Albuquerque West FamilySearch Center

12/23/2025

LoL

12/23/2025

12/23/2025

Reminder that the FamilySearch Center is closed Wednesday December 24 and reopens on Monday January 5.

12/10/2025

12/10/2025

Between 1850 and 1950, nearly every American family tree hits the same weird snag. You’re scrolling through a census record, and there’s your great-great-grandfather’s household.

His wife. His kids.

And then… some random guy named John listed as a “boarder.” Different last name. No obvious connection.

You shrug and move on. Big mistake.

Because here’s what nobody tells you: that “boarder” might actually be family. A nephew. A brother-in-law. Your great-grandmother’s illegitimate son.

The census takers of the 19th and early 20th centuries were basically playing a giant game of telephone with American families, and they lost the plot constantly. At its peak in 1930, America had millions of boarders.

And a massive chunk of them weren’t strangers renting rooms. They were relatives hiding in plain sight, obscured by bureaucratic laziness, social stigma, and economic arrangements.

Let me show you why your family tree is probably missing entire branches because of a single word on a census form.

12/10/2025

REMINDER!!
Family History Class on Saturday December 13 at 9:00 am

7 Bar Stake Center FamilyHistory Albuquerque West Family History Center

Topic: Merging

12/01/2025

I’m a genealogist; a collector of memories. Not to be confused with a hoarder!

Although… if it’s an old photo, letter, diary, certificate, scribble, or scrap of paper with a name and date on it… I’m absolutely keeping it. Because you never know which little clue will break open a brick wall!

11/29/2025

Every genealogist knows the struggle of reading old records that look more like abstract art than handwriting. Share it with fellow family history lovers who’ve also squinted at parish registers, censuses, and wills that make no sense. For more genealogy humor, inspiration, and ancestry resources, visit the Ancestrium blog!