Category: Research Page 6 of 14

Anything and all related to research

Quick Tip: FamilySearch County Wikis

On 4 May 2015

I know I have mentioned FamilySearch’s wikis before but I want to emphasize their county pages. Above you see the Wiki main page for FamilySearch (click here to go there or you can click on search and then choose Wiki). You can click on any country to get information on that area. Is the information complete and accurate? Well that will depend.

What is a Wiki

I’m positive that most of you know of wikipedia. The thing that is the best (in my opinion) about wiki’s can also be the worst – they are collaborative pages that users can edit and add to. This can be great because there are many people out there with a lot of great knowledge as well as being able to update information as it happens!. If you think about that genealogically, that means that someone can add all the information they know about a specific place, group, record, etc, as well as when events may make the records no longer available. This is a wonderful idea!

Of course, this is also a bit iffy. We all know by now that not all that information is correct. However, it’s up to the community of users to find that information and correct it when that happens. Wikipedia has gotten much better at catching that mis-information over time, even closing some pages due to the conflicts but tends to also opens a forum for discussion on the conflict. It helps that you can add where the information came from (citing your sources!) so people can verify the information on their own.

FamilySearch Wiki

The FamilySearch wiki has specific pages that can be adopted by certain groups but anyone who has a log-in can enter and change the information. Since this community is one of sharing knowledge, I do believe that the majority of this information is accurate and there are links normally placed throughout the site so you can verify the information.

Searching on the Wiki

The main page (shown above) has a map where you can click on your area of interest. Since I’m talking about counties, I’ll focus on the United States. So you’ll click on North America on the map, then the United States on the next page.

Scroll down the US page until you see this map:

Then click on your state of interest. You’ll see a county map of the state next (all states have this, I checked). Click your county of interest and viola! You’ll see a page (hopefully) filled with wonderful information:

This is the St. Joseph, Indiana page. As you can see it was adopted by the Indiana Genealogical Society who put in the first bits of information on the county. As the county genealogist for St. Joseph County, I have also added information on what you can find here and added information from the local society.

The information is wonderful! You can see when the county started to keep their vital records, boundary change information, record loss information, and where are specific records. This is an amazing resource and tends to be my first stop when I enter in to a new county for research.

How You Can Help

Of course, not all information will be complete. Sometimes all that will be there is what the FamilySearch volunteers have added, which include what records they have for the county/state. However, sometimes there can be nothing at all:

A borough of Alaska

Grant it, this is a borough of Alaska that may have next to nothing as far as records go anyway (please correct me if I’m wrong here!). I’m just using this as an example of where you can step in and help.

Check out your county (or one you are very familiar with) and log in (easy to create a free account if you don’t already have one). Then add in the information that you know of and spread the word! Share this wiki with others you know are interested, your local society, historical groups, etc. and it will soon be filled with lots of goodies for people researching that area!

The best part of wiki’s to me is the community effort that is involved, and genealogy is a great community that really works on sharing that information. So check out your county and those you are interested in! Spread the word 🙂

Happy hunting!

AncestryAcademy

By Nichelle Barra

On 20 April 2015

In Research, Resources

The other day, I received an email from Ancestry.com announcing AncestryAcademy. Has anyone else seen this? To access it from your homepage you go to Learning Center and it’s the last one on that pulldown menu. If you are using the Beta (like me) it shows up in your extras tab at the top of your homepage. I tried out one course so far and here’s my rundown based on that:

What Is It?

AncestryAcademy has many video courses on a variety of genealogy topics offered by Ancestry.com. These course are for genealogists of any level.

What Kind of Courses Are Available?

New courses are added monthly and so far there are five courses available:

Who is That Tick Mark? Using Early Census Records with J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA: This focuses on early census forms from before 1850.
The Buckeye State: Researching Your Ohio Ancestors with Amy Johnson Crow, CG: This focuses on Ohio ancestors and goes into records like tax records, census records, court records, land settlement, etc.
Getting the Most Out of Family Tree Maker with Duff Wilson: For those who use Family Tree Maker and wish to get the most of it, this course focuses on using the program.
Native American Ancestry? Steps to Learn more with Paula Stuart-Warren, CG: This focuses on Native American ancestry and records to look for.
Street Smarts: Finding Your Ancestor in the Big City with Juliana Szucs: This focuses on researching your family when it comes to the city they lived in and what you can learn from looking around them.

What to Expect

I decided to take the Ohio Ancestors one as I have a trip to Fort Wayne planned where I will be focusing on some of my Ohio ancestors and figure this will be a good start.

The 14 videos in this session vary in length from 48 seconds to 7 mins 24 seconds for a total of a little less than an hour.

Each video (besides the intro and outro) have goals for you to learn in the short video. There is also a handout with the slideshow notes, which I appreciate. I do have dual screens so I tend to take notes on one screen while watching the video in the other, but for those who don’t, then you can use this handout to take any additional notes.

You can watch it all at once (the videos just keep going from one section to the next unless you stop that) or you can watch it in small segments (one video at a time). I watched them all at once, however, for some reason it kept skipping a section ahead. I just needed to then manually choose what video I wanted to see instead, but I hope whatever glitch that was will be fixed soon.

After you watch the videos, there is a quick test to take to complete the course and then you can print a certificate if you so choose.

The Downside

It can cost extra from your subscription. However, if you already subscribe to the Ancestry World Explorer Plus, the cost is included in that subscription.

If you do not, here are the costs:

Ancestry Academy Monthly: $11.99/month – unlimited access to all courses and the new ones added monthly
Ancestry Academy Annual: $99.99/year – unlimited access to all courses and the new ones added monthly

The Upside

This can be a great addition to those wishing to learn more about genealogy. Although these courses are for everyone, I feel those who will benefit the most will be the beginners and intermediates.

For the course I took, I did learn about the uniqueness of Ohio’s land records (which I did not know before) as well as where to look for records and what could be available for the time frames I’m looking for. I found the course beneficial to me and that is always a plus!

Overall

The AncestryAcademy is included in the Ancestry World Explorer Plus and I think that’s a great addition to those who have that already. Is it worth those who do not have that subscription? That will be up to the individual to decide. I do wish they’d offer a free trial so that those who wish to try it out could see if it would be worth it to purchase. I feel it really depends on where your strengths and weaknesses lay as a genealogists. The courses they have at the moment, may not be areas where you have interest or you may already feel quite knowledgeable about those areas. I’d say keep watching to see if items are added that you may find worthwhile. Then perhaps, trying it out for a month may be worth it.

I do believe that you can learn quite a bit from these courses and I hope that they will continue to add worthy courses to make the addition something people will benefit from.

Have any of you tried out these courses? What did you think?

Happy hunting!

Preparing for Genealogy Vacations

By Nichelle Barra

On 14 April 2015

In Research, Resources

Going along with yesterday’s theme, I’m going to show you how I prepare to visit my ancestor’s hometowns. Everyone is different, I realize, so obviously adjust this to your needs or come up with something new altogether!

First, I have a constant list going. Once I discover a town where ancestors probably left records, I start to create a list for records that I can’t find online (so, nearly all of them in most cases). I include the ancestor’s name, their life span, the information I want, what documents would have that information, and where those documents are located. Sometimes, depending on the ancestor and the place, it’s best to do a city list instead of a county list. It depends on how far the county seat is from the city and where the majority of the records are held. At the top of my list, I also include vital record information. Here is an example of what I mean:

To create the list, I need to know several things:

When were vital records kept (most of this information can be found on the county’s website or FamilySearch.org’s wiki on the county)
Where records are kept for specific items – for example, the Lutheran church records I want are held in the historical society, not at the church.
What records are kept at the county level vs. city level
What records have been destroyed
What records the library holds

Of course, there is a lot of legwork I do before I even get to the city I’m visiting. For example, the will I want I have read on FamilySearch.org but it only included the will, not the rest of the probate documents. There is information on FamilySearch.org for me to write down so I know what box/book/file, etc. the rest of the records are held in. I also contact the county to be sure the records are there and not in say the state library or archives. Sometimes some information can also be obtained by email. So, I email say the historical society, to be sure the church records they have are for the dates I’m looking for and they can sometimes email me a copy of the information I want. This may lead me to other information I would want and I can focus on other records while I am in town.

As most of you know, most records lead to more questions, more records, and more family members. I try to keep focused though and be sure to get what I can on the ancestors on my list, changing it as need be with the information I get. However, I do continue making my list while researching and add in the new people and the information I want on them. Then, if I can, I’ll tackle those new people with what I can find.

I love to travel and see new places and have a tendency to get ADD when it comes to my genealogy research! I’ll start after the new people I find and then never finish what I came all that way for! To prevent that, I need to PLAN as much as I possibly can and then focus on my list, editing as need be, to finish what I started. Since these trips are time-constrained, I do try to pack in as much as I can and this list helps me to focus and answer some of my genealogy questions (and doing some sight-seeing).

By Jayu from Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A. (Hummelstown, Pennsylvania) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What do you all do to prepare for your genealogy-related trips? Put any suggestions you have in the comments!

Happy hunting!

10 Tips on Successfully Researching in an Archive

By Nichelle Barra

On 13 April 2015

In Research, Resources

It’s almost summer! Which means travel! Genealogists will travel all over exploring where their ancestors may have left records. That means exploring cemeteries, county records, local libraries, and, specifically, archives.

So what are archives and what could you find in them? Archives hold many published and unpublished records that tend to be very unique. You’ll find items like diaries, letters, books, manuscripts, etc that tend to be from the area, although not always. Some places, like universities, may gather items that they know will be used by staff and students research specialties. All of these items though are very one-of-a-kind type of records that can be a great find for any genealogist.

These records are available to people, but you normally can’t just walk in on any day and peruse the shelves like at a library. Because of the nature of these unique records and their age, most archives keep their records in controlled rooms and restrict their access to prevent wear and tear. These restrictions make researching in an archive a very unique experience as well as one that some genealogists find intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be.

With that in mind, here are ten tips for successfully researching in an archive:

By Tony Webster (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Know your research questions. Because of the restrictive nature of archives, this is not a place for you to have a vague idea of what you want answered. Be sure you know exactly what you are looking for to get the most out of your research.
Know what types of records the archives will have. Many places have a certain focus for their record collection, especially in universities. For example, I live near the University of Notre Dame and their university archives have items about the Catholic Church in America among other items. This helps you to understand what archives you should visit depending on your research question(s).
Know the collections in the archives. Once you know what archive you want to visit, then you’ll want to know what collections they have. Many places have websites that will list their collections and records so you can do some research before you go.
Know what records you’d like to see. Write down the information on specific items in the collections you want to look at. When you contact the archives, you’ll then have a list of items you can tell them you’re interested in and they’ll let you know if the records are available or not.
Know the hours and open days. Not all archives have regular business hours. Some you may have to set up an actual appointment to get to see what you want. Also be sure you know about parking – where you can park and what it will cost – before you show up so you won’t be late for an appointment.
Know the restrictions. Some places you can bring in a laptop, others you cannot. Some allow only pencils and paper. Some have lockers for your items, some do not. Some allow cell phones/cameras/etc., some do not. Some require archival gloves, some do not. Check out the website to see what is or isn’t allowed in their reading room.
Know their copying rules. Some may allow you to make your own copies on their machines. Some may have you ask a worker to make a copy (this is more common for larger and more fragile documents). Some may have a copy card system or use only USB drives. Be sure you also know fees and if they only accept cash, card, or both. Also, some items may not be allowed to be copied so you’ll want to know that so you can prepare to transcribe them instead.
Contact the archives. This can be done by email, phone, or letter (email is probably the preferred method now but each archive will differ). Let them know when you plan on visiting to set up an appointment if need be and let them know what records you will want to see as mentioned in #4.
Bring ID and come early. Many archives require some form of ID before you can research. Some also have you fill out some information and they’ll issue you a researcher’s card (this link is to NARA’s information on theirs). This can take 15-20 minutes so be sure to arrive early for your appointment.
Take good and thorough notes. That way your steps can be retraced if necessary and if you need more information after you return home, you can email/call them and be very specific on what you need more information on. And, as always, cite your sources!

BONUS: ALWAYS check out the archives website for the best information on how to research in their facility specifically.

Happy hunting and travels!