Find your ancestors in old letters

Your Family Tree

M F

Find Ancestors

Free trials are a great way to find ancestors. Try the Complimentary Trial on Ancestry.com

Have you tried the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner? Read the reviews, this is perfect for genealogists

Find Your Ancestors

Search Olive Tree Genealogy Family of Websites

Spotlight on....

Account Books 1772-1925 Find your ancestors in unique collection of original ledger books from stores, schools and individuals in USA & Canada

Ancestor Photographs

Lost Faces Civil War era ancestor photo albums online

Genealogy & Historical Documents

Paper Trail Assorted Documents: Wills, land records, marriage certs, passports, indentures, slave records, estate inventories... Family Bibles Births, Marriages & Deaths Family Registers AncestorsAtRest - Death Records: Wills, obits, funeral cards, memorial cards, death cards... Paper Trail Genealogy & Historical Documents

Must see!

Coffin Plate Collection Private collection of over 400 coffin plates with names of ancestors plus birth and death dates

Olive Tree Newsletter

FREE subscription Be the first to know about great offers! Weekly updates of new databases. Get tips, research advice and other helpful ideas for finding your elusive brick-wall ancestor

Scrapbooking

*Immigrant Collage Scrapbooking Paper *Scrapbooking with Old Cards and Letters

Genealogy Gem

Search Obituaries in GenealogyBank.com

Quick Links

Olive Tree Genealogy - Ships passenger lists and more! Naturalization Records AllCensusRecords.com USA & Canada Census Records AllEnglishRecords.com English Genealogy Records The OTE site Passenger Lists, Orphan Records, Almshouse Records and more! Ships Lists Online Canadian Military Heritage Project Ancestors At Rest - find death records OliveTreeBlog - Tips, New Databases...

Brick Wall Help

Your Name in History

Enter your surname for a list of genealogy books with fascinating facts and history about your family name

Past Voices Illinois Letters

Markle Richard, Co. B. 40th Reg. Ill Int. Statement from his Civil War Pension File [ CIVIL WAR]
Atkins1863 Civil War Letter from George B. Atkins to his father from Camp Douglas, Illinois [ CIVIL WAR]
Brown,L. D. of Berwyn Illinois to the St Marys Journal newspaper about the capsize of the Eastland steamboat in Chicago IL 26 July 1915
Dennis, Judson WW1 Collection of letters to his brother and mother in Tennessee and IL, 1917-1919
Early, John D. Baltimore, Maryland to "Major" Isaac Sandford, P. Master, Flora, Edgar County, Illinois, 1841
Maxwell Collection, James Maxwell. 127th IL, letters to his family 1863 - 1873 [ CIVIL WAR]
Overman, Oscar, 103rd IL Inf. From Steamer Rocket to Emma Wadsworth 1863 [ CIVIL WAR]
Peer, Levi Letter from Halton Co. Ont. to his mother Elizabeth (Marical) Peer in Hamilton Co. IL 5 Aug. 1839
Steele, James. Washington City, D. C., to George E. Levings, Esq., Cashier, Edgar Co. Bank, Paris, Illinois, April 10, 1861.

IF you found an ancestor in these letters look for them in census records. Past Voices recommends the census records on Ancestry.com

Looking for Death Records on an ancestor? Try Ancestors At Rest with its collection of coffin plates, funeral cards, family bibles and more

Try searching for your ancestor in Immigration Records - on Ships' Passenger Lists

Return to Past Voices State Pages Index or Surname Index

Wishing you had an ancestor photograph? Check out the 1800s photographs and antique photo albums on Lost Faces. There are over 3,500 photos in this growing genealogy collection