Genealogy ResearchUsing the Internet

Not Just a Tutorial, But Also Advice and Warnings When Researching Your Ancestors

and Building Your Database

• MOTTO• If you’re going to do it, do it correctly.• If you don’t know how, ask someone.• If you don’t know how to locate data, ask someone.• If you don’t know whom to ask, post your query to a Mailing List or

Message Board (more about later), and ask there.• If you have conflicting data, discuss it with others on one of the

Mailing Lists or Message Boards.• Do not automatically believe what others have posted. Do some

original research of your own; don’t just copy data from other’ databases.

• Doubt even official birth, marriage, and death records.

WRITE DOWN THESE ADDRESSES

• GermannaResearch@comcast.net

• http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/index.html

• (I’m not providing printouts of this Power Point Presentation. I have uploaded the file and you can download it from the URL above, by looking on the left and clicking on the link for it, near the top of the list.)

Internet Resources

• Databases• Census, Death, Marriage, Birth Records• Mailing Lists & Message Boards• Genealogy Programs• Cemeteries, Churches• Maps

• GOOGLE !!!• http://www.google.com

• WIKIPEDIA !!!• http://www.wikipedia.org

Databases• The Generations Network:• Ancestry.com (.ca, .com.au, .uk, .de, .it)• Family History.com• Genealogy.com• MyFamily.com• Rootsweb.Ancestry.com

• USGenWeb.org

• Rootsweb Databases:• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi

• Ancestry Databases:• http://search.ancestry.com/search/Default.aspx?cat=42

• Rootsweb User Contributed Databases:• http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/regional.html

Census, Birth, Marriage, Death Records

• CENSUS:• http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/census/usfedcen/default.aspx• State Census Records *

• BIRTH, MARRIAGE, & DEATH:• http://search.ancestry.com/search/default.aspx?cat=34 (Must Register and Pay*)

• GOVERNMENT DEATH & OBITUARY RECORDS:• http://govdeathrecords.com/?tid=dr03 (Must Register and Pay*)

• *(If you go to various State websites and attempt to access Census Records, with the exception of one state, you will be transferred to Ancestry.Com. It seems 49 states have made deals with Ancestry to have their states' Census Records accessible only at Ancestry! So much for "Freedom of Information"!)

• (*Combining resources.)

Mailing Lists & Message Boards

• (Too complicated to put on slides!)

• If you’ve subscribed in the past, you know how to go to Rootsweb and subscribe to new Lists and/or Boards.

• If you’re a “newbee”, email me.

• When all else fails, email me:• GermannaResearch@comcast.net

Ancestry Census Search-All(Address above. You have to pay to access Census Records!

(You search for Henry HOLT, b. abt. 1816, in Culpeper Co., VA. NO RESULTS! Go back and scroll down.)

Ancestry Census Search

Ancestry Census Search-1870(Searching by Year, State, County, & Enumeration District)

Ancestry Census Search-1870(Searching by Year, State, County, & Enumeration District)

Ancestry Census Search-1870-Virginia-Culpeper Co.(Searching by Year, State, County, & Enumeration District)

Ancestry Census Search-1870-Virginia-Culpeper Co.(Searching by Year, State, County, & Enumeration District)

(A tough one! The town of Culpeper didn’t exist in 1870! The Census enumeration district was Jeffersonton, the main town in the area. The town of today’s Culpeper consisted only of the Culpeper Court House. But, if you noticed in the previous slide,

the Census transcriber at Ancestry input “Jefferson” as the township, not “Jeffersonton” as written in the Census Report.)

Genealogy Database Programs

• 2009 Genealogy Software Review - Top 11 Rated

• Legacy Family Tree v.7 (Formerly ExpressWare) (Millennia Corp.)

• Family Tree Maker (FTM) v.2009 (Ancestry.com)

• Roots Magic v.3 (FormulaSoft, Inc.)

• Ancestral Quest v.12 (Incline Software)

• The Master Genealogist (TMG) v.6 (Wholly Genes Corp.)

• Family Historian v.3 (Calico Pie Limited)

• DoroTree v.2 (DoroTree Technologies, Ltd.) (For Jewish Genealogists)

• Genbox Family History v.3 (Thoughtful Creations)

• WinFamily v.7 (WinFamily)

• FamTree v.4 (Phil Sapiro)

• Personal Ancestral File (PAF) v.5 (LDS Church)

2009 Genealogy Software Review Product Comparisons - 1http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

2009 Genealogy Software Review Product Comparisons - 2

2009 Genealogy Software Review Product Comparisons - 3

RootsMagic v.4.0.4.0

RootsMagic v.4.0.4.0(RootsMagic Mapping)

• Looking at the Icon Bar from the previous slide, you'll see, at the top, an icon that looks like a map with a "push-pen" in the lower right corner. If you click on that icon, you'll activate RootsMagic's "Mapping" interface. Scroll down the left-hand list to Schwaigern, where Johann Friederich BAUMGÄRTNER was born. click on Schwaigern. You'll instantly get a map of Germany showing where Schwaigern is located!

• Looking at the same Icon Bar, click on the icon that looks like a world globe with a magnifying glass in the center (access to the "Gazeeteer"). If you click on that icon, you'll open up an interface where you can type in the name of a city/'town, county, or state. Type in "Brightwood, Virginia" and click on search. A window will pop up showing you the county in which it is located. Clicking on "Brightwood, Madison, Virginia, United Staes", and then clicking on "Online Map" at the bottom, will open up your Internet Browser to "Bing Maps" and give you a map with Brightwood centered. You can zoom in or out, recenter the map, or even click "Aerial" and get a satellite view of the area!

• On the same Icon Bar, you'll see an icon that looks like a grey tree on a blue background. That is a link to Family Search at Ancestry.com. Click on it and you'll get the message that "x people in this RootsMagic file are not linked to FamilySearch". You will have to have established an account at FamilySearch.org before you can use this utility. Most of us Germanna researchers can forget this utility. In fact, there’s no reason to even allow this utility to install when you install the main RootsMagic 4 program. The utility is only for those researchers that are members of, and registered with, the LDS Church, and it costs money even them!

RootsMagic v.4.0.4.0(Some data on RootsMagic 4)

• RootsMagic supports: Polish, Cyrillic, Kanjii, and most other languages you can throw at it.• Integrates with Ancestry and FamilySearch (both part of the LDS package).• Integrates with Microsoft's "Virtual Search". Place Finder allows the user to find Geo Coordinates, or, vice-versa, supports entering Geo Coordinates and finding the place. On the Icon Bar, look

at the icon that looks like a globe, with an overlay of a page with the upper-right corner turned down. Click on that icon and you’ll be in the “Place Finder”. Once there, search for and highlight a place, say Culpeper, Culpeper Co., VA. Click on Culpeper and then click on “Online Map”. That will open up your web browser and give you a map with Culpeper centered on the map! When you first start RootsMagic 4 and go to the “Place Finder, you can click GeoCode and have the program input the exact geographical coordinates to every place in your database! BE VERY CAREFUL! You must choose which places you want to have geographical coordinates added to, and allowing input coordinates for inexact, or incorrectly entered, places can result in a mess. All I can say is, experiment with RootsMagic 4, BACK UP YOUR DATABASE, and, if you make a mistake, delete the database and “restore” the backed-up one.

• Live Spell Checking.• Includes Thesaurus.• Competitive Upgrade - If you use another genealogy program, you can purchase RootsMagic for $19.95, until 31 August 2009. "RootsMagic "To-Go" - Install RM on a Flash Drive; access the program from any computer, with all the files and graphics included. SO EASY! Once you've made an Ancestral Chart, RootsMagic 4 can connect to www.printmychart.com, where you can upload you file, and, for a nominal fee,

get a printed chart of your ancestry, 42 inches by up to 100 feet!!!!! No more printing multiple 8 1/2 x 11 sheets and taping them together! Can you imagine having such a chart for family reunions and having such a chart on the wall!

Oops! Forgot to mention that you can open multiple databases in RootsMagic and see them side by side! You can compare different databases all on the same screen. You can even click, drag, and drop from one database to another. If you click a person in one database and drag that person to another database, you have the option to add that only person to the second database, or that person and all his/her ancestors, or that person and all his/her descendants, and can even dictate how many generations of ancestors or descendants to include. You can also open multiple copies of the same database at the same time!

• The 2009 Genealogy Software Review Product Comparisons that you saw above were based on version 3.x of RootsMagic. If you read the "Review" of RootsMagic on the website, http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/, all the shortcomings of the program have been "fixed". ALL of the utilities/abilites that were lacking in version 3.x are now a part of version 4.x. THE MOST COMPLETE COMPUTER GENEALOGY DATABASE PROGRAM IN EXISTENCE!!!!!!!

Cemeteries• EPODUNK:• http://www.epodunk.com/search/cemeteries.html

• FIND A GRAVE:• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cs

• I DREAM OF GENEALOGY:• http://www.idreamof.com/cemetery.html

• INTERMENT NET:• http://www.interment.net/Default.htm

• USGENWEB Tombstone Transcription Project:• http://www.usgwtombstones.org/

• CEMETERY JUNCTION:• http://www.daddezio.com/cemetery/junction/

• ROOTSWEB CEMETERIES:• http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cemeteries (Search by Name Only)• http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/contributors.html#Cemetery Records (By State)

Maps• MapQuest:• http://www.mapquest.com

• Google Maps:• http://maps.google.com

• Live Search Maps:• http://maps.live.com

• MultiMap:• http://www.multimap.com

• Bing Maps:• http://www.bing.com/maps (Used by RootsMagic v.4)

Advice, Warning, & JustA General Gripe

• Correct Place Names!• (All States)• http://www.familyhistory101.com/map_county.html• Or• http://www.mySTATENAME.www (where “state name” is replaced by the actual name of the state; then

navigate to “County Maps” or “County Map Formations”

• (County Formations for States I Have Adapted)• IN-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/indianaformationmaps.html• KY-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/kentuckyhformationmaps.html• MD-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/marylandformationmaps.html• NC-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/northcarolinaformationmaps.html• TN-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/tennesseeformationmaps.html• VA-http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/virginiaformationmaps.html

• Example: Catherine BROYLES• Born: 1719, Essex Co., VA• Married Adam WILHITE: 1740, Orange Co., VA• Died: 1763, Culpeper Co., VA• First Child Died: 1840, Madison Co., VA• Last 4 Children Born: 1745-1752, Culpeper, Co., VA

More…

• CAPITALIZE SURNAMES!• In Databases, Emails, & Posts to Mailing Lists/Message Boards.

• ENTER ALL ALTERNATE NAMES!

• SOURCES!• Someone else’s database is NOT a “valid” source.• If you have someone else’s database, and they have provided sources, then use THOSE

sources, not the database! If they have not provided sources, then you should make a NOTE in your genealogy program explaining the circumstances, telling where you found the data, but do not use such a database as a source.

• Do NOT blindly copy someone else’s database into your database WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING names, dates, places, etc. Was a child born before the father, or mother, was born? Was the child born when the father, or mother, was 8 years old? Were the parents born, married, and died in Virginia, yet the other person’s database says a child was born in Colorado, when you know for a fact that the parents never left Virginia?

• THE GOAL IS ACCURACY!!!!! The goal is NOT “filling in the blanks”!

My GERMANNA Database at Rootsweb&

The 1st & 2nd Germanna Colonies Family History Website

• My Germanna database at Rootsweb (I have NOT posted the database at Ancestry!):

• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=germanna

• My “1st and 2nd Colonies Germanna Families Family History” is located at:

• http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/index.html

• If you want a copy of this Power Point Presentation, go to the website immediately above, and, on the left, click on “Sarge’s Presentation”. That will start a download of the .PPT file (either “save” or “open”). If you want a copy of my latest Germanna Families Database, click on “My Latest Germanna GEDCOM”.