Genealogy Research Tips, Topics, and Tutorials
Once a teacher, always a teacher
My goal with this page is two-fold: one, to share my journey of discovering my roots in Italy and Poland and those of my husband in Italy and Belgium, and two, to help you help yourself research, explore, and learn about genealogy in general and your precious ancestors specifically. It's a great feeling when you find for yourself the ancestor you have been wondering about.
Please feel free to ask questions. I probably won't give you the answer but I hope to give you the tools to answer it yourself. As I said, once a teacher....
Where it all began for me
History has always been a favorite subject of mine. Learning a few stories about my ancestors started me on a quest to learn more so twenty years ago I poked around and found my grandfather's ship manifest. It was a slow and largely unproductive process, mostly because in those days not that much was online and because work did not permit me to spend much time on it. At that time, Dad was alive and he knew a lot about not only our family but the Italians who lived in our neighborhood, many from the same town as my grandparents. There were also stories he was hesitant to tell so when retirement provided me the time to dig in, I did. Sadly, Dad had passed by then and the stories were gone. I would have to do much research to piece together the family story. And I did. And I learned. And I actually got pretty good at it. I joined some Facebook groups, helped people with translations, and offered my assistance. Over time it seemed I was saying a lot of the same things over and over as new people joined with many of the same beginning questions I had so it seemed there must be a better way to share my experience, research tips, thought process, and a family story or two.
You can do this!
In most cases, you don't need to pay a researcher to do this for you. You can do it yourself! Yes, I had studied Italian, so that was an advantage, but it didn't help me read the old (scribbly, faded, cramped) handwriting. Nor did it help when I set out to research my husband's Belgian/Dutch ancestors or my mother's Polish heritage. The tips and suggestions I offer here come from experience and from things I learned from other researchers who were generous with their time and expertise. I only hope to pay it forward.
Most of the information on this site is about Italian Genealogy. It's what I know best, but I have also done extensive research into my Polish family and am currently looking deeper into my husband's Belgian roots. Much of what is on this site applies to all three but if you have a specific question about Polish genealogy from the Podlaskie region, Łomża in particular, or Belgian genealogy from East Flanders, please reach out.
"Because you remember, you will be remembered."
