Ancestral Discovery
Planting and growing your family tree
Mark FearerJun 25, 2020
In my last (and first) column, I focused on why to start your family history. Today we’ll look at how. Of course, any tree starts from a seed, and we’ll germinate...
Why you need your ancestors
Mark FearerMay 21, 2020
After an 11-year hiatus, I’m restarting this genealogy column in the IJN, because the interest in finding and acknowledging our ancestors has grown even more. I would...
Stealing our ancestors?
Mark FearerMar 05, 2009
Recently, I was told by my credit union that there had been a security breach for cardholders, and they were issuing new cards to prevent any further problems. This kind...
The bureaucracy of death, part 2
Mark FearerJan 29, 2009
Last column, I focused on death certificates, obituaries and Social Security application records. But death leaves many other records behind. And just to be clear, Im...
Death and bureaucracy, Part 1
Mark FearerJan 15, 2009
As we have been told all our lives, death and taxes are inevitable, and fortunately for family historians, both result in a number of records being generated. Documents...
Let technology help you with genealogy
Mark FearerDec 04, 2008
Since my last column focused on organizing your paper genealogy, well focus this time on using your computer to organize all those genealogy material. While many...
Organizing the forest
Mark FearerNov 06, 2008
As astute readers may have noticed, almost all genealogical topics fall into one of two categories: methodology or resources. Since both are critical for creating...
Census records keys to family history
Mark FearerOct 17, 2008
In my last column, I talked about the importance of vital records. But the starting point for most family historians in authenticating family information is the US...
Vital records really are vital
Mark FearerSep 18, 2008
As I have mentioned before, accuracy is critical in genealogy. There are many genealogies-family histories, both in books and online, that have flaws (minor and major...
Our ancestral names
Mark FearerAug 21, 2008
A common stumbling block for genealogists is names and as you might imagine, Jewish names can be quite challenging. Given Names A quick primer for given (first)...
