Religion: Quakers
Known as Friends or Quakers, the movement rejected priests, rituals, and upheld spiritual equality, allowing women to participate equally in worship. As pacifists, Quakers opposed war and war taxes, refused to bow to nobility, and declined to take oaths, leading to perceptions of disloyalty to the British Crown. Despite heavy persecution, including banned meetings and mass imprisonments, the movement continued to grow and spread.
American Migration Routes
Despite often being no wider than eighteen inches due to the Indian practice of single-file travel, these trails served as highways for traders, migrating tribes, settlers, diplomatic missions, and messengers. They followed the path of least resistance, crossing the lowest points in mountainous terrain. In winter, routes were adapted for ice-bound rivers or streams, or for snowshoe travel, reflecting the adaptability and practicality of Native American travel patterns.
Wagon Road: Zane’s Trace
Zane's Trace was one of the first frontier roads in the United States, built under the supervision of Colonel Ebenezer Zane in the late 1700s. This road played a vital role in facilitating westward expansion and migration.
Mastering research: U.S. Census Records
Since 1790, the United States has conducted a Federal Population Census every ten years. Access to census data is restricted for 72 years after collection, so information from recent censuses isn't available beyond 1950. Researchers often start with the 1950 Census and trace back through earlier generations.
Juneteenth: Uncovering Heritage
Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery, enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation which had been issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had declared all enslaved people in Confederate states free, it wasn't until Granger's announcement that the emancipation was fully enforced in Texas, one of the last holdouts of slavery.
New church court records now available on ScotlandsPeople
The ScotlandsPeople website has added nearly 4,000 new volumes of Church of Scotland records, totaling approximately 290,000 digital images.
PSA: Thank your librarians & archivists, please!!!
Very few people in the world, I imagine, have ever said "I don't know what I want to do with my life. I guess I'll be a librarian". The people who work in libraries love books. Like, a lot! They have deep relationships with the stories of the first book that ever blew their mind
Sharing the "bad" stories in your family tree.
As we keep going down the rabbit hole, more clues pop up to pique our interest. What many of us find, however, is that there are a lot of unpleasant stories. So, what do you do about sharing them?
Record Inconsistencies
Go back in time and picture the environment of boarding or disembarking a passenger ship in the 19th century. Make a movie in your mind. Leaving one's own native country was not...
The Homestead Act of 1862
"to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial burdens from all shoulders and to give everyone an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life." - Abraham Lincoln
