“Most people do family history whenever they can fit it in their busy lives, on evenings, holidays, weekends, and so forth. Whether you are a beginner or experienced researcher, you can choose subjects of interest to you from the available classes and watch them anytime and anywhere,” said FamilySearch Community Services Manager Diane Loosle.

According to Loosle, the free online classes are one part of the growing number of tools FamilySearch is building for its online patrons.

All of the classes can be accessed from the Family Search site www.familysearch.org by clicking on Free Online Classes on the home page. Included in the classes offered are:

• England Beginning Research Series
• Germany Research Series
• Ireland Research Series
• Italy Research Series
• Research Principles and Tools
• Russia Research Series
• United States Research

You can watch the video online or download it to your computer to watch. You can also download the class outline in pdf format.

Visit the Research Series Classes Online.

You can read the entire article on the database http://www.wvculture.org/history/vitalrecordsarticle.pdf and then head on over to the West Virginia online vital records database to start your research.

The DAR Genealogical Research System is a combination of several databases created in recent years to organize the large quantity of information that the DAR has collected since its inception in 1890. Much of the work to create these research tools is the direct result of funding provided by the President General’s Project of the administrations of Linda Tinker Watkins (2001-2004) and Presley Merritt Wagoner (2004-2007). This system of databases will continue to expand as new information is added.

Once you click on the link DAR Genealogical Research System, you will see the screen pictured below

Click thumbnail for a larger view.

You can access the various databases through the “tabs” along the top of the search screen. The following descriptions provide basic information about each database.

Ancestor Tab

The Ancestor Tab is the working database of the DAR Genealogy Office and the data are taken from verified membership applications and supplemental applications. The database is NOT a comprehensive list of all individuals who served in the Revolutionary War.

Member Tab

You may search for basic information on a member’s ancestor record using their national number, name and other fields using the Member Tab.

Descendants Tab

The Descendants database is an index of the names found on the lineage page of DAR applications and supplemental applications. This database is an ongoing project. If you do not locate the name you are expecting to find it may be because not all the applications have been indexed.

GRC Tab

The DAR’s Genealogical Records Committee Reports began in 1913 and are added to every year. The information in these 20,000 typescript volumes is predominately Bible record and cemetery record transcriptions along with many other types of transcribed or abstracted genealogical sources.

Resources Tab

Researchers will find a variety of links to other resources of use in genealogical research in this section of the system.

Library Catalog Tab

This section provides a direct link to the DAR Library’s online catalog.

You can obtain a much more detailed description of each of the tabs by visiting http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm

Using my own ancestor, Solomon Phillips, as an example, the image below is what you will see if you search on the Descendants Tab.

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

If you click on the icon you can view the list. View a screenshot of the Descendant’s List.

Take some time to explore all of the options available on this new tool available to aid in your genealogy research.

Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 9 April 2008, Vol. 11, No. 14

Family history researchers are acutely aware of the importance of preserving their family’s information. We wish our ancestors had left us a better paper trail. But are we doing the same for those that follow us?During my time working with RootsWeb, I handled many cases where users were moved to a nursing home, became disabled, passed on, or for one reason or another became unable to manage their information on RootsWeb. It’s important to make provisions now for someone to manage your information when you no longer can. Doing so will save your family, and fellow researchers, lots of time and effort.

DELETE IT, LEAVE IT BE, OR FIND A CUSTODIAN

Your information will remain on the site unless you or a legal heir or guardian requests that it be removed. Notes can be added to some information to let researchers know you can no longer be contacted. Or, you may wish to pass on the care of certain accounts and information to a relative or friend.

Whatever course of action you decide on, leave instructions in your will or simply prepare a separate letter of instruction for your heirs or chosen guardians.

FAMILY TREES AND WEBSITES

Our RootsWeb-hosted Web pages and WorldConnect family trees represent hours of work gathered together in one spot.

Some may want these removed when the time comes, but most of us will probably want RootsWeb to preserve our data for future researchers. There may be information that could later be disproved or added to; even so, our research can provide a base for others to build upon. WorldConnect provides the Post-em Note feature for this purpose.

And, unlike other hosting services that require renewal and payment, RootsWeb will continue to maintain our data for free for the foreseeable future.

Leave your user code and password for heirs if you want them to delete your family tree or manage the file for you. If they are going to accept responsibility for communication about the tree, have them update it with their current e-mail address.

Or, you can have them contact RootsWeb Support to add a note to the file indicating that the submitter is deceased and can no longer be contacted. To contact RootsWeb Support, click the Help tab at the top of any RootsWeb page; then, select the “Email RootsWeb Support” tab.

WorldConnect file with a note showing that the owner has passed away.

MAILING LIST ARCHIVES AND MESSAGE BOARD POSTS
Mailing list archives and old posts on message boards should not be of concern; archived messages represent what transpired on a given date and neither the information nor the contact address need to be current for the messages to be of value to future researchers.

However, if you are subscribed to a mailing list, you may want to have these services discontinued, especially if a spouse or other family member continues to use your e-mail address but does not wish to receive mail from RootsWeb. They may contact RootsWeb Support to globally remove the e-mail address from all mailing lists.

If you subscribe to alerts for new posts to message boards, your family member can simply hit reply to the e-mail notification and the address will be unsubscribed from all board alerts.

MAILING LIST AND MESSAGE BOARD ADMINISTRATORS

If you are a RootsWeb administrator, you should provide instructions for your heirs or guardians to contact RootsWeb Support if you are unable to continue your administrative duties.

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

If you have a RootsWeb public profile at My Account, you may wish to instruct your heirs to ask RootsWeb Support to put a message in the “About Me” section of your profile explaining that you are no longer able to respond. If people click on your username on a message board or elsewhere they will see the note in your profile and won’t become frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to contact you.

Take a few moments now to give thought to the disposition of your valuable research so that it is preserved for future generations in accordance with your wishes. I know I’m going to do so.

Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 9 April 2008, Vol. 11, No. 14

The rapid growth of the Internet has outstripped the pace at which citation standards have been revised to include Internet sources. So, the purpose of this page is to serve as a guideline, if preliminary, to citing genealogically related material found on the Internet. For the most part, the citation examples below are modeled after traditional citation styles.

The ProGenealogist Family History Research Group has provided the Internet Citation Guide for Genealogists which gives helpful guidelines as well Citation Templates you can copy and paste to your documentation.

Since we all know how important documenting your resources is, this is another guide to add to your arsenal.

“The first time you went to the library you had to learn how to use the card catalog. The first time you went to the archives or a Family History Center you had to learn how to use a microfilm reader. So, you should take time to learn how to use another important research tool: Google” Read the rest of Google Tips for Genealogy: The Basics from Cyndi’s List.

Related Links:

• Googling For Grandma

The “Application for a Social Security Number” is commonly referred to as the SS-5. In addition to the SSDI, you may find your ancestor’s Social Security number in other ways, especially on death certificates. While it may seem like you are recreating the wheel to request the SS-5 form, there are times that this can be the only proof you will have for an ancestor’s birth. For instance, for those ancestors born in the 1860s to 1880s who immigrated to the United States, it can difficult to pinpoint their place of birth. On the SS-5 it was required that the applicant supply complete birth information. This means more than just the country of birth, as is usually found on census and death records. Moreover, the maiden name of the applicant’s mother was requested, often critical information for a family historian.

To request a photocopy of the original application for Social Security Card (SS-5), find the particular record of interest and let RootsWeb generate a printer-ready letter addressed to the Social Security Administration for you. Be sure to include the name of the individual, the Social Security number, date and place of death. You will need to include a check or money order for these records — currently $27 if you have the Social Security number, $29 without the number. The process of obtaining this information usually takes several months, so be patient.

If you can’t find your ancestor, especially if he is a young man, on the 1920 U.S. census in the state you know (or think) he lived in, consider putting “ALL” in the state box and do a search. He just might have been in the military at the time and listed at one of the service bases, stationed in another state, as mine was. I found mine at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. I scanned down the page and noted there were men from all over the United States — from ages 13 to 45.

Reprinted With Permission. Previously published in RootsWebReview: Vol. 7, No. 5, 4 February 2004.

By Laurie Keller lauriekeller@waitrose.com

I also have two great-aunts (twins) who are listed in the 1920 census both at their parents’ home and at a nurses’ dormitory because they were in nursing training, so young women who might have been training or studying away from home, or people in hospitals or other institutions, may also be locatable by widening the search to “all states.” Using this method I have located one person who was in a hospital in a completely different state at the time the census was taken. This tactic has proved fruitful with all the U.S. censuses from 1900 to1930.

Previously published in RootsWebReview: Vol. 7, No. 7, 18 February 2004. (Copyright 1998-2004, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.)

Include your Revolutionary War-era ancestor’s first and last name, spouse’s name (if known), dates of birth, death, and state of residence when posting your lookup request. You need not be interested in joining the NSDAR to request a lookup.

http://1url.org/go/1kku7

Reprinted with Permission. Previously published in RootsWebReview: Vol. 7, No. 2, 14 January 2004. (Copyright 1998-2004, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.)

This will be new and exciting to some of you. Others of you will wonder what I’ll do next — explain how to “dial” a telephone by pushing the little buttons?

You can sometimes use a general search engine for genealogy. My favorite is Google, http://www.google.com/ but there are others — AltaVista, Lycos, MSN, Dogpile, AOL. They all work about the same. The key is what they call an exact phrase, which you enclose in quotation marks. Let’s assume you are looking for Eltweed Pomeroy and Malinda McCorkle, married in Pocatello, Idaho in 1888.

This argument in the search engine: Eltweed Pomeroy Malinda McCorkle (without the quotation marks) means “show me all the pages that have the four words Eltweed, Pomeroy, Malinda and McCorkle on them”. You might strike pay dirt right away; you might also get a page that listed Eltweed Smith, Pomeroy Murgatroyd, Malinda Smith and Ebeneezer McCorkle.

This argument in the search engine: “Eltweed Pomeroy” “Malinda McCorkle” (with two sets of quotation marks) means “show me all the pages that have the exact phrases ‘Eltweed Pomeroy’ and ‘Malinda McCorkle’ on them”. Given the rarity of the names, if you got a hit it would almost certainly be useful.

However, if your ancestors are listed last name first, the argument above won’t get them. You won’t find them if they have middle initials on the page, either. This is a combination of exact phrase and any match: “Eltweed Pomeroy” Malinda McCorkle.

It says “show me all the pages with the exact phrase ‘Eltweed Pomeroy ‘and the two words Malinda and McCorkle somewhere on the page.” This argument would find a page with the sentence “Eltweed Pomeroy married Malinda, second daughter of Alphonse McCorkle …” or “Eltweed Pomeroy married Malinda Q. McCorkle …”.

General search engines are not perfect. They don’t have a Soundex option, although Google will sometimes suggest alternate spellings for you. Some of them require a plus sign with each word or phrase, although Google doesn’t. They work best for relatively uncommon names. If you are looking for John Smith who married Mary Johnson in New York City, you’ll get a lot of hits, but your chances of getting the right one are slim.

Most importantly and worth repeating, the phrase “Eltweed Pomeroy” is NOT the same as the phrase “Pomeroy, Eltweed” to a search engine. You get what you ask for. I usually try to use enough words and phrases in the argument that I get 20 hits or less. Quite often I don’t get any, but I’d rather get a few of the right hits than a thousand wrong ones. In this case I would try all of these arguments:

Four pairs of exact phrases:
“Eltweed Pomeroy” “Malinda McCorkle”
“Pomeroy Eltweed” “Malinda McCorkle”
“Eltweed Pomeroy” “McCorkle Malinda”
“Pomeroy Eltweed” “McCorkle Malinda”

Four combination searches:
“Eltweed Pomeroy” Malinda McCorkle
“Pomeroy Eltweed” Malinda McCorkle
“Malinda McCorkle” Eltweed Pomeroy
“McCorkle Malinda” Eltweed Pomeroy

And, just in case one of them was listed without a spouse,
“Eltweed Pomeroy” Pocatello
“Pomeroy Eltweed” Pocatello
“Malinda McCorkle” Pocatello
“McCorkle Malinda” Pocatello

Reprinted with permission. Previously published in RootsWebReview: Vol. 6, No. 18, 30 April 2003. (Copyright 1998-2004, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.)