Welcome to Genealogy 101 Presented by Nicholas Clayton, Adult Services Librarian Gilroy Library Last updated 1.20.2012

What we will cover How to search in Ancestry.com Library Edition. How to link families together What an old census looks like and how to read it. Additional resources.

Step 1 1→ 2→ This is first box you see under “home”. Note the two boxes. These are clues on how to search the database. Sometimes an exact match is the best way to search. If you are not sure about the year, you can also estimate that.

Step 2 →→→→ Note the options…

Step 3 Sample Search for “John Thomas Smith” →→→→ Note that you can specify location, in this case we will look at Morgan Hill. When you start typing, city names will start to appear, similar to Google.

Step 4 Here are the search results. Note the differences in location. Note the Variety of Sources.

Step 5 Here we are going to limit the search… We can choose from the following options →→→ in the first box. In the second box we can limit as well.

Step 6 Here I limited to “California” as a location. You can see that other people also show up, with detailed information.

Step 7 Here is the one of entries in detail. If you click on “view image” it will open to a abobe pdf.

Step 8 When you scroll down to John E. Smith, in Gilroy, here is the listing. These links will send you to the household members, neighbors, and even their address in 1930.

Step 9 This a good time to make sure you have the right relative. You can do this with the “estimated birth year” and “home in 19__”.

Step 10 When I clicked on “Maria Smith” under household members, the wife’s information is displayed. We can check to see if it is the same family by checking the names in the bottom box.

Step 11 Here is the screen you see when you click on “view map”. It is similar to a Google map, you can zoom in.

Step 12 To see a copy of the census, click “View Original image” For a blank version of that census, click “View blank form”

Step 13 Here is what the copy of the census report looks like. Sometime names might be misspelled. In addition, some entries might be hard to read.

Step 14 Here is a detailed view of the census of 1930.

Step 15 Detailed view 1 Note the different categories.

Step 1B. A note about sources Names Misspelled = Some names might be misspelled or the family name had change over the years. Census = Different years, different question asked and the format might be different.

Step 16 – detailed view 2

Step 17 – another view on the bottom of the screen.

Step 18 – Get blank forms Here you can get your own historical forms and print them out.

Step 19 – Additional Resources Here are some the Genealogy Resources from the Santa Clara County Library page.

Step 20.1 - Dictionary of American Family Names Here is the screen for this dictionary. Simply type the last name in the box.

Step 20.2- Dictionary of American Family Names Search 2 Here is the search result for “Roig”. To see more info, click on “Widen you search”

Step 20.3- Dictionary of American Family Names 3

Step 21 – Heritage Quest Here the screen for Heritage Quest. You can look

Step 22- Browse search Click on Browse

Step 23 – Search by Census Here you can chose the census year, by clicking on the arrow.