Tag: genealogy resource

Friday Finds September 5-11

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On 11 September 2015

In Friday Finds, Resources

In honor of today, 14 years ago... By Derek Jensen (Tysto) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In honor of today. By Derek Jensen (Tysto) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Blogs/Articles

Webinars/Videos

Resources

  • FindMyPast Friday’s new records:
    • National School Admission Registers 1870-1914
    • Ireland National School Registers
    • Surrey, Southwark, St. Saviour’s Grammar School Admissions 1690-1895
    • Coffs Harbour District Schools Index

Tuesday’s Tip: Etsy?

By

On 14 July 2015

In Resources

Recently, Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers posted about using Etsy for genealogy. Have you tried this yet? Are you familiar with Etsy?

Etsy

 

Etsy is actually one of my favorite places to shop because I LOVE handmade items – journals, jewelry, house items, etc. So I’ve shopped on Etsy for a number of years now. I’ll admit though, I hadn’t thought of using Etsy for genealogy until I saw the post on Geneabloggers.

Even now, I’m… skeptical.

There are genealogy related items on Etsy. For example, here’s a screenshot of what searching for genealogy can find:

Etsy1

You get a lot of fun items this way where you can display your genealogy work.

  • Prints featuring personalized trees, graphs, charts, etc. that you can hang in your home
  • Other forms of artwork that can be personalized for you – Christmas ornaments, maps, etc.
  • Jewelry shaped in trees or other ways that can be genealogy related (for example, my favorite necklace came from Barb’s Branches on Etsy)
  • and more

Thomas MacEntee recommends adding the word ‘books’ to get some really interesting results and this surprised me as well. There were a number of items here that would be very useful mixed in with the usual ‘make your own’ genealogy books:

Etsy books

From there you can get specific – put in the word Pennsylvania after genealogy books and you’ll get a number of PA related historical books.

Searching just for a place can also bring up some great results, too. For example, a search for Saginaw brings up:

etsy saginaw

MAPS!!!!

Did I mention how much I LOVE maps???

For a measly $8.00 I could get a reproduction of the East Saginaw 1867 map – AMAZING! My husband is not thrilled with this recent discovery and since we share an office and it’s tiny, there’s not much I can do about this at the moment.. Trust me, when I get to have my own office one day, the walls will be filled with framed maps (and MANY book shelves…)!

Until then, I need to restrain myself.

Another neat item on Etsy is the photographs part when you search for genealogy. When you do a general search for genealogy, one of the top categories that comes up is photography. Clicking there is like finding a treasure trove at a garage sale. There’s an amazing amount of photos on there!  Not all are identified and some are incredibly expensive, but it’s still very neat to see what is in this collection.

Etsy photos

Thomas MacEntee also recommends looking by surname. Now when I did this I found nothing for my main surnames (Witherell, Langeneck, Almy). But when I use my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, which is Hummel, LOTS of figurines showed up! That isn’t surprising though and I expected as much for that name. In my quick search, I didn’t find anything genealogically related with the name though. However, it’s free to search so I recommend doing so; you could be pleasantly surprised!

 

Now as far as what this can do for your genealogy research, that will be up to you. It’s fun to look through and if you enjoy items created by your genealogy, this is a great site! The items for sale that could be useful (like the books and maps) tend to be available in libraries or historical societies, but if you like to have these items at home for whatever reason, for example, because you live far away from such places, this could be useful in your research. As I said, I remain skeptical as to how well this site can be used for your genealogy research, but it’s still worth the search. Nothing ventured, nothing gained after all!

 

Have you used Etsy for your research? Share your story!

AncestryAcademy

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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:

AncestryAcademy

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

AncestryAcademyVideoPage

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!

New Resource: Genealogy Gophers

By

On 5 March 2015

In Research, Resources

Genealogy Gophers: gengophers.com

Genealogy Gophers: gengophers.com

I posted on my Facebook about a new resource for genealogists called Genealogy Gophers. This resource searches over 40,000 digital books that ONLY HAVE TO DO WITH GENEALOGY! How awesome is that? I’ve used other sources like Google Books and Archives.org many times to find genealogy items. Of course, you get a lot of results that have nothing to do with genealogy. This website addresses that problem and it’s FREE! Who doesn’t love that word?

These books all come from out of copyright works that were digitized by FamilySearch.org (I love them). There is a listing of where the books come from specifically if you’re curious here.

You can search two ways:

  • Texts: This searches in the texts of books. You can look up surnames, first names, and place names. Be aware that these are exact searches but you can use wildcard searches. You can also add start and end years (those are rounded to the beginning and end of a decade) and using relative’s names that can be found near the searched for name.
  • Titles: This is pretty self-explanatory – you can look for book titles, authors, subjects, description, publisher, surname, and a place.

Search Results

I had to try this out of course. So I searched for my main research name: Witherell. That came up with over 800 results so I narrowed it down to just Michigan. And lo and behold, I found something NEW!

gengophers

That first one there, from Scituate, Massachusetts. It mentions the Rev. William Witherell and another William Witherell. I have gone through what I call the Witherell book MANY times searching for my ancestors that should be there if they were related. The book focuses on those two William Witherell lines and I am often told by other Witherell researchers that I am probably from one of those two lines and no other Witherell’s are ever mentioned; as far as starting a line in America, anyway.. But NONE of my ancestors are in there and they should be if they were related. Now, this lovely result gives me something different: “There was a John Witherell (probably a brother) in Cambridge in 1635, and afterward in Watertown.” ((Samuel Dean, History of Scituate, Massachusetts: From It’s First Settlement to 1831 (Boston: James Loring, 1881), 412))

This is the first time a Witherell other than the two William Witherell’s have been mentioned as line beginners in America! I did a little dance in my office at this!

Of course, this does not mean I am related in any way but it’s nice to see that the two William’s weren’t the only Witherell’s in existence.

Is There a Catch?

I guess. I suppose it depends on what you consider a catch. So once you get your search results you can then click on the item you want to view. You’ll see the books information on the left and then a survey on the right. You just need to complete the Google Consumer Survey to get to the book. This is how GenealogyGophers is getting their money along with the ads on that page too. The good thing is you only have to do the survey once a day so once you’ve done it for one book, you’re good for the day. Also this helps keep the site free, and again, who doesn’t like that word?

Once you take the survey you can see the book, specifically on the page your search results appear on. At the top of the book there are more search boxes so you can search for more within that one book. At the bottom are the navigation buttons; this is very similar to viewing books in archives.org.

AND! Another bonus, you can even download the PDF of the book, for free! That really is a lovely word!

 

So check out this new resource and tell me what you think in the comments below!

 

Happy hunting!

 

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