Google

Family Bibles, The Genesis of Most Genealogy Research

By Kathy | May 13, 2008

The first place many people begin looking for their family’s history is in a Bible, and I’m not talking about Adam and Eve or all those begets.  If we’re lucky, one of our ancestors started a tradition of writing their family’s marriage, birth and death records in their Bible.  If we’re even luckier, we know where that Bible is today.  If we’re Lotto-winner lucky, the information is correct.

That’s right.  Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s true.  If the records were recorded as they happened, then they’re usually right.  But if someone entered the who, what and when in hindsight, then Heaven help the person who relies on those names and dates to be facts.  I did that and wasted nine months researching the wrong names. 

How can you know if the information in your Family Bible is accurate?  Verify it.  Check the data with county and state records the same way you’d look for any vital statistic.  And right there is the biggest problem with many Family Bibles.  A lot of people didn’t record where the events happened.  To overcome this problem, start with the latest dates in the Bible and work your way backward through the names, the same as with any family history.

What if you don’t have a Bible filled with generations of invaluable facts? Try looking online to see if there is a Bible out there for your family.  The Internet is filled with websites where lovely people have taken the time to list the family records from Bibles in their possession.  Remember, though, this data still needs to be verified.

Many libraries, museums or archives, historical and genealogical societies, colleges and universities have Family Bibles in their collections.  While some have websites listing their holdings, only a few have online Bible databases.  Do not write these institutions asking if they have your family’s Bible if they have online catalog access.  Check their holdings to see if they have Bibles.  Verify the catalog to see if they have a Bible with your surname.  Call the library’s assistance number to ask how you can access the family record information in that Bible, either via interlibrary loan of a microfilmed copy of the Bible or photocopies of the pertinent pages.  If by photocopy, you’ll want the Title Page, Copywrite Page, and all the Family History Pages; plus any extras inserted or written in the Bible, such as personal notes, newspaper clippings, etc.

If the repository does not have online resources, such as a historical or genealogy society in the area you’re researching, write and ask if they have any Family Bibles in their collection.  Give the surname you’re researching and, if known, the wife’s surname before marriage.  If you know the exact area where the family lived and the time period, include that.  Keep your letter short and professional.  Include your email address, phone number and a self-addressed stamped envelope to give them a choice in responding.

eBay is a good place to look for lost Bibles, though it would be a miracle to find one for your own family.  Also antique stores and flea markets located near your ancestors’ old homestead. Can’t travel to the area you’re researching?  Check online for regional antique stores.  Rescuing a lost Bible, even though not your own, from a seller and donating it to a preservation facility like those listed above would certainly assure a researcher a place in Genealogy Heaven. 

Once you’ve found a Family Bible with the same surname as yours, how do you know if it’s your family?

1.     Verify that the information in the Bible is correct. 

2.     Try to link the names in the Bible to the people in your Family File.  Compare names, marriage dates, etc.  

3.     You don’t find any links.  What is the reason?

a.     If the life spans for the Bible names are during the period your Family File covers, this isn’t your family.  It may, however, be an aunt, uncle or cousin’s line you haven’t yet discovered.  Consider saving the names in case a connection is found later. 

b.     If the life spans for the Bible names are older than the period your Family File covers, save the Bible names until you grow your family tree higher.  Then try to connect to it again.

 

You may never find a Bible for your family.  Don’t sweat it.  You can live a full, healthy genealogical life without it.  Having one, however, is one of those wish-come-true things every genealogist dreams of . . . I wish I had a faster Internet connection, I wish I’d inherited the Getty fortune, I wish I had an accurate Family Bible.  We can’t all be born lucky, but now we all know where to look for lost Bible records.  Until next time, remember to verify your Family Bible!

Topics: Beginning Genealogists | No Comments »

Free Civil War Website Still Available Through June 30, 2008

By Kathy | May 7, 2008

Alexander Street Press has announced that it is once again allowing public access to its entire Civil War series, The American Civil War Online, through June 30, 2008.  Included in this series is The American Civil War Research Database, which was open to the public in April of this year.  The success of that enterprise convinced them to allow this additional period of open access. Genealogists and researchers everywhere should take this chance to use this wonderful archive.  I found it interesting not only for its value to genealogy, but history and general interest, also.

I originally wrote about Alexander Street Press’ website in a post on April 17 of this year, titled Free Civil War Website Available - But For a Limited Time, So Hurry!  I won’t repeat myself here, except to say that the Research Database is incredibly easy to use.  It’s also the most complete repository for Civil War rosters of soldiers and cross-referenced regiment data that I’ve found. 

Click on the link named Alexander Street Press on the right, which will take you to their website.  You only have until the end of June to do your research and enjoy free access to a great website, so get started!

 

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | 1 Comment »

Genealogy Programs, Organizing Your Ancestors the Easy Way

By Kathy | April 29, 2008

I love computer Genealogy Programs.  I think they are the most useful invention since home computers and certainly the best reason to own a computer.  Why?  I don’t like getting organized.  But genealogy requires organization and Genealogy Programs are a great solution to the problem.

These lovely programs allow you to simply fill in the blanks with all the facts that you’ve collected in your research and add the sources for those facts.  Just like that, you’re organized.   See how easy that was?   Then, with a click of the mouse, the computer’s little microchip brain starts linking all those facts together and spewing out detailed reports and charts about your ancestors that you’ll be proud to show off to everyone at the next family reunion.  What could be more useful than that?  Not even Tupperware.

There are a number of Genealogy Programs you can buy, but the biggest and best are Reunion and Family Tree Maker.  I’ve used them both and prefer Reunion, which today is only released for Macintosh computers.  It is an easy-to-use program, making it perfect for beginners, yet it offers everything a professional genealogist requires. Many people have switched to Macs just so they can use Reunion. 

You don’t have to buy a program to have the luxury of using one.  The LDS (Latter Day Saints) have a free Genealogy Program that you can download called Personal Ancestral File, which runs on Windows.  To access this program, go to Links on the Right and click on LDS Ancestral File Download.

No matter what Genealogy Program you use, there’s one thing that’s vitally important for you to do.  Backup your file every day.  Back it up more than once just in case the first backup fails.  And don’t take the chance of losing both your computer and your backup.  Keep a copy of the backup someplace other than where your computer is located in case of fire or theft.

Now for the part I’ve been avoiding during this entire post—and from looking around at my desk, apparently for several months.  Filing.  Even if you have the best Genealogy Program in the world, at some point you’re going to have to do some manual filing.  Document collection is inevitable in genealogy research and those documents have to go somewhere other than in stacks around your computer screen and keyboard.

Here’s my method.  First I scan everything into my computer.  (Reunion allows me to drag a link from iPhoto, my image-storage program, and drop it in the file of the person it relates to, which is really cool.)  Back to the filing.  I have a folder for each surname.  I put Jones stuff in the Jones file, Pauley stuff in the Pauley file, etc.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s it, except I put precious, irreplaceable documents inside archival-quality plastic sheets.  Job done. 

You can get as detailed with filing your documents as you like.  Each person might have their own file folder with another folder just for the surname to use for family items.  You could organize everything into notebooks or sorted in boxes.  Some people make heirloom scrapbooks with their documents, but I don’t think you should glue anything irreplaceable to anything even if it is acid free.  Some people throw everything away after it’s scanned, but those people are crazy.

Each of us has to find our own way to store documents, just as we each have to choose which Genealogy Program to use.  Whatever method you decide on, start getting organized today!

Topics: Beginning Genealogists | No Comments »

Deciphering The First, Middle and Nicknames of our Ancestors

By Kathy | April 24, 2008

A Rose by any other name might be called Polly, Molly or Maude.  And John can be known as Jack, Archibald as Balt and Christopher as Chris, Christy or Christian.  I even have an Uncle Cecil who was known as Peiko.  Where did that come from?

That’s right, it’s not just surnames we have to worry about when searching for our ancestors. (See my post on April 20th, Hooked on Phonetics . . . The Many Misspellings of our Ancestors’ Names.)  A man may have been known by his middle name until he reached maturity, and then switched to his first name. Some men and women used nicknames instead of their first names even for legal documents—but not every time.  This makes them difficult to research.  Examples: 

· If the woman who married your ancestor is listed as Polly on her marriage certificate and ten years later there’s a Martha listed as his wife on the census, is it the same woman?  Polly is a nickname for Martha, but also for Mary.  Plus, Polly is a name in its own right.

· On the Federal Census a boy named Harvey lives in his father Samuel’s house. He disappears when he becomes a man, but living next door to the father Samuel is now a man named Samuel H, who is the same age the son would be.  Is this the son Harvey, now known as Samuel H? 

You could assume yes to both of these questions, but assumption isn’t Fact.  Remember, we only want Facts in our Family Files, so we’re going to have to dig a little deeper.

In reference to the first problem, the 1900 census is the first that asks the length of a marriage, which could solve your problem. If your ancestors won’t live long enough to benefit from that question, you’ll have to check death and marriage records in the intervening years.  Did Polly die and your ancestor marry again, this time to Martha?  If not, start checking land deeds.  Was there a mention soon after the marriage where the wife was referenced as Martha or closer to the time of the census when she was called Polly?  Best of all, if the father who gave approval for Polly to marry mentions in his will his daughter Martha and her husband, which is the name of your ancestor.  That’s a fact that I’d feel very safe recording in my Family File. 

As for the Samuel H problem, the same search parameters apply—except, of course, for the marriage data on the 1900 census.  However, subsequent census records should be checked to see how Samuel H is listed.  As for the years during which the possible name change occurred, check every record you can find. With a man you have more options than with a woman: taxes, deeds, military and court records.  Yes, women do appear in court records, but not with the frequency of men.  Women didn’t serve on juries, in legislatures, as burgesses, lawyers, etc.  And because you believe, in this instance, that his father is still alive, check for wills of relatives that may give you reason to believe that little Harvey is now Samuel H.

Nicknames, middle names and name changes aren’t the only problems you’ll encounter while researching.  In my post Hooked on Phonetics, I discussed the problems of misspellings of surnames caused by people recording names based on how they sounded.  This also applied to first names.  The name Rawleigh is a good example of a first name that brings out the best in phonetic misspellings, a few examples being Rolly, Rawley, and Rowle.

After we’ve prepared ourselves to watch for misspellings, nicknames and middle names, there’s one more thing to be on the watch for—abbreviations.  Most of these are simple.  Jn is always John and Jos is always Joseph, but Jo with a little letter suspended in the middle of the line that’s difficult to read is a problem.   It can be John or Joseph, depending on what that little letter is. (Have your magnifying glass handy.) Other names can also be abbreviated with a midline letter, although all these that I’ve enountered so far have been easy to figure out.  Below is an example of midline letter abbreviations in printed text.   

 

Deciphering The First, Middle and Nicknames of our Ancestors 

You may also enounter the Jr. and Sr. issue.  Hey, that’s easy, you’re saying, it’s a son and father with the same name.  Not always.  Recently I learned that Jr. and Sr. was occasionally used to differentiate between a younger and older man with the same name living in the same region, even if they weren’t related.  How irritating is that?  If men with Jr. and Sr. are listed on consecutive lines, I indicate this in my records and make a note that they are probably son and father.  If they are listed further apart on a list, I am highly aggravated and think nasty thoughts about the person who thought of using Jr. and Sr. for anything other than a son and father. Then I note the adjective in my file with the information that it may not indicate a family relationship but merely an age difference with another man with the same name in the community, which takes up a lot of space in my file just as it does in this post.

As always, Shakespeare knew what he was talking about when he gave voice to Juliet’s lament that Romeo’s name could be different but he would still remain the same person.  He was writing about love, though, not researching ancestors.  At least we don’t have to go to the lengths of young Juliet to overcome problems with our family name.  By using the hints I’ve given you in this post and my previous one, you should be able to find even the most elusive misspelled and nicknamed ancestor on old tax lists, marriage registers and the Federal Census itself.  When you find your ancestor, keep track of all the variables of her or his name and fill your Family File with lovely facts that smell as sweet as any Polly, Molly or Maude.

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | No Comments »

Hooked on Phonetics . . . The Many Misspellings of our Ancestors’ Names

By Kathy | April 20, 2008

From the moment the first European ship hit American soil, our ancestors’ surnames have been cruelly treated by the people inscribing them on parchment, paper and in printer’s ink.  The reason is simple.  Many people didn’t know how to spell them: not the person owning the name, the person writing it or the person setting the type.

The way this problem was dealt with was Phonetics.  If a man didn’t know how to spell a name, he spelled it as it sounded, and every man responsible for recording those names had a different idea how to spell what he heard.  To complicate the matter, many of the people speaking the names and those writing them spoke different languages.  

As a result, when searching for your ancestor’s name, you need to be flexible.  Below are samples of misspelled surnames that were, for the most part, easy to figure out:

I could go on for pages with examples like this.  And though most Phonetic misspellings can be easily interpreted with a little imagination, they can be just as easily missed if you aren’t actively looking for them when searching through a list of surnames.

Now let’s turn to harder-to-find Phonetic misspellings.  These can have you tearing out your hair.  In fact, one did just that to me.  After going through numerous years of property tax lists at a library one day, I happened to notice the name Arebaugh.  How strange, I thought.  That sounds a lot like one of the names I was researching, which was Orbaugh.  The light bulb not only went on over my head, it exploded inside it.  Of course!  Phonetics!  They sound alike!  I had to start all those years of tax lists over from the beginning to look for Arebaugh.  I was tempted to disown the whole family line.

Here are a few other tough Phonetic misspellings that I’ve encountered:

That last one isn’t entirely a Phonetics problem, as you can see.  But it is a situation that you may encounter, so I’ve included it here.  This ancestor of mine came to America named Fitzjarrell, then dropped the Fitz.  After that all his documents were recorded under just the name Jarrell, so I felt safe looking only for that name, along with its Phonetic sidekick, Garrell.  Several years after the Fitz had been severed from his name, I found a document where he again used the name Fitzjarrell.  Horrors!  Now I had to worry what other business had been transacted under his old name that I had missed.  The moral to this story is never assume that an ancestor’s former name is completely dead.

And the moral to this article is a name may have a dozen different ways to spell it and your goal is not to miss any of them.  When I record the data from old documents in my Family File, I always include the name as it was written originally.  It may have been wrong, it may have been Phonetic, or it may have been the right way to spell it all along!

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | 1 Comment »

Free Civil War Website Available - But For a Limited Time, So Hurry!

By Kathy | April 17, 2008

Good news!  Due to the wonderful response Alexander Street Press’ received for their April open house of their online Civil War archive, they have extended their public access through June 30, 2008.  Thank you, Alexander Street Press!

Below is my orginial post about this website:

It’s free, it’s great, and it’s for a limited time.  Best of all, it’s everything a genealogist wants to know about the Civil War; who the soldiers were, what battles their regiments fought in, what songs were the men singing as they marched to battle and who was writing diaries about the whole affair.

The Alexander Street Press is a database that has lots of great information–but it’s usually only accessible at libraries, colleges and universities that subscribe to their website.  That is until now, and I mean right now. To celebrate the bicentennials of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Alexander Street Press has opened their extensive Civil War databases up to the public through the end of April 2008.  Oh, happy day!  

These databases are the best repository for Civil War information I’ve come across.  The Research Database is incredibly easy to use.  I found all but one of my soldier-ancestors.  He fought in the same regiment as his cousin, who had the exact same name.  The cousin was listed on the website but the identical names may have caused my ancestor to get lost during research, which is better than being lost during battle so I’m not complaining.  

Click on the link named Alexander Street Press on the right and look for your ancestor.  Check out the music or read the diaries.  Search the magazines and newspapers.  But do it soon, before the end of April, or this rare opportunity will be gone.

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | No Comments »

Tax Records, A Treasure Chest of Facts About Your Ancestors

By Kathy | March 22, 2008

Personal Property Taxes are a great place to find facts about your ancestors and to track their lives through the years.   They’re just as useful as the Federal Census, plus taxes are collected every year instead of only every ten years. And they go back a lot further.  The Federal Census began in 1790 while taxes were usually collected as soon as a county was formed. See my post on “Courthouse Records, A Vital Step in Researching Your Family History” on Feb 3 to learn how to find county Tax Records.

Here’s a sample of things you might learn from Personal Property Tax Records:

·      When a man comes of age, which would be the first year he starts paying tax.  This is usually age 16, although some taxes weren’t collected until a man reached age 21.  Check the column heading or the first page of the Tax Record to see what age the tax covers. 

·      The names of a man’s sons as they come of age. 

·      The name of a man’s father.  You could learn this not only from the listing of the man’s name along with his son’s, but I’ve also seen listings where a tax collector, to differentiate between two men in the county named John Jones, noted:  John Jones, son of Thomas.

·      The section of the county a man lives, and sometimes the exact place.

·      If a man was considered wealthy based on how much livestock and land he owned.

·      If a man owned slaves. In some counties the slaves’ names will even be listed.

·      The year of a man’s death can be ascertained when he is dropped from the list and his estate is listed or his widow appears, which then supplies you with her name.  However, a widow doesn’t always start paying tax the year her husband dies.  She may be living with one of her children.  If a man disappears from a Tax List and his widow doesn’t appear, don’t assume that he’s dead or has moved to another county.  Check the next few years to see if he reappears.

·      Occasionally in Virginia, all household furnishings were taxed.  When this happened, we get to look behind the closed doors of our ancestors’ homes.  What kind of metal was their pocket watch made of?  Did they own a mirror?  Were their candlesticks pewter or silver?  What kind of wood was their bedroom bureau made of?  These occasions are a genealogist’s dream come true.

·      Tax Lists can be used as a substitute for the Federal Census for the years it was destroyed by fire

Although there are a few transcribed Tax Records online, most of my data comes from microfilmed Courthouse Records ordered from local libraries or the LDS library (see Links on the right.)  I prefer seeing the actual list recorded by the tax collector.  Below is a section of the Personal Property Tax Record for Alleghany Co, VA from 1845.

 tax-file.jpg

What taxes are collected variety by year, county and state.  This one has Persons Chargeable With The Tax listed in rough alphabetical order—by the first letter of the last name but not alphabetized by the entire last name.  The tax columns, from the left, are for Free White Males over 16 - Slaves Above 16 - Free White Males over 21 - Male Free Negroes Between the Years of 21 and 55 Years - Slaves Who Have Attained the Age of 12 Years and Upwards - Number of Horses - Their Worth - Number of Cattle - Their Worth.  There are more columns to the right (not shown) for various types of carriages.  All of these column headings were very hard to read even on the microfilmed copy of the actual document.  I recommend having a magnifying glass available when doing research on all old documents.  

The thing that I find most valuable on this Tax List is that the tax collector included the first initial of the men’s middle names. This is a wonderful aid to a genealogist.  If there are two men in the same county or state with the same name, especially if they’re related as in father and son or grandson, it can be a nightmare to distinguish which is which in any document you find.  A middle initial can be a lifesaver.  Another great aid can be a nickname.  Many men became so well known by a middle name or nickname that their first name was never used; even in Tax Lists, legal documents or the Federal Census. Always note in your Family File all middle initials, middle names and nicknames that might help you recognize your ancestor in old records.

If I were tracing the surname Mann, I would extract from this Tax List the information for everyone named Mann, even if I knew that only Archibald Mann was my ancestor.  Even if I don’t know who the other Manns are, I may discover later that they’re important to my Family Tree and I’ll already have their information on file.  Sometimes a brother, cousin or uncle may be the only person in the family whose documents have survived and I can use him to trace my family back another generation.

Personal Property Tax Files aren’t the only kind of Taxes to look for; there are also Land Taxes and Military Taxes. Both of these have stories to tell about your ancestor, too.  Land Taxes will give you not only how many acres of land your ancestor owned and where it was located, but sometimes when it was purchased and from whom—making it easier to find a deed in courthouse records.  Military Taxes were collected by local Militia Companies as a substitute for Property Taxes, plus they may provide you with valuable information on your ancestor’s military service.

In addition to adding individual facts I find on Tax Lists about my ancestors into my Family File,  I also enter all the information I’ve collected into a database program.  The one I use is Excel.  The database program allows me to not only keep track of the information collected, but also to sort the records however I want, such as being able to see how many years a man lived in a particular county.  This information can also be extracted and added to family history reports.

Taxes are a conundrum.  Without them we wouldn’t have roads or libraries, both of which I find invaluable.  Still I complain when I have to pay my taxes.  But I celebrate when I look at Tax Records from another century and find one of my ancestors, who probably complained when he had to pay tax on the horse he rode into town on.  That’s life, however.  It’s all fun until you have to pay the check.   Until next time, start looking for your ancestors’ Tax Records and see what secrets you discover.

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | No Comments »

The LDS Library, A Great Place To Research Your Family History

By Kathy | February 15, 2008

I love the LDS Library in Utah.  It is filled with every piece of genealogy information the Latter Day Saints can find and they allow anyone to use it.  If you can’t go to Salt Lake City, Utah to get up close and personal with their library, you can order copies of all the records they’ve copied onto microfilm or fiche and use them in the LDS Family History Centers located in their churches all across America.  

To access the LDS’ massive library, use the Link in the right column of my website.  When you’re on their website, click on “Place Search.”  Type in the name of the county and state you want to research.  What will you find?  Wonderful things.  Vital Statistics. Court records.  Deeds.  Wills Probates.  Estate sales.  Tax lists.  Military files.  County histories.  Anything related to that county and state that can be used for genealogy research.

Let’s do a search on Monroe, Virginia for Monroe Co, VA.  The first screen will show you all the topics they have for that county.  I’ll select Vital Records at the very bottom.  The result is two screens of available records.  I’m selecting the sixth item down, Marriage Records, 1799-1965, Monroe County (West Virginia).

The result is similar to a very detailed bibliography card at a library.  On the top right hand corner is a link that says “View Film Notes.”  If it doesn’t say that, I can’t order it. Since this one does have film, I’ll click on that link and it takes me to the image below.

marriage-records-lds.jpg 

Wow, there are a lot of options.  Two screens worth, in fact.  I’m only showing you part of the first screen.  I’ll order the Index first.  If I find my ancestors in that, it will tell me which Register to order.  See the items below the index, Register of Marriages No 1?  Next line, Records no 2-3, etc?  Those are the books I’ll be referred to if my ancestors are in the Index.  Now let’s look at the entries for the Loose Marriage Returns.  If my ancestors are black and were married during one of the years those boxes include, I would immediately order that box. Many black people don’t have records at all, so I’d go through everything on that microfilm.  I’ll also go through the regular steps to see if they’re there, too.  For white ancestors I’d probably only order the Loose Returns if my ancestors were not listed on the Index and were married during that time period and I’d exhausted every other method of proving their marriage.

If there was no Index listed, order the microfilm for the year range when you think your ancestors would have married.  There may be an Index included within the Register itself.  If not, you’ll have to have to go through the entire Register.  Don’t panic—it doesn’t really take that long and sometimes you find people you’re not even looking for but need for your family file anyway.

Although the LDS are currently working to upload all their records onto the Internet, it will a few years before this monumental task is completed.  A few of the records are already online.  If the file you want isn’t, you’ll have to take the film number and title you want to order to the local LDS Family History Center.  Instead of writing the information down and possibly making a mistake, I go to the bottom of the final page of the film list, click on the link for the printable version and print the resulting page to take with me. I also make notes on that paper for the ancestor I intend to look for when the film arrives in case I forget why I ordered it.  Yes, this has happened.  There are multiple surnames that I research and occasionally I get confused over which film I ordered for what family.

As for the part of the LDS website that deals with “Surname Search,” I don’t use it very often because there are no sources listed for the information. But that doesn’t mean it’s useless. I’ve found clues in this section that have lead me to lost ancestors.  But remember, without a verifiable source it’s not a fact. After you find clues, you must look for facts to prove them.  The LDS Library is full of places to look for those, so take advantage of their generosity and start finding your own facts at a genealogist’s dream come true—the LDS Library.  Until next time, happy hunting! 

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | No Comments »

Genealogy.com . . . Another Place to Research Your Family History

By Kathy | February 8, 2008

One of my favorite places to do family history research is Ancestry.com, an online subscription database that I discussed in my post on Feb 4.  Genealogy.com is another popular subscription database, which I’ve also used.  There are reasons I recommend it and reasons I’m no longer a member. 

Genealogy.com was the first database I subscribed to and my favorite thing about it was the history books they had online, which Ancestry didn’t have at the time. They also have a nice variety of subscription offerings that gave me access to the historical information I wanted without having to pay for sections I didn’t need.

The reason I cancelled my subscription was because Genealogy.com returns all the hits for a search in one lump—not in categories as Ancestry.com does.  As a result I had to wade through a lot of things I wasn’t interested in to get to the information I wanted.  Example: I subscribed to the historical data collection, not the census data.  Yet whenever I did a search, the results included the 1850 census index.  This forced me to wade through a lot of census index hits that I didn’t want.  A search for the surnames of Jones, Smith and Brown made my work impossible.  I simply couldn’t spend the time required to sort through all the extraneous data to find the vital information I was paying for, so I cancelled my subscription.

Anyone with more distinctively named ancestors will find Genealogy.com filled with useful data.  Go to their website to see what they offer.  If you subscribe to them, here’s something you should try.  Do a search on just your ancestor’s last name.  This will give you a list of all the first names for that surname and lets you see all the odd spellings of your ancestor’s first name in Genealogy.com’s files.  Click on each one to see if there’s anything that you nearly missed just because someone didn’t know how to spell.  This is another thing I did for facts about my ancestors.  Until next time, keep searching! 

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | No Comments »

Ancestry.com . . . An Online Subscription Library for Genealogy

By Kathy | February 4, 2008

I discovered many of my family history facts on Ancestry.com.  That’s right.  I pay for genealogy information. It’s not a crime, as a lot of people believe. Genealogists rent microfilm from the LDS library, local or state libraries. Some people buy compact discs to find their genealogy information. All this costs money. What’s wrong with paying for the ability to access a genealogy database—which is really an online library—that delivers first-rate genealogical information directly to my home computer?  Ancestry.com saves me time, gives me great facts from verifiable sources, and I love sitting at home doing research anytime I want.

One of the best things about Ancestry.com is that they’re always adding new information to their already extensive holdings. Recently I did a search on an ancestor I hadn’t run through their system for almost a year and discovered his Civil War pension certificate.  What a great find!   This opens a whole new world for me to research, plus I’ve added another military hero to my family line—I love those guys!

There’s an option on Ancestry’s search form that’s called Spelling.  Under it you can select either Exact or Soundex.  Soundex is a system used to index names by sound, or phonetically.  In an earlier post, I stated that I couldn’t find in an alphabetical list an ancestor named Orebach because his name had been spelled Arebach. The reason it was spelled that way is because my ancestor probably didn’t know how to spell his name so the country clerk spelled it the way it sounded to him.  In a Soundex listing, names are grouped phonetically—by the sound of the name.  This solves all the problems created by those creative spellings that we genealogists struggle with in our research.  Therefore, when I do a search for my ancestors on Ancestry, I always choose Soundex for Spelling.  This way if there’s a name on file that’s spelled creatively, the search engine will find it. 

Remember that the Soundex spelling option only applies to your ancestor’s surname.  The first name still has to be accurate.  If you don’t find your ancestor, try another spelling for the first name or an abbreviation.  I’ve also done searches for just the last name and then sorted through the results to look for my ancestor, although I don’t recommend that for Jones.

So, you’re asking, just what does Ancestry.com have to offer you?  They have all the US and many European Census data.  They have scanned history books and historical society research papers.  I’ve accessed marriage data, death data, the social security death index, immigration data, obituaries, passport applications—and this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Go to Ancestry.com and under Collections, click on “See All Databases” to discover all their holdings.  Don’t be fooled by everything they offer, however.  Their Family Tree information comes from the public and therefore does not have verifiable sources.  We want facts in our family files.  Stick to the real data that gives you solid sources, which is 98 percent of Ancestry’s holdings.  And don’t just list Ancestry.com as your source for any facts you find.  Put that as a reference to where you found the source, but the actual source is where the information on Ancestry.com came from; the name of a book, the Civil War Index, the Social Security Death Index, etc.  

If you can’t afford to subscribe to an online genealogy website, there are alternative ways to access them. Check with your local library to see if they have a subscription. If they don’t, petition them to purchase one. Genealogy is the biggest hobby in America.  You’re probably not the only person in your neighborhood interested in doing family research.  It’s also useful in learning about regular history. Use that argument on them.  I’ve learned more about history since I began researching my family than I ever learned in school. Someone should clue teachers into the fact that history is more than just the date when stuff happened.

You can also access Ancestry.com at the Family History Centery in the nearest LDS church.  They have Ancestry subscriptions on their computers and anyone can use them for free.  Of course, Ancestry.com isn’t the only subscription database on the Internet.  Genealogy.com is another one I’ve used.  I’ll discuss it in an upcoming post.  Plus there are a lot of other subjects I want to tell you about to help you discover those elusive ancestors you’re trying to find, so check back often.  Until next time, keep looking for those facts!

Topics: All Levels of Genealogists | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries