Monday, March 30, 2015

Legacy Webinar for Beginners


Legacy is presenting a series of webinars for beginning genealogists. If this
is of interest, mark your calendars for April 1 for Part 1, May 6 for Part 2 
and June 3 for Part 3. You can watch in real time if you register ahead 
(and also download a handout), or check in at your leisure anytime for a
week following the presentations. Find more information or register at 
www.familytreewebinars.com. The description of the first session follows:


Genealogy 101, a 3-Session Course in Beginning Genealogy - Part 1
"We all have an aunt or a grandmother that has a shoebox full of obituaries, funeral cards, or other old documents that sit on a dresser or closet shelf. Or, perhaps we are that person with the shoebox. These beginning genealogy sessions will show how to take what you know and what you have access to, and teach the steps involved in getting it organized and compiled into a useful genealogy that can benefit future generations. 
 
Session 1 - Getting Started on the Right Foot. All of us know at least a bit of information about our family. It may be something we have heard, or something we have and don't know how it can help us. We will start out learning about information from an obituary, and entering the facts into the Legacy Family Tree software."

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

March 25 Legacy Webinar

Legacy's webinar this week will be presented by Chris Staats. He will be discussing how to analyze the records you locate to determine relationships even though they are not explicitly stated in the information. He says the presentation is geared toward intermediate level researchers. Visit www.familytreewebinars.com to learn more or to register to watch the webinar in real time. Legacy's description of the presentation follows:




Where Does It Say That? Learning to Love Indirect Evidence

"Direct evidence, the sort of evidence that completely answers a research question by itself, is often scarce. Without any documents telling us exactly what we want to know, how do we identify relationships that might not be stated explicitly, resolve conflicts between records, and arrive at sound genealogical conclusions? By collecting, analyzing, and correlating indirect evidence of course! The Henry McGinnis family of 19th century rural Pennsylvania provides a good example of using mostly indirect evidence to reconstruct a family which left precious little for descendants to work with."

Monday, March 23, 2015

March 24 Workshop

The final workshop for this season gives you one more chance to use the club's resources and get help from any member in attendance. We will begin with some "Spare Time Suggestions;" ideas for furthering your research until workshops start again in November.


Be sure to return any books, magazines or folders that you have borrowed from the club library this year.


Thanks to everyone who helped to make our workshops so successful this year. One of the goals of our club is to assist everyone in making progress on their family research.

Surname Maps

At the end of Harold Mathieson's presentation on Migration Trails, he demonstrated software called Surname Atlas. We were able to locate the location of British surnames at the time of the 1881 census.


Jerry Linderman did more research for us (Thanks, Jerry!) and located a website that produces similar maps. 

Here's the clip of his email:

"I found this site that does surname maps of the world. It uses current data but there is one site for Great Britain that uses 1881 census.
 
World
 
Great Britain

 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

It's time to mention RAOGK once again. Several years ago many of our members had success using the volunteers on this site. When the person whose idea started the organization passed away, it floundered for a while. Visit www.raogk.org to read more about their attempt to rebuild. They request that you register by creating a user name and password. Read their guidelines for making requests OR signing up to volunteer yourself. Once you have registered, you will be able to see the list of volunteers and find out if there is someone that might be able to assist you. Be sure to follow the guidelines: don't ask for something the volunteer has not agreed to do.
Here is the information from the website:
"Our volunteers have agreed to do a free genealogy research task at least once per month in their local area as an act of kindness. While the volunteers of Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) have agreed to donate their time for free, you MUST PAY the volunteer for his/her expenses in fulfilling your request (copies, printing fees, postage, film or video tape, parking fees, etc.) if they ask for it.
RAOGK is a global volunteer organization.  Our volunteers take time to do everything from looking up courthouse records to taking pictures of tombstones. All they ask in return is reimbursement for their expenses (never their time) and a thank you.
At one time there were thousands of volunteers in every U.S. state and many international locations, and helped thousands of researchers. We are trying to rebuild the RAOGK site. It will take a little more time to get it back to its former glory. So Please spread the word and volunteer to help others!"

Friday, March 20, 2015

Ulster Historical Foundation


At the Ulster Historical Foundation website:  http://www.ancestryireland.com/

St Patrick's Day Sale
50% off our PPV records between 14-30 March incl. births, deaths, marriages & gravestone inscriptions.


Trish shared the website above this week. Anyone with Irish ancestors might find it helpful. I haven't checked the site, but it looks as if it is "pay per view."

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

March 17 Genealogy Club Meeting

Howard Mathieson beginning his presentation



Howard Mathieson, a former member of our club, used two of his favorite subjects--maps and one-name studies--to educate the group on early English migrations to America. He spoke about the settlements of Massachusetts and Virginia and also talked about the Scots Irish migrations. We learned about the conditions in England at the time that caused these movements.



Club members in attendance



Howard also demonstrated how DNA can be used to locate connected surnames. Following the presentation we used his interesting "Surname Atlas" software to insert several of our British surnames, learning where those names were located in 1881.

Monday, March 16, 2015

March 18 Webinar

Legacy's webinar this week is appropriate for St. Patrick's Day. Judy Wight will be presenting a class for intermediate and experienced researchers on genealogical records in Ireland in the 17th-19th centuries. Visit www.familytreewebinars.com to register to watch on Wednesday. You can also view the presentation for the next week at your leisure.




Genealogical Records in the 17th-19th Centuries
Ireland research expert, Judy Wight, will teach about 17th-19th century genealogy records using different 
case studies in this day-after-St. Patrick's Day webinar.

Genealogy Club Meeting

Our speaker for March 17, Howard Mathieson, was a member of our club a few years ago. His special areas of interest are geography and one-name studies. This week he will educate us about several groups from the British Isles who immigrated to America as a movement. He will include the Puritans, folks who settled in Virginia and the Scots Irish. He will also touch on surname studies and how DNA can be used to identify the area where our ancestors originated.

Friday, March 13, 2015

March 10 Workshop

Cite Your Sources! Dick gave us a brief review of his favorite topic. We do suggest that you find some way to keep track of where you find your information. Elizabeth Shown Mills has written the "go-to" guide on this subject, and we have her Quick Sheet about sourcing online facts. Your genealogy software also has templates to help you list sources. If you keep in mind the following five items, you will have what you need.

1. WHO: this element would be the author of the source--a person or organization.

2. WHAT: the title of the book, microfilm, database, etc. would follow the author's name.

3. WHEN: next comes the date the media was created (and you should also note the date you accessed the information).

4. WHERE IN: next note the place in the source where the information occurs, such as volume, page number, etc.

5: WHERE IS: the last item would be the physical location of the source: online, at the Family History Library, another library or archive, courthouse or other facility.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Genealogy Club News

The March 10 workshop will feature a brief review of the techniques for citing your sources. It is always a good idea to remember that important part of genealogy research. We'll also hear from any members who took advantage of the weekend's free access to Find My Past if they found new information on that site. We will then continue with our regular workshop activities.


Legacy has a webinar scheduled for March 11 titled "Crafting Ancestor Profiles from Start to Finish." This presentation is intended to give you a start on writing about your ancestors. Here's the description from Legacy regarding Lisa Alzo's topic:
              
"Starting one ancestor at a time is often the best way to get going with writing your family history. Learn how to craft compelling ancestor profiles from start to finish and how to effectively weave them into a larger narrative. Attendees are invited to submit a draft of a 500 word profile to Lisa ahead of time (lisa@lisaalzo.com). Three will be randomly selected for critique by Lisa during the live webinar."


If you're interested in submitting a draft, this doesn't give you much time. However, members who have begun writing about their ancestors will most likely have something like this available. Register to watch in real time at www.familytreewebinars.com or plan to take a look during the next week.


 

Friday, March 6, 2015

Free Weekend on Find My Past

This weekend is your chance to access all records on Find My Past, as Mike Hatcher alerted us to yesterday. If you've been wanting to check out that British ancestor, take some time from today through 9AM EST Monday. Have fun if you have the time!    www.findmypast.com/


Here's part of the announcement from Find My Past:
 
 
"Records available will include:

  • Hundreds of millions of census records from 1790 onwards
  • Military records covering conflicts that include the American Revolutionary War
  • Birth, marriage and death records that include America's founding fathers
  • Contemporary newspaper reports that cover the turning points in American history

In addition, you'll have access to our collection of historical newspapers from across the USA, as well as over 10 million British newspaper pages from as long ago as 1710, allowing you to take your research even further."

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

AARP and Ancestry

Rick has sent two emails this week that seem to clarify the reports we've been receiving about a special Ancestry subscription for AARP members. Evidently AARP has extended its membership to "North America" and includes anyone over 50 from Canada, the U. S. and Mexico.

AARP's agreement with Ancestry provides a 30% discount on a one-year "world explorer" subscription. According to the Ancestry clarification, AARP members are eligible for this deal on a one-time basis. You are asked to call Ancestry to make arrangements for the subscription; when your one year is up, your subscription will continue at the regular price. (So you must be sure to cancel before the end of that year if that is your choice.)

Ancestry's agreement with AARP is due to expire March 31, but they are working on a renewal. They suggest that if you have a current Ancestry subscription, that you wait until no more than one month before your subscription is up for renewal before calling, as your new subscription will begin at once and you will "lose" the rest of your paid-up year.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Probate Records

Probate records can be a rich source of family information. Tuesday, March 3, we'll hear about these records. The presentation will discuss items that might be included in a probate file, where to locate the records, how to access them, and ways to use these new facts.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Legacy Webinars

Visit www.familytreewebinars.com to register or learn more about the two webinars scheduled for this coming week. If you register for Wednesday's session, you can send a brick wall problem that might be considered for the presentation.


Wednesday, March 4


Researching with Karen!
               
Feeling stuck? Have a difficult genealogy research problem? It may be time for a professional to assist. Join educator, author, and researcher, Karen Clifford, as she answers your questions and demonstrates how she solves genealogy cases. Seeing how someone else approaches a genealogy mystery can give you new ideas to apply for your own hunt.

In this Researching with Karen series, we invite you to submit a brief description of your current genealogy problem. Karen will select a few of your cases to be discussed in this webinar. While she doesn’t promise to solve your mystery, she will show how an experienced professional would approach the research.

To be considered, be sure to submit electronic copies of the following:
  1. Family Group Record, with citations and/or notes
  2. Pedigree Chart
  3. Research Log of what you have already researched
  4. Your goal. Be specific. What exactly are you trying to find?

The Legacy Family Tree software makes it easy to create these electronic reports. Instead of printing to your printer, select the PDF File option.

Email your case to Geoff@LegacyFamilyTree.com with the subject line of "Researching with Karen"


Friday, March 6


Genealogy Serendipity - Listening For Our Ancestors
               
Join Geoff Rasmussen as he recounts personal experiences of genealogy serendipity in cemeteries, libraries, mailboxes and elsewhere.