Greetings Fellow Family History Sleuths,

Happy 2022! I hope your January finds you making lots of plans for upcoming family history adventures. In the meantime, I've got my usual potpourri of genealogical tales to distract you - censuses (1921 in UK and 1950 in US), military heroes, orphan heirloom reunions, Betty White's roots (😔), DNA, and the wildest obituary you've ever read (😆).

Until next time,

Down Under: The Miltons

George G Morgan of The Genealogy Guys reached out to me recently to see if I could share a video he and Drew Smith did with me (as part of RootsTelevision for those of you who remember). Last year, I did a lot of physical and digital decluttering, so could actually get my hands on it! It was in Flash, so had to be converted. That means it's not as crisp as I'd like, but it's a touching, bittersweet story about a pair of tombstones in Tampa. I hope you'll consider watching. 🙏

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Genealogy Roundup, January 12

Photo Credit: Beverly & Pack under Creative Commons license

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Heffernan, J.) – Welcome home, 1st. Lt. John Joseph Heffernan. Honored to have researched your family.

Help us identify members of Congress who enslaved people – For genealogists looking for a worthy project to contribute their time and talent to

My worlds are colliding today. Here are some of POTUS Joe Biden's English cousins in the 1921 Census. And here's roughly where their house once stood: 81 Stansted Rd, Southsea, Portsmouth (about where the arrow is). Incidentally, much of his family emigrated over time to the US and Canada, but there are some still living in the UK. I found a few, but they prefer to remain beneath the radar. But for those wondering, yes, he has English cousins through his Biden line.

Man Horrified After Genealogy Test Confirms He Has No Past – Clearly, he's a Rusyn since we're the people from nowhere. 😆🧬

Meet the Woman Preserving 125 Years of Black History in Baltimore – Hope she gets it digitized ASAP!

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Genealogy Roundup, January 5

For those on Twitter, I wrote a thread on Annie Moore who arrived at Ellis Island 130 years ago on January 1, 1892.

US war veteran reunited with bracelet lost in Czechoslovakia in 1945 – another cool orphan heirloom rescue

How DNA is preserved in archaeological sediments for thousands of years – 😮

The Roots Recipe for Betty White – Gone to rejoin the ancestors who were kind enough to conspire to share her with us for almost a century. 😔

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Genealogy Roundup, December 22

1950 Census Release Will Offer Enhanced Digital Access, Public Collaboration Opportunity – Countdown to the 1950, and it sounds as if NARA is doing a terrific job in the prep!

RIP Renay Mandel Corren – You haven’t read an obituary until you’ve read this one.

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