Free Weekend of Find My Past

What are you doing this weekend? If you have British or Irish ancestors, be sure to make time to search findmypast.com, which will be free to all users from midday Friday, May 6 to midday Monday, March 9.

According to their announcement reposted in Dick Eastman's online newsletter, you will have access to:

• Over 900 million census records from across the UK, USA and Ireland
• Passenger lists for ships sailing to and from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA
• Birth, marriage and death records dating back to the 18th century, and the largest online collection of UK parish records
• The most comprehensive collection of UK military records anywhere online
• The largest collection of Irish family history records available online
• Historical newspapers from across the world, including more than 10 million British newspaper pages from as long ago as 1710

If you're unfamiliar with this database, you can watch a Getting Started video on their website and learn all about it. This is a great opportunity to "test drive" a database that you might want to subscribe to.

Let me know if you find anything!
~Sonia

FamilySearch Tips: Getting It All

FamilySearch is the largest and best free genealogy website around, so you want to get everything you can from it. Let's review:

The best way to search FamilySearch website is go to the first search box you see, type in your ancestor's name and place of birth, and press "Search." You'll get thousands if not millions of results and find everything there is to find, right?

Not so fast! First, remember what you learned from the last post and sign in. This will potentially give you access to more records than an "anonymous" search.

Next, search geographically when at all possible, using "Research by Location." Now you're getting somewhere. Click on your area of research on the world map, starting with the continent and drilling down to country or state. You will see a box that shows how many collections, indexed records, and record images they have, as well as the years covered in all the collections.

When you click on "Start researching..." you will have two options: to search the indexed records or browse the image only records. You will want to do both. There is no crossover between these two types of records.

When you search the indexed records you may find images or just an abstract of the information. Make sure you track down the original image of the abstracted record to obtain every scrap of information you can get.

When you browse the images only, don't be put off by the number of records to browse. The records are often divided into a manageable number of images to look through. Take your time and be grateful you can do this on your computer rather than a microfilm reader. (We'll tackle that step next time!)

Happy researching!
~Sonia

FamilySearch Tips

From time to time I will post tips for using the FamilySearch website. It is a vital website, and you will want to use it to the fullest extent.

Today's Tip:
Register for a free account. Sign in every time you use the site.

Why? Some information and some images are restricted, accessible only to registered users. Don't miss out because you don't have an account.

Click on "Free Account" in the top right corner. Supply your name, make up a user name and password, then give your email and a few other bits of information. Make sure you remember your user name and password.

Once you've registered, sign in (click on "Sign In" in the top right corner) and then type your User Name and Password in the boxes every time you use the site. Now you'll see everything that's available for you to see.

 

 

Happy researching!

~Sonia

British Genealogy

Last night at the Lake County (IL) Genealogical Society meeting, Maureen Brady gave an information-packed presentation on doing genealogy in the British Isles. If you have ancestors from the British Isles (loosely defined for our purposes as England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland). Here are some of the databases she mentioned:

• GENUKI (UK and Ireland Genealogy), most useful for getting background information and learning about topics like the history and geography of the area you're researching. Free.
• Deceased Online includes indexes and images of sexton records for cemeteries and churchyards for England, Scotland and Wales. It is not complete but being added to. Searching is free. To view the records you must buy credits or have a subscription.
• Findmypast is a good site but not easy to use. Useful for British military information. Subscription or pay-as-you-go, also free at Family History Centers.
• Scotland's People is the official government site for all Scottish records. Pay-as-you-go with credits.
• IrishGenealogy.ie is a sort of "gateway" site. Use its index to find records in other databases.

In addition to the above databases, of course you will still want to use the old standbys: Ancestry, FamilySearch, CyndisList, and even Google.

And remember, these sites are adding new material and records all the time. Check them every week.
~Sonia

Look for Page 2

Here's something to watch out for when you're searching and finding records in an online database like Ancestry: look and see if there is a page 2 to the image that you have found. The two examples below should tell you why.

Example 1: A World War II Draft Registration card for Charles Peterson gives all the information you might expect, including address, birth date, and place of employment, even a fairly nice signature:

Page 1

But take a look at the next screen and you might find something surprising:
Page 2

Charles Peterson is 5'8", 165 pounds, blue-eyed, blond, and blind. You might never have known this about your ancestor if you hadn't looked for page 2.

Example 2: On line 3 of the passenger list below we find Hedvig Rosalie Helgeson and learn her place of birth and that she lives in Winnetka. (She had probably left the country and was now coming back)

However, when you look on page 2, you will learn more about Hedvig Rosalie:

Line 3 now tells us the name and address of Hedvig Rosalie's father, not to mention the facts that she is 5'6", has brown hair, and is in good health, and is going to see her friend in Winnetka, Hans Philips. A close inspection of page1 might have given us a clue that there is more. Notice the incomplete heading at the top of the page: "List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United."

Often we are so excited when we find our ancestor in a record that we don't take time to examine the record fully or look for more. The next time you find an ancestor in an online database, remember to slow down and look for page 2!
~Sonia



You've Got To See This!

Local Author Appears on PBS' Genealogy Roadshow

Libertyville author Gail Lukasik filled out an application for PBS' Genealogy Roadshow, saying, "I'm a mystery writer with a family mystery I couldn't solve." The producers of the show interviewed her and accepted her for their program which will air on January 20, 2015 on WTTW, Channel 11 at 10 p.m. Make sure to watch to discover the secret that Gail promised her mother to keep until after her mother's death, involving her New Orleans grandfather and the Civil War.

Genealogy 101 CORRECTION

Our Genealogy 101 class this Saturday will be held in the Meeting Room at Cook Park Library in Libertyville. I apologize for giving the wrong information in the previous post.

See you at Cook Park Library on January 10, 2015, 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.
~Sonia