Genealogists know that even though each family’s history is unique, reading or hearing stories of how other people found family history information that they were looking for can give you new clues or helpful hints for your own research. One place where you can go to read about how other people found information about their ancestors is Ancestry.com. More specifically, there is a section of the Ancestry.com blog called “Ask Ancestry Anne”.
Not only are the stories in the “Ask Ancestry Anne” column fun to read, they really showcase the immense variety of types of records that genealogists can use to find information about their ancestors. Since the stories come from people researching in specific geographic areas, not every story will have advice that is relevant to your search. Of course, when you read through a story, even if the person is looking for records in a different state or country, you may have a “lightbulb moment” regarding similar record sources in an area where you are looking for information.
Genealogists know that reading stories about genealogy research can be fun. “Ask Ancestry Anne” is an easy to access and fun to read collection of research stories that are great for those times when you want to read something quick yet informative. Recent stories include searching for Civil War prison records for Andersonville, Georgia and a little known fact about how in Charleston, South Carolina, the location of your ancestor’s grave in a cemetery can give you information about where he or she was born.
Of course, any time I talk about a commercial web site or product, I must mention that Ancestry.com has not compensated me in any way for mentioning their web site here. I simply find their “Sticky Notes” blog to be a varied and fun to read source of genealogy information. The “Ask Ancestry Anne” column is part of that blog, and I really enjoy reading it. If you have a genealogy question, you can even submit it to Ancestry Anne and she may be able to help you find the information that you are looking for.
Photo by gracey on morguefile.com.