Genealogy Insider

101 Best Web Sites: Overseas Cemeteries and Stateside Resource

Diane — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:12:44 GMT

Here are two more of our 101 Best Web Sites for researching your family tree:

American Battle Monuments Commission: Search for almost 125,000 US War dead buried in 24 overseas cemeteries (the Corozal American Cemetery database also names civilians who worked on the Panama Canal), as well as more than 94,000 military commemorated on Tablets of the Missing.

USGenWeb Project: This sprawling, all-volunteer site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for every state and most counties within those states. Special records preservation projects cover subjects such as censuses, tombstones and family group sheets. Don't miss the easy-to-overlook search of the entire site or any one state.

See the rest of our 101 Best Sites in the Research Toolkit area of our Web site.

FamilyRelatives.com Adds Irish Wills and More

Diane — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:00:40 GMT

The UK subscription and pay-per-view data service FamilyRelatives.com has upped its content for Irish researchers.

The collection released today includes land records, the Ireland Topographical Dictionary (with descriptions of counties, cities, boroughs, corporate markets, post towns, parishes, and villages—good things to know about for finding your ancestors' records), indexes and abstracts of wills as far back as the 1400s, and more.

The abstracts of wills are significant because they were first published before the 1922 Four Courts fire in Dublin that destroyed the wills stored in the buildings.

FamilyRelatives.com subscriptions cost about $65 per year; pay per view units cost about $10 for 60 units that expire after 90 days. (Viewing a search results page costs two units; most records cost one unit each to view.)

World Archives Project Webinar Coming to a Computer Near You

Diane — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:16:27 GMT

If you’re interested in dipping a toe into the world of volunteer historical records indexing, Ancestry.com's free World Archives Project Webinar might be for you.

The hour-long Webinar will explain details such as how World Archives Project indexing works, the time commitment and benefits to volunteers. It's Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8 pm EDT, and you can register on Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com also holds free Webinars on such topics as researching German ancestry and preserving heirlooms. Click to sign up or watch archived sessions.

26 Basic Computer Tips

Grace — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:59:39 GMT

In the September 2008 issue's Toolkit, we revealed the answers to our readers' most common desktop dilemmas—answering questions such as how to print sideways, how to safely shop online and how to enlarge text on Web sites.

David Pogue of The New York Times recently posted in his blog 26 more basic tech tips—for using computers, cameras and the Internet—including gems like these:

You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.
You don’t have to type http://www into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: nytimes.com or dilbert.com, for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the .com part.)
You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command+Tab (Mac).

If you want even more pointers, browse through the comments—as of this morning there were more than 1,100 posts, many with more great tech tips.

Ohio County Gets Grant to Digitize Vital Records

Diane — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:45:21 GMT

Ancestry.com and FamilySearch are continuing their collaboration by cosponsoring a records digitization grant just awarded to the Probate Division of the Summit County Common Pleas Court in Akron, Ohio.

The grant, administered by the National Association of Government Archive and Records Administrators, is worth $150,000—but it’ll be delivered in the form of services rather than money.

FamilySearch will digitize 550,000 individuals' Summit County marriage records (1840 to 1980), 46,000-plus birth records (pre-1908) and more than 22,000 death records (also pre-1908).

Ancestry.com will create an index linked to the images that’ll be free on the probate court’s Web site, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com.

The project should be completed by the end of next year.

Free Database of the Week: Census Records of Nebraska

Grace — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:20:16 GMT

I picked up this great resource from our Nebraska State Research Guide: Census Records of Nebraska from Nebraska & Midwest Genealogical Record.

From the main page, you can view Nebraska territorial and state census extractions published in vols. 9-22 of the Nebraska & Midwest Genealogical Record, the journal of the Nebraska Genealogical Society. The database includes the 1854, 1855 and 1856 territorial censuses, plus a couple federal mortality schedules at the bottom of the page.

If you're hot on the trail of a Cornhusker ancestor, you can also browse surnames in the Nebraska & Midwest Genealogical Record name index.

A great reference to determine historical boundaries is Nebraska Counties, which has maps from when the territory was formed in 1854 to the state's last county name change in 1925.

Genealogy Software News: User Reviews, AGES-Online, Family Tree Maker

Allison — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:44:35 GMT

A few software tidbits that came across our desktops recently:

Wonder about other family historians’ opinions of the genealogy software you’re considering buying? Take a peek at Genealogy Software Reviews, a site dedicated to evaluations by average users.

It works much like the customer review sections on Amazon.com and other e-tailers: Users rate a product from one to five stars based on how much they use it and like it, as well as write comments about the software—which range from a sentence to several paragraphs (in general, don’t expect in-depth analysis).

Genealogy Software Reviews covers the full gamut of family tree software: full-featured programs, add-ons, freeware, shareware, more than 360 programs in all (who knew so many existed?). That does include some long-defunct programs, such as ROOTS and Ultimate Family Tree. We suggest searching for a particular program, or filtering by category to browse the type of program you’re interested.

Web-based genealogy software AGES-Online has improved the system so you can more easily collaborate with others on building your tree: You can now set up additional users within your account, and specify the level of access you want each one to have for adding and editing data. AGES offers a free 30-day trial, with subscription plans ranging from $39.95 to $109.95 a year.
Several folks have inquired about how to get their free upgrades to Family Tree Maker 2009. I did a little digging on the Ancestry corporate blog, and learned that registered version 2008 users were supposed to receive an e-mail with a download code for their free upgrade—but comments on the company blog and message boards indicate some didn’t receive their invitations.

A thread on the Ancestry blog says, “If you registered a US or Canadian 2008 version of Family Tree Maker and didn’t receive the email … please let us know here in a comment.” So post there, and if you don’t get a response within a few days, we suggest contacting that company directly at (800) 262-3787.

Coming Soon: Help for Genealogy Newbies

Allison — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:12:19 GMT

In keeping with the "behind-the-scenes" aspect of this blog, I thought I'd give everyone a sneak peek at one of the projects the Family Tree Magazine staff is working on.

Beginner's Guide to Genealogy is a primer that culls together some of our best articles on getting started tracing your roots. It's been fun to revisit "classic" advice we've published throughout the years—I've found at least a few nuggets of information I'd forgotten. (Which, for me, is really saying something—the staff accuses me of having a photographic memory of the entire magazine archive. It's what happens after you proofread every article four or five times. But I digress.)

Here's a sampling of topics in the Beginner's Guide:

overview of basic records
oral history interviewing
writing queries that get answers
Web search techniques

And a sneak peek at the cover:

Beginner's Guide to Genealogy will be available as a digital download from our online store by Oct. 15. Which means I better get back to work!

101 Best Web Sites: Online Newspapers

Diane — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:34:27 GMT

This week's installment of 101 Best Web Sites delivers two resources for paging through historical newspapers:

Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection
Click on the county map to see what's available and where to find it in this collection of nearly 450,000 digitized pages from 136 Colorado newspapers, published from 1859 to 1933. Coverage spans 71 cities and 41 Centennial State counties. You'll need Internet Explorer to get the most out of this site.

Newspaper Abstracts
Find your ancestors in the news—without getting ink on your fingers. At last count this volunteer project included nearly 52,000 pages of abstracts and extracts from historical newspapers, with an emphasis on items of interest to genealogists such as obituaries.

See the rest of the best sites in the Research Toolkit area of our Web site.

Technology in Plain English

Allison — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:43:26 GMT

With the online genealogy world embracing “Web 2.0,” you’re probably hearing a lot of related terminology that might confuse you a bit. Actually, I know you’re hearing it, because we use it on this blog and in the magazine—and since I’ve only learned about these things through writing about them, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that many of you would enjoy some accessible-to-the-average-person explanations of newfangled Web technology.

Enter the CommonCraft Show, which offers—you guessed it—“explanations in plain English.” On its YouTube channel, you’ll find short videos demonstrating social networking, Twitter, wikis, blogs and other online trends. I stumbled across CommonCraft’s RSS in Plain English video on the RootsMagic blog, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the videos convey the concepts in a way that’s accessible to anyone—and even entertaining.

Here's the RSS clip for your enjoyment:

FindMyPast Adds English Census, Baptism Records

Diane — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:01:48 GMT

If your ancestors were born or lived in London, you’ll want to take note of two new additions to FindMyPast’s paid-access online records:

In its ongoing effort to redigitize the 1901 English census—using new scanning technology to produce clearer images and better transcriptions than earlier versions of that same enumeration—the company added 4.6 million records covering the county of London.

This summer, FindMyPast and the Origins Network began working with FamilySearch to index the 1841 to 1901 British censuses (read our report). You can search the 1841 through 1861 indexes free on FamilySearch Record Search.

FindMyPast’s growing collection of parish records now includes 2.3 million new baptisms, including 346,000 from East London. The parish records are a joint project with the UK Federation of Family History Societies.

101 Best Web Sites: Military History and Records Portal

Diane — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:15:42 GMT

Peruse this week’s highlights from our 101 Best Web Sites for family history:

eHistory: We put this free Ohio State University site in our military research category for rich records of conflicts—including the The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. (the OR), battle overviews, Miller's Photographic History of the Civil War, maps and timelines.

Access Genealogy: Besides oodles of links, this free portal also serves up census, vital, immigration, cemetery and military records; plus biographies and such Native American essentials as the 1880 Cherokee census and the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes (aka the Dawes Rolls).

You can search by surname, or go to United States Genealogy to browse databases by title.

See the rest of our 2008 101 Best Web Sites picks on FamilyTreeMagazine.com.

Tales of Terrific Family Tree Teamwork

Diane — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:49:27 GMT

Waaaaaay back in April, to play up the promising possibilities of genealogical research collaboration, we asked for your entries in our Terrific Family Tree Teamwork Contest.

We heard a lot of great stories, but managed to winnow them down to the winners, who're portrayed in the November 2008 Family Tree Magazine. There’s something to learn from each example:

Our grand prize-winners, Bev Ophoven Ewing and Kathleen Lenerz, have never actually met. In 1998 they discovered a cousin connection online. Now, they tackle family mysteries by bouncing ideas around, building off each other’s thinking and divvying up research tasks.

Gwendolyn Cameron and her cousins wanted to learn about their great-grandfather, a Civil War veteran. They traced him to the state hospital where he'd died. The group organized a memorial service, and since our November issue went to press, the hospital has restored its historic graveyard. A rededication is scheduled for tomorrow.

In 2006, Melissa Hogan found a team in the Chilton County (Ala.) Yahoo! genealogy group. They turned out to be relatives, and set their sights on discovering the fate of an ancestor rumored to have served prison time.

Susie Bullion recruited her team by creating a memory quilt with squares relatives filled with stories. To share the history, she and her siblings typed up the stories, researched background information and turned them into a family memory book.

Valerie Craft’s family history research began as a college project that never ended. Her mom served both as fan and teammate, especially helpful in putting Valerie in touch with distant relatives.

All the teams won our State Research Guides CD; the grand prize also includes Family Reunion Organizer software from RootsMagic, a Web site from MyGreatBigFamily.com and free batch photo scanning from ScanMyPhotos.

See these and other teamwork tales in our Exclusives for Registered Users Forum (note you must be registered with the Forum and logged in to view this section).

Update Your Christmas Card List

Diane — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:53:39 GMT

Two recent genealogy industry name changes to note:

The genealogy networking site FamilyLink.com has become FamilyHistoryLink.com.

World Vital Records created FamilyLink.com, then chose FamilyLink.com as its new corporate name (World Vital Records stuck around as the name of the company's database service). The name change lets FamilyLink.com become a full-on corporate Web site while FamilyHistoryLink.com remains a networking site.

My Ancestors Found is now Family History Expos, reflecting the company's popular conferences. By the way, Family Tree Magazine is sponsoring the upcoming Expo Nov. 14-15 in Mesa, Ariz. Hope to see you!

Genealogy Resource Confusion? New Online Directory Promises Help

Diane — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:32:11 GMT

Genealogy Today’s Illya D’Addezio tells me he’s in the final steps of creating an online genealogy directory that’ll let you find and access multiple resources from one place.

Using the free Live Roots site, which launches Oct. 10, you can search a variety of genealogy databases and publishers’ catalogs, and learn where information from the same resource exists in multiple places, online and off.

With the same genealogy information frequently printed in books and hosted on numerous Web sites in a variety of forms (indexes, transcriptions, record images, narratives, etc.), this tool may help you sort out the confusion—and show you where to find the actual records all that data came from in the first place.

You'll be able to search Live Roots on a name, place or other keyword, then link to the online resources, learn how to access the offline ones, or click to commission a researcher who can get a record for you.

We’ll spill more details about the site as they’re available.

MyHeritage: Facebook for Families?

Diane — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:02:41 GMT

MyHeritage, the Israel-based genealogy site that made a splash a couple years back with its celebrity look-alike photo search, has made another step toward its goal to be “the Facebook for families.”

(This right after Footnote launched its “Facebook for the deceased.” Facebook has to be feeling really good about itself right now.)

MyHeritage just acquired Kindo, a London based, internationally focused online family networking service that’s reminiscent of Geni. Part of the deal has MyHeritage setting up operations in London.

Also boosting MyHeritage’s social networking aspirations is a recent $15 million venture capital investment (including funds from a former Facebook investor).

One more update: The site's new photo tagging technology uses the facial recognition feature that powered the celebrity look-alike search to let users automatically tag the people in their photos (similar to what Google is doing with its Picasa software).

Free Database of the Week: Immigrants' Deaths in Quarantine

Diane — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:39:20 GMT

After perusing the November 2008 Family Tree Magazine article on the book and documentary Forgotten Ellis Island, reader Joan Griffis tipped us off to a free resource: a listing of immigrants who died in quarantine before reaching Ellis Island.

Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, located in New York’s outer harbor, had hospitals that served as quarantine stations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most of the sick were immigrants whom medical inspectors removed from ships before they arrived at Ellis Island.

Griffis sent us a link to researcher Cathy Horn’s listing of 418 people who died at the quarantine stations from November 1909 through June 1911. Their names and death information come from death certificates in Richmond County, NY.

You can search the names or browse them. Check out the background information about the quarantine stations, too.

101 Best Web Sites: Free Immigration Info and Swedish Records

Diane — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:10:07 GMT

Here are the two 101 Best Web Sites picks we're highlighting this week:

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild: This guild of volunteers has tirelessly transcribed more than 8,000 passenger manifests, many from less-famous ports. Search by surname, captain's name, port of arrival or departure, and ship name.

And there's more: The guild’s Compass section offers how-to help for researching immigrants; a new adoption section has advice for adoptees and birth parents who want to reunite with their biological family members.

Genline: Genline delivers images of 16 million-plus pages of church records (virtually everything available) to your computer. Subscriptions start at about $23 for 20 days. You also can go to the resources section to learn Swedish terms you’ll encounter in your research and get how-to articles.

Link to the rest of our 101 list on FamilyTreeMagazine.com.

Footnote to Digitize Homesteaders' Case Files

Diane — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:17:44 GMT

Historical records subscription service Footnote is embarking upon a project to post hundreds of thousands of US homesteading records online.

Those records comprise land entry case files of people who claimed land under the Homestead Act of 1862, which opened the door for Americans to own government land in exchange for making improvements (such as residency, raising crops and planting trees).

A land entry case file might include an application for land, witnesses’ testimonials, military records, citizenship papers and more.

Footnote already contains 1,824 case files for people who registered homesteads at the Broken Bow, Neb., land office between 1890 and 1908. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had microfilmed these; the rest of the General Land Office (GLO) records are still on paper.

You can search land patents at the Bureau of Land Management’s GLO records site, but until your ancestor’s full land entry case file is digitized, you’ll need to order copies of it from NARA. If your ancestor applied for a land claim but didn’t “prove up,” the GLO database won’t contain a patent for him.

NARA, the National Parks Service, the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and FamilySearch are partners in the digitization project.

I Heart Awards!

Diane — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:56:07 GMT

A great big thank-you to Renee Zamora over at Renee’s Genealogy Blog, who honored us with the I Heart Your Blog award!

Now it’s my turn to nominate seven—only seven!—blogs I heart. (I tried to avoid any repeats.) Here are my picks:

Geneablogie
I’ll forgive lawyer Craig Manson for coming up with this blog title before we could. He offers thoughtful takes on topics you don’t see covered many other places.

The Genealogue
I love me some irreverent genealogy humor. Chris Dunham probably spent half his grade school career writing on the blackboard (I’m half afraid of what he’ll say about getting an I Heart Your Blog award.)

Granite in My Blood
I can definitely appreciate someone who appreciates a cemetery. Midge Frazel (who’s related to none other than Isaac Denison) posts a potpourri of intriguing gravestone photos, family photos and research updates.

Library of Congress Today in History Blog
The library's director of communications Matt Raymond researches blog-worthy historical events and then tells us about them . . . not a job I'd love at all.

Photo Detective
Besides writing our Photo Detective blog, Maureen A. Taylor keeps a photo news and research blog on her own site. It’s the first place I heard of a photosynth.

The Practical Archivist
Archivist Sally Jacobs has sound photo-preservation advice with titles like “The Chemical Sandwich of Doom.” And I couldn’t not like her blog description.

Q&Q Blog
I’m a writer, and Brian Klems of our sister magazine Writer’s Digest eloquently answers writers’ questions.

Here are the rules for award recipients:
1. Can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Must link to the person who gave the award
3. Must nominate seven other blogs and link to them
4. Must leave a comment on each of the nominated blogs