Surname Meanings One of the first things that spark an interest in many of my clients is the meaning of their surname.  What exactly does their surname mean?  Some surnames have obvious meanings, and some do not.  No Genealogy website would be complete without a list of surname definitions. This page will be updated on a [...] Read More

Why Hire a Genealogist? Everybody has the responsibility to recognize and honor the actions and the sacrifices of their ancestors.  It is easy to know that your grandfather was a WWII hero, but did his father serve in WWI?  Do you have an ancestors that served in the Civil War?  Sometimes these discoveries can be [...] Read More

When you are Genealogist in New York it is easy to become overwhelmed with information.  Almost every time I have to locate somebody in modern times I need to look up a zip code for one reason or another.  They are also needed when dealing with Census Reports. I am going to try to compile [...] Read More

Merriam-Webster Defines a Genealogist as “a person who traces or studies the descent of persons or families” It seems like a ridiculous question to ask, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people ask me what a Genealogist is after I tell them what my website is all about.  The simple answer I [...] Read More

Italian Genealogy Research  In my own family, as in many other families with New York Genealogies, you do not have to go far to find a 100% Italian Ancestor.  In my example it is my Grandmother, born in Brooklyn to parents from Palermo, Sicily.  I happen to be lucky enough to have a copy of [...] Read More

When I realized that I was able to solve genealogical mysteries with a very high rate of success for many of my friends, I realized I had a knack for solving family history mysteries and decided to create this website.  Now, the ancestors of all 4 of my Grandparents came to Brooklyn starting in the [...] Read More

Today we are happy to welcome our first guest blogger, Jennifer Dunn, who writes about a topic that is a little different then what we are used to focusing on while submerging ourselves in New York Genealogical databases for hours on end. We hope you enjoy these tips and urge you to visit her Jennealogy [...] Read More

As a New York genealogist, I often get some pretty specific requests from people. When people have reached a roadblock, they tend start looking for a little help. Even though they have searched high and low, for years in some cases, they want a guarantee that I will solve their mystery in 2 hours. With [...] Read More

One thing I want to do is with this blog is take a look at some of the different websites I use or have used over the years. There is nothing Brooklyn Genealogy specific about these sites, but they have been a big help. Right now I want to write about Geni.com. Years ago the [...] Read More

I’ll admit that I not much of a book reader, but the growing popularity of audiobooks over the last 5 years has allowed me to enjoy some old novels by listening while I am at work. One of the first audiobooks I bought was “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”. Since this is a Brooklyn based [...] Read More