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Happy birthday, Homestead Act!
Signed into law 157 years ago today He was a Union soldier home on furlough, so the story goes. And he was determined not to lose his chance under a new law due to take effect on the first of January 1863. Due to report back to his unit in St. Louis, he prevailed on...
read moreGEDmatch reverses course
Law enforcement matching now opt-in only Informed consent is the essential underpinning of ethical DNA testing and results-sharing. All persons who test have the right to make their own individual choices about testing and about the uses to which their DNA results...
read moreFinding Margaret’s mother, part 2
The possible grandmother So The Legal Genealogist is off to put paid to one particular genealogical question this year: who was the mother of Margaret (Battles) Shew? Margaret is my 3rd great grandmother. My line comes down from Margaret's daughter Martha Louise, to...
read moreRest in peace, dear friend
Oh, to be in Delaware... There are times, like today, when The Legal Genealogist looks forward to a destination just like a little kid getting ready for a trip to Disney World. I've never been to the Wisconsin Historical Society, and today I will fix that with a tour...
read moreWithdrawing a recommendation
GEDmatch can no longer be trusted The Legal Genealogist's love for the third-party DNA tools site GEDmatch has always been clear. Just in the last year, I've written about its cool tool to create superkits[1. Judy G. Russell, “Superkit Sunday,” The Legal Genealogist,...
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