Great Classes Available Online

If you are like me and you could not fit Rootstech into your schedule this year, you can still catch up with some of the classes they had in Salt Lake. If you go to rootstech.org and click on "watch all sessions," you will see what sessions are available. As I was looking through the list of videos, I made a list of ones I want to watch...

1. Closing Death Records: Silver Bullet or Dead End
2. Using the Genealogical Proof Standard for Success
3. Best Websites & Apps for Finding Local History
4. Scottish Genealogy - Finding People (I have elusive Scottish ancestors, and can use all the hints in finding them as I can get)
5. Proven Methodology for Using Google for Genealogy
6. Homespun & Calico: Finding Our Foremothers
7. A Digital Treasure: PERSI and Your Family History
8. My Ancestors Are from Britain - What do I do Next?
9. Family History in a Digital Future
10. Become a Master Searcher on Ancestry (You can never know too much about a website)
11. Cemetery Crowdsourcing
12. Finding Elusive Records on FamilySearch.org

If the classes on my list, do not interest you, there are at least 14 other options for you to choose from. I am very excited to catch up on the latest information in the genealogy field. There is so much to learn, now I have to find the time to do the learning. Good luck!

Braving the Boxes

Have you ever been given a box or multiple boxes and you just did not know what to do with it? In the boxes there are so many different documents, photos, and other treasures about your ancestors, but they are hidden by the pure amount of stuff in the box. You have to put forth work in order to find the treasures that are in the boxes.

One of the best pieces of advice that I got tonight about how to work with these boxes was organize first and glean family history information later. Too many times we want to read through each piece of paper first as we are going, but if we organize it and then went through small portions, it will help us feel like we are accomplishing a lot.

 Here are a few guidelines we were given tonight...
1. Choose a specific time to work on your family history - you have to set aside a time or you will never get to the work you want to accomplish.
2. Gather supplies needed - put them into one place that no one can touch so you are not hunting for your supplies each time you sit down to do research.
3. Sort your box out by family first - Put documents together by the surname of the individuals.
4. Sort by individuals within the family - Start separating them out according to the different names you find.
5. Sort by date or time period of record - a few different ways you could do this would be by child, youth and adults. You can also do it by different periods (specific years, events in history, etc)
6. Make digital copies to share on FamilySearch - Do not just keep the information you find to yourself, make it available for other people to learn about their family too.

Here are some hints of things you might want to save...
1. handwritten notes
2. copies of correspondence
3. Books, articles, magazines that pertain to your research
4. If you feel something is important - keep it - You might not know why you feel it is important, but the answer will eventually be made known to you.

Remember that your inherited boxes should be a blessing a not a burden. Find the joy that will come when you find the treasures about your family members.

Thank you Diana Harmon and Alison Krutsch for the knowledge you shared with us.

Christmas week

Merry Christmas this week ...

Christmas is a great time to do family history work without getting on the computer to do research. This is a time where loved ones get together for long periods of time, which makes it a great time to get to know people better.

Take some time to ask questions that can help you better understand your family. If you need some ideas of questions to ask click on the link for 150 possibilities. When you ask questions make sure to find a way to record their answers. You can use paper and pencil to record their memories or pull out your cellphone and use a recording app. One app you might consider for recording is the FamilySearch app. If you use this app, you should know that it will be loaded to the FamilySearch website for you to play over and over.

The stories you learn this holiday season will become a treasure to you and your family.

Here at the center we want to wish you a fun and safe Christmas.

How can the new probate/wills record collection help my research

One of my new favorite databases on Ancestry to research in is the US Wills and Probates. Ancestry is still updating this database, but the information that you can find here is pure gold. This record type has been highly underused because they have not been easily accessible, but with the help of Ancestry, and FamilySearch we are now going to be able to use the valuable information found in these records.

In my own family history research, we have been searching for the death date, of one William Lumpkin Figg. There have been some who believed he died in 1912, 1918, and 1936 all in Linn County, Iowa; which do you pick. For me I picked none of them because I could not prove any of them. I searched for death records in Linn County and time and again came up empty handed concerning William. In my genealogical database the death on William has been blank about five years, but I had not given up hope that I would one day find the date of his death.  

The day this database was rolled out, I decided that I was going to search to see if there were any Figg's with a will in this area. One very promising probate popped up for a William Figg in 1918. When I clicked into the document this is what was found... 

Here I learned that this WM Figg was a resident of Linn County, Iowa, but he died in Buchanan County, Iowa on 9 January 1918. When I saw the dates on this document, I could not immediately take this as my own person, but it made me realize that for the last five years I could have been searching for a death in the wrong county. In order to figure out if this was the correct William Figg, I kept reading the document to see what other information I could come up with. As I continued to analyze the document, his heirs were mentioned as such:

When I found out who the heirs were for this William Figg, a joyful cheer came out of my mouth, because this is my family. I not only know when and where William Figg died. I now have a new county to write to for a death certificate for William. I also know where each of his children were living at the time of his death. This can be very helpful when I start to search for more information about each of their families.

The valuable information that was found in this probate, made me excited for the continued search for other people who possibly have a will/probate. I absolutely love when I am looking at the record collections Ancestry has added or updated and seeing this database increase in size. If you have not started searching for the gold in this database, start today. Take one person who you think might have a will/probate and search for them. The information you can use in these documents is well worth the search.

MyHeritage.com

MyHeritage is a great website for people who are looking for information about their family in other countries. Their goal is to connect people from one side of the ocean to the other. I have heard MyHeritage, called the Facebook of family history.

Here are some great features of MyHeritage…

1. Smart Matches - This feature takes the information from the tree you uploaded and looks at all the rest of the trees on the website. When matches are found in these different trees, you get an email, stating that there is someone else who has a tree with the same people as you. When you see these trees, you will find that you cannot just add the information to your tree, but you can request to visit with the person who owns that specific tree.
2. Record Matches - This feature looks at your tree, and then matches each person to records in their database. When you decide to attach records to your tree, remember to look at the bottom of the page, and you will see more records that can be attached to your tree. This feature is called "Record Detective".
3. Research Tab - MyHeritage will find a lot of records for you, but that does not take away having to search for additional records, not found by the computers. In order to research, you can use either the search all records, or pick a category available.

One really fun thing to do on MyHeritage to get to know your family, is to look at the family statistics, which is found under the home tab. You can visually see on charts different events in your ancestor's lives.

Have fun getting to know MyHeritage, and how you can use it in your family history research!

United Kingdom Research

• Geography - In order to find the records you will need for your family you need to know about the geography of this area. Remember Great Britain is an island. There are four constituent countries; England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. You need to understand the history of the area because of all the changes in power; it can change where records are located.

• Jurisdictions - Jurisdictions are important in both the government records and the church records. Understanding these helps you know who has authority which will help you understand where to begin your search.

• Government jurisdiction start with counties and later were divided into civil parishes and civil registrations
• Church jurisdictions are divided into Provinces, Dioceses, Deanery and Parishes. Parishes are the first place you will begin to search.

•  Use Historical Records - Both the church and the government recorded information about birth, marriages and deaths. Church records have been kept since the late 1400's. Government records began a lot later in the middle of the 1800's. These two types of records did not record the same information - you get christening and burial records from the church and birth and death dates in government records. Below are dates and helpful information about each:

1.     Government records started recording at different times for each country.

                                 1. England/Wales - 1 July 1837

                                 2. Scotland - 1 January 1855

                                 3. Ireland – 1864

2.     Church Records consist of Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts. The Bishop's Transcripts are copies of the parish registers which were sent yearly to the Bishop- Head of the Diocese. You need to know whether your ancestors were a member of the Church of England, Presbyterian Church, Church of Ireland or Non-Conformists.

Here are some websites that can help you in your research:
                       1. maps.familysearch.org
                       2. findmypast.com 
                       3. thegenealogist.com
                       4. ukbmd.org.uk
                       5. freebmd.org.uk
                       6. www.ukbmd.org.uk/online_parish_clerk
                       7. freereg.ork.uk
                       8. familysearch.org
                       9. ancestry.com

Thank you Brother Cronk for teaching us about United Kingdom research and happy researching!

Navigating the U.S. Census

This was a really great class about the census by Allison Krutsch and Diana Harmon. The evening was broken up into two parts; things to remember about the census and how to use the census.

Four things I learned about the census

1. Census records were not created for genealogical purposes. They were instead created by the government for taxation purposes, and to learn more about the citizens of this country. I learned that the 1880 soundex index was created mainly to look at families who had children under ten years old. The government was looking ahead at the people who would use a program we know as Social Security. Since the census is not created for the purpose of genealogy, we can learn more about our ancestors than the typical birth, marriage and death genealogist are searching for. This helps us paint a picture in our minds about what their lives were like.

2. Census records are secondary sources. This means that the information on the census was not taken at the time the events occurred. There might be some information on the census that is incorrect because of the person that is giving the information who did not know all the correct answers.

3. There are many different kinds of census records. Here is a short list of some of the different kinds of census records: Mortality, Veterans, Slave, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Indian, etc. Remember look at the federal census for clues indicating that you should go to one of the other types of censuses. You can go to the FamilySearch wiki for more information about different types of census records.

4. Every census has different information so it is really important to understand what each census is looking for. Here is a link to a blog that has a year by year look at what each census has... http://www.ancestryinsider.org/2012/08/ancestrycom-free-census-weekend-time.html

Six things I learned about using the census

1. When looking at census records, compare the information to what you already know about the family.

2. Relationships are to the head of the household.

3. Look at all of the columns to see what is being asked. You can find blank forms on ancestry.com or on the FamilySearch Wiki.

4. Pay attention to other people on the page. The neighbors could help you further your research.

5. Look at all the pages of the census. The 1840 census has two pages with information about your family on it. On the second page it lists who in the household had received a military pension and what their age was. (I am currently re looking at all my 1840 censuses to make sure I have all the information about my family)

6. Understand the history of the area because it will help you understand what you are learning about your family. It can also help you look for more information about your family.

thanks for a great class and good luck with your census research!