Articles by Juliana Smith
Finding Moms and Grandmoms in the Family Tree
Sometimes it gets tricky chasing moms and great-grandmas through the family tree, particularly if Great-Grandma is hiding squarely behind a married name. Don’t give up. When you’re faced with the tough task of tracing an elusive female back through history, it pays to be persistent. You’ll find plenty of rewards by tracing female family lines.… Read more
Discovering True Love
There’s a story behind that marriage date. But unless the tale has been passed down through family lore or you’re the proud owner of a collection of torrid love letters, you’re never going to get it, right? Don’t give up so easily. Turns out that story of true love could be hiding in a yearbook… Read more
Ancestry.com Adds 1940 Census Indexes for 15 States
Last night Ancestry.com released its largest batch of indexes to the 1940 census yet. The addition of fifteen new states puts the Ancestry.com index at 55% complete. Indexes are now available for these twenty-six states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire,… Read more
Andy Griffith’s Legacy
My heart fell this morning when I heard the news that the beloved actor, Andy Griffith, had passed. Through the cold Chicago winters, and hot summers as well, my sisters and I would park in front of the TV when the The Andy Griffith Show would come on. Decades later, I remember telling my daughter… Read more
1940 Census Indexes for Six More States—CO, OH, PA, TN, VT, and VA
This week Ancestry.com launched 1940 census indexes for six more states—Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Who are you looking for and what stories will you discover? Here are some well-known names that we’ve run across. Tina Turner While the unincorporated town of Nutbush doesn’t really have “city limits” as the name of the… Read more
Three Days, Three Free Classes
I hope you’ll join me and several of my Ancestry.com colleagues for three days of free online classes. Ancestry.com Searches: A Behind the Scenes Look, presented by John Bacus Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 8 PM ET Learn how search at Ancestry.com works AND get an inside view of tricks you’ll need to take full advantage… Read more
Last Night on Who Do You Think You Are? Discovering Our Ancestors’ Motivations
The best part of last night’s Who Do You Think You Are? When Reba McEntire told herself not to get angry until she gathered more facts about her 7th-great-grandfather, the one who sent his child to the New World as an indentured servant. It may not have been the immigrant-ancestor story Reba had originally imagined… Read more
Where There’s a Wall, There’s a Way
Just when I think Who Do You Think You Are? can’t get any better, they blow me away with last night’s episode. The show, sponsored by Ancestry.com, had so many fantastic twists and turns it was almost breathtaking. When they hit a wall, they turned to alternatives like DNA testing to discover distant relatives and… Read more
Mysteries and Other Good Stories in the Family Tree
Marissa Tomei’s journey into the past on last night’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (Fridays 8/7c on NBC) centered on the untimely death of her great-grandfather. At the start, he was little more than a name in the family tree and the subject of speculation—of the shadiest type. But his reputation got… Read more
Twists of fate in the family tree on Who Do You Think You Are?
When you start down a road in your family’s history, you never know whose paths may have crossed in the past. Actor Martin Sheen found that out on the first episode of this season of Who Do You Think You Are?. In a mind-bending twist of fate, he learned that a great-great-great-great-grandfather on his grandmother’s… Read more
Here you will find informational, and sometimes fun, posts from the folks behind the scenes here at Ancestry.com. We hope you’ll notice just how passionate we are about family history and about the products we’re building to help connect families over distance and time.
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