Archive for July, 2012

News from around the web.
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• The National Genealogical Society (NGS) has
  partnered with military records subscription site Fold3 to
  offer its members a discounted Fold3 rate: NGS members can subscribe to Fold3 for
  $39.95 per year, and Fold3 will donate 30 percent of the sale back to NGS. To take
  advantage of the offer, NGS members should visit
  this members-only page of the NGS website and log in with their member information.

• Ancestry.com announced it has added its 2 millionth
  active current subscriber. Ancestry.com has given that lucky person, Yvonne Ocheltree
  of Collierville, Tenn., a complimentary lifetime subscription. Learn
  more about this milestone and Ocheltree in Ancestry.com’s press release.

• The George W. Bush Presidential Library
  and Museum has launched a new website hosted by Southern Methodist University,
  where the library will be located. The site features highlights from the library’s
  collections, as well as online exhibits about President Bush and First Lady Laura
  Bush. You’ll also get an early look at the still-under-construction library and museum,
  scheduled to open in Spring 2013.

• Princeton University has posted online the Sid
  Lapidus ’59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution, more than 150 digitized
  pamphlets, books and prints from the American Revolution era. They include Thomas
  Paine’s pamphlets “The Age of Reason” and “Common Sense,” and John Adams’ essay “A
  defence of the constitutions of government of the United States of America.” Use arrows
  to turn each document’s pages like a book.

You can find Princeton’s other digitized materials (which include historical
postcards and photos of the university—interesting if an ancestor went there) in
its digital library, too.

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Researching family in Scotland between 1771 and 1911? The National
Library of Scotland has posted free online
Scottish Post Office directories spanning those years—700 digitized directories
in all. Here’s an example of a page from an 1887 volume:

Similar to US city directories, these Scottish directories contain

alphabetical lists of locations’ inhabitants and information on their profession and
address.

By the mid-1800s, these directories covered all of Scotland, with most being printed
annually. The earliest ones were issued by private publishers, but later, the Post
Office took over publication of directories in larger towns and cities. According
to the website,

Most of the directories up until the mid-19th century would only include
the principal inhabitants of a location, leaving the poor in particular unmentioned.
Women rarely featured in the lists, as usually only the head of a household would
be recorded.

In addition, people usually had to pay a small fee to be recorded in the directories.
While the gentry, clergy, major tradesman, manufacturers, shop owners and other professionals
are likely listed, their employees or small traders and craftsmen are often omitted.
Laborers and servants are hardly recorded at all.

There are exceptions, however—for example the extensive lists of farmers for Perthshire
or female householders for Forfar.

Get
more details on the collection’s coverage and content here.

Search or browse by last name, place or year. For names, only the first three characters
you enter will be used in your search (or first five for names starting with Mc and
first six for names starting with Mac).

My search for

mcint (the first five letters of McIntyre) yielded 3,008
results, including the page above from the 1887-1888 directory

for Forfarshire, Angus County. Adding a place or year to my search would have narrowed
these results.

You can download a page as a JPG (image) or XML (text) file, or download a whole book
as a PDF. Click here to access
the digitized Scottish Post Office directories.

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In honor of the Fourth of July, you’re getting two free
opportunities to search for early American and Revolutionary War
ancestors on subscription genealogy websites (you’ll need to set up a free account on each site to view records).

Now through July 8, Ancestry.com
has made 65 million records free,  including:

• US Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
• Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books
• Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900
• Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage & Death Announcements, 1851-2003

Start searching the free Ancestry.com
Early American records here.

On Fold3.com, you have through July 15 to
search through these and other Revolutionary
War records for free:

• Revolutionary War Pension Files
• Revolutionary War Service Records
• Bounty Land Warrants
• Revolutionary War Muster Rolls

Start searching the free Fold3.com
Revolutionary War Collection here.

Also don’t miss our
post with even more online Revolutionary-era history and genealogy resources—or
our Ultimate
USA Genealogy Collection, featuring expert genealogy advice and tools for researching
family in US states, counties and cities.

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Say you needed someone, such as a friend or coworker, and you
couldn’t find the person. What would you do? Probably start calling
his or her family, friends, neighbors, anyone you could think of.

Now what if you can’t find great-grandma or great-great-grandpa? Follow the same kind
of approach: Check with your ancestor’s FAN club—that is, the friends, associates
and neighbors with whom he or she interacted.

This classic brick wall-busting strategy—also called “cluster” or “collateral” research—is
easier said than done. How do you find out who your ancestor’s FANs were, and how
do you “talk” to them to find out what they can tell you about your family?

Our July 12 webinar, Using
Cluster and Collateral Searches to Beat Brick Walls, will answer these questions
for you, showing you:

• how cluster genealogy can solve your research brick walls
• how to identify the people in your ancestor’s network
• how to research your ancestor’s FANs, even if they’re not related to you
• how to piece together cluster and collateral evidence
• the best websites and offline resources for doing cluster and collateral genealogy
  research

Here are the webinar details:

• Thursday, July 12, 2012, 7 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Mountain, 4 p.m.
  Pacific)
• presented by Thomas MacEntee
• 60 minutes
• Participants receive copies of the presentation slides, access to the recorded webinar
  to view again, and a bonus download of Family Tree
  Magazine‘s Cluster Genealogy Guide.

Sign
up now to get our early bird registration special! Learn
more in ShopFamilyTree.com.

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Happy Fourth of July! I hope your holiday plans include watching a
parade or (safely) enjoying fireworks—and, of course, researching
your American Revolution-era ancestors.

The Continental Congress voted July 2, 1776—more than a year after the Revolutionary
War broke out—to declare independence from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson was selected
to compose a Declaration of Independence, which was ratified July 4 (that original
manuscript has been lost). A copy was sent to the printing shop of John Dunlap, who
produced 200 broadsides overnight.

Public readings took place across the Colonies starting July 8 in Philadelphia. Most
signatories signed the Declaration of independence Aug. 2; this document is on
display at the National Archives in Washington, DC. 

Whether your revolutionary relatives were Founding Fathers or members of the Continental
army—or, as was usually the case for women, kept the home front warm—they helped forge
a new nation. Most enlisted men were between ages 16 and 60, but younger and older
men also served.

On the other hand, maybe your family didn’t think a split with England was such a
good idea and remained Loyalists,
or even fought with British or Hessian troops.
The British offered some African-American slaves—now called Black
Loyalists—freedom in exchange for military service.

See these free FamilyTreeMagazine.com articles for advice and resources to help you
research your American Revolution genealogy.

• Revolutionary
  War Web resources

• Revolutionary War Loyalists

• Revolutionary
  War timeline

• 10
  Best Web Sites for Military Research

Elsewhere on the web, check out these Revolutionary War genealogy and history websites:

• National
  Park Service: Revolutionary War (a “capsule” history that links to a timeline,
  bios of important figures, historic sites and more)

• The American Revolutionary War (background
  and lists of battles, campaigns, leaders, regiments and POW camps)

• PBS Rediscovering George
  Washington

• Colonial Ancestors:
  Revolutionary War soldier indexes

• Revolutionary War Loyalist History and Genealogy

• Revolutionary War Records at Fold3.com (get free access
  July 1-15!)

• FamilySearch:
  Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications

• Ohio’s Revolutionary War Veterans
  Index

• Maine Genealogy: Revolutionary
  War Pension Rolls (Look for similar searchable indexes on the website for the
  state archives where your ancestor served.)

• Daughters of
  the American Revolution Genealogical Research System

• FamilySearch:
  Revolutionary War Compiled Service Records, 1775-1783

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What do Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia all have in common? Early this morning, fully indexed census records for each those six states were put online. All images for the 1940 census have been online and fully available to you since the first week of April. But, the completion of these indexes now allows you to search over 39 million records in ten states and the District of Columbia.

Which state are you searching first?

 

Do you have relatives in any of these six states? If not, stay tuned, our next indexed states are coming soon!

Search the 1940 census now!

Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree!

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In the last five years I have seen more than half the states in our nation, plus 22 countries and counting. In that time, I have bounced from one hotel to the next with everything I own packed tightly inside two 25” pieces of luggage.

My downtime has been spent with family in New England, visiting good friends all over the United States and visiting my boyfriend in Australia. Even when I am not working, I somehow manage to stay on the road. Through all of this, there are times where I have taken the technology to travel and stay connected for granted, and there are other times where I’ve been completely amazed by how far we have come. With every generation’s advances in technology our planet continues to get smaller and more connected.

The first time I remember being completely blown away by our progress was while talking to my great-grandmother’s cousin. My great-grandmother passed away when I was only four years-old. Through my genealogy work I was able to track down her cousin, Albertine, about 10 years ago.

I remember her surprised look when I explained to her who I was, and I will never forget her response when I told her it only took me two hours to drive to Vermont from New Hampshire: “It only took you two hours?! It used to take us three days by horse!”

In those days you didn’t just hop in a car. There were no short visits, no phone calls, texts or emails. They would send out letters announcing their visit with the intention of staying a week or more after traveling for days by horse or foot.

Today, having to rely on a horse, and not having a car, is unimaginable. Then again, it was only six short years ago that traveling the world – never mind dating a man who lives in another country – also seemed unimaginable. It all seemed so impossible and, just a few generations ago, it would have been.

Now, as I write this, I’m waiting to board a plane in Australia to head home to the United States. I will have woken on one side of the planet, and will be climbing into bed on the other side – all on the same day!

All around me people talk, some complaining about the long flight ahead. I will admit, the idea of a 14-hour flight stuck in coach isn’t my idea of a good time.  But five generations ago, my second great-grandparents boarded boats in Europe that were headed for America. Following two weeks at sea in cramped quarters, they finally reached their destinations.

If Albertine was surprised by my two-hour drive, how would those great-grandparents respond to my 14-hour flight across the globe? Then again, how would my ancestors from the Mayflower react to my great-grandparents’ “short” two-weeks at sea?

Yes, I had relatives on the Mayflower! Setting sail from Plymouth, England, on Sept. 6, 1620, it took the ship a total of two months to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Two months! There were a total of 102 passengers packed into cramped, cold and damp living quarters. Most found themselves seasick and some passengers died due to illnesses. At least one man was lucky enough to be rescued after being thrown overboard by rough waters.

As a female, I am most amazed by the pregnant women who made the voyage, one of whom gave birth on the ship. Through all of this, the passengers of the Mayflower wondered if they would even make it to the shores of America due to damage that was done to the ship from storms.

They spent two months at sea, and here we are, in our coach seats being served food and drinks. We’re flying in a relatively safe, large metal object and we are complaining about a 14-hour trip from Australia to America.

Once I land Los Angeles, I will be spending the next three weeks looking for an apartment. For me, leaving everything I know in New England is both exciting and scary. In some ways it’s a fresh start; the first time in my whole life where I will be completely responsible for myself and I am excited about it.

However, I still can’t quite shake the fear of leaving what is familiar, and the guilt that hangs over me about leaving my family. What if this move turns out horribly? What if something happens back home and I’m not there? Can I handle being that far from my family? I am willing to bet these same fears and questions haunted my ancestors from the time they packed their bags until years after they settled in New England.

Taking into consideration the day-to-day challenges they continued to face as soon as they touched land, I feel a bit foolish. Once my ancestors made the voyage from Europe to America, that was it. Those who were lucky enough to make the trip alive found themselves in a foreign land having only the limited possessions they brought with them. Chances are they would never see the friends and family they left behind again, and their only communication would be through an occasional handwritten letter.

Today, people regularly move from state to state and I continue to meet many who have moved from country to country. Although we may experience the same fears, we have options. If we are missing home, we can jump in a car, catch a bus, hop on a train or book a flight. While missing our family and friends in-between trips, we have the luxury of making a phone call or sending out a text message.

Not enough? Then there’s always the convenience that comes with the Internet from emails, video chat and social networking sites that allow us to post and read regular status updates or share pictures.

From the days of uncharted lands to the days where you can look up any location on the globe by satellite, I have absolutely no idea where life is going to take me. I may decide to stay in California. I could eventually head back to the east coast or maybe even find myself living outside of the country.

Wherever I am, I hope to always be thankful for how far we have come, and make use of everything we have available to stay connected with my family and friends. As I now sit here on my flight, I also can’t help but wonder what stories I will someday share with my grandchildren that, to them, will seem unimaginable.

 

By Kris Williams

Twitter: @KrisWilliams81

 

 

News from around the web.
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• The city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Historical Society have teamed up to publish
  an online
  database of LA city officials back to 1850. Click
  Search Office Holder to search by name. To browse, click an election year on the left,
  then click the tabs for elected officials, committees and appointed officials, and
  expand the lists in each category. If you have an ancestor who served as a public
  official in LA, you might find it helpful to download the site’s Introduction and
  User Guide via the links on the left side of the page.

• The Federation of Genealogical Societies announced it
  has received a donation of $135,000 to its Preserve
  the Pensions project fund, which will help digitize War of 1812 pension records
  and make them freely accessible online. The donation was made by the estate of the
  late Jon Stedman in memory of his mother, Ardath Stedman. View
  the records digitized so far online at Fold3.com.

• Brigham Young University’s 44th annual Family
  History and Genealogy Conference is taking place July 31-Aug. 3 at the BYU
  Conference Center in Provo, Utah. Attendees can choose from more
  than 130 classes, including hands-on workshops on German Gothic handwriting and
  how to build a genealogy website. Registration costs $180 and you can stay
  on the BYU campus for $100 (includes lunches). Click
  here to register.

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No sooner had we sent out yesterday’s Genealogy Insider newsletter
with a
1940 census update, than Ancestry.com announced
the addition of six states to its free,
searchable 1940 census index.

Those new states are:

• Pennsylvania
• Ohio (yahoo!)
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• Colorado
• Vermont

Added to the existing Ancestry.com indexes for Delaware, Maine, New York, Nevada,
Washington DC, this makes 10 searchable states plus DC for Ancestry.com, and a total
of 34 states plus DC across all 1940 census index websites (MyHeritage and FamilySearch with
its 1940 Community Census Project partners).
The 1940 census is free to search on all these sites.
 
I immediately searched the Ohio index for my grandmother, who I knew was living with
her sister somewhere in Cincinnati in 1940. Right away I found her and a sister, living
with the family of another sister in a suburb just north of downtown.

She was a bookkeeper at a foundry. Now I just need to figure out where she met my
grandfather, an engineer staying
at the YMCA downtown in 1940.

This screenshot shows Ancestry.com’s new image viewer (still in beta). A window at
the bottom shows transcribed information, and one on the right shows source details
(you can make both of these windows disappear by clicking the double arrows on the
green tabs).

When you zoom in and can no longer see the name column, the indexed names pop out
from the left side—with the person you searched on and his/her household highlighted—so
you can keep track of the rows of names. For several columns, you can hover over a
cell and the transcribed information will pop up.

I’ve experienced a few minor glitches when moving around the record image using the
new viewer on a Mac.

Search Ancestry.com’s 1940 census here (the
page’s design makes it look like you’re just searching New York, but you can type
any of the indexed states into the Lived In field).

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The western half of the country is almost entirely orange on
FamilySearch’s
1940 census index progress map, indicating states with free, searchable name indexes.

California—the fifth largest US state in 1940—is the latest addition.

Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico and Washington also have been added, bringing FamilySearch’s
total of searchable states to 29.

The 29 states also are searchable on the websites of FamilySearch’s 1940
Census Community Project partners findmypast.com and Archives.com.

In all, you can search the 1940 census for 31 states plus Washington, DC.

On Ancestry.com,
Delaware, Maine, Nevada, New York and Washington DC are
searchable by name for free.

MyHeritage.com has
Rhode Island and part of New York indexed, also free to search.

Remember, you can browse the records for all states and territories for free on FamilySearch.org,
findmypast.com, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com and the National
Archives.