Vol. 21, No. 29 - April 13, 2016
What are Railroad Records? |
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Railroad records are an invaluable source of genealogical information. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the railroads provided employment for hundreds of thousands of people. People worked in every area of the railroads, from construction of tracks and trains, to train operation, to administrative jobs in the railroad offices. Any community that was located near railroad tracks usually had
large numbers of its population working for the railroad. The employment was steady, the pay was good, and there was room for promotion. A person could make an entire career out of working for the railroad, and even turn it into a family business by getting their children and grandchildren employed by it, and many did just that.
If you have ancestors who worked for the railroad (something you can
easily discover in later census records beginning in 1880, when type of employment is listed), you need to look at railroad records. They can tell you a lot of possibly previously unknown information about your railroad working ancestor and their family. The railroad records are personnel records, and they can be anywhere from scanty to quite detailed in the information the provide. With so many people in America’s past who worked for the railroads, it is amazing that more people do not use
these amazing and invaluable record sources to do their genealogy research. Railroad records really provide an intimate look into your ancestor’s working life, and give you an idea of what their actual life was like in a lot of ways. They are an excellent resource for bringing your ancestors to life on the page once more...
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Latest Genealogy Gold Podcast
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Identifying your family photographs starts with identifying what type they are. The type of photograph can reveal the era in which it was taken. In this episode of the Ancestral Findings Podcast… I’ll talk about when you know the era… it can be easier to ID the people.
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Genealogy Basics: Death Record Research Advice for Beginners |
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Using death records is a basic part of genealogy research. In fact, for many genealogists, it is the first type of record set they learn to use. This is because death records are readily available to the general public in most cases, and because they usually contain a wealth of important family history information. If you haven’t yet learned how to use death records in your genealogy research and don’t know what they can
offer you, here’s what you need to know to get started with them...
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This Week’s Free Genealogy Lookups |
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Click here to submit your Hard to Find Surname.
Making the Most of Your Telephoto Lenses |
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The first item a beginning photographer adds to their camera kit is quite often a long zoom lens. After all, one of the joys of photography is being able to zoom in on distant objects, especially things like wildlife or other subjects that you normally wouldn’t be able to approach.
Although, as
much as telephoto lenses are an amazing thing to add to your kit, they do present a few difficulties as you’re learning to use them. Plus they offer you several interesting techniques to make interesting images. Here are some of my favorite tips for using long zoom lenses effectively...
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