February Webinars on Legacy

Let's take a look at the upcoming free webinars available at www.familytreewebinars.com. Visit the site to register, or plan to watch any of the selections for the week following the original presentation. Be sure to pay attention to the times, as they vary for each webinar.

Tuesday, February 2 - "Nurturing Your Family Trees: Online or On Your Device (or Both)?" by Cyndi Ingle.  Intermediate

Wednesday, February 3 - "Me and My 1000+ DNA Cousins" by Diahan Southard.  Intermediate

Friday, February 5, - "Finding Indian Ancestors in African American Families" by Angela Walton.  Beginner

Wednesday, February 10 - "Chinese American Research: Challenges and Discoveries" by Grant Din.  Intermediate

Wednesday, February 10 - "Researching Your Maine Ancestors" by B. J. Jamieson.  Beginner

Tuesday, February 16 - "A Family for Suzanne" by Ruth Randall.  Intermediate

Wednesday, February 17 - "Shoot Like a Pro: How to Record Quality Videos Using Your Mobile Device" by Elizabeth M. O'Neal.  Intermediate

Friday, February 19 - "How to locate an ancestor in Ontario, Canada West or Upper Canada (when you don’t know where they lived)" by Janice Nickerson.  Intermediate

Wednesday, February 24 - "Polish genealogy online - portals and databases" by Kinga Urbanska.  Intermediate

Online Death Indexes

A recent article in Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter stated that the Online Searchable Death Indexes, Records and Obituaries has been updated. Here's the explanation from the website of what's included and how it works.

"This website is a directory of links to websites with online death indexes, listed by state and county. Included are death records, death certificate indexes, death notices and registers, obituaries, wills and probate records, and cemetery burials. You can also find information here about searching the Social Security Death Index online."

Spend some time exploring the website at www.deathindexes.com.

Genealogy.com

If you haven't visited the website genealogy.com recently, you might want to take another look. GenForum message boards, Family Tree Maker homepages, and the most popular articles remain available in a read-only format on Genealogy.com, meaning the pages are preserved to allow you to view, but not edit information.

Resources include a list of articles about genealogy research, forums by topic, forums by location, and forums by surname. Here's part of a thread for the Newell surname. Notice that the posts are not necessarily recent, but they may still provide clues for further research.

Scots Irish Research: The Ulster Plantations

Howard's presentation on Tuesday provided us with several options for researching Scots Irish (or Irish!) surnames when there are very few vital records to consult. His main point was that the plantations settled by Scots are small in area, and it is possible to narrow a surname to one location. 

He suggested one particular book that would be helpful: New Irish Genealogy Records 2011-2020 by Clare Santry is available as an online Ebook.

Howard also demonstrated several map sites and imbedded their links in the presentation. Use the maps to identify homelands. Griffith's Valuation (use the Ask About Ireland website) can also be of use to locate surnames. He also recommended the "failte romhat" website to use Griffith's Valuation.   

Use the link below to access Howard's presentation if you were unable to attend Tuesday's zoom session.

http://geogenealogy.ca/ulsterscot/PRESENTATION/ulster%20scots%20presentation.htm#xl_xr_page_start

Roots Tech Reminder

Just a friendly reminder that there is still time to register for Roots Tech Connect planned for 25-27 February 2021. The best part of this conference: It's Free! Go to rootstech.org and the registration form is available there.

Diane Elder and Nicole Dyer, presenters of the Research Like a Pro podcast, were discussing Roots Tech this week. They are both presenting sessions for the conference and shared that all classes will be 20 minutes or less in length. They also stated that sessions will be available for viewing during the coming year. So you will not have to watch every session during the three-day conference.

 

One of the recent "Research Tips" provided by the Moorhead Magazines website suggests that we might want to use a link to a Library of Congress website with a collection of articles about world culture and resources. Since we all have extra time to explore the internet, use the link to check it out.

Portals to the World Portals to the World is a Library of Congress Web site that contains selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about a number of nations and other areas of the world. They are arranged by country or area with the links for each sorted into a wide range of broad categories. The links were selected by Area Specialists and other Library staff using Library of Congress selection criteria. When completed, the project will include all the nations of the world. In the meantime, the site at www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html can provide you with an impressive set of historical, geographical, statistical and other data to expand your knowledge of the places of origin of your ancestors. By George G. Morgan, Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy Today author

Research Traps to Avoid

The topic for this week's Zoom session covered practices that many of us fall into that inhibit successful research. Here are the main ideas that we discussed.

Neglecting to contact relatives

Not organizing the information we have gathered

Worrying about spelling

Relying too much on the internet

    Verify all information from online family trees

    Use the data as clues for new research

Failing to document sources

Making assumptions

Forgetting about cluster research

    Siblings provide clues

    People married their neighbors!

    Families changed locations together

Overlooking clues

    Study the census for new research ideas

    Read the entire record, including a second page

Giving up too soon!

    Return to favorite databases

    Ask a friend for help

January Resolutions

A few 2021 New Year's resolutions for all of us!

Some of the following ideas were borrowed from a podcast that I listened to this morning, but most genealogical resolutions seem to be similar each year.

1. 30x30:  Plan to spend 30 minutes each day for a month doing a genealogy-related activity.

2. 52x52: Join Amy Johnson Crow's writing challenge. She provides a one or two-word prompt each week to encourage writing about your ancestors.

3. 1x1: Listen to one webinar each month, whether it's the Legacy series, the BYU YouTube selections or any free webinars available at state library websites, etc.

4. Dear Myrt: This genealogy blogger has "Mondays with Myrt" and "Wacky Wednesdays" which are Zoom sessions on genealogy topics. 

5. To Do Lists: Do you keep a written list of things you need to do in your spare time? Plan to check off a few of those items in the coming months.

6. Join a local or state genealogical club or society where your ancestors spent their lives.