Everyone's Blog Posts - Looking 4 Kin Genealogy & Family History Network

Guidelines For Using Message Boards & Submitting Queries

2012-04-22T16:13:48.000Z

Guidelines For Using Message Boards & Submitting Queries

Posts to message boards, mailing lists, and newsgroups are great ways to connect with researchers with similar interests, to seek information, or to locate family members and can yield great results if they are written to gain the attention of potential cousins, or someone in a position to help you.

Resist impulse posting. Taking a few moments and care in writing a query will give your request a better chance for gaining someone’s attention rather than ending up being skimmed over on a message board or in their e-mail trash bins.

Be specificin the subject line. Use a name "DOE, John" instead of something vague like "Looking for" or "Family history" or "Help needed".

Post detailed informationrather than something that reads like "Looking for all information on John Doe". More information lessens confusion about what it is you are after and lets the reader know what you have. If your message is detailed, it will lend itself more toward attracting positive responses.

Separate your information into paragraphs:

Who Who are you looking for and what information you do have. Include: Full name, including any middle names or initials Birth, marriage, and death dates Places where the above events occurred
Residence and migration details Names of their children and / or their parents

WhatState what specific information that you are seeking: Need parents, wife, husband, children etc. of What is the maiden name of Or need obituary of etc.

When Narrow it down to a specific time frame if possible. If you don't known an exact date, make an educated guess. Use circa or aboutso readers will get an idea of what time period is indicated.

WhereState the area, as close as possible, that you are looking in.

Avoid abbreviations. Write out words like born, died, married, daughter, month, city, parish, county, state, etc.

Write out datesin standard genealogical format - Day, Month, Year (21 Sept 2004).

Limit your queryto a single surname or question. Too many requests will decrease your chances of a response.

Read your queryat least once before posting it. Make sure all the necessary information is included.

Successful queries should:Give information on a specific individual or research problem Give specific information without overwhelming the reader Have surnames in capital letters If you don't know a date, estimate the time period.

Thank anyone who responds to your query, whether you found the information helpful or not. If they tried to help you they deserve to be thanked.

These are merely my points of view and not a rule of thumb.

Rootstech conference 2012 Presentations online as viewable videos

2012-03-08T15:30:00.000Z

If you click on the following link you will be able to view some of the videos of the presentations made at the rootstech conference. Lots of good stuff there.

http://rootstech.org/#video-player

Hope you find this worthwhile.

bcrick

poem- Dear Ancestor - author unknown

2012-03-07T18:44:18.000Z

Genealogy Is

2012-02-20T21:01:30.000Z

Genealogy

According to the dictionary genealogy is:

1. A record or account of the descent of a family, group or person from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree.

2. Direct descent from a progenitor; lineage or pedigree.

3. The study or investigation of ancestry and family histories.

To me, however, genealogy is a whole lot more than those three dry sentences. It is finding my roots, my family, and my home.

It is seeing my grandparents as a young couple in a census record with their two baby girls; children who I know will be dead within the year. It is seeing my mother as a one-month-old child. It is seeing my great grandfather's signature on Civil War records and knowing that he and others like him must have gone through hell.

It is even finding the skeletons in the closets or the black sheep of the family.

It is finding that my family went through some terrible times, but also knowing that they survived.

It is seeing in my mind's eye the careworn faces of all of those who have gone on before me.

It is listening to old stories told by our elders and passing those precious stories down. It is writing down those stories and facts for our children and their children.

It is finding cousins I had not seen or heard from in fifty years. It is finding new cousins and new friends, people who have come to mean so very much to me.

It is the realization of how important family is. It is the realization of how important it is to honor those ancestors who came before us.

But most of all, it is the sharing of information with others who like me love the research. It is not just dusty records or words.

It is not only sharing the excitement of finding a new ancestor, but also sharing the frustrations of not be-ing able to find what you are looking for.

It is the bouncing of ideas back and forth of theories of what might be and commiserating with another when that theory falls through, which it often does. It is being able to say "Look! Look what I have found!" and knowing that your excitement will be shared and understood.

It is being able ask a question on a mailing list, knowing that what you are asking may be dumb but knowing that you will not be treated with disrespect.

It is people who give of their time and their energies to help you.

It is people who volunteer their time and energies to do lookups on the various county web pages. It is people who volunteer their time and energies for the various historical societies.

It is people who give of their time to transcribe old documents and microfilm, and who share that knowl-edge, whether it is through books sold by historical societies or on web pages.

It is people who go through old cemeteries and take the time to write down those who are buried there and share that knowledge gladly.

It is people who share old photographs, old letters and their old family stories, not expecting anything back other than a thank you and the knowledge that they have helped another in their family quest.

It is people who go above and beyond what is asked of them because they love genealogy. They love the fun of it, the frustrations of it and the excitement of it.

It is also the knowledge that you are passing down something of worth; that you are leaving behind a little something of yourself. It is the knowledge that through all of your research you may have made a difference, however small it may be.

That is a little of what genealogy means to me.

(author unknown)

Brick Walls - 10 tips for beginners

2012-02-16T23:00:00.000Z

If you go to legacyfamilytree.com/first click on the trainng tab and then view webinars. Once it comes up scroll down to the archived webinars it will be available for about 10 days its called Ten Brick Wall Tips for Beginners presented by Marian Pierre-Louis. This is an excellent webinar and may give you another approach to handling those brick walls its about 90 minutes long. Right now its free but in 10 days you will have to pruchase the cd if you want to watch it.

bcrick

New Item on Looking 4 Kin

2012-02-13T18:00:00.000Z

We have added a link to Alexa and would appreciate if our site users would take the time to write an honest review of Looking 4 Kin on:

After writing the review please check that it is posted as several have had problems getting their messages to post there.
We are # 61 today - Please help us make it to the top 50.
Alexa Top Genealogy Sites

How to confuse your descendants

2012-02-13T15:30:00.000Z

(1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, William.

(2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May.

(3) Thou shalt leave NO trace of your female children.

(4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey.---making them difficult to trace.

(5) Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where necessary, you may use only initials on legal documents.

(6)Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or misspelled, in various ways: Hicks, Hicks, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks.

(7) Thou shalt, after no more then 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplaced, burned in a court house fire, or buried so that NO future trace of them can be found.

(8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, & vague innuendo regarding your place origination.

(A) you may have come from : England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales....or Iran.

(B) you may have American Indian ancestry of the______tribe......

(9) Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names.

(10) Thou shalt leave NO family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths.

(11) Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.

(12) Thou must also flip thy parent's names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative.

(13) Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males, and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers.

Found on a rootsweb mailing list

Everything I needed to know about life I learned from a jigsaw puzzle.

2012-01-30T14:00:00.000Z

This was found on the internet. It is good advice for all of us

Everything I needed to know about life I learned from a jigsaw puzzle.

1. Don't force a fit. If something is meant to be, it will come together naturally.

2. When things aren't going so well, take a break. Everything will look different when you return.

3. Be sure to look at the big picture. Getting hung up on the little pieces only leads to frustration.

4. Perseverance pays off. Every important puzzle went together bit by bit, piece by piece.

5. When one spot stops working, move to another. But be sure to come back later.

6. The creator of the puzzle gave you the picture as a guidebook.

7. Variety is the spice of life. It's the different colors and patterns that make the puzzle interesting.

8. Working together with friends and family makes any task fun.

9. Establish the border first. Boundaries give a sense of security and order.

10. Don't be afraid to try different combinations. Some matches are surprising.

11. Take time often to celebrate your successes (even little ones).

12. Anything worth doing takes time and effort. A great puzzle can't be rushed.

Unknown

Searching Tip - using a "wild card".

2012-01-28T13:30:00.000Z

Searching Tip - using a "wild card".

After years of hitting my head on that brick wall without finding any information on my great-grandmother I tried, for the 1st time, to use a "wild card". A "wild card" is when you put an asterisk (*) in place of a letter.

I replaced a letter in her name with * (shift+8) and much to my disbelief I found her marriage listed on Manitoba Vital Statisticssite. More to my amazement was the fact she was married there as all family information pointed to her being married in Ontario before moving to western Canada.

I learned two valuable lessons from the above:

1. Never assume that a name was spelt the way you think it should be.

2. Never limit your area of research to where you think they should be.

Jodie

Previously publizhed in Looking 4 Kin Newsletter 10 December 2004

Rules For Genealogy - A bit of Humor

2012-01-24T14:40:36.000Z

Rules For Genealogy - A bit of Humor

1. Treat the brothers and sisters of your ancestors as equals ... even if some of them were in jail.

2. Death certificates are rarely filled in by the person who died.

3. When visiting a funeral home, wear old clothes, no make-up, and look like you have about a week to live ... the funeral director will give you anything you ask if he thinks you may be a customer soon.

4. The cemetery where your ancestor was buried does not have perpetual care, has no office, is accessible only by a muddy road, has snakes, tall grass, and lots of bugs ... and many of the old gravestones are in broken pieces, stacked in a corner under a pile of dirt.

5. A Social Security form SS-5 is better than a birth certificate because few people had anything to do with the information on their own birth certificate.

6. The application for a death certificate you want insists that you provide the maiden name of the deceased's mother ... which is exactly what you don't know and is the reason you are trying to get the death certificate in the first place.

7. If you call Social Security and ask where to write for a birth certificate, tell them it is for yourself ... they won't help you if you say you want one for your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather who died in 1642.

8. When you contact the state vital statistics office in your home state and ask if they are "on-line" and they respond, "on what?," you may have a problem.

9. A census record showing all twelve children in a family proves only that your ancestors did not believe in birth control.
10. Work from the known to the unknown. In other words, just because your name is Washington doesn't mean you are related to George.

11. With any luck, some of the people in your family could read and write ... and may have left something written about themselves.

12. It ain't history until it's written down. (See #19)

13. A genealogist needs to be a detective. Just give me the facts, ma'am.

14. Always interview brothers and sisters together in the same room. Since they can't agree on anything about the family tree, it makes for great fun to see who throws the first punch.

15. The genealogy book you just found out about went out of print last week.

16. A good genealogical event is learning that your parents were married.

17. Finding the place a person lived may lead to finding that person's arrest record.

18. It's really quite simple. First you start with yourself, then your parents, then your grandparents ... then you QUIT ... and start teaching classes in genealogy.

19. If it's not written down, it ain't history yet. (See #12)

20. In spite of MTV, computer games, and skate boards, there's always a chance that your grandchildren will learn how to read someday.

21. "To understand the living, you have to commune with the dead, but don't commune with the dead so long that you forget that you are living!"

The above was found on a RootsWeb Mailing List.

1940 USA Federal Population Census

2012-01-23T15:00:00.000Z

1940 USA Federal Population Census

The National Archives will release the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012. It will be available for online searching free of charge. The 1940 Census will not have a name index when it opens on April 2, 2012. In order to locate someone, you will need to know his or her address and the Census enumeration district in which that address was located.

What can you do now in preparation for the opening of the 1940 Census?

The National Archives site offers some excellent advice to prepare.

A Brief History of the Mennonites

2012-01-22T15:00:00.000Z

A Brief History of the Mennonites

Mennonites are a branch of the Christian church, with roots in the radical wing of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. Part of the group known as Anabaptists (because they rebaptized adult believers), the Mennonites took their name from Menno Simons (ca. 1496-1561), a Dutch priest who converted to the Anabaptist faith and helped lead it to prominence in Holland by the mid-16th century. His followers became known as Mennonites (Mennisten). He was not, however, as is popularly assumed, the founder of the movement in the Netherlands. He became its leader after it had been in existence in that area for a number of years. Mennonite is the most common designation since the mid-17th century for the largest continuing Christian tradition rooted in 16th century Anabaptism.

The first Mennonites came mainly from Swiss and German roots. To escape persecution, many Mennonites fled Western Europe for the more accommodating religious climate of the Americas or Catherine the Great's Russia, giving these two groups distinctly different cultural heritages. When the Russian Mennonites were eventually forced out of Russia in the last half of the 19th Century and the early 20th Century, many migrated to the western states and provinces, where today there is a large Mennonite population. Many people in the older generation of this group continue to speak a Low German dialect called "Plautdietsch" and eat traditional foods. Swiss German Mennonites migrated to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, settling first in Pennsylvania, then eventually across the midwestern states. They too brought with them their own traditions, including hearty foods and the German language. Today large Mennonites number almost 1 million worldwide, with churches in North and South America, Africa, and Europe.

The Amish, who separated from the Mennonites in the late 1600's, are widely known for their plain dress and rejection of modern technology and conveniences. Unlike the Mennonites, they form an exclusive and tight-knit community, with the church dictating much of what may or may not be done: for example, each local church district would dictate rules regarding the use of telephones, if indeed they are permitted at all. While certain conservative branches of the Mennonite church still dress simply and require women to wear head coverings, Mennonites generally are not culturally separatist, choosing to embrace the larger communities outside of their church rather than forming a separate community around the church. Where the Amish believe in keeping themselves spiritually focused by limiting their interaction with modern society, Mennonites believe in practicing Jesus' teaching of service to others in a broader context. Mennonites are known for their emphasis on issues such as peace, justice, simplicity, community service and mutual aid.

Enough said of the history, on to the Genealogy.

Once you have established that your ancestors were Mennonite, you then should establish the area which they came from. There are many areas in Russia that the Mennonite settled which I am familiar with. Now that you have established the specific area then you are on your way. There are many sites on the internet that are devoted to the specific areas separately and as a whole. Also there are many books that contain valuable information for the person who is doing Mennonite research. Several mailing lists are also available for the Mennonite researcher.

One of the problems that I found in doing my research was the naming patterns of the Mennonite. So many people with the same name in the same family tends to become confusing. Once you are used to it though it gets much easier. Also, while researching ship lists keep in mind that most Mennonites had Germanic names and that these names were easily misspelled when they landed in a foreign country. An example of this, after exhausting the passenger list for Goertzen, I could find nothing. I was about to give up when the name GIRKEN struck me as funny. After doing further digging I found that this was my Great Grandfather and his family. So keep in mind that not all the names may be spelled properly. Also keep in mind that many changed the spelling once they settled in the country of their choice to make the name more Anglicized. Thus Dueck may become and has become Dyck in some cases.

With all of this in mind you should be able to proceed in the beginnings of your search, although there are still those nasty brick walls that seem to jump out from no where.

Some links that I have found useful in my research Mennonite Genealogy Links

Written by a former chatter Go & previously used in a Looking 4 Kin Newsletter

MY ORIGINS - I Must Have One - but WHAT is it?

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000Z

The quest for family members of the past is an interesting venture. We live our day to day lives not considering many others outside of our nuclear family unit until one day an event explodes onto the scene, like a parent or grandparent death, to remind us that we too are not going to live forever.

This awakening for me occurred when one day I suddenly realised my grandmother was getting older, before my every eyes, and I did not know even where she had come from. She could not have always been old. My grandmother's husband had died as an old man a whole 3 years before I was born. Grandmother was born 1898, at a time when personal information was not given to anyone, especially grandchildren. Personal information which could be revealing secrets, and other information which she considered to be of no significance to anyone today, because all these details were about people who were long long dead.

"THE RECORDING OF A CEMETERY",

2012-01-06T03:00:00.000Z

"THE RECORDING OF A CEMETERY", by Thelma Greene Reagan

Today we walked where others walked, on a lonely, windswept hill;
Today we talked, where others cried, for loved ones whose lives are stilled.
Today our hearts were touched, by graves of tiny babies;
Snatched from the arms of loving kin, in the heartbreak of the ages.
Today we saw where the grandparents lay, in the last sleep of their time;
Lying under the trees and clouds, their beds kissed by the sun and wind.
Today we wondered about an unmarked spot; who lies beneath this hallowed ground?
Was it a babe, child, young or old? No indication could be found.
Today we saw where Mom and Dad lay. We had been here once before, on a day we'd all like to forget,
but, will remember forever more.
Today we recorded for kith and kin, the graves of ancestors past;
To be preserved for generations hence, a record we hope will last.
Cherish it, my friend; preserve it, my friend, for stones sometimes crumble to dust,
and generations of folks yet to come, will be grateful for your trust.