relatively curious about genealogy

What do not-so-local genealogical societies have to offer? PLENTY!

2011-11-30T17:14:00.000-08:00

Someone posted a question on Facebook today that actually startled me. She wrote, “what do the individual state societies offer?” For me the benefits seemed obvious - connect with researchers who are in the area that your ancestors lived, and access “local” databases and information. Well not only that, but joining a distant society broke one of my long-standing brick walls, so the concept is near and dear to my heart.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
To answer the question, “What do the individual state societies offer”? (and here I would include county societies as well, I’d like to start with the obvious - they offer information specific to their locale. Many larger societies take pride in their websites, and their collection of online databases, often compiled by volunteers from within their own group, indexing local records. I've seen not only cemetery lists and indexes, but vital records of all kinds - marriage and divorce records, obituaries, biographies - even on very small county-level society websites!

"PREMIUM" & JUST-PLAIN AWESOME DATABASES
A few societies also offer access to well-known premium databases with membership. Even if you don’t care to join a society, take the time to peruse the websites of those societies at both the state and county levels of where your ancestors lived. Many offer free databases, and/or links to other websites of interest for research in that area.

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Most all society memberships include a newsletter or magazine, ranging from bi-monthly to semi-annual publications. One great reason to join a distant society where you will most likely never attend a single meeting, is to be able to post queries in their publications. Many societies also offer discounts on publications they have for sale. Other benefits of society membership might include access to online webinars, powerpoint presentations, or lecture notes from past meetings. Most websites offer surname databases, which often link to other researchers working on those names.

INEXPENSIVE RESEARCH
Some memberships include discounted research rates. One society offered members research in their facilities by a volunteer genealogist for as little as $5/hour. But by far the best deal going, if you have Massachusetts ancestors in the Berkshire county area, is a $12 individual membership in the Berkshire Family History Association. Your membership includes two hours of research by a volunteer, in the Berkshire Athanaeum, the area library and archives. It was by taking advantage of this offer that I broke my brick wall on my distant grandfather, David Stevens. The researcher photocopied every resources that mentioned my ancestor, and one was a will listing him, along with several others that I knew for sure to be his siblings, as heirs to Eliphalet Stevens of Pittsfield.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SOCIETY
Sadly, many genealogical society websites begin with pleas for members to show interest so they can continue as a society. The extreme opposite of those sites, was the one society that stated if you didn’t attend at least 5 meetings in a year, you would be dropped from active membership.

While I’ve only addressed US genealogy societies in this post, however I am certain that the same is true of other countries.

Finally, I’d just like to share a few special deals, in addition to many of the above-mentioned benefits of genealogical society membership offers that I found by perusing the web:

ARIZONA
West Valley Genealogical Society Ind. $35, Couple $60
- Access to Footnote & World Vital records in library and in home

CALIFORNIA
Southern California Genealogical Society From $35/year
- From-home use of Access NewspaperARCHIVE
- 24-hour access to archived sessions of the Jamboree Extension Webinar Series

CONNECTICUT
Berkshire Family History Association Ind. $12, Fam. $14, Student $5
- Two hours of research time by a genealogist in the Berkshire Athanaeum. (photocopy charges extra).

Middlesex Genealogical Society Ind. $25, Fam. $30
- A membership card which gives you access to vital records at town and city record offices in Connecticut. (Many of the Connecticut societies offer this)

INDIANA
Indiana Genealogical Society Ind. $30, Joint $35
- Access to 696 databases, representing all 92 Indiana counties

NEW YORK
NY Genealogical & Biographical Society Ind. $60 - 1 yr, $100 - 2 yr
- So many proprietary databases, its an absolute must for research New York ancestors

OHIO
Ohio Genealogical Society Ind. $35, Joint $40
- Home access to World Vital Records

NEW ENGLAND
New England Historical & Genealogical Society Ind. $79.95
- A kajillion New England databases. Worth every penny if you have New England ancestors.

These are just a few of the additional benefits of membership that these societies offer. Spend some time checking out their websites. You just might break your own brick wall.

This is the face of genealogy

2011-06-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

This post is in response to a recent newspaper article about the upcoming So Cal Jamboree, which featured, as it's "artwork" a hideous picture of two toothless rednecks, along with the caption "Inbreeding". Sure, we all may have a few toothless rednecks in our history, but they are OUR toothless rednecks, and they are OUR strange aunts and uncles, and OUR quirky parents or grandparents. The face of genealogy is OUR family. The true face of genealogy is the representation in a photograph of the love, patience and determination that is FAMILY. *That* is the face of genealogy.

Anything PC can do, I(pad) can do better..

2011-06-05T06:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the title may be a stretch, but I can't help hearing tune from "Annie Get Your Gun" playing in my head.

I just installed an app for the Ipad that really expands the capabilities of the Ipad. The Splashtop application was $2.99 for the ipad, and free to download on your PC, Mac or laptop. Once installed and running, with your laptop or PC on, plus an internet connection, you can make your Ipad actually operate as if it were your PC. You can open files, make changes, save, create new documents in any program that you have on your PC right from your Ipad, as if you were on your PC. As their webpage says (http://www.splashtop.com), "With Splashtop® Remote Desktop, you can fully access and control your PC in any way imaginable."

Accessing the program actually makes your PC desktop screen appear on your Ipad, and you just go from there. You can work in any of your genealogy programs, like Legacy, RootsMagic, PAF, etc. You can open and work in Word, Excel, and even play games you have on your PC - It will even run Flash programs (yep, that means Facebook games like Farm Town, etc!) Heck, you can even run Second Life on your Ipad using this.

If you want to transfer files from your PC to your Ipad, using Splashtop in association with your Dropbox is the way to go. Open Splashtop to access your PC. Put the files you want to transfer into your PC Dropbox. Open Dropbox on your Ipad, open the file you want, then save it to your Ipad. Voila! No cables, no syncing.

It's really easy to use, and really extends the limitations of the Ipad.

Summertime in Arkansas means War

2011-05-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

There are so many awesome events going on this summer around the United States... well, okay, mostly around the South ... celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. My father lives in Arkansas, and emailed me this list of events sanctioned by The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission for the month of June. It sounds like Civil War buffs will be in hog heaven this summer! Please see http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/events/ for details about these events and more information
.
ARKANSAS CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL EVENTS FOR JUNE
* 11th Annual Natural State Chautauqua, a living history and teacher in-service program at the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover June 2 and 3.

* 22nd Annual North Arkansas Ancestor Fair, a genealogical workshop, Civil War lecture series and genealogy swap meet in Marshall June 3 and 4.

* Southern Memorial Day, a commemoration of the Confederate dead at the Fayetteville Confederate Cemetery June 4.

* Civil War Event, a day-long program about the lives of soldiers and the battles and activities of the Civil War in southeast Arkansas at Lake Chicot State Park on June 4.

* African-American Legislators, 1868-1893, a day-long June 11 seminar, sponsored by the Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas History Commission, on Arkansas’s Reconstruction-era black legislators, including a session on why African Americans commemorate the Civil War.

* Confederate History Weekend and Cannon-Firing Demonstration, occurring all day June 11 at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.

* DAH Teacher Professional Development: “The Civil War in Arkansas,” a series of summer professional development workshops presented by the Department of Arkansas Heritage at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Little Rock, June 14; Northwest Co-op, Farmington, June 16; Old State Museum, Little Rock, June 24; Southeast Co-op, Monticello, June 30.

* Grand Opening for Hindman Hall, unveiling the new exhibits in the revamped visitor center at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park June 18.

* Teacher Workshop: “The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War in Arkansas,” an Arkansas State University Heritage Sites Summer Teacher Workshop at Lakeport Plantation in Chicot County June 22.

* Summer Theatre Camp, a two-week, Civil War-themed theater camp sponsored by the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas June 13-24.

* Celebrate Juneteenth Performance, a June 25 performance by participants in the theater camp sponsored by the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff.

and the winner is...

2011-04-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

The name drawn completely randomly (with my eyes closed and each name on a little slip of paper in a big bowl) to win the one year Geni.com Pro Account was.... (drum roll please) Gloria Motter. Congratulations Gloria, and thanks to everyone that entered.

Win a 12-month Geni.com Pro Account! Hurry!!!

2011-03-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

The good folks over at Geni.com have given me the opportunity to give away a 12-month Geni.com Pro Account to one of my lucky blog readers. Your odds may be pretty good, considering there are what, about four of you out there? But since I spent Monday and Tuesday travelling, I'm a little slow getting this posted, and now you only have until this Friday, April 1st (no fooling!!) to enter.

Geni.com is a genealogy and social networking site where you can build your family tree, search for relatives, and invite other family members to collaborate (or not). While a basic account is free, a Pro account offers all sorts of bells and whistles that make connecting to others a breeze, among other things.

To enter, 1., sign up for a free Geni.com account. Then, 2. send an email to me at RelativelyCurious (at) gmail.com by this Friday, April 1st at 3:00 p.m. with GENI in the subject line. I will randomly choose a winner from the entries.

But wait, there's more! You can also enter over at the Geni.com blog itself. Just read through their instructions on how to enter, and increase your chances of winning!

Hurry! and Good Luck!!!

Some handy tips for organizing your research with Evernote

2011-03-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Evernote is a wonderful computer tool that I love to use to organize my genealogy research projects. With Evernote, you can create a folder for each project, and easily organize your notes by surname, location or however you like.

ACCESS ANYWHERE
Your Evernote account is resident online as well as on your computer so you can log in and access your information from any computer. You can download an Evernote ap to your mobile device, and access your data anywhere, anytime. And if all devices are internet connected, your data will automatically sync without any effort on your part.

CLIP AND SAVE
One of the features that I really love is being able to save anything from part of a web site to the entire page. When I am at a website with text that interests me, or an image such as a photo or even an entire census record, all I need do is click on the handy Evernote icon installed along my browser bar, and a box pops up asking me what to title the saved clipping, how to tag it, and which notebook I’d like to save the page or highlighted copy to. By using this button, the URL of the page is automatically included in the note, so I can easily click on it again from my note page, and return to the exact web page I had saved.

TAG!
The ability to "tag" saved clippings makes it very easy to find them again. I will usually tag by surname, record type, and location. Another tag I use a lot is “unsure” . I use this one when I find information that seems to be related to the family but I am as yet not sure if it belongs or not. By easily saving it off, though, I don’t have to try to remember where it was later on, when I’ve determined that the person in fact was a cousin, or brother, or whatever.

With the ability to collect, tag and save all the cool stuff I find in my internet research, it reduces the number of times I revisit the same websites.

This what my desktop version of Evernote looks like. All my notebooks run down the left side. The highlighted notebook's index runs vertically next to that. You can choose several ways of viewing it - this is the "mixed view". And to the right of that is the higlighted notebook page, including the title of the page, the URL where the original was located, and any tags that I have added.

ORGANIZE YOUR RESEARCH
I keep a checklist page in each of my genealogy folders. This also helps me quickly see what I have and what I don’t have in terms of the basic information I want for everyone. I created the table in Word and cut and pasted it into Evernote. I make this my first note in any new research folder. The second note is the State Vital Records Availability Chart that Family Tree Magazine offers on their website, so I can easily check to see what years records were kept for the United States.

I also love that I can print out an entire notebook, complete with images, URLs and tags if I want. I can email notes to others too. It’s very handy.

APPS GALORE!
There are several add-ins and phone apps that you can download to use with your Evernote as well. There is a voice-to-text program that will turn any of your audio notes into text. There is a “smartpen” you can buy that will record audio as well as capture anything you write and turn them into Evernote notes as well, making transcribing an oral interview with your grandmother a breeze. Snap photos with your phone’s camera and import them directly into your Evernote folders easily. A variety of phone apps give you the ability to filter and organize your Twitter streams and save tweets into your Evernote as well. You can even record phone calls as audio notes and save them into Evernote. All of these are available by clicking on the “Trunk” button on the top of your Evernote screen.

There is a free version, limiting the amount of usage per month, or a paid version with unlimited usage. I started out with the free one, but found I was using it so much that the paid version fit my needs better, and has definitely been worth the minimal investment. It saves a lot of work printing out internet findings and trying to keep them filed and organized.

30% Discount on New Memberships at Ancestry.com

2011-03-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

I'd heard about this a while back, but just today verified it for myself - and it's true!

If you go to your local LDS Family History Center, all of which are free to use and open to the public, ask them to show you how to use their library version of Ancestry.com through their "portal". From the opening screen there will be a "sign up" offer on the right side of the screen. When you enter your email address, it will email you an offer to start a new membership for, currently, $99 for a US Deluxe (instead of $155), or $199 for a World Deluxe (instead of $299). It is only good for NEW memberships, and not for renewals or existing memberships, though. But still, definitely a GREAT DEAL!!

Day 2 at RootsTech

2011-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

The schedule of classes here at RootsTech 2010 is so interesting, but I've yet to have time enough to attend even one! My morning started early today, at a VIP Breakfast put on by the nice folks at FamilySearch.org. I considered turning off my alarm and sleeping in, but decided it would be fun to talk with other folks there, and went. Glad I did - we had assigned seats with name cards, and it was very obvious who didn't come! The idea with the seating chart was for folks to talk with people they probably hadn't met yet. Funny thing was that I was seated next to Laura Prescott, president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. I'd met her last year, but we've gotten to know each other much better at this conference - seems every time I turn around we're bumping into one another! I also got to sit at the next table over from some other dear friends, Lynell and Fred Moss from Plano Texas, and also Gena Philibert Ortega, from GenealogyWise. Anyway, the FamilySearchfolks gave us each a flash drive with lots of good info on it, and a printed program that contained the photo and bios of everyone there. It was very casual, great conversation and a wonderful way to start off the day.

After breakfast, I wandered the exhibit hall just a bit, and talked with Louise St Denis of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies a bit, about the classes that she offers through her certificate program.

I talked with Grant Brunner from Geni.com, and decided I'd really like to learn more about their website when I get some free time, and I think I convinced him to try out Second Life and maybe come and talk to our genealogy community there about what Geni.com has to offer. Yeah, thats me, always thinking of SL...

I think I convinced another fellow of the same, but i'll be darned if I can remember his name. He was at the booth with this really cool iphone/ipod ap called Traces Of The Past. He admitted that right now, for $3.99, the functionality is a little bit limited, but, he assured me, that there next software update, which will be included in the current price if you buy now, will be AWESOME! I saw a demo, and, well, gotta agree with him there on the AWESOME part! With this app, from your ipod or iphone, you will be able to search the Historical Records being indexed on the FamilySearch.org website - and actually bring up the images! You will also be able to access your family files if you have them stored at either new.familysearch.org, or Geni.com.

And speaking of FamilySearch (again), yesterday a fellow mentioned that they are working on an INDEXING APP for mobile devices! Imagine how cool -- waiting in line, you can index a couple of names and get one step closer to having all those 2.5 million rolls of microfilms indexed and accessible. Sounded like a great idea to me at least...

Anyway, after wandering the exhibit hall just a bit, I headed to the the Blogger's media center, where I ran through my afternoon class's powerpoint one last time and saved it off to my new flash drive. How convenient was that?

At 11:30, I'd been asked to meet with some fine folks from FamilySearch.org. They are sincerely interested in the opinions of users, and I really felt my comments were noted and appreciated. One of these gentlemen, Craig H. Miller, Senior Vice President of Family Search, gave me a little peek at one of the products they are thinking about developing. It would be a search tool, where you enter the name you are searching, then hover your cursor over an area on the map rather than choosing a specific state, or county. Imagine the possibilities this means - rather than having to search specifically through every adjoining county to find where that errant ancestor ran off to get married, this "hover" feature will look for any record that includes your search term name, within a given distance of your cursor, irrespective of county or any other type of boundaries. I thought it was a really cool feature and I certainly hope they pursue it.

Shortly thereafter I was interviewed by blogger, Joan Miller who authors the Luxegen Genealogy Blog (http://www.luxegen.ca/). It was "interview Tami" day, I guess, considering later in the afternoon I was also interviewed by Drew Smith, author of Social Networking for Genealogists, and half of the 'Genealogy Guys' podcast. Drew is also a part of our group of genealogists in Second Life, and I think I've convinced him to speak to our SL chapter APG group in the near future.

My only class today was at 1:45 and I spoke on "Finding Your Family Stories Online", a lecture I love giving, as it I really love putting "flesh on the bones" so to speak, by finding stories about ancestors and the times they lived in, so they aren't just names and dates on a black and white pedigree chart. But oh my gosh! They had me presenting in the same room that Curt Witcher had given the opening talk in this morning - you know, the one with the tiled shower stall backdrop? (still chuckling over that comparison). Its a HUGE room, with a stage, and geez, must be a dozen big screens all over the front of the room. But the really weird part was just the minute before my presentation was to start, what sounded like it could only have been the "voice of God" booming through the room that "the presentation will begin in one minute". At least I didn't trip walking over to the podium!

My presentation was very well received, and among the folks who came up to ask questions afterwards was a small group of women who apologized profusely that they hadn't been able to make my class yesterday on Cool Tools, because (and they seriously sounded annoyed) they'd had to attend a funeral instead. Gosh. I felt honored in a weird sort of way! So I invited them back to one of the unconferencing areas later in the afternoon. RootsTech has set up all these awesome areas for people to get together and share information - like the one we met at, with a few sofas set up together, and a laptop I could pop my flash drive into, projecting my presentation on a large TV screen. I had my interview with Drew Smith coming up, but we raced thru the Powerpoint, covering the highlights. It was really fun. I love the opportunity to share great internet tools and websites with folks any time that it works out to do so!

The HIGHLIGHT of the day, though, was being able to hold our SL chapter APG meeting in the computer lab at the Family History Library. DearMYRTLE was a lifesaver, as she helped with the technical end while I worked at getting the meeting in order. We had a bit of technical difficulties at the start, but with the help of the incredible staff there at the FHL, we were able to project a laptop screen of Second Life to a live audience, and have the sound on speakers. Craig Scott, CG, owner of Heritage Books and military records expert, spoke to our group as his avatar, Krag Marriner, on Civil War research. It was a wonderful presentation, packed with great information. Not only did folks learn about how to find information on their military ancestors, they got to see how we operate in Second Life, that we learn AND have fun too.

I've got a few things up my sleeve for tomorrow, but nothing I have to set my alarm clock for, fortunately. I'm hoping to get to at least one class tomorrow, but if not, I'll get some more vendor information at least - there are some really cool products out there in that vendor hall, that's for sure!

RootsTech Rocks!

2011-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

This kind of conference is so long overdue, and it's absolutely amazing. RootsTech has barely just begun, and already has proven itself to be the most cutting edge of the convergence (catch word of the day) of genealogy and technology. The exhibit hall is bursting with technology companies, genealogy services and products to streamline and make your research and preservation seamless and simple. I'm so excited about all the possibilities being presented, and can't wait to talk to as many vendors as I can here, and hopefully report back here, and in some of our Second Life discussions. That's all I have time for right now... there's sooo much to do - and when I'm done, I think I'll head to the microsoft playground and play some pingpong.

SL chapter APG -- February is a Time to Celebrate! Again!

2011-02-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) is an organization for, well, obviously, professional genealogists, but really, it is an excellent organization for anyone who strives for professionalism in their research. Whether you take clients or not, if you follow the rules and guidelines for APG members, you will be the best genealogist you can be.

I learned so much from the first APG chapter that I joined. I met so many excellent and friendly genealogists, and developed friendship and camaraderie with them, and appreciate those relationships that helped shape my professional career.

The downside to that chapter was that we only held about two meetings a year, and I had to drive over four hours to attend those meetings.

As I became active in the genealogy community in the virtual world Second Life, I was excited about the possibilities that this format offered for relating to other genealogists. I met genealogists from all around the world. In addition, I met genealogists who were women with small children, parental caretakers, or those with health issues that precluded their getting out for meetings. I met those who appreciated meeting with other genealogists in Second Life because it was too difficult to get to real life genealogy meetings - the wrong side of town, too far a drive, too long away from home... many reasons.

When two of my Second Life mentors, Clarise Beaumont and Krag Mariner brought up the idea of an APG chapter meeting in Second Life, I knew it was an important step to take. Despite opposition from people who didn’t understand the virtual world setting, or those who still shied away from computer use at all, we somehow were able to convince the decision makers that this type of chapter was, not only cutting edge, but also an important direction for the APG to embrace. The SL chapter of the APG was approved in the Fall of 2010. Our members come from all around the world, from many backgrounds, and many levels of genealogical experience, from those who are wanting to learn to be professionals, to those with 20, 30 or more years experience. We are a friendly inviting group, and try to make everyone feel welcome.

The upcoming February 2011 meeting marks the anniversary of our very first organizational meeting. It is also planned to be a very major event. We will be holding our monthly meeting, as always, in the virtual world Second Life, at the Just Genealogy fire pit. But what is extra special is that we will be projecting our meeting to a live audience at the very first RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City. Our speaker in our SL meeting, will be the real-life Craig Scott, CG, military records expert and owner of Heritage Books. While our meetings are usually held in text, February’s meeting will be a voice presentation, so plan on turning up your speakers!

While we strongly encourage membership in APG, our meetings are open to anyone. February’s meeting will be Friday, February 11 at 6:30 p.m., as I said, at the Just Genealogy fire pit, in Second Life. If you plan to be at RootsTech, find us Friday night in our assigned room at the Family History Library, at 6:30 pm Pacific Time (that will be 7:30 p.m. there in Salt Lake City).

If you want to join our genealogy community, sign up for a free account in Second Life at www.SecondLife.com. And if you’d like a little practice in-world beforehand, come to the weekly “Meet & Greet”, held Mondays at 5-6:00 p.m. Pacific Time, in Just Genealogy. I’m Genie Weezles in Second Life, and I’d love to show you around. Add me to your friends list, or email me your Second Life name and I’ll add you to mine (genieweezles@yahoo.com). I'm Tami Osmer Glatz in real life, and president of this awesome chapter of APG.

Hope to see you in Second Life.

Approaching your Genealogy problems Creatively

2011-01-28T16:01:00.000-08:00

I know it's now the end of January, but I tend to be a little slow to get going in the morning too, so why would a new year be any different? My goal this year has been to try to collect all of the information that I have, and determine what information might yet to be collected, in my search to prove that Burpee Prouty was the father of “my” Mary Prouty.

I’ve collected so many tidbits of information over the past few years regarding this question, and have yet to piece them together - kind of like saving up pieces of fabric for a scrap quilt. I was having a hard time deciding where to start, so I turned to a creative writing technique that always works for me, and that is a process called ‘mind-mapping’.

In the past, mind-mapping meant grabbing a clean pad of paper, and a good sharp pencil and scribbling notes and ideas in bubbles with connecting lines and such. Well guess what! There are now several programs available for free, online, that will do this for you.

My absolute favorite is called BubblUs (https://bubbl.us). As with many web programs, you need to sign up for a free account with the usual basic information. With a free account from BubblUs, you can have only three saved sheets. But personally, I don’t work on many more than that at one time.
When you’re creating your account, one of the options is to “allow others to find/add me to contacts”. Definitely check this box if you plan to share your sheets with someone else, and work together.

The “Help” button has a quick tutorial on how to get started, an explanation of Features by Topic, and Keyboard Shortcuts. Honestly, though, of all the mind-mapping programs available online, one of the reasons I like BubblUs the best is that you almost don’t even need to read the instructions - you can just jump right in and start brainstorming.

You can easily change font sizes, bubble colors, and move things around.

Once you’ve drained your brain of thoughts on the topic and save it, it saves it to your online account. You also have the option of exporting your mindmap as a .jpg or .png image, or as an html outline.

If you need more than the 3 free saved sheets that come with the free account, their “Basic” count is $3/month for up to 10 sheets, and “Premium” account is $6/month or $59/year for unlimited access.

The site mentions that there is a discount available to students and teachers, and that either your email address must end in .edu, or you need to email them a copy of your student or teacher ID that is current within a year. I couldn’t find what the discount was, however, but it might be worth looking into if you fall into that category.

Another one of the other mindmapping sites available is Mind42 (http://www.mind42.com) - named not only after the fact that 42 is the answer to Life the Universe and Everything (ok, at least it is for Douglas Adams fans)... but also means Mind FOR TWO, indicating the ability to collaborate on your mindmaps. Mind42 also offers a minimal account for free, but the visual is a bit different - everything lays out very horizontally, although you do have the ability to add pictures and web links directly.

If you’re more concerned with how cool or fancy your mindmap looks, you might want to try out Spicy Nodes (http://www.spicynodes.org). It definitely has the coolest visuals, and several options and colors to choose from. Like the other sites, there is a free basic account, but one of the big differences here is that your saved mindmaps become publicly searchable. As a genealogist, this can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing - Good if you are hoping to find someone who has that last missing piece to your puzzle, or Bad if you are stingy with your research and don’t want anyone else to know who your 10th great grandfather was because he is all yours... yeah, right.

MindMeister (http://www.mindmeister.com) is similar to the Mind42 in its horizontal layout format, but offers a mobile ap so that you can work from your handheld device, thus their slogan “be productive anywhere, anytime”. Finished maps can be published to blogs and websites, but I’m not sure that MindMeister has much in the way of free components. Personally I found it a bit confusing to use, and since I’d already found other mindmapping sites that didnt require me reading the instructions, I didn’t pursue it much further.

Whatever you go with, let the creative side of your brain have a chance to work on your genealogy puzzles. You might be surprised with yourself.

Home on the Range

2010-11-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

After receiving an invitation to the Second Great American Local Poem And Song Genealogy Challenge, I immediately began reflecting on the poets in my family history, and Dr. Brewster Higley came immediately to mind. Granted he's a fourth cousin, five times removed, but still related nonetheless!

Dr. Brewster M. Higley wrote the following poem in 1873 while he was living in the cabin of his homestead on Beaver Creek, New Gaylord, Smith County, Kansas. At the urging of friends, he showed his verses to Dan Kelley, a member of the Harlan Brother orchestra. Kelley had been a bugler in the Union army during the Civil War and had the ability to compose music. On his way home, Kelley hummed while he thought about Dr. Higley's poem. Once home, he wrote down the notes on a piece of wrapping paper, and hummed the tune and played it on his violin until it was safely fixed in his mind. Click HERE to hear the song. Read more about it at NPR.org

The Western Home

Oh, give me a home
Where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play'
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

"Chorus"
A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Oh, give me land the land
There the bright diamond sand
Throws its light on the glittering stream
Where glideth along
The graceful white swam
Like a maid in her heavenly dream.

Oh, give me the gale
Of the Solomon vale
Where the life stream of buoyancy flows
On the banks of the Beaver
Where seldom, if ever
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

I love the wild flowers
In this bright land of ours,
I love, too, the wild curler's scream
The bluffs and white rocks
And antelope flocks,
That graze on the mountain so green.

A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard
A discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

How often at night
When the heavens were bright
By the light of the twinkling stars,
Have I stood here amazed
And asked as I gazed
If there glory exceeds that of ours.

The air is so clear,
The breeze so pure,
The zephyr so balmy and light;
I would not exchange
My home here on range
Forever in assure so bright.

A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where never is heard
A discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

(Thanks to the Kansas Heritage Group, http://www.kansasheritage.org)

APG approves first Virtual chapter!

2010-09-07T11:31:00.001-07:00

The following is the official press release from the Association of Professional Genealogists. As president of the new Second Life Chapter of APG, I'm so excited about the opportunities that this group provides -- allowing access to professional ideas, presentations, and comraderie to anyone with internet access, anywhere in the world. Meetings are the 2nd Thursday of each month, at 5:30 Pacific Time, and are held in the virtual world Second Life, at the Just Genealogy Fire Pit. Contact me directly if you have any questions about the group! Here's that press release:

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) announced today that its board has approved two new chapters for the organization. The Northland Chapter will serve members from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The board also approved the organization’s first virtual chapter, to be held in Second Life. Both chapters have commenced operations as of today.

“We welcome these new chapters and the support they will provide to our members,” said APG President Laura Prescott. “These chapters will benefit underserved geographies, both real and virtual. The board and executive committee discussed at length the implications of chartering a virtual chapter and felt that it would be an exciting and effective alternative for members who don’t have a local chapter or who cannot attend meetings in real life.”

Northland Chapter to Cover Much Ground
The Northland Chapter serves a broad region of northern states that are not currently served by an APG chapter. Chapter organizers, Sandy Mochal Thalmann, sandy@authenticorigins.com, and Jay Fonkert, CG, jfonkert@aol.com, have centered the operation in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Virtual Chapter in Second Life Provides a New Outlet for Professional Collaboration
The Second Life APG Chapter meets in Second Life and is open to all members anywhere in the world with Internet access, who may use their Second Life avatar personas. The chapter plans to meet monthly to preview and critique presentations in progress, discuss research resources, and share ideas about professional business practices and standards. Tami Glatz, or Genie Weezles in Second Life, is the contact, tglatz (at) gmail.com.

Ordering FHL microfilm from your home

2010-07-14T06:26:00.001-07:00

I recently heard a rumour about the possibility for individuals to order microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City -- online from their own homes -- and decided to look into it just a bit. I was thinking about how convenient that would be, to be able to peruse the FHL Catalog from home (from the Library tab at www.FamilySearch.org), and be able to go ahead and order films immediately without having to wait until the local Family History Center was open to get that order in. Of course the IDEAL situation would be where you could peruse the catalog, order the film, and then view it digitally IMMEDIATELY... and I certainly hope that is on tap for the future. But for now, I suppose I would be happy with just ordering online.

Anyway, what I discovered was that the ability for patrons to order films online and have them delivered directly to their local Family History Center of choice has already been introduced in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (https://films.familysearch.org/). Canada was supposed to be enjoying that luxury right about now, however, the Canadian Government just changed it's taxing structure and the Church was forced to delay the implementation of OnLine Film Ordering in Canada until the Canadian Government works out the details with regard to how microfilms and microfiche will be taxed.

And of course, the date given for the initiation of OnLine Film Ordering in the United States was "in the near future"... which as y'all know, means "don't hold your breath"!

Toolbar nears 1,000 Downloads! Win A Prize!

2010-07-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy howdy!!! Oh my gosh I've been so busy lately, and neglecting my dear blog, so here is a long overdue post - and you can win something from it too! I was adding a few sites to the Internet Genealogy browser toolbar this morning and happened to check the stats on it - 981 downloads! Wow!

I'm pretty sure that most people using it like it, but I dont often hear back, just from a few. So what I thought I'd do, is since its so close to a landmark ONE THOUSAND downloads, Im going to make this offer... I'm going to ask you to tell your friends about the toolbar - send them the link to the download, and ADD A COMMENT to this blog post including your favorite feature or website on the toolbar, and be sure to include your name! As soon as the toolbar reaches 1,000 downloads (and thats only 19 more, so really soon...) I will draw a random name from the blog comments (even overseas!) who will win a free copy of RootsMagic 4 Genealogy and Family Tree Software! This is a really great program for organizing your family history records. If you already have a copy, share it with another family member to help them get started working on genealogy research with you.. And share the toolbar with them, too!!! http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com

p.s. - your comment won't show up right away ... helps stop spamming, so don't panic, it will be there soon!

Funeral Card Friday

2010-04-02T18:11:00.001-07:00

I came across this funeral card just last weekend, in a box of family papers that my father had sent home with me a while ago. It was great timing to be invited to participate in Funeral Card Friday!

Back side of the card has a piece of masking tape (*shudder*) on which is written: Milo Thompson's Mother

Eliza Thompson, died March 11, 1912, Age 65 years. Gone but not forgotten.

Her obituary, from an unsourced newspaper clipping found in with family papers, reads” Death: West Farmington, March 11. Mrs. Eliza Thompson of this place died this morning after an illness of several months. She was born in Southington in 1846 and lived her early life there. She graduated from the Western Reserve seminary at West Farmington in 1868. She married O. Thompson in 1876. They lived on a farm in Farmington for a number of years removing here 12 years ago. Mr. Thompson died in 1907.
Mrs. Thompson is survived by one son, Milo, of this village, two step sons, one brother and six grandchildren. A brother, Lot Allen, lives at Lincoln, Nebraska.
The funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon at one pm, conducted by Rev. Peck.

Eliza Mary Allen was the daughter of Milo Allen and Clarissa Merchant. She was born 10 May 1847, in Southington, Trumbull, Ohio. She married 2 May 1876 in Trumbull County, Orson Samuel Thompson, the son of Norman and Harriet Morrison Thompson of Rock Creek, Ashtabula, Ohio. (As long as I'm mentioning Norman, I'd like to mention that as of yet, his parents have eluded me.)

Who do you think you are?

2010-03-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

Who do you think you are? It can be a pointed, sarcastic question suggesting that you think you are better than another. But in a genealogical context, it is thought provoking, and personally, gives me chills.

NBC is airing the first episode of the much anticipated American edition of Who Do You Think You Are tonight. The series has been running in the UK for quite some time now, and has been wildly successful, to say the least. I have seen a couple of the British episodes, and have to say, they were so incredibly well done they left me alternating between gasps, goosebumps and tears. So I’m hoping that NBC’s version follows suit.

But back to the question - who do you think you are? Most people don’t think much about their ancestors. They rely on their living relatives to tell them stories about family, but quite often those stories are recieved with glazed eyes and yawns.

My grandmother used to talk about people all the time - she seemed to know everything about everyone in the small town that she grew up and lived in for most of her life. Honestly, I didnt really listen too closely, because I didnt know any of the people she was talking about. But fortunately my sister did take some notes, and, being older, listened a little more closely.

I started researching my family history several years ago shortly after my father became interested in his. It was something that we could talk about together at first, but soon I was totally hooked. I was so grateful for my sister’s notes, which mentioned family members that there were otherwise no apparent record of. But other than that, it turned out that my grandmother wasn’t aware of a lot of her own ancestry.

I had always just thought that my ancestors were farmers from Northeast Ohio... that they’d been there forever, and that was the extent of it. That part is true. Most of my ancestors came to the Western Reserve in the early 1800s - some even before it became Ohio. They were the pioneers and settlers of the state. They built their homes and cleared and plowed field, organized church meetings and towns. They lived with Indians as their neighbors. The women had to make the cloth before they could sew their own clothes. They must have been amazing people.

One great grandmother went to the cider mill to collect apple seeds before she left Connecticut to walk to her new home in the Western Reserve. People laughed and told her they would never grow, but when she arrived at her destination she began planting and cultivating her apple orchard and within a few years, had developed an apple that she liked the best, and named it after her husband, Jonathan.

As I’ve researched my family earlier than the Ohio settlers, I’ve also uncovered several “big names” in my family tree - people with plaques and statues in town squares. People who were chosen to lead the new country in its early years... people who fought valiantly to even allow the new country to be born. I’m not so much impressed with credentials and titles, though, as I am with the stories of daily life -- stories of struggles and challenges overcome, and those that weren’t. My definition of heroism has changed to include women who bore and raised a dozen or more children, without the conveniences of electricity, as well as those women who’s hearts must have been broken as they watched infant and children die, year after year.

Who do I think I am? I think that I am the end result, so far, of generations of people who worked hard, lived, loved, and did their best to survive, as well as to enjoy life... people that probably didnt think much about their ancestors either, other than to learn from their parents, who had learned from their parents, and so on... it’s all there in my genes, inherent in my being, in who I am. I think that I am just me, and at the same time, I am the end result of the lives of all of my ancestors. And it makes me want to find them and know them even more.

APG starts new chapter in SecondLife

2010-02-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) is forming a new chapter in the virtual world Second Life. One of the great advantages to this will be ease of access to meetings - they will be online! You don't have to travel or even change out of your slippers to attend.

APG membership is open to anyone interested in, well, professional genealogy -- you don't have to be a client-taking, business person to join the APG, - just aligned with the principles of the organization. Personally I have benefitted so much from my APG membership, and attending meetings. Just getting to know other genealogists, learning from them, and having people to turn to with my own questions has been worth every penny of dues.

The first meeting of the APG in SecondLife will be Wednesday Feb 10, at 5 pm Pacific time (also known as Second Life time) at the Just Genealogy area Fire Pit. For more information about this APG group, please see DearMYRTLE's blog posting on it at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2010/02/apg-second-life-10-feb-2010.html

SecondLife (http://www.secondlife.com) is an online virtual world, with an ever-growing presence of genealogists who meet regularly to learn, share and discuss various genealogical topics. Information on how to sign up for a FREE SecondLife account, as well as how to find the genealogy community there, please see DearMYRTLE's blog article at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2009/07/interested-in-actually-joining-second.html

If you'd like any help learning to navigate around SecondLife, contact me at relativelycurious (at) yahoo.com and I'll be happy to walk you around and through SL.

Delicious! A yummy way to bookmark

2010-01-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

I’m continually amazed at the vast numbers of great websites there are for genealogical research. Y’all know that I created the Internet Genealogy toolbar to try to keep track of the ones that I use most often, and am continually adding to it. It’s really very handy to have these websites so readily available.

Some folks just save their website discoveries in their Bookmarks or Favorites folders, but personally I have a hard time finding anything once I’ve saved it to one of those folders. I’m not always using my own computer, either, which means that I don’t always have access to my toolbar, or bookmarks or favorites folders.
But anytime, and anywhere that I’m online, I have access to a website called Delicious (http://delicious.com/).
Delicious is a free website devoted to “social bookmarking” (they even coined the phrase). It's basically a great place to store, organize and share your bookmarks online.

It's so easy to find websites that you have saved in Delicious. When you save a webpage, you have the option of adding “tags”, which are descriptive key words. You can add as many tags as you like, and whatever words you like. This way, you can add words that might help jog your memory. When you’re searching your bookmarks you can search by those tags, so that all of your “Ohio”, “death certificate” , or even “Smith Family” bookmarks show up in a list. When you’re adding a bookmark, you also have the option of adding “Notes”, so that you can remember what you liked about that website, as well as let others know what you found there that was great.

In addition to storing your own bookmarks, you can also search through other people’s bookmarks to see what they’re finding that you may have missed. It’s a great way to discover some obscure but valuable websites to enhance your own research.

Sign in for a free account, and be sure to download the free Delicious buttons for your toolbar. With these buttons, you can easily open your own bookmarks in a sidebar, open the entire website, and best of all, very easily save a webpage to save to your Delicious bookmarks.
When you do a search from the main Delicious page, if you are signed in, your results will appear first under the heading “My Bookmarks”, followed by many more under the heading “Everybody’s Bookmarks”. The results also list the associated tags with each bookmark, giving you ideas of possible other words to search to find even more websites to peruse.

When signed in, from the Settings tab at the very top, you can do all sorts of things. You can easily import or upload the bookmarks on your computer from your “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” folders and even share your bookmarks via Twitter. From Settings, you can also revise, edit and organize your tag list easily.

Delicious also has ways to connect to other users by setting up a network, which would be groups of people that you share interests with. There is even an experimental feature that will post your newly added bookmarks to your blog daily, if you are so inclined.

Consider using Delicious for storing your bookmarks, as well as for finding new ones. Not only is it a great organization tool for your own research, but sharing with others is always a good thing :)

Local Resources Rock! Dallas Public Library

2010-01-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

I tend to write mostly about internet resources, but as you should know by now, when it comes to genealogical research, you can’t find everything online. I’ve written previously about the importance of spending time at local libraries, because they often contain location specific collections that can be found nowhere else. Today I thought I'd spotlight MY local library, the Dallas Public Library.

Even though I don’t have any ancestors that even vacationed in Texas prior to my moving here, I still go to the downtown every week to research at the J. Erik Jonsson branch of the Dallas Public Library (1515 Young Street). OK, true, I have a volunteer shift at the desk for the Dallas Genealogical Society, but it does give me the opportunity weekly to peruse the absolutely fantastic genealogy department on the 8th floor on a regular basis.

Budget cuts have wreaked havoc on the library hours recently, so be sure to check before you show up to see if they’re opening at 10 am or noon, or to make sure they’re open at all, and not closed for a holiday or an employee furlough day. But it is definitely worth a visit, any time you are in Dallas - whether you have Texas ancestors or not. I recommend parking beneath the building in the public parking there. Its very reasonably priced, safe, and protects you from the crazy whims of Texas weather.

One half of the eighth floor is devoted to DPL's genealogical collection, which is one of the largest in the South. The collections include over 80,000 books, 42,000 rolls of microfilm, 77,000 microfiche and over 700 maps and charts.

Along with the helpful staff at the reference desk, the Dallas Genealogical Society volunteers host an information desk to greet patrons and help direct them in their research.

An old-fashioned card catalog makes it easy to find information, and is the place to start. It organizes the collection by both locality and by surname. The locality drawers are organized by state, and then tabbed by county, with city and town items indexed alphabetically within the tabs. The surname catalog alphabetically organizes books found on the sixteen aisles devoted to family histories and genealogies. There is also a section of vertical files, arranged alphabetically by surname, that contain loose papers and donated materials including family group sheets, unbound manuscripts, and such.

There are 53 aisles of books organized by state. There are many town and county records, including published books on vital records, cemetery inscriptions, gazetteers and state and local histories within each state collection.

This library has over 500 genealogical journals and 200 family name publications. They claim that their collection includes nearly all of the major genealogical periodicals in the United States. I usually check their holdings before I send of a request for copies from PERSI, and more often than not, I find what I need is there at the Dallas library. Most publications’ back issues have been bound, and often contain indices as well, but searching PERSI online can often save time flipping through all those volumes.

The Texas/Dallas Collection on the 7th floor houses newspapers, including both Texas newspapers and collections from other major metropolitan areas.

The Genealogy Department has several excellent special collections. Some of the items for the US include the Draper manuscripts, all US city directories up to 1881, both the Barbour and Hale collections of Connecticut records, the Corbin collection of Massachusetts vital records, the Oklahoma Dawes Rolls, and Virginia land patents 1623-1774. The international records include the Domesday Book, Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland. The microfilm collections for both Military and Immigration (including Passenger Lists) are quite extensive.

The collection of Texas microfilm is amazing. It includes passenger lists of arrivals into Texas ports, military records from every conflict that Texans were involved including nearly 700 rolls of microfilm of Civil War Confederate pension applications, and Republic of Texas pensions and claims files. The collection also contains Convict Record ledgers from the Huntsville Penitentiary (1849-1954), but of particular interest are the vital records microfilm – the Index to Texas Births 1903-1976, the Dept. of Health Death Index 1964-2001, the Bureau of Vital Statistics’ Index to Texas Death Records 1903-1976, and an absolutely AWESOME collection of Texas marriage licenses and records, for every county in the state that has made the records available.

There are 3 photocopiers available for patron use in this department. Patrons must purchase a rechargeable copy card from the desk, because the copy machines do not accept coins. Copies are .15 each. Patrons also have access to 36 regular microfilm readers, and 4 film/fiche readers that are also printers, and two digital film reader/printers.

Twelve computers are dedicated to genealogical resources. Four computers have the library catalog and access to Ancestry.com, and six have various genealogical computer CD programs available for patron use on them. The other two also offer internet access.

Through the TexShare database system, patrons with a library card can access several databases at home, including HeritageQuest and Ebsco Newspapers. Ancestry.com is only available within the library. The library also offers free wireless internet for patrons at the library.

Through the Dallas Genealogical Society, the library acts as a satellite of the Salt Lake City Family History Center too, making their over 2 million rolls of microfilm available for a minimal rental cost. For accessing materials from just about any US library, interlibrary loan is available for books, microfilms and other media with a valid Dallas Public Library card, however most libraries will not loan genealogical materials. As with most library policies, librarians usually will offer to copy a few pages or the index to requested books for a small copy fee. In regards to newspapers, their policy is that they will not loan complete issues of periodicals or newspapers – but will photocopy articles.

Until his retirement this past summer, one of the most valuable resources of the 8th floor had been Lloyd Dewitt Bockstruck, the Supervisor of the Genealogical Section of the Dallas Public Library. A nationally known author and lecturer, and an expert in many areas of genealogical research including the American Revolution and Bounty Land Grants, during his time as Supervisor, Lloyd acquired and built the collections, making the Dallas Public Library’s genealogy department one of the very best in the country.

Even though I have no Texas ancestors, I continually find treasures pertaining to my own family history from every US state and even from other countries, every time I research at DPL. It is definitely worth a trip if you’re ever anywhere in the Dallas area. And if you are planning on coming, be sure to peruse the online catalog and prepare your research list before you come, to save time.

My Top Ten Best Genealogy Moments of 2009

2010-01-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

Randy Seaver asked the following question on his blog, Genea-Musings, "What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?" It made me mentally review my genealogy year. I realized that it's been an incredibly fun and successful year for me, so I thought I’d share my highlights here. So here is my personal “Top 10" best genealogy moments for 2009.

10. Being able to travel back to the dairy farm that my dad grew up on, and having dad with me as a tour guide to the history of this very small, very rural farming community.

9. Joining SecondLife, and meeting other genealogists from around the world online, having weekly discussions, learning and sharing information, and best of all, getting to meet several of them in real life as well.

8. Attending the Federation of Genealogists Convention in Little Rock in September, which ties in to the previous entry. Not only did I learn a lot from so many great classes and presentations, but I got to know so many really fun and interesting people there, and made some great friendships with other genealogists that I really admire.

7. Joining the Berkshire, MA Family History Association, and as a member benefit receiving 3 hours of free research, which broke one of my main brick walls - finding the father of my 4th great grandfather, David Stevens of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

6. Having the solution to my other main brick wall literally fall through cyberspace into my lap... reminding me of how important it is to share your own research, as what goes around, comes around...

5. Not only just figuring out how to put together my Internet Genealogy toolbar, so that I can have all of my favorite genealogy websites easily accesible at my fingertips, and be able to share them with others as well, all for free, but discovering, on Christmas eve, that it is being featured in the March 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine!!!

4. And speaking of Family Tree magazine, another bright spot was being nominated for their list of 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. A thrill if I make it, but the nomination alone is such an honor! The whole blogging business has pretty much been amazing. Imagine my surprise of having over 2,000 visitors to my blog since July, when I think there’d only been about 12 readers so far!

3. Providing a good friend and his family with information about the grandparents and other relatives they had never known. I’m always honored when someone trusts me to research their family, and I’m always thrilled to be able to introduce people to their ancestors. Nothing better than connecting families.

2. I’ve enjoyed so many opportunities this year to speak to societies and other groups all over Texas about genealogy, and nothing is more exciting than watching people have those “aha” moments, frantically scribbling notes, and then commenting to me later, that they will probably be up all night using the new information they’d learned. But nothing made me scream so loud this year as receiving an invitation to speak at the 2010 BYU Conference on Computerized Genealogy and Family History. Wow - I absolutely cannot wait!

1. But I think my best genealogy moments for the entire year are the wonderful friendships I’ve made both online and off, with so many other like-minded genealogists, as well as the connections I’ve forged with so many deceased ancestors - both my own and those of people I’ve helped. It’s an incredible life-affirming feeling, to realize that you are a part of something so much bigger than your own tiny life... to connect to your heritage, your ancestry – your tiny string that is part of the much larger fabric of life.

My 2010 New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-31T10:00:00.000-08:00

Time to start again, already? This year I'm going to be good! I'm only making five genealogy resolutions, so maybe, just maybe I'll be able to keep them! Here's my list:

1. I will not overcommit myself to research projects, lecture invitations and volunteer requests. (Yeah, right... lol!) Well at least I’ll try to do a better job of scheduling my commitments realistically, including keeping a detailed calendar and planning enough time to adequately fulfill each commitment in the time required to do so. It isn’t helping that I already received two research requests just yesterday, and I haven’t even fulfilled all of Decembers “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness” requests yet.

2. For all new research projects, I will first and foremost start by developing a detailed research plan, following it strictly, and meticulously keep research logs along the way. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The trick will really be resisting the temptation to dive in head first and accumulate piles of research notes haphazardly, because that’s sooo much fun! What isn’t fun is trying to sort through it all later and try to figure out what I was thinking. I know its not just me, y’all do it too, don’t you!

3. I will actually work on my OWN family line this year. The brickwall I’m determined to bust this year will be finding the parents of Mary Prouty Hatch – or more specifically, proving that Burpee Prouty is, in fact, her father... of course, following the method I’ve outlined in #2...

4. I will schedule reading time regularly, if only monthly, for catching up on all of the journals, magazines and books in my ‘need to read’ pile.

5. I will continue to update the toolbar with cool and helpful websites for internet genealogy research. (Always open for suggestions, by the way!)

My personal new year’s resolutions are much simpler (can't claim originality on these - I saw them somewhere and loved it!)
Dance like no one is watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like no one is listening, and Live like its heaven on earth.

Internet Archive - audio, video, texts and more!

2009-12-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

It’s Christmas eve day, and its snowing here in Dallas, so everyone is just huddled indoors trying to stay warm, and enjoying being in the company of family... which always sets me to thinking about my ancestors and genealogy, of course.

Since the presents are all wrapped, and its just a countdown to Santa, I’ll go ahead and write about another site for finding family stories online, and we’ll call it my Christmas present to you :)

Internet Archive, at http://www.archive.org is a very large, online archive of internet treasures. This site archives video, live music, audio files, and is another great source for digital texts. One of the main features of the site is the Way Back Machine - which is an archive of over 150 billion web pages that are no longer available otherwise. So if you have a web address that you previously found some great information at, but when you return that page is no longer available, you can put the address into the Way Back Machine and hope that it is one that they have archived. If so, voila! The old web page is there for you to peruse, and, if its important stuff, print out.

The Internet Archives website has a search engine that covers all of the collections, or you can search them individually. You can search by using any keyword, such as a surname or location. I almost always include the word ‘genealogy’ in order to narrow down the results.

The audio files consist over 455,000 recordings, and the genealogy search offerings include several individual interviews, a couple of genealogy books in audio format, and even some of DearMYRTLE’s Family History Podcasts from a few years back.

The archives also has over 72,000 live music recordings, so if researching your departed ancestors gives you a hankering to listen to the Grateful Dead live at Filmore East in 1970, go ahead and stream it on your computer from this site.

There are nearly 240,000 items in the moving images archive here, including everything from movie trailers and propaganda films, to full length feature movies, all available to download and view. Watch the 1935 version of A Shot In The Dark, or the cult classic Reefer Madness - there’s lots to choose from.

The digital text collection has close to two million books digitized, and the nice thing about their text collection is that each book is presented in a few different digital formats to make reading it easier, depending on your computer’s capabilities. I like the way you can easily search the texts, and the results appear like little tabs on the pages of the virtual book that you can click on.

As always, its worth spending some time poking around any interesting website to see what all they have to offer. But be sure to spend as much time as you can with your living relatives during the holidays!

WorldCat and Online Special Collections

2009-12-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

Every third Thursday I give a presentation in SecondLife. December’s discussion was part two of Finding Your Family Stories Online, with an emphasis on using Special Collections that are available online. While last month’s topic focused on digitized texts, part two focused on finding all sorts of other treasures – photographs, letters, oral histories, sound recordings, videos... the kinds of things that can add color and life to your family history.

Special collections can be found in libraries, universities, museums, historical societies – any place that might have an interest in collecting local ephemera. The collections are generally primary materials based on a specific subject, or location, and may include just about anything that’s been either donated or acquired that falls into the subject area for the collection.

Its such a score to find any of these collections online, too - giving you instant access to old photos, or even audio files of personal interviews. You just never know what you’ll find.

Right now I’m just going to mention my favorite website for finding these online special collections, which is now, surprisingly enough, WorldCat (www.WorldCat.org). WorldCat was initially designed to be a place where libraries could post their holdings, so that anyone could find particular items in libraries near them and across the country, and world for that matter. There are thousands of participating libraries, and more constantly coming onboard. Their ‘about’ page states that they are “the world's largest network of library content and services.”

I use WorldCat regularly to locate books and journals and other text sources, but I didn’t realize until recently that they have included the OAIster.org databases in their catalog as well! Let me explain why this is so wonderful.

OAIster was a project developed at the University of Michigan in 2002 with the purpose of establishing, ““A retrieval service for publicly available digital library resources provided by the research library community.” Basically, it’s a network of digitized Special Collections, indexed, with hyperlinks housed at WorldCat now. The world at your fingertips!! Woohoo!

So to access all these great and wonderful goodies, simply go to the WorldCat main page, and type your search into the search bar. For example, I used a surname and a state that I knew the family had lived in - Mork Minnesota. The list of search results that comes up includes all of the resources available in the WorldCat catalog, which is definitely worth perusing. From here you can easily locate any of these resources in a library by clicking on the resource and entering your zip code. The results will list all participating libraries that have that item, and their distance in miles from your own home. Several times I have found books or other resources that I hadn't known even existed.

But for now, I want to know what I can find ONLINE... right now... from home, in my jammies! So over on the left side of the page, under the heading “Refine Your Search”, and then under “Format”, cross your fingers and hope you see the sub-heading “Internet Resources”. If its there, the number in parenthesis is how many items are available online.. The more the better, of course!

If there are resources available, click on that heading “Internet Resources”, which will bring up the list of your search results that are available online. You can then choose the item that interests you and after clicking on it, you’ll be redirected to the website hosting the original image, or whatever the item is.

Each item's description will tell you what type of media the item is - a 2D photograph, postcard, maps, e-books, downloadable computer files, etc. Once you've chosen the specific item you want to find out more about, you can then either scroll down under its description just a bit to "Find A Copy Online" which will have the direct URL address for that specific item - click that and you're at the original online image.

Or, you can click on the item's highlighted title or author to be led to the entire collection from which it came. This is always worth doing too, since there may very well be more than one item in that collection that may interest you. Consider looking for other surnames - friends, neighbors, in-laws, that might also have been in the area. As always, you never know what you might find.

Again, not all every library is participating in WorldCat, but more and more are joining the site all the time. It is definitely a major resource for genealogists, and worth spending some time checking out.

(If you're using my toolbar, WorldCat is under the "In Print" tab, under Libraries. If you're not, it's a free download at http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com)

Aw shucks...

2009-12-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post today, but this week has been amazing. Along with putting the finishing touches on an ancestry report for a good friend in which I was able to introduce him to his grandparents for the first time (well in print at least, since they're long deceased), meeting new friends and genealogists in SecondLife, and some really wonderful holiday parties and preparations, I was honored by the British website MyHeritage.com to be interviewed for their weblog. And they said such nice things about me too! Here's a link to that post, if you want to read the interview.

Dear Santa...

2009-12-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver over at Genea-musings, we are to write a letter to Genea-Santa asking for one gift for Christmas, and telling Genea-Santa what good genea-boys we have been.

Dear Genea-Santa,

Well at least I’ve tried to be good this year. I’ve done my best to find great websites and share them with people, and I even put together a cool toolbar of genealogy links and let anyone download and use it for free. I’ve tried to keep my Relatively Curious About Genealogy blog updated reasonably regularly and include as much useful information as I can. Evidently someone is reading it because since June, over 1,850 people have stopped by my pages! I volunteer at two libraries, and fulfill about 5-10 research requests per week that come thru Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, and have helped several of my friends find their own elusive ancestors.

I’ve already been blessed this year to have broken two major brickwalls, partly due to the kindness of others, so I almost feel guilty asking for yet another miracle for Christmas. But Santa, if you would be so kind, could you please help me prove that my 3rd great grandmother, Mary Prouty Hatch, who’s obituary and tombstone both state that she was born 18 Jan 1800 in Weathersfield, Vermont, is the same Mary Prouty that was born in September 1800 in Weathersfield, Vermont, the daughter of Burpee Prouty and one of his three wives? I mean, it shouldn’t really be that hard, considering Burpee was the only Prouty living in Weathersfield at that time, and happened to have also been the only Prouty living in Hartford, Vermont the same year that “my” Mary Prouty married Ira Hatch, in 1823. I’ve poured through Burpy Prouty’s 80+ page Revolutionary War pension applications and papers, but that hasn’t clinched it, despite the fact that Ira Hatch’s mother testified in regards to one of Burpy’s marriages, stating she was living next door to him and had a ‘babe in arms’ at the time (which had to have been Ira!).

Anyway, Genea-Santa, I know that might be a pretty big request, so what I think I’d really like instead would be to have all of my family together around Christmas – a plan already in the works, so all you need to do is make sure they all get here safely. Since my oldest daughter and her fiancé, Hocine, are coming from Algeria, my dad, my sister and her husband, one sister & brother in law and their boys, a nephew and his kids, and niece, her husband and their sweet baby boy are all coming to meet and greet my new soon-to-be son-in-law and welcome him to the family. (Hmm on second thought, Santa, could you please just make sure that Hocine doesn’t bolt after meeting our crazy bunch?)

I can’t think of anything I’d like better, than being with the people I love the most for Christmas.

Thanks Genea-santa, you’re the best.

Sincerely, Tami

ps - If connecting Burpy Prouty, or delivering family joy and harmony are too tall of an order, I certainly wouldn’t mind a renewal on my Ancestry.com subscription :)

Finding Family Stories in Online Digitized Books

2009-11-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

For the couple of you that missed my presentation last night on Second Life (complete with slides and handouts), here is what we talked about...

It’s always exciting to find a birth, marriage or death date on one of your ancestors. So many online resources are becoming available now that make filling in those blanks easier. But what really turns ‘genealogy’ into ‘family history’ is when you start finding stories written by or about your ancestors – about their lives, their families, the times they lived in and the challenges they faced.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have discovered a cache of family letters in the attic, or if your great-great-grand-whatever didn’t leave a detailed, hand-written journal, there is still hope that you can find some stories, or at least pieces of stories to put together to begin making some kind of picture of their lives come into view – putting meat on the bones, so to speak.

There are many really great web sites for finding stories, including online digitized books, journals, newspapers and special collections at libraries, historical and genealogical societies. For now, I’m just going to focus on digitized books online, and mainly those available for free. This probably isn’t a comprehensive list, but more the sites that I find the most helpful myself.

First and foremost is Google Books (http://www.books.google.com) which is one of my favorite book sites, partly because of all that it offers. Along with full text, fully searchable results, I love the ability to download the PDF version, browse highlighted passages, and if the book isn’t fully viewable, click over to WorldCat and find it in the library nearest to me. As with any website you use regularly, be sure to spend some time seeing just what all is offered.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!
Recently thanks to Google Books, a friend came across a major breakthrough in her research. Her early Texas ancestor just seemed to appear out of nowhere, and she just couldn’t figure out who his parents were. But by searching in Google Books on his name, one book from the results, which happened to be about Wild Bill Hickok oddly enough, explained everything. The book described how her fellow had killed a man in Georgia, fled to Texas and changed his name by taking his mother’s maiden name! What a score! Not only did it give his original name, but also she now knew his mother’s maiden name as well, which of course helped her find the parents and take the line back even further. The book included some other great stories, including the colorful lives this man and his sons led.

HeritageQuest is another great source for online books. You can search by name, location, title or author. Books appear in full PDF form, and are downloadable, 50 pages at a time (but you can download an entire books). Unfortunately you can’t search within a page.
HeritageQuest is a really good resource for state and county histories, that usually contained paid biographies of the “representative citizens”, i.e., those who would fork over a few bucks to be included. So the mayor’s bio might be on the same page as Farmer Joe’s - you never know.

It was through HeritageQuest that I discovered the wonderful story about my 5th great grandmother, Rachel Negus, who walked from Connecticut to Ohio before it was Ohio, with her family. Before leaving CT, she gathered apple seeds from the cider mill to take with her. Once settled, she began planting the seeds, and cultivating the apples in her orchard, and named the best variety after her husband, Jonathan.

You can access HQ for free through most public library websites with your library card. If you have any problems doing that, get in touch with me and I'll give you an alternative way to get on.

Another site that focuses mainly on family histories is the Family History Archives at BYU http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/ And also found by going to http://www.familysearch.org and choosing ‘Historical Books’ from the ‘Search Records’ tab.

Literally thousands of items are added monthly. These books and journals come from the very top genealogy libraries in the US. In addition to the BYU libraries, the books are being digitized from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Allen Co. Library in Indiana, the Clayton Library in Houston, and the Mid-Continent Library in Missouri.

Many of the books in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City link directly to this site through the Library Catalog, eliminating the need to request and rent the microfilm for them - yay! Save $5.50!

If you have Mormon ancestors, an incredible site to search is http://www.historicjournals.com (Same as http://journals.byu.edu/). A free sign-in is required, but you can search, read, and contribute to the collection of personal journals and diaries. If you are LDS, and have signed into the NewFamilySearch program, the site will automatically search your online pedigree from nFS for matches.

A fairly new digitized book site is Open Library (http://openlibrary.org), sponsored by the InternetArchives website, whose stated goal is to have one page for every book in print. The InternetArchive site also has a huge collection of other records - video, audio, and more, but I’ll be discussing that website at another time.

There are several sites that include more specialized collections. The Making of America collection focuses on American history from about 1840-1977, events leading to, including and post Civil War basically. The combined collections, housed at Cornell and Michigan Universities, contain over 1.5 million images from over 5,000 volumes.
The Cornell collection, http://digital.library.cornell.edu/m/moa , focuses on major journal literature, from general interest topics to more specific things like agriculture. The Michigan collection http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ focuses on American History, sociology, science, technology and religion.

COLLECTIONS BY STATE or COUNTRY
The Access Genealogy Online Library, http://www.accessgenealogy.com/library/ has a fairly small collection (457 volumes) of books that are sorted by country and/or state. Many of these books do not have full previews available at Google, so its worth checking out.

GenealogySearch also offers a small, but unique collection of books, organized by country at http://www.genealogysearch.org/free/digitalpublications.html .There are some very odd little titles, and include several county histories and church record books.

One excellent collection of Canadian books, over 5500 digital texts is from Canada’s Local Histories Online, at http://www.ourroots.ca. There are books both in French and English (open your google translator if you need to).

And if you have Quaker ancestors, you are in luck! One really good site is the Earlham School of Religion’s Digital Quaker Collection http://esr.earlham.edu/dqc/. You can search by keyword, surname, etc, and see the results in either a transcribed form, or the original in many cases. The collection contains over 500 Quaker works from the 17th & 18th centuries.

OTHER WAYS TO FIND BIOGRAPHIES
One way of searching for online biographies, too, is using Live Roots Search http://liveroots.com . You can easily surname search several of the major sites all at once, currently including Ancestry, Footnote, GenealogyBank, World Vital Records, Google Books, ABE books, eBay and several more.

Another way to find biographies of your ancestors is to search biographical index databases. Folks included didn’t have to be famous to be included, just listed in a published genealogy book.
One genealogy specific database is the Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI), which includes over 10 million names, mostly from the 19th & 20th centuries. The results of a search in this database will include names, dates and locations, as well as the complete citation for the book that it is found in. Many books may not be online, but you can locate them thru WorldCat.

The BGMI index is sometimes offered through libraries, often university libraries, but if you have access to Ancestry.com (often free at public libraries) you can search the BGMI at http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4394
The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) is another genealogical biography index, with millions of names from the genealogical and biographical history book collection at the Godfrey Memorial Library. The index is currently only at Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3599)

If you find a name in the index, you can contact the folks at the Godfrey and they will make copies of what you need for a minimal price (they are incredibly friendly & helpful there!) Their email and telephone # are under Contacts at the website - http://www.godfrey.org.

GETTING YOUR HANDS ON THAT BOOK!
Just two more thoughts on books - If you find a reference to a book your ancestor might be in, and you aren’t having any luck finding the text online, you can locate that book in a library near you by searching WorldCat - http://www.worldcat.org- (which also provides a source citation for the book).

And if you decide that you want to purchase a book for your own reference shelf, BookFinder4U http://www.bookfinder4u.com searches 130 online bookstores by best price.

Finally, just a couple of tips to help locate your folks. First, when searching, try to include ~genealogy in your search. The tilde symbol will include synonyms of the word genealogy, like ancestry, pedigree, family history, etc.

Also be sure to search variations of surnames, to allow for misspellings. And don't just search for names, but places as well. Knowing the history of where your ancestors lived can provide you valuable insights into their lives as well.

And as always, all these websites are on my toolbar! http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com. Free download, great resource for genealogy research on the internet.

I'll be presenting part two, covering online newspapers and special collections, in SecondLife, at the Just Genealogy fire pit on Dec. 17th at 6pm SL time (Pacific Time).

The more things change, the more they stay the same

2009-11-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

I came across a large collection of high school and college yearbooks this past week, from various states in the US, dated from the 1940s-60s. What interested me more than the yearbooks was the assorted newspaper clippings that fell out of a couple of them. Unfortunately, they aren’t dated, and the names of the newspapers are not evident for most of them. These clippings are about scholarship announcements and senior honors, banquets and whatnot, and were very much what you would find in today’s newspapers around graduation.
One article slightly surprised me. It was about class of 1949 seniors, and their thoughts on life:

Bull Session Shows Students Stirred By Issues
What will the younger generation think of next? Sit in at a coke session of five seniors who will don caps and gowns tomorrow at Jamestown High School, and listen to what they are saying...”

They go on to talk just a few sentences about their school having a good industrial arts program, and driver training course, but then they get to what’s really important to them.

More Sex Education
“But we ought to have more sex education in the schools – a graduated system which would begin in the very first grade,” someone interposes. “It’s silly to only have sex education in the last two years,” says Bob. “It comes too late for some boys and girls, and improper situations could be avoided with the proper education.” “Of course sex education should be given at home, but often it isnt,” he adds. “None of this stork stuff for us! What we need is complete sex education including information on venereal diseases,” they added.

Their other concerns are echoed today - and still not adequately addressed:

Want Place to Dance
“What we need at school is some place where kids can go to dance, study and have cokes,” begins Jackie. “They talk about juvenile delinquency, but a place for high school students to go would help prevent it,” one adds.

The conversation continues with discussion of war, international diplomacy, and of course... communism in America. “Just scare talk to avert attention from something else!” is the brief comment of all.
Another article, which wouldn’t have been out of place in this year’s newspaper as well:

Few Jobs to Graduates Open; Retails Take Some/span>
Local jobs for 1949 High School graduates will be scarce, especially those in the career field, according to Donald S. Appleyard, manager of the New York State Employment Service office.

BUT MOST DISTURBING...
I just can’t decide what the most disturbing part of the following newspaper article is. The article was on the backside of a team picture for the Jamestown Falcons, Pony League team of ‘48, although no indication of what newspaper, day or page is available. The article reads:

22-Months Son Insists on Two Cigars a Day
Springfield, Mass. – Mrs. Lawrence Phillips was resigned today to her 22-month-old son’s habit of smoking 12-cent cigars. She said the baby, Lawrence Jr., began smoking cigarettes a year ago, but switched to cigars last month. Two a day. “We used to think it was cute,” she said. “I don’t like it now, but he squawks fierce if I don’t give him his cigars.” At least, she said, he’s a gentleman about it. “He always uses the ashtray,” she said.

Who gives a 10 month old baby a cigarette?! Who switches him to cigars?! And who in their right mind could even remotely think it was “CUTE”??!!
And folk call those 'the good old days'?? LOL!

For the most part, reading the clippings reminded me more of the saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same". I have tried to locate some of the folks named in the clippings, via Rootsweb.com, happy to send them off to someone that might want them, but have not had any luck as yet. I'll keep trying though, using internet people finders such as Google or Pipl.com, and perhaps posting to a message board or two. (You didn't honestly think I'd get through this whole article without turning it into a research project, did you?!)

SteveMorse.org and a mystery solved

2009-11-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working with the passenger lists and ship manifests from the Ellis Island website (www.ellisisland.org) and, like many people, became just a bit frustrated with some of the inabilities of the search engine to find and sort the search results. Particularly, I wanted to find all of the people that came from a very small, mountain town in Hungary between the years of 1900-1920. It appears that most of the young adult men were leaving in droves, and all of them going to Milwaukee, WI!

So I switched over to Steve Morse's One-Step website (http://stevemorse.org/). Steve is this uber-intelligent computer programmer type of guy, that also got frustrated with the search capabilities of several genealogy websites, so he developed his own search engines for them. (Steve also has an incredible sense of humor, and can "Find Your Grandpa" in one-step, too).

From the SteveMorse.org website you can search a myriad of genealogically useful websites using many other variables, and your results tend to be much more productive. I was able to narrow down my search of the Ellis Island records by age, sex and town they came from, which helped me to find others from the families I'm truly interested, whose names were horribly misspelled.

So... part two here is that since "my guy" came from this small town, Zubak, Hungary, and headed for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I started googling around to see what I could find online, and what I came across was an absolutely WONDERFUL family history written about a family whose ancestor did the same - came from Zubak, Hungary in 1905 to Milwaukee, WI (The Misey Family of Milwaukee)

I contacted the website's author, Neil Boyer, just wondering if he knew anything about the reasons for this seemingly mass-migration, but he didn't either. He mentioned the fact, however, that he had been unsuccessful in finding his ancestor's name on any of the Passenger Lists or Ships Manifests at Ellis Island. So... because I'm just that kind of gal ... I told him about the Steve Morse website, and voila! Success for him! Here's his e-mail to me:

Hi, Tami --

I have to thank you profusely for turning me on to Steve Morse. I had not heard of that website or research function before, and it worked. Here’s what happened:

I looked at the list of Zubakians that you sent and was disappointed that John Misey was not on the list. I puzzled over it several times, with no good result, and then I decided to check out the list of birthdates, looking for 1888 when I knew he had been born. And there, in line 41, was “Janos Hiscsy,” born in 1888, traveled to America in 1905. Reference to the Ellis Island site showed on the handwritten manifest that his name (indeed, ALL of the names) had been badly scribbled. What was intended as the surname “Miscsy” had been copied out as “Hiscsy.” Janos Hiscsy of the manifest was indeed going to Milwaukee to see his uncle. Here he is on line 19 of page 474.

So I have worked all of this into my web page on the Misey family -- and I have you to thank for the great tip. I never would have guessed that an H was really an M. - Neil

There are many genealogical lessons to be learned here:

1. Look for creative ways to solve your problems - search for others who may be in the same boat (literally & figueratively) to see how they may have handled the problem.

2. Be open to the idea that your family's name may be horribly butchered during transcription or indexing. Read names out loud and listen to yourself - does it sound remotely familiar?

3. If at first you don't succeed, try SteveMorse.org.

and finally, always my favorite...

4. Share your ideas and information with other people. Pay it backwards and forwards.

Surname distribution

2009-11-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings (I think it should be Gene-Amusings) has posted his Saturday night Genealogy fun, and it highlighted an interesting website, PublicProfiler.com (http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/) where you can enter a surname and see the worldwide distribution of that name. Clicking on the country, will then give you a breakdown, and statistics are displayed both in map form and in chart form.

I entered my maiden name "Osmer", which as far as I've ever known originated in England, and was surprised to see that the US breakdowns didn't include the states that my family were from as any of the major Osmer settlements! It included the state my dad currently lives in, but shows a large number of the surname in another county than he is in, and doesn't register his county at all. Hmmmm. I also learned that there is evidently quite a decent contingent of the family also in Germany and Argentina. Go figure.

This obviously has genealogical ramifications, although for now I'm just really even more curious about how I'm related to all those foreign folks!

Quick formula for finding birthdates

2009-11-05T10:11:00.001-08:00

I recently came across this "formula" for finding a birthdate*, when all you have is the death date and age, from say, a tombstone or obituary. If you don't have your date calculator handy (there's usually one built into most genealogy organization programs), you can use this "8870 formula":
Tombstone states date of death is April 11, 1866 and the person was 68 years, 8 months and 21 days old.

18660411 (year month day of death)
- 680821 (age in years, months, days)
____________
17979590
- 8870 (subtract the number 8870)
____________
17970720 (birthdate of abt. 1797 July 20)

I've played with it a couple of times, and if your month value is over 12, add one to the year and subtract 12 from the months. Same with the day value - if its over 30 or 31, add one to the month and subtract from the days. This isn't always 100% accurate to the day, but you can get a good idea of someone's birthdate at least!

*There are a few online sources for this formula, and it has been printed in a couple of society newsletters lately as well. I read it in my current issue of Berkshire Genealogist.

"Why" Genealogy in Second Life?

2009-10-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have been encouraging folks to join Second Life for genealogy lately, but maybe I haven’t been clear enough on exactly why you might want to do that, and what Second Life has to offer genealogist. As always, I’m just going to go at this based on my own experiences, and not on any particular expertise on the subject.

1. LEARN
One of the main reasons to spend time in Second Life as a genealogist, is to learn more about genealogy. In Second Life, there are specific areas (Live Roots Genealogy Zone, Just Genealogy and the Genealogy Research Center) where you can read informative displays on many different aspects of genealogy, from DNA research, to Danish research. These are things you can do all by yourself at your own pace.

2. DISCUSS
I absolutely love sitting around and 'talking genealogy' with other people who share my interests. (Anyone else's eyes just glaze over, don't they?) In Second Life you can participate in regularly scheduled group discussions or just stop by and talk with whoever is around. There is a regular calendar that includes scheduled chats and other events for the month happening in any of the genealogy areas. You can find a link to the calendar at any of the genealogy spots in second life, or here. The chats cover all sorts of different topics, and are generally very informal. A couple of these are hosted by Clarise Beaumont (also known as DearMYRTLE). She hosts discussions around the patio of the Second Life Family History Center, and others over at the Just Genealogy fire pit, where a white board shows slides during the presentation. For any of them, you don’t need to make a reservation of any kind, you just show up and take a seat.

Some people hold “Office Hours” - regularly scheduled times and places where you can go and discuss your research problems with professional genealogists, and anyone else who wants to join in the discussion. It’s always helpful to get another perspective on your problems, and the other genealogists in second life are always happy to help out.

There are also regularly scheduled “chill out” sessions over at the gazebo at Live Roots, where folks are invited to get together in specific areas, just to talk about whatever is on their mind - genealogy research strategies, brickwalls, or even just ‘aha’ moments. Its great to be able to share your successes with other genealogists who are just as interested and excited about it all as you are. Constantine Kyomoon is the Live Roots area’s non-stop genealogist, and is often around to greet visitors.

And anytime you care to stop by you might find a few other avid genealogists hanging around - not just when events are scheduled. They’re a friendly bunch, just like in Real Life. Most anyone you run into will be happy to help you with anything at all, from simple or complex genealogy questions to how to navigate around in Second Life.

3. HAVE FUN
Besides the fun events in the genealogy areas (dances, contests, displays) There are lots of things to do on Second Life (although I can’t imagine why you’d want to do anything other than discuss genealogical research). You can search for different interests you might have, and enjoy virtual museums of all kinds. Today my daughter took me to the International Space Station display, where we stood on a deck and looked at the earth below us from space. That was amazing. Or you can go on rides at a carnival, go line dancing at a western saloon, watch a Shakespearean play, or listen to live music! If you can imagine it, it’s probably already on Second Life.

If you’ve already signed up for Second Life, add me to your friend list - I’m Genie Weezles. And if you’re just finally ready to take the leap, be sure to follow the instructions at either http://www.liveroots.com/zone/welcome.html or http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2009/07/interested-in-actually-joining-second.html

I've probably left out several other good reasons for getting a Second Life, but these are some of my favorites at the moment.

Hope to see you there!

All the websites from my handouts in one handy toolbar!

2009-10-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

I just got through giving three different one-hour lectures having to do with genealogical research on the internet, with dozens of website address in the handouts. I forgot to mention, however, that I also have created a toolbar that contains EVERY website I mention in any of my presentations, plus more, and its all free - free for me to make, free for anyone to download and use. Just a good deal all around.

You can download it by clicking on the "My Toolbar" artwork at the top of this blog, or at http://RelativelyCurious.OurToolbar.com/ .
If you don't like it you can either turn it off (right click on your toolbar at the top, and uncheck the option for it), or even uninstall it completely. (But I hope you like it!)

Where to Find Obituaries Online

2009-10-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

Obituaries can be a great place to find all sorts of information about folks - both the living and the dearly departed. Most obits usually include a person’s birth and (obviously) death date, as well as perhaps the location for each of those events. Some obits include the names of current and former spouses, and even perhaps a maiden name. Usually the names of children are enumerated, and their respective spouses. Sometimes the female children will be named as Mrs. John Smith, but that can still come in helpful at time. Of course the real ‘score’ in an obituary is a life history, including parents, places lived, jobs held, military service, and the entire list of descendants - but those obituaries are few and far between, and never seem to be written about “my guy”.

However, no matter how much great information an obituary contains, it’s important to remember that very often they are full of mistakes. Obviously the person who knows the facts about his own life the best is the fellow who just passed away, and when its time to write his obituary, it’s a little too late to clarify any misinformation. But like any undocumented information, obituaries are at the very least, full of clues about your ancestors.

Still, its worth the effort to locate an obituary when you can, and, as always, my favorite place to start looking is online. Ancestry.com has quite an assortment of obituary indexes, as well as newspaper archives available, but not everyone is fortunate enough to have a subscription. So I’ve tried to dig up as many free sources as I can.

For more recent obituaries, one free index is hosted on RootsWeb - the Obituary Daily Times. Volunteers nationwide enter up to 2,500 obituaries per day, which are indexed and searchable, and hosted by Rootsweb.

Another couple of websites that I’ve been perusing a lot recently are ObitsArchive.com (NewsBank) and Legacy.com. You can search by name or by newspaper, and a snippet of the obituary will pop right up, if available. You can purchase a monthly subscription to ObitsArchive, or just pay $2.95 for each obituary. On Legacy.com, sometimes the entire obituary is available to view by clicking on “more”, and sometimes it will just link to information on how to purchase the obituary, but don’t go spending your money yet.

First off, you want to see which newspaper and date the obituary is for. With that information, you can go directly to that newspaper’s website to see if they have the obit available for free there. If that doesn’t work, you still have options. One is to contact the newspaper and ask them their policy for obtaining obituaries. It helps that you already have the person’s name and the date of publication of the obituary, and more than once, I’ve had an obituary show up the next day in my e-mail box.

Another site to try is Obituarieshelp.org. Its really a one-stop shopping type of website - everything you need to know about obituaries and where to find them. There is advice on how to word an obituary, how to write a eulogy, examples of death notices and even sample letters of condolence.

But of course what you’re looking for are the obits, and what they have in that regard is a state by state guide to newspapers’ online sites, that usually links directly to the obituaries section. These are often searchable, even without a subscription of any sort, and if you’re lucky, the obituary you’re looking for will pop right up.

Of course you can always search for newspapers with digital archives in the locale of your deceased. There are two website that I know of that list newspaper digitization projects: Icon and Ibiblio. Both are organized by country and then by state.

And of course, there are a few online subscription newspaper databases, such as Newspaper Archives, NewsBank, Small Town Papers, GenealogyBank, and probably another couple that I’ve forgotten (sorry ‘bout that). While all of these do require a subscription, most of them are available through World Vital Records, the Godfrey Memorial Library and/or Footnote.com. All three of these subscription websites are available free to patrons at any local LDS Family History Center.

Many particular groups (religious or ethnic) have obituary collections available online. For Quaker obituaries, Earlham University hosts the American Friend Obituary Index 1894-1960. The Odessa Collection includes obituaries of Germans from Russia (mostly from North and South Dakota newspapers). If there’s any chance your Methodist ancestors’ obituary may have appeared in the Southern Christian Advocate as early as 1837, or later in the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, an obituary index is available. Mennonite publications are indexed as early as 1864 at the Menn-Obits site.

One additional option for obtaining an obituary is through the kindness of strangers. If you have a complete name, a death date and location, and (if at all possible) the date the obit was published, you can often find a friendly volunteer at Obituary Lookups , or on the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website (www.raogk.org). Volunteers are organized by state and county. Not all RAOGK volunteers do obituary lookups, but they will state in their description just what they are willing to do. Anytime you request services from a volunteer, please don’t forget to reply with a thank you.

(Just in case you were wondering, every one of these obituary links has been entered into my toolbar, under the Resources tab, Obituaries.)

Look out world - here comes the iceberg!

2009-10-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

Its been pointed out lately that only 5-10% of all genealogical records are available online, at best. This is so true, and reinforces the idea that genealogists need to get off their computers, and head to the courthouses, the cemeteries and to Aunt Mable's house for a history lesson. Those are valuable and generally really fun things to do anyway, but can be time, energy, and finance consuming. So the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is working to bring all those records to your own personal computer. Look out world - here comes the whole iceberg!

Just yesterday Paul Nauta was interviewed in an article in "Mormon Times", and said that the 2.5 million rolls of microfilm in the Granite Mountain Vaults are being digitized and could be completed as early as next year. Do you realize what that could mean? It could mean that it may not longer take three weeks for that microfilm of the parish register from that tiny town in Germany to show up at the FHC after you ordered it - In digital form, it could be delivered overnight... maybe even in less time than it takes to locate the place on a map! Or perhaps (dare I hope it) the digitized images could be delivered right to your own home computer. Wouldn't that be incredible? Imagine stumbling across a name at 2 am, and realizing you desperately need to check the original birth or death records, and you can!

Of course what this also means is that the indexing program will want to try to catch up as well. Currently about 100,000 volunteer indexers around the world are indexing nearly a million names a day, from the microfilm collections that are being digitized. So not only are those great images available, but they are searchable as well. Anyone can volunteer - anyone with a free five minutes here or there. It doesn't take any special talent or anything. Just go to FamilySearch.org, and click on the "Indexing" tab to volunteer.

Its staggering to think of the amount of genealogical information that the LDS church is making accessible to the world - and its FREE!

Family Tree Magazine looking for blog favorites

2009-09-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know it, that Family Tree Magazine is taking nominations for the 40 best genealogy blogs, and here I am on vacation, without adequate time to craft intelligent and witty posts, to impress the heck out of the genealogical community so that I might make the cut. But I promise that whether or not y'all nominate me, I'll be back online in a couple weeks with erudite and informative ramblings - I mean blog postings - that will open up new avenues in your genealogical research and suddenly you'll have your line back to Adam. Oh wait. Maybe I've gone a bit overboard there. Let's just say I'll be back in a couple of weeks, and writing with a fervor stirred by last week's FGS conference. And here's the link to nominate your favorites - no matter who they are... http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/40bestnominations.

Will you be heard?

2009-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

What if you went to your local research library and it was closed. Empty. Gone.

What if the records they had in there were scattered to other repositories. A piece here, a piece there.

What if that really is happening right now.

And what if YOUR voice could make a difference. Would you take a minute and speak up? Would you take thirty seconds to click on a link and add your name to the list of those who don't want this to happen?

"The governor of Michigan has used the executive order to close the Library of Michigan and divide the contents to other libraries. The Records Preservation Committee, a joint organization of the National Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies has started an online petition in an effort to stop this action. Please go to the following site: http://www.fgs.org/rpac/index.php to read and join the efforts to stop the loss of their organized history.

"The US did this over 100 years ago with the non-population censuses. Now those important documents are hard to find as they are scattered across the country in state, university and organization libraries." (quoted text from a friend)

Be heard.

And please feel free to repost and pass the information in this particular blog posting around to anyone you know that might care about records access.

One reason for the latest Record Search Pilot makover

2009-09-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Y'all might have noticed that just a couple days ago the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot took on a new look - new fonts, new color scheme, new layout - that sort of thing. Scared me, at first, to tell the truth, fearing that I was going to have to figure out how to get all those great indexed records and images all over again! But a quick peruse calmed my fears, that it's still the same Record Search Pilot site, with a minor cosmetic makeover.

Today, at the FGS conference in Little Rock, I chatted with the folks over at the FamilySearch booth, who were very friendly and informative, and surprisingly the first woman I talked to there told me that she knew my sister (without even knowing my name! we kinda resemble each other in looks and voice so go figure). Turns out her daughter used to date my nephew for a while several years ago. Small world, isn't it?... but I digress...

I was talking with Merrill White (hope I got that right), another one of the FamilySearch representatives there at the booth, and in regards to those cosmetic changes, he directed me to the FamilySearch labs site, which has the upcoming new look for the entire FamilySearch website posted (http://labs.familysearch.org/alpha/) and explained that the new look for the Record Search site is just to prepare it to fit in with the overall new look that's coming for the entire FamilySearch site!

I'm learning so many great things, and meeting the most incredible people here! I'll post a few more bits and blurbs as I get my notes and thoughts organized.

How I Organized My Genealogy Paperwork (or How I spent my summer vacation!)

2009-08-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

I've read a few other folks' ideas on the 'best way' to organize your genealogy. Honestly, the 'best way' is the one that works for you. Organization is the key to survival in any aspect of life!

You already know that genealogy research generates mountains of papers, from seriously important copies of vital records and heirloom family notes and letters, to simple “notes to self” on ideas of where to research next on a family line. And I’m sure you’ve already figured out that it sure would be nice to have a simple organization system so that you could, at a moments notice, find your 3rd great grandmother’s death certificate (did I file it under her married name or her maiden name?), or the marriage certificate that you came across of someone that you’re just sure belongs to your family, but you’re not quite certain of the connection yet.

I’ve organized and re-organized my genealogy papers a couple of times until I’ve finally put together a system that works for me. I won't be so pretentious as to say that its the best way to organize your stuff, only that, as I said, it works for me. Here’s how it goes:

1. Family Binder. I keep one large notebook. The first page is a quarter fan chart of my father’s ancestry, and the second page is a quarter fan chart of my mother’s. In one quick glance I can see the names of 7 generations of each side of my family.

Next I have a family group sheet printed out for every head of household that appears on each of those fan charts. I include notes and sources on these printouts so that I can quickly verify my information sources without having to fire up my laptop. These family group sheets are organized alphabetically in the notebook by the last name of the husband.

At the top of each family group sheet, I have penciled in either “O” for my father’s side (the Osmers), or “B” for my mother’s side (the Burges), along with that head of household’s relation to either my mother or father. For example, “O-5gg”, at the top of the page would quickly tell me that the husband of that family was my father’s fifth great-grandfather. With this system, I can find any direct line ancestor very quickly.

If I am going to be taking a research trip to another state, I run reports for each county that I might be near, of who in my family file was born, married or died there, and I include these lists in my notebook right behind the fan charts, with a post-it note tab for the county. Again, a very quick way of seeing who I might possibly find information on when in a specific area.

2. File Folders. Everything else goes in file folders. First I numbered major category headings that pretty much cover all the papers I’ve collected. My headings are: 1. To Do; 2. People; 3. Places; 4. Vital Records; 5. Publications; 6. Organizations; 7. How To.

Within each of these major headings, I have several sub-headings, and number the folders accordingly. For example, my section number 4-Vital Records, has the sub folders numbered 4.1 Census; 4.2 Birth; 4.3 Marriage; 4.4 Death; 4.5 Military; 4.6 Land; 4.9 Wills & Estates.

And some of have even more folders within them. Section 4.4 Death also contains a folder for 4.4CERT for Death Certificates, 4.4FC for Funeral Cards, and 4.4OB for obituaries.

So now, I file all my birth certificates in folder 4.2-Births, and all Death certificates in folder 4.4CERT. But wait - there’s one other step that I take before I file anything. A database!!! Every piece of paper that goes into any file then gets labeled with its own unique identifying number, which includes the folder number plus a unique three digit number (starting with 001). So the first birth record that I put in the folder 4.2 Births will be labeled 4.2-001 and then in my database I will identify that Item 4.2-001 is a birth certificate, for Jane Doe, and include other information like the date of the certificate, location etc (usually everything required for a good source citation). Items are numbered consecutively by the order they are entered into the file. I can easily find anything by doing a quick search in the database (done in Excel) for either a name, or a document type, to find any entry I have made.

I’ve found this to be so much easier than trying to remember if I should put a woman’s papers in with her husband, or in with her father, or what to do if a document lists more than one person... Doesn’t matter, I just slap a number on it, record it in my database and file it by document type.

Another example is my section number 3 - Places. The folders within that are locations, and usually include locale information that may cover several families, or local histories or other tidbits. The sub folders are broken down by state, i.e., 3CT for Connecticut, or 3OH for Ohio. And within a state folder I might also break it down by county, so the labeling would then be 3OH.Ash for Ashtabula County, Ohio, or 3OH.Gea for Geauga County, Ohio.

And because there are always things that seem to defy categorization, within the 2-People section, I have a folder called 2.3 Surnames. Within that section, I have dozens of folders with labeled with surnames in the following fashion: 2.3BUR -Burge, 2.3THO - Thompson, etc. I just use the beginning code when I enter an item into my database, so that I know exactly which folder I put it into. If I get an e-mail from someone with some interesting information on a family, I may print it out and file it this way in a surname file.

My advice is to take some time to think through what folder names you need for your organization, and make yourself a list, and number them. And be religious about assigning a unique number to, and entering any new items into your database. Print out a copy of the database from time to time, and keep a backup someplace safe as well, if you don’t have an online backup service.

There are several excellent books and articles written by other folks on how to organize your genealogy. It is definitely worth it to read through some of them and find one that you think will fit your needs and organizational style. All the research in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t find it when you need it! I wish you the best of luck!

Researching Your Foreign Ancestors Online & Elsewhere

2009-08-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

It can be a bit disheartening when you start chasing a family line, and you soon find yourself in a foreign country, like Denmark, Italy or Czechoslovakia. What do you do next? How can you further your family research if you can’t afford a trip overseas and you don’t speak the language?

Well believe it or not, you actually have several options. They all involve a little work, mind you - nothing quite so simple as typing your name into Ancestry.com, but it doesn’t have to be all that much harder!

There are two ways to access foreign records yourself without going overseas - on microfilm and online. Microfilmed records allow you access to the world, but as close as your local Family History Center. For example, you might read through the parish records of small towns in Europe that may date back into the 1500s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sent people all over the world, filming vital records and family histories from every country, resulting in over two million rolls of microfilm and microfiche. You can peruse these films at www.FamilySearch.org, by searching through the Library Catalog (under the Library tab). I explained this in more detail on my previous post about the FamilySearch.org website.

Many countries have lots of valuable genealogical records available online as well, in archives and other websites. But these sites won’t normally turn up in your standard Google search because searches in English often limit results to sites in English as well. Thats why you want to use the Google Language Tools. From the main Google page, just to the right of the search box are the words “Language Tools”. If you click on this, it will bring up another web page, with several options, but the very first is a goldmine. From “Search across languages” you may type in your search term, leaving your language as English, and then choose the language you would like to search in. (I would recommend ~genealogy – searching with the tilde in front of the word genealogy will include all synonyms of the word genealogy, ie, family history, pedigree, ancestors, etc). The search results will be foreign genealogy websites, originally written in the language you chose, but translated into English!

If you already have an address of a foreign site that you would like to translate, from the Google Language Tools page you can scroll down and paste the address in, choose your language options, and voila! The webpage is now in English!

Finally, if you just don’t want to deal with the research and translation on your own, you could consider hiring a professional genealogist who specializes in that country. The Association of Professional Genealogists keeps a list of members that you can search (www.apgen.org) to find someone who may fit your needs. You can also google “Professional Genealogists” and the country you are researching. Another option is a fairly new website service called www.GenealogyFreelancers.com. You can post your project for free and with no obligation, and choose from the researchers who bid on your job based on qualifications and price. It’s a very convenient way of connecting folks.

Don’t let a little thing like language or distance stop your research!

A Misunderstood & Underutilized Resource

2009-08-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

Lots of folks tend to be misinformed about LDS genealogy resources. Many changes have been going on in the past few years, which have included major revamping of the LDS genealogy website www.FamilySearch.org. I’d like to just mention a few of the resources available from the website that I feel are invaluable - and even better than Ancestry.com (because they’re free!)

From the website’s main page, you can still download a free genealogy organization program for your computer (Personal Ancestral File), and also search the billions of names in the IGI (a database comprised of both personal submissions and extracted names from vital records), Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File (both databases of user submitted names). As with any user-submitted records, there are always the possibilities of error and incorrect data. But you can often at least get an idea of what direction to take your own research to prove or disprove these pedigrees. Honestly, these name databases are my least favorite part of the FamilySearch website, which now also includes many original records and images.

The tabs that run across near the top of the webpage in blue are your gateway to valuable genealogical records. From the “Search Records” tab, you can browse or search through thousands of digitized books - local & family histories, genealogies and journals - by choosing “Historical Books”.

Also under the “Research” tab, by choosing “Record Search Pilot”, you can search through thousands of newly indexed records from the FamilySearch Indexing program, where volunteers are indexing vital records microfilm from the Family History Library collection. Many of the search results include access to the actual images associated with the record - birth, death or marriage certificates, census images or church record images from the US and around the world - all for free. This incredible resource is continually being updated and added to so check back from time to time to see what the latest additions are. Or better yet, sign up under the “Index Records” tab and help out yourself - also getting access to the records before they are posted for everyone!

Under the “Research Helps” tab you will find articles and research guides for every state in the US and every country in the world (or at least most of them...) These guides include records availability, repository information and in the case of foreign research, often language help and word guides. These resources will give you direction and guidance on how to proceed with your research in any given location, and are a great place to start.

The “Library” tab includes information on the Salt Lake Family History Library, but also includes free online research classes under “Education”. Classes include Research in England, Germany, Italy, Hispanic (in Spanish), Russia and US.

One of the best features under the Library tab is the access to the Family History Library Catalog. From “Library Catalog” you can search or browse through the millions of books and microfilm available for rental from your local Family History Center. If you are lucky, when you locate a film that interests you, the Film Notes will include the phrase (in red) “To view a digital version of this item click here” - and you can have instant access to the film online!

The microfilm & microfiche collection include the actual images from courthouse and other records from the United States, and church parish registers from around the world. I’ve “read” through parish registers from tiny churches in England, handwritten in Latin going back to the 1500s. Absolutely amazing! And all available as close as my local LDS Family History Center. (You can determine which films you are interested in online, but the films need to be ordered & viewed at a Family History Center or library with FHL privileges, for a small rental fee of about $5.50).

The FamilySearch.org website can be an invaluable help for your genealogical research, for both locating and viewing original documents relating to your ancestors. I've only touched on a few of the available resources. Spend some time there today yourself!

Dairy Diary

2009-08-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

My last blog post started a lot of family discussion as dad tried to locate pictures of the white percherons. My dad, now 85, grew up on the dairy, and my eldest cousin, Ann, spent a lot of time there when she was growing up also. Their recent correspondence, spurred by a photo of my dad's sister, is worth sharing - a small glimpse into farm life.

Ann: While I was looking for the horse picture, I came across this picture of mom when she was small. Is the house in the background the farmhouse? I don't think I have ever seen a picture of the house before the north part was torn off. I can remember the inside of that room, but not the outside. I think we only used the kitchen in the summer, and then used the big room for a dining room and kitchen combined in the winter.

Dad: The North wing of the house was originally a local cheese factory that the previous owner had moved and attached to the main house. The first room as you entered the front door (shown in the picture) was a dining room where we fed the thrashing crews a couple of times every year. Beyond it was the kitchen (under the chimney shown in the pic) with the cast iron wood burning cook stove under which you got your head caught while trying to catch a cat or retrieve a ball. Mom, or maybe Dad and I had to lift the stove a few inches to get your head loose. Do you remember that?

Ann: I do remember getting my head caught under the cookstove, but the way I remember it is my whole body was under that stove. I remember looking out from under that stove, and it probably was just my head. I remember that someone got a board and pried up the stove so I could get out. I know grandma did have an oil stove that she cooked on, and I remember having a long table that they put the dishpan, rinse pan, and a drainer. I don't remember having a sink. I also remember having a slop pail where they threw the dishwater. There was a big heating stove in the room that ended up being the dining room. I'm pretty sure that was the only heat we had until they got the furnace. It seems like grandpa took the stove out in the summer and then put it back in the winter.

Dad: Beyond the kitchen was a storeroom which had a corner closet where our toys were kept. On the outside of that room was the woodshed and a porch off the kitchen which led to the cistern and to the stairs down to the cellar where we cooled our food in the summertime. Mom used to feed the cats and kittens on the porch so there was always a cat or two waiting to be fed. Mom's daily routine was to save a large pan of milk from the milk house and take it to the cellar to keep it cool. Occasionally she would back out the door with the pan of milk and as she cleared the screen door and turned around, she would step on a kitten which screamed, followed by Mom's scream and we would have another day with no milk.

Regarding the kitchen use, I left in Jan of 43 for the Navy and I think Mom was cooking 3 meals a day all year on that kitchen but she may have switched to a kerosene stove. I'm getting a little hazy on the details of that period.

Ann: I can remember Tom Franks doing the remodeling, and he ate lunch with us and told a lot of stories. I can't remember what it was he told us, but I guess I thought it was strange so I asked grandma about it. She told me that he told "yarns." I had no idea what a yarn was. I can also remember that during the war, they had what they called "blackouts." Everyone was supposed to turn all the lights out, so in case we were attacked the enemy couldn't find us. A man used to walk past each house to see if any lights were on. Grandpa used to listen to the radio, and he would hold a paper or cardboard in front of the radio so the man couldn't see the light from the dial.

Me: My grandfather died in 1969 and the farm was sold shortly after that. My dad, my son and I were back in Ohio this past summer and were able to visit the old farm, which has changed quite a bit. But one thing remained the same - there were cats everywhere!

Heigh-ho plow horse, away!

2009-08-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

My dad’s ancestors were farmers, not cowboys. Dairy farmers at that. Not exactly yippy-yi-ki-yay kinda animals, those cows. But there are always horses on a dairy farm as well. These pictures are of my grandfather Addison Y. Osmer between 1910-1920 with his father’s horses Belle and Queen.

When my grandfather Addison had his own farm, he had a team of white Percheron horses, that noble breed whose ancestors were historically used as battle mounts during the Middle Ages. Their names were Topsy and Nellie.

Topsy and Nellie were the all-purpose muscle around the farm - quite literally the horsepower. They pulled any farm implement that needed to be pulled - the walking plow, spike-tooth drag, disk harrow, seed drill, corn planter, grass mower, side rake, dump rake, hay wagon & hay loader, the mud boat (the wet-weather sled), the

snow sleigh, and grain binder for wheat and for corn. I grew up in Southern California, so I’m not entirely sure what all of those things are, but my dad gave me the information, and they sound like heavy duty farm implements for sure.
During the depression, grandpa hired out Topsy and Nelly to his nephew who used to build roads for the WPA (Works Progress Administration). They were eventually retired in the late 40's, after the war, when grandpa was able to afford a Farmall tractor.
Topsy and Nellie were still part of the farm though, just didn’t have to work as hard any more. In their final years, grandpa would even grind their hay for them to eat because their teeth had worn down to where they could no longer chew hay. We should all be so well taken care of in our old age!

Find your ancestors in journals!

2009-08-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Brigham Young University is working on a new website called Historic Journals (http://journals.byu.edu) where historic journals are being digitized and posted online. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have registered for the New FamilySearch program, you can sign in to the website, and automatically, your pedigree chart from NewFamilySearch is compared to the names that have been identified in the journals, and if there are any matches, you can read those journals online, for free!

If you're not LDS, you can still browse through the journals and view and read the original images for free.

The site also invites folks to submit journals of their own ancestors that they might have in their possession as well, in order to be able to connect with other possible relatives of the same ancestors.

Great Website for German/Russian Immigrant Ancestors

2009-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

I came across another really interesting website today, called Odessa (http://www.odessa3.org). The Odessa website is an absolute goldmine of information about Germans who emigrated to Russia in the 1800s, and their descendants. There are digitized books and transcribed and indexed microfilm from the Family History Library for dozens of different areas and topics.

One of the main purposes of the website is to connect researchers to one another. Definitely read the "About Odessa" page to get an overview of the site and how to contact others.

The "Collections" page is where the bulk of the records are. You can click on the "Full Text Search" button near the top of the page to search for specific surnames. The results are displayed in a very easy to read list.

Records available on the site that have either been indexed or transcribed include census, land, cemeteries, family histories, church records, immigration/emigration records and more. There is even a section of .gedcom files for specific families.

The author of the website is Roger Ehrich, who hosts and manages the collections, and graciously shares all of this great information for free to anyone interested. If you have ancestry that includes German/Russian immigrants, you must check this website out!

I've included the address on my toolbar as well, for now under "Germany" in the "Free Sites" tab. The toolbar is a free download and easily uninstalled if you don't like it. http://RelativelyCurious.OurToolbar.com/

Genealogical & Historical Societies Online

2009-07-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

When I'm searching the internet for people or even just background information on the area they were in, I look for genealogical societies and historical societies at the state, county and individual town level to see if they have a website available. Often these smaller, more local groups will have great collections of written information and if you're really lucky, photographs as well.

I just scored big on a family I have been researching in Minnesota, by finding old photographs from the late 1800/early 1900s with identification and captions at the Steele County Historical Society website. They don't have a huge collection, but even one photograph of an entire family taken in front of their tiny cabin with their pet dog and bird, is a real treasure.

A while back I was researching a family that went to Montana when it was wild. By perusing the collections that the Montana Historical Society had at their website, I was able to contact them and for about $20, received photocopies of prison records, mug shots, and letters back and forth to the parole agency about a man who was part of a gang of horse thieves in the early 1900s, that roamed from Montana to New Mexico. One of the letters was from a local sheriff to the parole board suggesting that they revoke his parole, because he'd recently been in a shoot-out and had his index finger shot off. They feared he was going to exact revenge as soon as he recovered if he didn't get put back in jail soon.

So be sure to check for historical and genealogical societies for the areas you're researching in, and look at all levels - state, county and town. You never know what you might find.

Great Family Search Genealogy Conference - October 10th in Plano, TX!

2009-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

The website is up (www.greatfamilysearch.com), the flyers are out and registrations are now being accepted for the 2009 Great Family Search Genealogy Conference on October 10, in Plano, and is sponsored by the Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Carrollton, Plano & Richardson. The full day conference is completely free, but registration is limited and usually fills up, so be sure to go to the website and print off your pre-registration form and get it mailed in. You may pre-order a CD with all syllabi from the conference for $2, and if you are attending, you may also pre-order a box lunch from Kuby's Deli for $10. Pre registrations must be received by September 26, 2009.

This year many new classes are on the list to choose from, along with a couple of perennial favorites. Classes include:

A Survey of Internet Resources for Genealogical Research
Exploring Options for Implementing Your Family Website
FamilySearch Indexing
Cracking "Cold Case" Genealogy Problems with DNA
Using Footnote.com at a Family History Center (for free!)
Where are MY Family's Stories Online?
What's Cooking at Familysearch Labs?
Deciphering Old Handwriting
Microsoft Photo Story3 for Windows XP
Effectively Search the Online Family History Library Ctalog
Avatars, Blogs & Tweets (Oh My!) Social Networking for Genealogists
Books, Vital Records, Census & More at FamilySearch.org
What I Wish I'd Known 40 Years Ago
Canadian Research
Using MS Word 2003 for Family History & Newsletters
Early LDS Church Records & Mormon Immigration
Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced Hispanic Research (3 separate classes)

I am really, really excited about the classes I've been asked to present this yearand am having so much fun preparing them. The class list should offer something for everyone, so do try to attend.

Again, the day-long event is completely free, but you really should pre-register (and I'd order the CD for sure!) You can print off the registration forms at http://www.greatfamilysearch.com or if you have any questions, e-mail greatfamilysearch@gmail.com.

About that toolbar...

2009-07-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

One of the things I really love about genealogy are the people I get to spend time with, both online and in real life. For the most part, the genealogists I know, both professional and hobbyist, are just the nicest people, and most are happy to help out in a second, whether its answering research strategy questions, or sharing family information from their own research. Genuinely good-hearted and generous folks.

I like to include myself in that generalization. I volunteer at the local public library and at the local Family History Center one day a week each. It seems that just about every week I am able to fulfill a couple requests for "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness" (http://raogk.org) and occasionally even some from BooksWeOwn (at rootsweb). I feed stray animals and I swerve to avoid turtles in the road. Whatever I can do to help.

I do a lot of research online. Not exclusively, mind you, but libraries & courthouses don't tend to be open at 10pm, and its not a good time to be tramping around cemeteries. And you probably know that as you find more and more great websites for research, your "links" toolbar starts to get really cramped, and your "favorites" or bookmarks start getting more and more complicated. Then try sharing them all when someone asks!

The answer was to put together a toolbar for all those great genealogy website links. Initially it was just for my own personal use, but I've found that instead of e-mailing individual links to friends here and there its just easier to give out the download info for the toolbar. Its all free anyway - free for me to make, free for anyone to download and use. Just a good deal all around.

You can download it free at http://RelativelyCurious.OurToolbar.com/ .
If you don't like it you can uninstall it. Or if you want you can just turn it off and on whenever you want to use it, or not have it show.

Personally, the parts that I use the most are the US State Favorites, under the "Free Sites" tab, and the links to my mail & social networks under the "Connect" tab. I continually add sites and gadgets to it as I find things that I "need" on a regular basis, and I'd be happy to include websites that anyone else thinks would be important to include. You can leave me a note here, or I think you can even send me a message through the toolbar itself (under the "Hi" tab).

So thats the story on my toolbar.

Nothing says summer vacation like a 6 year old with a rifle

2009-07-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Just the words "summer vacation" invoke a sense of excitement in me. Unfortunately for my poor son, an exciting vacation to me anymore means we spend a week tramping through cemeteries, and hunkered over dusty old books in little tiny libraries in places that don't have amusement parks. (Thank heavens for game boy!)

My own summers growing up were spent among the people that I am so fervently researching now - oh, that I had only paid more attention to grandma's stories! Every year my folks would load my sister and me into the back seat of our '61 Cadillac (the one with the big fins), and drive back to the small family dairy farm in Northeastern Ohio. I remember the drive taking forever, but mostly I remember being surrounded by family once we arrived - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... they were all there. We slept upstairs in the farmhouse that my dad grew up in, and would always peek into the dresser drawers to look at the things grandma had stored in them - particularly my dad's navy uniform and hats!

During the day my grandpa would always fix us up with something unique and totally inappropriate. We got to wander through the stalls and pet the cows, and we got to drive the tractor way out through the back fields, past the sugar shack where they boiled down the maple syrup in the spring, back to the creek (read that 'crick') where my dad used to swim as a little boy. We always begged to bring home a crawfish or two for pets, but for some reason mom never thought that was a good idea.

My grandpa taught me how to shoot a rifle when I was about six, and after we had mastered the art of blasting tin cans, he set us kids up in the barn with the task of shooting bats out of the top corners of the roof. The next year or so, he taught me how to drive. I remember sitting next to him, despite being a bit scared of him, and thinking well thats all there is to that! as I drove his fifty-something chevy around the yard. It didn't matter that he had to press the gas & brake pedal, because I got to steer (its all I could reach) and that was quite enough for me.

My aunt and uncle owned the general store, and lived above it. Everyone in the small town there thought my sister and I were really something, being from California and all. But we thought that there couldn't possibly be anything any cooler than living above your own grocery store! My aunt used to send us downstairs for a can of this or that when she was making dinner, and used to let us "buy" candy with coupons. And there was no place in California where Amish people would tie their horse & buggies to the hitching post in front of a store!

Inevitably we would have to pile back into the car and head back home, to our quiet, boring existance, with only the promise of the next summer to look forward to. Once home we were back to our own quiet little family again, with all the relatives reduced to names on Christmas or birthday cards. I think that this is one of the reasons that I do genealogy - to try to recapture that warm feeling of being surrounded by relatives. Its never quite the same, but sometimes it gets pretty close.

Where to Write for Vital Records - even on the High Seas!

2009-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has posted online a wonderful guide, alphabetically by state, giving all the information you would need to send away for birth, marriage, death or divorce records located in any of the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, Canal Zone District of Columbia, "Foreign", or those occuring on the High Seas. The listings tell what years are available, and not available, and what all you will need to submit along with your request. Definitely an address to file away in your "favorites"! (of course its already on my toolbar, under "Resources")

The CDC site is located at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

My internet genealogy toolbar is at http://RelativelyCurious.OurToolbar.com/

If only Second Life came with an extra 24 hours/day

2009-07-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished my first genealogy chat in Second Life - and boy was it fun! Second Life is a free "multiple player online role-playing" site, where you create your person and navigate around in a virtual world. Not that I have any extra time for any more online gaming, mind you, but this is educational! heehee. No, really. There was quite a crowd at the genealogy discussion tonight hosted by DearMyrtle, aka Clarise Beaumont. After that I moseyed on over to the LiveRoots gazebo for yet more genealogy discussions.

If this sounds like fun, er, I mean an educational opportunity that you might be interested in, check out the SecondLife group on GenealogyWise for times, days, etc. I'm Genie Weezles, btw, so say "hi" if you see me!

10 Truths About Genealogy

2009-07-11T17:44:00.001-07:00

1. There is no "A" in Cemetery.
2. The census takers, more often than not, didn't really care when your relative was born, or how your relative's name was spelled. They spelled it like it sounded. They also didn't really care if the two year old hanging off of the Polish woman they were questioning was a boy or a girl, and they couldn't understand Polish anyway. Thats why your great uncle is a girl in 1900 and a boy in 1912. Its still the same person.
3. There are occasionally errors in original records. There are quite often errors in transcriptions. The guy transcribing the 1880 census didn't realize that your great grandmother was really a proselytine (a missionary), and wasn't actually a prostitute. Sorry about that.
4. Just because it was printed in a book, doesn't make it true.
5. Just because it was posted on the internet, doesn't make it true.
6. Just because someone else downloaded it and re-posted it still doesn't make it true. If they can't get your grandfather married to the right woman, most likely the lineage to Joan of Arc isn't quite true either.
7. "newspaper clipping" is not enough information for a proper source citation. Neither is "Aunt Mable".
8. Buying every subscription to every online website will not guarantee you find your grandfather. (Steven Morse found your grandpa in "one step", though - http://stevenmorse.com/grandfather/index.html)
9. Doing all of your research online is like licking your fork and calling that dinner. Go to the library! the courthouse! the cemetery! Write some letters! Call some relatives! Dare I say it... turn off your computer! (ok, but only for a little while)
10. Only another genealogist will be interested enough to listen to the story of your ancestry back to Charlemagne. But you have to be willing to listen to theirs too. He's my 35th great grandfather, by the way ;)

Interactive Historical County Boundary Map Online

2009-07-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

I am just so thrilled with this site, that its worth yet another mention. Most genealogists are familiar with the "must have" book, Map Guide to the US Federal Census, by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide - you just can't do census research without it! But recently I found a website, hosted by the Newberry Library (Chicago), that really is incredible. Not only does it show historical county boundaries, but you can search every year, not just the census years. From the "Atlas" main page, at
http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp/state_index.html, pick the state you're interested in (although unfortunately data isn't available for Georgia and Tennessee at this point) and then from the map that opens, choose the dates that you're interested in. Just like we're used to, the current county boundaries are visible in the background, with the boundaries of the dates chosen are in black. You can zoom in and out which is really helpful in states like Texas that have something close to a zillion counties.

Another really neat thing is back from the main page, underneath each state's map link is the word "metadata". If you click on that, you can view all of the documentation that goes along with each map, including commentary, bibliography, and the all-important "preferred style citation" information, so that you can easily and properly cite your source!

I've "tweeted" about this already a couple of times (I'm "rcurious", in case you tweet too), but I think its just such a great genealogy tool. The Newberry Library has some other way cool gems for genealogists, but I'll save that for another blog!

Genealogy Volunteerism

2009-07-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

Most of us were taught from birth it seems, that it is better to give than receive. But as a genealogist, its hard to imagine anything better than receiving, when that means getting golden tidbits of family information from someone you don't know who lives far away. Imagine the joy of the giver, though, in those situations, to be able to provide someone with the key that unlocks their family history or mystery!

Volunteer opportunities abound in the genealogical world, and one of the tenants of professional genealogists is to give back to the genealogical community in some fashion. Off the top of my head, I can list several easy ways that anyone, at absolutely any skill or available time level, can be a genealogical volunteer:

1. Indexing. Spend a few minutes whenever you have the chance, or get addicted to it and index for hours a day, and help the folks at FamilySearch.org index those few million microfilms they have stored in their vaults, so that they can in turn post the records as they are indexed, for the public to search, and find! Sign up at http://www.familysearchindexing.org

2. Library Volunteer. Head on down to the genealogy department at your local library, or historical society, and volunteer to help out maybe an hour a week, or more. There's always something that needs an extra hand, or even just a living body to keep a chair warm. Local Family History Centers are almost always looking for volunteers to help out with a shift. Both are a great way to learn the resources you have available in your area, and help other people get excited about their family history at the same time.

3. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. Sign up as a volunteer at http://www.raogk.org if you have access to any special records or books for a particular area or interest, that you'd be willing to help others with. Maybe you live near a library with a great obituary collection, or maybe you have a shelf full of transcribed county court records at home. Sign up, describe what you have to offer, and sooner or later someone will thank you profusely.

4. Books-We-Own. Very similar to RAOGK, Books-we-own is specifically a book look-up volunteer site, and is hosted by Rootsweb.com. Sign up and list the books you have on your personal bookshelf that you're willing to do look-ups in, and be ready to provide someone with that one piece of information that rocks their world. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bwo/

5. US GenWeb projects. US Gen Web is always looking for folks to either host state or county sites, or at least add to their collection of information. Check out the opportunities at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/index.shtml

6. Share Your Knowledge on a Wiki. Know some great websites for specific state, county, or even town records? Know the best way to find vital records for a particular area? Share your knowledge and help build a genealogical "wiki" on the web. My current personal favorite is hosted by FamilySearch.org. Sign in, then go to the areas of your "expertise", and add your ideas. https://wiki.familysearch.org

I'd love to hear any other ideas for volunteer opportunities for genealogists!

Testing out the feed to my blog

2009-07-07T19:17:00.001-07:00

Ugh! There. I said it. My "blog". I'm just not thrilled with the sound of that word.

One out of three ain't bad -- literally

2009-07-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ezra Wildman wore out three wives - Matilda (on the other side), Martha and Margaret. All of them died at less than 40 years old, poor things.
But what possibly possessed Ezra to have the inscription written at the bottom: "Jesus Loved Martha"...? Did Jesus not love Matilda or Margaret?

And the point of blogging is....???!!!

2009-07-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

I completely get Twitter - 140 characters to pass on tidbits of information -- in my case genealogical information... websites, research tips, that sort of thing. Most anything like that can be said in 140 characters or less. No problem.
But blogging? The purpose has escaped me so far. Sure, I enjoy reading other people's blogs from time to time (genealogy-related ones of course), but for the most part I figure they could have easily been pared down to -- you guessed it -- 140 characters or less.
I don't know why, but yesterday the little light bulb went off in my head. I LOVE to talk about genealogy, but rarely have the opportunity because those nearest and dearest to me, and even those just in my general vicinity, don't have the slightest interest in hearing what I have to say. And I certainly don't want to be one of THOSE genealogists, who goes on and on and on and nobody really is interested in the exact relationship between the fifth cousin on my mother's side and her aunt's mother-in-law's great grand-niece... blah, blah, blah. You know how that sounds...
But blogging... BLOGGING!!! I can rant for hours on end and it doesn't matter. Let my fingers do the talking, and I can post as much as I want and yap about every minute facet of my research and get it out of my system. And, since nobody reads my blogs anyway, I don't run the risk of boring the snot out of anyone -- and if by some strange reason someone does stumble onto my ramblings, its their choice to read or not to read!
So now I get it. While its blatant self-promotion, ego-building, and quite often pointless and uninteresting blatherings, its also a mind-clearing exercise that leaves you fresh and ready for polite conversation with friends, without the need to talk genealogy!

Research in Northeastern Ohio

2009-06-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from a rather whirlwind research trip to Northeast Ohio where I was able to visit a few cemeteries and a few more libraries. I actually planned ahead this trip, and, using Google Maps, made a "My Map" for my trip of all the cemeteries, libraries & Genealogical societies that I wanted to visit, numbered each and then printed out a detailed map of how to get to each place. It was extremely useful, and also made it easy to determine where we were going to go next.
Our first day was spent up in Chardon, chasing Hosmers and a few other surnames. The Geauga County Genealogical Society sponsors the genealogy room at the Chardon public library. While it was definitely small, almost cramped, it was packed with both state and local genealogical treasures. I don't normally spend time on collections of family group sheets, but theirs definitely had a great twist - obituaries and other news clippings were either attached or photocopied on the backside of the group sheet. They also had local informational tidbits collected in an individual box for each township, making it easy to find those juicy bits that were never necessarily published anywhere else.
The Geneva public library was home to the Ashtabula County Genealogical Society, and we spent a good day there as well. Again, it was hard for me to get my nose out of the vertical files, but the volunteers from the society were incredibly helpful, and pulled several books and other items of interest to the names we were researching for the area. They have a very well-organized collection of notebooks filled with different subject matter - Bible records, obituaries, etc. I could have easily spent another day or two there.
My absolute favorite was the Trumbull County public library in Warren. Not only did they have ample space (considering the tiny areas many other libraries set aside for genealogy), but the resources and librarians were wonderful. I spent an entire day there, and barely got out of the vertical files. One file cabinet was filled with surname packets of genealogical research and tidbits collected by a renowned local historian and genealogist from the 1930's. These files included her correspondence back and forth with both people who wanted her to find information on their family, and letters to and from people that she was requesting information about. Definitely found some golden clues there! Next trip I am going to set aside at least one, if not two, entire days just for this library. And did I mention the wonderful staff? Aside from rescuing the power cord for my computer which I accidently left, they were helpful and ever-ready to answer any question, and at the same time, didn't interfere with my research.
I had such high hopes for the Morley library, but was fairly disappointed overall. It definitely was the handsomest library - with both ample space and beautiful paneling and furniture. The highlight of their collections seemed to be (at least to me) their newspaper microfilm, and their vertical files. Their stacks were a disappointment, and there was but one librarian in the area, who was completely absent more than present, and didn't offer any research guidance or help at all. Not that I really needed that, but I always appreciate a nickel tour of the facilities before I dig in.
I'm still sorting through the couple of hundred tombstone photos that I took, cropping & downsizing them so I can get them posted on FindAGrave.com.
I also got names and e-mail addresses for folks at a few of my favorite spots, who told me not to hesitate to contact them if they could look something up for me. Genealogists are the nicest people!!!

Godfrey Library, continued

2009-05-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Now, on to the databases! The Godfrey has four levels of membership. The basic level, is the Red Subscription, currently at $35 a year. This, and all other levels, include their PREMIUM DATABASES, which include an incredible amount of resources:
- Several Newspaper databases : 19th Century Newspapers Database, Accessible Archives, The London Times, and Early American Newspapers Database
- Published Histories: American County Histories to 1900, for states including New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
- US Civil War Databases: American Civil War Research Database & Civil War Letters and Diaries Database
- Letters & Diaries: British & Irish Women's Letters & Diaries, "In the First Person" database, North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries & Oral Histories
- Biographical Resources: American National Biography Database, Marquis Who's Who on the Web database, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Database, Reference USA
- African American Resources: Black Thought & Culture Database, Oxford African American Studies Center Database
- Geographical Resources: Columbia Gazetteer Database
- Library Catalogs: OCLC WorldCat
- UNIQUE RESOURCES: The Godfrey hosts a collection of manuscript and published materials, largely primary sources, including vital, church, Bible and funeral home records and cemetery inscriptions from several locations, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island, Ireland and Italy, about which they claim "Most cannot be found anywhere else on the web."
- THE GODFREY COLLECTION - over 4,000 digitized books in the Godfrey Memorial Library collection.
- LINKS TO FREE WEB SITES - Arranged in folders by state, country and/or topic, with new additions highlighted for three months in a monthly folder as well, these are, in my experience, some very useful links -- and not necessarily the usual stuff you find from other directories or link-lists.

The Blue Level Subscription ($65), along with the premium databases, includes access to Newspaper Archives, with more than 3,200 titles from the US and Canada from the1700s to the 20th century.
The Green level ($75) includes all the premium databases plus access to World Vital Records US Collection.
And finally, the Gold Level Subscription includes everything - the Premium Databases, Newspaper Archives AND World Vital Records, for $100/yr.

I have discovered some really great websites through this service, and encourage you to go on over to your local Family History Center and spend some time perusing the Godfrey's resources. At $35/year for the Basic membership, you just can't go wrong.

Godfrey Library

2009-05-26T16:12:00.001-07:00

I've spent the week preparing an FHC Staff Training class on using the Godfrey Library resources that are available for free in Family History Centers. I've been a member/subscriber for the past few years myself, and hate to admit that I have never taken the time, before this, to sit down and figure out what all was available on their website.
Boy am I glad I have -- there's some really great stuff there! When you first go to the site, at http://www.godfrey.org, you can look under the Search tab for a few options, before you even have to sign in. For one thing, there are three great history/biographies from Middlesex County, Connecticut that are searchable and PDF'd - books I haven't seen online previously, so that's always a good thing.
Also under the "Search" tab, you can request that a Godfrey volunteer search the AGBI (American Genealogical Biographical Index) for the name of your ancestor ($6 per name), and they will also send you the copies of the pages from the books referenced.
The "Quick Search" isn't what you might think. For $10, a Godfrey volunteer will do a quick 30 minute search, and copy indexed Godfrey resources for your ancestor. Not a bad deal at all. Follow the instructions for filling out and submitting the forms for each type of search, which take 2-4 weeks. I haven't tried one myself, but thinking it may be a great use of $10.
And all that is before you even sign in! So, after you actually log onto the site, you get a cajillion little yellow folders full of information all neatly labeled and ready to choose from, topped with a yellow "Search" box at the top of the page. Now be aware, that I have it on the best authority that you're not going to get the best results by using that yellow search box at the top of the page. It will only search the resources whose "boxes" you have checked, and there are only a few of those even available to choose from. So if you do choose to perform a search that way, don't by any means think you have exhausted the website's possibilities!

I'm going to take a break for now, and I'll follow up with some more great Godfrey info on my next post shortly.

What a find!

2009-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Half Price Books is having their annual Memorial Day sale, with 20 percent off, so that's how my family spent its Friday night family-time last night. Of course I perused the Reference section to see what interesting genealogy books they might have, and along with all of the usual suspects was a hardcover, first edition of "The Douglas Register - Being a detailed record of Births, Marriages and Deaths together with other interesting notes, as kept by the Rev. William Douglas, from 1750 to 1797." MOST exciting, though is that the book is inscribed by the author, W. Macfarlane Jones, to John Bennett Boddie, with the following: "To John Bennett Boddie - with commendation and appreciation of his splendid work in publishing that valuable contribution to the history of Virginia - 17th Century Isle of Wight. Richmond, Va. July 15, 1940."

And, being marked only $25, I paid a mere $20! Of course coming home I checked www.bookfinder4u.com to compare hundreds of online used bookstore prices to be sure I had gotten a good deal, and boy did I! The lowest price of several original copies was $120, and none are signed editions. But now I am SOOOO torn - whether to keep it because it is a very cool reference and historical piece, or sell it and make some bucks to keep my genealogy addiction funded... Decisions, decisions...

Just like I always say...

2009-05-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I always tell people in many of my lectures, is to always try to utilize local resources. I can't believe I took so long to heed my own advice on this one! I've been looking under every stone I could find for information on the parentage of my 4th great grandfather, David Stevens. I know lots about him, his wives, his divorce in 1817, his kids, and all the descendants. But not knowing who his parents were has plagued me for the past few years.

I recently joined the Berkshire Family History Association, of Berkshire, Massachusetts, thinking that perhaps since the last known residence of David prior to his move to the virtual wilds of Ohio in 1818, had been Pittsfield, Massachusetts in Berkshire County. I noticed that one of the "perks" of membership was three free hours of research by a volunteer of the society, but it took me close to a year to get around to submitting everything I knew about David in the hopes of finding just one tiny clue to his ancestry.

The package of photocopies came in the mail today, and I saved it for last, hoping beyond hope that the answer would be inside, but at the same time preparing myself for disappointment. I opened the envelope, and sat down with the stack of 20 photocopies and started with the research report of what resources they had searched. The first several references listed had noted in the "relevant page #" column, "nothing relevant found". I feared the worst.

I started slowly going through the photocopies. Some were information that I had found myself earlier, others were "long shots" but contained the name I was looking for, David Stevens. Then halfway through the stack I hit gold - notes from the will of one Eliphalet Stevens, a Revolutionary war patriot, who left land to his sons Jeremiah, Abner and David. That alone didn't excite me, until I continued to read what Eliphalet had willed to his daughters - and named daughter Olive's husband as David Ashley and that they lived in Ohio. BINGO! An early history of Ohio had clearly mentioned that Olive Stevens Ashley had been driven in a sled to Ohio by her brother David Stevens of Pittsfield.

Now on to serious proving, details, citations and reports, and more ancestors. If I can see through my tears of joy. I love this stuff.

Digital Quaker Collection

2009-05-12T16:01:00.001-07:00

I never cease to be amazed at the great websites for genealogy online! Yesterday I discovered the Digital Quaker Collection at the Earlham School of Religion (a graduate theological school for the Society of Friends). The website states "DQC is a digital library containing full text and page images of over 500 individual Quaker works from the 17th and 18th centuries." Once you enter the site, you can easily search all of the collections, or browse them by title or author. While the default search is a simple search, there are other options for searching which include using Boolean operators, proximity search for finding words near one another, an Index Search, and the ability to search by books of the Bible as they are mentioned in the texts.

The Quakers kept a lot of great records -- let's hope they recorded your ancestors names in these documents too!

http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu/

Chicago research tools

2009-05-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

OK so while I'm on the subject of the Newberry Library, if you're doing research in Chicago, Cook County, there's no better site than the ChicagoAncestors site from Newberry Library, which you can find in the Genealogy Collection Guides and Research Tools page of the Newberry's site, under "Research Chicago". You can also get there directly by going to www.chicagoancestors.org. You can browse through their collection of photos, digitized books, and church records under the Browse tab, and then view the collections. But my favorite part is under the "Tools" tab - There are several absolutely wonderful links, including one to the Cook County Clerk's office with a very user-friendly search of birth-marriage and death records database going back to 1872, and the ability to purchase and instantly view the actual certificates. Also under the "Tools" tab are other great links to searchable City Directories, maps, histories and more.

Interactive Atlas of US County Boundary Changes

2009-05-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Newberry Library hosts this wonderful tool on their website for tracking county boundary changes. The "Atlas of Historical County Boundaries - A reference work designed to provide information about the creation and boundary changes of every county in the United States, from the earliest county creation in the 1600s to 2000." Choose your state, then select the year on the right. County lines are shown overlaying current county lines, similar to William Dollarhide's "Map Guide to the US Census" for those of you familiar with that wonderful book.

The best part is that this interactive digital map is completely free, courtesy of the folks at the Newberry Library.

Cook County Illinois Vital Records

2009-05-11T07:45:00.001-07:00

I just discovered another very genealogy-friendly County website, at http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com. It requires a free sign-in, but then you can search birth, marriage and death records dating back to 1872. The result list from your search gives name, date, certificate numbers, etc - often all the information you may need. But if you want to order a copy of the original, most at $15, its an instant purchase, and the PDF is available right away. I like the "instant gratification" angle, since usually by the time I get certificates back in the mail the old-fashioned way, I've forgotten why I wanted them in the first place. (Can't imagine I'm the only one like that...)

Twitter etc.

2009-04-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've found that I much prefer Twitter-ing to blogging... I don't tend to be one for yapping a whole lot (unless I have an audience), so 140 characters or less works great for me to share cool stuff. If you want to follow my daily - shall we say - insights, my twitter name is rcurious (since relatively was wayyy too long evidently. But I suppose I'll continue to rant a bit here now and then, just in case anyone is listening...

Share This application!

2009-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Are you familiar with the application "Share This"? I absolutely love it! I have installed the plug-in for Firefox, and now there is a little button on my Navigation bar for Share It. When I am at a website that I want to bookmark, I just click my Share It button, and tell it where to save it. There are lots of choices, including Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Google Bookmarks, Yahoo Bookmarks, Delicious, StumbleUpon and a whole bunch of others. OR I can e-mail it simply by putting in someone's e-mail address (even my own). What a handy tool!
For the Firefox plug-in, from your browser go to Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons > Browse All Add-ons, then where it says "Search for Add-Ons", type in ShareThis (no space) and enter. Then just click on the simple installation instructions and voila! You have a button on your browser!

Beyond satisfying...

2009-03-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

You know that warm feeling you get when you do something nice for somebody else, and nobody knows you did it? Thats what I'm feeling right now. Tonight I helped a group of dedicated genealogists located a "next of kin" for an unclaimed person that was given to them by a coroner's office of a major US city. Not only did I help them, I found the decedent's brother, who had an online posting at a social networking site that said that he has been looking for his long lost brother for over 20 years, and located what appears to be a current address for him. The rules of the game however are that only the coroner's office makes the contact.

So its a bittersweet victory. Soon the coroner will be contacting the living sibling with the sad news that his brother passed away. The good news is that he will no longer be an unclaimed body in the morgue. And I get to walk around knowing that I've done a good deed. And put my genealogical research skills to a very, very good use.

Amazing find in NewsArchives from Godfrey Library

2009-02-10T05:55:00.000-08:00

While I have belonged to the Godfrey Memorial Library of Newtown, Connecticut for several years now, I must admit that I am certain that I underutilize their resources. Memberships start at $35/year and go up depending on the number of databases you want to access, but you can also access the site for free at any LDS Family History Center.
Last night I was perusing the NewsArchive newspaper database, which is worth the price of the Godfrey subscription alone. I found several newspaper articles from the 1800s-1900s about people I have been researching, but the most exciting was finding my own sister's birth announcement. I nearly fell out of my chair when I noticed the next birth that was included in the article. It was the birth announcement of one of my sister's best school friends, that she didnt meet until close to 10 years later, in a town 30 miles or so away. To top it off, in those later years, both my father and then later my own husband worked for her father, yet at the time of the birth announcements, our families were completely unaware of one another. Genealogical research can be so amazing!

Another plethora of UK websites

2009-02-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

I just came across another great clearinghouse site for British research - http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html . I have stored it also on my protopage site for future reference.

New Footnote.com content - Indian Census Rolls & more Civil War data!

2009-02-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Footnote.com has just added some really great information, including Civil War Widow's pensions (as well as a whole lot of other Civil War data), some more City Directories, and the Indian Census rolls from 1885-1940. If you don't have a subscription, remember you can currently access Footnote.com for free at any LDS Family History Center.

This is what they say about the Indian Census Rolls:

Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940:

Most rolls include the English and/or Indian name of the person, roll number, age or date of birth, sex, and relationship to head of family. Beginning in 1930 the rolls also show the degree of Indian blood, marital status, ward status, place of residence, and sometimes other information. Only persons who maintained a formal affiliation with a tribe under Federal supervision are listed on these census rolls.

NEW Genealogy specific toolbar!

2009-02-02T08:35:00.001-08:00

I found this wonderful site (www.conduit.com) that allows individuals to create their own custom toolbars. I put one together and included all of the websites that I include in my "Genealogy on the Internet" presentation, as well as a few others. I plan to update date it shortly with state specific sites as well, and would love to hear any suggestions of other sites to include. You can download the toolbar for free at http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com/

Genealogical Speakers Guild

2009-02-02T08:16:00.001-08:00

Just FYI, I'm registered with the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and my calendar of upcoming speaking engagements is available there as well. I would highly recommend joining to anyone who enjoys speaking about genealogy professionally!

Specialized Genealogy Book Search!

2009-01-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

I just created a search box specifically designed to look for genealogy related books through online books and booksellers, as well as WorldCat. The search box is to the left, here, and also on my main page, http://www.protopage.com/relativelycurious . Just enter the name you want, with or without the term ~genealogy (but that will certainly narrow down your results) and voila! Genealogy books online!

My own Customized Genealogy Search Engine

2009-01-05T20:48:00.001-08:00

Google has added yet another cool feature -- customizable search engines! So I added 18 of my favorite genealogy websites, and voila! My own search engine! Look for the Relatively Curious Genealogy Search Engine at the Custom Search part of google.com, or use the one right here on my blog site!

Another plug for posting your family tree online

2009-01-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

This may start to sound like a broken record, but it really is a great idea to post your family file online somewhere. There are so many free sites, and it is so easy to do! The first thing you need to do is have your information stored conveniently in any number of genealogy programs for your computer. Personally, I prefer Legacy, but PAF is the simplest, and its a free download from www.familysearch.org.
Once you have your names and dates entered, export it to a .gedcom using the program's "export" function. Be sure to include sources, but exclude notes and information for living individuals -- usually just a matter of checking a box on the export screen.
Then find the site you want to post to. Rootsweb.com shares their pedigree charts with Ancestry.com, but is entirely free for anyone to peruse. If you want your OWN website where you can also post pictures, etc, I recommend www.familytreeguide.com. There are other sites, including www.tribalpages.com and www.geni.com that work great too. Sign in for your free account, be sure to record your username and password, and then upload your gedcom. Don't wait until your file is "finished" or perfect, because I can guarantee you, you will be long dead before that ever happens!
The next thing you know you'll be meeting new "cousins" from all over the world if you're lucky! The worst that will happen is nothing at all. The best is that someone will contact you and share long-lost information from their family bible or attic!

Why research when it just might land in your lap?!

2008-12-29T13:50:00.000-08:00

Research is great, but attic treasures are better. For the past two years -- at least -- I've been looking for the parents of one of my Revolutionary War ancestors, Elisha Farnum. I have scoured town records for births, school lists, deaths, probate, biographies -- anything that would help me discover who his parents were.
I thought I was close once, when I came across "Farnham/Farnum Families in America by Antoinette Stepanek. She had his parents listed as Josiah Farnum and Sarah Atchison. I was sooo excited, but on closer examination, not only was her claim unsubstantiated with any documentation or sources, but her dates were off compared to Elisha's known birth and death dates from his Tombstone and service records. Way off. Like 70 years off... an entire generation off. So I kept looking, digging, researching, grabbing at straws.
Then one day, quite literally out of the blue, I received an e-mail from a woman in Florida who saw my pedigree chart posted online at familytreeguide.com. She was trying to learn more about the husband of one of Elisha's daughters. I replied back with all I knew, and mentioned that I'd really love to find out who Elisha's parents were. And wouldn't you know it, she knew! She had old, handwritten family genealogies from waaaay back that stated who Elisha's parents were, and it made sense! His father WAS a Josiah Farnum, but not Stepanek's Josiah -- it was that man's son, also named Josiah, and his wife Eleanor Comfort Carew! Dates match, places match -- it was a hit!
So often, despite all your best efforts, you may just have to wait for the answer to show up in somebody else's attic. But for that reason, find a place on the internet to post your family tree, include your brick walls and your e-mail address, and hope that somebody finds you soon.

We've been busy, haven't we?!

2008-10-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know...

...78% of the US population is interested in or actively researching their family history? (source: zOmnibus Survey, Market Tools, Feb 2007)

...The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has over a half million visitors a year?!

...Over 6 million people visit local Family History Centers every year?!

...FamilySearch.org gets over 10 million hits per day and has over 1 million registered users?!

...Ancestry.com has over 850,000 paid subscribers?!

...in April 2008 alone, over 340 million pages were viewed on Ancestry.com?!

Wow. We've been busy, haven't we?!!

Oodles of google hours are good for you!

2008-10-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

A new study out shows that doing research on the internet is actually good for strengthening your brain! So while it just feels like your brain is fried after hours of looking for your ancestors on the internet, its actually just well done. Of course they didn't say anything about what it may be doing to your eyesight!

29 million more names -- and more coming in days

2008-10-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

FamilySearch's Record Search pilot just released 29 million names last week, and is set to be down this week (Oct 7 & 8) to add even more. Its definitely a site to keep your eyes on. Better yet, start indexing yourself -- its fast, easy, and dare I say, even fun.

This is how I want my obituary to read too!

2008-09-20T18:29:00.001-07:00

Now here's a woman who either had an incredible sense of humor, or really pissed off her family! Either way, I love her obituary. Read it at http://www.legacy.com/ohio/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=117208334

I might join the Indiana Gen. Society just for this...

2008-08-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Indiana Genealogical Society now has databases on their website For Members Only... So I was wondering if it would be worth it to join for the databases, and it certainly is an odd collection... This one certainly is intriguing -- "Indiana's Civil War Veterans with Artificial Limbs". So while I guess the news is nothing to lose your head over, its worth checking out. http://www.indgensoc.org

Updates to FamilySearch.org

2008-08-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

I know this is just a little late in the posting, but as of earlier this month, the www.FamilySearch.org website has received a MAJOR facelift. With a cleaner, more streamlined look, the site now easily links through the top tabs, to the Labs site (Records Search Pilot), with the indexing-project results, as well as to the Family Archives Library, which hosts many of the digitized books which are hot linked directly from the Library Catalog. The SLC Family History Library catalog is also just a click away from those top tabs, as are a great directory-style collection of web links!

I can't say enough about the Records Search Pilot, which is updating regularly with the results of the worldwide indexing project. Keep checking back to see what their latest releases are!

Surprise! YOU have been volunteered...

2008-08-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Did you know that most likely, if you use the internet much, that you have been volunteering to help the digitization process of many of the nation's libraries?! You know those annoying little boxes of scrambled letters that you have to decipher at many websites to prove that you are a human? Well, the scientist that invented that technology decided that it wasted so many hours of human life, that he teamed up his technology with the book-digitization project, so that when you now see TWO words to unscramble or decipher, one of them is most likely a word that the computer digitized but didn't understand, due to aged or printing irregularities!!!

Read the whole story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93605988

Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885-1951

2008-06-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

Browse this collection at www.labs.familysearch.org. Images of the original index are viewable, and give you the names of the bride and/or groom, plus their marriage license number.

England and Germany and Mexico (Vital Records) Oh My!!!

2008-06-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Family Search Labs (http://labs.familysearch.org) has recently posted yet more great databases from their indexing project at their labs site, this time including thousands of births and marriages from 1700 to 1900 from church parish registers for England, Germany and Mexico! The actual images aren't yet linked up, but I imagine they will be shortly.

Visual Research Chart from ThinkGenealogy

2008-05-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Mark Tucker, at ThinkGenealogy, has created an incredible visualization of the genealogical research process, and you can download the 11x17 color chart for free at
http://www.thinkgenealogy.com/2008/02/24/genealogy-research-map/

Legacy 7 is finally here!

2008-05-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

Despite the fact that their website (www.legacyfamilytree.com) is still advertising Legacy 6, I received my Legacy 7 upgrade CD & book last week. So far I'm thrilled with the new sourcing options. Its definitely worth the hype & the wait.

Howdy

2008-05-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by my blog site. I currently keep my favorite genealogy websites posted at www.protopage.com/relativelycurious, so please feel free to stop by and see whats there.