How Do I Trace My Family Tree?

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Dec 032012
 

A question I am often asked is how do I trace my UK family tree? Taking the journey into the unknown territory of the past is a mixture of exhilaration and tedium. You will meet with misspelt names, birth dates that vary from one census to another, missing ancestors and be led down blind alleys. But when you finally meet up with that elusive ancestor the joy of success will spur you on with your research.

Like every good journey it starts with the first step, so buckle up your genealogical seat belt and I’ll guide you through the first important stages. First find any birth, marriage and death certificates, correspondence, insurance policies, ration books, etc. These will be of great help to you as you start your research. Anything that will give you details of your parents or grandparents. Gather up as much information as you can and jot it all down to start your tree.

Lay the tree out as the youngest first and work back. You can download blank family tree charts on our site if you wish, then start completing your family tree as far back as you can. Keep detailed notes on each person. You will thank yourself for this action when you find that you are retracing back and forth to verify information. I can’t stress this enough, you must be sure that you have the correct records for your ancestor, not somebody else’s.

It is quite an easy mistake to follow the wrong family back through the centuries as names can be similar and sometimes the same. I found that my great, great, great grandfather had a ‘detail double’, with the same name, the same year of birth and the same place of birth. It took 2 months of research into each one, retracing details back and forth to tie in the right man! I almost felt I could claim the other man as an ancestor, I knew him so well in the end!

Your initial aim is to collect enough verified information to take you back to 1911, at which point you can delve into the world of census records and begin to unlock the doors to your past. Within the census your ancestors will come alive for you. Don’t worry if you can’t find any certificates lurking in drawers or boxes, armed with only your parents’ names you may still be able to trace back through the years, although you will have to buy birth and marriage certificates.

I managed to trace my family tree knowing only the names of my parents and their dates and places of their birth. I needed to buy my parents birth certificates so that I could find out their parents details, thus keeping the trail going. To overcome this type of problem I recommend you sign up as a member of a genealogical website, and then start searching their records.

My first search was my father’s name, date and place of birth the results showed all the possible matches with my dad at the top of the list. I clicked on the link and it took me to the registered GRO entry for his birth, which in turn gave me the index reference details:

  • Surname at birth:
  • Forenames:
  • Year:
  • Qtr: (the year is broken into 4 quarters)
  • District:
  • Vol:
  • Page:

Every event of birth, marriage or death registered in England and Wales is allocated a reference by the General Register Office. Next I went to the GRO website ( ) and purchased my dad’s birth certificate. I repeated the same process for my mum.

By supplying the index reference the correct entry can be located by the GRO and the certificate will be sent to you. You can also purchase certificates from registration offices, but if you want to research online without having to travel miles then the internet is the way to go.

I sat back and waited for the post, it took about 7 days for the certificates to arrive. I opened them with anticipation and I wasn’t disappointed. I had in front of me the full details of my grandparents, their names, addresses and occupations. I used this information to find their marriage, which in turn gave me their father’s names and this was all I needed to take me back to the census records and from there fly back in time to meet my older ancestors.

This completes the first article on how to trace your family tree. I will be publishing further articles on how to use birth, marriage and death certificate information and how to use census records found online.

Re: Abraham Lincoln Family Tree to Present!

 Lincoln  No Responses »
Nov 272012
 

For Abe to be your uncle, he would have had either a sister of brother who lived and produced your line. Abe’s only sister died around 1829 in childbirth. His only brother Thomas died while very young.

It is possible that you descend from his wife’s side meaning he would be your uncle by marriage (Uncle-in-law). You might check the TODD family board to see if anyone has info there. But the best way for you to “discover” this is to begin your own tree. Start with yourself then work back through your parents and grandparents, etc. You will need REAL proof such as birth, marriage, and death records.

All of Abe’s direct family is gone. His descendants died out many years ago.

Those who are related are cousins of one level or another.

Your Family Tree

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Oct 242012
 

As you search for information on your ancestors and build up your family tree, you will soon find that you are using a few basic sources. However, to truly get an understanding of your ancestor’s life and the context of that life, you will need to dig further into additional documents, manuscripts, land records, diaries, and more. Here are suggestions to help you expand your family history research in 3 possible source areas.

1. For life event details of individuals:

The basic life events are the dates and places of birth, marriage, divorce, death, and burial. Frequently these are held in government storage, and many are being digitized and indexed, available online. If not available online yet, the microfilm of the records may be available by asking at your local library, or at a local Family History Center (part of the Mormon Church genealogy research). Some records may be held at local courthouses for searching. This may include wills as well as birth, marriage, death records.

Newspapers may have information on your ancestors’ life events, in obituaries, social columns, ship arrivals or departures, advertising, and more. Your public library or local college/university may have collections of historical newspapers, both local and national. Online, search through sites with archives of historical newspapers for more information.

Your local genealogical society or history society may well have collections in their library which could be useful to your research. For instance school or university yearbooks, local histories, books about specific groups of people, and more may be found at their libraries. Contact them for more information on their resources and how to access them.

Cemeteries are another wonderful place with details of your ancestor. Dates of birth, death, and marriage may be on the headstone. Or, the cemetery may have a record of the interment, with details of cause of death, and other details including who paid for the interment. Write, search, email the cemetery company for more information and what you may be able to find out. Online, there are several websites which specialize in photographs of grave stones with transcriptions as well. Volunteers are often available to take more photos of your ancestors – all it takes is a request.

2. Relatives – wonderful resources for genealogy treasures:

Your grandparents’ brothers and sisters and their children are wonderful resources for you. Contact these relatives if they are alive and ask if you could confirm details or, to have a few questions answered about the family. Sometimes you can not find information on your grandmother’s family anywhere, and yet a cousin will know from his or her parents that the family lived in a specific place at a specific time, and “Oh, by the way, greatgrandmother’s family name was Whitehouse” - Imagine!

Occasionally, one branch of the family turns out to be the keepers of various family history documents, diaries, bibles, mementos, and photographs. Politely ask if you might see these items. Take along your best digital camera, and a big notepad, so that you can ask questions as well as copying documents. Also, bring something with you to share such as a few old photographs, a copy of a passenger list, a keepsake, etc. Perhaps a cousin may loan you a book or some photographs for you to copy items. Keep a detailed record of where and when you got an item, so that you will be certain to return it in a timely manner to your helpful relative.

3. Museums, libraries, archives, courthouses, and more:

These are all the various places that documents, manuscripts, histories, newspapers, diaries and journals, and other historical items of value will be kept. Looking at the family members you are researching, think about where any information about your ancestor might be kept. Did your ancestor belong to a union, or a fraternal lodge, or a business association, or a religious group which immigrated -? There may be records and details in one of these places which could be searched. Perhaps your ancestor was mentioned in a company newsletter, now archived. If you are creative in your thinking of your ancestor’s life, you may find wonderfully interesting information about his or her life.

Go online and see what possible directories may be available to search, and what items may be included. Check through manuscript holdings of libraries of all kinds in order to understand the context of your ancestor’s lives as well as the particular details of one ancestor. And always, ask a librarian wherever you go.

These are only a few of the possible resources for you to dig into when building a family tree with historical and individual personal details. You will be extremely well rewarded by thinking outside the basic details and go looking for more personal information about your ancestors and their lives. Enjoy your searches.

Genealogy Research in the USA

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Aug 282012
 

If your ancestors have been living in the USA for several generations, they will have provided many different sources or documents about them, over their lifetimes. Whether they lived in a big city or a farm by a very small village, there are a variety of records that can be searched for more details about your ancestors. Use these to confirm the details you find – a good goal is to confirm details with 2-3 different sources.

Many people begin with looking through Census records, as the first official Census was in 1790, taking a snapshot of the USA every 10 years afterwards. However, some census years requested only the following minimal information: the householder’s name, the number of people residing at the home/farm (whether or free or slave), race, and number of males of age to bear arms (16 and over). While these records can be useful if you already know exactly where your ancestor lived, it can be challenging to be certain that you have the correct person or family. And, there are no details of names and ages of their children, for example, or that a widowed mother lives with them.

More than Census records, you will find additional records which may be more detailed and useful, providing you with quality sources of information. Remember that a Primary Source (a document filled out at time of an event with or by the individuals involved) is likely to be most accurate; accuracy diminishes with time after the event, and with additional people involved in the document. Look for all the details possible to be gleaned out of any document you find; they will provide you with many clues to help you trace more information.

Aside from Birth, Marriage, and Death registrations, the following 10 top Source records are very useful:

1. Church records: baptism, birth, marriage, death, burial; often includes putative father of illegitimate baby

2. Cemetery records, and headstone details: many found online now, or being transcribed by volunteers

3. Military records, military units records and histories, including draft registrations for WWI and WWII; remember that for WWI, men born between 11 Sept 1872 – 12 Sept 1900 registered; for WWII, the birthdates are 27 Apr 1877 to 16 Feb 1897

4. Pension records, including pensions from various wars (of which there were many!), other military pensions, plus pensions from specific companies. Sometimes widows wrote letters about their deceased husband’s pension, and these may be recorded as well. Don’t forget to ask about all documents relating to the pensioner.

5. Land records: usually held at the local county court, these records will list details of the holders, sometimes showing that there were relatives nearby as well; women may have held land as well, so search carefully

6. Obituaries and Memorials, in local newspapers or in the newspaper of a town where the individual lived in the past; funeral cards printed for the funeral service are also useful in this regard – if you can find them.

7. Wills, and probate details: check for several years either side of a death for these documents

8. State and Federal Censuses: remember that some states took censuses for various purposes, every few years, and these may help you fill in the gaps about your ancestors

9. Family Histories published: also County Histories, City Histories: many of these histories were published in the late 1800s and into the 1900s, and although may contain errors, they also contain much interesting detail and may provide you with more clues to follow. Look for a centennial year of a state or town where your ancestors lived, to see if any histories were written, and housed in a local museum.

10. And – don’t forget to search Directories of all sorts: City, Fraternal, Society, Tax Voter Lists; think of what kinds of societies or groups your ancestor might have belonged to (Masonic Lodges, political parties, associations), or what kind of document might list their name and address (or more)!

There are many more records that could be searched for additional information to add colour and depth to your ancestors’ lives. These 10 types of records are the ones that beginners in genealogy research sometimes forget tofind in libraries and archives of all sorts. As you go further back in time, you will find the above sources very helpful in confirming your ancestors’ details. Enjoy your searches!

Your Family Tree

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Aug 102012
 

As you begin to develop your family tree you likely have a family tree software program to help guide you to input information on each individual ancestor. Names. Birth Dates. Marriage Dates. Etc. There are many family tree programs available, some free, some inexpensive, some quite expensive. They all have their pros and cons, and if you have 10 people in a room talking about 10 programs, there are many arguments and discussions about the relative merits of each of the software programs! If you are beginning, I would suggest you use a free program to start with, because it is relatively easy to move your family data to any other program using a specialized way of saving it, called a GEDCOM. All programs are able to use this system of moving family tree information, and will guide you in doing so.

Two frequently-used free family tree software programs in North America are from Legacy or from FamilySearch. Check online for these programs, and download one to your computer. Once you have installed it, you can immediately start entering individuals, beginning with yourself as a “home” person. Adding your parents is relatively easy, as most of us at least know our parents birth dates, marriage dates, mother’s maiden name and some residences. But what then? What else should or could be added to an individual record?

Consider that each ancestor should have a source listed for Birth, Marriage, Divorce, Death, Burial. These are the core basics of information. For men, military service and related information can be added. But, after those basics, what could you add to make your ancestors come alive to you and others in your family?

The times: Consider your ancestors in the context of the times. What else was happening in their part of the world, that may have impacted them? What events happened in their lifetimes? How did they live? What were their occupations throughout their life? Could they read or write? How do you know? What do you know of how men and women lived and managed to survive in the 1700s or 1800s? Find out – look for diaries, journals, stories, histories and more.

Immigration: The vast majority of our ancestors in North America came from another country to settle. Some came because of religious persecution (Palatines, Pilgrims), others because of famine in their home country (Ireland is a prime example), others because of wars. Some came because of the possibility of adventure in a new country. Find out as best you can how and why your specific ancestors came to the new country. Perhaps those relatives who settled in Nova Scotia had neighbours or relatives who came earlier; or a group of families organized to resettle from England to a specific area in Virginia. Find out how they came, which ship, when, how long did it take to arrive, and other details. Did people go back and forth from the new to the old country to visit relatives? Question everything.

Documents and Records: By checking documents of your ancestors, you may come across information that provides you with additional questions to ask and research. Milk every document and record you find for every detail possible for future searches. If your great grandfather served in a war, look for military information about him. Sometimes discharge records include physical descriptions or medals, or other stories. If your family stayed in one town, look to see what the rest of the family was doing in that town, or if the next generation moved away to settle another place.

Gossip and Stories: There are oral records which can be very helpful for your family history. Often a story will help you verify when a ship may have brought your great grandparents from Europe to Canada, or that two brothers came together. Sometimes, it is only a story, and the details have become changed in the telling over several generations, making it difficult to find out the actual truth. If you use a family story as a “source”, make sure you mark it as such on the relevant ancestor.

In general, the following information will be very helpful to making your ancestors come alive in your family tree:

- occupations

- special interests or hobbies

- residences, particularly if there are pictures or sketches

- memberships in organizations (business, political, religious, service)

- medical information if detailed

- personal descriptions if possible (height, build, color of eyes or hair, etc.)

- published information on an ancestor (obit, history, legal issues, politics)

- handwriting; finding your ancestor’s signature (census) or handwriting (letters)

- stories, skills, talents

- photographs and other media

There are many other items that could be added to your ancestors, and as you become more skilled at research, you will begin to find additional details for specific individuals or whole families, at a certain time and place.

Note that every program will have a way to show you how to add a “source” for the information you put in. Consider that each date and event should have a “source”, and begin now to learn how to add that information. It is much easier to add it at this early stage than when you have several hundred or more in your tree, and have to add source information for all! When people begin genealogy searching we usually do not know what we are doing, and only later do we realize the importance of adding sources to our data. Start now. You can get a book from the library on how to cite your sources, as there are specific ways to write out the references. Go to Cyndi’s List (cyndislist.com) for more websites that offer source information you can use; some can be downloaded to your computer, others are good sites to bookmark for future reference, others will offer laminated sheets for a low fee.

Something to consider right now: What history would your own grandchildren want to know about you and your siblings and parents? Take time once a month to add some small item to your own history. Perhaps it was a fabulous trip you took one year when you were 15 or 35. Perhaps it was a piece of poetry you wrote, or how much you loved playing the piano at sing-alongs. Or learning to drive a car when you were 23. How much you loved to garden all your life, particularly herbs for cooking. Details. Short stories.

Find time to add color and flavor to your own history, and then see how some of that can be added to your ancestors. Later, when you begin to share your family tree research with your extended family members, you will find even more information from others, as they share theirs with you. One photograph or story may well lead to many more exciting additions to your family tree.

Your Family Tree

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Jul 082012
 

Once you have developed a small family tree with ancestors going back for several generations, it is time to take another look at the details you have unearthed so far. There are many clues, many interpretations, many guides to your learning about your family by evaluating those ancestor details. Here are a few fascinating ideas of how you could study your family tree for your own improved understanding of your family values, temperaments, talents, lifestyles, and more.

Your family tree could include some interesting details aside from the usual birth, marriage, occupation, death. It might also include individuals’ temperaments for example: shy, dramatic, people-oriented, enthusiastic, detail-oriented, organized, quick-tempered, independent, relaxed/laid-back, resists change, moody, ideas-oriented, and so on. Each individual would be described with 3-4 one-word descriptions of their personality or their way of relating to others.

In addition, members of the family tree could also have 1-2 ‘negative’ descriptors attached: those qualities which make them a challenge to be around, such as argumentative, manipulative, impulsive. Plus,add 1-2 ‘positive’ descriptors attached, their strengths and talents which make them a delight to be around, such as charming, sociable, great listener. Note there is nothing right or wrong about these descriptors, they are just your best guess at putting a label on their strengths and challenges. Try to do the same about yourself as seen through someone’s eyes (a friend).

If you wish, you could add these several kinds of descriptors to the individuals in your tree. They are not necessarily “the truth” about each individual – but they are your shorthand for the kind of person they are: temperament, strengths and talents, and challenges. These are FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, as they are very subjective observations of yours! Do you see any patterns? If not, don’t worry about it, as this is simply an interesting personal way to look at family lines.

For example, in my family, there are a number of individuals who are dramatic, emotional, creative artistic types, plus a few who are rather shy and withdrawn observers. And these characteristics seem to hold true in one line of the family – the almost extremes of one or the other, with no middle-ground types! Interesting. Makes for some challenging parenting when a dramatic emotional political father has a very shy withdrawn detail-oriented son. They are certainly not on the same wavelength, are they? No wonder parenting can be so fraught with pitfalls!

Look for patterns in the family. Did the women marry very young? If so, was there a war on, or other events which would make it more likely to happen, or less likely? What about occupations – did an occupation show up in several generations in a row? Or did a variant of one occupation show up in later generations? What did men do, and what did women do? Small families or large families? Children who died very young? Ancestors who died before 60? Particular diseases show up in some family lines? Were there any obvious patterns of lifestyle described in your family trees, as shown by residence, education, local newspaper social columns, etc.?

Look at birth order also, and see if there are any patterns there. There may not be, but I noticed a number of instances of an oldest in a family marrying a youngest in a family, in my ancestors trees. Again, you are simply looking for whatever patterns there may be, and then looking up information on those patterns for more understanding and insight into your family lines.

Even on gravestones, you may get clues about an ancestor which could tell you more about either the ancestor or the family. For example, in one family line on the east coast of the USA, the ancestors up to early 1900s were all (all!) buried in one cemetery, and their details all carved on a huge obelisk with surname on top. An amazing sight to see, with several generations of families buried in the one place. And another ancestor on the other coast of the USA – his monument dominates the entire large cemetery where he is buried, telling us something about his influence and social standing in the city where he lived his adult life. In both these cases, the information gave me clues for further research about the families and about the individuals listed.

If you could put a brief phrase (3-5 words) to identify one family line, what would that be? Does one family line tend to have many individuals who are great organizers and detail people “Details Are Everything!”, while another tends to have a number of musical artistic people “The Muse Is Present”? Perhaps one line has hard-working religious individuals: “Pillars of Community”; while another tends to value reading and education in philosophy: “Think-Read-Analyze!” For example, one family line I’ve dubbed “Let The Play Begin” for their love of theatre and music. While another line is “Heads Down-Bum Up: Work!” for their incredible work ethic. A third line is “Politics Power” for their general love of political writings, newspaper publishing, and connections to political individuals. Again, this is not necessarily the truth about the family, just a quick descriptor for me to understand their lives.

Are you having fun yet? The best reason to do any of these additional personal details for your ancestors is to try to see them as people, as individuals with loves and hopes and fears and talents, going through life the best they could, at the times they were living. And if you see nothing like these examples, don’t worry about it; this is simply an idea for you to use IF and only if it is useful for you in searching to understand your ancestors’ lives. Happy searching!

Your Family Tree

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Jul 052012
 

Are you beginning your genealogy search for your ancestors? It is tempting to dive in and start adding grandparents and greatgrandparents names and children into a brand new software program. However, before you get too far into your ancestor lines, you need to know a few basics to help your tree be a correct, accurate, and detailed one that will stand up to scrutiny. Here are 7 Tips to help you.

Take some time and follow these simple guidelines as you step backwards in time, from the present time, to the past. Hint:Write down the Source of your information in the correct manner on a Master List, with the correct citation style, plus the names and birthdates of the individuals described.

Tip #1: Work from the present to the past, the known to the unknown.
You know the most about yourself, your siblings, and your parents. Gather information from any original documents that you and your parents may have stored away, such as birth and marriage records, photos of family members including extended family members, newspaper clippings (birth, marriage, death notices, and more), education records, military service records, naturalization papers, and other memorabilia. Perhaps your father has his military information tucked away with a photo of several of his soldier colleagues or with a medal. Perhaps your mother kept a copy of her parents’ records/tickets coming from Scotland, including the name of the specific ship, and the ports of departure and arrival. Start digging, but start with those close to you.

Tip #2: Next, identify all gaps of information you see in your records.
Do you have a birthdate but no details of birthplace for an individual? There’s a story that your grandfather came to Canada a year or so before grandmother and 5 kids came; when was it that either of them came from Scotland or England? How did they get there? Do you have a death date but no note of where the individual was buried? You think your great grandparents and one of their siblings came together with another couple, and there’s a story that one of those children married into the family, but who is who? And when?
Aim for filling in the basics of Birth, Marriage, Death, Burial; later you could add emigration, military service if known, land records and so on. Use a Master List of possible documents/events that an individual may have experienced in order to guide your searches.

Tip #3: Ask – ask all your relatives for information, copies of documents, and other details.
Ask your relatives if they have any old documents, or old correspondence from relatives in the “old country”. Those names and places will give you more clues for future searches. Your grandmother’s brother’s family may have some old photos tucked away with details of the home or farm, and more. An uncle’s family may have medals of your great grandfather’s military service. A cousin may have found a few interesting photos of the 1860s of your great-Aunts. Perhaps there is actually a family Bible with details going back to the late 1700s! You will never know unless and until you ask.

Tip #4: Search in a circle around an ancestor’s known residence.
In general, families tended to stay together, and neighbours worked on each others farms, sometimes intermarrying. If one individual moved to another state, often another relative came soon afterwards. Take time to look up the address of a known ancestor on old maps, and search for relatives and common neighbours in a circle of 103 miles. You may find even more relatives with this method. Sometimes in a culture, it was common for adult children to live very close to one’s parents, so that by 3 generations you may uncover all brothers and sisters and their families using this method of search. I have found young adult brothers living in a boarding situation on the next street from their main family home, this way. The 1850 Census of a town or village may cover as few as 50 pages. You will be able to quickly scan through these pages to find your relatives, once you are familiar with the census-taker’s writing style.

Tip #5: Search one family line at a time.
By the time you are looking at your grandfather’s grandfather, you are at 5 generations, and have 8 family lines listed for your tree. Don’t get confused and distracted by doing bits and pieces of all of them – it’s simply too overwhelming. Instead, choose one line, perhaps because you think you have some good documents and family stories to support that line in your family tree. Methodically, work backwards through from one family to their parents, through their siblings (brothers/sisters) and their families, and then backwards again, following the direct ancestor line. Fill in the basics again: Birth, Marriage, Death, Burial. If you have a Family Group sheet record, you could note which information to look for, considering where they lived, what decades they lived in, what world or area events were happening.

Tip #6: Celebrate and inform your relatives of your findings!
There’s no point in doing this without sharing it with others in the family. You will likely only find a few who are truly interested in what you are doing – they may enjoy helping in the research. Others may be very glad that it is YOU who is doing the research, not them, but they are interested in various tidbits you find along the way. Perhaps you could send out a periodic newsletter to the family members, asking them to spread it out to others in the family, including interesting dates/names/events/copies of photos, etc. Perhaps it might be time to have a family reunion, and share all of this with a larger group!

Tip #7: If you decide to put a family tree online, THINK before you do it.
Keep private information – private! Your aunt may not appreciate the information that she gave up her first child when she was 16 in the family tree – even though many in the family knew this information. Your stories and notes may be too personal for a public tree. Always mark the birth and death dates of individuals so that living persons’ details are always kept hidden. If you don’t know those dates of some of your relatives, make an estimate, so that the person is noted as living and their information kept hidden. Most websites which offer free online family trees have software that will automatically exclude living persons’ details, but you need to find out how that works first. One last point about online trees: make sure that only one person has the controls to edit and change details (likely, you). Encourage relatives to send you any corrected details (with the source information to make certain that it IS correct!), and you can update the family tree on a regular basis, for everyone to see.

In summary: Start with what you know, keep records of all sources with their correct citations, ask your relatives to help, assume family members lived nearby and search in a circle, search one family line at a time, share your findings, and make sure your public tree does not contain private information. Enjoy your searches as you build your family tree!

Your Family Tree

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Jun 262012
 

We all have them: an ancestor with birthdate and marriage “known” to everyone in the family. But we cannot find other details on any registration document, and we have not been able to find their birth certificate. We are stuck – we can’t go further back in the line, because we have no identifying information to search on. What to do next? Use siblings.

As a beginner in genealogy searching, you will have learned the basic rule: work backwards from what you know, to be sure you are finding the correct ancestors. But once you are two or three generations back, it may be useful at times to go sideways at times rather than in a straight line backwards.

For example, if you know your great-grandmother’s full name (wonderful information), and you have a birthdate (1864) and possible residence, hold that information on a piece of paper while you look at other details of the family. The problem may be that you do not have her mother’s name, and therefore you cannot go further backwards. You would like to find her birth certificate which would have both of her parents listed, with her mother’s maiden name as well. Luckily you may be able to find a later Census record with other siblings names and ages listed, for the same district.

If any one of those individuals has a somewhat unusual name, or is the only one listed in a search of the area at the time of his/her likely year – you have hit treasure! For example, your great-grandmother may be Elizabeth Eileen Felty, born 8 Oct 1864 in Barrow in Furness, Lancashire England. And when you search, you find there are 4 Elizabeth Felty births! How to get the correct birth registration without paying for four of them! Ah, but you find that she has three siblings listed with her on the 1881 Census, and two of them have less common names: Sophia aged 13, and Beatrice aged 9. (note: these are examples only, not actual persons)

Using those two girls’ details, search backwards for their birth registration in free BMD (Free birth, marriage, death records). This site is a database which can be searched by name, date range, and place, and consists of records which have been transcribed by volunteers; you can also look at the actual records once you find someone. Or, you can search on the FamilySearch website for their database records of birth registrations for the area, as well.

You may find that there is only one of either Sophia or Beatrice Felty in the correct place and year. Goldmine. You can request one of those children’s birth certificates, sure that they are in fact your great-grandmother’s siblings, and there will be your next generation back.

Now that you have your great-grandmother’s mother’s maiden name, you can search again for her birth registration with the correct parents’ names. Once you have that wonderfully detailed document, you are ready to continue searching. You can now be certain of the correct marriage registration document, and can request a copy of that as well. And with the marriage document, will come both bride and groom parents’ names (or at least, the father’s name).

Each correct document you find will provide you with more clues to find other elusive ancestors in your family tree. Whenever you seem to be hitting a brick wall – as we all do – try the technique of searching sideways for more details. You will be amazed at the great wealth of information you can find on your ancestors, by doing so.

My Ancestors Arrived in North America

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
May 302012
 

From the 1400s to the current time period, our ancestors arrived in Canada and the United States by ship, usually in waves of immigrants. Unfortunately it can be quite difficult to find any proof of this ship trip, as captains were not required to list every passenger until into the later 1800s. At times the lists are very detailed with occupations, ages of each person, family groupings noted, country/place of origin. In other cases, only the men are listed by name, (or initial plus surname), with wives and children listed only as “family”.

Your beginning searches will need to focus on where your ancestors landed in North America, and as close to the correct date as you can get. Those dates can often be implied from land ownership registration, or early church registers of birth, marriage, and burial. Sometimes there are published histories of early communities which may list your ancestor family as having arrived in a certain year, even on a specific ship. More and more of these kinds of histories have been digitized and are online. If not, check with your librarian to see if you can get access to a specific history book you have found; possibly an inter-library loan may be possible. You won’t know until you ask.

If you know which country your ancestors came from, you could read up on the history of the country at the time your ancestors left. For example, my Kuhn ancestors came to Pennsylvania somewhere around 1730, settling in the Goshenhoppen district, later moving to Conewago Pennsylvania. From research I have done, I realize they came in a wave of “Palatine Immigration”. These Germans lived in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, and moved due to the almost continuous wars in the region. This research has helped me find more information on my ancestors: Kuhn and intermarried family lines in Pennsylvania.

Immigrant groups of families and neighbors tended to travel together, so if you have information of land ownerships and maps in the new country showing who owns land close by, you may be able to search on those additional individuals to find more information on your specific ancestors. This is a sideways approach to research, but can be fruitful if you cannot find the details you want to prove your ancestors’ arrivals in North America.

Neighbors in the old country tended, in the new country, to live together, work together, and of course, marry together. This is where keeping track of your greatgreatgrandparents’ siblings and their marriages may be helpful in gathering more information on your ancestor. Again, finding these groups of names on a ship list – even if spelled creatively – who are intermarrying 10-30 years later – will help strengthen your case for this being the correct passenger list and correct ship. This clue is particularly helpful in evaluating ship lists at a time when spelling was not at all standardized. For example, my ancestors’ surname Kuhn was spelled many ways until the early-mid 1800s, so could be listed as Coon, Kunn, Koen, Coen, Cone, Conn, Koehne, etc. Therefore, you will need to search online using any/every possible spelling! Every document may list them spelled differently.

There are a number of free sites online for you to search for ship passenger lists from early times onwards – if and only if the passenger list even existed! Some lists are lost forever, others are being digitized and put online. Here are only 5 of many more excellent guides to start your searches; use a search engine for the current correct web address:

- Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (includes much details on maritime resources over the years)
- TheShipsList (includes a message board and archives)
- Olive Tree Genealogy (watch out for all the paid advertising surrounding the actual search information)
- Collections Canada Passenger Lists
- Cyndi’s List for “Ships Passenger Lists” to either or both Canada and the U.S.

Remember that immigrants may have boarded the ship in a different country than their own – one group of Germans boarded ship in Glasgow Scotland! And the ship may have landed in Virginia or Quebec, but the immigrants may have then moved on to a different state/province, even to the other country. Your American settlers may have arrived in Montreal then moved across the border to Maine and travelled down to another state. Keep open to possibilities of travel, and try to follow groups of passengers, particularly if they arrived in the 1700s and early 1800s.

Genealogy Database Companies

 Genealogy News  No Responses »
Mar 082012
 

As you build your family tree, you will be amazed at the sheer number and scope of database companies on the Internet. Commercial database companies, volunteer database sites, single-person-hosted databases, free sites, pay-per-view sites, university archive sites, and more. There are many different kinds of databases available for searching for details of your ancestors, and that is exciting – but also overwhelming to most beginners.

Most of us are thrilled that “someone” has transcribed or scanned so much material and digitized it for us to search. We recognize that a great deal of work has gone into making a database searchable by name or place, so we are generally happy to pay a fee for searching at several particularly useful sites. Here’s what most of us have done BEFORE we spent any money on fees or memberships.

- SURNAMES: Search first to see if several of your surnames already have published/researched genealogies available. These may be on Surname Family Associations, or through the Guild of One-Name Studies. You will need to verify information, but it could be that your surname already has detailed genealogies up to your great grandparents, available with a small fee membership in an association.

– RESIDENCES: Review your family details of probable residences. Until we have at least a few generations of our ancestors listed and detailed (birth, marriage, death, burial), we may not be certain which specific database may be most useful for our searches. For example, I found that many of my ancestors on my mother’s side came from north-eastern United States such as Connecticut, Maine and New York. Hmmm. Which database has details of that area in the early 1800s and even earlier? Several lines of my father’s ancestors came from England – again, which databases may have details of the 1800s? Another line came from Germany in the 1700s – where would that information be found? Make a list of states or provinces, or specific countries that seem to be your ancestors’ birthplaces.

- MISSING DETAILS: Review and list missing details and documents. Are you searching for birth certificates, or military service? Are you missing burial information on several family lines? What specifically are you looking for? What years are you searching for – 1900s or 1800s or earlier? If later 1800s and 1900s you may find information in newspaper archives, with obituaries and more details published. Some newspaper archives are available at local museums or universities, and therefore are free to search; others are being digitized or scanned into a database each day, and listed on fee-based web sites. Check out what is online free to search in those specific areas.

– FREE SERVICES AND DATABASES: Have you checked with your library to find out if they have commercial databases available free to patrons with a library card? For example, my local library has the Ancestry Library version of Ancestry.com available – a tremendous benefit! Other libraries, such as in the United States, have available Heritage Quest as well. FamilySearch.com is one of the largest databases of genealogy information in the world, and their site is freely available – plus they have extremely good help and support available. Their local Family History Centers provide access to the full database collection, plus videos on how to do genealogy searching and more; one is likely available near to your area. For British roots, a group of dedicated volunteers provide birth, death, and marriage details at FreeBMD.com; once you have the volume and page numbers, you can then go on to order the certificates from the General Records Offices. Canadian records needed? Check on AutomatedGenealogy.com to search for details including copies of the censuses directly from the Canada Library Archives site. Ship arrivals? OliveTreeGenealogy.com will provide you with details of passenger lists and much more, free. And these are only a fraction of free databases to help you in your searches.

– CYNDI’S LIST: This is one of the very first sites you should check out. For over 10 years, Cyndi (yes, she is a person) has developed, maintained, and uploaded over 70,000 website addresses on various genealogy topics. From where to find sites if you have Swiss or Russian ancestors, to information on specific places or events, you will find details on her site, cyndislist.com. All sites and information is categorized and cross-referenced as well, and she spends hours making sure sites are updated as quickly as is humanly possible! Check out her lists of information for beginners, as well as other topics of interest to you.

– TRIAL MEMBERSHIPS: Many sites will offer short-term memberships for 7 days, or one month, or will allow a certain number of views or “hits” for a low fee or free. This will allow you to do thorough searches on the site, seeing what is available, finding out which databases they offer, how to save your information, and more. Evaluate how easy it is to search, find information, and copy/print it out. You may find that several companies offer the very same databases for similar fees, but one is easier for you to search and keep information.

- CONTROL YOUR CREDIT CARD: Since ‘trial’ memberships – and most all memberships – in database companies online use your credit card for automatic renewals, it is very important for you to control your credit card information. Theoretically they are supposed to provide you an email information that your membership will be renewed shortly, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. Keep a record of what you have signed up for, the date, the site, and the length of time. Go back in to those sites, and remove your credit card information so it is impossible for them to do an automatic renewal. Instead, if you like the site, call up the database company and see if you can get a “special” price for membership. Or, ask if they will perhaps include something special, a software program, or a CD of genealogy information etc. Since commercial companies frequently have such special sales online, this is a very legitimate request of yours, so take the time to get exactly what you want, once you have decided on a specific company.

– CHECK WITH YOUR GENEALOGY SOCIETY: Remember that you local genealogy society may have a library and access to other databases available to you. In addition, once you attend meetings and read their journals, you may find others who will answer your questions about the pros and cons of various commercial databases. Other members who are researching ancestors are often very helpful to beginners, and can answer your questions.

More questions? Use a simple yet very practical guide found at RootsBasic.com to help you get started. Packed with tips and strategies, the RootsBasic booklet will help you be proud of your family tree research. The 16 handy forms included provide practical methods for you to keep track of your research, your specific ancestors, sources, correspondence, and more. Whether you are a first-time family tree researcher, or have been building your tree for some time, you will find information you can use immediately to help move your ancestor research forward.

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