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A Quick Look at My Ancestors Who Chose the Urban Chaos of NYC and Brooklyn
When it comes to urban, you don’t get much more urban than New York City and Brooklyn. My ancestors chose to live stacked on top of each other…
4 min read
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The 1973 NPRC Fire – When Flames Destroyed Military History
On July 12, 1973, flames tore through the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, destroying 16 to 18 million military personnel files in a four-day inferno. No…
4 min read
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Diving Into the Names That Built Our Family Tree
My family tree reads like a passenger manifest from Ellis Island’s busiest years. The Marcisak and Hurkala families fled Slovakia’s mountain villages for Pennsylvania coal towns. The Dubnianski…
4 min read
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Unlocking Family Histories: The Power of Cemetery Research
Cemeteries hold a special place in every genealogist’s heart, preserving not just our ancestors’ remains but their stories carved in stone. From Brooklyn’s Holy Cross Cemetery to Queens’…
4 min read
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Finding the Lost Daughter: The Search for Letitia Plunkett
Every genealogist has that one ancestor who simply vanishes from the records. For me, it was Letitia B. Plunkett—my great-great-grandfather’s youngest daughter. I had census records showing her…
4 min read
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Advanced City Directory Research: Professional Genealogy Methods
City directories are one of the most powerful yet overlooked genealogical tools. Unlike census records, they provide yearly snapshots that capture where ancestors lived, how they worked, and…
4 min read
