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Blog Entries: 1 to 25 of 25
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Spooky October
Well, it is October already and perhaps we should go with a bit of a Halloween theme? Let's give it a try.
First, if you plan to visit a cemetery, don't go at night when there may be ghosts about! Go during the day and do take pictures. You will want to get the cemetery name, usually on a sign at the entrance, and when the grave of interest is located, take puctures of the tombstone(s), a close-up of the details on the tombstone and if it is found in a family plot, you may want a picture of the plot and the other family graves found within. It is also a good time to tidy up around the graves, pulling weeds, removing dead flowers, etc.
If you have had trouble finding relatives on the census, don't forget to check the Mortality Schedules. These were included with the Federal Censuses from 1850 - 1880. These additional schedules recorded the deaths within the 12 months prior to that census date. They will inlcude the decedent's name, death date, where born, age, occupation, cause of death and length of illness. Quite a lot of information!
Do you think (or know) that you had a Witch in the family? The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails.
If you have a Vampire in the family, you may already know it, since they tend to live on and on and on.... what a great resource for family stories! Otherwise, Family Search has a Wiki for researching Transylvanian ancestors that may be helpful if you have family from that part of the world. It is best if you know the town or area the ancestor is from, but look anyway.
Here is probably more than you want to know about Vlad the Impaler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler Several online sources say that King Charles is related to Vlad, so if you trace back to the Royal family, you might want to look into that! If you are related to Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee (among others) you can legitimately claim a Vampire in the family.
Finally, you may be related to Frankenstein if Boris Karloff or Peter Boyle are in your family tree; Nosferatu if you are related to Max Schrek; a Mummy if you find Boris Karloff or Arnold Vosloo in your tree; and a Wolfman if you can include Lon Chaney, Jr. or Michael Landon in your list of relatives.
Happy Halloween!
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Using Family Search Images
Have you ever struck out in trying to find an online record? We all have! There is a family story about why my great-grandmother, Theressa McMahan, eloped. It was because her parents did not approve of the man she was in love with, Clarence L Myers. The reason they did not approve was because he had a prior marriage! I searched marriage records for years trying to find proof of that first marriage.
I have a copy of Theressa and Clarence's marriage certifiate, so I know when and where they married, but nothing on a first marriage for Clarence. One day a hint popped up on Ancestry and indicated a marriage between a Clarence Myers and an Iva Palmer in Jefferson Illinois, 1902. I didn't know if this was my Clarence, but there was no image to get any other information off of. I decided to go into Family Search and look at their image collection. It can be tedious going through images (it's like turning the pages of the actual book) but sometimes it pays off.
To search images, go to familysearch.org and login (be sure to create a user name and password so you can view the images) - it is a free site. Once logged in, select Search from the menu across the top of the page. Then select Images and fill in the State. I filled in Illinois. There were 40 pages of indexed titles for the State. I next went to the right side of the page where I could choose the county. I put in Jefferson. There were now only 5 pages of indexed records. The only marriage records were for Mount Vernon, so I chose "Marriage Registers:Mount Vernon 1891-1904". There were 3 volumes. I chose the first and just picked a random page to look at. It was marriages in 1891. I went to the last page in that group and it ended in 1901. The second volume was just 1901 and the third volume was 1902 and on. I did not know which month the marriage took place, but it was the correct year. I had to go page by page (using the arrow that appears when hovering near the right edge of the page). I did find the record! It was May 28, 1902. The record lists his parent's names, his age and where he was from. I also found out he was a Telegraph Operator. This confirmed it was my Clarence Myers.   Like I said, it can be time consuming to go through the actual record books, page by page, but sometimes it is worth it to solve a mystery! |
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Using Free UK Databases
Do you have ancestors in the UK? Did you know there are free data bases for birth, marriage and death records (called BMD) and for censuses and parish records?
FreeBMD https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ is an ongoing project, where volunteers are transcribing the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and they provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.
To search the records that have been transcribed by FreeBMD just click on the Search button in the bottom left of the page. The choose "all" records or individual records for birth, marriage or death. You can only fill in the date if it is a death record. FreeCEN and Free REG are a little easier to navigate - I think they are newer websites. If you find a person on FreeCEN, you can view the information such as other family members, locations and street address (fun to look up the house on Google Maps). On FreeReg the record type needs to be checked (on left side of form) and fill in as much or as little info as you want.
It's been fiun exploring - and finding records - so why don't you give it a try!
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Ancestry DNA Tip
Amy Johnson Crow is a well known genealogist and also the creator of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge (mentioned in a prior post). I was looking for genealogy research tips and topics on YouTube - there are a lot! - and came across her page.
I watched a new video about the NEW Enhanced Matching tool for Ancestry DNA accounts. She explains how it works and why it is beneficial all in about 4 minutes. This tool does require and added subscription on top of the one you may already have, it's called Pro Tools.
She addresses a wide variety of other genealogy topics and tips in other videos and each one shows in the corner how long the vidieo lasts. If you would like to try out a few:
What I normally do with my DNA matches is look at our Shared Matches, then I try to figure out where in family tree we match. Of course my hope is that the shared ancestor just pops right out and the match has a huge tree with all the info I need. In my dreams! I will probably bite the bullet and subscribe to get the added tools and hope for the best! |
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Orphan Trains
Have you heard about the Orphan Trains?
I was looking at the blog (Vita Brevis) on American Ancestors website and came across an article about it.
These trains ran between 1854 and 1829. There were more than 30,000 children living on the streets in New York when it all started and eventually these trains transported 250,000 abandoned, neglected and orphan children to new homes. Many were initially taken to a children's or foundling hospital and were sent by trains from there.
Charles Brice founded the Childrens Aid Society and came up with the idea of sending children to other cities and states to be adopted. Advertisements were sent to the cities where the trains would stop and protocols were established to place children with new families. The adoptive family was required to sign a contract in which they promised fair treatment and education for the children - although many were just looking for a child to use as a laborer. There was no follow-up to see if the families honored the contract. The trains usually arrived with thirty or forty children accompanied by some society members. At each stop, the children were lined up on a stage and inspected. Then a child would be chosen, the contract signed and just like that, the family had a new member.
If you are looking for a missing relative and suspect an "adoption" or foster situation, tied to the orphan trains, be sure to look closely at the censuses for children with a New York place of birth living with a family from someplace else. Many of the 1900 and 1910 census enumerators listed these children as adopted or orphan. Some children had a hard life, while others were fully integrated into the family and even took on that familie's surname.
I guess the point of this article is to check the censuses carefully and look for discrepencies. I also suggest you read the article linked above for more information! |
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Finding Veterans
We are coming up on Memorial Day. which is, as you know, a day set aside to remember those who died in military service.
Do you have relatives or ancestors who were in the military? Do you know where to look for clues?
Here are some ideas:
- Censuses - the 1840 census listed Revolutionary War pensioners by name and age; the 1910 census asks if a person was a veteran in the Union or Confederate Army or Navy; 1940 and 1950 ask if the men served in the armed forces.
- Local courthouse - when men were discharged from service, they would file their discharge papers at their local courthouse.
- Obituaries - these often mention military service and which conflict they may have participated in.
- Cemeteries - often tombstones include information about military service. The cemetery may even display flags on veteran's graves for Memorial Day, Veterns Day and other holidays.
- Fold3 - this is a subscription site, but many libraries have it on their public computers for researchers to access (for free). Fold 3 has military records from the Revolutionary War to present day.
- Lineage societies - The Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution are a couple of examples but there are many national as well as state groups. You can see a listing here: https://www.cyndislist.com/societies/lineage/military/
- Don't forget your famiy stories as a strting point!
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Ancestral Findings
Ancestral Findings is a website I have used for more than 10 years. It is run by Will Moneymaker who has been a genealogist for years. He offers tips, free look-ups, giveaway books and free podcasts (with the text to read if you don't want to, or can't listen). I signed up and I get weekly emails with the free look-up information, the upcoming podcasts, free books and give-aways. I have actually had him look up some info for me in the past. It was helpful. The looks-ups change, so you need to keep and eye out for a time when it might help you with an ancestor's information.
You can also follow this site on Facebook. Just use the Search Facebook magnifier glass (icon), at the top left, on your Facebook page and type in Ancestral Findings, then when it pops up, click on the name to get to the main page. If you click on "like" at the top right, you will see posts on your Facebook page in the future. There will be several topics that play on YouTube that you can click to go to. There is also a section to become a member or to create a login. I have not done this, but it's your choice if you want to join.
I hope you will find this a useful site! |
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Quaker Ancestors?
Do you have Quaker ancestors?
The Society of Friends, also called Quakers, immigrated to the American colonies from England and other parts of Europe due to religious persecution. They first arrived in Massachusetts in 1656, but faced persecution there and moved on to other colonies. By 1750, Quakers had settlements in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, New York, Maryland, and both North and South Carolina. They also heavily settled and had influence in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
I found early Quakers in my family line. It all started by tracing a line of ancestors back from Kansas to North Carolina. Then I found the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, by WIlliam Wade Hinshaw. This encyclopedia was transcribed from actual minutes and monthly meeting records in North Carolina and lists names, births, marriages, deaths, other events and often what part of Europe they came from originally (mine were from Germany and Ireland). This collection, and more, is available on Ancestry, as a subscriber, and you can find these records by going to Search, Card Catalog, Keyord = Quaker. You can find the digital Hinshaw book on the Internet Archive - here is the link. Be sure to create a login to see the entire book. Family Search also has Hinshaw records as well as links to other records (free, with your login) on their Research Wiki here.
After finding success with one family line, I started on another and that led me to ship's manifests for William Penn's ships. I found an ancestral family that arrived in Pennsylvania and were on Penn's ship The Lamb and another family on Friendship. A Texas D.A.R. has put together a list of Penn's ships and the passengers abord them. The list is here. After I found the family arriving in Pennsylvania, I was able to find information about them in the Monthly Meeting records. I found that my Quaker line was started by an illegitimate birth which was heavily discussed and both parties were reprimanded and threatened with being disowned. They later repented and all was forgiven, it seems. Looking at these old records really is fascinating!
If you have Quaker ancestors and have not researched them, I encourage you to take a look at these records. They are amazing! Further more, you could qualify for and join the National Society, Descendants of Early Quakers and here is the link with a list of qualifying names:
http://www.earlyquakers.org/qualifyingancestors.htmlHappy hunting!
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Can the Censuses Have Errors?
Just because someone tells you something, doesn't mean that it's true. The same goes for the genealogical records we use. Just because a source record gives you a certain piece of information, it doesn't mean that the information is correct.
Have you ever searched census records for a relative and finally found a record that could be the right one, has correct dates, maybe even a correct spouse or list of children - but the name is all wrong?
We all have! There are just a few things to keep in mind:
- The person collecting the information (enumerator) often made field notes and later transcribed the notes to the census form – they also may have been relying on memory.
- The enumerator (and possibly the person giving the information) may not have actually known the correct spelling of a name, but instead used phonetics when writing the name.
- The person giving the information may have had an accent (southern drawl, Scottish brogue, etc.) and the enumerator wrote it as he understood it.
- The information may have come from someone not “in the know” such as a neighbor, relative or even a child. Sometimes an X with a circle around it, next to a name, designates who gave the information to the enumerator.
- The person transcribing the document in order to put the information online may have had difficulty deciphering the name due to the enumerator’s handwriting or the condition of the document.
Here is one example:
I was looking for Irena Greene – most commonly listed as Arena Green, and I found this:
I believe the enumerator wrote Oreena Green but it got transcribed as Oceena Green. It is the correct person because she has her two daughters with her, Angelina and Almeda (notice how their names got spelled!) You can see how the transcription mistake was made. So please look carefully at those records and see if you actually do have the correct person after all! |
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Billion Graves
It seems most of us family historians are familiar with Find-a-Grave. It is well-known and also owned by Ancestry, so you get hints for that site if you are an Ancestry subscriber. Early on, I ran across Billion Graves. ( https://billiongraves.com) I did not have much luck locating any of my family's graves so I kind of forgot about it.
BillionGraves is now tagged as the world's largest resource for searchable GPS cemetery data. That means the people who add to the database actually go to the cemeteries, take pictures and mark the exact GPS location. So it you want to visit a particular gaveyard to see a family member's tombstone, you will be able to find it by GPS. Pretty slick!
I do subsribe to their blog, ( https://blog.billiongraves.com/) so recently, after reading the current entry, I decided to visit the site and so some searching. I had been unable to locate my grandparents burial in AZ. There were 2 cemeteries with the same name and neither had my grandparents on Find-a-Grave. I typed in the names on BillionGraves and lo and behold, there they were!
You can search for free. I did sign on for the FREE level - why not? It's free! You can decide. The info is below or on the website.
BG offers 3 choices to get more information than just the grave location and picture.
The FREE level offers:
Browse millions of GPS cemetery records from all over the world
Access over 29 Million GPS Records
4 Generation BillionGraves Tree
Free Photo & Record Requests
Add, Edit and Connect BG records
The ANNUAL membership ($59.99/yr) level offers
Everything in FREE
Full Generations BillionGraves Tree
Nearby Graves Tool
Family Plots Tool
Family Notifications and Alerts
Global Family
Priority Support
Access to Partner Discounts
There is also an option to sign-up for MONTHY use ($9.99)
Everything in FREE level
Everything in Annual BG Plus
Pay as you go - Billed Monthly
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Family Stories
Have you considered writing stories about your ancestors? A blog (much like this one) could be a good way to get started. Of course, SAGHS would LOVE for you to write up a story or two and submit it to our Stalkin' Kin quarterly publication! Information about that is on this website's home page. However, if you would like to try a blog or family website, there are many free sites that are easy to use and make a nice background for your stories. Here are a few of those sites you might like to try:
I have participated, for the last 4 years, in genalogist, Amy Johnson Crow's, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. This is her way of prompting folks to write about their family. Some make blog posts (I use Word Press), some post to their Facebook page, some send family emails, some just write stories and save them. There is no wrong way to do it. She supplies a "prompt" or idea for each week of the year. How you interpret the prompt and what you write is up to you. It's flexible and you don't have to write every week. One year I just wrote occasionally and this past year I would lag behind then catch up maybe 3 at once, but did manage to get 52 posts! If you sign up, you will get an email with a month or two of prompts, so you can plan ahead and start thingking of ideas. Below is information about this challenge excerpted from AJC's Facebook page:
"52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is returning for 2024!
For those of you who don’t know, 52 Ancestors is a way of chronicling our ancestors by writing about them in a prompt every week. Individuals do this through a blog, their website, whatever works for them and isn’t too much effort - we’re going for telling stories, not getting bogged down in how they’re told.
52 Ancestors is about many different things. One is accountability to keep telling the stories of our ancestors, but do it in a way that keeps us invigorated and not burned out.To sign up, please click here: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors"
I encourage you to give it a try! Even if you just write a story on your computer and save it to share later (or print and put the stories in a binder?) I found that it made me look back at my family tree more often, and consider my ancestor's and how they lived their lives. I often ended up spending a little time digging deeper to find more information. It is a fun and thought provoking project.
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Patent Search
Was your ancestor an inventor? Did that person patent their idea? Want to find out?
One day I ran across a Google patent database. I started typing in names and, lo and behold, I found my great-grandfather. He was quite prolific in his ideas and went on to patent those ideas - I found 17 patents! Below is an example of what I found.
Give it a try! Just go to https://patents.google.com/ and type in a last name or for a more precise search, the first name and last name in quotes (ex: "John Doe".)
Have fun and I hope you find some family inventors!
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RootsWeb
Have you ever used RootsWeb?
It used to be the "go-to" source for free family histories, genealogy webpages and other topics of interest. Over time, it was bought by Ancestry and things changed. A lot of content providers left or moved their information to other website hosts - that's why Googling the surnames or locations you are interested in can turn up family webpages you might not otherwise find!
RootsWeb does still exist ( www.rootsweb.com) and now would be a good time to take a look before it changes again or goes away. I went to the site and found this banner at the top of the page:
"Hosted websites will become read-only beginning in early 2024.
At that time, all logins will be disabled, but hosted sites will remain on RootsWeb as static content.
Website owners wishing to maintain their sites must migrate to a different hosting provider before 2024."
This means that the websites/pages currently found on RootsWeb will remain as they are, in early 2024, but will no longer be accessible by the owners to update or add information. Some owners may be OK with that, but I expect many will move to another hosting site.
So, go visit RootsWeb now while there is still a fair amount of content. Just type the link (shown above) in your browser, or click on it from here when you are ready to explore.
You will arrive at the main page. There are a few choices, but this time go to Hosted Websites and click Search Now. Once on that page, you will have two choices, Free Pages and WWW. Try Free Pages first then go back and try WWW. There are several choices within those selections - I usually start with Family or Genealogy (feel free to explore the others). Then, an alphabet list will come up. This is where it becomes cumbersome. Choose the letter that corresponds with the first letter of the surname you are interested in. A long list will appear in alphabetic order. Scroll down the list to see if the name you are interested in is there. If so, click the link and you will be redirected to that webpage.
Alternately, if you use the Chrome or Edge browser, there is a helpful tool located in the top right corner of the screen. Look for 3 dots (on Chrome they are vertical, on Edge horizontal). Click on the dots. In Chrome, go down the list to "Find and Edit", on Edge it will be "Find on page", click that and a small box pops up. Just type in the name or word you are looking for. If it is anywhere on the page, it will show how many occurrences (if any) next to the name that was typed in. Use the down arrow (v) to navigate to that name. TIP - on a Windows PC just hold down the CTRL key and the F key at the same time to open the Find window. On Apple products, I believe it is the Command key and the F key.
So, go exploring on RootsWeb! Who knows what you might find! |
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Newspapers!
You may subscribe to a newspaper archive like Newspapers.com or GenealogyBank.com, but did you know there are also some free resources for newspaper research?
My favorite is Chronicling America ( https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/) from the Library of Congress. They have newspapers from 1770 - 1963 and it's easy to use. Once you bring up the site, you can choose the State, date range and search word(s). You could use a last name, a location, a subject. When the results come up there will be thumbnail images of the newspapers which contain your search word. The location of that word, in each paper, is highlited in orange (or maybe it's pink?) Click on the newspaper of interest and then double click several times to enlarge it, or use the menu options at the top left. There is also an option to go "back to search results" when you are through looking (and maybe downloading) that paper. I found a lot of my Midwest family on this site. Maybe you will have some luck too!
If you are looking for just Texas newspapers, try The Portal to Texas History's Texas Digital Newspaper Program https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/ There is an option to fill in a name, place or subject and search the entire collection, but I often use the "Other Search Options" located right above the blue "Search" button and choose "Guided Search". Using this I can type in an entire name, date range and if I want, locations or collections (I usually just leave those as they are). You can doulble click or use the menu options to enlarge the papers and the key word will be highlighted in yellow (unless it's light orange, LOL!) Also, after clicking on a newspaper, on the left menu is an option to "Search Inside" and below that "Matching Results". Click on that to see a transcription of the article where your search word appears. I have found some interesting family information in the small town newspapers. If you want to visit an archive in person, or get a library loan or other access to Texas Newspapers, here are several resources from the Texas State Library: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/newspapers
I have had some marignal success with The Ancestor Hunter newspaper links - be warned, there are a lot of adds to scroll past. https://theancestorhunt.com/newspaper-research-links.html Just scroll down the page until you get to the list of States and choose the State that interessts you. The next screen will list all of the towns where the newspapers are located, so just pick your location. There are often not too many papers to look at, but it might be worth a try!
Of course, you can always just Google "historic newspapers (fill in location)". Happy hunting! |
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The D.A.R. Patriot Database
Do you know or suspect that you have an ancestor who particpated in the Revolutionary War?
Have you a name for that person? If so, you can access the Daughters of the American Revolution database to see if that ancestor has been recorded. You will need the last name, at the very least, but if you have the first name, even better. If your ancestor is listed, you should be able to get the lineage that was submitted plus any supporrting documents (for a small fee).
To take a look, go to https://www.dar.org/. Be sure to read through the information on that main page. Then, click the menu item near the top that says Genealogy. There is a lot of helpful information on that page, but if you want to dive right in, click Ancestor Search (in blue) to the right, under Genealogical Research. You will see a form where you must fill in any one (or all) three fields marked with an asterisk in red. The search results will hopefully return a list of names and some information to help you identify the correct person.
There will be an Ancestor # and a purple icon with an image of a person in the right corner. Clicking the Ancestor # will return a list of all DAR members who submitted that Patriot's lineage to become members. Clicking the purple icon will return information on that Patriot, such as birthdate, residence, Military service, spouse. It will also show the DAR members attached to that Patriot and if there are supporting documents (S) and/or a descendants list (D). You can purchase copies of either or both. By clicking Nat'l Num, a listing appears with some of the Patriot's information and an opportunity to buy a copy with all of the information. Click on the Patriot's name for a partial descendant list. It's a good start to verifyiing the lineage that you may have in your family tree. It might even fill in some blanks. You can also tell if you have the correct person.
In my case, I had my grandmother's DAR application and membership papers, so I had the name as well as the Ancestor number. I was doing background research in order to join the DAR. It turned out that the 4 people who "got in" on my ancestor, including my grandmother, did not submit enough proof by today's standards, so I got a message that basically said "there is something wrong with this file". That meant that there was not enough documentary evidence to prove my ancestor was actually related to the Patriot, as claimed. I ultimately had to prove a relationship between the Patriot and my known ancestor (they were father and son). I did order the supporting documents and got a copy of the descendants and the family bible pages which confirmed quite a few names and relationships I had speculated about. It was worth the effort, for me, to get this information!
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Down the Rabbit Hole
Have you ever been looking and looking and looking for some bit of information for a certain relative? It is SO frustrating to not find anything! Sometimes I just have to take a break and noodle around with some websites that likely won't turn up anything significant (but might!) and are just kind of fun. Click on the name of the site below and a window will pop up! Have fun!
First is Behind the Name to look up the origin and meaning of first names. I found this useful when I was trying to determine if some names in my family tree were real or made-up (like Benejah, Hopestill and Orange, brother of Polantis). For surnames try, Surname DB. If the name is found, it will show the origin, alternate spellings and a little history. I was testing the family story of our name's origin....it was not accurate.
If you are hoping to find an old picture, you may get lucky on Dead Fred. It is a site where people can upload old photos they find in thrift or antique stores and hope they can find the family they belong to.
Here is a glossary of ancient diseases just scroll down to find out what Apoplexy or Mormal really is. It's helpful when you find that an ancestor died of ... what? There is also a numeric "code" written on some death certicates near the "cause of death" section. What's that all about? Find out what it means HERE. Note - you will choose the list by the date or date range of the death certificate.
Perhaps you are wondering if an ancestor invented something and registered a patent. Google has a database for that! You can look up Google Patents or just click HERE. Type in the person's name. I found 16 for one great-grandfather. I searched by his whole name (first, middle, last); his first name, last name; first name, middle initial and last name; first name initial, middle name initial and last name. Who knew?
Now, back to ancestor researching! |
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Access Genealogy website
I ran across this website (again) today and decided I'd better put the link on here for everyone to try it!
Access Genealogy has a very large collection of free genealogy collections for research within the USA. Specifically, they provide sources for birth records, death records, marriage records, census records, tax records, church records, court records, military records, historical newspapers, cemeteries, and ethnic records. They also provide some historical details about different times and people in America’s history. They specialize in Native American records, so expect to find quite a few - maybe some you haven't seen before.
There is an easy access menu bar across the top of the page, but be sure "page down" to see the topics they are highlighting. You can also subscribe to get an email update of new records and databases as they are added. On the right side of the main page is a search feature as well as all of the States listed. This makes it easy to jump right in! So go ahead, check it out!
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Texas Genealogy Web aka TxGenWeb
Have you looked at TXGenWeb lately? ( http://www.txgenweb.org/) This site was created to give people searching for ancestors within Texas, free access to transcribed records - and they have been doing this for 25 years so there is a wealth of information to be discovered.
TXGenWeb is a group of coordinators who each “adopt” a county and then get volunteer helpers to transcribe and upload information relevant to that area. In fact, each county will have a link to the surrounding counties as well. It’s easy to navigate, just follow the top-level menu. Click on "Counties" to get started and see which counties have information online.
It does appear every county has been adopted (as shown by being in underlined, blue text). When I first started using this site, about 15 years ago, not all the counties were clickable (meaning there was no info on that county yet). Clicking on “Records” will show links to what they have onsite and links to offsite repositories. “Special Projects” has some old post cards, Texas Archives found on USGenWeb (a similar project encompassing the entire Unite States) and other projects of interest. Click on each item and see what you find.
I clicked on Tom Green County and found a nicely done page with links for Biographies, Cemetery Inscriptions, Censuses, etc. ( https://tomgreencotxgenweb.com/) Keep in mind that every county’s webpage will look different and have different sorts of information. This is all done by volunteers and each coordinator is responsible for putting info and laying out their own county page, so some may have more or less information than others. You can certainly volunteer to add information by contacting the coordinators.
Each page has, somewhere on it, the last time it was updated. Doing a spot check showed me that most county pages have at least 2020 – 2022 dates, which means the page is actively being monitored and updated - and that means more and more information is being made available!
I suggest you visit TXGenWeb and see what you find! |
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Witches in Scotland
Now for a little fun!
Do you have Scots relatives? Are there rumors of a Witch in the family? Even if there is not - this is kind of fun!
This link (click here) will open a new window with a map of Scotland. There will be images of a single person (in various colors) or a group (in yellow). If you are using a computer with a mouse, rolling the wheel will expand the map. Otherwise, click on a person, and information about that person will pop up; if you click on a group, the map will expand to show more people and groups.
Go ahead and try some of the other options shown across the top menu, such as Residence, Detention Locations, Trial Locations, Death Locations, etc.
You never know what you might find!
This was a project at the University of Edinburgh to geographically locate and visualise the different Witch locations recorded in the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database. Well done! |
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Using Find-a-Grave
Have you ever used Find-A-Grave as a research tool? It is a database with millions of records abstracted by volunteers and free to use. If you subscribe to Ancestry.com it is linked and records will show up from Find-A-Grave, but you can just go directly to Find-A-Grave to conduct your own search.
First, open your internet browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox, etc.) on the computer and type in www.findagrave.com. Once there, the two best tools to use are in the right column. One is “Search xxx million grave records” (that number will increase over time) and the other “Search by cemetery”. By the way, if you see a big note at the top of the page that says “You have a Message!” skip it, it’s an ad.
Choose “Search….. grave records”. A page will open where first name, middle name, last name, date of birth, date of death (or ranges), country, state and county can be entered. Fill in everything known and click the “search” button. There should be a listing of names that match what was entered. If there are several pages there is a very small link to go to the next page. It usually says something like “records 21-40”. Click it to go on. Also, at the bottom of this search there may be another big ad that says “Vital Records Found”, skip that.
If no matches are found, change the search by dropping off some information. On the left is a small menu, choose “Refine last search” to make changes. There are several broad searches that can be tried:
- Try omitting the exact dates; try a before or after date – remember people fudged their ages or heirs were not sure of dates or the stone was placed there later; omit the dates completely
- Leave off the first name; last name is required, but it will take partial names of at least 2 letters; try different spellings; search by maiden name
- Try searching surrounding counties
- Search the entire state by leaving off the county – remember, county lines may have been redrawn since burial
Another way of looking is to go back to the start page (click on the Find-A-Grave logo) and choose “Search for a Cemetery”. It’s right below the “Search … Million Records”. In a perfect research world, the two types of searches will have been linked, but sometimes they are not – meaning you may find a person in one search and not the other when both search methods should return the same results. So just keep in mind that this is a whole bunch of data entered by volunteers who are human – and try every way you can to find your information.
With the “Search for a Cemetery” option put in the cemetery name if known, country, state, and county and click “Search”. If the cemetery name is not known, leave that blank and enter the State and maybe the County. Then I look for the cemeteries on the list that are in or near the town the relatives were last found in on the censuses – or where they were known to have lived. Sometimes you just look for cemeteries that seem likely, such as affiliated with a denomination or town or social club, or with a large number of interments. When you chose a cemetery to search, click on the cemetery name and on the next page that comes up, type in the surname and see any records with that name. If you click the number of interments (to the far right of the cemetery name) then it will return an alphabetical listing, page by page – sometimes this can be a good option when it turns out the name was misspelled or the person was listed under a maiden name. Do remember that not every cemetery has been abstracted and sometimes a person could be missed. If you create a “login” name and password you can contact the person who abstracted the information for a specific grave or cemetery to see if there is more information they can give you. Those names are found at the bottom of an information page.
When you actually find someone, make note of all the info given, such as the cemetery name, address, plot number, inscription on the tombstone, etc. and include that in the notes on the family tree. Also, make note of any family members listed in the description that can be added to your research. Copy the text of the obituary, if it is included. This will help in citing your source. If there are family members listed sometimes those names are linked to their tombstone information – so click the names and you may find more.
Remember, again, that this information is entered by people who are volunteers and mean well, but the information could be inaccurate or unsourced so take it with a grain of salt!
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Family Search Wiki
Have you ever decided to do some research in a certain area, but don't know what records might be available? FamilySearch.org has a Wiki that will help. You can start here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page. Although you do not need a Login and Password to use the Wiki, if you want to use and download the records with images, it is best to create a login - it's all free anyway, so why not?
Once you are on the main page of the Wiki, there are choices. One is to use the button the right to "Jump-start your Research". This is guided research where you can pick first the country, the the state of interest. Once a choice is made, there will be (usually) three options - Birth, Marriage, Death. Clicking on any one will display where those records may be located along with a few other ideas of where to look.
If guided research is too basic, then from the main page, you can choose to dive right in by entering a place or topic in the center search field, or click on a location (designated by country) or clicking "List of Localities". Also, check the menu to the left for more options - try "Online Genealogy Records". Once a choice hs been made, there will be a listing, which has more entries than the Guided Research. You can then click on the title of any entry to see more informatinon.
Give it a try - you may be surprised at all the information available! |
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Using PERSI to Find Family Stories
Have you ever heard of PERSI?
PERSI stands for the "Periodical Source Index". Almost every genealogy and some historical societies produce a "quarterly" publication aka periodical. If you are a member of SAGHS, you will be very familiar with our quarterly, The Stalkin' Kin in Old West Texas or, as we call it, Stalkin' Kin. Many of you may have had an article ot two published in it - and if you haven't, get crackin'! We always welcome stories about ancestors or how information on ancstors was found....
What you may not be aware of, is that libraries often join these various societies in order to get the periodicals for their patrons to use. The Allen County Public Library, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has an entire floor dedicated to genealogy, with county and town histories, family histories, genealogy books and a large selection of periodicals (and more). They collect these periodicals from genealogy societies, ours included. The ACPL has indexed certain information found in these publications and put it all online in a searchable database under the acronym PERSI. You can search this database by suranme, location or a keyword.
Why would you want to do this?
Why, to see if you can find a published story about your ancestor or the place they lived, of course!
If you do find something that looks interesting, you can fill out an order form (up to 6 requests per form), and mail it in for the low cost of $7.50 . There will be a "click here" on the search results page to get the order form. The librarian will print the story/stories of interest and send it back to you.
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Using the Internet Archive for Genealogy
The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library with the stated mission of “universal access to all knowledge.” It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, which includes websites, software applications, games, music, movies, videos, moving images, and tens of thousands public-domain books. The Internet Archive’s collection is growing daily and best of all, it is FREE. Go ahead and create a user name and password. If you log in, it makes it easier to download books, save books and mark "favorites".
The Internet Archive has a dedicated section just for genealogy, family history, and local history books. You can search that collection from this link: https://archive.org/details/genealogy. Find the box labeled “Search this Collection” (on the left) and search for an ancestor’s full name, just the surname or a place – counties seem to return the most results.
The books that will come up for you to choose from are generally books that contain that ancestor’s name, books about that family’s genealogy or local history books that have that name someplace within the book. Sometimes it will show books written by authors with that surname. If you search for a location you are likely to see county histories which often contain “sketches” about people and/or towns.
The search seems to work best for surnames of families that have been in North America for a century or longer. It does not does not work well for recent immigrants. The reason for that is because the books on this site are out of copyright, which means they were published before 1923. So, don’t look for recent immigrant families in this collection.
Once your search term has returned a page of selections, you can hover your pointer over the book cover to see a short description about the book. There is also a highlighted area (usually in orange) that will show the name or place you searched for.
One a book of interest is located, click on it to "read" it. It will open to show the cover of the book. The blue pointers across the bottom show which pages contain the name or place originally searched for. Hover over the blue marker to see what is contained on each page.
Use the controls along the bottom right to zoom in or out, turn the page either direction or have it read out loud if you want. Hover your pointer over them to see that they do.
If there are a multitude of blue markers, try clicking the far right edge of the book to get to the last page and then use the navigation arrow on the bottom left to page back to an index – hopefully there will be one. Additionally, along the left side there will be a listing of the name found and the pages it is on. You can go down the list and click the page that insterest you.
It is possible, in many cases to download the whole book. Go to the white section below the book and page down. If you are allowed to download the book, on the left you will see choices – PDF, Kindle, etc. Chose what suits your needs and click on that choice. It might be handy to have to book on a local computer for quick reference – especially if you are lucky enough to find a family tree going back many generations.
You can go back to the original page of books that met your search criteria by clicking on your “browser’s back arrow” (top left).
If you do not find what you are looking for you should also search at the overall resource, https://archive.org. There will be a much larger selection and many will not pertain to genealogy or history. |
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Linkpendium
Have you tried Linkpendium? Clicking the link below will open in a new window and closing that window will bring you back here.
Linkpendium is a 10,000,000+ resource directory to find info about families worldwide and genealogically-relevant information about U.S. states and counties. They cover both free and subscription sites, with a strong emphasis upon free resources provided by libraries, other government agencies, genealogical and historical societies, and individuals.
There are some instructions that explain how to search, or you can just dive right in with the city, county or surname and state - that is found on the right side of the screen. You can also just fill in a name and location at the top. They will point out if a record is found on a free site or a "pay" site. It is an extremely fast search engine, so you can go thru quite a few names in a very short time!
Give it a try and see what information you can find! |
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Welcome to our blog!
We are celebrating the 50 year anniversary of SAGHS in 2022-2023 and with that in mind, we will adding tips and ideas to our blog "50 Ways to Celebrate Genealogy." Watch for blog posts starting in 2023 with our ideas of how you can include genealogy and family history in your life. We are so excited to be a very active group after 50 years, and plan to continue on for another 50! Join us on our journey! |
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