Early 20th-century newspapers often reported deaths with striking detail. For example, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described William Wolfgang Hacker’s workplace accident as being “struck in the abdomen by a board that flew out of a rip saw he was operating.”

This 19th-century baptismal record of Julius Henry Vollmer notes him as “the illegitimate son of Henrietta Vollmer (nee Hensing),” a practice then used to shame unwed mothers by documenting their “sin” in church records.

A 20th-century marriage may appear in church records but not civil ones due to filing oversights. In Thomas Florence and Catherine Prelli's case, Rev. Peter Engel never returned their marriage license, likely to avoid late fees, showing the value of checking multiple sources in genealogy.

Discover the power of genealogical translation with Backlog. Our experienced genealogists provide complete translations of key records, including a transcription of the original text, a listing of personal and place names, and explanatory footnotes. See how we approached the French baptism record of Nicolas Marchal in St. Louis, Missouri. From the title citing the collection to the verbatim translation preserving original punctuation, our method captures the essence of the original record

From its inception in the mid-1500s until 1941, Fraktur was the most common typeface used in Germany.

Knowledge management is an established yet evolving field, and the tools certainly reflect that range of maturity and complexity.

There are many ways you can connect to your heritage as you continue to trace it. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

At first glance, St. Louis might seem like an odd place to find national archives for religious congregations. But dig a little deeper, and it’s not as surprising.