1. Finding Your Ancestors in Michigan
by Robert Chapin
March 2011

2. Getting Started
Personal interviews are the fastest way to research your family!
Make a family tree.
Use free software.
Know what you don’t know.
Take your questions to Google.
Quickly realize Google can’t answer them.

3. Weddings and Obituaries
They are the most common sources of biographical information.
You won’t find this in any official record.
Can be the key to tracing female ancestry.
Obituaries can be found, offline, by date.
Wedding announcements are extremely difficult to locate without an index.

4. Freep.com

5. Michigan Death Notices
Kelly

6. Accelerating Your Research
Large Databases
Accelerating Your Research

7. Social Security Death Index
Includes most citizens starting in 1962.
Usually my first stop when researching recent generations.
Free search is available.
Easy to use.
Information can help you find obituaries.
State of issuance is a unique detail.

8. Search for SSDI
SSDI

9. SSDI Form
Chabensky

10. SSDI Results

11. FamilySearch.org General purpose genealogy databases. Free.
Much easier to use in 2011.
Some unique resources.
Ontario Census of 1861
Vital Records Indexes from Many States

12. FamilySearch Form
Fitzstephens

13. FamilySearch Results

14. Census Index

15. Census Record

16. Ancestry.com Largest genealogy database in the world.
Not free. Currently $30/mo.
Limited access from some libraries.
A good deal after exhausting all other resources, and you know what to look for.
No reason to subscribe for more than one or two months for personal use.

17. HathiTrust Library Founders include University of Michigan.
Contains 2.9 billion pages, thanks to the Google Books deal.
Surprises you with information that would never be found any other way.
Free.

18. HathiTrust.org
Fitzstephens

19. HathiTrust Results

20. Names Found on Page 47

21. Page 47

22. Narrow Your Search
Getting More Specific

23. Ellis Island, New York
12 million people entered the United States through this station.
1892 through 1954.
Database search with free registration.
Microfilm images are “free.” Sort of.

24. EllisIsland.org
Chabensky

25. Ellis Island Results Example Transcription Error
“Ekaterinoslav, Russia”
Spelled three different ways.
Why?
Corrected Transcription
This record originally said,
“Ivo Chalensky”
My correction was accepted because of the mismatch.

26. Seeking Michigan New database of death certificates.
1897 through 1920.
Funded in 2008 by the Talbert and Leota Abrams Foundation.
First online in 2009.
Free.

27. SeekingMichigan.org
Fitzstephens

28. Seeking Michigan Results
Example Transcription Error
Thomas Jr. is displayed here.
Thomas Sr. is missing.
Why?

29. Death Certificate

30. Jewish Ancestors
Check out JewishGen.org, especially if you have Hebrew or Yiddish text.
For the World War II era, check the Holocaust database at YadVashem.org.
There are many resources specific to Jewish genealogy in Michigan.

31. Search for Michigan Jewish Cemetery Index

32. Cemetery Index Front Page

33. Cemetery Index Form
Chapin

34. Cemetery Index Results

35. Farmers in the Family Agrarian families don’t move frequently.
Less likely to be missed in a census.
Searching by location can work well.
Parcels of land tend to be large.
These will show up on township maps.
Little village newspaper, little news.
Someone visited for tea time, seriously.

36. University of Michigan Digital Library
umdl.umich.edu

37. Digital Library Production Service

38. Featured Digital Collections

39. Michigan County Histories and Atlases
Fancy name for search by title

40. Atlas Title Form
Washtenaw

41. Atlas Title Results

42. Atlas Page Image

43. Finding Your Ancestors
Get started.
Look for biographical announcements.
Use large, general-purpose databases.
Narrow your search using resources specific to your family.
Most of this can be done for free.