Genealogy Online: Discover Your Family History

Internet Biggest library in the world Use it for getting relatives contact information Communicating by e-mail Travel Reservations Forums Blogs Mail lists Thousands of places to hunt for ancestors Compile family history Publish family history and have it available through online booksellers

Write What You Know First step is to write down everything you know about yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and your great-grandparents List dates and places of birth, marriage, death, places of residence, church affiliation, military service, occupation Organize your information Cite sources Numerous forms available online to record your information

Forms www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/ www.free-genealogy-forms.com http://www.cyndislist.com/freestuff.htm#Charts http://www.genealogytoday.com/genealogy/enoch/forms.html

Recording Tips Use a pencil until you have evidence for the information Indicate a nickname in quotation marks following the given name Identify females by maiden name Leave the space blank if you do not have a piece of information

Birthdate To determine a birth date when you have a death date and age in years, months, and days (a common format in the 18th and 19th centuries), use a Birth Date Calculator http://longislandgenealogy.com/birth.html

County Records Because many records are located at the county level, it is important to know the name of the county, as well as the name of the town, when researching your ancestors. To determine the county in which a town is located, use RootsWeb's http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgi

Citing Resources As you complete each form, write down the source of each piece of information on the back Be sure to include website and the name of the website owner if available

Contact Your Living Relatives When you have recorded everything you know start contacting relatives Search for their addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers http://www.411.com/ http://www.peoplesearch.com/ http://www.whitepages.com/

Email Living Relatives Numerous free email accounts available online Gmail - http://www.google.com/ Yahoo! Mail - http://www.yahoo.com/ Windows Live Hotmail - www.hotmail.com GMX Mail - http://mail-us.gmx.com/

Filling in the Gaps You are now ready to fill in some of the blanks on your forms. These voids become your quest. Some information starts out as an educated guess. For example, if you don't know a marriage date but know when first child was born. Make a notation when information is an educated guess.

Social Security Death Index Contains birth and death dates for deceased individuals with Social Security numbers Deaths had to have been reported to the Social Security Administration It includes men and women who died after 1962-2008 You can write the SSA for a copy of his/her Social Security application. Fee is $27. Application provides valuable information including parents' names, place of birth, and home address at the time the application was completed. http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Rootsweb's WorldConnect Project This database consists of family files submitted by amateur and professional researchers. Site is extremely helpful, but it contains many errors. Thus, all research should be verified through proper documentation. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

FamilySearch Contains information on millions of people worldwide. Some of the information has been donated by amateur genealogists so use the information with caution. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

Ellis Island Database Site provides images of ship manifests documenting over 22 million people who entered the United States through Ellis Island and the Port of New York. Records range between 1892 and 1924 Although the site is free, you must register to view the passenger record. http://www.ellisisland.org/

Castle Garden Database Information on immigrants who arrived in New York City between 1830 and 1892. Includes name, occupation, age at arrival, date of arrival, port of origin, and ship name. http://www.castlegarden.org/

Search Engines Search on the open Internet Information posted on person webpages http://www.google.com/

Cyndi's List Directory Considered one of the best List of Internet sites on almost every conceivable family history topic. Over 200,000 links on resources from Adoption to Land Records to Wills and Probate. http://www.cyndislist.com/

USGenWeb Project Directory Provides links to state and county genealogical resources http://www.usgenweb.org/

Vital Records Once you know the dates and locations of your ancestors' vital events, the next step is to write for the vital records. The best approach is to write for death records first, marriage records second and birth records last. Keep in mind that different localities started documenting vital records in vastly different time periods. Town clerks in New England recorded vital events as early as the 1600s. However, some southern and western states did not begin keeping these records until the late 1800s and early 1900s. In addition to problems of availability, these records can have errors. If a parent provided the information for a birth certificate, it is probably accurate. However, be aware that information on a death certificate is often provided by someone who did not know your ancestor's mother's maiden name or your ancestor's place of birth.

VitalRecords.Com Offers information on obtaining vital records and provides links to the state and county resources responsible for issuing records http://www.vitalrec.com/

DeathIndexes.com Free searchable databases that provide information from death records, obituaries, and cemetery inscriptions. Includes a listing of online birth, marriage, and divorce databases. http://www.deathindexes.com/

Godfrey Memorial Library's Free Databases Provides links to dozens of databases containing birth, death, and marriage information. Access to most of the databases is free. http://www.godfrey.org/

Federal Census Records Every ten years since 1790, the U.S. government has conducted a census of each state and territory. Census records have become a major tool for identifying where ancestors lived, estimating birth and death dates, and confirming parent-child relationships. Census schedules remain confidential for seventy-two years. Schedules from 1790 to 1840 name only the head of each household. Everyone else in the household is grouped by age and sex. Beginning in 1850, schedules includedname, age, sex, race, occupation, and birthplace of each person living in a household. The 1880 census added two more pieces of information: the relationship of each person to the head of the household and the birthplace of each person's parents. Fire destroyed most of the 1890 census.

Federal Census Records The 1900 census is the only census to include the month and year of birth for each person. The 1900 and 1910 censuses indicate the number of years of marriage for each couple, the number of children born to the mother, and the number of children still living. 1900 and 100 census also showed whether a family rented or owned its residence and whether the residence was a house or farm. For individuals born outside the U.S., these censuses also indicate the year of immigration. Expect your family's name to be spelled various ways. Census takers spelled what they heard, and many spellings are way off. Nicknames were often used in census records in place of formal given names. Keep in mind that it is impossible to know who gave the information to the census taker. Because it could have been a child, a parent, a boarder, or a neighbor, you should expect to encounter some errors. Many people rounded off their ages to the nearest 5 or 0.

Soundex Represent the sound of an english word In-depth explanation http://eogn.typepad.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/04/soundex_explain.html Soundex Converter http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/soundexconverter

Census Records at FamilySearch Labs Images for the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1900 censuses as well as the index (no images) for the 1880 census are available State census records are also available for several states. http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=0

1880 Census at FamilySearch If you had trouble searching the census at the FamilySearch Labs http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp

Census Online Census records transcribed by volunteers for a large number of counties in the US http://www.census-online.com/

Probate Records Wills and other probate records are valuable resources for family history research. Among some of the earliest records available, these documents help establish family relationships and pinpoint dates of death. Wills are especially valuable as they often list the wife and all the couple's children by their given names. In the case of married daughters, they often provide the names of their husbands. Occasionally, they will list the names of grandchildren.

Sampubco Provides copies of original wills for various counties in 29 states Can order a copy for a nominal fee http://www.sampubco.com/wills/states.htm

Church Records Church records often provide information through baptismal records, marriage records, church membership information, and death records. To determine the religious affiliations of your ancestors, review the documents that you have gathered including obituaries, cemetery records, and marriage records. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

Military Records Service records – used to prove military service Pension application records – includes family relationships, marriage information, and children's names Fee to order a copy http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/get-service-records.html

MilitaryIndexes.com Links to dozen of free and fee-based databases for military records from the Revolutionary War up through the Vietnam War. http://www.militaryindexes.com/

Newspapers Contain marriage notices, obituaries, and news items http://www.newspaperarchive.com/

Discussion Lists RootsWeb hosts thousands of discussion lists for genealogists. If you would like to participate in discussions with other researchers, you can subscribe to a list. If you would like to read the emails for a list without subscribing, you can search the list's archives. http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/index.html

Message Boards RootsWeb also hosts a large genealogy-related message board system. http://boards.rootsweb.com/

Software Programs At this point in your research, you may want to start moving your information into a computer program. There are dozens of genealogical applications, and each program has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. When selecting a program, make sure it has the ability to read and save GEDCOM files. GEDCOM is the file format used by genealogists to exchange genealogical data electronically. A GEDCOM file ends with a *.ged extension.

Software Programs If you would like to research some of the available programs, the following Web sites provide brief descriptions and product reviews. Louis Kessler's Genealogy Software Links http://www.gensoftreviews.com/ Cyndi's List of Software & Computers http://www.cyndislist.com/software.htm

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Free program developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the most popular programs for genealogy for Windows http://www.ldscatalog.com Family History Software Downloads Free online tutorial http://www.familysearch.org/eng/paf/lessons/paf5.html

Free Online Photo Editors FlauntR – www.flauntr.com FotoFlexer – www.fotoflexer.com Photoshop Express – www.photoshop.com/express Picnik – www.picnik.com Splashup – www.splashup.com Picasa – http://picasa.google.com/