tips to get the most out of the visit:
resources Why You Can’t Find Your Ancestors’ Obituaries Newspaper obituaries are an essential part of all compiled family histories. Yet there are many researchers who can not find any mention of their ancestors’ deaths in newspapers. Why is that? It’s because they aren’t searching in all the available Pennsylvania newspapers.
resources Odd Pennsylvania Events Your Ancestor Could Have Been In Many people complain their family history is boring. One way to liven it up is including the odd events that happened in the location or occupations of your ancestors. There are hundreds of tales and here are two really odd ones.
Why Sharing Family History is Important Right Now It's only when I share family history that I understand why I spend so much time doing family history.
resources What is the Point of Collecting All This Family History Anyway? The internet is a hall of mirrors for almost any topic. In genealogy, we all experience this with family trees on the big genealogy sites. Names and dates connected together with no evidence of how that connection was made.
resources Pennsylvania's Ship Building History Most people don't think of Pennsylvania as being a center of ship building. Philadelphia and Erie were known as ship building centers of the United States. The United States Navy built vessels in both Pennsylvania cities from the country's early days.
resources The 3 "Must Do" Archives in Pennsylvania for Family Historians October is Archives Month and to kick it off, I'm highlighting the three archives in Pennsylvania that every family historian should visit. Each one has records for genealogy research that you just won't find anywhere else.
resources All About Pennsylvania German Fraktur The word fraktur usually refers to a type of German script. In Pennsylvania, fraktur also refers to a type of folk art produced between 1740 and 1850 by German immigrants. It marked life events such as taufschein (birth and baptism), marriage, and graduation from school.
resources October is American Archives Month October is special to genealogists and family historians for one reason - a celebration of archives and their collections!
resources Little Known Facts About Women's Surnames After Marriage It's possible that the women in your family tree kept their maiden surname in some way after marriage. Traditions brought to America from home countries were not abandoned at the border. Some awareness of our ancestors' practices can help genealogists stay on track with research.
resources Why I’m Doubling Down on PA Ancestors and What's Next I believe PA Ancestors can help you make real progress in finishing your family history through regular posts, YouTube videos, and your continued feedback.
podcast Featured All About the Your Pennsylvania Ancestors Podcast The Your Pennsylvania Ancestors podcast is for both beginning and experienced family historians looking to learn more about PA genealogy and history.
Featured What PA Ancestors is All About There are thousands of people doing family history research in Pennsylvania every day. About 1 in 5 Americans can trace at least one ancestor to the state. DNA testing can identify 14 distinct Pennsylvanian genetic communities.
resources The Best Way to Get Started in Pennsylvania Genealogy Research These three resources helped me the most when I started with genealogy research in Pennsylvania.
resources The Two Pennsylvania Archives Nothing was more confusing to me when I started in-depth genealogy research. In short, Pennsylvania has two things called Pennsylvania Archives. Fellow genealogists would refer to the “Pennsylvania Archives”, and sometimes they meant the building, and sometimes the books. If you are researching family history in Pennsylvania, you’ll want
podcast Podcast Episode 66: Getting Started in Pennsylvania Genealogy Research New to genealogy research in Pennsylvania? Here's three way to get started the right way on your family history.
vital records Birth Certificates Issued by PA Pennsylvania birth certificates are publicly available to genealogists through Ancestry.com. Here's how to get them.
vital records Death Certificates Issued by PA Pennsylvania death certificates begin in 1906 and are publicly available for free. Genealogists will want to get these first when researching family history in PA.
podcast Podcast Episode 65: Irish Presbyterians of Western Pennsylvania with Author Peter Gilmore The book Irish Presbyterians and the Shaping of Western Pennsylvania, 1770–1830 by Peter Gilmore brings early Scots Irish residents of PA. The Ulster Irish who came to America had unique beliefs and traditions. Learn about them in this episode.
podcast Podcast Episode 64: Researching in Presbyterian Church Records Researching our ancestors’ religion can deepen our understanding of their lives. I’m thrilled to feature the Presbyterian Historical Society in this episode. Get tips on researching in their original congregational records.
