Monday, January 31, 2011

Musings on a Munday ProGen

Several of my Geneablogger friends have completed or are currently enrolled in the ProGen program.  Do you have a desire to "go pro" with your research?  Be sure to check out this educational opportunity if you do.  I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

GHLL Weekly Updates


New Genealogy and History Data posted for week of January 31, 2011 - February 6, 2011.





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    Surnames
    International Resources
    Domestic Resources
    Book Review
    Web Site of the Week
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Monday, January 24, 2011

Musings on a Munday Maps

While I have attended many genealogy classes and seminars on a great many topics, by outstanding speakers, my favorite topics always end up being on maps.  I think I majored in the wrong discipline, I should have went with a geography degree!

I had a series of Wordless Wednesday posts on a group of caricature maps I found and fell in love with.  I also enjoy the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection as well as the panoramic map collections available online.  If you have some time, actually a lot of time, visit some of the map collection sites you can find through Google, Cyndi's List or at the GHLL site, you won't be disappointed.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

GHLL Weekly Updates


New Genealogy and History Data posted for week of January 24, 2011 - January 30, 2011.






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    Surnames
    International Resources
    Domestic Resources
    Book Review
    Web Site of the Week
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Monday, January 17, 2011

Musings on a Munday Pocket Tree

Those non-genea family members (most all of mine) may get turned off when faced with notebook full of documents. Try thinking of small, everyday ways to share what you have found with them.

What about including a pedigree chart, completed with what you know, in the birthday cards you send out? The Pocket Tree is ideal for this approach!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

GHLL Weekly Updates


New Genealogy and History Data posted for week of January 17, 2011 - January 23, 2011.









Click tree to view updates to:
    Surnames
    International Resources
    Domestic Resources
    Book Review
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    Calendar

Monday, January 10, 2011

Musings on a Munday Historical NY Times

The Historical New York Times has been a gold mine of information for me! My New Jersey born and raised Grandfather, Joseph A.G. Baudermann, attended NYU and was something of a track star there. I knew none of this until I started finding the articles in the Times.

I access the Times through my local library's remote database system right from home. There are many historical and genealogical related databases to choose from. See what your library system has to offer. You may find you have a "star" in your family tree also!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

GHLL Weekly Updates


New Genealogy and History Data posted for week of January 10, 2011 - January 16, 2011.





Click tree to view updates to:

    Surnames
    International Resources
    Domestic Resources
    Book Review
    Web Site of the Week
    Calendar

Friday, January 7, 2011

Mary, Mary Makes Me Contrary

Ah, Mary, why do you do this to me.  I am your great granddaughter, could you just throw me a little bone here??

My 2011 genealogy goal is finding out who Mary was.  While finding any ancestor can be a challenge, it becomes especially so when they tend to lie.  Yes, I said it, Mary and her family tend to make things up as they go along, like new names for themselves and new parents, etc.  I will try to give Mary the benefit of the doubt as I have only heard her referred to as Mary Evingham.  What will be interesting is to find out if Mary was the name she was born with and if she actually married a man with the surname of Evingham.

I have been searching for details on Mary's life by focusing on records I can find for her daughter, my grandmother.  I am requesting the death certificate for my grandmother in hopes that it will provide some accurate information on Mary.  I have my grandmother's funeral book and memorial card, but there is no mention of her parents.

I will have to be patient waiting for the death certificate.  My grandmother died in Missouri.  After 50 years Missouri birth certificates are transferred to the Missouri State Archives.  Of course, my grandmother just happened to die 50 years ago in 1960.  The Archives are working on the 1960 death certificates now and they will be available online in a few weeks.  However, being able to view and download the death certificates online for FREE is worth the wait.

I am on my way to tracking down Mary.  I just hope the final destination is answers and not more mystery!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

From the In-box: Question About Online Genealogy Databases

The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.




A newsletter reader asked a question today. It strikes me that perhaps others have the same question so I decided to answer it here where everyone can see the answer.

Here is the question I received:

"I am new to the genealogy game and am considering subscribing to a genealogy search service such as ancestry.com, archives.com, footnote.com, etc. Do all these services feed off the same databases? Is subscribing to one enough? Are there services that are complementary? To be more specific, if I were to subscribe to Ancestry.com would there be much benefit to subscribing to Archives.com also?"

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Great question! I suspect the answer is not obvious to anyone who is new to genealogy.

In fact, all of these databases are different and the companies are quite competitive. They do not share databases.

In some cases, two or more companies may appear to have the same data but, even then, the indexes are different. For instance, the 1860 U.S. census is available on Ancestry.com, HeritageQuest Online, and on Footnote.com. However, those three were indexed by three different organizations, using different people, and they indexed slightly different fields. For instance, all three have indexes of the names of the individuals and their ages, but one may have indexed the column about value of properly owned or perhaps the column of "can read and write." Another company's database might not have that particular column indexed but may have indexed the column on "race." Likewise, two of those databases can be searched by Soundex while the third cannot.

In short, each database is different from any databases of its competitors.

Note #1: Footnote.com was recently acquired by Ancestry.com so they are now owned by the same company. See http://goo.gl/OXAxZ for details. Even so, the Footnote.com site is still run as a completely separate entity and does not (yet) share any information with its Ancestry.com owners. If you sign up for both services, you can access completely different databases.

Note #2: FamilySearch.org has entered into cooperative arrangements with several other database providers. You can now find indexes on FamilySearch.org that point to images on another service. I guess that is duplication but the overlap is minimal.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Musings on a Munday

The Generations Project, available on BYU TV and also online, tells the story of everyday people on their family history quest. There is a special preview of Season 2 on January 3, 2011.

I watched the series last year and enjoyed it. What is really interesting is that they are looking for people to feature on their show, people just like you and me! Have you applied? I have not but plan on doing so!

UPDATE: the Season 2 special preview has been canceled for tonight. :(