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Why My Genealogy Research Breakthrough Hasn’t Happened Yet
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This week’s #52Ancestors theme is “A Breakthrough Moment,” but here’s my confession: I haven’t had a major genealogy research breakthrough in months. Despite attending genealogy conferences last year, enrolling in multiple courses, and maintaining a weekly genealogy blog, I’m starting to understand why those breakthroughs aren’t happening. Somewhere along the…
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The World Around Them: My 2x Great Grandparents from Litmanova
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Between 1883 and 1900, the world around Constantinus Hurkala and Anastasia Hlinka transformed completely. Born in Litmanova, Slovakia in 1860, they knew only mountain meadows, subsistence farming, and the brutal reality of rural poverty under Hungarian nobility. Each July, families migrated to mountain chalets to prepare hay—the difference between survival…
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Ellen McAuliffe’s Irish Family Lost in Time — and Rediscovered?
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My great-great-grandmother Ellen McAuliffe lived a brief but consequential life. Born around 1844, probably in Ireland, she arrived in New York in 1857 and died in Brooklyn in 1875 at just 33 years old. Her death record provides no information about her parents, leaving a gap in our family history…
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When Survival Required Remarriage: Anastasia Bosak’s Difficult Choice
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In 1874, Anastasia Bosak faced an impossible choice in Austrian Galicia: remarry quickly or face destitution. Her first husband Stephanus Dubnianski had died, leaving her with young Jacobus in one of Europe’s poorest provinces. For researchers tracing genealogy Austrian Galicia, understanding these constrained choices reveals the survival strategies our ancestors…
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When Genealogy Stops Being Solitary: The Ellen McAuliffe Story
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This post explores genealogical collaboration between the author in Cincinnati and a DNA cousin in Brisbane, Australia. Together, they’re researching whether Ellen McAuliffe (Brooklyn, 1857) and Margaret McAuliffe (Australia, 1845) were sisters, both daughters of Florence McAuliffe and Ellen Healey from Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. Using DNA matches across multiple…
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StoryTeller Tuesday Challenge: An Ordinary Day in the Plunkett Household
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At 418 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn’s Red Hook waterfront neighborhood, an ordinary day for the Plunkett household began with the sounds of dock work in January 1875. Peter operated as a middleman in the rag trade while Julia managed eight children at home. Every family member played a role…
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Beyond the Barbed Wire: What Stephen Marcisak’s POW Journal Reveals About Survival
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On April 29, 1945, Lieutenant Stephen Marcisak watched a Sherman tank roll through the gates of Stalag VII-A and wrote in his POW journal: “ALLIES TAKE OVER – FREE.” That journal (actually two versions documenting his 435 days as a prisoner of war) reveals what official military records never could.…
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Declaring My Bold Genealogy Goals 2026: Accountability Starts Now
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After a successful first year as a genealogy blogger—including selection for Robin Stewart’s GenStack Anthology—I’m declaring my bold genealogy goals for 2026 with public accountability. This year focuses on certification preparation through National Genealogical Society courses in old handwriting and transcription skills, preparing me for the Advanced Skills in Genealogy…
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Beautiful autumn landscape in Litmanova, Slovakia. ID 78946638 © Sitriel | Dreamstime.com
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