Digging History

Historically, wartime has inspired renewed patriotism. It also inspired "unique" baby names . . .

What’s In a Name: Wartime Baby Names American humorist Evan Esar once said, “a signature always reveals a man’s character – and sometimes even his name”. In the case of those highlighted in this article, their names more likely spoke…

The latest blog post . . .

Pedigree Collapse: Are We All Cousins? Have you ever thought about how many ancestors one person could possibly have? Mathematically speaking, taking one’s family tree out thirty generations would result in about a BILLION ancesto…

The latest issue of Digging History is out, featuring the "Hawkeye State" of Iowa. Lots of fascinating history, plus tips for finding the best historical and genealogical records.

March-April 2026 Iowa, Iowa history, Hawkeye State, effigy mounds, Ioway, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Iowa Territory, Black Hawk, The Honey War, Mormon migration, Mormon winter quarters, Mormon handcarts, Amana colonies, Spirit Lake Massacre, Iowa in the Civil War, Vida Moreland Wade, Iowa disasters

This week's blog article is a bit of local (Lubbock) history . . . .

History Twisters: (Naming Our Fair City: Lubbock . . . . or Willis?) I wrote this article several years ago as newsletter editor of the South Plains Genealogical Society (SPGS), and presented it as a “theory”. We simply don’t know for sure, as you will see. By the w…

If you think you have your family history all figured out, think again if you happened to use these fraudsters' "research", unaware of where it came from . . . .

Don’t Be Duped: The King of Genealogical Fraud Being Aware of Past Incidences of Genealogical Fraud Not intending to throw a “monkey wrench” into anyone’s long and relentless pursuit of family history, but I draw attention to another impo…