
Most people know GPS as “global positioning system,” the device in their phone/car that gets them where they’re going. Today I’m going to write about the acronym as it applies to genealogy: it stands for Genealogical Proof Standard. While it will get you where you’re going if you follow it —much like your car’s GPS…
I’ve organized this post so that it goes from the very basics to things that require more advanced skills. Once you’ve mastered the earlier stuff you should be ready to move onto the more difficult stuff. Try Lost Cousins’ Masterclass. While you’re there, if you have ancestors on the 1880 UK, Canadian or American census,…
I was fortunate enough to know my great-grandma, who was born on this day 118 years ago today. We spent lots of time with her as children until she moved to the other side of the country, and even then she came back to visit and we vacationed there a few times. I even got…
Have you seen the Disney movie Coco? I learned a lot about the traditions of the Día de Muertos such as the ofrenda. I love the ritual involved in remembering and honouring ancestors. I think this is especially important when the ancestor in question has no direct descendants to remember them, like my third great uncle, George…
I was really proud of my post How to Order Records from the GRO (1) until it was pointed out to me that GRO records aren’t original records, they are copies of the original records. The copies were made at the end of each quarter, so they date back to almost the time the original…

A lot of people ask in the Genealogy Squad Facebook Group (1) about genealogy education (usually with a goal of becoming a professional genealogist). Since this is something I’ve looked at, I thought it would be helpful to write a blog post detailing various educational opportunities and how I’m planning on working my way towards…
When I was ordering my great-grandad’s birth record from the GRO, I noticed that it was almost his birthday! He was born 116 years ago on this day, in a place called Newton-In-Makerfield, now known as Newton-Le-Willows, at 11 Liverpool Row (1). This street was part of a housing project for the Vulcan Foundry (there’s…
If you’ve seen my book review on Organize your Genealogy, you’ll know that my intentions are to collect all my documents in Google Drive and create links to them in OneNote. Well, I’m pleased to say I have begun that process and I will write more about it in another post. One of the benefits…
In my post DNA in a Nutshell I mentioned that centimorgans (cM) are a unit of measurement used to measure the amount of DNA you have. The more centimorgans you share with someone, the closer you are related to them. For example, you share around 3500cM with your parents, but only around 880cM with your great-grandparents.…
This post is not intended to be comprehensive, but as a starting point for people just getting into genealogy. If you want a more comprehensive list of abbreviations and terms, I highly recommend checking out this page on Rootsweb for genealogy terms and this page on DNA Geek for genetic genealogy terms. 1C1R – first…