Geneology

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Planning a Genealogy Vacation

Combining a summer vacation with a genealogy research trip can be rewarding and fun for you and your family. When your genealogy research next sends you on the road, try these tips for preventing frustration and achieving success.

What is Your Goal?
The first step in the planning process, choosing a specific family or individual to concentrate on will help keep your trip focused and make the planning easier.

Know Where You're Going
Before you go too far in planning your trip, be sure you're headed for the right location! You don't want to spend hours in a church or courthouse, only to learn later that the records of your family are actually kept in the next town or county. Current geographical and political boundaries are not necessarily the ones in existence when your family lived in the area. I've got ancestors who spent multiple generations on the same piece of land, yet resided in three different counties during that time period due to boundary changes.

Know What's Available
Once you have decided which areas you would like to visit, take time to familiarize yourself with the record sources generally available in that region. Some good resources for this include:

· LDS Research Guides and LDS Family History Library Catalog for good, general outlines of available records for a specific location.

· City, county, parish, state or country GenWeb page to learn more about sources for a specific location, and ask for recommendations.

· The Library of Congress Card Catalog to determine what books have been published on the county or area you are planning to visit.

Prepare Checklists
If you haven't already done so, go through the research you have already compiled on the family and use this to create a list of facts or theories that you would like to prove or disprove, and a "to-do" list of records that you would like to check. To help you with this process, many genealogy software programs offer a "to-do" list tool, or the utility software, GenSmarts, can analyze your genealogy file and produce research recommendations.

Do Your Homework
Before you leave home, spend time on the Internet and on the phone to find office hours, holdings and other details on courthouses, libraries, archives, historical socities and other record repositories that you plan to visit. If the library or archive's catalog is online, make a list of records you wish to find, concentrating especially on sources unique to the area where you are researching, including manuscript collections, unpublished papers and records, photographs and local history books. Call ahead to make sure that the records you want to look at are currently available to researchers.

Map a Strategy
The more familiar you are with the area you're planning to visit, the easier your research trip will be. Obtain not only present-day highway maps, but also maps contemporary with the life of your ancestors. The maps I don't research without are prepared by the USGS. These small-scale, topographic maps include county road numbers, farm roads, and many churches and private cemeteries.

Pack for Success
You don't want to know how many times I've lamented during a genealogy vacation over things that I forgot to bring with me. Here's a short checklist to get you started:

· blank charts and forms, including pedigree charts, family group sheets, research logs and forms for abstracting or extracting records (such as blank census forms)

· a laptop computer if you have one (check with the individual repositories to be sure their allowed)

· comfortable clothes and shoes (you may spend a lot of your research time standing at counters or squatting in old, dusty basements). Stick with business casual over sweats or jeans, for better service.

· camera, batteries and plenty of film (or memory cards if your camera is digital)

Visiting an where your ancestors lived can be an extremely exciting and rewarding experience. Walking the land and visiting the cemeteries where my ancestors lived brings me closer to them than a piece of paper could ever do. While it's great to jump in the car and go, advance planning usually results in a much more rewarding adventure. I'd really hate to have you go home disappointed when you find out the courthouse is closed for repairs.

With a few exceptions, hereditary surnames, the last names passed down through the males of a family, didn't exist until about 1000 years ago. While it may be hard to believe in today's hustle and bustle, surnames just weren't necessary before that. In a world that was much less crowded than it is today -- a world where most folks never ventured more than a few miles from their place of birth and every man knew his neighbors -- first, or given names, were the only designations necessary. Even kings got by with a single name.

During the middle ages, as families got bigger and villages got a bit more crowded, individual names became inadequate to distinguish friends and neighbors from one another. One John might be called "John son of William" to distinguish him from his neighbor "John the smith" and his friend "John of the dale." These secondary names, weren't quite yet the surnames as we know them today, however, because they weren't passed down from father to son. "John son of William," for example, might have a son known as "Robert the fletcher (arrow maker)."

True surnames, hereditary names used to distinguish one person from another, first came into use in Europe about 1000 A.D., beginning in southern areas and gradually spreading northward. In many countries the use of hereditary surnames began with the nobility who often called themselves after their ancestral seats. Many of the gentry, however, did not adopt surnames until the 14th century, and it was not until about 1500 A.D. that most surnames became inherited and no longer transformed with a change in a person's appearance, job, or place of residence.

Surnames, for the most part, drew their meanings from the lives of men in the Middle Ages, and their origins can be divided into four main categories:

Patronymics, last names derived from a father's name, were widely used in forming surnames, especially in the Scandinavian countries. Occasionally, the name of the mother contributed the surname, referred to as a matronymic surname. Such names were formed by adding a prefix or suffix denoting either "son of" or "daughter of." English and Scandinavian names ending in "son" are patronymic surnames, as are many names prefixed with the Gaelic "Mac," the Norman "Fitz," the Irish "O," and the Welsh "ap."

Examples: The son of John (JOHNSON), son of Donald (MACDONALD), son of Patrick (FITZPATRICK), son of Brien (O'BRIEN), son of Howell (ap HOWELL).

One of the most common ways to differentiate one man from his neighbor was to describe him terms of his geographic surroundings or location (similar to describing a friend as the "one who lives down the street"). Such local names denoted some of the earliest instances of surnames in France, and were quickly introduced into England by the Norman nobility who chose names based on the locations of their ancestral estates. If a person or family migrated from one place to another, they were often identified by the place they came from. If they lived near a stream, cliff, forest, hill, or other geographic feature, this might be used to describe them. Some last names can still be traced back to their exact place of origin, such as a particular city or county, while others have origins lost in obscurity (ATWOOD lived near a wood, but we don't know which one). Compass directions were another common geographic identification in the Middle Ages (EASTMAN, WESTWOOD). Most geographic-based surnames are easy to spot, though the evolution of language has made others less obvious, i.e. DUNLOP (muddy hill).

Examples: BROOKS lived along a brook; CHURCHILL lived near a church on a hill; NEVILLE came from Neville-Seine-Maritime, France or Neuville (New Town), a common place name in France; PARRIS came from -- you guessed it -- Paris, France.

Another class of surnames, those derived from a physical or other characteristic of first bearer, make up an estimated 10% of all surname or family names. These descriptive surnames are thought to have originally evolved as nicknames during the Middle Ages when men created nicknames or pet names for his neighbors and friends based on personality or physical appearance. Thus, Michael the strong became Michael STRONG and black-haired Peter became Peter BLACK. Sources for such nicknames included: an unusual size or shape of the body, bald heads, facial hair, physical deformities, distinctive facial features, skin or hair coloring, and even emotional disposition.

Examples: BROADHEAD, a person with a large head; BAINES (bones), a thin man; GOODMAN, a generous individual; ARMSTRONG, strong in the arm

The last class of surnames to develop reflect the occupation or status of the first bearer. These occupational last names, derived from the specialty crafts and trades of the medieval period, are fairly self-explanatory. A MILLER was essential for grinding flour from grain, a WAINWRIGHT was a wagon builder, and BISHOP was in the employ of a Bishop. Different surnames often developed from the same occupation based on the language of the country of origin (MÜLLER, for example, is German for Miller).

Examples: ALDERMAN, an official clerk of the court; TAYLOR, one that makes or repairs garments; CARTER, a maker/driver of carts; OUTLAW, an outlaw or criminal

Despite these basic surname classifications, many last names or surnames of today seem to defy explanation. The majority of these are probably corruptions of the original surnames -- variations that have become disguised almost beyond recognition. Surname spelling and pronunciation has evolved over many centuries, often making it hard for current generations to determine the origin and evolution of their surnames. Such family name derivations, resulting from a variety of factors, tend to confound both genealogists and etymologists.

It is fairly common for different branches of the same family to carry different last names, as the majority of English and American surnames have, in their history, appeared in four to more than a dozen variant spellings. Therefore, when researching the origin of your surname, it is important to work your way back through the generations in order to determine the original family name, as the surname that you carry now may have an entirely different meaning than the surname of your distant ancestor. It is also important to remember that some surnames, though their origins may appear obvious, aren't what they seem. BANKER, for example, is not an occupational surname, instead meaning "dweller on a hillside."

Cite Your Genealogy Sources

A Guide to Documenting Your Genealogy Research

You've been researching your family for a while and have managed to correctly assemble many pieces of the puzzle. You've entered the names and dates found in census records, land records, military records, etc. But can you tell me exactly where you found great, great-grandma's birth date? Was it on her tombstone? In a book at the library? In the 1860 census on Ancestry.com?

When researching your family it is very important that you keep track of every piece of information. This is important both as a means of verifying or "proving" your data and also as a way for you or other researchers to go back to that source when future research leads to information which conflicts with your original assumption. In genealogy research, any statement of fact, whether it is a birth date or an ancestor's surname, must carry its own individual source.

· let others know on which records you based your facts (did the birth date you have for your great-grandmother come from a published family history, a tombstone or a birth certificate?)

· assist others in evaluating your research (if you were lucky enough to find a complete family tree for your grandfather on the Internet, wouldn't you want to know where the information came from?)

· provide a reference in cases where a newly found fact appears to conflict with previous assumptions

· help you to go easily go back to a previously used source when you realize you may have missed information or you have found new details which may lead to more information from that source

In other words, properly citing your sources leaves a big audit trail for others to follow, letting them know what documents you looked at, so they can judge your family tree connections and assumptions for themselves. In conjunction with research logs, proper source documentation also makes it much easier to pick up where you left off with your genealogy research after time spent focusing on other things.

Types of Genealogy Sources
When evaluating and documenting the sources used to establish your family tree connections, it is important to understand the different types of sources.

· Primary vs. Secondary Sources
Referring to the quality of the record, primary sources are records created at or near the time of an event by a person who had reasonably close knowledge of the event. Secondary sources, by contrast, are records created a significant amount of time after an event occurred or by a person who was not present at the event. While both types of sources are important in genealogy research, primary evidence usually carries more weight than secondary evidence.

· Original vs. Derivative Sources
Referring to the provenance of the record, original sources are records that contribute written, oral, or visual information not derived - copied, abstracted, transcribed, or summarized - from another written or oral record. Derivative sources are, by their definition, records which have been derived - copied, abstracted, transcribed, or summarized - from previously existing sources. Original evidence usually carries more weight than derivative evidence.

Rule One - Follow the Formula - While there is no scientific formula for citing every type of source, a good rule of thumb is to work from general to specific:

1. Author - the one who authored the book, provided the interview, or wrote the letter

2. Title - if it is an article, then the title of the article, followed by the title of the periodical

· place of publication, name of publisher and date of publication, written in parentheses (Place: Publisher, Date)

4. Where You Found It - repository name and location, Web site name and URL, cemetery name and location, etc.

5. Specific Details - page number, entry number and date, date you viewed a Web site, etc.

Rule Two: Cite What You See - Whenever in your genealogical research you use a derivative source instead of the real thing, you must take care to cite the index, database or book that you used, and NOT the actual source from which the derivative source was created. This is because derivative sources are several steps removed from the original, opening up the door for errors, including:

Even if a fellow researcher tells you that they found such and such a date in a marriage record, you should cite the researcher as the source of information (noting as well where they found the information). You can only accurately cite the marriage record if you have viewed it for yourself.

Article (Journal or Periodical)
Citations for periodicals should include the month/year or season, rather than issue number where possible.

Willis H. White, "Using Uncommon Sources to Illuminate Family History: a Long Island Tuthill Example." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 91 (March 2003), 15-18.

Bible Record
Citations for information found in a family bible should always include the information on publication and its provenance (names and dates for people who have owned the bible)

1. Family data, Dempsey Owens Family Bible, The Holy Bible (American Bible Society, New York 1853); original owned in 2001 by William L. Owens (put mailing address here). The Dempsey Owens Family Bible passed from Dempsey to his son James Turner Owens, to his son Dempsey Raymond Owens, to his son William L. Owens.

Birth & Death Certificates
When citing a birth or death record, record 1) type of record and name(s) of the individual(s), 2) the file or certificate number (or book and page) and 3) name and location of the office in which it is filed (or the repository in which the copy was found - e.g. archives).

1. Certified transcription of birth certificate for Ernest Rene Ollivon, Act no. 7145 (1989), Maison Maire, Crespières, Yvelines, France.

2. Henrietta Crisp, birth certificate [long form] no. 124-83-001153 (1983), North Carolina Division of Health Services - Vital Records Branch, Raleigh.

3. Elmer Koth entry, Gladwin County Deaths, Liber 2: 312, no 96, County Clerk's Office, Gladwin, Michigan.

From an online index:
4. Ohio Death Certificate Index 1913-1937, The Ohio Historical Society, online <http://www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/search.cfm>, Death certificate entry for Eveline Powell downloaded 12 March 2001.

From a FHL microfilm:
5. Yvonne Lemarie entry, Crespières naissances, mariages, déecs 1893-1899, microfilm no. 2067622 Item 6, frame 58, Family History Library [FHL], Salt Lake City, Utah.

Book
Published sources, including books, should list author (or compiler or editor) first, followed by the title, publisher, publication place and date, and page numbers. List multiple authors in the same order as shown on the title page unless there are more than three authors, in which case, include only the first author followed by et al. Citations for one volume of a multivolume work should include the number of the volume used.

Margaret M. Hoffman, compiler, The Granville District of North Carolina, 1748-1763, 5 volumes (Weldon, North Carolina: Roanoke News Company, 1986), 1:25, no.238.

Census Record
While it is tempting to abbreviate many items in a census citation, especially state name and county designations, it is best to spell out all words in the first citation to a particular census. Abbreviations which seem standard to you (e.g. Co. for county), may not be recognized by all researchers.

1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Enumeration District [ED] 174, sheet 8, dwelling 110, family 172, Frederick A. Kerry household; National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 721; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (accessed 28 July 2004).

Family Group Sheet
When you use data which has been received from others, you should always document the data as you receive it and not use the original sources cited by the other researcher. You haven't personally checked these resources, therefore they are not your source.

1. Jane Doe, "William M. Crisp - Lucy Cherry family group sheet," supplied 2 February 2001 by Doe (put mailing address here).

Interview
Be sure to document who you interviewed and when, as well as who is in possession of the interview records (transcripts, tape recordings, etc.)

1. Interview with Charles Bishop Koth (interviewees address here), by Kimberly Thomas Powell, 7 August 1999. Transcript held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here). [You can include an annotation or personal comment here.]

Letter
It is much more accurate to quote a specific letter as a source, rather than just citing the individual who wrote the letter as your source.

1. Letter from Patrick Owens (put mailing address here) to Kimberly Thomas Powell, 9 January 1998; held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here). [You can include an annotation or personal comment here.]

Marriage License or Certificate
Marriage records follow the same general format as birth and death records.

1. Marriage license and certificate for Dempsey Owens and Lydia Ann Everett, Edgecombe County Marriage Book 2:36, County Clerk's Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.

2. George Frederick Powell and Rosina Jane Powell, Bristol Marriage Register 1:157, Bristol Register Office, Bristol, Glouchestershire, England.

Newspaper Clipping (Marriage Announcement, Obituary, etc.)
Be sure to include the name of the newspaper, the place and date of publication, the page and column number.

1. Henry Charles Koth - Mary Elizabeth Ihly marriage announcement, Southern Baptist newspaper, Charleston, South Carolina, 16 June, 1860, page 8, column 1.

Web Site
This general citation format applies to information received from Internet databases as well as online transcriptions and indexes (i.e. if you find a cemetery transcription on the Internet, you would enter it as a Web site source. You would not include the cemetery as your source unless you had visited personally).

1. Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, Ancestry.com, online <http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3141a.htm>, Koth data downloaded 12 January 2000.

Cluster Genealogy

Branching Out on the Family Tree

Our ancestors did not live in isolation, although we often research them as if they did. They were part of a family, with siblings, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins and other relatives. They were also part of a community, with friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers. This "cluster" of family, friends and neighbors can provide valuable clues to the lives of our ancestors.

Cluster genealogy, sometimes referred to as whole family or extended family genealogy, is the practice of extending your research on a person to the individuals and families to which he was connected. These connections could range from his brother or spouse, to the neighbor who appeared as a witness on a land deed.

Why Cluster Genealogy?
Even if you don't really care who your ancestors siblings, cousins and associates were, cluster genealogy can still be a very effective research technique:

· The records of siblings, cousins, and other family members may provide clues to the next generation that you haven't been able to find in the records left by your direct ancestor.

· Neighbors may actually turn out to be relatives. Family groups often migrated to the same town, lived near each other, attended the same school or church, and were buried in the same cemetery.

· Since a single record is often not enough to "prove" an ancestral connection, cluster genealogy offers additional documents to support accurate research.

· Knowing and recognizing the names of other family members can sometimes help you locate your own ancestor when he has been mis-indexed or had his name mangled in a record where you expect to find him, such as the census.

· Tracking ancestors as they move from place to place can often be a daunting task. Knowing the names of relatives and neighbors who may have moved with him can make it easier to identify him in a new location.

· Researching more people means an increased chance of making connections and possibly sharing research with other genealogists.

How Cluster Genealogy Works
The cluster genealogy technique involves expanding your genealogy search beyond your direct line ancestors to include their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends. Check for as many of these individuals as time and finances will allow in major records, including birth, marriage and death records; census records; land deeds; published family histories, etc. Collect information on them just as you do for your direct ancestors and record it all in your notes or genealogy software program.

Don't neglect the spouses of these "cluster" individuals. Even if your family tree appears to be sadly lacking in genealogists, perhaps theirs were not. Published family histories for spouses of siblings can often provide an unexpected gold mine of information.

Census records and estate records are especially useful for identifying additional family members, including brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Land deeds, newspapers, and church membership rosters can often prove useful for pinpointing neighbors and friends.

By increasing the pool of individuals whom you are researching, cluster genealogy improves your chances of locating records and details on your ancestors. In the process, you'll also learn more about the place and time in which your family lived.

Golden Rules for Growing Family Trees

It's a fact of life. Trees can't live without light, water, air, and food. While fancy fertilizers and high-tech bug killers are nice, all trees really need to survive are the basics and a little TLC.

As with real trees, all your family tree really needs to grow and flourish is a little of your time (or a lot if you're as addicted as I am!) and some attention to the basics. Digitized census records, DNA tests, and merge-matching software are wonderful inventions, but applying these five essential rules to your family tree research will go a much longer way to achieving genealogy success.

Rule #1: Do Not Assume
I know you've all heard this one, but it bears repeating. "Set in stone" is an expression that just doesn't apply to genealogy! Do not assume that the dates listed on a tombstone are the correct ones. Do not assume that your surname was always spelled the way it is today. Do not assume that household members listed in a census are actually brothers, sisters, or other relatives (unless the census actually states the relationship and, sometimes, not even then). Do not assume something as fact just because it has been published in a book or on the Internet.
More: Do the Ancestors Hanging From Your Family Tree Really Belong There?

Rule #2: Do Your Own Research
Following up on Rule One, secondary sources such as published family histories, indexes, and compilations are an easy way to expand your family tree quickly (the fancy fertilizer approach), but are also highly susceptible to mistakes and assumptions (as second-hand information usually is) that can quickly send your family tree growing in the wrong direction. While it is perfectly fine to use these types of sources to find clues to your family, you should always go back and take the time to verify second-hand sources with your own research in original documents. It only takes one incorrect assumption or fact to have you researching the wrong ancestors!
More: Five Steps to Verifying Online Genealogy Sources

Rule #3: Treat Brothers & Sisters as Equals
Many genealogists, especially beginners, are only interested in tracing their direct line -- grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, there is a good reason it is called a family tree, not an ancestor tree. The further back your research takes you, the more important it becomes to research your ancestor's brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles. Commonly referred to as collateral ancestors or collateral lines, these family members may provide the clues that your direct ancestor somehow managed not to leave behind. While your great-grandmother may have been born before births were recorded in the state where she lived, her younger sister may have been born just late enough to have that birth certificate with the parents' names you've been looking for. Or when you learn that your great-great grandfather was born in America, and his parents never chose to become citizens, the naturalization record of the eldest child who was born in Poland may provide the only link to the family's ancestral town. Many choose not to follow this sibling rule because of all the extra work involved, but I can guarantee that by doing so you'll find your research stuck somewhere.

Rule #4: One Source Doesn't Equal Proof
It seems pretty simple. You find a death certificate for your grandfather which lists not only his date of death and place of burial, but also his place of birth and his parents' names. Time to enter the information into your family tree and then move on to tracking down Great-grandpa, right? Nope, sorry. One source just isn't enough to constitute proof, especially when it is a secondary source -- as death certificates are for the date of birth and other information which do not relate directly to the death. I searched for my great, great-grandmother for years under the maiden name MARIN because that is what my grandmother remembered. Then, wasted some more time with the maiden name MOORE (pun intended), because that is what I found listed on the death certificate. Both wrong, of course. The actual name was close enough (MEARES), but close doesn't count in genealogy any more than it does in multiple choice.

Before arriving at a conclusion in your genealogy research, you must first conduct a reasonably exhaustive search for all pertinent information. Logically, this means trying to find several different sources for the same information, to give you the best chance at arriving at a well-researched, substantiated conclusion.
More: Evidence or Proof? How to Prove Family Tree Connections

Rule #5: Share the Wealth
Family trees are meant for sharing. Unfortunately, however, you'll probably find that most of your relatives could care less about the jumbled (to them) collection of facts, notes, and sources that constitute your genealogy database. If you weave all of those names and dates into a story, however, you may find they are interested despite themselves. And "interested" means you'll probably find them more receptive to sharing what they know. Take some time out from your research today to get some of your information into published form, whether it is creating a CD of collected family photos, a family cookbook of collected recipes, or a written history of the family. Even something as simple as framing a copy of Great-granddad's family in the 1930 census is a form of publishing - and makes a great conversation piece too! It's okay if your genealogy isn't "finished." Believe me - it never will be. Just include what you know, taking the time to carefully document your sources. Don't be afraid to use "weasel words" such as probably, possibly, and maybe for information you aren't sure about. As long as you're careful to explain what is fact and what is still guesswork, your family tree will grow for the sharing.
More: Writing & Publishing Your Family History

Learn how to get started creating your own medical family tree to help determine your genetic predisposition to certain diseases, genetic traits and more.

All in the Family - Tracing Your Family Medical History
Learning about your family's medical and health history is an important step in determining your genetic predisposition to certain health conditions and diseases. Learn how to research your medical history, which medical conditions are important to track, and where to get forms to record your findings.

As doctors continually find links between diseases and genetic factors, genealogists can help their families by compiling medical pedigrees. This article explains how to build a family health history including sources to search for information and questions to ask family members about deceased relatives.

Breaking the Medical Code
Learn how to understand outdated medical terminology from this article by Donna Przecha on Genealogy.com.

Diving Into Your Gene Pool
Nine steps to creating a family health history by Barbara Krasner-Khait and Family Tree Magazine.

Family History Tools - American Medical Association
Several free family history tools have been developed by the AMA including genetic screening questionnaires, a sample pedigree and an adult family history questionnaire.

Genograms - Measuring Your Family Health History
This article by Laura Heidekrueger gives a brief overview of a genogram, the family health history chart which can be read by most doctors and geneticists.

Just for the Health of It
An excellent introduction to the need for keeping a family health history record and how and where to begin by Danette Nelson Anderson, registered nurse and author of Genetic Connections.

Your Medical Heritage
This show, from the first Ancestors series on PBS, offers good information on creating a medical genealogy.

Creating a Family History CD

Publishing and Sharing Your Genealogy on CD-ROM

Sharing your genealogy research with family and friends can be easy and inexpensive. A family history CD has the ability to hold large amounts of data in a small space, and include photos, sounds, scanned document images, and even video - something a printed family history just can't equal. And, since a CD is compact and relatively inexpensive, you can easily share it with other family history researchers at family reunions, genealogical conferences, or through the mail.

Showcasing Your Family History
One of the biggest challenges in creating a family history CD is to decide what information you'd like to present and how to organize the information on your CD. If you've spent years studying the genealogy of a particular family or surname, you probably want to include the results of that research in the form of lineage-linked family trees or register reports. You may also want to include a written family history, or photographs of your ancestors, their houses, headstones, etc. Or, perhaps, you have video or sound recordings of ancestors or family members that you would like to showcase.

Choosing Your Format
Several options are available to aid you in creating your family history CD.

· CD Creation Software - Unless you have a lot of time and computer know-how to put into this project, you may find it easiest to use a software program which automates a lot of the work for you.

· Family History CD - Created expressly for the purpose of simplifying the cd creation process, Family History CD helps you organize your cd project. An easy-to-use interface makes it easy to include GEDCOMS, photos, video, and digitized documents; create slideshows; and even burn the CDs for you when your project is completed. A free trial version is available for download, but if you when you're ready to burn a CD you will need to purchase the full version.

· Several genealogy software programs have the ability to output family history files to CD-ROM. Most require you to also include a free form of the software on the CD to allow others to read the information, although Heredis (available for both Windows and Mac) can create a multimedia CD-ROM which requires no additional software to view.

· Create Your Own CD - If you want to save the expense of purchasing specialized software, or just want more creative input, then you may want to tackle creating a family history CD on your own. Since it is important that this CD be able to be read, viewed, and printed without specialized software or viewers the following two formats are the most widely accepted:

· Adobe Acrobat (PDF) - Ideal for distributing genealogical documents electronically, Adobe Acrobat files can be read on any computer with the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe. Second, hyperlinks make it easy to browse the document on a computer. You can click on a name, and go immediately to the page on which that person appears. Third, you can make a very high quality printout on any computer. The document can be printed in part, or in whole, using layout and fonts that match what you see on the computer screen (WYSIWYG). The resulting printout could be bound into a book, if desired. One possible downside of using PDF is that the user of your CD needs to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. Most PCs already have Acrobat installed; but just in case, you may want to distribute the Acrobat reader on your CD.

· HTML - Alternatively, you can design your family history CD in HTML, much like a Web site. This has nearly all the advantages of PDF, but has the distinct disadvantage that the genealogy can't easily be printed. They can, however, be read by a very wide audience - basically anyone with a Web browser. If you already maintain a genealogy Web site, then an HTML CD may be your best option.

Both the PDF and HTML methods will require CD writer software, usually included free with most CD burners. So, if you have a CD writer you probably already have the necessary software. Windows XP also comes with built-in CD burning capabilities.

If you've decided to use a software program such as Family History CD to create your genealogy CD, you're pretty much good to go. If, however, you'd like to create a family history CD using PDF or HTML, then here are some tips to get you started:

Creating a Family History CD Using PDF
As mentioned previously, Adobe Acrobat's PDF format is very useful for family history cd's because it allows for easy navigation, formatted printing, searchable pages, and can be read by anyone if you include the free Adobe Acrobat reader software on the CD. If you don't own the fairly expensive Adobe Acrobat software, however, you still have a few options available to you:

· Many genealogy software programs will export various reports or even a full family history book into PDF format. Look for this option in the software program that you use to maintain your genealogy data.

· Ancestral Author software creates a hyperlinked PDF book from a GEDCOM file, with provisions to add title page, chapters, register style descendant reports, list of sources, index of names, etc. Free to try, US$19.95 to register.

· Adobe's Create Adobe PDF Online service allows you to create PDF files from many formats, including Microsoft Office files (such as Microsoft Word and Power Point), graphics files, Web pages, text files, and even scanned images and documents. Unlimited files can be converted with this service for a monthly fee of US$9.99.

Creating a Family History CD Using HTML
If you have a genealogy Web site, or family history software that can create a stand-alone Web site, then these HTML pages can be re-used on your family history CD. Alternatively, you can use HTML authoring software to create a series of HTML pages from scratch and/or use on of the many free and shareware GEDCOM to HTML pages to generate lineage-linked family trees.

· Make sure you keep your HTML pages simple. Images, audio files, etc. are fine, but you shouldn't use advanced features such as javascript and databases.

· If you want your CD to be compatible with the largest number of browsers and operating systems (including MAC), then you should use "8.3" filenames - capital letters, numbers and underscores (_) with a maximum of 8 characters, a period, then a maximum of 3 characters (i.e. SOFTWARE.HTM is a valid 8.3 filename).

· Since your HTML pages on CD may be at any position in a particular user's file system, make sure that all your HTML links are relative, and remember to use forward slash characters, not PC backslashes.

· To make it easy for people to explore all of your content, be sure you include some type of navigation system.

Alternative Ways to Present Your Family History on CD
If you don't have the time or desire to include a full-fledged family history on CD-ROM, you can still use this method to create, save and share GEDCOM files or photo slideshows.

Family Legends - Fiction or Fact?

Nearly every family has a cherished story or two regarding their distant ancestors - one that has been handed down from generation to generation. While some of these stories probably have a lot of truth in them, others are actually more myth than reality. Perhaps it's a story that you're connected to Jesse James or a Cherokee princess, or that a town in the "old country" is named after your ancestors. How can you prove or disprove these family stories?

Write Them Down
Hidden in the embellishments of your family's story are probably at least a few grains of truth. Ask all of your relatives about the famous legend, and write down everything they tell you - no matter how insignificant it may seem. Compare the different versions, looking for inconsistencies, as they may indicate those parts are less likely to be rooted in fact.

Ask for Backup
Ask your relatives if they know of any items or records which may help document the family story. It doesn't often happen, but sometimes if the story has been carefully handed down from generation to generation, then other items may have been preserved as well.

Consider the Source
Is the person telling the story someone who was in a position to have experienced the event first-hand? If not, ask them who they got the story from and attempt to work your way back to the original source. Is this relative known as the storyteller in the family? Often "good" storytellers are more likely to embellish a story so as to elicit a favorable response.

Bone Up on History
Spend some time reading about the history of the time, place or person which relates to your family's story or legend. Background historical knowledge may help you prove or disprove the legend. It's unlikely that your great, great Grandfather was a Cherokee, for example, if he lived in Michigan in 1850.

Test Your DNA
While your genes may not have all the answers, a DNA test may be able to help you prove or disprove a family legend. DNA can help you determine if you descend from a particular ethnic group, your family came from a particular region, or you share a common ancestor with a particular person.

The Three Brothers Myth
It's always three brothers. Brothers who immigrated to America, and then headed out in different directions. Never more or less than three, and never sisters either. This is one of the favorite of all genealogy legends, and one that very rarely turns out to be true.

The Cherokee Indian Princess Story
Native American ancestry is a fairly common family story, and one which may actually turn out to be true. But there really isn't such a thing as a Cherokee princess, and isn't it funny that it is almost never a Navaho, Apache, Sioux or Hopi princess?

Our Name Was Changed at Ellis Island
This is one of the most common myths found in American family history, but it actually almost never happened. Passenger lists were actually created at the port of departure, where the native names were easily understood. It's very likely the family name may have been changed at some point, but it probably didn't happen at Ellis Island.

Family Inheritance Myth
There are a lot of variations on this popular family story, but very rarely do they turn out to be true. Some of these myths have their roots in the numerous inheritance scams of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, while others may reflect a hope or belief that the family is related to royalty or a famous (rich) family by the same name. Unfortunately, the family inheritance story is often used by scammers to trick people out of their money.

Correcting Family Tree Errors Found Online

Most of us have done some shoddy research at one time or the other, or just have found some new clues which indicate our previous assumptions were in error. But what happens when this research has been published online, and the errors seem to propogate like wildfire?

Begin by logging into the account under which you submitted the family tree. If you submitted a file to multiple locations (such as both RootsWeb WorldConnect and Ancestry World Tree (AWT), you'll need to make the changes or request removal of the family tree from both locations.

Where Did I Submit My Family Tree?
If you have a family tree online through RootsWeb.com or Ancestry.com (both part of the same parent company), you'll need to edit or delete the tree from the place you first submitted it. What if you can't remember, or have multiple family trees? Check the URL for the database ID (db=).

· Database IDs that begin with a colon ":" (db=:) were submitted through Ancestry's Online Family Tree (OFT).

· Database IDs that begin with a colon plus the letter a (db=:a) were submitted via Ancestry World Tree (AWT).

· Database IDs comprised of letters, numbers and characters without the colon indicate family trees submitted through RootsWeb's WorldConnect.

Files submitted to Ancestry's Online Family Tree and RootsWeb's WorldConnect can be edited or deleted by logging in to your account. Older files submitted to Ancestry World Tree, prior to the introduction of Online Family Tree, may not be as easy to delete, however. Look at the URL for the file, specifically the letters and characters which follow the "db=" section. If this indicates a file submitted to Ancestry World Tree, you will generally not be able to edit or delete it yourself. The best option here is to submit a removal request to Ancestry.com (using the Email Ancestry Support link). If you'd like your family tree to remain online, it is still best to delete this old family tree and then submit a new one that does allow for easy editing.

Ancestry's OneWorldTree
This one is a special situation, because family trees are not submitted directly to OneWorldTree (OWT). Instead, One World Tree is a special search service offered to Ancestry.com subscribers, and includes data from files submitted to Ancestry World Tree. Once you remove or change your file in Ancestry World Tree, the changes should eventually show up in OneWorldTree. The search servers for OneWorldTree do not run on a regular basis, however, and Ancestry.com makes no promises on how frequent the updates will be.

Even if a family tree posted online is an apparent copy of yours, most genealogy services will not make changes or remove the data at your request. Only the submitter of the family tree can make changes or ask that the family tree be removed. At this point, the best option is to contact the person who submitted the data. Although this is obviously a frustrating situation, try to restrain yourself. A threatening letter citing plagerism and demanding complete removal of your family tree will often go unanswered, while a polite letter noting that you have additional information on the family may actually elicit a response. They may even give you credit for the new information. Most importantly, the errors may be corrected, and the misinformation stopped at its source.

Because of the inherent problems with people misusing your genealogy data, and the difficulties in making changes or corrections, some people opt not to publish their GEDCOM file to any of the online family trees. The downside to this is that the people who may have more information about your family won't be able to find you either. To make your family tree available online but still retain complete control over your data, many people suggest creating your own genealogy Web site. You control how much information you choose to share and how easy it is for people to copy or download it, yet still make it easy for others to find your family tree and contact you.

Backdoor Genealogy

How often have you run into a brick wall in your family history research? Silly question, I bet. Which brings me to one of my absolutely favorite uses for online genealogy - the backdoor approach. Cluster genealogy on steroids is the way I like to think of it, although many of you probably use this backdoor technique on a regular basis. Basically, you utilize the power of searchable online databases to investigate all possible family connections for your ancestor, including relatives that you may not already know about. The ability to search across the records of an entire state (or even country) at once, plus search on fields such as occupation or parents' names not present in a traditional index, offers unique research options that just aren't practical in the world of genealogy archives, libraries and microfilm.

What do you do, for example, when every surname variation that you can come up with doesn't turn up your ancestor in the census? A common census search technique used by many online genealogists is to search by first name only, in combination with the approximate date and place of birth (or other search fields as necessary to bring the results down to a reasonable number to wade through). For more recent census records where household members are indexed, I often search by the first name of one of the children, along with the first name of a parent (first the mother, and then the father). This technique can be especially helpful when the family is not living in the area where you expect them, or in cases where a woman may have lost her husband and then remarried (and possibly even lost the second husband) all within the 10 year gap between census enumerations (especially when the children of the first husband took the name of the second upon their mother's remarriage).

Alternatively, consider a situation where you're trying to track down the married name of your ancestor's sister. Often you'll find she married in the area where her family lived, or discover her in an online marriage index. But when that doesn't work, one of the many online death indexes may come to the rescue. Search databases such as Georgia Deaths, 1914-1927 (free at pilot.familysearch.org) by parents' names, or the California Death Index (available by subscription at Ancestry.com) with the combination of the sister's first name and mother's maiden name, and you just may locate these errant married female siblings. This is also a good way to locate family members you may not have previously known about, such as siblings who were born and then either died or moved out of the household between census years.

Using batch numbers and parents' names to search for family baptisms in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) at FamilySearch.org is yet another type of backdoor technique commonly employed by genealogists. Because a "batch" often includes the records from a particular parish (or at least a portion of them), searching for the mother's name, father's name, or both may turn up several baptisms of the couple's children. To locate the appropriate batch number(s) for your parish of interest you can use a Web site such as Hugh Wallis' IGI Batch Numbers - British Isles and North America. Alternatively, if you locate a baptism for your ancestor in the IGI, click on the batch number on the results page to search that batch for additional family members.

New and Interesting this Week - 21 Sept 08

I'm amazed every day by the talent, knowledge and enthusiasm of my fellow genealogy bloggers, but it also takes a great deal of time each week to keep up with everything they have to say. So for all of you out there (including many of my newsletter readers) who have little time each week to fit in your genealogy reading, here are a few of the items in the world of online genealogy that I found new and/or interesting this week.

· Misadventures in Indexing - The Ancestry Insider always does a great job of covering the genealogy community from the inside out, but in this moving post he (she?) will remind many of you of yourselves as he just can't resist being drawn into the lives of a group of long-dead strangers.

· Louisiana Death Index Now Online - Joe Beine of the Genealogy Roots Blog, and the man behind the very useful and popular site DeathIndexes.com, highlights the new free online death index from the state of Louisiana covering the years 191-1956.

· The Challenges of Researching Irish Ancestry - Never mind the difficulty of researching ancestors in Ireland. Just getting an ancestor back to Ireland can present its own frustrations, as Donna experiences in searching for the immigrant Irish ancestor in her LEE and MCGEEHAN families.

· 70 Years of Canadian Immigration Records Now Online - Subscription site Ancestry.ca has launched immigration records for all major Canadian ports for the years 1865-1935. An estimated 11.6 million Canadians, or 37 percent of its current population, have ancestors in this collection according to the press release. The new Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 collection is also available on Ancestry.com to World Deluxe members.

Fun with Genealogy Web Logs

RSS. Newsreaders. Atom feeds. It may sound technical and confusing, but genealogy blogs are actually a very neat way to keep up with the latest genealogy techniques and databases. The news comes straight to you - on the Web, in your news reader, to your email. All you have to do is choose the blogs you're interested in - the rest happens pretty much "automagically."

A blog, short for "web log" is basically an easy way to post new information online quickly, in an easy to read format. When a new article or tip is posted, it is sent automatically to anyone who has subscribed to the blog. By subscribing to one or more genealogy blogs you can easily keep up with the latest techniques, tips and databases from the leaders in the genealogy field with a very small time investment.

Some people already read genealogy blogs - and may not even know it - by visiting the Web page of each blog individually. For example, this site's homepage serves as a blog which you can easily read by just visiting About Genealogy. There are quite a few interesting genealogy blogs out there (check out some of my favorite genealogy blogs in the Related Blogs to the right of this article) and you probably have other interests outside of genealogy as well. As your interests grow, visiting each page individually can become a bit overwhelming. The best way to read blogs is to use a 'reader' or 'aggregator.' These tools bring all of the new posts in the blogs that interest you together into one place. Rather than visit a dozen different sites every day, you can visit just one. Think of it as targeted headlines for Web surfing.

A feed reader, blog reader or news aggregator is a simple tool that maintains a list of the Web blogs you're subscribed to, checks them at regular intervals for updates, and displays their contents in a readable format. All blog readers track what you've read previously and highlight new content for easy scanning. There are two types of blog reader or feed reader:

Application-based
Application-based blog readers or news readers are simple software applications that install on your computer or handheld device. Whenever you go online, they check the RSS feeds for blogs to which you're subscribed and pull the new posts into the reader on your computer. These types of readers tend to have the most features, but they lack mobility. BottomFeeder is a popular application-based feed reader.

"RSS" stands for "real simple syndication." It provides an easy way to gather and display updated information from multiple different sources, including blogs, news stories, Web site updates and stock statistics.

Web-based
If you don't like the idea of installing something on your computer, or don't go online more than once or twice a week, you may find it more useful to use an online blog aggregator. This is basically an online blog service which works in your browser to aggregate all of the blogs to which you're subscribed in one place online. Popular online blog aggregators include MyYahoo, Bloglines and NewsGator. This type of feed reader is convenient because you can check your feeds from any computer.

One reason that many people find blogs confusing is that there is no single way that all Web sites let you know that you can syndicate, or subscribe to, their content. Most sites and blogs use an orange "XML" or "RSS" button to invite you to subscribe to their content. Other commonly used terms to identify news or blog feeds include: "Atom", "RDF" or even something as simple as "Grab My Feed" or "Syndicate This Site." Clicking the button will add that feed to your feed reader list.

If you're using an online feed reader and aren't logged in, you may need to subscribe to the site manually. When you click on a feed button, you'll be taken to a page filled with strange looking code. To add that site, you'll need to copy the address of that page from the browser toolbar and then paste it into your newsreader to subscribe to that feed.

If you have a MyYahoo page, you can easily add the latest headlines from this site to your personalized page by clicking on this My Yahoo link.

If you're using an RSS reader like Bloglines or NewsGator, you can find quick links to add the About Genealogy headlines to your reader on my Stay Up-to-Date page. This includes links for RSS and Atom feeds and direct buttons for RSS readers such as NewsBlog, Rocket, NewsisFree and Google.

I hope you have fun in the brave, new world of blogs! Here are some fun and interesting genealogy blogs to get you started.

Steps for Finding Your Family Tree Online

A Blueprint for Genealogy Research on the Internet

From cemetery transcriptions to census records, millions of genealogy resources have been posted online in recent years, making the Internet a popular first stop in researching family roots. And with good reason. No matter what you want to learn about your family tree, there is a pretty good chance you can dig up at least some of it on the Internet. It's not quite as simple as finding a database that contains all of the information on your ancestors and downloading it, however. Ancestor hunting is actually much more exciting than that! The trick is learning how to use the myriad of tools and databases that the Internet provides to find facts and dates on your ancestors, and then going beyond that to fill in the stories of the lives they lived.

While each family search is different, I often find myself following the same basic steps when beginning to research a new family tree online. As I search, I also keep a research log noting the places I've searched, the information I find (or didn't find), and a source citation for each piece of information that I find. The search is fun the first time, but not if I forget where I've looked and end up doing it all over again!

Since family tree searches generally work their way back in time from the present, searching out information on recently deceased relatives is a good place to start your family tree quest. Obituaries can be a gold mine for information on family units, including siblings, parents, spouses, and even cousins, as well as the date of birth and death and place of burial. Obituary notices may also help lead you to living relatives who can provide further information on your family tree. There are several large obituary search engines online which can make the search a bit easier, but if you know the town where your relatives lived you will often have better luck searching the obituary archive (when available online) of the local paper. If you aren't sure of the name of the local paper for that community, a search for newspaper and the city, town or county name in your favorite search engine will often get you there. Be sure to search out obituaries for sibilings and cousins as well as your direct ancestors.

Since death records are usually the most recent record created for a deceased individual, they are often the easiest place to begin your search. While monetary restrictions and privacy concerns mean that the majority of death records are not yet available online, many online death indexes are available through both official and volunteer sources. Try one of these major online death record indexes, or do a Google search for death records plus the name of the county or state in which your ancestors lived. If you're researching American ancestors, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) contains details of more than 68.5 deaths reported to the SSA since about 1962, and is available for free online searching from several sources. Details listed in the SSDI generally include the name, date of birth and death, zip code of last residence, and social security number for each listed individual. Further information can be obtained by requesting a copy of their Social Security Application.

Continuing with the search for death records, online cemetery transcriptions are another huge resource for information on your ancestors. Volunteers from around the world have traipsed through thousands of cemeteries, posting names, dates, and even photos. Some larger public cemeteries provide their own online index to burials. There are several large cemetery search databases which compile links to online cemetery transcriptions. RootsWeb's country, state, and county sites are another great source for links to online cemetery transcriptions, or you can try a search for your family's surname plus cemetery plus location in your favorite Internet search engine.

Once you've used your personal knowledge and online death records to trace your family tree back to people who lived around the beginning of the twentieth century, census records can provide a treasure trove of information on the family. Census records in the United States, UK, Canada, and many other countries are available online -- some for free and some through subscription access. In the United States, for example, you can often find living and recently deceased family members listed with their parents in the 1930 federal census, the most recent census year open to the public. From there, you can trace the family back through previous censuses, often adding a generation or more to the family tree. Census takers weren't very good at spelling and families aren't always listed where you expect them, so you may want to try some of these search tips for census success.

By this point, you've probably managed to narrow down the search to a particular town or county. Now's the time to head to the source for more detailed information. My first stop is usually the county specific Web sites at USGenWeb, or their counterparts at WorldGenWeb - depending upon your country of interest. There you may find newspaper abstracts, published county histories, biographies, family trees, and other transcribed records, as well as surname queries and other information posted by fellow researchers. You may have already come across some of these sites in your search for cemetery records, but now that you've learned more about your ancestors, you can dig even deeper.

In the spirit of location, my next step in the family hunt is to visit the Web sites for [http://genealogy.about.com/od/libraries/]local libraries[/link] and historical and genealogical societies in the area in which my ancestor lived. Often you can find links to these organizations through the locality-specific genealogical sites mentioned in step 5. Once there, look for a link labeled "genealogy" or "family history" to learn about the available resources for genealogical research in the area. You may find online indexes, abstracts, or other published genealogical records. Most libraries will also offer online searching of their library catalog. While most local and family history books aren't available for online reading, many may be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

Many great nuggets of family history information are exchanged and shared via message boards, groups, and mailing lists. Searching the archives of the lists and groups which pertain to your surnames and areas of interest may yield obituaries, family histories, and other pieces of the genealogy puzzle. Not all of these archived messages can be found via traditional search engines, however, necessitating manual searching of any lists of interest. RootsWeb's genealogy mailing lists and the Ancestry/RootsWeb mesage boards include searchable archives, as do most genealogy-related organizations using Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. Some may require you to join (free) before searching the archived

Hopefully, by this point, you've found enough names, dates, and other facts to help you distinguish your ancestors from others of the same name -- making it a good time to turn to the family research already done by others. Thousands of family tree have been published online, the majority of them included in one or more of these Top 10 Pedigree Databases. Be warned, however. Many online family trees are basically works in progress and may or may not be correct. Be sure to verify the validity of a family tree before incorporating it into your own family tree, and cite the source of the information in case you find conflicting data as your research progresses.

Based on what you've learned about your ancestors, now you can search out more specialized genealogical information. Databases, histories, and other genealogical records may be found online which focus on military service, occupations, fraternal organizations, or school or church membership.

By this point you've exhausted many of the free online genealogy resources. If you're still having trouble finding information on your family, it may be time to tackle the pay-for-use genealogy databases. Through these sites you can access a wide variety of indexed databases and original images, ranging from the digitized WWI Draft Registration records at Ancestry.com to the birth, marriage, and death records available online from Scotland's People. Some sites operate on a pay-per-download basis, charging only for the documents you actually view, while others require a subscription for unlimited access. Check for a free trial or free search feature before plunking down your money!

Google Genealogy Style

12 Google Search Tips for Genealogists

Google is the search engine of choice for most genealogists I know, due to its ability to return relevant search results for genealogy and surname queries and its huge index. Google is much more than just a tool for finding Web sites, however, and most people surfing for information on their ancestors barely scratch the surface of its full potential. If you know what you are doing, you can use Google to search within Web sites, locate photos of your ancestors, bring back dead sites, and track down missing relatives. Learn how to Google as you've never Googled before:

Google has four important ground rules that you need to know for focused results:

· Use a plus sign before words which are absolutely critical to your search. Example: powell +wills

· Use a minus sign before words that you want to be excluded from the search. This is especially useful when searching for a surname with a common usage such as rice or one which is shared with a famous celebrity such as Harrison Ford (i.e. you would enter your search as ford -harrison to exclude results with the word 'harrison').

· Use quotation marks around any two word or greater phrase to find results where the words appear together exactly as you have entered them. This is especially useful when searching for proper names (i.e. a search for thomas jefferson will bring up pages with thomas smith and bill jefferson, while searching for "thomas jefferson" will only bring up pages with the name thomas jefferson included as a phrase.

· Use OR to retrieve search results that match any one of a number of words. The default operation for Google is to return results that match ALL search terms, so by linking your terms with OR you can achieve a bit more flexibility (ie smith genealogy OR cemetery)

To get really fancy you can combine these options together to achieve truly focused search results. For example, crisp +surname -apple genealogy OR +will OR "family tree" will return sites with the terms smith AND surname, combined with either genealogy, will, or the phrase family tree. Plus you won't retrieve any pages talking about "apple crisp!" I only recommend limiting your searches to this extent for common surnames, however. Otherwise you may just find yourself missing some good sites!

Stop words are small, common words that many search engines ignore, or don't stop for, when searching for documents that match your query. This is because these words are either too common to generate meaningful results (i.e. where, how, about... or are parts of speech like conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs (i.e. and, if, be, the...). Google tells you when it's ignoring a stop word by displaying details on the results page below the search box (i.e. "about" is a very common word and was not included in your search).

There are times when searching that you will not want Google to exclude these stop words. For example, will is considered a stop word by Google, which can mess up your search results if you are searching for the will of a specific ancestor. To get around this you can either force Google to include a stop word in your search by putting a "+" sign in front of it or by enclosing your phrase of two or more words in quotation marks (i.e. "about genealogy" or "will rogers").

Google has become one smart cookie and now suggests alternate spellings for search terms which appear to be misspelled. The search engine's self-learning algorithm automatically detects misspellings and suggests corrections based on the most popular spelling of the word. You can get a basic idea of how it works by typing in 'geneology' as a search term. While Google will return search results for pages on geneology, it will also ask you "Did you mean genealogy?" Click on the suggested alternate spelling for a whole new list of sites to browse! This feature comes in particularly handy when searching for cities and towns for which you aren't sure of the correct spelling. Type in Bremehaven and Google will ask you if you meant Bremerhaven. Or type in Napels Italy, and Google will ask you if you meant Naples Italy.

How many times have you found what looks to be a very promising Web site, only to get a "File Not Found" error when clicking on the link? Genealogical Web sites seem to come and go every day as webmasters change file names, switch ISPs, or just decide to remove the site because they can no longer afford to maintain it. This doesn't mean the information is always gone forever, however. Hit the Back button and look for a link to a "cached" copy at the end of the Google description and page URL. Clicking on the "cached" link should bring up a copy of the page as it appeared at the time that Google indexed that page, with your search terms highlighted in yellow. You can also return Google's cached copy of a page, by preceding the page's URL with 'cache:'. If you follow the URL with a space separated list of search words, they will be highlighted on the returned page. For example: cache:genealogy.about.com surname will return the cached version of this site's homepage with the term surname highlighted in yellow.

Found a site that you really like and want more? GoogleScout can help you find sites with similar content. Hit the Back button to return to your Google search results page and then click on the Similar Pages link. This will take you to a new page of search results with links to pages which contain similar content. The more specialized pages (such as a page for a specific surname) may not turn up many relevant results, but if you are researching a particular topic (i.e. adoption or immigration), GoogleScout can help you find a large number of resources very quickly, without having to worry about selecting the right keywords. You can also access this feature directly by using the related command with the URL of the site that you like (related:genealogy.about.com).

Once you've found a valuable site, chances are that some of the sites which link to it may also be beneficial to you. Use the link command along with a URL to find pages which contain links pointing to that URL. Enter link:familysearch.org and you'll find about 3,340 pages which link to the homepage of familysearch.org. You can also use this technique to find out who, if anyone, has linked to your personal genealogy site.

While many major sites have search boxes, this isn't always true of smaller, personal genealogy sites. Google comes to the rescue again, however, by allowing you to restrict search results to a specific site. Just enter your search term followed by the site command and the main URL for the site you wish to search in the Google search box on the main Google page. For example, military site:www.familytreemagazine.compulls up 1600+ pages with the search term 'military' on the Family Tree Magazine Web site. This trick is especially useful for quickly finding surname information on genealogy sites without indexes or search capabilities.

When you really want to make sure you haven't missed a good genealogy site, enter allinurl:genealogy to return a list of sites with genealogy as part of their URL (can you believe that Google found more than 10 million?). As you can tell from this example, this is a better option to use for more focused searches, such as surnames or locality searches. You can combine multiple search terms, or use other operators such as OR to help focus your search (i.e. allinurl:genealogy france OR french). A similar command is also available to search for terms contained within a title (i.e. allintitle:genealogy france OR french).

If you're searching for U.S. information, Google can do so much more than just search Web pages. The lookup information they provide through their search box has been expanded to include street maps, street addresses, and phone numbers. Enter a first and last name, city, and state to find a phone number. You can also do a reverse lookup by entering a phone number to find a street address. To use Google to find street maps, just enter a street address, city, and state (i.e. 8601 Adelphi Road College Park MD), in the Google search box. You can also find business listings by entering the name of a business and its location or zip code (i.e. tgn.com utah).

Google's image search feature makes it easy to locate photos on the Web. Just click on the Images tab on Google's home page and type in a keyword or two to view a results page full of image thumbnails. To find photos of specific people try putting their first and last names within quotes (i.e. "laura ingalls wilder"). If you've got a bit more time or a more unusual surname, then just entering the surname should be enough. This feature is also a great way to find photos of old buildings, tombstones, and even your ancestor's hometown. Because Google doesn't crawl for images as often as it does for Web pages, you may find many pages/images have moved. If the page doesn't come up when you click on the thumbnail, then you may be able to find it by copying the URL from below the feature, pasting it into the Google search box, and using the "cache" feature.

If you've got a bit of time on your hands, then check out the Google Groups search tab available from the Google home page. Find info on your surname, or learn from the questions of others by searching through an archive of over 700 million Usenet newsgroup messages going back as far as 1981. If you've got even more time on your hands, then check out this historical Usenet timeline for a fascinating diversion.

Typically when you search the Web for information you expect to pull up traditional Web pages in the form of HTML files. Google offers results in a variety of different formats, however, including .PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format), .DOC (Microsoft Word), .PS (Adobe Postscript), and .XLS (Microsoft Excel). These files appear among your regular search results listings where you can either view them in their original format, or use the View as HTML link (good for when you don't have the application that is needed for that particular file type, or for when computer viruses are a concern). You can also use the filetype command to narrow your search to find documents in particular formats (i.e. filetype:xls genealogy forms). You aren't likely to use this Google feature often, but I have used it to find genealogy brochures in PDF format and family group sheets and other genealogy forms in Microsoft Excel format.

If you're someone like me who uses Google quite a bit, then you may want to consider downloading and using the Google Toolbar (requires Internet Explorer Version 5 or later and Microsoft Windows 95 or later). When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar and makes it easy to use Google to search from any Web site location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search. A variety of buttons and a drop-down menu make it easy to perform all of the searches described in this article with just a click or two.

Essential Reference Books for Genealogists

Whether you are just beginning your genealogy research or have been researching genealogy professionally for years, these genealogy books are the essential references that no genealogist should be without.

1. Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian

In this best single source for genealogical evidence, Elizabeth Shown Mills consisely explains the practice of genealogical analysis, and addresses how to create a citation for a source in almost any circumstance, including numerous examples. If you're the type to like everything spelled out for you, or want to keep up with the most current thinking on genealogical citations, then the newer, larger Evidence Expanded may be a better choice.

2. Professional Genealogy : A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors...

This comprehensive manual for professional genealogists is also a "must-have" for the serious "hobbyist." Twenty-three chapters, each written by a professional genealogist, cover a variety of genealogical skills and standards. Topics include every aspect of professional genealogy, from citations and proof standards, to legalities and ethics, plus family history research and publication.

3. Organizing Your Family History Search

Simple but effective, this book is perfect for any genealogist who can't seem to control the ever-increasing piles of papers and documents. Author Sharon DeBartolo Carmack provides an indespensable roadmap through the common organizational stumbling blocks of the family history researcher, and outlines a variety of methods for organizing research files, handling correspondence, and updating data.

4. Unpuzzling Your Past Workbook: Essential Forms & Letters for Genealogy

5. Long Distance Genealogy: Researching Your Family History from Home

6. Uncover Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs

7. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy

8. The Handybook for Genealogists

9. Ancestral Trails: Complete Guide to British Genealogy & Family History

10. In Search of Your European Roots

When we think of tracing our family tree, we often envision following our surname back thousands of years to the first bearer of the name. In our neat and tidy dream, each successive generation bears the same surname - spelled exactly the same way in each and every record - until we reach the dawn of man.

The dream comes to an end, however, when confronted with the cold hard facts of genealogy research. For the majority of human existence surnames were not even used. According to legends, China first initiated the custom of using surnames during the reign of Emperor Fu Xi (2852BC), but their use didn't begin in the European world until about the eleventh century, with some patronymic surnames in Scandinavia bestowed as late as the nineteenth century. Surnames, for the most part, evolved during the past eight hundred years to help distinguish one person from another as the world's population grew. The acquisition of surnames has been influenced by many factors, including social class, naming practices and patterns, and even unusual events.

Even tracing your ancestors back to the point where they first acquired surnames can be a challenge as surname spelling and pronunciation has evolved over centuries, making it unlikely that your present surname is the same as the original surname bestowed on your distant ancestor. You may have a slight spelling variation of the original name, an anglicized version, or even a completely different surname. This may have occurred for such reasons as:

·Illiteracy - the further back you go in your research, the more you will find cases of ancestors who couldn't read and write. Many didn't even know how their own names were spelled, only how to pronounce them. Therefore, when they gave their names to clerks, census enumerators, clergymen, or other officials, that person wrote the name the way that it sounded to him. Even if they did have the spelling memorized, the person recording the information may not have asked. Example: the German HEYER has become HYER, HIER, HIRE, HIRES, HIERS, etc.

·Simplification - Immigrants, upon arrival in a new country, often found that their name was difficult for others to spell or pronounce. Therefore, they often simplified the spelling or altered their names to relate them more closely to the language and pronunciations of their new country. Example: the German ALBRECHT becomes ALBRIGHT, or the Swedish JONSSON becomes JOHNSON

·Necessity - Those from countries with alphabets other than Latin had to transliterate them, producing many variations on the same name. Example: the Ukranian surname ZHADKOWSKYI became ZADKOWSKI

·Mispronunciation - Letters within a surname were often confused due to verbal miscommunication or heavy accents. Example: depending upon the accents of both the person speaking the name and the person writing it down, KROEBER could become GROVER or CROWER

·Desire to Fit In - Many foreigners changed their names in some way to assimilate into their new country and culture. The most usual change of surname was to translate the meaning of their surname into the new language. Example: the Irish BREHONY became JUDGE

·Desire to Break with the Past - Immigration was sometimes prompted in one way or another by a desire to break with or escape the past. For some immigrants this included ridding themselves of anything, including their name, which reminded them of an unhappy life in the old country. Example: Mexicans fleeing to America to escape the revolution

·Dislike of Surname - People forced by governments to adopt surnames which were not a part of their culture or were not of their choosing would often shed themselves of such names at the first opportunity. Example: Armenians forced by the Turkish government to give up their traditional surnames and adopt new "Turkish" surnames would revert back to their original surnames, or some variation, upon emigration/escape from Turkey

·Fear of Discrimination - Surname changes and modifications can sometimes be attributed to a desire to conceal nationality or religious orientation in fear of reprisal or discrimination. This motive constantly appears among the Jews, who often faced anti-Semitism. Example: the Jewish surname COHEN changed to COHN/KAHN or WOLFSHEIMER shortened to WOLF

Discovering the Occupations of Your Ancestors

Finding Clues in Occupational Records

Do you know what your ancestors did for a living? Researching ancestral jobs and occupations can teach you a great deal about the people who make up your family tree, and what life was like for them. An individual's occupation may give insight into their social status or to their place of origin. Occupations can also be used to distinguish between two individuals of the same name. Certain skilled occupations or trades may have been passed down from father to son, providing indirect evidence of a family relationship. It's even possible that your surname derives from the occupation of a distant ancestor.

When researching your family tree, it is usually fairly easy to discover what your ancestors did for a living, as work has often been something used to define the individual. As such, occupation is an often listed entry in birth, marriage and death records, as well as census records, voter lists, tax records, obituaries and many other types of records. Sources for information on your ancestors' occupations include:

Census Records - A good first stop for information on your ancestor's job history, census records in many countries list the primary occupation of at least the head of household. Since censuses are usually taken every 5-10 years, depending upon the location, they may also reveal changes in working status over time.

City Directories - If your ancestors lived in more urban locations, city directories are a possible source for occupational information. Copies of older city directories are often available on microfilm or through the local library.

Tombstone & Obituary Records - Since many people define themselves by what they do for a living, obituaries generally mention the individual's former occupation and, sometimes, where they worked. Obituaries may also indicate membership in occupational or fraternal organizations. Tombstone inscriptions, while more brief, may also include clues to occupation or fraternal memberships.

Social Security Administration - SS-5
In the United States, the Social Security Administration keeps track of employers and employment status, and this information can generally be found in the SS-5 application form that your ancestor filled out when applying for a Social Security Number. This is a good source for the employer's name and address of a deceased ancestor.

Wills, probate records, military pension records and death certificates are other good sources for occupational information.

Once you find a record of your ancestor's occupation, you may be puzzled by the terminology used to describe it. Headswoman and hewer, for instance, are not occupations you commonly come across today. When you run across an unfamiliar term, look it up in the Glossary of Old Occupations & Trades. Keep in mind, that some terms may be associated with more than one occupation, depending upon the country. Oh, and in case you are wondering, an aurifaber is an old term for goldsmith.

Now that you've determined what your ancestor did for a living, learning more about that occupation may provide you with additional insight into your ancestor's life. Begin by trying to determine what might have influenced your ancestor's choice of occupation. Historical events and immigration often shaped the occupational choices of our ancestors. My great-grandfather, along with many other unskilled European immigrants looking to leave behind a life of poverty with no promise of upward mobility, immigrated to western Pennsylvania from Poland in the early 20th century, and found employment in the steel mills and, later, the coal mines.

Finally, to learn more about your ancestor's day-to-day work life, you have a variety of resources available to you:

Search the Web by occupation name and location. You may find other genealogists or historians who have created engaging Web pages full of facts, pictures, stories and other information on that particular occupation.

Old newspapers may include stories, ads, and other information of interest. If your ancestor was a teacher you may find descriptions of the school or reports from the school board. If your ancestor was a coal miner, you may find descriptions of the mining town, pictures of the mines and miners, etc.

Fairs, festivals, and museums often afford the opportunity to watch history in action through historical reenactments. Watch a lady churn butter, a blacksmith shoe a horse, or a soldier recreate a military skirmish. Take a tour of a coal mine or a ride a historic railroad and experience the life of your ancestor first hand.

Visit your ancestor's hometown. Especially in cases where a lot of residents of a town held the same job (a coal mining town, for example), a visit to the town can offer the chance to interview older residents and learn some great stories about day-to-day life. Follow up with the local historical or genealogical society for even more information, and look for local museums and displays. I learned much about what life was probably like for my great-grandfather through a visit to the Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discover Center in Johnstown, PA, which re-creates what life was like for the Eastern European immigrants who settled the area between 1880 and 1914.

Look for professional membership societies, unions, or other trade organizations related to your ancestor's occupation. Current members can be a great source of historical information, and they may also maintain records on the occupation, and even past members.

Researching Famous (or Infamous) Ancestors

Black Sheep & Scoundrels in the Family Tree

Am I related to someone famous? This is one of the questions that often first sparks a person's interest in genealogy. Maybe you've heard that you're descended from Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln or Pocahontas. Or perhaps you suspect a family connection (however distant) to Princess Diana, Shirley Temple, or Marilyn Monroe. Maybe you even share a surname with someone famous, and wonder if you're somehow related.

If you suspect a "famous" individual or two in your family tree, begin by not jumping to conclusions. Research the line that supposedly connects to that individual just as you would any other. Whether you're directly descended or a tenth cousin, twice removed, you'll likely have to research your own family back several generations before attemping to connect to the famous person. Distant cousin relationships often require following the family tree to a point several generations prior to the time of the famous individual, and then tracing your way back down various side branches.

In addition to working on your own family history, you should also explore the information that exists for the famous individual you think you are related to. If they are pretty famous, chances are that their family history has already been researched by someone. If not, it's likely that their biography or other resources are available to get you started in the right direction.

· Biographies of thousands of famous individuals can be easily found online. Biography.com includes short biographies of over 25,000 famous people, ranging from actors and actresses to political leaders and historical figures. Infoplease.com features 30,000 notable people. Biographical information for actors, actresses and other individuals associated with the movie can be found at E! Online and The Internet Movie Database. Biographies of notable women are a prominent feature at About Women's History.

· Popular cemetery Web sites showcase dates and pictures of celebrity tombstones. Find a Grave includes transcribed gravestone information (and sometimes pictures) for thousands of famous and infamous individuals, while Hollywood Underground gives the scoop on the final resting places of famous people buried in and around Los Angeles. A similar site, Political Graveyard, tells you where all the dead politicians are buried. If your famous ancestor was in the military, then many military cemeteries and memorials have information online.

· If the person is pretty famous, their family tree may have already been researched. Famous lineages can often be found online (see famous family trees), or in published biographies or family histories. Heritage and lineage society publications and membership applications are another rich source of lineages for famous individuals.

· Newspaper accounts of a famous individual, especially those written during his (or her) lifetime, may detail his participation in historical events or include accounts of his daily life. Marriages, obituaries, and other newsworthy items found in historical newspapers may also provide information on family members.

While it provides a good start, it is important to remember that this type of published information is considered a secondary source. You will also need to do your own research in primary documents to verify the accuracy of what you have found.

Not all ancestors are famous for their good deeds. You may have a notorious gun fighter, convict, pirate, madam, famous outlaw or other "colorful" character hanging from your family tree. This hidden past often presents some unusual opportunities for uncovering more details. In addition to the resources listed on the previous page for finding famous ancestors, court records are an excellent source for learning about everything from houses of "ill repute" to bootleggers. Criminal and prison records are also worth a look. The Federal Bureau of Prisons maintains a database of former inmates (records prior to 1982 can only be accessed by mail). Many of the early American settlers from England were originally transported to the colonies as convicts - over 25,000 can be found listed in Peter Wilson Coldham's "The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia." Court TV's The Crime Library includes biographies and stories of hundreds of notorious gangsters, outlaws, terrorists, spies, and murderers. Famous pirates and pirate ships can be researched at the Salacious Historian. The Associated Daughters of American Witches searches for an preserves the names of those accused of witchery in Colonial America. On the Web site of the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists, you can read about other's family connections to scandalous black sheep and find help for researching your own. More links for tracking down the black sheep in your family can be found at Black

The Amazing Power of FamilySearch Indexing

I spent some time indexing a set of about 160 names from the Philadelphia Marriage Index (1885-1916) yesterday through the all-volunteer FamilySearch Indexing project. This wasn't my first foray into indexing through FamilySearch, but their recent release of Philadelphia Death Records on FamilySearch Record Search (free access to all) got me wondering what other projects are currently in the works. Since I received such personal benefit from the Philadelphia Death Records that were previously indexed by other volunteers, I felt it was only fair to put in some time helping to index the Philadelphia Marriage Records.

I've blogged about FamilySearch Indexing before, but it's amazing how much the project has grown in recent months. Over 150,000 volunteers worldwide have signed on, and collectively are creating an average of more than 1.5 million indexed names each day! This makes FamilySearch Indexing the world's largest volunteer-based indexing effort according to Senior Manager of FamilySearch Indexing, Stephen Valentine. I was surprised to learn that volunteers cover a wide age group with more than 55% younger than 60 years of age; genealogy is no longer an activity only for the retired crowd! Twenty percent of volunteers are actually in the 20-40 year old age group (including me, although just barely).

A Spanish language version of the Web site and software was recently launched so Spanish-speaking volunteers can now participate. The project is in special need of more Spanish-reading/speaking assistance for special Spanish-language projects such as the 1930 Mexico Census. A major focus for 2008 will be to continue to expand FamilySearch Indexing internationally, including major record collections from Canada, England, Germany and Latin America.

One other interesting focus of FamilySearch Indexing is their efforts to partner with other organizations to enhance their existing index data. This is geared toward genealogical societies, archives and commercial companies who have previously created indexes that either aren't as accurate or as complete as they might like. FamilySearch can import their data into the FamilySearch Indexing system - using the original index as their "A" key [Note: FamilySearch Indexing utilizes a double-blind indexing system, with two individuals independently indexing the same data (keys "A" and "B"), with any descrepancies between the two extractions arbitrated by an expert third individual]. FamilySearch Indexing volunteers then create a second B key with the uploaded data, which is then compared against the original index (A key). Differences between the two are arbitrated by experts to produce a more complete and accurate final index.

If you're interested in joining the FamilySearch Indexing revolution, the software is easy to download and use, and instructions are well thought out and generally self-explanatory. When extracting surnames from the Philadelphia Marriage Index, for example, I wasn't sure what to do about the Jr included in the surname field. So I checked the instructions for "Surname" which told me to exclude all titles, including Jr. Question answered and I was back to extracting. There are many interesting projects to choose from, and you can select which records you're interested in extracting (although the specific batch of names will be assigned to you automatically). For more insight into the FamilySearch Indexing process, Renee Zamora has a great series of posts titled Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing on Renee's Genealogy Blog.

Top Databases & Web Sites for Canadian Genealogy

If you're searching for Canadian ancestors online, these databases and Web sites are the best place to start. Best of all, many are free!

1. Library and Archives Canada: Canadian Genealogy Centre

Search for free in a variety of Canadian genealogy resources, including digitized census and passenger lists, land records, naturalization records, passport and other identity papers, and military records. Not all databases are included in the "Ancestors Search," so check out the complete list of available Canadian genealogy databases.

2. inGeneas Database

Search Canadian passenger, Canadian immigration, Canadian census, Canadian vital statistic, Canadian land, Canadian military and other miscellaneous Canadian records from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s in this database of indexed records. Searches of the index are free, but some records require payment if you want a full transcription of the record.

3. That's My Family

This free search tool makes it possible to search for information on Canadian ancestors across multiple genealogy and family history databases hosted by federal, provincial and territorial archives centers and libraries. Many of the available sources are from the previously mentioned Library and Archives Canada, but there are also sources from genealogical societies and records offices in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia and others.

4. Ancestry.com / Ancestry.ca

Subscription site Ancestry.ca (Canadian records also available through a World Subscription at Ancestry.com) offers numerous databases for Canada genealogy including indexes to the 1901, 1906 and 1911 Canadian census, as well as many province-specific records. One of the largest of their Canadian databases is the Historic Drouin Collection, which contains 37 million French-Canadian names appearing in Quebec records spanning 346 years from 1621 to 1967. All records require a subscription to access, or sign up for a free trial.

5. Genealogical Research Library

This Canadian "databank" includes over 16 million names of individuals who lived in Canada between the years 1600 and 1900+ in every province and territory of Canada. Over 1 million of these Canadian names include an image of the original source document. The free search feature provides the name and date of the documented event. You'll have to subscribe for full details and access to source documents.

6. Canada GenWeb

The various province and territory projects under the umbrella of Canada GenWeb offer access to transcribed records, including census records, cemeteries, vital records, land records, wills, and more. While there, don't miss the Canada GenWeb Archives, where you can access some of the contributed files in one location.

7. The Olive Tree Genealogy

Scroll down the page to find links to free transcriptions of Canadian genealogical records, including ships' passenger lists and Canadian muster rolls from the American Revolution and War of 1812. Transcribed records are also available for the provinces (especially Ontario), as well as on specific Canadian groups such as Loyalists, Palatines, Mennonites, Huguenots and Walloons, and the Mohawk Nation.

8. Automated Genealogy

Access free census indexes for the 1851, 1901, 1906 and 1911 censuses of Canada, linked directly to an image of the original census page on the Web site of Library and Archives Canada. Transcription, proof reading, and linking of these census indexes is all done by volunteers and no registration or payment is required to view the index.

9. Early Canadiana Online

More than 2.7 million pages of Canada's printed heritage can be accessed online, covering the time of the first European settlers up to the early 20th century. Some of the scanned historical documents can be viewed for free, although a mebership is required to access the full collection (individual memberships available). Many libraries and universities throughout Canada offer subscriptions to their patrons, so check their first for free access.

10. Canadian Virtual Wall Memorial

Search this free registry for information about the graves and memorials of more than 116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served valiantly and gave their lives for their country.

11. Immigrants to Canada

Marj Kohli has amassed a wonderful collection of record extracts documenting immigrants to Canada in the nineteenth century. This includes voyage accounts, lists of ships sailing to Canada, 1800s emigrant handbooks that document life for the Canadian immigrant and government immigration reports.

12. Historical Canadian Directories

Just so you don't miss this great resource at Library and Archives Canada, I'm highlighing it separately. The Historical Canadian Directories includes Canadian national, provincial and territorial, county, and city directories, primarily from the nineteeth and twentieth centuries. Full-text searching is available, with links to digitized images of the directory pages.

Have you ever wondered about the history of your house, apartment, church or other building? When was it built? Why was it built? Who owned it? What happened to the people who lived there? Or, my perennial favorite question as a child, does it have any secret tunnels or cubbyholes? Whether you're looking for documentation for historic status or are just plain inquisitive, tracing a property's history and learning about the people who have lived there can be a fascinating and fulfilling project.

When conducting research on buildings there are usually two types of information that people search for: 1) architectural facts, such as date of construction, name of architect or builder, construction materials, and physical changes over time; and 2) historical facts, such as information on the original owner and other residents through time, or interesting events associated with the building or area. A house history may consist of either type of research, or be a combination of both.

Get to Know Your Home
Begin your search by looking closely at the building for clues about its age. Look at the type of construction, the materials used in construction, the shape of the roofline, the placement of the windows, etc. These types of features may prove useful in identifying the architectural style of the building, which helps in establishing the general construction date. Walk around the property looking for obvious alterations or additions to the building as well as roadways, paths, trees, fences and other features. It is also important to look at nearby buildings to see whether they contain similar features which will also help to date your property.

Talk to relatives, friends, neighbors, even former employees - anyone who might know something about the house. Ask them not only for information about the building, but also about former owners, the land upon which the house was built, what existed at that location prior to construction of the house, and the history of the town/community. Check family letters, scrapbooks, diaries, and photo albums for more possible clues. It's even possible (though not likely) that you may find an original deed or even a blueprint for the property.

A thorough search of the property may also yield clues between walls, floorboards, and other forgotten areas. Old newspapers were often used as insulation between walls, while journals, clothing, and other items have been found in rooms, closets, or fireplaces that for one reason or another were sealed over. Now I'm not recommending that you knock holes in the walls unless you are planning a restoration, but you should be aware of the many secrets which an older home or building can contain.

Chain of Title Search
A deed is a legal document used to transfer ownership of land and property. Examining all of the deeds concerning your home or other property is a big step toward learning more about its history. In addition to providing the names of property owners, deeds can also provide information on construction dates, changes in value and use, and even plot maps. Begin with the deed for the current owners of the property and work your way back from one deed to the next, with each deed providing details on who conveyed the property to whom. This list of property owners in succession is known as the "chain of title." Though often a tedious process, a title search is the best method for establishing a chain of ownership for a property.

Begin your search for deeds by learning where they were recorded and stored for the time and place in which you are interested. Some jurisdictions are even beginning to place this information online - allowing you to search for current property information by address or owner. Next, visit the registry of deeds (or location where deeds are recorded for your area) and use the grantee index to search for the present owner in an index of buyers. The index will provide you with a book and page where a copy of the actual deed is located.

One piece of information that you will almost always have for your home or building is the address. Therefore, once you've learned a bit about the property and looked for local clues, the next logical step is to search documents that are based on a building's address and location. Such documents, including property records, utility records, maps, photographs, architectural plans and more, may be housed in the local library, historical society, local government offices, or even in private collections. Check with your local genealogy library or genealogical society for help finding the location of the following records in your specific locality.

Building Permits
Learn where building permits are kept on file for your building's neighborhood - these may be held by local building departments, city planning departments, or even county or parish offices. Building permits for older buildings and residences may be preserved at libraries, historical societies or archives. Usually filed by street address, building permits can be especially useful when tracing a house history, often listing the original owner, architect, builder, construction cost, dimensions, materials, and date of construction. Alteration permits provide clues to the building's physical evolution over time. On rare occasions, a building permit may also lead you to a copy of the original blueprints for your building.

Utility Records
If other means fail and the building isn't too old or rural, the date when utilities were first connected may provide a good indication of when a building was first occupied (i.e. a general construction date). The water company is often the best place to start as these records generally pre-date electrical, gas and sewer systems. Just remember that your home could have been built before these systems existed and, in such cases, the date of connection will not indicate the construction date.

Insurance Records
Historical insurance records, most notably fire insurance claim forms, contain information about the nature of an insured building, its contents, value and, possibly, even floor plans. For an exhaustive search, contact all insurance companies who have been active in your area for a long length of time and ask them to check their records for any policies sold for that address.

Tax & Appraisal Records
Many taxes through the years were based on real property, making tax records a useful resource when tracing the history of a building. Records relating to the appraisal of property for tax purposes are a good place to start if you are trying to locate the date on which your house was built. Years of major remodeling projects may also be included. Appraisal records usually include the name of the owners at the time of the appraisal, as well as a legal description of the building and property. You can also use surviving tax returns to find mortgage information and trace changes of building ownership though the tax liability of its occupants. This information can be especially useful in filling in the gaps between previous home owners. Look for tax records, usually indexed by both the tax payer and the property's legal address, in the local Tax Collector's office, Assessor's office, Office of the Ordinary, area Revenue Department, or Office of Probate Judge. Older tax rolls can usually be found on microfilm at archives and genealogy libraries. Keep in mind that the building that stands on the property today may not be the same building that was constructed when the taxes were first levied.

Maps
Your local librarian or archives can guide you to city, county, town or parish maps that may show your building with the owner's name listed alongside. Such historical maps were prevalent in the 1700-1800s, when the world wasn't quite so crowded, and often show the location of major homesteads, old roads and other landmarks. Fire insurance maps, another geographic resource, can also provide interesting information about homes and buildings. Used by insurance companies to accurately calculate fire insurance premiums, fire insurance maps are color-coded to indicate the building's size and shape; construction material; location of doors, windows, fire escapes, and sprinkler systems. The U.S. Sanborn Insurance maps are the largest group of such maps, but not the only one. They exist primarily for urban areas where the map-making company thought there was a high likelihood of sales, but may cover a percentage of small towns as well. They were updated on irregular schedules and represent "snapshots" of a community rather than a year-by-year construction record. Other useful maps for building history research include plat maps, which may show an outline of your ancestor's house and its placement on your ancestor's property.

Photographs
Photographs will help to tell the story of your house or building. Check with family members, neighbors, and local genealogical or historical societies to see if they have any photos in their possession. Large image collections in archives or genealogical libraries may also have a photo of your house (not as surprising as it may sound) or at least a photo of the community. If a photo can't be found, don't despair. Look to old postcards as another source for pictures of houses, landmark buildings and neighborhoods.

Once you've learned the basics, one of the best ways to expand on the history of your home or other building is by tracing its owners. A variety of standard sources exist which should help you learn who lived in the house before you, and from there it is just a matter of using a bit of genealogy research to fill in the gaps. You should have already learned the names of some of the previous occupants and, possibly, even the original owners from the chain of title search covered in part one of this article. Most archives and libraries also have pamphlets or articles available which will help you with the specifics of searching for the previous occupants of your home and learning more about their life.

Phone Books & City Directories
Begin your search by letting your fingers do the walking. One of the best sources for information about the people who lived in your house are old phone books and, if you live in an urban area, city directories. They can provide you with a timeline of former occupants, and possibly provide you with extra details such as occupations. As you search, it is important to keep in mind that your home may have had a different street number, and your street may have even had a different name. City and phone directories, in combination with old maps, are usually the best source for these old street names and numbers. You can usually locate old phone books and city directories at local libraries and historical societies.

Census Records
Census records, depending upon the location and time period, may tell you who lived in your home or building, where they came from, how many children they had, the value of the property, and more. Census records can be especially useful in narrowing down birth, death, and even marriage dates which, in turn, can lead to more records about the homeowners. Census records can usually be found at libraries and archives.

Church and Parish Records
Local church and parish records can sometimes be a good source for death dates and other information about former occupants of your home. This is a more likely avenue of research in small towns where there aren't a lot of churches, however.

Newspapers and Obituaries
If you are able to narrow down a death date, then obituaries can provide you with a wealth of details about the former occupants of your home. Newspapers can also be good sources for information on births, marriages, and town histories, especially if you're lucky enough to find one which has been indexed. You may even find an article on your home if the owner was prominent in some way. Check with the local library to learn which newspaper was in operation at the time the former owners lived in the home, and where the archives are located.

Birth, Marriage and Death Records
If you are able to narrow down a date of birth, marriage or death, then you should definitely investigate vital records. Birth, marriage, and death records are available from a variety of locations, depending upon the location and time period. Information is readily available on the Internet which can point you to these records and provide you with the years they are available.

The history of the homeowners is a big part of the history of a house. If you're lucky enough to track former owners all the way down to living descendants, then you may want to consider contacting them to learn more. People who have lived in the home can tell you things about it that you will never find in public records. They may also be in possession of old photos of the home or building. Approach them with care and courtesy, and they may be your best resource yet!

Genealogy of a Town

Resources for Researching Local History

Each town, whether in America, England, Canada or China, has its own story to tell. Sometimes the great events of history will have affected the community, while other times the community will have generated its own fascinating dramas. Researching the local history of the town, village or city where your ancestors lived is a big step toward understanding what their life was like - the people, places and events that impacted the course of their own personal history.

1. Read Published Histories

Local histories, especially town histories, are full of collected genealogical information. Often they profile every family who lived in the town, providing as complete a family structure as the early records (often including family Bibles) permit. They also provide great glimpses into the daily life of the town or county, and its residents. It is important to realize that books such as this are often called "brag books" because the biographical sketches are generally unverified, and it is not unusual to find exaggerations or incorrect information. Don't overlook such resources, just verify what they tell you.

2. Map Out the Town

Historical maps of a city, town or village may provide details on the town's original layout and buildings, as well as the names and locations of many of the town residents. Tithe maps, for example, were produced for about 75 percent of the parishes and towns in England and Wales during the 1840s to document the land subject to tithe (local payments due to the parish for the upkeep of local church and clergy), along with the names of the property owners. Many types of historical maps can be useful for locality research, including city and county atlases, plat maps and fire insurance maps, among others.

3. Dig into Court Records

Minutes of local court proceedings are another rich source Property disputes, the layout out of roads, deed and will entries, civil complaints and estate inventories. In New Zealand, the minutes of the Maori Land Court are especially rich with whakapapa (Maori genealogies), as well as place names and burial groundlocations.

4. Interview the Residents

Talking to people who actually live in your town of interest can often turn up interesting nuggets of information you'll find nowhere else. Of course nothing beats an onsite visit and first-hand interviews, but the Internet and email also makes it easy to interview people who live halfway around the world. The local historical society - if one exists - may be able to point you to likely candidates. Or just try googling for local residents who appear to show an interest in local history - perhaps those researching their family genealogy. Even if their family history interest is elsewhere, they may be willing to help you locate historial information on the place they call home.

5. Google for the Goods

The Internet is quickly becoming one of the richest sources for local history research. Many libraries and historical societies are putting their special collections of local historical materials into digital form and making them available online. The Summit Memory Project is just one such example, a collaborative county-wide effort administered by the Akron-Summit County Public Library in Ohio. Local history blogs such as the Ann Arbor Local History Blog, message boards, mailing lists, and personal and town Web sites are all potential sources of local history. Do a search on the name of the town or village along with search terms such as history, church, or cemetery. A Google Images search may turn up photos.

6. Read all About It (Historical Newspapers)

Obituaries, death notices, marriage announcements and society columns capsule the lives of the local residents. Public announcements and advertisements show what residents found important. Newspapers are also rich sources of information on local events, town news, school activities, etc.

Writing Your Family History

Yes, the research is the fun part. Writing a family history book just seems too daunting to be fun. But when the relatives start nagging, try these 10 easy steps for making your family history book a reality.

1) Choose a Format for Your Family History

What do you envision for your family history project? A simple photocopied booklet shared only with family members or a full-scale, hard-bound book to serve as a reference for other genealogists? Or, perhaps, a family newsletter, cookbook or Web site is more realistic, given your time restraints and other obligations. Now is the time to be honest with yourself about the type of family history which meets your interests and your schedule. Otherwise, you'll have a half-finished product nagging you for years to come.

Considering your interests, potential audience and the types of materials you have to work with, here are some forms your family history can take:

· Memoir/Narrative: A combination of story and personal experience, memoirs and narratives do not need to be all-inclusive or objective.

Memoirs usually focus on a specific episode or time period in the life of a single ancestor, while a narrative generally encompasses a group of ancestors.

· Cookbook: Share your family's favorite recipes while writing about the people who created them. A fun project, family history cookbooks help carry on the family traditions of cooking and eating together.

· Scrapbook or Album: If you're fortunate enough to have a large collection of family photos and memorabilia, a scrapbook or photo album can be a fun way to tell your family's story. Include your photos in chronological order and include stories, descriptions and family trees to complement the pictures.

Most family histories are generally narrative in nature, with a combination of personal story, photos and family trees. So, don't be afraid to get creative!

2) Define the Scope of Your Family History

Do you intend to write mostly about just one particular relative, or everyone hanging from your family tree? As the author, you next need to choose a focus for your family history book. Some possibilities include:

· Single Line of Descent - Begins with the earliest known ancestor for a particular surname and follows him/her through a single line of descent (to yourself, for example). Each chapter of your book would cover one ancestor or generation.

· All Descendants Of... - Begins with an individual or couple and covers all of their descendants, with chapters organized by generation. If you're focusing your family history on an immigrant ancestor, this is a good way to go.

· The Grandparents - Includes a section on each of your four grandparents, or eight great-grandparents, or sixteen great, great grandparents if you are very ambitious. Each individual section focuses on one grandparent, and works backwards through their ancestry or forward from his/her earliest known ancestor.

Again, these suggestions can easily be adapted to fit your interests, time and creativity. For example, you may choose to write a family history covering all people of a particular surname in a particular region, even if they aren't all necessarily related to one another!

3) Set Deadlines You Can Live With

Even though you'll likely find yourself scrambling to meet them, deadlines force you to complete each stage of your project. The goal here is to get each piece done within a specified time frame. Revising and polishing can always be done later. The best way to meet these deadlines is to schedule writing time, just as you would a visit to the doctor or hairdresser.

4) Choose a Plot & Themes

Thinking of your ancestors as characters in your family history story, what problems and obstacles did your ancestors face? A plot gives your family history interest and focus. Popular family history plots and themes include:

5) Do Your Background Research

If you want your family history to read more like a suspense novel than a dull, dry textbook, then it is important to make the reader feel like an eyewitness to your family's life. Even when your ancestor didn't leave an account of his or her daily life, social histories can help you learn about the experiences of people in a given time and place. Read town and city histories to learn what life was like during your time period of interest. Research timelines of wars, natural disasters and epidemics to see if any might have influenced your ancestor. Investigate your ancestor's occupation to gain greater understanding into his daily activities. Read up on the fashions, art, transportation and common foods of the time period and location. If you haven't already, be sure to interview all of your living relatives. Family stories told in a relative's own words will add a personal touch to your book.

6) Organize Your Research

Create a timeline for each ancestor that you plan to write about. This will help you arrange the outline for your book, as well as spot any gaps in your research. Sort through the records and photos for each ancestor and identify the ones you'd like to include, making note of each on the timeline. Then use these timelines to help develop an outline for your narrative. You may choose to order your material in many different ways: chronologically, geographically, by character, or by theme.

7) Choose a Starting Point

What is the most interesting part of your family's story? Did your ancestors escape a life of poverty and persecution for a better one in a new country? Was there an interesting invention or occupation? A war time hero? Pick out an interesting fact, record or story about your ancestors and open your narrative with it.

Just like the fiction books you read for pleasure, a family history book doesn't need to begin at the beginning. An interesting story will grab the reader's attention, with the hope of drawing them in past the first page. You can later use flashback to fill in the reader on the events which lead up to your opening story.

8) Don't be Afraid to Use Records and Documents

Diary entries, will excerpts, military accounts, obituaries and other records offer compelling, first-hand accounts of your family's history - and you don't even have to do the writing! Anything written directly by your ancestor is definitely worth including, but you may also find interesting accounts that mention your ancestor in the records of neighbors and other family members. Include short excerpts within the text of your writing, with source citations to point readers to the original record.

Photos, pedigree charts, maps and other illustrations can also add interest to a family history and help break up the writing into manageable chunks for the reader. Be sure to include detailed captions for any photos or illustrations that you incorporate.

9) Make it Personal

Anyone who reads your family history will likely be interested in the facts, but what they'll most enjoy and remember are the everyday details - favorite stories and anecdotes, embarrasing moments and family traditions. Sometimes it can be interesting to include varying accounts of the same event. Personal stories offer a great way to introduce new characters and chapters, and keep your reader interested. If your ancestors left no personal accounts, you can still tell their story as if they had, using what you've learned about them from your research.

10) Include an Index and Source Citations

Unless your family history is only a few pages in length, an index is a really important feature. This makes it much easier for the casual reader to find the portions of your book that detail the people in which they are interested. At the very least, try to include a surname index. A place index is also useful if your ancestors moved around a lot.

Source citations are an essential part of any family book, to both provide credibility to your research, and to leave a trail that others can follow to verify your findings.

Kimberly Powell, About.com's Genealogy Guide since 2000, is a professional genealogist and the author of "Everything Family Tree, 2nd Edition." Click here for more information on Kimberly Powell.

How to Identify & Avoid Genealogy Scams

While reputable genealogy sites are quite prevalent online, there are unfortunately several Web sites on the Internet which make fraudulent claims or take your money in return for no results. Learn how to check out a genealogy Web site before you join or put down any money so that you won't get taken in by a genealogy scam.

1. What are you Getting for your Money?

Look at the details of what is claimed to be offered. You should expect to be able to see a list of the exact records, databases, and other sources that you'll be able to access through a paid subscription. Look for exact details. A general claim of "marriage records" means nothing - if the site doesn't provide details on the location and time period covered by the marriage records, as well as the source, then you should be suspicious. Most reputable sites even allow you to do free searches to see what specific records are available for your name before you subscribe. Be careful of Web sites that won't provide any type of search results or database list before you join.

2. Look for Contact Information

Look under contact information for a physical address and phone number for the company. If the only way to contact them is through an online contact form, consider that a red flag. You should also do a Whois search on the domain name to learn more about who your dealing with.

3. Challenge the Search Results

If your search for a name turns up something vague, such as "Congratulations, we've found xxx records on Mary Brown in Charleston, WV" try typing in a bogus name to see what comes up. It's amazing how many sites will purport to have records for "Hungry Pumpernickle" or "aoluouasd zououa."

4. Look for Repeated Terms on the Main Page

Be suspicious of Web sites that repeatedly use words such as "search," "genealogy," "records," etc. over and over on their home page. I'm not talking about sites that use each word a few times, but sites that use such terms dozens and dozens of times. This is an attempt to get high search engine placement and can sometimes be a red flag.

5. Free Isn't Always Free

Beware of sites that offer "free genealogy records" in return for sponsors' surveys, etc. You'll generally be taken through page after page of "offers" which will ultimately fill up your mailbox with offers you don't need, and the "free records" at the end will most likely be things you could have accessed for free on your own. Useful free genealogy records are available in many locations online, and you should not have to jump through a bunch of hoops (other than possibly register your name and email address) to access them.

6. Check Out Consumer Complaint Sites

Do a search for the Web site on consumer complaint sites such as Complaints Board and Rip-Off Report. If you can find anything on the Web site itself, try looking at the fine print under the Web site's "terms and conditions" to see if you can find the name of the company that operates the Web site and then do a search for complaints on that company.

7. Send Them a Question

Use the Web site's contact form and/or email address to ask a question before you plunk down any money. If you don't receive a response (an automated response doesn't count), then stay away.

8. Consult with Others

Search the RootsWeb mailing lists, genealogy message boards, and a search engine such as Google (+"company name" +scam) to see if others have had problems with a particular genealogy service. If you don't see any comments on a particular site, then post a message to ask if others have had any experience with the site.

Clues to Follow Up in Land Deeds

Land records are an important part of building any family tree. Outside of telling you what land your ancestors may have owned, and where it was located, deeds and other land records are also a potential source of information on family members, family relationships, and other locations in which your ancestor lived. Each time you read a deed record for your ancestor, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Are adjacent landowners mentioned by name?

Neighbors of your ancestors can often be found mentioned in deed records. Some of these adjacent landowners may just be the typical neighbor next door. But it's also possible that some could be parents, cousins, children or family friends. Whether or not these adjacent landowners are related, it's always worth checking their deeds for further clues. Their land deeds may name your ancestor, or may provide a relationship or other additional detail that isn't found in your ancestor's own deeds.

2. Is your ancestor selling property?

If so, how did he acquire it? Trace your way back through the grantee deed indexes to learn when and from who your ancestor first acquired or purchased the land that he's selling.

3. Where is your ancestor's property located?

Get a good topographic map covering the area where your ancestor lived and locate your ancestor's property on the map. In the United States you'll need a map that shows watercourses for the State Land States and Range/Township lines in the Public Land States - USGS topographic maps are generally excellent for this purpose.

Once you've pinpointed the location of your ancestor's property, explore the neighborhood. Identify the nearest town, as well as the local churches, schools and cemeteries. Some may be marked on the map, while others may take some research to identify and locate on the map. With this information you can better understand the daily life of your ancestor, and possibly locate additional records.

4. What is the date?

The date a deed was written is not always the date it was recorded at the courthouse. It's actually not that unusual to find a deed recorded many years after it was written, and the delay between the two dates may indicate a change in the family such as the coming of age of a minor child or the death or remarriage of a surviving parent.

5. Are There Multiple Grantors (Sellers)?

Multiple grantors, other than husband and wife, may be "estate sales." This is especially likely when many of the grantors share the same surname. Not all sales of land by "heirs" will necessarily indicate that the individuals are related, or even that they are heirs to the estate, however. Follow up each of the individuals in census and other records to determine their relationship, if any.

Land Platting Made Easy

Gather Your Tools

One of the best ways to study local history in general, and your family in particular, is to create a map of your ancestor's land and its relationship to the surrounding community. Making a plat from a land description may sound complicated, but it is actually very simple once you learn how.

Land Platting Supplies & Tools

To plat a tract of land in metes and bounds bearings -- draw the land on paper the way the surveyor originally did -- you only need a few simple tools:

· Protractor or Surveyor's Compass - Remember that half-circle protractor that you used in high school trigonometry? This basic tool, found in most office and school supply stores, is an easy-to-obtain tool for land platting on the fly. If you plan to do a lot of land platting, then you may want to purchase a round surveyor's compass (also known as a land measure compass).

· Ruler - Again, easily found in office supply stores. You only need to decide if you want to graph in millimeters or inches.

· Graph Paper - Used primarily to keep your compass aligned perfectly north-south, the size and type of graph paper is really not that important. Patricia Law Hatcher, an expert in land platting, recommends "engineering paper," with four to five equally-weighted lines per inch. North Carolina Research (North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996), edited by Helen Leary, C.G., F.A.S.G., recommends graph paper marked off the same way your ruler is (i.e. 1/10th inch x 1/10th inch to use with a ruler marked in tenths of inches) to aid you in estimating whether the area shown on your plat matches that in the land description.

· Pencil & Eraser - Wood pencil, or mechanical pencil - it's your choice. Just make sure it's sharp!

· Calculator - Doesn't need to be fancy. Just simple multiplication and division. Pencil and paper will work too - just takes longer.

Transcribe the Deed (or Make a Photocopy)

To begin a land platting project it helps to have a transcription or copy of the deed that you can mark up as you identify the metes (corners or descriptive markers) and bounds (boundary lines) from the legal land description. For this purpose it isn't necessary to transcribe the entire deed, but be sure to include the entire legal land description, as well as a citation to the original deed.

George the second To all Know ye that for divers good causes and Considerations but more Especially for and in Consideration of the Sum of Forty Shillings of good and Lawful Money for our Use paid to our Receiver General of our Revenues in this our Colony and Dominion of Virginia We have Given Granted and Confirmed and by these presents for us our Heirs and Successors Do Give Grant and Confirm until Thomas Stephenson one Certain Tract or Parcel of Land Containing Three hundred Acres Lying and being in the County of Southampton on the North side of Seacock swamp and bounded as followeth to wit

Beginning at a Lightwood post Corner to the said Stephenson thence North seventy nine Degrees East two hundred and fifty eight poles to a Scrubby white Oak Corner to Thomas Doles thence North five Degrees East seventy six poles to a white Oak thence North West one hundred and twenty two poles to a pine Joseph Turners Corner thence North seven Degrees East fifty poles to a Turkey Oak thence North seventy two Degrees West two hundred poles to a Dead white Oak a Corner to the said Stephensons thence by Stephensons Line to the Beginning...

Virginia. "Land Office Patents, 1623-1774." Database and digital images. The Library of Virginia (http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us : accessed 1 September 2007), entry for Thomas Stephenson, 1760; citing Land Office Patents No. 33, 1756-1761 (vol. 1, 2, 3 & 4), p. 944.

Create a Call List

Highlight the calls - lines (including direction, distance and adjoining neighbors) and corners (physical description, including neighbors) on your transcription or copy. Land platting experts Patricia Law Hatcher and Mary McCampbell Bell suggest to their students that they underline the lines, circle the corners, and use a wavy line for meanders.

Once you've identified the calls and corners on your deed or land grant, create a chart or list of the calls for easy reference. Check off each line or corner on the photocopy as you work to help prevent errors. This list should always begin with a corner (the beginning point in the deed) and alternate corner, line, corner, line:

Choose a Scale & Convert Your Measurements

Some genealogists plot in inches and others in millimeters. It is really a matter of personal preference. Either can be used to fit a plat to the commonly used 1:24,000 scale USGS quadrangle map, also referred to as a 7 1/2 minute map. Since a pole, rod and perch are all the same measurement of distance - 16 1/2 feet - you can use a common divisor to convert these distances to match the 1:24,000 scale.

1. If you plan to plot in millimeters, then divide your measurements (poles, rods or perches) by 4.8 (1 millimeter = 4.8 poles). The actual number is 4.772130756, but 4.8 is close enough for most genealogical purposes. The difference is less than the width of a pencil line.

2. If you're plotting in inches, then the "divide by" number is 121 (1 inch = 121 poles)

If you need to match your plat to a specific map drawn to a different scale, such as an old county map, or if the distances on the deed are not given in rods, poles or perches, you'll need to calculate your specific scale in order to create a plat.

The USGS has a handy list of Commonly Used Map Scales along with their relationship in centimeters and inches. You can use this scale to calculate your "divide by" number in either millimeters or inches.

· For millimeters, divide the large number on the map scale (i.e. 9,000) by 5029.2. For our 1:9,000 map example, the millimeter divide by number equals 1.8 (1 millimeter = 1.8 poles).

· For inches, divide the large number on the map scale (i.e. 9,000) by 198. For our 1:9,000 map example, the inches divide by number equals 45.5.

In cases where there is no 1:x scale marked on the map, look for some type of scale designation, such as 1 inch = 1 mile. In most cases, you can use the previously mentioned USGS map scales chart to determine the map scale. Then return to the previous step.

Select a Beginning Point

Draw a solid dot at one of the points on your graph paper and mark it "beginning," along with any specific description details included in your deed. In our example, this would include "lightwood post, Stephenson corner."

Make sure that the point you choose allows room for the tract to develop as it is plotted by looking over the direction of the longest distances. In the example we're plotting here, the first line is the longest, running 256 poles in a northeasterly direction, so I'll choose a starting spot on my graph paper that allows plenty of room both above and to the right.

This is also a good point to add source information on the deed, grant or patent to your page, along with your name and today's date.

Chart Your First Line

Place the center of your surveyor's compass or protractor on a vertical North South line through your beginning point, with North at the top. If you're using a semicircular protractor, the rounded side should face to the east or west direction of your call.

First, the course

Find the point on the compass that marks the first direction named in the call (usually North or South). In our example,

From this point, move your finger in the second direction named in the call (usually East or West) until you reach the degree mark named in the deed. Make a tick mark. In our example, we would begin at 0° N and then move East (right) until we reach 79°.

Next, the distance

Place your ruler so that its edge connects both your starting point and your tick mark, with 0 on the ruler at your beginning dot (make sure you use the 0 point, not the end of the ruler).

Now, measure along your ruler the distance you calculated for this line (the number of millimeters or inches that you calculated based on the poles back in Step 4).

Make a dot at that distance point, and then draw a line along the ruler straight edge connecting your beginning point to that distance point.

Complete the Plat

Place your compass or protractor on the new point that you just created in Step 6 and repeat the process, determining the course and direction to find and plot the next line and corner point. Continue repeating this step for each line and corner in your deed until you return to the beginning point.

When everything goes right, the last line of your plot should return you to the point on your graph where you began. If this happens, recheck your work to make sure that you got all of the distances properly converted to scale, and all of the measurements and angles graphed correctly. If things still don't match up, don't worry about it too much. Surveys weren't always precise.

Problem Solving: Missing Lines

Often you will encounter "missing" lines or incomplete information in your deeds. Generally, you have two choices: 1) to guess or approximate the missing information or 2) to determine the missing details from surrounding plats. In our Thomas Stephenson deed there is incomplete information for the third "call" - NW, 122 poles - as no degrees are listed. For the purposes of platting, I just assumed a straight 45° NW line. Further information/confirmation could also have been found by researching property owned by Joseph Turner in the area, as he is identified as a corner at the end of that line.

When platting imprecise lines, draw them with a wavy or dotted line to indicate a "meander." This could be used for a creek, as in a line that "follows the courses of the creek" or an imprecise description, as in our NW 122 poles example.

One other technique that can be used when you encounter a missing line is to begin your plat with the point or corner after the missing line.

Plat each line and corner from that point back to the beginning of the deed description, and then continue from the beginning back to the point where you reach the missing line. Finally, connect the last two points with a wavy meander line. In our example, this technique would not have worked, however, as we actually had two "missing" lines. The last line, as it does in many deeds, gave no direction or distance - just described as "thence by Stephensons Line to the Beginning." When you encounter two or more missing lines in a deed description, you will need to research surrounding properties in order to accurately plat the property.

Fit the Property to a Map

Once you have a final plat, it can be helpful to fit the property to a map. I use the USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle maps for this as they offer the right balance between detail and size, and cover the entire United States. Look for identifying natural characteristics such as creeks, swamps, roads, etc., when possible, to help identify the general area. From there you can compare the shape of the property, the neighbors, and other identifying information to hopefully locate the exact location. Often this takes researching many of the adjoining properties in the area and platting the land of surrounding neighbors. This step requires practice and skill, but is definitely the best part of land platting!

Researching Irish Ancestors

Irish Genealogy Databases on the Web

Researching your Irish ancestors online can be difficult as there is no one-stop Web site with vast quantities of Irish family history records. Yet many sites offer valuable data for researching Irish ancestry in the form of extractions, transcriptions and digitized images. The sites presented here offer a mix of free and subscription-based (pay) content, but all represent major sources for online Irish family tree research.

1. FamilySearch

Many Irish parish records of births (baptisms) and marriages have been transcribed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and can be searched for free on their Web site at FamilySearch.org. Coverage is by no means complete, but it is a good place to start. To help narrow down your search, you may find it helpful to use Ireland IGI Batch Numbers - see Using IGI Batch Numbers for a tutorial. Free

2. Irish Family History Foundation

The Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF) is a coordinating body for a network of government approved genealogical research centres in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Together these research centres have computerized almost 40 million Irish ancestral records, primarily church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials, and made the indexes available online for free. To view a detailed record you can purchase credit online for instant access at a per-record cost. Free index searches, pay to view detailed records

3. Irish Origins

This subscription-based genealogy site features an Irish Wills Index (1484-1858), the 1851 Dublin City Census, Irish Royal Garrison Artillery Records, and the best online version of Griffiths Valuation. While other Web sites such as MyIrishAncestry.com offer a free index to Griffiths, Irish Origins offers full details and links to digitized images. Free name search. Subscription

4. National Archives of Ireland

The genealogy section of the National Archives of Ireland offers several free searchable databases, such as the Ireland-Australia Transportation Database, along with finding aids to many useful record series held in the National Archives. Of special interest is their digitization of Irish 1901 and 1911 census records. The first phase, consisting of Dublin City and County in 1911, is available for free searching and viewing online, with the rest to come. Free

5. Emerald Isle Ancestors

This extensive Ulster genealogy database contains baptism, marriage, death, burial, and census records for over 1 million Irish ancestors in Counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. Most database results are indexes or partial transcriptions. Subscription

6. Irish Newspaper Archives

A variety of newspapers from Ireland's past have been digitized, indexed and made available for searching online through this subscription-based site. Searching is free, with a cost for viewing/downloading the pages. The site currently features over 1.5 million pages of newspaper content, with another 2 million in the works from papers such as The Freeman's Journal (1763 to 1924), Irish Independent (1905 to 2003) and The Anglo-Celt (1908 to 2001). Subscription

7. Failte Romhat

The personal Web site of John Hayes might not be the first place you'd expect to visit, but his site actually offers a surprising number of online Irish databases and transcribed documents, including Land Owners in Ireland 1876, Irish Flax Growers List 1796, Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland 1824, cemetery transcriptions and photographs, and much more. Best of all, it is all free!

8. Irish Family Research

A variety of interesting Irish databases are offered online through this family history research site, although most require a subscription to access. The focus is rare 19th Century genealogical materials, most of which are exclusive to this site. The most popular database features transcriptions of gravestones from old churches and graveyards made by The Association for the Preservation of Memorials of the Dead, formed in 1888. Many of these headstones no longer exist today. Subscription

9. Fianna Guide to Irish Genealogy

In addition to excellent tutorials and guides for researching ancestry in Ireland Fianna also offers transcriptions from a variety of primary documents and records. Free

10. Famine Irish Collection

The U.S. National Archives has two online databases of information on immigrants who came to America from Ireland during the Irish famine, covering the years 1846 to 1851. The "Famine Irish Passenger Record Data File" has 605,596 records of passengers arriving in New York, about 70% of whom came from Ireland. The second database, "List of Ships that Arrived at the Port of New York During the Irish Famine," gives background detail on the ships that brought them over, including the total number of passengers. Free

11. Irish War Memorials

This beautiful site presents an inventory of war memorials in Ireland, along with inscriptions, photographs and other details of each memorial. You can browse by location or war, or search by surname. Free

12. IreAtlas Townland Database

If you know the name of a town that your ancestors came from but cannot find it on a map, this resource will help locate it! Search for a particular Irish place name, or enter a townland or county to generate a list all of the civil parishes, poor law unions, and townlands in a particular area.

Finding Your Ancestors

Understanding the Genealogical Research Process

While searching for clues to your ancestral tree can seem daunting, the nitty-gritty of genealogy research is actually a fairly straight-forward process:

1. Select an individual or family to research
You can't do it all at once. Focus your search on a specific individual, couple, or family group for best results.

2. Identify what you already know
Check your genealogy software program, read through your genealogy notes, or scan your paper forms to determine what you already know about your ancestors and what you still want to learn.

3. Bone up on background info
Knowlege is power - an essential part of genealogical research is understanding the time period and locality of your ancestors. Identifying the time period and localities (including boundary changes) in which your ancestors lived helps you find their records.

Understanding of topography and migration patterns helps you track their movements. Identifying possible name changes and alternate spellings helps you pinpoint specific individuals.

4. Survey existing information
Look for research which has already been compiled or published on your ancestor, including online databases, books, and periodicals. The Library of Congress (LOC) catalog is an excellent place to search for published books, while PERSI is a must-search for periodicals (journals, magazines, and quarterlies of genealogical and historical societies).

5. Set a goal
Create a brief timeline of events for your ancestor to help you determine what questions you still need to answer and what information you hope to find (i.e. date of birth).

6. Decide which type of record is most likely to contain the information
Prioritize your search by beginning with the records which are most likely to be accurate and contain the information you seek. Begin with primary, original source records, when possible. If you aren't knowledgeable enough about the area and time period to know which records to search, then check published sources such as books specific to your area of research or the Research Outlines of the Family History Library, or with other researchers from related genealogical societies or message boards.

7. Locate and search the record
Determine where the record can be found (library, microfilm, courthouse, etc.) and enter the source in your research log. Once you've located the record, search for specific information on your ancestor and note the date/location in your research log.

8. Copy the pertinent info
Make photocopies, transcribe, and/or abstract all pertinent info (if found). If nothing is found, then make a note to that effect in your research log.

9. Analyze and evaluate the new information
Look at the new information and how it relates to what you already know. Does it answer your question? Do the facts match up? Is the source a credible one?

10. Document/record the results
Record the new information in your genealogy software program and/or paper forms (including your research log). Be sure to fully document the source.

If you've found what you were looking for, then select a new goal and start the genealogical research process over again. If you haven't yet met your research goal, or feel that you need further proof of your working hypothesis, then select a new record and repeat steps 6-10. And, most importantly, don't let yourself get discouraged when you don't find anything. If nothing else, you've learned where not to look

Major Online Marriage Records & Databases

Discover your ancestors in these free online marriage databases and indexes. Some even offer digitized copies of the original marriage records for online viewing.

1. GenWed.com

This free index links to numerous online marriage databases and indexes from across the Web, for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Plus, the site maintains many smaller marriage database transcriptions contributed by volunteers. Links to marriage records on pay or subscription sites are also included in this directory, but are clearly marked.

2. FreeBMD

The majority of the marriage entries from the Civil Registration Index for England and Wales have been transcribed and put online by a diligent group of volunteers. Almost all years are completed, rom 1837-1929, with the majority of the marriage entries not yet transcribed from the 1910-1929 period. Marriage index entries prior to 1912 to not give the surname of the spouse. For these marriage entries, click on the page number to see the names of the other's listed on the same page. Depending on the year, there will be names of up to 4 to 8 people who could be the spouse of he person you are interested in.

3. Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

More than 3 million records from 450 Polish towns have already been indexed by this volunteer project, with more being added each month. The majority of these index entries come from vital registers, including marriage records, from the early 1800s through the early 1900s.

4. West Virginia Marriage Records Search

This free searchable online marriage index covers a number of West Virginia counties and years, from the late 1700s to 1970. Coverage is not consistent, but the marriage records currently available are clearly indicated. Once you find a name in the index you can view further details and even an image of the original marriage record.

5. Las Vegas, Nevada Marriage Records

So many people run off to Vegas to get married, that this marriage database is sure to appeal to peeople outside of Nevada as well. Search by the name of the bride or groom, the marriage certificate number, or the instrument number to find indexed entries in this free online marriage index from Clark County, Nevada.

Genetic Basics

Understanding the Clues We Carry in Our Genes

It’s in your genes. That’s how scientists explain the physical characteristics, personality traits, and behaviors which make each human unique. The clues carried in our genes -- in the form of DNA --are now used to determine criminal guilt or innocence, resolve paternity or maternity questions, predict the chance of inheriting a disease or medical condition, and even trace the long-distant ancestors of the human family tree.

Your body is made up of tiny units called cells – as many as 100 trillion of them, according to some estimates. Within the nucleus of every one of these cells is a set of instructions which tell the cell what role it will play in your body. These instructions, essentially a blueprint or recipe for building different parts of the cell, come in the form of a molecule called DNA.

Short for deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA consists of two thread-like strands that are linked together in the shape of a double helix.

What is DNA?

DNA is made up of four chemical bases: Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Thymine (T), and Guanine (G). These bases are combined into pairs – adenine with thymine and cytosine with guanine – to make up the “rungs” of the DNA ladder (see Figure 21.1). Each “rung,” more accurately called a base pair, is one of three billion such pairs which work together to provide the instructions for building and maintaining a human being – the human genome. The exact order in which these base pairs are combined is called the DNA sequence. Much in the way letters of the alphabet are combined to form words and sentences, the sequence of these bases are the “letters” which spell out the genetic code.

What is a Chromosome?

Within the nucleus of each cell, the DNA molecules are coiled around proteins into tiny structures called chromosomes. In humans, each cell normally contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. One chromosome in each pair is inherited from the mother, and the other from the father. Twenty-two of these pairs, sometimes called autosomes, look the same in both males and females. The 23rd pair, called the sex chromosome because it determines gender, is the one which differentiates males and females. Females have two copies of the X chromosome, one from each parent, while males have one X chromosome from their mother, and one Y chromosome from their father. It is the father who determines the sex of his child.

What is a Gene?

Genes are sections or segments of DNA that form the individual units of heredity. They are carried on the chromosomes and contain instructions for making molecules called proteins. Each protein enables a cell to perform its own special function. The hemoglobin in red blood cells, for example, is responsible for transporting oxygen throughout your body. Another protein, insulin, helps you metabolize your food. The keratin protein is what helps your hair and nails to grow. If you look at DNA as a recipe for creating a living thing, then genes and proteins are the ingredients which work together to build, repair, and run your body.

The traits which make us each unique are also inherited from our ancestors. Physical characteristics such as curly hair, blue eyes, and a tendency for acne are all determined by our genes. Scientists also believe that many emotional and behavioral traits, at least in part, are influenced by an individual’s genetic makeup. Eating habits, intelligence, a penchant for aggressiveness, and even sleeping patterns all have their roots in our DNA.

Because genes are carried on the chromosomes, humans have two copies of each gene, one inherited from the mother and one from the father. The two copies aren’t necessarily the same, however. Just like snowflakes, genes come in variant forms. These variations are known as alleles. Different alleles are what produce variations in inherited traits. This is why your individual traits such as hair color or blood type may not match those traits in either of your parents.

Mutations

As DNA passes from one generation to the next, it acquires small changes, known as mutations. The most common is a change to a single base, for example a change from a T to a C. Other possible changes include the loss or addition of one or more bases. The effect of a mutation depends upon the type of changes and their location in the sequence. Just like one single letter can change a word or even a sentence, a mutation can change the instructions in a gene. Most mutations are considered to be neutral, having little to no impact. Serious mutations can actually cause a protein to stop functioning properly.

When a mutation is inherited from a parent it is present in almost all of the body’s cells. Acquired mutations are changes in the DNA that develop throughout a person’s life. They arise in the DNA of individual cells, either spontaneously, or in response to environmental factors such as radiation or viruses. Spontaneous mutations are the most common, caused by copying mistakes in the DNA code as cells form and divide. Most of the time the cell recognizes the mistake and repairs it, but sometimes it passes the mutation on as it divides and creates new cells.

DNA doesn’t have long-term memory, so any mutations which develop in a gene are reproduced and passed down to future generations. By comparing the mutations of two individuals, it is possible to calculate how closely they’re related. By calculating the mutation rate, researchers can deduce how far back in time different groups split apart.

Markers

A marker is a segment of DNA with known genetic characteristics. These markers, which can be found at specific locations, or loci, on the chromosome, are essentially places where the same pattern repeats a number of times – sort of a "stutter" in the DNA. The number of repeats in a marker is known as an allele, basically a variant form of a specific gene. Since the number of repeats within these sequences is inherited, they make useful mileposts for genetic testing.

A special type of marker known as a Short Tandem Repeat (STR) is the one most often used for hereditary and forensic testing. STRs are short sequences of DNA (usually 2-5 base pairs) that are repeated as many as 100 times along the DNA strand. For example, the four-base pattern CAGT might be repeated four times: CAGTCAGTCAGTCAGT. STRs are chosen for their tendencies to display variations, caused by mutations, among different people, allowing scientists to differentiate between individuals.

To determine a connection between two individuals, specific markers on the DNA strand are analyzed for the number of repetitions at each marker. Because mutations happen randomly, however, a mutation which appears at a specific marker may have begun with the current generation, or it may have been handed down through five generations. This is why a number of different markers are tested and compared. The number of markers examined varies from test to test and company to company, but most ancestry DNA tests are typically in the 12-40 marker range. The DNA test results provide you with the number of repetitions at each of the specific markers tested. The more locations that match, the more likely it is that the two individuals are related.

Genealogy Resolutions

Items to Add to Your Genealogy 'To Do' List

No more excuses! Almost all of us can admit to getting wrapped up in the hunt for ancestors and letting other important things slide (and I am not talking about the laundry). Most of us have notes piled on the floor, shoeboxes full of unlabeled photos, classes we have planned to take, relatives we have been meaning to interview and other researchers we have been intending to contact.

If you're like me and want to take your genealogy research to the next level, choose a goal (or two or three) from this genealogy "To Do" list and get started. Let's make this the year that we finally get organized and really work on improving our genealogical or family history research skills.

1. Interview a Relative
One thing many of us postpone until it is too late is talking to our own family members about our shared heritage.

Now is the time to get in touch with those relatives you’ve been meaning to contact. If you are fortunate enough to have older members in the family, approach them first. Some of them may have information about the family that can’t be found elsewhere. If you have already spoken to your parents and grandparents, then extend your research net to include extended family such as brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins.

2. Take a Class or Learn a New Research Skill
Whether you are a novice or have been researching your family for over 20 years, there is always something new to learn. Get out of your research rut by taking a genealogy class, attending a conference, reading a new genealogy book or learning about a new research skill online. Maybe you have been intimidated by land or probate records, or have been meaning to tackle your ancestors from Germany. During the next year, make it a point to read and educate yourself about at least one new research technique and then use it to find out something new about your ancestors. There are hundreds of free resources for learning right on the Internet so you have no excuse for not trying something new!

3. Get Organized
This is the goal most genealogists dread, but which could make our research time so much more effective! Take some time away from your research and organize those genealogy files, clean out your bookmarks and input your scribbled notes into your genealogy program. If you are overwhelmed by the accumulation of family history records and notes that you have stuffed in boxes and drawers, then set aside a regular time each week for organizing a little at a time. Take heart - you will most likely find all sorts of new clues as you sort out the records you have already found and add the data and notes to your genealogy program.

4. Don't Put Off Until Tomorrow...
Sometimes it seems as if everything else gets in the way of quality genealogy research time. You use a calendar to schedule other important activities, why not genealogy? Whether you use a standard paper calendar or an online version, make it a point to set aside time for personal genealogy research or schedule special events such as genealogy conferences or research trips. Setting aside time for genealogy is only the first step, however. To really make the most of your precious genealogy time, you also need to take time to plan ahead and prioritize your research.

5. Label & Store Your Family Photos
Most of us have piles of precious family photographs sitting in piles or boxes waiting to be labeled, organized, put into scrapbooks, digitized, etc. Don't let another year go by with those photos fading both from light and from people's memories. Get together with relatives and identify as many people as you can and label those pictures. Be sure to use a photo-safe marking pencil or pen! If you have access to a scanner then consider digitizing the photos onto CD-ROM to preserve them indefinitely. Even if you don't have time to create scrapbooks and really get the photos organized right now, make sure you get them out of old envelopes and shoeboxes and into archival quality plastic sleeves or acid-free photo boxes before they are lost forever. Make copies of important photographs and other important documents and share them with another family member. The recipient will no doubt enjoy the gift, and a second copy will help to ensure that these precious photos will not be lost forever in the event of an unforeseen disaster.

6. Two Heads are Better Than One
One of the best ways to further your research is to join forces with other people researching the same surname or in the same area. Join a genealogical or historical society in an area in which you are researching a primary family line and then get involved in some way. You will meet fellow researchers, benefit from members with years of experience with the records and history of the area and have many opportunities to help others by working to preserve historical and genealogical documents, recording cemetery transcriptions and more. If you spend a lot of time online, then join a mailing list for your surname or area or participate in chats and/or forums with other genealogists with similar interests. I belong to several informal groups of researchers who work closely to piece together information on a particular family - all groups of people whom I have met online.

7. Keep Track of Correspondence
How many times have you left a question in a genealogy forum and then forgot to go back and check for an answer? How do you find the person you corresponded with last year about your Smith family again now that you have new information to share? Most of us have address books to keep important phone numbers and contact info for family and friends, so why not use it for genealogy contacts? Make sure to add a note to yourself about the person's surnames and research locations! There are also a wide variety of free correspondence records and forms available online which can provide you with a framework for logging your correspondence. Then at a glance you can determine whether you have written to a specific person or place, whether you received a response, whether you need to follow up and the results of your inquiry.

8. More Than Names & Dates
Sometimes in the rush to get our lines as far back as we can we forget to take the time to learn more about the people our ancestors were and the times they lived in. Take time this year to record family stories, either electronically or on paper before this oral history is lost forever. Go out and find at least one additional record on each of your direct ancestors, choosing a record which will hopefully tell you more about them than you already know. Census records include interesting information such as your ancestors' occupation, education level and property value. Wills and probate records can provide you with all sorts of fascinating information including debts, friends and even the bed covers and pots and pans your ancestors owned.

Tax rolls, immigration records and land records are other good sources for information about the lives of your ancestors. You can also chart your ancestor's life against a historical timeline and learn more about wars, plagues, crop shortages, big storms and other noteworthy things your ancestor may have experienced.

9. Put Your Research To Good Use
The biggest thrill for me in researching my family's history is in sharing the things I find with others. Your family members may be more interested that you realize and would probably love to receive copies of old family photos, printouts of the research you have done or a book of the collected memories and stories of your relatives. It doesn't need to be professional and it doesn't even need to be complete (when is your genealogy research ever complete?). Even a quick email every now and then to update people on new findings will be very much appreciated and may even spark new findings and memories.

10. Volunteer to Help Others
Think back to when you were a beginning genealogist and how difficult it was for you to learn proper research methodology and documentation techniques. Remember also all of the help and expert advice you probably received from other genealogists as you were learning the ropes. Look at this new year as the perfect time to return the favor. Many libraries, including Family History Centers, welcome volunteers to help newcomers in their genealogy departments. There are a lot of online sites where you can volunteer your time to look up records or take photos of tombstones for researchers who can't make the trip to do it themselves. You can also help answer questions by joining a mailing list geared toward "newbies" or by answering questions in forums or chats. No matter how you decide to help, you will be rewarded with that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from helping others. By introducing newcomers to the kindness which is inherent in most members of the genealogy community, you will be encouraging them, in turn, to become involved. As the popularity of genealogy grows, so will the records made available to us, either online or through preservation initiatives in libraries and archives. Therefore, the help you give to each individual researcher also helps us all.

These ten resolutions are all suggestions only - there are many others which may be more appropriate for you based on your own unique research circumstances. The point, however, is to use this year as an opportunity to make changes and improvements in the way you approach your research. Genealogy is a scientific research field as well as an enjoyable hobby which means you should strive to get and stay organized, pay attention to the quality of your sources, stay on top of changing techniques and standards and use excellent documentation procedures. But don't forget about the reason you are doing this in the first place! Make sure you take time to enjoy learning about your family's heritage and share the fun with others. Just do the very best job that you can and the rewards will come.

DNA Family Trees

Tracing Your Ancestry Through DNA

Popularized in recent years by its use in high-profile criminal investigations and paternity cases, DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is most commonly used to prove a relationship to an individual. New tests created in recent years, however, have also turned DNA into a popular tool for determining ancestry. As DNA is passed down from one generation to the next, some parts remain almost unchanged, while other parts change greatly. This creates an unbreakable link between generations and it can be of great help in reconstructing our family histories.

While it can't provide you with your entire family tree or tell you who your ancestors are, DNA testing can:

DNA tests have been around for many years, but it is only recently that the cost of genetic testing has finally come down into the realm of possibility for the average individual interested in tracing their roots.

Home DNA test kits can be ordered through the mail or over the Internet at a cost averaging $100-$400 per test. They usually consist of a cheek swab or mouthwash to easily collect a sample of cells from the inside of your mouth. You send back the sample through the mail and within a month or two you receive the results - a series of numbers that represent key chemical "markers" within your DNA. These numbers can then be compared to results from other individuals to help you determine your ancestry.

mtDNA Tests - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is contained in the cytoplasm of the cell, rather than the nucleus. This type of DNA is passed by a mother to both male and female offspring without any mixing, so your mtDNA is the same as your mother's mtDNA, which is the same as her mother's mtDNA. mtDNA changes very slowly so it cannot determine close relationships as well as it can determine general relatedness. If two people have an exact match in their mtDNA, then there is a very good chance they share a common maternal ancestor, but it is hard to determine if this is a recent ancestor or one who lived hundreds of years ago. It is important to keep in mind with this test that a male's mtDNA comes only from his mother and is not passed on to his offspring.

Example: The DNA tests that identified the bodies of the Romanovs, the Russian imperial family, utilized mtDNA from a sample provided by Prince Philip, who shares the same maternal line from Queen Victoria.

Y Line Tests - More recently, the Y chromosome in the nuclear DNA is being used to establish family ties. The Y chromosomal DNA test (usually referred to as Y DNA or Y-Line DNA) is only available for males, since the Y chromosome is only passed down the male line from father to son. Tiny chemical markers on the Y chromosome create a distinctive pattern, known as a haplotype, that distinguishes one male lineage from another. Shared markers can indicate relatedness between two men, though not the exact degree of the relationship. Y chromosome testing is most often used by individuals with the same last name to learn if they share a common ancestor.

Example: The DNA tests supporting the probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered the last child of Sally Hemmings were based on Y-chromosome DNA samples from male descendants of Thomas Jefferson's paternal uncle, since there were no surviving male descendants from Jefferson's marriage.

Markers on both mtDNA and Y chromosome tests can also be used to determine an individual's haplogroup, a grouping of individuals with the same genetic characteristics. This test may provide you with interesting information about the deep ancestral lineage of your paternal and/or maternal lines.

What You Can and Can't Learn From DNA Testing

Since Y-chromosome DNA is found only within the all-male patrilineal line and mtDNA only provides matches to the all-female matrilineal line, DNA testing is only applicable to lines going back through two of our eight great-grandparents - our father's paternal grandfather and our mother's maternal grandmother. If you want to use DNA to determine ancestry through any of your other six great-grandparents you will need to convince an aunt, uncle, or cousin who descends directly from that ancestor through an all-male or all-female line to provide a DNA sample. Additionally, since women don't carry the Y-chromosome, their paternal male line can only be traced through the DNA of a father or brother.

1. Link specific individuals - e.g. test to see whether you and a person you think may be a cousin descend from a common ancestor

3. Map the genetic orgins of large population groups - e.g. test to see whether you have European or African American ancestry

What is your goal?
To best use DNA testing to learn about your ancestry you should start by narrowing down a question you are trying to answer and then select the people to test based on the question. For example, you may wish to know if the Tennessee CRISP families are related to the North Carolina CRISP families. To answer this question with DNA testing, you would then need to select several male CRISP descendants from each of the lines and compare the results of their DNA tests. A match would prove that the two lines descend from a common ancestor, though would not be able to determine which ancestor. The common ancestor could be their father, or it could be a male from over a thousand years ago. This common ancestor can be further narrowed down by testing additional people and/or additional markers.

Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA)
When you submit a DNA sample for testing an exact match in the results between you and another individual indicates that you share a common ancestor somewhere back in your family tree. This ancestor is referred to as your Most Recent Common Ancestor or MRCA. The results on their own will not be able to indicate who this specific ancestor is, but may be able to help you narrow it down to within a few generations.

What can I learn from my results?
An individual's DNA test provides little information on its own. It is not possible to take these numbers, plug them into a formula, and find out who your ancestors are. The marker numbers provided in your DNA test results only begin to take on genealogical significance when you compare your results with other people and population studies. If you don't have a group of potential relatives interested in pursuing DNA testing with you, your only real option is to input your DNA test results into the many DNA databases starting to spring up on the Net, in the hopes of finding a match with someone who has already been tested. Many DNA testing companies will also let you know if your DNA markers are a match with other results in their database, provided that both you and the other individual have given written permission to release these results.

Understanding the Results of Your Y-Chromosome DNA Test (Y-Line):
Your DNA sample will be tested at a number of different data points called loci or markers and analyzed for the number of repeats at each of those locations. These repeats are known as STRs (Short Tandem Repeats). These special markers are given names like DYS391 or DYS455. Each of the numbers that you get back in your Y-chromosome test result refers to how many times a pattern is repeated at one of those markers. The number of repeats is referred to by geneticists as the alleles of a marker.

What is the effect of adding more markers?
Adding additional markers increases the precision of DNA test results, providing a greater degree of probability that a MRCA (most recent common ancestor) can be identified within a lower number of generations.

For example, if two individuals match exactly at all loci in a 12 marker test, there is a 50% probability of a MRCA within the last 14 generations. If they exactly match at all loci in a 21 marker test, there is a 50% probability of a MRCA within the last 8 generations. There is a fairly dramatic improvement in going from 12 to 21 or 25 markers but, after that point, the precision starts to level off making the expense of testing additional markers less useful. Some companies offer more precise tests such as 37 markers or even 67 markers.

Understanding the Results of Your Mitochondrial DNA Test (mtDNA):
Your mtDNA will be tested on a sequence of two separate regions on your mtDNA inherited from your mother. The first region is called Hyper-Variable Region 1 (HVR-1 or HVS-I) and sequences 470 nucleotides (positions 16100 through 16569). The second region is called Hyper-Variable Region 2 (HVR-2 or HVS-II) and sequences 290 nucleotides (positions 1 though 290). This DNA sequence is then compared to a reference sequence, the Cambridge Reference Sequence, and any differences are reported.

The two most interesting uses of mtDNA sequences are comparing your results with others and determining your haplogroup. An exact match between two individuals indicates that they share a common ancestor, but because mtDNA mutates extremely slowly this common ancestor could have lived thousands of years ago. Matches which are similar are further classified into broad groups, known as haplogroups. A mtDNA test will provide you with information about your specific haplogroup which may provide information on distant family origins and ethnic backgrounds.

Organizing a DNA Surname Study

If you're like me and have spent many years corresponding and working with fellow researchers in an attempt to prove surname connections, it may have crossed your mind that a DNA Surname Study could help to fill in some of the missing holes.

The best way of organizing and managing a DNA Surname Study is very much a matter of personal preference. There are, however, several basic goals which need to be met:

1. Create a Working Hypothesis - A DNA Surname Study is not likely to provide any meaningful results unless you first determine what you are trying to accomplish for your family surname. Your goal can be very broad (how are all the CRISP families in the world related) or very specific (do the CRISP families of eastern NC all descend from William CRISP).

2. Choose a Testing Center - Once you've determined your goal you should have a better idea of what type of DNA testing services you will require.

Several DNA Laboratories, such as Family Tree DNA or Relative Genetics, will also assist you with setting up and organizing your surname study. Costs per test can also be reduced if you get a large group to particpate at one time.
DNA Genealogy Testing Centers

3. Recruite Participants - If you are already working together with a group of people on a particular surname then you may find it relatively easy to recruit participants from the group for a DNA Surname Study. If you have not been in touch with other researchers of your surname, however, you will need to track down several established lineages for your surname and obtain participants from each of these lines. Outside of direct contact, you may wish to turn to surname mailing lists and family organizations to promote your DNA Surname Study. Creating a Web site with information about your DNA Surname Study is also an excellent method for attracting participants. As you correspond with potential participants, remember that DNA is a very personal subject, and you will need to be prepared to answer many questions. Education is the key to acceptance.

4. Manage the Project - Managing a DNA Surname Study is a big job. The key to success is in organizing the project in an efficient manner and keeping participants informed of progress and results. Creating and maintaining a Web site or mailing list specifically for project participants can be of great assistance. As mentioned above, some DNA testing labs will also provide assistance with organizing and managing your DNA surname project. It should go without saying, but it is also important to honor any privacy restrictions made by your participants.

The best way to figure out what works is to look at examples of other DNA Surname Studies. Here are several to get you started:

In conclusion, it is vitally important to keep in mind that DNA testing for the purposes of proving ancestry is NOT a substitute for traditional family history research. Instead, it is a tool to be used in conjunction with family history research to aid in proving or disproving suspected family relationships. It is definitely an exciting new tool to add to your genealogy toolbox! If you're interested in more specific information on DNA testing for genealogical purposes, including details on haplotypes, haplogroups, and analyzing test results, then check out the resources listed at Genetic Genealogy on the Web.

Ways to Research Your Family Tree for Free

Alternatives to Pay-For-Use Genealogy Sites on the Internet

Is free genealogy a thing of the past? With the constant addition of subscription genealogy databases on the Internet, people often wonder if there will soon be an end to free genealogy research via the Web. For those of you with this concern, take heart - free genealogy databases aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Web sites from all over the world contain free genealogy information of use to family tree researchers which has been contributed by individuals, companies and even governments. Birth records, marriage records, military records, ships passenger lists, surnames, census records, immigration records, wills, photos and much, much more are available on the Internet for FREE if you just know where to look. These 100 free genealogy sites, in no particular order, should keep you busy searching for weeks!

1. Rootsweb - World Connect Project
Out of all of the online databases of submitted family tree information, my favorite is the World Connect Project which allow users to upload, modify, link, and display their family trees as a means to share their work with other researchers. The reason why this particular project is my favorite is it is one of the largest, and it also allows people to add to, update or remove their information at any time. While this by no means ensures that the information you will find here is correct, it at least increases the probabilities of finding current contact information for researchers with information which interests you. This free genealogy database currently contains over 3 billion names in over 300,000 family trees, and you can search them all online for absolutely no charge! You can also submit your own family tree information in GEDCOM format for free.

2. HeritageQuest Online
The data on this site is only available through subscribing institutions, but free online access is available to many with a membership card from their local library. The databases are fairly US-centric, including digital images of the complete federal census, 1790 to 1930 (with head of household indexes for most years), thousands of family and local history books, and Revolutionary War pension files, plus PERSI, an index to articles in thousands of genealogical journals. If your local library doesn't offer online access, many genealogical societies offer free or low-cost access as a membership priviledge.

3. Debt of Honour Register
Find personal and service details and places of commemoration for the 1.7 million members of the Commonwealth forces (including the United Kingdom and former colonies) who died in the First or Second World Wars, as well as a record of some 60,000 civilian casualties of the Second World War provided without details of burial location. The cemeteries and memorials where these names are commemorated are located in over 150 countries. Provided freely on the Internet courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

4. U.S. Federal Land Patent Records
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) provides free online database access to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States, as well as images of more than two million Federal land title records issued between 1820 and 1908 for the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. This is not just an index, but images of the actual land patent records. If you find the patent for your ancestor and wish to also have a certified paper copy, you can order these directly from the BLM.

5. Interment.net - Free Cemetery Records Online
You're likely to find details on at least one ancestor in this free genealogy database containing over 3 million records from over 5000 cemeteries worldwide. Internment.net contains actual cemetery transcriptions as well as links to other cemetery transcriptions available on the Internet from cemeteries around the world.

6. WorldGenWeb
No list of free Internet genealogy records would be complete without mentioning WorldGenWeb. It began in 1996 with the USGenWeb project and, shortly thereafter, the WorldGenWeb project went online to provide free access to genealogy information around the world. Each region, country, province, and state has a page on WorldGenWeb with access to free queries, links to genealogy information and, often, free transcribed genealogy records.

7. My Trees
Normally a pay-for-use subscription database, Kindred Konnections offers a free genealogy alternative - an Extraction Project offers you free genealogy search time in their subscription-only genealogy databases in exchange for helping them to extract names and dates from original source documents.

Once you sign up (it's free), Kindred Konnections will provide you with a link to an online source document. It will take about 5 minutes maximum for you to type in the names and dates from one document, and for that 5 minutes of your time, they will grant you one free hour in the subscription database area of the site where you can access over 1 billion names in their pedigree-linked archive as well as millions of other marriage, birth, death and census records, White Page Directories, and the imaged documents that have already been extracted. Unlimited hours of free subscription time are available through the Extraction Project.

8. Canada Archives Search
Search the index of over 600,000 Canadians enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War (1914-1918) right online! An index to those WWI personnel files held by the National Archives, the CEF database also includes over 800,000 digital images of the original Attestation papers. Archivia Net, a service of the National Archives of Canada, also offers numerous other free genealogy databases, including the index to the 1871 Census of Ontario, 1901 Census of Canada, the Canadian Census of 1851, 1906 Census of the Northwest Provinces, Home Children, Dominion Land Grants, Immigration Records, and Colonial Archives.

9. Geneabios - Biographies for Genealogy
Search through thousands of bios of ordinary men and women posted by genealogists around the world, or post your own. A big plus is that this site, though small, links to most of the major online sources for biographical information to help you expand your search for biographies of your ancestors.

10. The Digital Archives of Norway
Are there Norwegian ancestors in your family tree? This joint project of the National Archives of Norway, the Regional State Archives of Bergen and the Department of History, University of Bergen offers online censuses (1660, 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900), lists of Norwegians in U.S. censuses, military rolls, probate registers, church registers and emigrant records. There is also an English version.

11. Ancestry.com - Free Trial Membership
While Ancestry.com is a subscription genealogy service, they do offer a 14-day free trial, allowing you unlimited access to over 1 billion names! If you like what you see, they offer a variety of monthly and annual subscriptions. If not, you can cancel any time during your trial membership and owe nothing. Be aware that you will have to provide a credit-card number to access the free trial period and you will be charged for an annual subscription if you do not call to cancel before your free trial period has ended. And no, this is not an affiliate link.

12. British Columbia, Canada - Vital Records
Search for birth, marriage or death registrations in British Columbia, Canada for free. This free genealogy index covers all births from 1872-1899, marriages from 1872-1924, and deaths from 1872-1979. If you find a record in the index which you would like to request, you can do so by visiting the archives or another agency which holds the microfilms in person, or by hiring someone to do so for you.

13. 1901 Census for England & Wales
Search for free in this comprehensive name index to over 32 million individuals who lived in England and Wales in 1901. This free genealogy index includes the individual's name, age, place of birth, and occupation. While the index is free, viewing transcribed data or a digitized image of the actual census record will cost you.

14. Obituary Daily Times
A daily index of published obituaries from around the world, this free genealogy index grows by approximately 2500 entries per day, with obituaries dating back to 1995. This is just an index, so if you would like the actual obituary you will need to request a copy from a volunteer or track it down for yourself. You can access the list of indexed newspapers and publications here.

15. RootsWeb Surname List
A list or registry of over 1 million surnames from around the world, the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) is a must-visit. Associated with each surname are dates, locations, and contact information for the person who submitted the surname. You can search this list by surname and location, and limit searches to recent additions. You can also add your own surnames to this list for free.

16. International Genealogical Index
A partial index to vital records from around the world, the IGI includes birth, marriage and death records from Africa, Asia, the British Isles (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Island and the Isle of Man), the Caribbean Islands, Central America, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, Norway, North America, South America, Europe, the Southwest Pacific and Sweden. Find dates and places of births, christenings, and marriages for more than 285 million deceased people. Many of the names were extracted from original records from the early 1500s to the early 1900's.

17. Canadian County Digital Access Project
Between 1874 and 1881, approximately forty county atlases were published in Canada, covering counties in the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec. This wonderful site includes a free genealogy database derived from these atlases, searchable by property owners' names or by location. Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned, with links from the property owners' names in the database.

18. USGenWeb Archives
Most people with United States ancestors know about the USGenWeb sites for each state and county in the U.S. What many people don't realize, however, is that most of these states and counties have free genealogy records including deeds, wills, census records, cemetery transcriptions etc., available online through the efforts of thousands of volunteers - but you don't have to visit each state or county site to look for your ancestor in these free records. These hundreds of thousands of online records across the United States can be searched through just one search engine!

19. US Social Security Death Index
One of the largest and easiest to access databases utilized for genealogical research in the United States, the SSDI contains over 64 million records of U.S. citizens who have died since 1962. From the SSDI you can find the following information: the date of birth, date of death, state where the Social Security number was issued, the individual's residence at time of death and the location where the death benefit was mailed (next of kin).

20. Hamburg Emigration Lists
The Hamburg Emigration Lists Database will eventually include data on 5 million people (from all over Europe, especially Eastern Europe) who emigrated via Hamburg, Germany between 1850 and 1934. Searches are free, and the index information includes the first and last name, state of origin, marital status, approximate year of birth and destination. Copies of the actual passenger record are only available for purchase, however.

21. The Genealogical Server (GenServ)
One of the first projects to share GEDCOM files over the Internet, GenServ has been online since 1991. Over 21 million individual's names and data are held in over 15,300 different databases. You do have to pay a small fee for access to all of the databases but, in the spirit of free genealogy, you can add your database for free. Anyone interested is also entitled to one FREE surname search.

22. inGeneas Database
Free searchable databases containing 50,000+ Canadian passenger and immigration records (c1750 to 1900) including the only electronic version of the free National Archives of Canada Miscellaneous Immigration Index.

For the passenger and immigration records, the free search will generate a list of records which meet your search criteria. Each record will include the name and age of the individual (if available), the year of the record and a description of the type of document from which the record was transcribed and what additionally information you would typically expect to find in records from that document. If you find a record which interests you, you can order a transcription from InGeneas.

23. Books We Own
Over 1500 volunteers are willing to provide free genealogy lookups in various genealogical books and resources which they either own or have access to. This master index directs you to the independently updated Books We Own pages, organized by locality.

24. Australian War Memorial
Search for free through several Australian military databases including: the Boer War Nominal Roll, details of over 17,000 service people in the Boer War; the First World War Nominal Roll, details of 324,000 members of AIF 1914-1918; the Commemorative Roll, details of about 3,000 commemorated Australians; and the Roll of Honour, details of over 102,000 of Australia's war dead. Plus a database of over 200,000 military related photographs.

25. ARC - Archival Research Catalog
The U.S. National Archive's replacement for NAIL, ARC offers free searches in many digital databases of interest to genealogists. Browse through this page, which is an assortment of links to information and data, and you'll find links to free genealogy databases such as the Dawes Rolls; Enemy Alien Registration Affidavits; World War II Draft Registration; Casualty Lists from WWII, Korea and Vietnam; Indian Bounty Land Applications and Criminal Case Files.

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The Amazing Tombstones of Hope Cemetery Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vermont, is renowned for its ornate and beautiful tombstones and monuments - from race cars and soccer balls, to angels and flowers. The variety is astounding - not surprising given that Barre is considered the "Granite Capital of the World" and is world-renowned for its carvers.
Digging into the Details On a recent rainy cemetery trip with my mother, we discovered a cemetery with a beautiful wrought iron fence and gate. While I spent most of my time exploring the tombstones, my Mom was interested to know more about who erected the fence and gate. A little online detective work uncovered a name, and a patent - with a drawing of the gate!
Glossary of Tombstone Symbols & Meanings All of my recent tombstone travels have resulted in a lot of new photos and descriptions being added to my Cemetery Symbolism glossary.