Church Records

Finnish Research Strategies and Records

I get my start in genealogy during a visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake in 1992. It was during a business trip and the colleague that I was traveling with said that he was visiting the Library in the evening. He agreed to take me along. While there, I did some checking

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Now Online: Meyer’s German Gazetteer

Meyer’s German Gazetteer, long an important tool for geographical research, is now online, indexed and fully searchable! That’s good news, but here is even more good news: While original book is in German, this interface is translated into English. If you are seeking a geographical place in the old German Empire (1871-1918), check out this

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Free Genealogy Class Series at the Brecksville Branch Library

If you are interested in learning how to do genealogy and you live in Brecksville or nearby, you might want to take advantage of this class series: Last summer, the Brecksville branch library asked Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society to present a series of genealogy classes. This March, Vice President/Program Chair Jane Gramlich will teach this 3-part

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Surnames in Finland

Today, I accessed the wiki page on FamilySearch.org labeled “Finland Surnames.” It was quite helpful as it very clearly explained the surname practices in Western Finland versus those in Eastern Finland. Eastern and western Finland have different naming traditions. Both naming customs date back to the earliest written sources. There was frequent overlap of these practices

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Search Cleveland Catholic Cemeteries with iPhone App

Yesterday (16 Dec 2016),  the Catholic Cemeteries Association, Diocese of Cleveland, introduced a FREE iPhone App for searching nearly 700,000 burials dating back to the mid-1800s in Catholic cemeteries throughout Northeast Ohio. Some other features: Save loved ones and cemetery info to your profile for easy access later. Use GPS navigation to your loved one’s

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Researching Catholic Records in Greater Cleveland

I sometimes fall behind in reading material about genealogical research in Northeast Ohio. A case in point: The October 2016 issue of Lakelines, published by the Lake County Genealogical Society, a chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. On page 11, the issue presented the following brief article entitled “Archives of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese”: The

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