When I first started my family tree, I didn’t worry about my French lines because my Aunt had been working on those for years. I thought the Irish and British would be a piece of cake. I feared the Portuguese because I didn’t know the language. My perceptions turned out to be all wrong (except…
Figuring out when John Dolan Died
In my last post about my Dolan research I wrote about how my Dolan’s were getting all tangled up with the Kelly surname. I’ve been following the family of John Dolan and Bridget Kelly who lived in San Mateo, California according to the 1880 census. Bridget (Kelly) Dolan’s obituary told me that she was a…
Getting to Know Me, Getting to Know the Research Journal
I’ve been on the web helping genealogist for several years, first on AOL, then with GenealogyForum.org. In September of 2001, I began the Portuguese Hawaiian Genealogy and Heritage website, islandroutes.com. In January of this year, I revised the Research Journal blog to cover my various areas of research expertise. My goal is to teach people…
Newspapers Tell Me A Little Bit about the Five Mile House
If you have ancestors who lived where a major calamity struck, you know that the amount of resources available to you are limited. Such is the case of my San Francisco relatives who had the audacity to show up San Franciscan shores in the 1850s. Those that didn’t survive beyond the 1906 earthquake and fire…
How to Waste a Whole Evening
I set out Saturday night in search of my unknown Dolan clan. As is always the case, I started down one path and ended up somewhere completely different. I was on the sfgenealogy.com website looking for useful resources. I came across the findagrave.com website. I thought “What the heck” and gave it a go. I…