Genealogy Pointers

Chances are in your resource efforts, you’ll be using one of the many genealogy message boards and/or mailing lists available on the net. To increase your chances of finding the info you’re looking for and maybe even making a few friends along the way, there are a few simple rules you should follow. Here are some simple rules of etiquette:

First, don’t type in all caps. Not only is it hard to read, but in the online world it’s considered screaming and is very rude. Don’t type as if you’re sending a text message either-and make sure you use a spellchecker.

When posting a query, it’s important to include as much information as possible. A post asking for any information on the name Jones won’t get much response, as it’s extremely vague! There are a few key pieces of information you should always include:

Surname (in caps)
Maiden Name (if applicable)
Given Names
Names of Children
Birth, Marriage, and Death Dates
Last known place of residence or place of death
Parent’s names
Birthplace

It’s okay if you don’t have all of the information, but be sure to include everything you do have. Make sure you include the Surname you’re researching in the subject line as well. Never leave it blank as on most boards and lists, messages with blank subject lines (along with those with vague subjects like “Help” or “Info please”) are routinely ignored and/or deleted.

Finally, always respond to those who offer help and information and thank them-and if you’ve been helped, stick around and try to return the favor!

genealogy, family history, genealogy message boards, genealogy research, netiquette

The National Archives and the Genealogical Society of Utah have announced a partnership agreement to digitize pension applications of Civil War widows. The partnership is expected to last five years and will preserve the records of over a million Union soldiers. The GSU has years of experience microfilming historical records and has recently begun offering digital preservation services as well.

The partnership’s first project will be to digitize, index and make publically available 3,150 of the pension files. GSU, also known as FamilySearch, will eventually do the same for all 1.2 million files. They are currently only available at the National Archives in Washington D.C. The files are a remarkable source of information containing such gems as:

Marriage Certificates
Death Certificates
Birth Records
Depositions from witnesses and more.

FamilySearch plans to make the digitized files available for free through its website and in 4500 family history centers all over the world. They will also be available at the National Archives. FamilySearch plans to donate a copy of all the digitized files to the Archives.

This agreement is one of a series of agreements that the National Archives has reached or will reach with partners to digitize portions of its holdings. If you haven’t visited FamilySearch.org yet, I highly suggest you do. They have an amazing collection of information-much of it identical to Ancestry’s offerings, but it’s all free! In fact they have the largest collection of free genealogical information in the world. They have helped me break through several brick walls and even led me to a long lost uncle!

genealogy, family history, family history centers, National Archives

The Generations Network, has been sold to Spectrum Equity Investors for $300 Million. The sale includes Ancestry.com, the world’s most popular genealogy site with over 900,000 paying subscribers. So far it appears that the average user won’t notice much of a difference, and the new owners are promising new products and services. The Generations Network also includes RootsWeb, Genealogy.com, and other genealogy related sites.

If you’re an Ancestry.com subscriber, sit tight. Chances are the site won’t change much at all. They’ve already introduced some new features such as Digital Scrapbooking and have promised some interesting DNA research services in the near future-in fact they are already selling kits that enable you to take a DNA sample (usually a swab of the cheek) and send it in. Users of the Generations Network’s other popular services such as RootsWeb, Genealogy.com and MyFamily.com also shouldn’t notice any changes or disruptions in service.

You can read the official press release here. The comments left at the site appear to be mixed, with some users believing the Generations Network is trying to become a monopoly, others wondering if the sale will result in a friendlier attitude toward the genealogical community, and even some wondering if the sale will do anything to help the much maligned release of Family Tree Maker 2008. (Review coming soon). Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. Are they trying to monopolize online genealogical data? Have you had less than satisfactory experiences with the Ancestry service? Disappointed with FTM 2008? Please let me know your thoughts!

genealogy, family history, Ancestry.com, Generations Network

October is Family History Month! If you’ve been thinking about getting into Genealogy, this is a great month to start. If you’re already well into your research, this is the month to celebrate all you’ve accomplished. Have you found some interesting ancestors? Smashed through some brick walls? Genealogy Pointers wants to hear about it! Genealogy is a fun and rewarding hobby. I’ve found all kinds of interesting things about my ancestors (for example, hockey great Al MacInnis is a distant cousin, and my great-grandmother was the Postmaster for her tiny town in Nova Scotia-the Post Office was located in her spare bedroom!) and learned a lot about myself in the process. I got started in Genealogy years ago when I came across a book called “The MacKenzies’ History of Christmas Island Parish”. Christmas Island is a tiny town in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. My father was born there and most of his family settled there after immigrating from Scotland. The book contained the stories and family trees of every family in the Parish up to 1984-including mine! The original book was published in 1926! This little 268 page book was a gold mine to me and inspired me to look into my family’s past. I started with my dad’s family and moved on to my mom’s family, which were also from Nova Scotia. I only got to know one of my great grandparents, but I feel like I know them all thanks to my research. Learning about my ancestors and how they lived has been such a joy. I invite you to share your stories here as we celebrate Family History Month!

family history month, genealogy, canadian genealogy, christmas island

PROVO, Utah /PRNewswire/ — As the highly anticipated Ken Burns documentary “The War” premieres, Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, encourages Americans to honor the legacies of their family members or loved ones who served in WWII by preserving their unique stories online. For the 81 percent of Americans who say they have had a family member or loved one serve in the military*, Ancestry.com provides a wide range of services to archive and explore their family’s military history, such as recording oral histories with its new audio storytelling service.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, America loses approximately 1,000 WWII veterans every day. Their vanishing legacies have sparked a growing consciousness to capture their stories, even as Ken Burns and PBS showcase the “everyday WWII American heroes” in the upcoming 14-hour long documentary “The War.” Ancestry.com is the perfect venue for honoring these everyday heroes and preserving their extraordinary stories.

On Ancestry.com, individuals can create family trees with biographical profiles dedicated to remembering the personal experiences of their ancestors, including those who served in the military. As part of these profiles, users can upload photos, create a timeline of life events, write stories and add scanned images such as letters written from the battlefront, service awards and other precious documents. Now, users can initiate audio recording directly from their family tree, recording conversations over the telephone or through a computer microphone. The new audio tool provides a free, easy method to create and preserve family oral histories. With a webcam, an individual can also record and archive video.

“World War II impacted more lives than any previous conflict. It's time to honor the generation of Americans who took up this cause,” said Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com. “We urge people to talk to their families, gather information about their WWII loved ones and archive their experiences before it’s too late.”

For those interested in delving deeper into their military roots, Ancestry.com hosts the largest collection of U.S. military records available and searchable online, featuring more than 90 million names that span the 1600s through Vietnam. This week, Ancestry.com added two new collections pertaining specifically to WWII, including:

— WWII Military Personnel (MIA/Lost at Sea) — More than 90,000 records
of WWII service men who were missing in action or lost at sea from 1941
to 1946.
— WWII “Stars and Stripes” Newspaper — More than 145,000 digitized pages
from this military newspaper published during WWII in the European
theater. This week, Ancestry.com added 50,000 images to this
collection.

Other WWII databases found on Ancestry.com include:

— U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records — Records for more than 8
million individuals who enlisted in the army between 1938 and 1946.
— U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards — “Old man’s draft”
records include more than 6 million records filled out by men between
the ages of 42 and 64 in 1942.
— United Newsreel Motion Pictures (1942-1945) — Only complete online
collection of rare WWII counter-propaganda newsreels.
— Young American Patriots Military Yearbooks - A series of commemorative
yearbooks featuring photos and short bios of approximately 60,000
soldiers who served in WWII.

genealogy, ken burns, family history, World War II

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ — FamilySearch — the world’s largest repository of genealogical records – is calling for 10,000 volunteers who can read both English and Spanish to help index Mexican, Argentine and other Latin American records for the Internet.

FamilySearch is embarking on a massive initiative to digitally preserve and index millions of Latin American records that are now difficult to access because they are located on microfilm or in an archive.

The first target is the Mexican census of 1930. People interested in finding their ancestors in that census now have to hunt among 506 rolls of microfilm at select research facilities. When the project is finished within about one year from now, people with Mexican ancestry will be able to search for relatives easily from their computers at home.

The project is being launched in cooperation with the National Archives of Mexico.

Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch, said the volunteers could spend as little as 30 minutes a week indexing records from their home computers. Volunteers should register at FamilySearchIndexing.org, which will allow them to download one batch (one census page) at a time. Volunteers simply type in the information highlighted on the digital image. Each batch should take about 30 minutes.

The completed product will be a free, fully searchable online index of the 1930 Mexico Census, and it will be linked to the original images at FamilySearch.org. Digital images of the original census can be viewed currently at FamilySearchLabs.org.

“The 1930 census project will be the first fully indexed census for Mexico,” Nauta said. “When finished, the database will be a tremendous asset to family historians with Mexican roots.”

Nauta said that census records are especially valuable because they include a large portion of the population and can provide details about individuals which may not be available on some church and civil records.

“The 1930 Mexico Census is priceless to genealogists because it is the most recent, publicly accessible census for Mexico. It can provide an ancestor’s age, birth year, religion, birthplace and occupation, explain an individual’s relationship to family members and provide other family information,” Nauta added.

The 10,000 bilingual indexers will be added to a growing army of volunteers that will soon top 100,000, well ahead of year-end targets.

Over the past months, FamilySearch has been preparing digital images of the various census pages and many other records for placement on the Internet. However, without an index for the material, family-tree enthusiasts would still have to go through the pages one-by-one looking for their ancestors.

“Once indexed, the records are searchable in seconds, just like looking up a name in a phone book — except quicker, easier and online,” Nauta said.

The 1930 Mexico Census marks the first Latin American project for the Web-based FamilySearch Indexing program. In addition, FamilySearch indexers just completed the Argentina census of 1895 and will soon start on that country's 1855 census.

A four-year project to digitize historical land and property documents and wills in Paraguay has just begun, and civil records in Nicaragua will become part of the indexing program within 30 days.

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members consider it a religious obligation to identify their families. FamilySearch maintains the world’s largest repository of genealogical resources, accessible through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

SOURCE The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

family history, genealogy, Mexican Census, FamilySearch

Ancestry.com has introduced a new way to share and preserve your family history. It sounds like a lot of fun! Read the official announcement below for more details!

PROVO, Utah, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, today launched AncestryPress(TM), a tool that lets users create professionally printed, custom family history books, family recipe books and more. With this new state-of-the-art publishing tool, Ancestry.com offers users a one-stop solution to build their family tree, discover historical documents about their ancestors, collaborate with their family members and create high-quality family history books for themselves or family gifts.

In the past fourteen months, users have built more than 3.5 million family trees on Ancestry.com. In doing so they have created more than 300 million profiles, uploaded 3 million mostly vintage photographs from their personal albums and attached 40 million historical family records they found on Ancestry.com. AncestryPress provides a simple, easy-to-use way for these users to organize, preserve and display their hours of research in a professionally designed, coffee-table quality book and to share their passion with family.

“Family history is about discovering and telling the stories of the people whose lives shaped our own,” said Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com. “For ten years, Ancestry.com has been an indispensable resource for anyone interested in family history, from the most serious genealogists to someone just starting to build their family tree. Our members have always asked for ways to preserve and to share their hours and hours of research. Now AncestryPress gives our members the ability to create high-quality books of astonishing beauty and personal significance. We think that this is one of the most unique digital scrapbooking products on the market.”

AncestryPress exports profiles, historical documents and photographs from a user’s online Ancestry.com family tree directly into automatically generated page layouts — such as illustrated family tree charts, biographical timelines and document pages. Users can easily customize the look and feel of each page by adding family photographs, changing backgrounds both plain and themed, using drag-and-drop page embellishments, writing text and more.

Beyond family history books, users can also use AncestryPress to create heirloom recipe books, complete with photos and memories of the family members who handed down the recipes, as well as photo pages, suitable for framing, that showcase important moments in their family’s history.

Once a user has finished adding personal touches to the book, they can choose from two simple printing options. Users can print individual pages immediately to a home printer. Or they can have Ancestry.com professionally print and bind a full-color, hand-stitched, hardcover book.

Users can build their family tree online at Ancestry.com and create their AncestryPress family history book at http://www.ancestrypress.com. Web site subscribers can access Ancestry.com’s collection of more than 5 billion names in historical records to discover the stories of their ancestor’s lives and add those documents to their family history books.

family history books, scrapbooking, genealogy, ancestry.com

Have you ever seen old headstones at the cemetery? They can be quite fascinating and even entertaining to read. Perhaps you’ve taken rubbings of the inscriptions. If so you’ve probably noticed that many of them look almost as if they’ve been wiped clean of their inscriptions. This sad fact is due to the limestone they were made from-it dissolves in today’s acidic rains and doesn’t weather well. This has led to the loss of much valuable data and until now, researchers had to resort to hand tracing and much hands on examination in their attempts to decipher the worn writings.

But now, the BBC news reports that scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method of retrieving information from these old headstones using a special 3D scanning method that reveals the carved patterns in the stone. These patterns are then matched to a stored database. This new technology will help reveal a wealth of new genealogical and archeological data. The new scanning technique is now being tested in a 200-year-old cemetery near the university. The scientists there say this new 3D scanning technique may also help in predicting tsunamis by examining patterns on the ocean and may also have a use in the medical field-it’s hoped that one day doctors can determine our well being by scanning our tongues!

I think this is great news. There are probably thousands of unreadable headstones out there and if this new technology can help reveal their stories, it will help those forgotten folks live again in the genealogies of people all over the world.

genealogy, reading headstones, family history, carnegie mellon, BBC, 3D scanning

BURNSVILLE, Minn., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ — A new Web site makes it easier to monitor the Internet for your hard-to-find ancestors. The GenealogyAgent(SM) Web site has GenealogyAgents that use the details that you provide about your ancestor (birth, death, parents, siblings, etc.). The GenealogyAgents then act on your behalf to regularly check for changes related to those details on the Internet.

“If you are tired of repeatedly checking the same Web sites or conducting the same searches only to find the information for an ancestor has not changed, we can help,” according to Doug Barry, the site’s Webmaster. “It is not much fun when you keep hitting a brick wall while trying to find new information. Our GenealogyAgents are designed to help you monitor Web sites and conduct multiple genealogy site searches for any changes related to your ancestors.”

As an introductory offer, you can have the GenealogyAgents at GenealogyAgent.com monitor the Internet for two ancestors for one year at no cost to you. See http://www.genealogyagent.com.

“The GenealogyAgent.com site is the latest in a series of sites that I have created as I progressed in my own genealogical research,” noted Doug Barry. “I am now at the point of having brick-wall ancestors. It becomes tedious to keep searching the Internet when you might find something new a few times in a year. So, I wrote this site to help me catch those new details and I am sure it can help others.”

Since 2000, Barry & Associates has created a series of Web sites that make it easier to search your genealogy on the Internet. These sites are designed primarily for people just beginning their research:

Family Tree Searcher, http://www.familytreesearcher.com. This site allows you to enter your ancestor information just once to search family trees at eight online family tree databases.

Free Genealogy Search Advice, http://www.genealogy-search-advice.com. This site will ask you questions about what you already know about your ancestors. A simple artificial intelligence program uses your answers to create a free, customized plan for going forward with your research.

Free Genealogy Search Help for Google, http://www.genealogy-search-help.com. This site creates a series of different searches using tips or “tricks” that will likely improve your results when using Google(TM) to find ancestry information.

Genealogy Fast Track, http://www.genealogy-fast-track.com. This site has a series of easy-to-use decision charts to help you get started with your research.

Please check out my other 451 Blogs:
Earthly Garden
Home Computer Talk

genealogy, family history, online resources for genealogy research, genealogy news

Researching family in Pennsylvania? You’ll want to check this out! The state is hosting a special event for genealogists and state history buffs.

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Take a behind-the-scenes tour or learn how to branch out and research your own family tree during Archives Month, sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Archives.

“This is a unique opportunity for people to learn how Pennsylvania preserves the very fragile and valuable records that chronicle the history of our great commonwealth,” Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Executive Director Barbara Franco said. “I encourage people to use Archives Month as a chance to explore Pennsylvania’s history — and their personal genealogy.”

Events during Archives Month include the annual archives and records management seminar from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Four Points Sheraton, Harrisburg. The seminar covers right-to-know law and Freedom of Information Act issues and offers workshops on digital imaging and how to care for maps and oversize drawings.

The State Archives is the official keeper of the commonwealth’s government records, from William Penn’s 1681 charter from King Charles II to modern-day documents and video tapes. It currently is involved in a major restoration of Civil War muster rolls, which include the names and pertinent dates of service of more than 300,000 Pennsylvanian soldiers. The muster rolls will be accessible for research following the completion of conservation in 2009.
For complete Archives Month event information and to register online for the annual archives and records management seminar, visit http://www.phmc.state.pa.us.

Interested in preserving your family history in scrapbook form? Check out Scrapropos

genealogy, family history, pennsylvania, archives, genealogy events

*My apologies for the lack of posts the last few days. I had to have some dental work and it laid me low for a bit. Now, back to Genealogy!*

In your research you’ll find there are many documents that can provide important information. These include the following:

Birth/Baptismal Certificates- These documents not only provide birth dates and places, but they also tell you who a person’s parents were. Baptismal certificates also tell you who their godparents were. You can obtain copies of birth certificates from the City Clerk in the city or town the person was born in. Most churches keep baptismal records going back to the church’s founding. If the church no longer exists, contact the archdiocese in the city or state the church was in.

Marriage Certificates-Like birth certificates these hold a wealth of information, and copies can also be obtained from the City Clerk in the city or town the marriage took place at. You can also obtain marriage records from the church the marriage took place in.

Death Certificates- Again, these documents hold lots of useful information. If you can’t find a birth or marriage certificate, try obtaining a death certificate, as they contain the name of the deceased’s spouse and parents as well as their birthdate. Like the certificates mentioned above you can get them from the City Clerk in the town where they passed away.

Deeds-These documents tell you who owned a particular piece of land or property, the location of it, and who it was purchased from. This can be very interesting and useful information. Most cities and towns have records going back to the beginning of the town. Check the City Hall or Public Library of the town the property or person you’re interested in was located.

Interested in other family related blogs? Try http://www.parentingourchildren.com/

genealogy, family history, research your family history, genealogical documents

Once you’ve talked to older relatives and gone through old pictures, it’s time to look around your home for other genealogical treasures. One example is an old bible. Back in the old days, the family bible doubled as a record book. Births, deaths, and marriages were carefully written down within its pages. Other things to look for are old scrapbooks and even old books-you never know what might be tucked between their pages! I found the obits of several family members tucked inside a book belonging to my grandmother.
Inside my mother’s hope chest were a treasure trove of old photos, some newspaper clippings, and even part of my grandfather’s citizenship certificate-complete with his picture.

Speaking of citizenship-if you have grandparents or other relatives who became naturalized, you can get copies of their certificates from the Department of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. You can contact them at this address:
USCIS.FOIA@dhs.gov .

You can also get copies of green cards, if you have relatives who did not become citizens. I have my grandmother’s. She came to the US from Canada back in 1929. Green cards have lots of interesting information. Aside from the name and birth date of the holder, they also tell you where they entered the US. In my grandmother’s case, she came into the states by way of Maine. It also tells you what category they qualified for entrance into the US under. My grandmother came in under category 4-C, which means she was a relative of a US citizen.

In future columns I’ll continue discussing how to get started researching your family history, what to do with all the info you collect, and I’ll also share my favorite online and offline resources for researchers. Stay tuned!

family history, genealogy, getting started in genealogy, researching your family

Interested in getting started in Genealogy? It may seem overwhelming at first but its actually quite simple. Start by writing down everything you already know about your family-birth dates, wedding dates, names of spouses and children, places of birth, etc. Then gather all your family photos. If you found any that include people you can’t identify, put them aside. Once you’ve done that, reach out to your older family members. Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Grand Aunts and Uncles, etc, can all be valuable sources of information. Arrange to spend some time with them and just listen to their stories, taking notes here and there. (Most older folks love telling stories, but if you ever run into an resistance, don’t push and respect their right to privacy.) Take the photos you’ve been unable to identify and ask them about them. If you get the info you’re seeking, write it down on the back of the photo(use a light touch to avoid causing any damage to the picture).

If you don’t have many older family members, or they are unwilling to speak or unable to provide much info, fire up your computer and start searching. The internet is a rich source of genealogical info. Many newspapers have their obituary sections online and make them easily searchable. Obits are often a valuable source of information. They give you a mini biography of the person and that can unlock a lot of doors. Many websites exist with obits from years and years ago. Check out Rootsweb.com for a complete list.

Tomorrow we’ll continue this discussion of how to get started researching your family history!

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Check out these 451 Press Blogs for more info:

Earthly Garden
Home Computer Talk

genealogy, family history, getting started doing your family history, how to research your family