WELCOME! I hope you find my work on your family and friends helpful.
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PERMISSIONS TO USE MY MATERIALS & CREDITING ME:
All of my photos and written material on this site are freely available under the Creative Commons (CC0 - "No Rights Reserved'') license - as an easy and clear legal mechanism to release my works into the public domain.

Please FREELY use narratives/bios and photographs by me. No permission or credit is required. I release all of my own photographs and written narratives into the Public Domain without limitation.

Although permission or credit are not required to use my work, I **DO ALWAYS** appreciate hearing about how my work helped your family, and I enjoy looking at links to my work in use. Drop me a message, link, or screenshot if you get a chance! (especially if my work helped you make a breakthrough like finding missing information or finding previously-unknown family members)

SUGGESTED EDIT SOURCES:
To maintain the quality of information being added to memorials I manage, please specify the source when requesting changes (in the Notes section or a message). Edits may be declined if I do not receive a source. It is not unusual for people to submit changes with data that has already been disproved using the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS), thus creating confusion and ruining the quality of information on managed pages, if the suggested edits were approved. We can add notes about conflicting data or known errors.

SUGGESTING BIRTH DATES:
Death certificates are a truly awful, last-ditch record of birth dates when the date of birth is before the mid-20th century. I research the birth dates for ALL memorials that I manage, but haven't gotten through all yet. MANY I've received are wrong. The worst are a decade or two off. If you send one, please send from a quality source. If you need help finding one, let me know, and I'll try to help.

TRANSFERS:
Transfers are available by request (with more open options than FindAGrave rules require). Click on "Suggest Other Edits" on the suggested edits page of the memorial you would like to maintain, and type your transfer request. Transfers are available for memorials for which transfers are non-mandatory under FindAGrave rules (aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents beyond the first generation - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.-great-grandparents, unrelated personal FRIENDS, etc.). Please SPECIFY your relationship in your request, as I maintain many pages at the request of their families. Transfers are not guaranteed due to specific requests by some families.

CONTACTING ME:
Please use the FindAGrave message tool as the primary means of communication, as I've had e-mails lost to the huge spam folder or missed a couple. If you need to e-mail records or something, please ALSO send a message through FindAGrave, letting me know to expect/look for it.

FREE HELP FOR YOUR GENEALOGY:
If you find, in the memorials I manage, that I have facts, sources, and/or documents for your family, feel free to contact me. I'll happily, freely send you the records - or help with tips.

PHILADELPHIA, PA BIRTH RECORDS HELP:
I understand getting Philadelphia City birth records is difficult for many people, because it usually requires physically visiting a Family History Center. If you are trying to get Philadelphia City birth records (About 1860 to 1913, when the state took over), let me know by sending me a list with:
(1.) Name of child
(2.) Name of parents
(3.) Best available info/estimate on the suspected Date of Birth

CATHOLIC BAPTISM & MARRIAGE RECORD HELP (ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA):
The official depository of baptism and marriage records for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is FindMyPast.com (currently digitized/available for 1922 and before), but if you are having trouble accessing or using those for some reason, I will try to help. I understand some people struggle with the search or Latin.
For baptisms, please send a list with:
(1.) Name of child
(2.) Name of parents
(3.) Best available info/estimate on the suspected Date of Birth
For marriages, please send a list with:
(1.) Name of married parties, preferably with maiden name of the wife (if known)
(2.) Best available info/estimate on the suspected date of marriage
If your research subject's records are more recent than 1922 date on digitized records, and you need advice on acquiring a family member's records, send a message and I'll walk you through requesting them. I can also help with the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
If your only difficulty is that the church has been closed or merged, the solution is easy. Go to the Archdiocese parish list, click on the name of the closed church, and it will tell you which parish now holds the records:
https://archphila.org/parish/

COLGAN / McCOLGAN FAMILIES:
I am related to more than one Colgan family that immigrated to the Philadelphia area. If you would like help, or would like to collaborate, please contact me.

RESEARCH AND RESOURCES ON SOME (BUT NOT ALL) COLGAN FAMILIES WITH SIGNIFICANT PHILADELPHIA-AREA CONNECTIONS ARE BEING ADDED AT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE. MORE COMING SOON:
http://www.colgan.family

Sign up for the Philadelphia Colgan Families Newsletter, available by e-mail, for free, to receive updates on research, findings, stories, articles, and more. Contributions of stories, photos, articles, documentation, and more are accepted for the newsletter. Share your stories, photos, research and more with your Colgan cousins!:

http://www.colgan.family

Research on several Colgan and McColgan families with ties in the Greater Philadelphia area is also available on a number of freely-published Ancestry.com family trees, and FindAGrave memorials (as well as research on other families connected by blood, marriage, and shared history).

This research will continue to grow and be published freely. Volunteer-provided help is available with research, documentation, etc., upon request. Send a direct message or e-mail. ABSOLUTELY NO FEES ARE CHARGED FOR HELP.

Additional work on family ties in Ireland will be published as further information is documented and verified. Due to significant historical documentation losses throughout the island's tumultuous history, Irish genealogy requires significant time and effort to complete while meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS).

HONORING VETERANS:
I provide freely-given assistance (including researching, documenting, and requesting) with acquiring free U.S. Veterans Administration headstones, medallions, and other grave markers for eligible veterans . You do not legally need to be the direct next-of-kin to acquire a Veterans Administration grave marker. I can help you to get one recognizing the service of a cousin, aunt, uncle, parent, great grandparent, or more distant relation.).

In addition to traditional grave-sites, government-furnished V.A. memorial headstones and markers may be available for qualified veterans whose remains are missing, not identified, donated to science, buried at sea, or scattered.

In 2021, we were able to get the Department of the Army to replace the inaccurate headstone of CPL William Francis Colgan who has no living descendants, but we wanted to properly recognize his service. Next, we plan to acquire a V.A. headstone for the currently-unmarked grave of PVT James Colgan, an Irish Great Famine era immigrant to Philadelphia who served his adopted country in the Union Army.

THIRD PARTY CREDIT:
People often give me permission to post photos and other items, but I am unable to give further permission to anyone to use those items, unless the owner has specified I can delegate sharing. Please check with me on ownership of items that I note that I do not own, so I can try to get further permission from the original owner. I cannot make promises on their behalf.

ATTRIBUTION USE OF E-MAIL ADDRESS:
If you really feel it necessary to provide attribution for use of my materials, please do not include my e-mail address, as it attracts spam-bots. You must be logged in to FindAGrave to view my e-mail. Please help me keep it that way, for humans-only, and for my sanity.

RE-USE OF THESE GUIDELINES:
People have asked for permission to copy, and re-use these guidelines on their own FindAGrave profiles. As with all my materials on FindAGrave, they are freely available under the Creative Commons (CC0 - "No Rights Reserved'') license - as an easy legal mechanism to release my works into the public domain. You may copy, edit, and re-use as you please.
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• MY GENEALOGY TIPS BLOG: http://www.genealogy.ninja
• MY FAMILY WEBSITE: http://www.colgan.family
• COMING SOON: http://www.lorentz.family
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License: Creative Commons (CC0 - "No Rights Reserved'') (Public Domain)