Where Did My Immigrant Ancestor Come From?

Locating where your immigrant ancestor came from is always a challenge. Here is one way I solved the problem. In From Tursi to Niles – The Fusco Family – I had a death certificate that said Leonardo Fusco was born on 22 September 1884 in Messina, Italy the son of Frank Fusco and Rosaline Anzollati. […]

From Tursi to Niles – The Fusco Family

My husband asked me to research his best friend’s genealogy. Giovanni Andrea Fusco was a blacksmith in Tursi, Italy, and decided to immigrate to the iron-working town of Niles, Ohio. He was followed by two of his brothers and a cousin, and as was typical of the Italian immigrants, the families stayed close together and […]

Florence Maria Mansur aka Nellie F. Whittemore

It appears a struggling family gave away their daughter somewhere between 1865 and 1870.

Dangers of DNA in Genealogy

Photo CCO Public Domain I had a client who felt I was an idiot and not qualified to be a genealogist because the records I found did not agree with her DNA results. What she meant was my findings did not agree with how she thought she fit into the Ancestry trees of her DNA […]

Free Research Consultations at FamilySearch

As they are expecting more requests than normal during RootsTech (February 28 through March 1, 2024), FamilySearch is recruiting volunteer consultants. I’ve signed up for the late-night shift. If you’re one of those researchers who sits down and gets into the groove late at night, I’ll have slots available from about midnight to 2 a.m. […]

How I Got Started With My Italian Research

As you can see from Vincenzo Chiariello’s Declaration of Intention, he was born in Naples, Italy. Except he wasn’t. The hardest part of researching our Italian ancestors is finding where they came from. The second part is finding the records. In this case, I was fortunate since researching in Naples is exceptionally difficult and I […]

Localities

My family history for the most part was just a bunch of names and dates. I knew nothing about these people but as I watched Genealogy Road Show, I loved how they told the story of the area and time which brought the ancestors to life. So I was hunting for a photo of the […]

Hobart Spencer Jr. Was Most Likely the Husband of Betsey Hazen

Pioneer Cabin, Campton Station, Grafton, New Hampshire built around 1775. Twenty-four photos, including photos of the interior, are available for viewing at the Library of Congress website. A family history written in 1963 asserted that Hobart Spencer was married three times, and the third wife was Betsey Hazen. But with today’s access to digitalized documents, […]

The Descendants of Michael Kane and Mary Phillips of Ireland

Thank you to Maryann Zelenak for saving part one of the kinship project from disaster. I thought there were two Michael Kanes married to Mary Phillipses in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Maryann provided me with the evidence that they were the same people. See my report at Substack by clicking on the button.

Who Were the Children of George Bentley Sr. of Greenfield, New York?

I used DNA to locate possible descendants of George Bentley Sr. of Greenfield, New York and then I followed the paper trail to verify the connection. See my report at Substack by clicking on the button.

Florence Maria Mansur aka Nellie F. Whittemore

It appears a struggling family gave away their daughter somewhere between 1865 and 1870.

The Story of Florence Maria Mansur