The advent of numbers
Social Security numbers, that is… Reader Lori Jansen was looking for a little more background on the advent of numbers. Social Security numbers, to be precise, in the hopes that she might find some information about some of her family members. The question came...Ordering the SS-5: 2018 style
Ordering applications from the SSA NOTE: This post is outdated. Please head over to Ordering the SS-5: 2020 style. The issue came up again yesterday, at a talk with the Main Line Genealogy Club in Berwyn, Pennsylvania: just how can we get our hands on the form that...Why that adoption can’t be found
… at least not in that place After yesterday’s blog post about guardianships in early 20th century Maryland, reader John Roose said one line in that post explained a point for his research. The line: “Remember: the notion of formal adoption under the law...The rules of guardianship
20th century Maryland style Reader Katie Garner is facing a very typical issue for genealogical research: the issue of guardianship for the child of a person who has died. Her specific question is how to find out when a guardianship was required, and how long —...Hats off to another amendment
It was the 13th Amendment It really wasn’t the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the enslaved. Really. The Legal Genealogist doesn’t want to take anything away from the majesty of that document or the man –President Abraham Lincoln — who...Once again, thank you, Utah!
Eight-five years ago today This day is so wonderful to The Legal Genealogist that a blog post recognizing it should be automagically scheduled to run every year on the fifth of December without fail. As it is, this is the fourth time I’ve taken the time —...Where is that place?
Here’s one way to find it… A genealogist across the country needed to know the physical proximity of two New Jersey cemeteries to try to understand how a burial in one cemetery got reported by a Find A Grave contributor as having been in the other —...It’s a fine mess
Or a post-fine mess… It’s truly a fine mess that reader Perry Streeter landed The Legal Genealogist in with a question that hit the blog this week. In an abstract at the National Archives of the United Kingdom, he came across a reference to a transaction...Seventeen of the best
The blogs of America’s treasure Periodically, The Legal Genealogist disappears down a research rabbit hole. Almost every time, that includes looking at one or more of the treasures held and served up to us by what my friend and colleague Pamela Boyer Sayre calls...Subscribe by Email
