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The latest press release (see below) from Ancestry.com describes how staff research connects our first African-American president to the first African slave in the American Colonies. The connection is on his white mother’s side. PROVO, UTAH – July 30, 2012 – A research team from Ancestry.com (NASDAQ:ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, has

I’ve just learned that the latest detective novel by James Thompson is now available. It is named Helsinki White and features Inspector Kari Vaara. The new book is the third by Thompson with Vaara as the main character. James Thompson, eastern Kentucky born and raised, has lived in Finland for over a dozen years and

In doing genealogical research, I often encounter documents or phrases in foreign languages that I would like to translate into English. Over the years, there have been websites that perform translations for you online. In most cases these have been free, at least for single words and phrases. Some websites offered to translate longer passages

In doing some research for a client, I learned about the tragic story of Centralia, in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. I was pointed to this town by a passenger manifest reporting that a Polish immigrant (my client’s ancestor) was coming to America in 1910 to meet his uncle, who lived in Centralia. At the time, Centralia

Ancestry.com recently announced that it had expanded its U.S. School Yearbooks Collection. I tried it out and found my cousin, Milton Siekkinen, and his wife-to-be, Mary Jeanette Scovill, in The Dart, the 1939 Ashtabula High School yearbook. Milton was listed as a participant in Glee Club and Mixed Chorus. Mary Jeannette’s activities included Band (she

For a couple years now, I have been publishing a blog called NEOhio Genealogy Blog. It has provided me with a platform for commenting on genealogical resources, events, and news in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 12 counties in Northeastern Ohio (aka the Western Reserve). Now I think I have the hang of blogging, so I