In May 1863 in a small town in Scotland, Robert Henderson said goodbye to his father James and left for America. Robert’s mother Christian Dalziel had passed away about a year earlier. It’s unlikely that Robert ever saw his father again since James died a few years later, in March 1867. Locating James and Christian’s…

Inspired by our “How I Solved It” guest bloggers, I’ve decided to dust off some old research logs and take a second look at some old problems. First up: my Merrill connection. During my trip to North Carolina for an NGS conference in Raleigh a few years ago, I did quite a bit of personal on-site wandering….

I take a particular joy in traveling to my ancestral homes to stand where my people once stood and see the earth from their perspective. Along with cemeteries, local libraries are on the top of my list of places I *must* stop while traveling because even though I live near the largest genealogical library in…

My grandmother was just four years old when her mother died. Grief-stricken and probably keenly aware of his own mortality, my great-grandfather sat down and wrote “Geniology [sic] of Hills as known by Dr. T.C. Hill written for benefit of Anna Helen Hill.” “Your Great Grandmother Hill [sic] name was Jane Sartor Hill,” T.C. says,…