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.

 

Happy hunting!

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:

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!

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!

 

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!

 

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!

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!

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!

 

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?

 

Want to know what a symbol on a headstone means? Headstone Emblems may have the answer. There are more at Gravestone Symbols

 

Now, back to ancestor researching!

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!

 

 

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!

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!