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Search strategy online for ancestors

Posted by James Tanner on November 28, 2009 at 4:09pm

What is the best strategy for searching online for your ancestors? Surprisingly, there are few simple rules that will lead to a dramatic increase in the reliability of the returns from a search with any search engine, be it Google, Yahoo, Ask, Alta Vista, Bing or whichever. These rules also work with nearly all of the online databases, including Ancestry.com, WorldVitalRecords and many others.Before getting into the search rules, you must first understand tiny bit about a very complex subject, t

See your world (and history) in a new way

Posted by James Tanner on November 27, 2009 at 8:18am

Many of the newer versions of genealogical database programs now contain some form of a mapping program. But the world of maps has changed and unless you have investigated the possibilities lately, you cannot imagine how interesting and dramatic the mapping world has become and you have missed the boat unless you know about 360 degree spherical views of places around the world.How would you like to have this picture (and millions of others)?

Claes Oldenburg's 45-foot steel Clothespin in downtown

Indexes are hearsay

Posted by James Tanner on November 26, 2009 at 7:22am

If a witness were testifying in court and began to relate a conversation they had outside of the court, the attorney for the opposing party would immediately object to the testimony on the basis of the hearsay rule of evidence. Almost uniformly in the U.S. court system testimony about what someone said, with a few specific exceptions, if inadmissible and objectionable. If the witness manages to say something about their conversation before the attorney can object, the Judge can order the testimo

Cades Cove Tennessee

Posted by Ken Jones on November 25, 2009 at 9:10pm

Even though my wife isn't a member of genealogy wise I thought I would mention her Tennessee Tipton connection. My wifes mother had a professional genealogist do their family research some years ago and a book was written about the Tiptons from Tennessee,we donated one book to the Estill County Historical Society & gave another as a gift to her sister. (Of course now I wish we had a third book)My wifes 5th or 6th great grandfather was William Tipton a veteran of the revolutionary war and the fir

A Big Appetite, He must have loved Thanksgiving!

Posted by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 25, 2009 at 2:04pm

My mom found this little news clipping amongst her mother’s things. We finally figured out that the main character in the little story was her great grandmother’s brother. John Edwin Healey worked in the family business, Hoogerzeil Express Company. This was a Beverly, Massachusetts trucking and moving business started in the days before motorized vehicles. In the 1949 article it says he just celebrated his 92nd birthday, but I found him in the 1951 Beverly City Directory. He outlived two wives.

My Heritage For Mac users

Posted by Paul Priems on November 25, 2009 at 12:48pm

Any movement to make My Heritage download available for Mac users??

Swiss records digitized online

Posted by James Tanner on November 25, 2009 at 6:51am

Although Switzerland is one of the smaller countries in Europe, many people in the U.S. can trace their ancestry to Swiss immigrants. Except for collections of individual Swiss family files, there have been very few actual Swiss source documents online and especially those with free access. Now in its worldwide reach, FamilySearch's Record Search announces the first online Swiss records. In an announcement dated November 24, 2009 Record Search added Switzerland, Schaffhausen Church Records image

Family History Notes: My Fathers Side

Posted by Kathleen Melendez on November 24, 2009 at 8:49pm

My Father’s Mother -Cecelia Jacquinot HalleyMy grandmother is 93 years old and was a great help to me. She lives in New Jersey so most of our conversations were by phone. We spent many hours talking about family history; I enjoyed her stories of how she grew up on a Kansas farm. One night asking her questions about her family. She was telling me about the church she was baptized and married in. I went online to research the church and found an article Legend of Greenbush St.Aloysius Church at th

Family History Notes: My Mother's Side

Posted by Kathleen Melendez on November 24, 2009 at 8:43pm

Both of my mother’s parents are deceased so I relied on her for information. We got as far as her mother’s parents and their children then we were stuck. One of my grandmother’s sisters was still alive so I wrote to her asking if she would help me with the family tree, hoping she would remember me, I have not seen her for years. She did and she was very helpful. She wrote down everything she knew; her parent’s names and birth dates, even her mother’s maiden name! Her brothers and sisters birth a

Family Stats: Your Family's Facts and Anecdotes, All in One Place

Posted by Daniel Horowitz on November 24, 2009 at 3:54pm

Have you ever wondered who is your oldest living relative, or what is the most common birth month of your family? How about who married the youngest, who had the most children, and whose marriage didn't make it?Now you can access all this information easily with Family Statistics, MyHeritage.com's new analytics feature. This new feature puts at your fingertips 45 original metrics to breathe new life into your family tree and help point out errors in its data. The Family Statistics feature is 100

Hundreds of thousands of new records online

Posted by James Tanner on November 24, 2009 at 7:27am

With the winding down of the introduction of New FamilySearch to U.S. Temple Districts, FamilySearch has apparently turned some of its resources towards increasing the number of records available on Record Search. An announcement on November 23, 2009 indicates that Record Search has just added over 250,000 images to the Brazil Catholic Church Records collection. Here is a description of the records from the FamilySearch Wiki:Read more...

Kreative Blogger Award Thanks to Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy, Angela at What Was Their Story and Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings for nominating me for the Kreative Blogger award. Apparently, t

Posted by James Tanner on November 23, 2009 at 7:31pm

Kreative Blogger Award

Thanks to Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy, Angela at What Was Their Story and Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings for nominating me for the Kreative Blogger award. Apparently, this is sort-of a chain letter kind of thing but I'll go along for the ride. Here is my list of seven things about myself:Read more...

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5

Posted by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 23, 2009 at 8:41am

The Wreck of the "Angel Gabriel"The Great migration was an exodus of Puritans from England to New England between 1620 and 1640. During this time John Winthrop sailed on the “Arabella” and wrote his famous sermon about the “City on a Hill” during the voyage. Most of my ancestors arrived in this period, on many ships, mostly unrecorded by passenger lists. One ship carried the most ancestors (besides the Mayflower), and that was the galleon “Angel Gabriel.”She was a galleon built for Sir Walter Ra

A disaster averted

Posted by James Tanner on November 23, 2009 at 7:35am

During the recent upgrade of my operating system from Windows XP to Windows 7, I began transferring files from my old computer to a new one. As part of the transfer, I checked one of my old journal files. Now, there needs to be a little bit of an explanation here. I started writing a weekly/daily journal about 35 years ago. The first few years the entries were handwritten, but over time, I changed to keeping my journal on the computer. Printed out, my journal would be thousands of pages. A few y

Where to find your family's stories online - part 1, Digitized Texts

Posted by tami osmer glatz on November 23, 2009 at 7:32am

(The following is from my presentation in SecondLife on Nov. 19th, at the Just Genealogy fire pit. And as always, all sites I mention are on my toolbar, under Publications tab (http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com - completely free)It’s always exciting to find a birth, marriage or death date on one of your ancestors. So many online resources are becoming available now that make filling in those blanks easier. But what really turns ‘genealogy’ into ‘family history’ is when you start finding st

George Childs Dunmow Essex

Posted by Colin Childs on November 23, 2009 at 5:39am

Looking for information on George Henry Childs born Dunmow Essex between 1856 and 1864 according to census information. Wed Sarah Kemball Colchester Essex 1882 and went on to have 3 children. I have not been able to locate George's exact birth details. Marriage certificate lists him "of age" and census dates differ. Also no "George Henry" Childs born in the area for the period only "george" Childs. Can anyone help, even if you have details of any of the George Childs born in the period so that I

Family Tree Connection - Update (22/Nov/2009)

Posted by Illya Daddezio on November 22, 2009 at 11:58am

Family Tree Connection has added the following genealogy items to its database:

Alma P. E. O. Chapter B J 1924-1925 Calendar - 1924-1925, Alma, Nebraska, Chapter B J, P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization). Meetings 3:00 o'clock First and Third Tuesdays. Organized March 31, 1914.

The Mothers Club 1929-1930 Membership - The Mothers Club of Carrick, Pennsylvania. Organized 1913. Chartered 1923. Founder, Mrs. John M. Phillips.

Jerusalem Lutheran Brotherhood 1924 Membership - First Annual Mins

DAR Ancestor Search

Posted by The Genealogy Box on November 22, 2009 at 10:22am

DAR has opened up their online Genealogical Research System to the public. It includes the Ancestor Database which contains the lineage information from most of the verified DAR applications - under construction -.http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm

Research Paper Published

Posted by Debbie Winchell (Loving Dove) on November 21, 2009 at 10:00pm

I am pleased to announce that my peer-reviewed research paper on my ancestor John Van Gelder has been published in New York State Museum Bulletin 511, Mohican Seminar 3, The Journey, An Algonquian Peoples Seminar, edited by Shirley W. Dunn. My paper, "The Impact of John Van Gelder: Mohican, Husbandman, and Historic Figure," is Chapter 10. It is a result of several years' research prompted by the biased and undocumented history that I found. This is my first published paper.John Van Gelder was th

Can your ancestors' bad deeds affect you generations later?

Posted by William Douglas on November 21, 2009 at 12:54pm

Nikki Mackay, who lives in the next village, author of The Science of Family: Working with Ancestral Patternssays you can blame your ancestors if you end up in doomed relationships, drink too much or generally just behave badly! Apparently, the events of previous generations can have far-reaching implications on the choices you make today. She believes it could be the reason why some people repeatedly select unsuitable partners or feel they make the wrong choices in life.Your ancestors are a hug

Member Blogs

All Posts (3182)

Search strategy online for ancestors

See your world (and history) in a new way

Indexes are hearsay

Cades Cove Tennessee

A Big Appetite, He must have loved Thanksgiving!

My Heritage For Mac users

Swiss records digitized online

Family History Notes: My Fathers Side

Family History Notes: My Mother's Side

Family Stats: Your Family's Facts and Anecdotes, All in One Place

Hundreds of thousands of new records online

Kreative Blogger Award Thanks to Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy, Angela at What Was Their Story and Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings for nominating me for the Kreative Blogger award. Apparently, t

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5

A disaster averted

Where to find your family's stories online - part 1, Digitized Texts

George Childs Dunmow Essex

Family Tree Connection - Update (22/Nov/2009)

DAR Ancestor Search

Research Paper Published

Can your ancestors' bad deeds affect you generations later?

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