What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (or AI) is the overarching field. As IBM defines it, “artificial intelligence is a field which combines computer science and robust datasets to enable problem solving.

Chances are you have already used AI in your genealogy. For example, when you start typing a search into Google, the list of possible searches that you get is generated by a form of AI.

FamilySearch also uses AI. One example is when you’re looking at a profile in the Family Search family tree and it has something in the “Research Help” section. Family Search has analyzed the profiles in the family tree and determined that couples who were living in this time period in this location typically didn’t have children further apart than three years. So when it sees on this profile that there are children who are spaced further apart than three years, it’s suggests, hey, there might be another child in the middle.

Ancestry also uses AI in a variety of ways. You might think immediately of Ancestry’s hints, and you wouldn’t be wrong with that. But they also use AI for things like the Newspaper.com Obituary Index. Ancestry doesn’t have a team of people going through individual newspapers figuring out which articles are obituaries. Instead, Ancestry’s AI is looking at individual articles and looking at the language. If an article has a lot of words like died, buried, cemetery, survived by, chances are good that it’s an obituary.

What is ChatGPT?

This analysis of language is more like the AI that has a lot of people riled up right now, which is with tools like ChatGPT. So what is ChatGPT? “Chat” refers to how you interact with it: You type a prompt, it types something back. It’s very much a text based chat. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. Though that sounds really technical, it really describes what it is.

To use ChatGPT effectively for your genealogy research, you really have to understand what it is and what it is not. ChatGPT is not a search engine. It’s also not a fact checker. ChatGPT and other tools like it, like Bard or Bing Chat, are built on what’s called a large language model. Basically, a large language model takes a huge data set (ChatGPT used billions of publicly available web pages) and  analyzes it to see what the patterns are of language within certain contexts.

ChatGPT takes what’s in the prompt and compares it against the training set. It then gives a reply in words that it thinks has the highest probability of fitting the pattern in that context. This technology is not new. If you’ve ever gone on to a business’s website, and you ask in their online chat, “Are you going to be open next Monday?” and immediately it gives you that answer of, “Here are our store hours” — that’s an example of a large language model. It takes your prompt, analyzes it, and finds what most closely matches what would be an expected response.

What’s revolutionary about ChatGPT, Bard, and other similar tools, is that for the first time, people who aren’t programmers have access to this technology. You don’t have to program anything in ChatGPT; you work with it in natural language.

The Biggest Mistake in Using ChatGPT

By far the biggest mistake that I see people making with ChatGPT is treating it like Google. When you create an account on ChatGPT and log in, you’ll see a box where you can enter your prompt, and it looks a lot like a Google search bar. I suspect that that’s where that lawyer got into trouble. I suspect that he entered a prompt something like, “Write a legal brief about this particular topic,” and he expected ChatGPT to go scour the web, find all of the current facts,  and synthesize them into a coherent and accurate legal brief that he could then turn into the court.

But that isn’t how ChatGPT is designed to work. That lawyer asked for a legal brief, which set the context for ChatGPT. It looked at its training set and saw that legal briefs have these things called citations, which usually have name versus name, a bunch of numbers, and a year. So that’s what it gave him. That was the type of language that was expected. Again, we’re talking language, not fact checking.

How to Use ChatGPT for Genealogy Accurately

But genealogy is all about being accurate. So how can we use ChatGPT and similar tools, and still be accurate with what we’re getting? For genealogists, we like facts, and we want things to be accurate. So sometimes what some of us do is we will test the new thing and give it a name that we already know is in that data set — or in this case, ask it a question that we think it should know the answer to. But if I enter a question like, “When did Ohio birth records start,” ChatGPT is going to give me a response that in terms of language, makes sense. In terms of fact, not quite. Below is ChatGPT’s response. I highlighted in yellow the text that is incorrect.

Here’s a vital thing to know about ChatGPT prompts:

If the prompt that you’re using is something that you would otherwise have typed into Google, it’s not a good prompt. Use Google for those kinds of things. That’s what Google is designed for. Just like you wouldn’t open up PowerPoint to send an email, don’t use ChatGPT for something that you otherwise would have used Google for.

So what does make a good ChatGPT prompt? It’s going to be things that are based on language, concepts, or transforming things. I really like ChatGPT for idea generation. I asked it recently to compile a list of 10 activities for a family reunion. I was intrigued by the second item on the list, “Family Olympics.” So I continued the chat and asked ChatGPT to give more specific examples for #2 Family Olympics from the previous list.

Getting Accuracy in ChatGPT Results

We have to address ChatGPT making up facts. One of my great-great-grandfathers was John Peter Kingery. He was a pretty average, obscure individual. There aren’t going to be massive amounts of references to John Peter Kingery in ChatGPT’s training set.

If I prompt  ChatGPT, “write a biography of John Peter Kingery,” ChatGPT has no context. It doesn’t know when or where he lived or anything else about his life. All ChatGPT knows is that I asked it to write a biography of a person with the name John Peter Kingery. And that’s exactly what ChatGPT did:

There’s nothing in this biography that’s correct. But I wouldn’t expect it to be. I gave ChatGPT absolutely no context to work with. Even if my ancestor was somebody famous, somebody that ChatGPT would have somewhere in the training set, it doesn’t have a good way of differentiating between people who have the same name.

You’re setting up ChatGPT to fail when you give it a prompt with absolutely no context like this.

I didn’t want to leave it at that. So I put together a short little document that had the basics of John Peter Kingery’s life. And I also added a couple of extra facts, including that he served in the 173rd Ohio Infantry, and that he’s buried at Kingery Cemetery. Now look what happens when I give ChatGPT that prompt of “using these facts, write a biography of John Peter Kingery.” Honestly, it took me longer to type up the facts to put into ChatGPT than it took for the biography to be created. Below is part of the biography that ChatGPT wrote with my second prompt.

Is this a perfect biography? No. There’s some editorializing and a little bit of embellishment that I’m not quite comfortable with, but this makes a fantastic first draft. I can now take this biography out of ChatGPT and I can edit it myself. But I know that the facts that are in this biography are correct, because I told ChatGPT to include them. I didn’t leave it up to ChatGPT to just go make up stuff. When you want ChatGPT to create something like this, the more specific you can be and the more details you can give it, the better the response is going to be.

Other Uses for ChatGPT in Genealogy

Writing biographies is not the only way the Chat GPT can help us in our genealogy. Remember that T stands for transformer. I recently found a newspaper article about a mine explosion on a website called Chronicling America. One of the things that you can do on that website is copy the OCR (the optical character recognition). So I copied the OCR from this article and opened up ChatGPT. The prompt I gave it was “take the following text and create a table with the person’s name if he was killed or injured occupation, family, relationships and residence,” and pasted in the text of the article.

And look what ChatGPT gave me. It gave me a table with the data extracted into those columns. Obviously, I would want to compare this with the actual article. But if you’re working with a lot of data like this, this is a huge time saver.

When it comes to tools like ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing Chat, we are just scratching the surface of how they can help us in our genealogy. How do you want to use these tools? Let me know in the comments.

The post Using ChatGPT for Genealogy — Accurately appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

With WorldCat.org, you can search more than 10,000 libraries around the world, all at once, to get closer to filling out the branches of your family tree.

(Disclosure: Thank you to WorldCat.org for sponsoring this post and video. Opinions expressed here are strictly my own.)

Click the play button to watch the video below or keep scrolling to read the post.

What Is WorldCat.org?

WorldCat.org is a free website that features billions of resources including birth and death records, family histories, county histories, city directories, yearbooks, military records, religious records, original documents—basically, if a library catalogs it, you might find it in WorldCat.org.

WorldCat.org has entries for more than 405 million books, 440 million articles, six million maps, and so much more. They’ve even built in a way to help you organize your research plan.

WorldCat.org isn’t a brand new resource, but if you haven’t used it for a while, you’re in for a treat. It’s been completely redesigned, making it much easier to use.

Getting Started with WorldCat.org

The key to good searches in WorldCat.org is to think by topic. One way to start is to search for a surname with the word “family.” If you’re researching a common surname (or one that is giving you lots of non-genealogy results), add a state or country. Here are the results for Ramsey family Pennsylvania:

When you find an interesting title, click on it to get more details. “Show more” will give you more details, and you can even share this result via social media or email it to yourself.

At the bottom of the page will be a list of the libraries where you can find that item. When you click the library, you’ll be taken to that specific entry in their catalog. From there, you can see information about how you might be able to access it. (Tip: Whenever you see something in the Family History Library, be sure to click through—it could be online!)

More Than Family Histories

WorldCat.org is more than just family histories. Think about topics like locations, organizations, churches, and occupations that pertain to your ancestors.

I was researching New Zion Presbyterian Church in Indiana. I did a search for New Zion Presbyterian Indiana, and the first result was for archival material from that church. Clicking “Show more” I can learn more about this resource – including that it has baptisms, marriages, and deaths. That sounds like something I can use!

I can click on the title and see that these materials are held at Hanover College. That is not a place I would have thought to look for them. Clicking on the “Borrow” button takes me directly to that entry in the Hanover College catalog, where I can learn a bit more about it, including a link to an online finding aid.

Not every resource you’ll find on WorldCat.org is online. If what you’re looking for isn’t, you can contact the library to see if they’ll do a look-up (keep your question short and specific!), hire a researcher, or go to that library yourself.

Mix a Broad Topic with a Location

Consider a search with a broad topic, but a specific location. Here, I searched for “Slavery Richmond Virginia.” As I scroll through the results, I see that this entry is marked “Open Access.” That means that it links directly to a digital resource. If I click “Access Free,” it will take me directly in this case to the University of Tennessee, and a digital copy of a letter from someone in Natchez, Mississippi to the Humane Society for the Abolition of Slavery in Richmond, Virginia. Another example of items popping up in unexpected places!

On the results page, you can use the filters on the left to narrow down your results. For example, you could select “Archival Material” and the results will automatically include just that.

Getting Even More Specific

Here’s my ninja tip for getting even more specific results. When you find an entry that’s interesting, click on the title, then click “Show more information.” Look through the list of subject headings and click on the one that is closest to what you’re looking for.

When you click on that subject heading, you’ll get other resources that also use that subject heading. It’s a great way to get really specific with your search.

Creating Lists on WorldCat.org

If you’ve created a free account on WorldCat.org, you can set favorite libraries as well as create lists. These are so handy.

You could create a list for a specific branch of your family or a location that you’re researching in. A list can be private or public. Public lists can be a good way to coordinate with others who you’re researching with. As you find a resource you’re interested in, click the bookmark icon. If you haven’t created a list yet, it will prompt you to start one. Then, just add it to the list. It’s a great way to keep track of all of those wonderful resources you’re finding in WorldCat.org.

You can also find public lists. At the top of the search page, change from “Items” to “Lists,” then enter a keyword. Here’s the result for “genealogy.” When you find one that’s interesting, click to explore the titles. You can even follow someone else’s list.

You can make up to 50 lists, each with up to 500 titles. This makes it handy to make lists based on different branches of your tree or specific topics that you’re exploring.

With more than 10,000 libraries and 405 million books (and more!), you are bound to find lots of resources for your family history and genealogy research using WorldCat.org. Go check out WorldCat.org and create your own free account.

The post Using WorldCat.org to Find Countless Genealogy Resources appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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A Common – and Frustrating – Way to Prove It

The most common way to try to prove the connection to a supposed famous relative is also one of the most frustrating. It’s common to start researching the famous person’s descendants and try to make a connection to your own family tree. But that method is filled with obstacles.

First, you don’t know what line you should be following. All it takes is for a generation to have a ton of children and suddenly you have a lot more lines to follow.

Second, you might not be starting in the right place. “Related to” doesn’t necessarily mean “descended from.” You might be related to that famous person as a cousin, which means the connection is further back. Then the question is, “Which of their lines should I follow?”

A More Effective Way to Prove a Relationship to a Famous Person

A more effective way to see if there is a relationship is to approach the connection from both sides. However, rather than focusing solely on surnames, pay attention to locations. (After all, for there to be a connection, the families have to be at the same place at the same time at some point.) Are there any locations where both the famous person’s tree and your tree overlap? Those are the places and branches to focus on.

This is what happened with my in-laws’ family. My father-in-law told me that he was “somehow related” to artist Howard Chandler Christy. I had already done a fair amount of research on my father-in-law’s side of the family, and had never run across the Christy surname. Was there a connection, or was this a fanciful tale?

I started by doing a quick bit of research into Howard Chandler Christy and learned that he was born in Morgan County, Ohio. My father-in-law has a line in Morgan County, so that is where I concentrated my searching. Digging into Christy’s family a bit more, I discovered his mother’s maiden name was Bone. That’s a surname in my father-in-law’s Morgan County line.

Now that I had a location (Morgan County) and a possible surname connection (Bone), I focused my research on that family. I discovered that my father-in-law’s great-grandmother and Howard Chandler Christy were first cousins. (I wonder if he ever sent her a drawing as a birthday present.)

If I had focused solely on researching the Christy surname and ignored the location, it would have been a long time before I made that connection.

Jumpstarting Your Research with a Collaborative Family Tree

You can jumpstart this kind of research by using a collaborative family tree, such as the FamilySearch Family Tree, Geni.com, or (my favorite) WikiTree. Each one has tools that can show you connections between you and other people in the tree. Of course, you have to have your own family in there. Also, just like any other tree, the accuracy is dependent upon whoever posted it. However, you can find some very good clues to get your research started.

Have you ever proven (or disproven) a relationship to a famous person? Let me know in the comments!

The post Are You Really Related to Someone Famous? appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

What Being Out of the Will Means for Your Genealogy

Genealogists use wills to connect two generations. When you look at a will and don’t find someone listed as an heir, it’s easy to presume that person wasn’t a child of the deceased.

However, in the United States, there is no requirement that you include all of your children in your will. You don’t have to include any of them if you don’t want to. (We’ve seen that recently with the will of country superstar Naomi Judd, who left out her daughters Wynonna and Ashley Judd.) So if you’re concluding that Robert must not be John’s son because he isn’t listed in John’s will, you might be making an incorrect conclusion.

Why a Child Might Not Be Included in a Will

It’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that there was some sort of rift in the family. But there are two other reasons to consider.

One of the most common reasons a child isn’t included is because he or she already received something of value (such as money and/or land), either when they came of age or got married. In essence, this child already received his or her inheritance.

Another possibility, especially in large families, is that the child wasn’t born when the will was written. If your ancestor was born in 1855, it’s pretty hard to be named in a will that was written in 1850. Always pay attention to when the will was written. Then, make sure you’re looking at the other probate papers to see if he or she is mentioned.

When An Ancestor Received $1 in a Will

Sometimes you’ll run across a person leaving a child $1 or some other token amount. It isn’t necessarily because there was a conflict between the deceased and the child.

When you specifically name someone in a will and leave a token amount, it can be a way to avoid legal entanglements by the heirs later. An heir can’t come back and contest the will “because I wasn’t included” if that heir was specifically named and received something.

As for why that child received just a token amount, it could be because they had already received their inheritance… or it could be a rift in the family.

A Probate Research Strategy

Whether your ancestor was or wasn’t included in the will, always take a look at the other documents in that probate case. The will is just one document. There are many others, including inventories and settlements. Those other documents can have vital clues for determining what is going on with that family. Also take a look at land records for that area to see if you can find a transfer between the deceased and the child you think is missing.

Ancestry and FamilySearch both have excellent probate collections for the United States. FamilySearch also has many land records, which you can find if you go through their catalog.

The post When Your Ancestor Isn’t in the Will appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

Click the play button or scroll below to keep reading.

Zachary Levi Explores Generational Trauma

Unlike some celebrities who were hoping to find a famous ancestor, Zachary Levi wanted to find out why his maternal grandmother had been abusive. It wasn’t long before he uncovered generations of abusive behavior.

His great-great-grandparents did not have a healthy relationship. Their marriage began under a cloud—they ran off and got married while he was being investigated for being involved with a 15-year-old girl and getting her pregnant.

They ended up divorcing. He accused her of threatening him with a knife and coercing him to join the military. It was also reported that the police had been called to their house three times and he was arrested twice. As the historian in this segment noted, it was unusual for men to be arrested for such things during this time period.

In reading about his great-great-grandmother, Zachary said it sounded like something his grandmother would do… and mused if her actions were a learned behavior.

The story didn’t end there.

A Fight Over a Civil War Pension

Going back one more generation, Zachary’s third-great-grandfather Henry Schenck was a Civil War veteran who, in his later years, lived at the National Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas. His wife, Elizabeth, petitioned the Pension Bureau to have half of Henry’s pension sent directly to her.

This was an unusual move, as veterans living in these homes usually sent at least part of their pension back to wives or other family members.

When Henry found out about this, he filed an affidavit accusing Elizabeth of being a woman not of good moral character, carousing with lewd men and women. Two of Henry and Elizabeth’s children filed their own affidavit, stating Elizabeth was a hardworking woman who supported her six children and that it was Henry who had issues with alcohol. They also went into great detail about the physical abuse Elizabeth suffered at Henry’s hand.

Elizabeth was awarded half of Henry’s pension.

Exploring These Issues

If you are going to explore issue like this in your own family tree, know that it is emotional work. While the pension argument ended well, the affidavits and other evidence of abuse were hard for Zachary to read. He even said at one point, “The men in my family tree just keep breaking my heart.”

In terms of records to look at, newspapers are a good place to start. Be sure to explore different newspapers in the area and across a span of time. (Take a look at how differently the news about Billy Porter’s ancestor was reported in different newspapers.)

Court records can shed light on the people involved. Some are available on FamilySearch. (Take a look in their catalog, rather than looking just in the regular search.) However, you might need to contact the court or a county/state archives to obtain the records.

Prison records are surprisingly open. Consider what type of jail or prison the person would have been in. If it was a federal prison, the records could be at the National Archives. State prison records are often at state archives or historical societies. Local/city jail records are often still held in that city or county. (I recommend contacting the local genealogy or historical society; they usually know where those types of records are held.)

Unfortunately, institutional records such as state hospital records are often closed. For example, to obtain patient records from an Illinois state hospital, you need to obtain a court order… even if the patient has been dead for more than 120 years.

Zachary Levi ended this part of his journey with this observation:

“I feel like the more you can inform yourself, the more you’re able to then make changes.”

The post Healing Through Family History appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

Who Is Billy Porter?

Billy Porter is an actor who has won both a Tony and an Emmy. He’s a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was raised by his mother and step-father.

He went into the episode knowing that one of his ancestors had been shot and killed. Professional genealogist Nicka Smith was able to fill in some details for him.

What Happened to Billy Porter’s Ancestor?

Thomas Richardson, Billy Porter’s great-grandfather, lived in Pittsburgh. On May 25, 1923, he was shot and killed by William Fullerton, a Pittsburgh policeman.

In the WDYTYA episode, Nicka Smith presented two newspaper articles. One was from the Pittsburgh Press:

(Click the image to read the full article on Newspapers.com.)

Here’s how the Pittsburgh Press reported it:

“According to police, Richardson with two Negro companions and a white man were quarreling in Butler St., near Thirty-eighth st. The police at the Forty-third st. station were notified, and Patrolman Fullerton was sent to investigate. When the patrolman arrived at the scene of the quarrel, it is said that Richardson drew a revolver. The patrolman saw him reach for the gun, police say, and drew the quicker. Patrolman Fullerton fired first, and Richardson dropped to the ground with a bullet in his breast.”

So, in this account, the two men were facing each other. Richardson drew a gun, but Fullerton shot first.

But that isn’t how it was reported by the Pittsburgh Courier:

Here’s a link to the article on Newspapers.com.

As Nicka Smith pointed out on “Who Do You Think You Are,” the Pittsburgh Press was owned by whites. The Pittsburgh Courier was a Black-owned newspaper.

Not the End of the Story

I was curious if there were any other newspaper accounts of the shooting. There were several… and they had differing details as well. (I’m confident that Nicka Smith also found these articles, but was unable to present them during the episode due to time constraints.)

The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times (27 May 1923) reported: “As the officer started to escort Richardson across the street to a patrol box, Richardson is alleged to have broken away. When he failed to halt, Patrolman Fullerton drew his revolver and fired one shot, and Richardson fell to the ground with a bullet wound in his back.” (You can read this portion of the article on Newspapers.com. Note that Newspapers.com incorrectly named the newspaper as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

According to the Pittsburgh Post (9 June 1923), reporting on the Coroner’s Jury investigation: “Fullerton started toward the police box with his prisoner when Richardson stopped to speak to a friend in the crowd. The policeman with his own revolver in one hand and the Negro’s weapon in the other ordered Richardson to move on and after the Negro had taken a few steps forward, Fullerton fired into the Negro’s back, witnesses testified.” (You can read the full article in this clipping at Newspapers.com.)

Four different stories:

• The Pittsburgh Press said Richardson drew a gun and was shot while facing Fullerton
• The Pittsburgh Courier said that Richardson was shot in the back while walking to the patrol box
• The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times said that Richardson was shot in the back while fleeing
• The Pittsburgh Post reported coroner’s jury testimony that Richardson was shot in the back after not moving quickly enough for Fullerton

Important Genealogy Lessons

This episode gives us some good lessons in genealogy research, especially working with newspapers. These strategies apply even with more “routine” articles like obituaries, wedding notices, etc.

First, don’t stop with just one newspaper. Four different Pittsburgh newspapers each reported the shooting differently. (In the case of the Pittsburgh Press, it was very differently.) Back in the day, even small towns often had more than one newspaper. Also, take a look at newspapers for nearby towns, as well as any pertinent ethnic or religious newspapers.

Second, keep looking over a period of time. The Post article was more than two weeks after the shooting. I’ve seen similar things happen with obituaries. The first one has sparse details, but the ones published over the next few days have more details about survivors and the funeral arrangements.

The post What Billy Porter’s WDYTYA Episode Can Teach You appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

The 1950 Census Enumerator Notes

Unlike other federal censuses, the 1950 census instructed the enumerators to make notes of unusual entries or irregular situations. (You can download the full instructions for the population schedule from the Census Bureau.) Finally, we have some insight into why some entries are the way they are!

The enumerators made notes about all kinds of things. Some made notes when they turned down a street or what order the houses were in going back a lane. Some made notes about why some people were crossed out (or why they were included). There are also editorial comments.

Laura Guisinger was listed in Violet Township, Fairfield County, Ohio, but her name was crossed out and a “2)” appears next to her name. If you look in the notes section near the bottom of the census page, you’ll see, “2) She Died in Feb. 1950.”

Where Are the Enumerator Notes?

The most common form in the 1950 census was form P1, of which there were several versions; the notes are in different places depending on which version of the form was used. Some are near the top of the page (just below the header), others are near the bottom of the page (just above the supplemental questions), and other forms have notes at both the top and bottom of the page.

How Can You Tell What Note Goes With Which Person(s)?

Just how the notes about unusual entries were to be recorded was apparently up to the enumerators. Some enumerators included the line number in their notes. (That makes it easy for us to figure out who it’s about!) On this page, there’s a note “L-24 Will retire in Sept.” Line 24 is John Petentler, age 61, who has no occupation listed.

Some, like the one who erroneously enumerated Laura Guisinger, gave a footnote number near her name. 

Footnote numbers could also appear in the margin, near the line number. Be sure to look also in the margin of the supplemental questions. In this page in Bibb County, Georgia, there’s a note with a 1 inside of a V or a caret; that same symbol is in the margin in the supplemental question for line 19. Looking at the main part of the census, I can see that line 19 was for a man name Buford Hill.

Footnote numbers can also appear in the box with the information that the enumerator wants to explain more fully. That’s the case with this entry from Champaign County, Illinois. Note 2 on this page reads, “This man is probably 65 or older. His wife gave me this age.”

The corresponding #2 is in the age field for John M. Lutz. He’s listed as age 43, while his wife, Jeanette, is listed as age 72.

I can see why the enumerator wanted to call attention to that!

Make a Habit of Reading the Notes

The enumerator notes can give valuable information about the people listed in the census. It’s easy to miss the footnote numbers that some of the enumerators made. As I’ve been doing my own 1950 census research, I’ve been getting into the habit of reading the notes on all of the pages where my ancestors are listed. Then, I identify who those notes pertain to. I want to make sure that I’m getting all of the information I can about my ancestors.

Have you found any interesting enumerator notes in the 1950 census?

The post An Overlooked Part of the 1950 Census: The Notes appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

Obituaries

Henry Clay Ruby’s obituary doesn’t come out and say that he was a Civil War veteran. However, it does state that he was a member of the O. P. Morton post, Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was an organization comprised of honorably discharged Union veterans. Knowing about the Grand Army of the Republic gives us the clue we need to start exploring Henry’s Civil War service.

Henry Clay Ruby obituary, Joplin Globe, 27 January 1929, page 6. Image courtesy Newspapers.com.

Taking a few minutes to learn about the organizations listed in any record can give you great clues to follow up on.

Cemeteries: Tombstones, Etc.

Not all information on tombstones is words and numbers. Not to sound like The Da Vinci Code, but there can be meaning in the symbols. Look for things like crossed swords, crossed flags, cannons, etc.

One symbol that often isn’t a clue to military service is the anchor. An anchor on a tombstone is often used as a symbol of hope.

Census Records

We can get so focused on the names and relationships in the census that we skip looking at the whole record.

The 1950 US Census has a set of supplemental questions that were asked of random people on a page. (These supplemental questions are at the bottom of the page.) One of the questions asked of men was did he ever serve in the US Armed Forces. Note that it was only asked of men; women who served (including WACs and WAVEs during WWII) were not included in this question.

Similarly, the 1940 US census also had a supplemental question about military service. Men were asked if they served; women were asked if they were the wife or widow of a veteran; children were asked if their father was a veteran. (Note again that women’s service was overlooked… and yes, women did serve in the US military during WWI.)

In the 1910 census, Question 30 (yes, 30!) lists whether the person was a veteran of the Union Army (UA), Union Navy (UN), Confederate Army (CA), or Confederate Navy (CN). Below shows what you’re looking for:

When you’re looking at the 1910 census, be careful, as the Census Bureau also used those right-hand columns for statistical notations.

The 1840 census listed Revolutionary War pensioners by name and age. What’s neat about this is that the pensioner might not be the head-of-household, who is typically the only person listed by name in the 1840 census. There’s also the 1890 Special Schedule of Union Veterans and Widows.

Lineage Societies

Pay attention to other family members. Does a great-aunt’s obituary or tombstone show that she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution? She didn’t serve in the American Revolution, but she did show her descent from a proven patriot;  you could contact the DAR to see who the patriot was.

What’s been your best military discovery?

The post Clues for Discovering Military Service appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

You can listen to the audio:

Or watch the video (or scroll below to keep reading):

Our Ancestors Used Multiple Names

We tend to think of our ancestors always using their “proper” names. However, names can be quite fluid. The name a person uses can depend upon the situation.

Take one of my friends, for example. To his family and close friends, he’s Johnnie. To his co-workers, he’s John. But his “real” name — the name on his birth certificate — is Charles. John is his middle name.

How he appears in a record depends upon the situation. It can also depend upon the person who is creating the record. What name do they know him by?

Using multiple names can also be a matter of necessity. Think about the large families where each branch of the family named a son after the grandfather. After a while, you have a bunch of first cousins running around who all have the same first name. Going by a middle name or a nickname is a way to keep everyone straightened out.

There are also some cultures where it isn’t unusual for a family to give all of the sons the same first name, but they are then known by their middle name.

So how do we sort all of this out? If the name isn’t the same, how do we know a record is for the person we’re looking for?

How to Sort It Out: Identity

Fortunately for family historians, our ancestors were more than just their names. They had relationships, occupations, and religious affiliations. They lived in certain places and lived for a certain span of time. We can use all of this information — and more — to help identify our ancestor and to tell if the record we’re looking at is, in fact, the person we’re researching.

We have to consider more than just the name.

The Census Says “James.” The Death Record Says “Birney.”

Let’s look at a real-life example. I was researching a man named James Marshman. I found a James B. Marshman in the 1900 census living in Donegal Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Based on research I had done, I felt confident this was the person I was looking for. 

I also found a death certificate for a Birney Marshman in 1915 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Could James B. Marshman and Birney Marshman be the same person?

I had three choices:

• Ignore the death certificate because the name is so different
• Accept the death certificate because James apparently had the middle initial of B.
• Do more research to sort everything out.

I opted to do more research. (You probably figured I would, didn’t you?)

Let’s look at that 1900 census:

According to the 1900 census, James B. Marshman was born in Pennsylvania in April 1842 and was a blacksmith. He lived with his wife Maria and children Harry, James, Ray, Etta, and Robert.

Let’s look at the Birney Marshman death certificate:

Birney Marshman died 2 March 1915 in Donegal Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. According to this death certificate, he was born in Pennsylvania on 2 April 1842, and he was a blacksmith. He’s widowed, so we don’t have his wife’s name. However, the informant was “Miss Etta Marshman.” Recall that James B. Marshman had a daughter named Etta.

So far, so good.

The death certificate says he was buried in Claysville Cemetery. The memorial on FindAGrave has the title “James Burney Marshman.” However, there is no documentation on the memorial for that middle name.

There is a photo of the tombstone. It reads:

James B.
Marshman
Co. K 16 Pa. Cav.
Apr. 2, 1842
Mar. 2, 1915

The birth date matches the James B. Marshman census record and the death certificate; the death date matches the Birney Marshman death certificate.

We can also follow up with other research, including obituaries, probate, church and cemetery records. We could even follow up with a Civil War pension file (based on the reference to Company K, 16 Pennsylvania Cavalry on the tombstone).

However, even without that additional research, I’m convinced that the census record for James B. Marshman and the death certificate for Birney Marshman refer to the same person.

Developing your skills of pulling out all of the information in a record and not just the name will really help you make more discoveries in your family history.

The post When Ancestors Changed Names appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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Why You Should Care About the 1950 Census

If you’ve been doing genealogy for awhile, it’s easy to fall into the “eh, what’s so great about the 1950 census” trap. There are 3 big reasons why you should be excited:

First, you never know what is in a record until you actually look at it. Censuses are known for having surprising family members living in the household.

Second, the census puts your ancestor in context. Seeing the neighborhood gives you another point of reference for his or her life.

Third, if you have living family members who were in the 1950 census — or if you were in that census! — find that person (or yourself!) in the census and have them tell you about the neighbors. I’m willing to be the stories will start flying.

What Happens When the 1950 Census Is Released

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will release the 1950 census at midnight (Eastern) April 1, 2022. (No joke!) Along with the images, they are also releasing at the same time an every name index! They are creating this index using handwriting recognition software and artificial intelligence.

Obviously, the NARA index won’t be 100% accurate, so it’s a good idea to have a backup plan for finding your family members.

Preparing If You Know the Location

If you don’t find your ancestors using NARA’s index, you’ll be able to go into the images and browse them… but you’ll need to know at least a general location. (I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to read all of the pages for Ohio.) If you know where your family members were living — perhaps based on the 1940 census or if you have family papers, etc. — you can look for an Enumeration District.

An Enumeration District (ED) is the area that an enumerator (the census taker) was responsible for covering. If you know the Enumeration District, you can go into that specific ED and browse those pages; you won’t need to read the entire county to get to the specific section that you’re interested in.

The easiest way to convert an address to an Enumeration District is to use the free SteveMorse.org website. Hover over “US Census” and click on “Unified 1880-1950 Census ED Finder.”

Select the state, county, and city/town. (If your ancestor lived outside of town, you can enter a township.) If your ancestor lived within town and you know their address (or at least the street), you can also enter that address information.

You’ll be presented with a list of Enumeration Districts that pertain to that location. After the 1950 census images are available, you’ll be able to select the option for 1950 census images, click on the ED, and go directly to those images.

But in preparing for the release (and even afterward), you can click the options to read a description of the relevant EDs so you can narrow them down even further.

The video above has a step-by-step tutorial for how to use the Steve Morse ED finder. 

Options If You Don’t Know the Location

But what if you don’t know exactly where they were living or you just can’t find them using NARA’s index. Well, you can either browse through a lot of pages of census or…

You can wait a little while until other places have an index. Ancestry, in partnership with FamilySearch, is going to prepare their own index, also using handwriting recognition software and artificial intelligence. MyHeritage is also creating an index.

These companies have said that they will be releasing states as they are completed. We won’t need to wait until the entire United States is complete. (I’m hoping they start with Ohio.)

FamilySearch 1950 Census Indexing

FamilySearch is starting a volunteer project to improve the accuracy of the index that Ancestry is creating. Unlike the 1940 census indexing project, volunteers this time will be able to specify the location (and even the surname!) of the entries to review. Because of the volunteers’ familiarity with the locations they’re choosing, this should make the index review even more accurate. You can click here to get more information or to sign up.

Who are you looking forward to finding?

The post Getting Ready for the 1950 Census appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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FindAGrave Updates Memorials for the Recently Deceased

The first FindAGrave update pertains to a sensitive subject – the creation of memorials for the recently deceased. This change comes as more people discover that someone on FindAGrave created a memorial for their loved one before the funeral even took place. In the case of my father-in-law, someone created the memorial before we even got home from meeting with the funeral home director.

Now when you create a FindAGrave memorial, you’ll be asked if you are a close relative. If you say yes, it will then ask how you are related.

They’re asking this because for the first three months after a person’s death, their FindAGrave memorial will show limited information if that memorial wasn’t created by a close family member or isn’t managed by a close family member.

During that time, the memorial will display a link that makes it more obvious that close family members can have the memorial transferred to them. This is something that so many family members didn’t realize before.

In those first 3 months after the death, when someone clicks that and states how they are related, the transfer will be automatic. No more having to wait!

Between 3 months and one year after the death, the button will still be there, but it doesn’t sound like the transfer will be automatic. The site says, “To request to manage a memorial for someone you are related to (within our updated transfer guidelines) who has died in the past year, select ‘Manage’ and go through the process to become the manager of the memorial.” (As of 11 January 2022.)

So that’s a bit ambiguous as to whether the transfer will be automatic or if it is still has to be approved by the memorial’s creator.

Once a close family member manages the memorial or it is more than 3 months after the death, the memorial appears on the site just like a “regular” memorial, complete with all of the information that the memorial creator added.

How This Helps Family Members

You might be wondering what will keep people from lying? Won’t unscrupulous memorial creators just fib and say that they’re closely related to everyone? How does this protect the families of the deceased?

Here’s the cool thing about that relationship question being on there. FindAGrave can see that you’re marking yourself as a close relative. Some people create dozens, even hundreds, of memorials every week. Even during a pandemic, nobody is losing hundreds of close family members every week. This can serve as a flag for FindAGrave to spot unscrupulous behavior.

I do need to add that the majority of FindAGrave volunteers are wonderful, helpful people. It’s been a small minority who haven’t always been as sensitive as they could be toward the family of deceased.

Changes in FindAGrave Required Transfers

I’ve used the phrase “close family member” several times, and that brings us to the second big update at FindAGrave – an expansion of the relationships that are considered required transfers.

Previously, it had to fall within 4 generations – so you back to your great-grandparents or you down to your great-grandchildren. No in-laws, no step-relationships, no adoptions. Just strict bloodline. That excluded aunts and uncles, brothers-in-law, etc. This caused pain and stress to family members who wanted to manage the memorial of a beloved maiden aunt – a woman with no children. Because it had been outside of the required transfer, there were some memorial creators who refused to transfer, even if they weren’t related at all.

Now, the new guidelines have expanded those covered by a required transfer. As of January 11, 2022, those relationships are:

“…child, spouse/partner, sibling, parent, grandchild, great-grandchild, grandparent, great-grandparent, niece/nephew, great-niece/nephew, aunt/uncle, great-aunt/uncle, or first cousin. This would include adoptive, step and in-law versions of these relationships.”

FindAGrave has also clarified what will happen if two close family members want to manage the same memorial. If two members are related within these guidelines and both would like to manage the memorial, the member with the closer relationship should be given management.

I think these two updates by FindAGrave is a great step forward in being more sensitive to the families of the recently deceased and can help even more family members be able to manage the memorials of their loved ones.

Let me know down in the comments what you think about these changes? Are they good? Do you think they’ll help?

Further reading:

• “Memorials for the Recently Deceased” (FindAGrave support page outlining the changes)
• “Request to Manage” (FindAGrave support page, which outlines the required transfer relationships)

The post Major Update to FindAGrave Memorials appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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It’s a Mistake to Take Everything at Face Value

You know the phrase, “Just because it’s in print, doesn’t mean it’s true.”? You definitely run into that as you’re researching your family tree.

This plays out in a lot of different ways. It can start with those family stories you grew up with. The more “fantastic” the story or the longer ago the events happened, the more likely it is to be…. not quite completely accurate.

Another way this plays out is what we see on different websites or in books. If you’ve explored some of the big genealogy websites like Ancestry, FamilySearch, or MyHeritage, it isn’t always obvious that there are different kinds of sources, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

One of the most basic things to keep in mind is that there’s a difference between family trees and records. Other people’s family trees can be great clues… but they can also be utterly and completely wrong.

Attaching things to your tree just because it’s in someone else’s tree is a surefire way to make a mess of things. Think of it this way: If they have a generation wrong—say they have Robert’s father was John, but in reality Robert’s father was William—everything past that point in the tree is wrong. If you’ve attached that tree to yours, you’ve just added a whole bunch of people that you aren’t related to.

Going Too Fast Leads to Errors

That ties into the next biggest mistake that I see, which is going too fast. Ancestry and other genealogy websites make it so easy to see something and immediately attach it to your tree. It’s convenient… sometimes a little too convenient.

We’ll see a record pop up and at first blush it seems to fit, so we attach it to our tree before we really take a look at it.

Let’s say you’ve been trying to find the passenger list for your ancestor John Johnson, who was born in England around 1875. Up pops a result for a John Johnson arriving when you expected, so onto the tree it goes. The problem is that the record is actually for a John Johnson born in Sweden in 1883. Oops.

via GIPHY

Another way that we go too fast is when we don’t explore things that we already have. If you’re just getting started, don’t just straight onto Ancestry. Explore what you already have. Talk to your elders. See what papers, photos, and documents you already have.

If you’re a more experienced researcher, are you reviewing your previous research? Are you going through your notes and files. It is astounding how many times I’ve been able to answer a research question or at least get a good lead just by reviewing what I already have.

Skipping Steps

It’s so tempting to find a fact about an ancestor and then start digging into something related to it. Say you discover that your ancestor living in Chicago in 1930 was born in Ireland, so you immediately start looking at records in Ireland. Do you really know enough about that ancestor to be able to accurately identify him in those Irish records?

I see this happen with people trying to prove a family legend. They heard Grandpa say that someone in the family was one of Abraham Lincoln’s bodyguards, so they start trying to find a list of all of Lincoln’s bodyguards and try to spot a familiar last name. The better strategy is to work from the known to the unknown. Keep researching your tree back until you get to the generations that would have been adults during the US Civil War and then dig into those ancestors’ Civil War service.

It could be that the supposed bodyguard was a regular ol’ private who never came close to Abraham Lincoln, but like a good fishing story, the facts got exaggerated over time.

Falling Into a Rut

A mistake that hits genealogists of all levels of experience is falling into a rut. They’ll find a couple of websites that they like, and they end up limiting their research to just those sites. (You might want to check out this post on 7 free genealogy websites you should be exploring!)

We also fall into ruts of searching exactly the same way or looking at the same types of records over and over. Here’s the thing. There isn’t a “one size fits all” search strategy. Also, different types of records will give you different information and lead to more stories about your ancestors.

The Keys to More Success (and Less Frustration)

There’s a reason that I haven’t talked a lot about records. In my experience, the family historians who have the most success and the least amount of frustration with their research are the ones who develop their sense of curiosity, not just about their ancestors, but about the records and the research process.

If you’re new to genealogy – or even if you’ve been doing this for awhile – don’t get discouraged when you don’t know something about a record or a certain research method. Very few people come into genealogy knowing all about these historical records and how to use them.

Stay curious. When you’re looking at a record you’re unfamiliar with, take a minute and really look at it. If you’re on a website, is there anything like an “about” page or a “frequently asked questions” page for that resource? Stay open to learning about different kinds of records and how you can use them.

The post Genealogy Mistakes that Everyone Makes (and How to Avoid Them) appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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1. Not Everyone Takes a DNA Test for the Matches

Just because you and I might take a DNA test to find genetic cousins doesn’t mean that everyone else does. Many people just want the ethnicity estimate. Now, before you go putting the bad mouth on them, remember that DNA is an excellent gateway into the bigger world of genealogy. Just because someone doesn’t want to connect with cousins now doesn’t mean that he or she won’t want to in a few weeks or months. Yes, it’s frustrating when a close match doesn’t reply to your messages, but try to keep in mind that they might not be interested.

2. It’s an Ethnicity Estimate

To say that the pie chart or map that you get of your ethnicity isn’t exact would be an understatement. It’s called an “estimate” for a reason. As genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger pointed out in an interview I did with him, the ethnicity estimate is good on the continent level; getting down to the country or region is much more problematic.

My old ethnicity estimate on AncestryDNA.

The problem is that the estimates are built around living people who can trace their lineage in a certain location for hundreds of years. AncestryDNA’s ethnicity estimates are built around reference panels, which total 56,000 people. There’s bound to be some variance.

Bottom line: just because my AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate says that I’m 19% Scandinavian doesn’t mean that I’m going to be rooting for Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 1/5 of the time during the Winter Olympics.

3. The Ethnicity Estimate Might Not Match Paper Research (AKA “Why Isn’t My Native American DNA Showing Up?”)

Not only is the ethnicity estimate an estimate, we need to remember that it represents our ethnicity waaaaaaay back. Case in point is my reported 19% Scandinavian DNA. I haven’t found a single ancestor who comes from Scandinavia. However, I’m also 45% Irish/Scottish/Welsh and 22% British, which is consistent with what I have found in my research.  When you consider the invasions from Scandinavia into what is now Ireland and the UK, that Scandinavian DNA makes some sense. 

But it also cuts both ways. Ethnicity might not show up even when proven by “traditional” research methods. “I know my great-great-grandmother was Native American. Why didn’t it show up on my ethnicity estimate?” If your great-great-grandma’s line is the only Native American line that you have, not enough of her DNA might have made it down to you to show up in the ethnicity estimate. It doesn’t mean that you’re not part Native American; it just means that the part of the DNA that would have identified it didn’t get passed down. 

(Also, keep in mind that a photo of your ancestor showing high cheekbones and dark hair does NOT prove that he or she was Native American.)

4. Siblings’ Results Can Be Different

Speaking of things getting passed down, remember in biology class when you learned that you get half of your DNA from your mother and half from your father? It’s true for your siblings, too… but they didn’t get the same half that you did. (Think about it — if you and your siblings each got the same 50% DNA from each parent, you’d be identical.)

That’s why siblings’ results can be (and usually are) different, both in ethnicity estimates and in the genetic matches. Yes, you’re siblings. Yes, you got your DNA from the same parents. But exactly which pieces of DNA you each inherited is different. It’s those differences that can mean your estimates are different and your matches are different.

5. There Can Be Surprises

This is the most important thing to remember.

It’s crucial to remember that DNA can lead to surprising results. Are you prepared if it shows that you have a half-sibling or an aunt or uncle that you didn’t know about? What if your sibling’s test is so different that it turns out you’re only half-siblings (or not biologically related at all)? As Judy Russell pointed out, we simply must consider the ethics of genetic genealogy. We must consider informed consent before we have a relative take a test and we cannot bully people into communicating with us. 

And if you think, “Oh, those surprises don’t change anything,” listen to Jenny’s experience when she learned that her Dad wasn’t her biological father.

The post 5 Things You Need to Know About DNA Testing for Genealogy appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

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Did Your Ancestor Serve in the Civil War?

Approximately 3 million men served in the American Civil War. That is a large number, but it isn’t the total population of military-age men. Before you start digging into military records, you should look for clues that your ancestor even served.

Look at home. Do you have any photos of him in uniform? How about letters or journals? Any memorabilia from regimental reunions? (Be sure to ask your cousins if they have anything like this, too!)

Look at his birth date. The majority of soldiers and sailors were born between 1820 and 1845. (This is an average, and there are exceptions, such as Johnny Clem, the drummer boy of Chicamauga who was born in 1851.)

If your ancestor fits those years, take a look at his obituary and tombstone. In his obituary, look for a mention of Civil War service or his membership in a military fraternal organization, such as the Grand Army of the Republic. His tombstone could have symbols indicating military service. You might get lucky and have his exact service spelled out for you!

If he died after 1910, look for him in the 1910 federal census. Column 30 asks if he was a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy. Look for the letters UA, UN, CA, or CN in this column.

Finding a Civil War Veteran’s Regiment

After you have an idea that he served, you’ll need to determine what regiment he served in (or what vessel he served on, if he was in the navy). Many Civil War records are either arranged by regiment or use the regiment as a way to identify the correct person. (They didn’t assign soldiers serial numbers like they do now.) With almost 3 million men who served, chances are good that there is more than one person with your ancestor’s name. (I thought I was doing well with my ancestor Eber Johnson. Even with that unusual first name, there is still more than one Civil War soldier with that name.) Knowing your ancestor’s regiment will help you know if the record you’re looking at is for him or someone with the same name.

If you’re lucky, that obituary or tombstone you looked at earlier will spell out the information. If not…

Look for him or his widow in the 1890 Special Schedule of Union Veterans and Widows. This schedule still exists for about half of Kentucky, then alphabetically through the rest of the states. (So, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee researchers, you’re good. Sorry, people who are researching in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.) This is available on Ancestry, FamilySearch, and most other major genealogy websites. (You can find out more about the 1890 Special Schedule here.)

If he was a Union veteran, look for him in the pension indices. The one that’s on Ancestry is the alphabetical index, and it often includes the name of the widow. There’s an organizational/regimental index on FamilySearch, which links to the images on Fold3. (Note: FamilySearch has the index, but when you click through to Fold3, you can often read the preview image well enough even if you aren’t a Fold3 subscriber.) This organizational index usually includes the veteran’s date and place of death. By using both indices, you can usually piece together enough information to tell if it’s your person or not.

If you’re researching a Confederate veteran, you’ll still want to look for his obituary and tombstone, but you won’t find him in the pension indexes I just mentioned. Instead, if he got a pension, it would have been through one of the former Confederate states, or Kentucky, Missouri, or Oklahoma. Fortunately, many Confederate pensions have been digitized and are available for free on FamilySearch.

Most regiments (or at least companies within regiments) were raised locally. So if you can determine which regiments were raised where your ancestor lived, you can narrow down the possibilities of what regiments he served in. Use Google, check the local genealogy society’s website, and consult county histories.

The Key to Civil War Research Success

The key to doing successful Civil War research is to keep your ancestor’s identity in mind. When was he born? Who did he marry? Where did he live? When did he die, and where is he buried? Comparing that information to what you see on the military records will help you know if that record pertains to your ancestor or just someone with the same name.

Suggested Reading:

Check out these other posts about Civil War research:

• “Using Grand Army of the Republic Records for Civil War Research”
• “10 Sources for Finding Civil War Burials”
• “5 Sources for Civil War Unit Histories”
• “What Did Your Civil War Ancestor Look Like”
• “Using the 1890 Civil War Veterans Census”

The post How to Find Your Civil War Ancestor appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

The issue might not be in how you’re searching. Here’s how to tell whether or Ancestry has the record that you’re looking for in your genealogy.

You can listen to the audio:

Or watch the video (or scroll below to keep reading):

I see it happen all the time — people will do a search on Ancestry, not get the results they expect, and then one of two things happens. They will either get frustrated with themselves — “I must be searching wrong!” — or they will make the wrong conclusion about their ancestor. “I didn’t find her marriage record where I expected, so she must have gotten married somewhere else.”

It’s true that our ancestors sometimes did things like run off to another place to get married…. And sometimes we do need to try different search strategies. But one of the biggest reasons that your search results are turning up a big fat zero is that Ancestry doesn’t have the record.

Ancestry doesn’t have every record. They don’t even have everything that’s online.

The problem is that it isn’t always obvious what Ancestry doesn’t have, especially if you’ve been doing searches from the main search page.

So how can you tell when it’s a matter of needing to search differently versus Ancestry not having the records that you need? There are two places you want to look.

The Ancestry Card Catalog

The first is Ancestry’s Card Catalog. (Yes, they’re a website. They still call it the Card Catalog, though.) This will let you know exactly what collections Ancestry has for a certain location, so you can see whether or not they have collections that cover what you’re looking for.

You get to the Card Catalog by clicking on Search at the top of the page on Ancestry, then clicking “Card Catalog.” How Ancestry names its collections can help us see what collections are specific for that location, because the title includes the place name.

What if we’re trying to find a death certificate for an ancestor who died in Missouri in 1964? We can go into the Card Catalog, enter Missouri in the title field, and click Search. Now we get a list of all of Ancestry’s collections that have “Missouri” in the title. If we want, we can use the filters on the lefthand side of the page to focus the list further by category and/or date.

Scrolling through the list of collections, we can see that Ancestry has these two collections: “Missouri, U.S., Death Certificates, 1910-1962” and “Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1968-2015.” So, while other collections might have information about the person’s burial or maybe their obituary, Ancestry has a gap in their coverage of Missouri death certificates; unfortunately, that death in 1964 falls in that gap.

Your ancestor very well could have died in Missouri in 1964, but no matter how you search, you’re not going to find his or her death certificate on Ancestry.

A Surprising Way to Use Ancestry’s “Browse This Collection” Feature

The Card Catalog is useful, but it isn’t the only place to check what Ancestry doesn’t have.

Let’s switch up our research and now we’re looking for the death record of an ancestor who died in Adair County, Missouri in 1905. Using the Card Catalog, we see there’s a collection called, “Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1850-1931.” Sounds promising!

But doing a search, we’re not finding what we’re looking for. When you’re on a collection page on Ancestry, scroll below the search form; there’s sometimes an “About” section that gives more information about the collection. But when the collection has images, you can get an even better idea what’s in the collection by using the Browse feature.

If you click on the “County” dropdown, you might be surprised that the first county listed is “Barry.” That means this collection doesn’t have anything for Adair County (or any other “A” county).

What about Butler County? If you choose Butler County, you’ll see that the collection only includes 1883-1893 — much less coverage than the 1850-1931 in the collection title!

So why is collection called “Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1850-1931”? Because somewhere in the collection there is at least one record that dates to 1850 and at least one that dates to 1931. Ancestry isn’t the only website to name their databases this way. In fact, it isn’t unheard of for archives to label a collection this way, though most of them will have a note saying what years the bulk of the collection is.

Save Yourself Some Genealogical Frustration

There are times when we do need to switch up our searches — but it doesn’t matter how you search if the website doesn’t have the record to begin with! Save yourself some frustration in your research and explore what Ancestry doesn’t have.

The post Is Ancestry Missing Your Ancestors? appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

1. Organize Your Genealogy

(I hope you’re still reading.) If your organization method is “File by Pile,” your research stands a good chance of ending up in landfill. Can anyone (including a non-genealogist) make sense of what is what? Even well-meaning loved ones don’t have endless time (or energy) to sort through everything. If others can’t make sense of what all of your notes, papers, copies, and scribbles mean and how they fit together, they’re likely to say, “Forget it,” and chuck the whole thing.

This is true for both our paper and our digital files. Are your photos labeled (again, both the paper and digital ones)? Are the documents stored on your computer organized in a logical way, with descriptive file names? Or is everything a mishmash of files like DSC_4718.jpg and perrycowill_174.pdf? Best case scenario is that someone saves your laptop and external hard drives and vows to “someday” figure out what all of it is. (And we know how often those projects actually come to fruition.)

A binder labeled “Our Family History” is more likely to be saved than a pile of file folders strewn across the dining room table. Janine Adams has some excellent advice on organizing your genealogy files in this post.

2. Write and Record Your Family History

This is something we should be doing anyway. Don’t allow your conclusions to reside only in your brain or in your genealogy software (which your descendants probably won’t know how to use or understand its importance). Write them. It doesn’t have to be long. It just needs to be written. While you’re at it, record your memories.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing, try talking into a digital recorder or video camera. Transcribe and annotate an ancestor’s diary or set of letters. Make a scrapbook. Do something!

3. Pass It Around

After you’ve written something, share it. Send a copy to the libraries in the areas where your ancestors lived. Send articles to the genealogy societies for their publications. (Newsletter and journal editors are always in need of material, and they usually accept submissions from non-members.)

By sending copies of your genealogy writing, you’re helping to ensure that even if your genealogy files don’t survive, your conclusions will.

4. Find the Next Generation

Identify someone in the family who would be interested in picking up the baton as the family’s historian. If it isn’t one of your children or grandchildren, what about a niece, nephew, or younger cousin? Work alongside them now and when the time is right, give them your files. (You might even want to put it into your will, so there’s no misunderstanding in case something were to happen before you can transfer the files yourself.)

And don’t assume that nobody is interested. There are a lot of people who are interested in the stories, but don’t have an interest in the research process. (Check out this post for some ways to not bore people when you mention genealogy.)

5. Donate Your Genealogy — with Preparation

So you’ve decided to leave all of your files to your local library or genealogy society. You’ve even written it into your will. Awesome! But does that library or society know that stuff is coming? Do they even want it?

Not every library will accept loose materials like your genealogy papers. Also, it might not fit into what they collect in terms of subject. (If your local library is in Nebraska, but your research revolves around families in Maine, your library might not want it.) Talk to your intended library or society before you draw up your will. See if they’re interested and what shape the files need to be in. While you’re at it, include a cash donation in your will to help them offset the cost of processing your research. (Even better: Donate the material before you die. It will save your descendants from trying to figure out what to do with it.)

Don’t be like the ancestors who tossed out their letters and lost the family Bible. Take steps now to preserve your genealogy research. Future generations will thank you.

The post How to Preserve Your Genealogy Research appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

With scanning technology being easier and cheaper than ever before, why aren’t more genealogy materials online? The answer isn’t, “Just scan it.” Here’s a look at everything involved in making genealogy records available online. 

Recently, FamilySearch announced that they have completed digitizing their collection of 2.4 million rolls of microfilm. But… they aren’t all online yet. And when you think about the archives, libraries, government agencies, and other organizations that have records—why aren’t more of them online?

Let’s walk through a hypothetical (yet realistic) scenario. Let’s pretend you’re an archivist and there’s this really cool collection of thousands of letters that you just know would be useful to researchers. Wouldn’t it be great to digitize it and get it online? Let’s see what it would take.

Getting Permission

For an archive or library to make their materials available online, they first need to make sure they have permission to do so. Sometimes that’s straightforward, like when it’s something in the public domain. But if it isn’t in the public domain and it’s something that was donated to them—such as original materials or manuscripts—they need to make sure they have the permission of the donor. Donor agreements sometimes restrict what that library or archive can do with the material. Also, if it isn’t spelled out that the repository does have rights to digitize and distribute, they might need to re-negotiate an agreement allowing them to do so.

If it’s a government agency, sometimes the records are restricted by law. The records might be from a time period that is still in “embargo” (such as states that restrict death records for 50 years). The record type itself might be restricted; this is often seen with state hospital and state asylum records.

In your (hypothetical) archive, you first need to find the donor agreement. When you find that it doesn’t have the necessary permission, you have to try reaching out to the donor, which isn’t always an easy or fast thing to do. But for this example, we’ll say that it only took a month to reach the donor and get his permission.

Getting Funding

As you’ll see, there’s a fair amount of money involved in digitizing. Most archives have razor-thin budgets, and extra projects simply don’t make the cut.

You opt to go for grant funding for the necessary equipment and additional staffing. Fast-forward several months, and you’re notified you got the grant. (You aren’t always so fortunate. It isn’t unusual to go through several rounds of applications to various foundations before securing funding.)

Setting Some Ground Rules

Are you going to scan the front and back of all pages, or just the ones with writing? Are you going to scan the envelope? (I hope the answer to that one is, “Yes.”) How are you going to handle oversize pages that either won’t fit on the scanner or in the field of the camera without being really tiny?

What format will they be scanned into? What resolution? How will you keep together the files of the letters that are multiple pages? File naming conventions?

Arranging and Preparing the Material

Before you set up your scanner or digital camera, there is work to do. Those letters need to be opened and the papers unfolded, unstapled, and un-paperclipped. This takes time. (So. Much. Time.)  And there needs to be a way to keep things in order so papers don’t get mixed up in the process.

Getting the Necessary Equipment

There needs to be a scanner or digital camera with the necessary accessories, such as batteries, lighting, camera stand, etc.

And people. You can’t digitize without the people do it.

Digitizing

Honestly, this is usually the easiest part of the whole process, but it still takes time. Scanning a book can be fairly fast, but if you’re working with unbound material (like your hypothetical letter collection), you’re going to go a lot slower. Even if you can do a new image every 5 seconds — which would be lightning speed for some unbound materials, it adds up. Let’s say it’s 5 second per page. Multiply that by a letter that’s 6 pages long plus an envelope… and there are 2000 letters to do. That’s 1167 minutes or almost 20 hours. That’s presuming nothing slows you down. (Head’s up: There’s always something that will slow you down.)

Describing/Cataloging

Those images don’t do anyone good if nobody knows what they are. That requires someone to set up metadata—information about something that makes it more usable. At a minimum, you need some kind of title for this group of images, but there usually needs to be a more robust description.

There’s also something called “structural metadata,” which shows how the images relate to one another. This includes things like the sequence of the images, so that page 5 comes after page 4 but before page 6. It can also be assigning “waypoints.” Essentially, this allows users to see where sections of the work are, much like a book’s table of contents does. This also takes time and someone to do it. (See a pattern here?)

Hosting

If these images are going to be online, they need to be hosted somewhere. (This isn’t the same thing as the archive’s hard drive where they are stored. By the way, that’s more equipment that’s needed.) There also needs to be some sort of website. There are frameworks called “content management systems” that help libraries and archives manage this, but they’re often too expensive for small organizations to use. Even the organizations that do have a CMS still need to pay for the service and have people to work on the technical aspect. (I hope you figured that into your grant proposal.)

Storage and Backups

If you’ve ever had a hard drive fail, you’ll understand the need for a good system of backups. With computers, it isn’t a matter of if they will fail; it’s a matter of when. You’re going to need a good backup system (which includes a clear way to recover data), as well as a plan to migrate data to new media and/or formats when necessary.

Staffing

You might be able to get some of the work done with the staff you already have at your (hypothetical) archive, but this is a big project. You were smart to include in your grant proposal some funding for a part-time employee or intern to work with the project. Even if you had opted to use all volunteers for this, volunteer labor is not free. It still requires time to train, supervise, and manage.

These Issues Affect Everyone

Whether it’s your (hypothetical) small archive or one of the major players in the genealogy space, these issues affect everyone who is trying to get things digitized and bring them online. True, the big players don’t need to apply for grant funding, but they still have issues of time constraints, staffing, and technology. Even for them, there are limits of people, time, and money. It’s tougher for smaller organizations, because they don’t have the economy of scale that the larger ones do.

So when you get frustrated (like I do sometimes) when that record you need isn’t online, remember that there’s more to bringing records online than just scanning.

The post Why Aren’t More Genealogy Records Online? appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

Browsing Yearbooks Can Be Better Than Searching

More yearbooks are being digitized and put online. MyHeritage and Ancestry each have huge online yearbook collections. You can also find them on Internet Archive, and on the websites of public libraries and historical societies. Many of them have been put through OCR (optical character recognition), which makes printed pages searchable on a computer. That’s a good thing, in that we can find references that might be hidden in sections we don’t look at. But…

Relying on searching in a yearbook means that you’re missing a lot of good stuff. OCR is not perfect and it has its limitations. And if you’re only searching, you’re missing out on things that aren’t text.

Browse to Get More Names

OCR takes the characters as they are. Some sites, like MyHeritage, also run an algorithm to find equivalent/translated names, but the majority of sites do not. That means that when you search for William Smith, it isn’t going to find the references to Bill, Billy, or Wm. Smith.

If you relied only on searching, you’d miss this photo of Ralph Anderson (identified as Captain R. Anderson or “Andy”), James Wallace (identified as J. Wallace or “Jimmie”), and Harold Mills (identified as H. Mills or “Millsy.”)

Browsing can also be helpful when the yearbook has used a fancy font (and yearbooks seem to love fancy fonts). Here’s an example of how OCR misread this “In Memoriam” page from the Clinton (Indiana) High School yearbook from 1922. The yearbook page is shown on the left; how Internet Archive’s OCR program recognized it is shown on the right.

In Memoriam to Louise Martin and George Kisylia… or “3n jftlemoriam” to “louige tflartm” and “George lUgplta.”

Find Your Ancestor in Group Photos and Candid Shots

Not all photos have captions identifying the subjects. If you know what your ancestor looked like (perhaps from a photo in the yearbook that is identified), look for him or her in the group photos and candid shots.

None of the people in these photos in the 1922 Woodward Technical High School yearbook are listed by name. But if you know what your ancestor looked like, perhaps you could recognize him or her.

Discover Signatures

Remember asking your friends and favorite teachers, “Will you sign my yearbook?” Our ancestors did the same thing. As you’re browsing, look for your ancestor’s photo; many people signed near their own photo. Also check the inside covers, the first few pages, and the last few pages of the book. Also look for special “Notes” or “Autographs” pages that might have been included, designed to be a place for people to sign.

Apparently tardiness was an issue for Luella. “Dear Luella, Next year I hope you’ll be able to get to your classes on time. The teacher’s [sic] really don’t like it when you come in late. Mary Dickman.”

Learn About the School

There are so many other things that we can find when we browse a yearbook. What kind of activities and clubs did they have at the school? What was the school play? Did they have any bands? Were there any sports for girls? Was the school integrated? You can learn so much by browsing.

Learn About the Town or Neighborhood

High school yearbooks are expensive to produce. To help defray the cost, many schools sold advertising in the back. Going through the advertisements can give you a sense of the town or the school’s neighborhood. It’s an often-overlooked source of local history.

Did you ancestors meet their friends at Feisler’s Drug Store in Erie, Pennsylvania? Their ad in the Spokesman yearbook in 1918 makes it sounds like a hoppin’ place!

Advancements in digitization and OCR have made yearbook research easier than ever. But don’t stop with just the search! Taking some time to browse the yearbooks can give us so much more for our family history.

The post Getting More Out of Yearbooks for Genealogy appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

What Is FamilySearch?

FamilySearch is a non-profit organization that helps people around the world make discoveries into their family history. It is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is open to everyone regardless of their religious affiliation.

FamilySearch provides services in a number of ways, including their website at FamilySearch.org, mobile apps, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, local FamilySearch Family History Centers around the world, partnerships with libraries and other organizations (FamilySearch affiliates), and events like RootsTech.

Let’s focus on how the FamilySearch website can help you jumpstart your family history.

Search Billions of Records on FamilySearch

FamilySearch has more than 8 billion records available from all around the world (as of August 2021). (Bonus: they’re free!) Some of the records are indexes/abstracts, while others are digitized images of the actual record. The material on FamilySearch comes from digitizing the microfilm that FamilySearch has made over the years, as well as working with archives, libraries, and government agencies around the world to digitize even more.

Get More Leads with the FamilySearch Catalog

“But, Amy, I’m not planning a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Why do I need to look at the catalog?” Glad you asked! The FamilySearch catalog is valuable even if you aren’t planning a trip to Salt Lake City. First, you can find digitized collections that aren’t included from the Search Historical Records page. If you aren’t checking the catalog, you’re missing out on a lot of resources.

The FamilySearch catalog can also give you ideas of resources to explore. Sometimes seeing the subject headings and the specific collections can spark ideas for new places to look. Even if they aren’t digitized, it gives you a place to start. (Is that material available in a different library? Do you have specific enough detail to request a lookup from the Family History Library? Can you hire someone search in the material for you?)

Get Grounded with the FamilySearch Wiki

Nobody can know everything about every aspect of researching their family tree. All it takes is for that ancestor to move to a different location and you could be starting all over trying to learn about the resources you need. That’s where the FamilySearch Research Wiki comes in.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki has more than 96,000 articles about genealogy topics from around the world. Need to know the ins and outs of researching Caldwell County, Missouri, civil registration in Greece, or how to translate some Latin? The wiki has you covered for this and so much more. It is literally the first place I look when my research takes me to a new location or a new topic.

Make Connections with the FamilySearch Family Tree

Unlike online family trees on sites like Ancestry, the FamilySearch Family Tree is one big collaborative tree. Your data is presented with everyone else’s data and everyone can make changes. (It’s essentially a giant wiki.) It does have its challenges, but we shouldn’t overlook it for the possibility of finding some intriguing clues and connecting with others researching shared ancestors.

Explore More Trees in the FamilySearch Genealogies

In addition to the collaborative tree mentioned above, there is also a completely different section of FamilySearch called “Genealogies,” which features family trees submitted through various FamilySearch projects and partners such as the Guild of One-Name Studies. Individuals can also contribute to the Genealogies section. These trees aren’t editable and, of course, you do need to vet them for accuracy like any other source. However, there is a wealth of clues just waiting to be found. It’s also a way you can publish your family tree on FamilySearch without having it be edited by others.

Find Histories in FamilySearch Digital Library

FamilySearch isn’t the only organization that has collected family history resources over the years. As part of the FamilySearch Digital Library program, a dozen repositories across the US and Canada—including the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library and the Houston Public Library—have made available hundreds of thousands of family and local histories available online.

Get Others Excited with FamilySearch Activities

It can be a challenge to get some family members excited about their family history. If you’ve hit that stumbling block, check out some of the fun family activities that FamilySearch has to offer. There’s everything from building time capsules and interactive quizzes based on your tree to adding faces to “historical” photos and spotting “famous” relatives. They’re fun, interactive, and engaging activities to help you bring everyone into your family history journey.

Want to take a deeper dive into FamilySearch? Sign up for my interactive workshop “Finding More with FamilySearch” on August 23, 25, 30 and Sept. 1, 2022. Click the button below for all the details!

Get details on the FamilySearch workshop!

The post Jumpstart Your Genealogy With FamilySearch appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.

Why You Should Share Your Genealogy Beyond Your Online Tree

Although Ancestry and other online trees make it easy to share our genealogy—our discoveries, photos, and stories—they shouldn’t be the only way that we share. There are two reasons for this.

Not all of your cousins are on Ancestry. Yes, they’re the biggest and most well-known. But not everyone has an Ancestry subscription, nor does everyone who starts on Ancestry stays there forever. If you’re sharing only on Ancestry, you’re reaching only people on Ancestry. It’s better to share in as many places as possible to reach as many people as possible.

Your Ancestry tree is not a long-term preservation strategy. When Ancestry announced its changes to its Terms & Conditions on August 3 and 5, 2021, I saw countless comments that the reason they have a tree on Ancestry “is so my research will outlive me.” Maybe, maybe not. There is nothing guaranteeing that the tree you post on Ancestry (or any other website) will be available in the long term. Businesses go out of business (even the ones we think of as “big.” Remember Blockbuster and Circuit City?)

For both of these reasons, I recommend approaching sharing like we should approach preservation and employ the LOCKSS principle: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe. This preservation principle is basically not putting all of your eggs in one basket. It’s why we do backups of our computers and have those backups in multiple locations. (You do have backups and in multiple locations, right?) If one fails, you have another copy elsewhere.

The more places we share our genealogy, the more people we reach and the more likely that our research will be preserved.

So how can we do that?

Blog Your Family History

There are so many advantages to writing, and blogging gives us an easy way to both write and to share. While blogging is likely less permanent than a book or a (traditionally) published article, it does get the information out there, where it can benefit other researchers. (Check out my tips for starting your own genealogy blog.)

There’s also the advantage that people can find your blog via a search engine like Google or Bing. This makes it an effective way of reaching a wide audience. Also, if you do have a public tree on Ancestry, you can go to an ancestor’s profile page and use the “add a weblink” feature to add a link to your blog post.

Write an Article for a Newsletter or Journal

Speaking as a former newsletter and journal editor, I can assure you that editors are always looking for more content. When I say “article,” I mean just that. It could be a page or two about one specific ancestor. Maybe you’ve worked out how two people are (or aren’t) related. Maybe you’ve researched your ancestor’s military service.

You can share your genealogy without writing something “new.” Perhaps you have a family Bible that you’re willing to transcribe the family record pages or a letter sent to your ancestor. Those make great articles!

Contact a genealogy society in the area where that person(s) lived and ask if they would be interested in that article and if they have any style or formatting guidelines to follow. Not only will you be reaching the members of that society, chances are that that society’s newsletter (especially if it’s in the US or Canada) will be indexed in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). That will allow even more people to discover it later.

Write a Book

I hope this one didn’t scare anyone off! A family history book doesn’t have to be a 400-page definitive tome of all of the descendants or ancestors of someone. Can you expand upon the bare facts of one particular family (the father, mother, and their children)? What about transcribing an ancestor’s diary, journal, or letters? How about one particular aspect of your family’s life (exploring their religion, occupation, or military service)?

Donate copies of the book to libraries and societies in the location(s) where that family lived. For even more exposure, donate a copy to major genealogy repositories, such as the Family History Library and the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library.

Donate Materials (or, At Least Copies)

Don’t feel like writing anything? Consider donating copies of some of your materials to relevant organizations. This is one of the most long-lasting ways to share your family history. I bet any historical society, genealogy society, or library would be thrilled to get a copy of a Civil War soldier’s journal from that area or copies of the family register from the family Bible.

Please note: if you ever decide to donate your unpublished research (notes, etc.) to a library or society, contact them first! Many (most) libraries have donation guidelines and cannot accept all donations of research collections.

Share on Social Media

Have you made a cool discovery in your family history? Consider sharing it on social media, like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Look for Facebook groups that are focused on where your ancestor lived (or some other aspect of your ancestor). It’s true that this method of sharing is rather fleeting, but it is a way to reach people.

Share with Your Family

Sometimes we overlook the obvious. When was the last time we shared something about our family history with our family? I don’t mean printing off an ancestor chart or giving them a copy of a random census schedule. When was the last time you told a story of an ancestor? When was the last time you shared a little tidbit? (If you’ve had bad experiences when trying to share with family members, check out my post “How Not to Bore People With Genealogy.”)

How about you? What ways have you shared your family history besides an online tree?

The post Easy Ways You Can Share Your Genealogy Beyond an Ancestry Tree appeared first on Amy Johnson Crow.