I really love looking at and collecting postcards—especially vintage postcards. Here at Ancestral Findings, I’ve collected thousands and thousands of them over the years.

People have sent me postcards from their hometowns, old pictures of places that meant something to them, and scenes from all across the country—and it’s been exciting to receive each and every one of them.

So, I decided to set aside a little time to talk about some of these postcards and the stories they tell. I’m calling it Postcards from the Past.

It’s not going to be a continuous project—just something I’ll add to now and then whenever a postcard really catches my eye or sparks some curiosity.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together.

Thanks for joining me—now let’s get started...

Podcast notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/postcards-from-the-past-south-seas-plantation-on-captiva-island/

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The 1880 census is one of my favorite records—not just because of what it tells us, but because of what it helps us feel. This is the first census where we can see families take shape on paper. For the first time, we know how everyone in the household is related to each other. We can watch grandparents living with grown children, sons-in-law starting new farms, and widowed mothers moving in with their daughters. It’s where the people we’ve been tracing start to become real.

When I first found my great-great-grandfather in the 1880 census, I expected just the usual names and ages. But what I saw was a household that stretched across generations—a father who had survived the war, a mother who couldn’t read or write but raised a schoolteacher, and a younger sister I’d never heard of, who later married the farmer down the road. That one census page led me to three new counties, a pension file, and a whole branch of the family I didn’t know existed.

This worksheet is based on that kind of experience. It’s meant to help you look deeper—not just at names, but at stories. Use it to slow down, ask good questions, and notice things you might miss in a quick search...

Podcast notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/mastering-the-1880-census-for-family-historians/

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When people talk about the U.S. Census, most think of it as just a headcount. But by 1880, the census had become something far more powerful. It wasn’t just about population totals or determining how many representatives each state should send to Congress—although that was still its constitutional purpose. The 1880 census was the most detailed snapshot of American life ever taken up to that point. It didn’t just tell the government how many people were living in the country. It told them who those people were, what they did, their challenges, and where the country was headed.

For family historians, this census is a goldmine. It’s the first to name relationships to the head of household, which completely changes how we understand family structure. It also includes one of the earliest and most detailed efforts to record parents' medical conditions, occupations, and birthplaces—opening doors to trace ancestors back another generation.

But to truly appreciate the 1880 census, you must understand what made it different—and why it still matters.

Podcast notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/inside-the-1880-census/

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The 1870 U.S. Census is a milestone for many family historians. For those tracing African American ancestry, it often marks the very first time their ancestors appear in a public federal record by name. The names are handwritten clearly on the page—no longer separated, omitted, or counted as property. For the first time, individuals who were born into slavery are seen on equal footing with every other American, listed not as someone’s possession but as someone’s parent, spouse, child, worker, or head of household.

But the moment of discovery in 1870 almost always leads to a question: What about before? How do I find my ancestors in the years before emancipation? Who were they, and where were they living before the war?

Finding those answers requires patience and care—but the records are out there. The 1870 census is often the starting place for a powerful journey backward through time. The steps that follow can help you begin piecing that story together.

Podcast notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/tracing-formerly-enslaved-ancestors-a-companion-to-the-1870-census/

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The 1870 U.S. Census might be one of the most meaningful records ever created in the history of the country. For the first time, every person—Black, white, free-born, formerly enslaved, immigrant, farmer, child, war widow—was recorded by name on the main schedule. No longer confined to tally marks or separated into slave schedules, formerly enslaved individuals finally had their names written down as citizens.

This was the country’s first full census after the Civil War. Reconstruction was underway, freedmen’s schools and churches were forming, and the railroad was pushing west. The country was healing in some ways and breaking in others. But the names were there now, and for family historians, that changed everything.

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As we continue through our The Forgotten Seconds series—exploring the lives of vice presidents who never became president—we now turn to one of the most unusual figures ever to hold the office. Richard Mentor Johnson, a frontier-born politician from Kentucky, lived a life of contradictions. Celebrated as a hero of the War of 1812 and known for his plain appeal to common voters, he was also scorned by many in his party for his controversial personal life and lack of discipline while in office. Though he rose to the second-highest post in the nation, Johnson never reached the presidency, and his legacy has largely faded from memory. His story begins on the western edge of Virginia and ends in political obscurity—but in between, it reveals a great deal about early American identity, race, class, and politics...

Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/richard-mentor-johnson-a-controversial-hero/

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Daniel D. Tompkins was born on June 21, 1774, in the town of Scarsdale in Westchester County, New York. He came into a world still under British rule, just two years before the colonies would declare their independence. His family roots traced back to England, where the name Tompkins derived from a form of “Little Thomas’s son,” a patronymic surname that can be found as far back as the 1300s in Kent. The Tompkins family likely came to the American colonies in the mid-1600s during the great wave of English migration to the New World.

His father, Jonathan Griffin Tompkins, born in 1729, was a well-respected local figure—a farmer, a judge, and a supporter of the patriot cause. He played a civic role in the Scarsdale community during and after the Revolutionary War. His mother, Sarah Ann Hyatt, came from the Hyatt family of New York. The Hyatts, like the Tompkins family, had early English roots, with possible Dutch ancestry in some branches, common in the Hudson River Valley. The Hyatt and Tompkins lines came together in a home that valued faith, education, and public service...

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The 1860 U.S. Census might be one of the most emotionally charged documents in early American history. On the surface, it looks similar to 1850—names, ages, occupations, birthplaces, property values. But just beneath that is a country on the brink of war. It was taken in a moment when the United States was technically still whole, but very much coming apart.

If you’re researching ancestors during this time, the 1860 census offers a powerful glimpse into their world—whether they were preparing for conflict, trying to make a living, enslaved, recently freed, or pushing west toward opportunity. It’s a document shaped by growing tensions, but also filled with the quiet rhythms of daily life.

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