Legacy News

Three Free Resources To Find Surname Variations

If you have ever searched a database for an ancestor and did not find what you were hoping for, it is still possible that your ancestor is there. They may be "hidden" behind a variation of the surname that you had not thought of previously.

For example, Christian RASMUSSEN was listed in the same database with four variations of his surname's spelling:

• Rassmussen
• Rasmusen
• Rasmusson
• Rasmusun

If I searched only by the one surname with which I was comfortable, chances are I would not find Christian.

Successfully searching databases and indexes requires the researcher to be creative. Put yourself in the census enumerator's shoes for a moment. He had a lot of work to do in a small period of time. I hesitate to believe that he would verify with each household that he spelled their names correctly. He probably wrote down the spelling of the name that was most familiar to him and moved on to the next house.

Fortunately there are some good resources available to help researchers come up with spelling variations.

MyTrees.com's Surname Variants
At MyTrees.com, when you click on the Name Variants link on the home page (you might have to do a Control-F to find this phrase as it is easy to overlook) you get a screen where you can enter your ancestor's surname. Click on Find Spelling Variations and you will get a list of many other ways that the surname could have been spelled based on how the name sounds. Click on the image below for an example.

Surname Suggestion List
This free software will also display other possible variations of surnames. We previously published information about it here.

Standard Finder
Standard Finder is a new project published by FamilySearch. Here, you can search for a surname and it, too, will return a list of other possible variations. Click here, and then scroll to the Standard Finder section.

If we are going to find our ancestors, we must develop creativity and imagination when trying to come up with variations for our ancestor's names. When we cannot think of all potential variations, MyTrees.com, Surname Suggestion List, and Standard Finder are good resources to turn to.

New ways of finding elusive ancestors

It seems like fellow genealogist, Tom Kemp, is always coming up with creative ways of finding ancestors. In his blog, he explains how he used GenealogyBank to find historical documents about the Platter family.

He also alerted me to GenealogyBank's new pricing - just $9.95 for the first month. For the amount of data available at this site, it really is a good deal.

• Over 106 million historical newspaper articles (1690-1977)
• More than 26 million obituaries (1977-current)
• Over 141,000 books and documents (1789-1980)
• Over 80 million Social Security Death Index records (1937-current). Only site updated weekly.

Start your 30-day trial today by clicking here.

Building a case when no record "proves" a point

The problem is common. We search for months or years for certain badly needed information-proof of parentage, perhaps. No record explicitly states what we need. Yet everything convinces us that such-and-such has to be. Is that good enough?

It depends.

In genealogy, the ideal record often does not exist. To solve that problem, we have two options:

• we find a reliable alternative that does state the needed data.
• we build a case from bits and pieces of other evidence.

Whether or not that case is solid depends upon two things:

• the quality of our research and analysis (our construction methods).
• the quality of our evidence (our construction materials).

Continue reading the entire article by Elizabeth Shown Mills by clicking here. Elizabeth is the author of the new Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.

How many sources do you need to make a good genealogical conclusion?

Sometimes we are happy to find just one source that provides information about a genealogical fact. Other times we might be delighted to learn that all ten sources you reviewed stated the same information. Which is better - quantity or quality of sources?

In researching Joshua Marsden Thompson's family, I found a reference to a William Marsden Thompson in a compilation that had been published online. Knowing that Marsden is not that common of a name, I investigated further. I found numerous compilations online - published genealogies, message boards and mailing lists - all providing the identical given name.

Because all of these sources gave the same information does not provide the evidence to make a sound conclusion. In fact, Elizabeth Shown Mills, in her new book Evidence Explained, teaches:

We cannot base conclusions on the number of times a source or fact is cited; a dubious factoid repeated over and again cannot outweigh a reality correctly reported by a single, impeccable source....Multiple sources for a particular statement confirm each other only when each is a reliable source of independent origin offering firsthand knowledge.

Applying these concepts, I located the researcher who originally published information about William. I politely requested that they share with me where they found information about William's name. They said they found his name on the headstone where he was buried. My interest naturally led me to asking if they would send me a photo of the headstone. When the photo arrived, they apologized because the name was not actually William, it was Joshua. They stated that somewhere along the way, they mixed up the names in their data entry.

A headstone is still probably not the best source to offer firsthand knowledge of a name, but had I relied on information that came from this publication, even though it was confirmed by many other sources, I would have propagated the same incorrect information.

When Obituaries Aren't in the Newspapers

Genealogists are always looking for new sources. Tracking down information about our ancestors is what we do best. Obituaries are a terrific source of information but genealogists sometimes overlook the hundreds of thousands of obituaries that are not published in newspapers.

For example the Department of the Navy annually report to the U.S. Congress includes a lengthy list of obituaries of naval personnel who passed away in the previous year. These detailed obituaries give the genealogical details of the person's birth date, birth place and death date & place as well as the details of their military career.

These reports by the Department of the Navy along with the thousands of other documents prepared for government use are consolidated in what is called the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

You can see a digital copy of the original pages of the 1883 US Navy Report, and other free newspaper content at: http://www.genealogybank.com/free/r/Legacy0807

UK Outbound Passenger Lists 1890-1929

If your ancestor left the British Isles between 1890-1929, you can now search for their passenger lists online. Findmypast.com, in association with The National Archives, is actively indexing and publishing the images of the BT27 Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1960 back to 1890. To date, records cover 1890-1929.

What type of voyages are included?
BT27 includes long-haul voyages to destinations outside Britain and Europe. While countries such as Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA feature strongly, all continents are covered and you can find passengers on ships sailing to all parts of Asia, the Caribbean, South America and West Africa.

Searching the index is free, but to view the transcripts or images of the actual records requires a reasonable fee. To learn more and to begin searching, visit www.Ancestorsonboard.com.

How to find your nearest Family History Center

FamilySearch has recently announced new services to be offered via Family History Centers. Free access to databases at Footnote.com, Godfrey Memorial Library, Heritage Quest, Kindred Konnections, and WorldVitalRecords.com are among these offerings. While they are not yet available, they will be in the near future.

Family History Centers are branch facilities of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Centers provide access to most of the microfilms and microfiche in the Family History Library to help patrons identify their ancestors. Most centers are located in meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are administered and operated by local Church members. Everyone is welcome to come to the centers and use the resources.

There are more than 3,400 centers worldwide. To find a Family History Center near you, go to Find a Family History Center.

FamilySearch Indexing - Choose your own indexing project

FamilySearch Indexing continues to be the greatest advancement in genealogy technology in years. We continue to encourage all Legacy Family Tree users to participate in this new project.

There are many indexing projects currently available, with many more in the works. Which project you work on is entirely up to you.

After opening the software, there are two main buttons. If you click on "Download Indexing Batch" you will be indexing the documents that fall into FamilySearch's highest priority documents. In other words, FamilySearch decides which document they want you to index.

If, however, your ancestors lived in Illinois in 1900, you might want to participate in the 1900 U.S. Illinois Federal Census indexing project. You have the choice! Just click on the "Download From..." button, and you can choose any of the existing projects. Click on the image below to see what this looks like.

To Sign Up

If you have not yet signed up, please visit www.FamilySearchIndexing.org. To read our initial announcement about the project, click here.

FREE Genealogy Web Courses

Brigham Young University’s Independent Study program is offering FREE web courses in Family History/Genealogy. See below for course titles:

Family History/Genealogy - Introductory

FHGEN 68 — Finding Your Ancestors
FHGEN 69 — Providing Temple Ordinances for Your Ancestors
FHGEN 70 — Introduction to Family History Research
FHGEN 80 — Helping Children Love Your Family History

Family History/Genealogy - Record Type

FHREC 71 — Family Records
FHREC 73 — Vital Records
FHREC 76 — Military Records

Family History/Genealogy - Regional and Ethnic

FHFRA 71 — France: Immigrant Origins
FHFRA 72 — France: Vital Records
FHFRA 73 — France: Reading French Handwriting
FHFRA 74 — France: Genealogical Organizations and Periodicals
FHFRA 75 — France: The Internet and French Genealogy
FHFRA 76 — French Research: Paris
FHFRA 77 — French Research: Alsace-Lorraine
FHGER 71 — Germany: Immigrant Origins
FHGER 72 — Germany: U.S. Sources and Surname Changes
FHGER 73 — Germany: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHGER 74 — Germany: Reading German Handwriting
FHGER 75 — Germany: Calendars and Feast Days
FHGER 76 — Germany: Vital Records
FHHUG 71 — Huguenot Research
FHSCA 73 — Scandinavia: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHSCA 74 — Scandinavia: Reading Gothic Script
FHSCA 75 — Scandinavia: Church Records and Feast Days
FHSCA 76 — Scandinavia: Census Records
FHSCA 77 — Scandinavia: Probate and Other Records

Visit http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm for the courses.

A new approach for newspaper research

If you have an old obituary that has been cut out of the newspaper, and the date and title of the newspaper no longer accompany it, you may have felt a sense of frustration. The line that reads "...he died last Thursday..." is exciting because you have an idea of when he died, but without the context of having the complete page of the newspaper, "last Thursday" could be somewhat meaningless.

Today's technology solves these dateless obituary problems. Take this for example:

   

This is a clipping that we've had in our family records for years. Nobody knows where it came from, let alone the date and place it was published.

Then we used GenealogyBank's new newspaper service and located the original in seconds! We entered the name of the person, and a couple of other unique words from the obituary, and clicked on the search button. GenealogyBank then searched over 1,300 historical U.S. newspapers and found 1 result that matched perfectly.

We now had the date (October 20, 1896) and the name of the newspaper (Charlotte Observer).

Historical U.S. newspapers is not all that GenealogyBank offers. You can also search digitized images of modern obituaries, historical books/documents, and even the Social Security Death Index:

Historical Newspapers, 1690 to 1977—articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items from over 500,000 issues of more than 1,300 titles; updated monthly

America's Obituaries, 1977 to the Present—over 22 million modern obituaries from more than 800 newspaper titles across all 50 states; updated daily

Historical Books, 1652 to 1900—the complete text of over 17,000 genealogies, biographies, funeral sermons, local histories and more from books, pamphlets and other printed items; updated monthly

Historical Documents, 1789 to 1980—government and military records, casualty lists, widows' claims, pension requests and other items from the complete American State Papers and over 81,000 selected reports (more than 40%) from the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1817-1904); updated monthly, with plans to complete content through 1930 by December 2007 and through 1980 by 2009

Social Security Death Index, 1937 to the Present—over 78 million unique records with enhanced data (including exact age and city, county and state information), which genealogists can easily copy and save to their files; updated weekly

Special pricing for December 2006

GenealogyBank.com has just announced special pricing for the month of December. If you sign up now, you can save 66% per month with a yearly subscription. It's worth looking into if newspaper research is on your To Do List.

Visit www.genealogybank.com/holiday and enter the promotion code of "Legacy" without the quotes.

Behind the Name - the etymology and history of first names

Have you ever wondered what your ancestor's name meant, or where it came from? Maybe you are curious to learn about your own given name.

Mike Campbell has spent thousands of hours compiling information about more than 14,000 given names from almost 100 different cultures. His work is now available online for everyone to use.

The site is easy to use. I typed in the given name of one of my immigrant ancestors - Hans. Very quickly it explained that Hans is the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian short form of Johannes. My Hans did come from Denmark, and I was reminded to search for him using other forms of his name.

Behind the Name will also translate given names into other languages. It listed five translations for Hans, and again, gave me other ideas by which to search.

The site also contains namesakes, a glossary, name days, and message boards. Mike's list of sources is impressive and quite comprehensive. This site is one worth adding to your bookmarks.

Search for your names here.

Learn about German place names

Researchers of German ancestry have long relied upon Erich Uetrecht's gazetteer, Meyers Geographical and Commercial Gazetteer of the German Empire (or Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs). The gazetteer, compiled in 1912, contains information on more than 210,000 cities, towns, hamlets, villages, etc.

It may contain information about the following:

• name of place
• place type
• name of state to which it belongs
• government district
• population
• post office and other communications information
• railroad information
• courts
• consulate
• embassy
• churches
• schools
• institutes
• military
• financial
• business institutions
• trades and industries
• shipping traffic
• local government services
• dependent places

While the gazetteer provides valuable information about places, it can be difficult to use if German is not your first language. Fortunately, the Family History Library has published an excellent guide to working with the Meyers Gazetteer. Access their free guide here.

For years, the Meyers Gazetteer has only been available in book form. Ancestry recently published the series online. It can be viewed and searched here.

Free software for UK research

Have you ever searched the records of the parish where you know your ancestor lived, only to find nothing about your ancestor? In these situations, good genealogical methodology suggests to search the records of the neighboring parishes. Often you will find the records here, and even the records of the future in-laws.

If your research includes United Kingdom ancestry, there are two excellent software programs that help identify surrounding parishes. They perform radius searches which provide a list of all parishes within a given mile/kilometer distance.

Parish Locator Program enables you to locate any one of over 15,000 UK parishes. It will produce a list of parishes in any County or a list of parishes within a given radius of any other parish and also allows Import and Export via "csv" files. The parishes listed were those in existence at some during the period from the mid 1500s to about 1837 when civil registration began. The best part of this program is its ability to create a map showing your parish in the middle, with all the neighboring parishes plotted around it.

A similar program, Parish Locator for Windows, contains a database of over 25,000 parishes throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. From the full listing you are able to select a 'Home' parish around which you need to identify other churches. You can enter a distance in either miles or kilometers from the 'Home' parish and request a listing of all such churches from the database within that radius. It also tells you about the dates that records are known to be available.

The best part about these two programs is that they are free.

Legacy Family Tree also has radius search via its Geo Location Database feature. Read about it here.

Download Parish Locator Program here.

Download Parish Locator for Windows here.

Organizing Digital Genealogy Files

If you use a computer in your genealogy research, then you likely have a large collection of digital files. Digital photos, downloaded census records or wills, scanned documents, emails... If you're like me, however, they are scattered in various folders throughout your computer. This complicates matters when I'm trying to locate a specific photo or track down an email.

As with any organization project, there are several different ways to organize your digital genealogy files. Begin by thinking about the way you work and the types of files that you collect in the course of your genealogy research.

Read the complete article here.

Brick Walls from A to Z

We've all got a brick wall or two in our genealogy. Mine is John McCALL in Washington County, Tennessee.

Fortunately there's lots of good advice to help us. See Michael John Neill's "brick wall alphabet" here.

Original and Derivative Sources Explained

In Steve's Genealogy Blog, Steve explains the differences between an original sources vs. a derivative source:

The definitions for Original Source and Derivative Source provided in the literature sometimes don’t seem to fit the needs of genealogists.  In particular, the literature places exact images such as photocopies and microfilm images in the category of Derivative Sources.  If so, Original Sources are rare!

Continue reading here.

What Should I Believe

from "Along Those Lines":

Genealogical research is filled with contradictions. That is the overwhelming reason why we are looking for primary source materials, and settling for secondary sources when necessary. With secondary sources, however, we should be looking for multiple materials that are independent of one another in origin to help substantiate a fact.

. . . I always tell genealogists that there are two cardinal rules in family history research:

• Learn how to misspell your family's names, forenames and surnames–-because they and everybody else did.
• Maintain a healthy skepticism of anything you have not personally examined, traced, and/or verified.

Continue reading here.

Tax Records - unromantic, but reliable, and sometimes quite revealing

Americans have been fighting taxes since the country's beginnings - bad for our wallets - but good for genealogists. American researchers are blessed with an abundance of surviving tax records that can be polished into genealogical jewels.

In Rootsweb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees, their "Taxing Tales" article explains the importance of researching tax records.

Read the article by clicking here.

Britain gazetteers online

One of the rules to beginning research in a new location is to learn about that location - its geography, history, customs, etc. One of the most difficult genealogical words to spell (besides genealogy) is one of the best resources for helping us learn about these new localities - gazetteers.

Briefly defined, a gazetteer is a geographical dictionary. For example, a gazetteer of a county would name and describe all of the towns, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the county (geographic makeup of the town and region), and might include social statistics such as how many schools, churches, poor houses, etc. They can be used as locators for a map, but also can be used to locate areas nearby where an ancestor may have attended a church, worked, or originated.

England has a wonderful collection of gazetteers, both in book form and in online databases. One of my favorites was created by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project - A Vision of Britain through Time.

On its home page, just enter the name of the place you are researching. I recently learned about the marriage place of my wife's great-grandfather - Brigham, Cumberland, England. I typed in the name Brigham, clicked Search, and a list of all the locations that included this name in Britain appeared. I then clicked on the "Brigham, Cumberland" entry which gave me a long paragraph about the parish. It taught me about the different towns and chapelries associated with the parish, and about the surrounding villages. When working with English jurisdictions, there can be many that you will need to understand. This gazetteer made it so clear.

In addition to the descriptive information, it also included historical maps of the places. These maps show all the little places surrounding the location. Finally, links to information about the historical population, industry, social classes, housing, roots/religion, and even boundary changes were available.

A Vision of Britain through Time is definitely one of the best online gazetteers for Britain. Learn about your ancestors' locations at http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk

Other good online gazetteers are available via GENUKI at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Gazetteers.html

What is Soundex?

Newcomers to genealogy are sometimes confused by the word soundex. Whereas those who have been researching for decades have likely memorized the soundex codes for each of their favorite ancestors' surnames. With the advent of every-name census indexes, soundex has been somewhat left behind.

A to Zax: A Comprehensive Dictionary for Genealogists & Historians by Barbara Jean Evans, defines soundex as:

A system of indexing surnames that sound alike. Consonants have certain values, vowels are ignored. The first letter of the name and three digits are used, e.g. Evans = E152. This system is used to index the 1880, 1900 and 1910 censuses and some states use the soundex code on drivers' licenses.

Now doesn't that sound exciting??? Evans is right - to be able to search the census records, we used to have to translate our ancestors' surnames into a soundex code. Manuals were written about how to do this.

Here are some coding rules:

1 - B P F V
2 - C S K G J Q X Z
3 - D T
4 - L
5 - M N
6 - R

Do not code A, E, I, O, U, W, Y, and H.

Note that surname prefixes such as van, Von, Di, de, le, D', dela, or du are sometimes disregarded in alphabetizing and in coding.

. . . many other little rules

Confused? You don't need to be. Computers have made this easier - even Legacy Family Tree has a built-in soundex code calculator.

So do we still use Soundex codes?

Not as much as we used to, but still - passenger lists, vital record indexes, and other record groups are still indexed/sorted by soundex code. For example, the Washington state death indexes are arranged this way. To search for my BROWN relatives, I need to know that B-650 is the right code, because all the Browns, and possibly even other surnames are grouped/indexed together.

Calculating this code is easy in Legacy:

1. Click on the Tools menu.
2. Click on Soundex Calculator.
3. Type in the desired surname, and click Calculate Soundex Code.

Locating other surnames with the same soundex code

Perhaps you are researching the Brown surname. Throughout your research, you've found and recorded several variants for the surname. Remembering all the variants is hard to do all the time. Legacy's Search Name List button on the Soundex Calculator will search all the surnames in your family file and give you a list of those surnames that also have the same soundex code as B-650.

If you're still interested . . .

Learn more about Soundex at by clicking here.

Delaware Probate Records Index, 1680-1925

Probate records (wills, estates, etc.) are a major resource for genealogists. They can include wills, records of the final settlement papers where the division of the property was recorded, guardianship papers for individuals under legal age (usually under the age of 21), inventories of property in the state, money used in the on-going affairs of the estate by the administrator. These records may give references to land ownership papers, relationships between individuals and the deceased, or between each other in the estate.

The state of Delaware has an extensive state-wide index of probate records. Unless you know exactly where to search, the index is a bit difficult to locate in Delaware's Public Archives web site. From their description we learn:

These indexes are the primary finding aid to our holdings of manuscript probate records for all three counties from c. 1680 to c. 1925. These are not indexes to all the names appearing in the records, but only the names of the deceased for whom the files were created. Contained in each index are the individual's name, and a date or dates. The dates correspond to the date of the documents within that individual's file and may refer to a date of the will or to a date for probate to begin.

If you've got Delaware ancestry, you will definitely want to bookmark this site: http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/collections/probate.shtml

8 Ways to Avoid Barking Up the Wrong Family Tree

from Kimberly Powell's Guide to Genealogy:

There is nothing more frustrating than finding out the ancestors you've been so diligently searching aren't really yours. That the hours and money you've spent on your research has been wasted. That the ancestors you've come to know and love aren't connected to you by history or blood. Yet, it happens to most of us at one time or another. Genealogy research isn't perfect. A lack of records, incorrect data, and embellished family stories can easily send us off in the wrong direction.

How can we avoid this heartbreaking result in our own family research? It isn't always possible to avoid wrong turns, but these steps may help keep you from barking up the wrong family tree.

Read the complete article here.

Digging Details from Pre-1850 U.S. Census Records

from Kimberly Powell's Guide to Genealogy:

Most genealogists researching American ancestors love the detailed censuses taken between 1850 and 1930. Yet our eyes glaze over and our head starts hurting when we take on the columns and head counts of the pre-1850 census enumerations. Many researchers go so far as to avoid them altogether, or use them only as a source for the head of household. When used together, however, these early U.S. census records can often provide important clues to early American families.

Read the complete article here.

Got Danish Ancestry?

Most beginning genealogists start by researching and extending the genealogy of their own surname. Not me - I started by researching Browns, Williams, and Clarks. If you've got a surname like mine (Rasmussen) you might have Danish ancestry. I'm just starting my quest into the wonderful records of Denmark.

Even if you have been researching for many years, any time you begin researching in a new area, you should become acquainted with its research methodology. In other words, learn about the history, geography, culture, records available, where the records are located, customs, etc. I've found several things to be helpful as I've started by Danish research.

FamilySearch Research Outline

Research outlines are available for the U.S. states and most major countries around the world. The purpose of these outlines is to introduce you to the records you can use. They describe the content, use, and availability of major genealogical records. Use these outlines to set meaningful goals and to select the records that will help you achieve your goals.

For Denmark, the outline explains how to use:

• Archives and Libraries
• Biographies
• Census
• Church records
• Civil registration
• Court records
• Emigration and immigration
• Gazetteers
• Genealogies
• Historical Geography
• History
• Land and property
• Languages
• Maps
• Military records
• Names
• Nobility
• Occupations
• Periodicals
• Probate records
• Social life and customs
• Societies
• Schools

The languages section lists translations of the common genealogical terms that you would find in the major records.

Legacy's Research Guidance

Christen Rasmussen was born in 1820 in Niløse, Holbæk, Denmark. Legacy's Research Guidance listed the records I should use to locate information about his life, and how to find his parents. It suggested that I search the census records, and had direct links to these records which were available online.

It then suggested that I search the parish registers. This has been a gold mine - Legacy's Research Guidance linked me directly to the parish registers which were available online.

Better yet, Legacy didn't just list a whole bunch of records in one long list - it actually ranked the records in the order of priority based on my goal. As a new Danish researcher, this has given me a great jump-start.

Danish State Archives (census and parish registers)

One of the repositories that Legacy's Research Guidance suggested was to use the Danish State Archives, or the Statens Arkiver. They have digitized the following census schedules:

• 1787
• 1801
• 1834
• 1840
• 1850
• 1855
• 1860

Others will be digitized as time permits. They mention that all Danish parish registers older than 1892 are included in their digitization project. I learned that this doesn't necessarily mean that all the registers have been digitized, but that they do have plans to do this.

Visit http://www.arkivalieronline.dk/

Danish Demographic Database (census, probate, emigration)

Otherwise known as the Dansk Demografisk Database, this free website has been one of the most helpful resources. It has transcriptions and indexes of census, probate, and emigration records. Because the census records at the State Archives are not indexed, I used this database to first locate Christian Rasmussen and his family in the census. And because I'm still not an expert in reading Danish, its transcriptions of the records were especially helpful. I was then easily able to locate a digitized copy of the original census.

Visit http://ddd.dda.dk/

Cyndi's List

We all know about the Internet's ultimate guide to genealogy - Cyndi's List. This is another great starting point for Danish research. The Denmark section currently lists 222 links to various Danish resources. Many of the links are of how-to articles, maps, mailing lists, and links to the major databases described above.

Visit http://www.cyndislist.com

Danish version of Legacy

If you really want to become immersed in Danish genealogy, Legacy is currently being translated into Danish. That's right - every report, blank charts, help file - the entire interface is in Danish. Now this hasn't helped my research too much, but it does include many of the important Danish genealogical terms. If you're good with the language, you can help test it.

Visit - http://www.legacydansk.com/testen.htm

Other helpful Danish Resources?

If you know of some good starting points for Danish research, and would like to share them with our Legacy users, please click on the Submit News link within the Legacy Home tab in Legacy 6. We'll consider it for future publication. Or visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/submitnews.asp

Quick tip from the Genealogy Daily Calendar (used with permission):

Do not be too quick to assume that because a record lists a person's name as John Smith Jr., that he is the son of John Smith.

This could indicate that there was another John Smith in the area (imagine that!), and that he was the younger, or even a nephew. This term was often used to differentiate two persons of the same name.

Have a quick tip or a successful search strategy? We'd like to share it! Just click on the Submit News link in the Legacy News section of the Legacy Home tab in Legacy 6 and we'll consider it for publication. Or click here: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/submitnews.asp

10 Things I Could Not Live Without in Genealogy

The Most Useful Tools for Family History Research

Wondering what tools you can use to make the most of your research time? From filing cabinets to genealogical societies, let an experienced genealogist clue you in to his top ten most useful genealogy resources.

Read Kory Meyerink's article here.

Researching German Ancestors

Germany, as we know it today, is a much different country than it was during the time of our distant ancestors. Germany's life as a unified nation didn't even begin until 1871, making it a much "younger" country than most of its European neighbors. This can make locating German ancestors a bit more challenging than many think.

Read the entire article here.

Brick wall solutions

When researching a brick-wall ancestor, any new information provides renewed hope.

One of the proven brick-wall recommendations is to create a timeline of the ancestor. Timelines provide a unique perspective of the ancestor's life and may help you pick up on something that you've missed before.

I've been stuck on John McCALL's origins for quite some time now. Yesterday I decided to review his timeline again. Thankfully, creating a timeline in Legacy is very simple - just click on the Chronology tab.

I've reviewed John's chronology a lot, but this time, a combination of certain events stuck out:

• 7 Mar 1789 Deed - North Carolina, Washington County - purchased 50 acres of land
• 11 Aug 1789 Deed - North Carolina, Washington County - purchased 100 acres of land
• 1792 Tax List - owned 250 acres of land

The March 1789 deed was his first recorded in the land books, when he purchased 50 acres. His second land purchase was just six months later, when he purchased an additional 100 acres. He did not purchase any more land until 1795.

So . . . if I had located every land record before 1795, he should only have 150 acres at tax time in 1792. But it said he had 250 acres. Where did these additional 100 acres come from? (Of course, there's a lot more that could be said, ie: what did the tax records say after 1792, were there pages missing in the land books, etc.).

In his March 1789 deed, it mentioned that John was currently living in the county. So now I know that he's been living there, and I know that it's possible that I've missed some kind of land transaction before 1789. I sure hope so! And if/when I find it, I sure hope it mentions where he came from before he moved to this county.

I could not have made this new conclusion (about the extra 100 acres) if I did not utilize Legacy's events/facts and the powerful Chronology View. For some, this conclusion may seem trivial. But for others who have these "dead-end" ancestors - any new information does indeed bring new hope!

Learn all about using events/facts and the Chronology View in the training CD: Researching with Legacy: Mastering Events and Chronologies. Click here to watch a preview of this video.

Cardinal rule when working with census records

One of the cardinal rules that most new genealogists are given when working with census records is, "Make note of surrounding families on the census population schedules." While you may have been told to note a different number of families on either side of your family, such as two, four, six, or some other number, I heartily agree with this strategy.

Continue reading . . . .

Top 10 Search Tips for Census Success

We all have ancestors we would swear were somehow skipped or overlooked by the census taker. It's more than likely that some of them were. More often, however, it's an indexing error that has us running in circles. When online census indexes leave you pulling out your hair in frustration, try these census search tips for locating your 'misplaced' ancestor.

Read the complete article here.

Getting Started in Irish Genealogy

Those with Irish ancestry know that its research provides unique challenges. If you're just beginning your Irish research, or need a refresher course, you'll be excited to hear about a new, online presentation offered by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society just announced a new, free video presentation entitled "Getting Started in Irish Genealogy." The free presentation lasts about 16 minutes and covers the following:

• Getting Started
• Start with yourself
• Keep a wide focus
• Census records
• Other records
• Records with birthplaces
• Naturalization records
• Post-1906 passenger records
• Gravestone inscriptions
• Newspaper records
• Military records
• Court records
• Business records
• and a reading list

To view the presentation, visit http://nehgs.breezecentral.com/irishgettingstarted/

The Basics of Archival Document Storage

Many people are unsure about how to store the documents they have collected in the course of their genealogical quest. There are a number of considerations in selecting the right storage containers, binders, file folders, and the like. You also have to be aware that anything printed on newprint can spell disaster to documents stored in close proximity to it. In "Along Those Lines ..." this week, let's examine binders, scrapbooks, and storage albums.

Keep reading here.

Genealogy Myth: The Three Brothers

The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2005 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.

Genealogy newcomers often trip over the "three brothers" story. It has been repeated thousands of times. I have yet to see one instance in which it is accurate.

The story always starts with something like this:

There were three brothers who immigrated to America. One went north, one went south, and one headed west, never to be heard from again.

It is an interesting story, and you might almost believe it. After all, how else can you explain the fact that the same surname pops up in so many places?

What fascinates me is that there are always three brothers, never two or four or five or six. And didn't they have any sisters? Why did they go in three different directions? Couldn't two of them go someplace together while the third struck out on his own? Why does each one take a different trip?

An examination of thousands of immigration and naturalization records shows that brothers usually remained close-knit and usually resided near each other after immigration. The "three brothers" myth apparently was invented and repeated by lazy genealogists who could not be bothered to find the truth. It is a poor excuse for rationalizing why the same surname appears in multiple locations.

When searching for surnames in immigration records, you normally will find more than one immigrant of the name. In many cases, each immigrant did not know the others and moved to wherever he pleased. Later genealogists tried to justify the appearance of one surname in multiple locations and assumed something that is not documented in any records.

Be wary of the three brothers myth. You always want to confirm such claims to establish that indeed there were three brothers instead of three unrelated men with the same last name. Yes, someplace in history there probably were three brothers somewhere who split up and went separate ways. But 99.9% of the "three brothers" stories you will hear are fictitious. Before you accept the "three brothers" story in your family tree, do yourself a favor: find documentation that proves the names of their parents.

Speaking of genealogy myths, in a future newsletter I will write about Cherokee princesses.

Top Ten Genealogy Mistakes to Avoid

from Kimberly Powell

Genealogy can be a very fascinating and addictive hobby. Each step that you take in researching your family's history can lead you to new ancestors, delightful stories,  and a real sense of your place in history. If you are new to genealogy research, however, there are ten key mistakes that you will want to avoid in order to make your search a successful and pleasant experience.

Read the top ten list here.

The Origin of Irish Family Names

It is a help when tracing your Irish family history to know something about the origin of and evolution of Irish names and particularly how names have changed over the centuries.

Early times: In ancient Ireland the population was much smaller than today and the mass movement of people was uncommon. It was usual therefore for a person to be known only by one name: Niall, Eoin, Art, etc. Once there was no one else in the locality with the same name then this was not a problem.

Continue reading the complete article here.

Using an Online Index - Tips

from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation:

Whether you are searching the Ellis Island Passenger Records or another online archive, there are some general concepts you should become familiar with so you can be more effective in achieving results.

Read the entire article here.

Finding Public Libraries Near You

Libraries411.com helps you locate your nearest public library in Canada or the United States. You can search by the name of the library, or search by the zip/postal code. After searching, just click on the link of the nearest library and it will be plotted on the local map. The marker is even hyperlinked - click on it and it will take you to the library's web site.

Give it a try at libraries411.com.

The Computers of the Future

Computers have come a long way, haven't they? Remember when Bill Gates said "You haven't seen anything yet!" He may have been right. Here's an interesting article about the future of computers. Click here for the article.

How Accurate Are Vital Records?

Finding a birth, marriage, or death certificate for an ancestor is every genealogists' dream. They often provide the most genealogical information about an ancestor. I was in genealogy heaven when I found the marriage certificate for Nathan R. BROWN. It listed his parents, and even his mother's maiden name. Finding a death record is just as exciting - they often list birth dates, places, parents' names, etc.

However, some of the information provided in a document like this is not primary information. Much of it is secondary. The primary information in a death certificate would include the date and place of death. This information was recorded at the time of the event. Secondary information in this record would include the person's birth information and even the names of the parents. The person filling out the death certificate (the informant) could have been the 2nd wife of the decedant, or even a grandchild - both of whom may not be 100% certain of the dates and places.

Take David McCall's marriage record for example. The 1889 certificate listed his marriage to Anna E. Young as happening on May 2. This puzzled me because their marriage license was dated May 31 - some 29 days later. Doesn't the license usually come before the marriage? I then searched the newspapers and found an article about their marriage. It actually took place on June 2. Wouldn't you think that the marriage date on a marriage certificate would be correct? In this case, it was not.

Several years ago, I filled out the information for my first son's birth certificate. It had a space to fill in where the father (me) was born. I filled in Oregon - the state where I grew up. It wasn't until a couple of months later when I realized that I made a mistake. I wasn't born in Oregon, I was born in Utah. I goofed on my own son's birth certificate.

The Moral

Be sure to verify an event from more than one source. I have documents that list Asa BROWN's birth as being in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and even Kentucky. If I relied on only one source I may never have found his parents.

Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian has 13 guidelines for analyzing evidence. Number three explains that . . .

. . . evidence should be drawn from a variety of independently created sources. . . . It is sometimes argued . . . that a point is "proved" only if we have three, four, or five sources that report the same fact. But there is no magic number. The crucial issues are the reliability of the sources, the origins of their information, and the thoroughness with which we use all the available material. (Evidence, page 48)

For more information about Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian, or to order, click here.

In thorough research, you will undoubtedly find conflicting information. Just how do you record this in Legacy? Click here to keep reading. . . .

Understanding 'Dit' Names

Researchers with French ancestors are sometimes confused by the common usage of a "dit" name. An example of such a "dit" name is Joseph Paquin dit Pocha. Joseph is the first name, Paquin is the family surname, and Pocha is the dit name. A "dit" name is an alias or nickname attached to a surname. In contrast to a nickname given to an individual, a dit name is often given to distinguish between branches of a family. Its usage exists mostly in France, New France, Acadia and even the Métis population of Canada.

Some "dit" names seem to suggest the origins of the families, such as Orillon dit Champagne. Other "dit" names suggest an occupation or military connection. For example, the dit name "Tranchemontagne" as in Garceau dit Tranchemontagne means "mountain slicer," suggesting an ancestor who worked in a quarry. A given name could also be used such Hébert dit Manuel, where Manuel is the Christian name of the male head of the particular branch of the Hébert family.

For more information point your browser to:

http://www.eogen.com/AcadianDitNames

Wall Chart Printing Tips

If you're thinking about printing a wall chart, you want to publish it right the first time. After all, wall charts use a lot of paper and can be expensive to print twice to fix typos and other glaring mistakes.

Progeny Software has published a free 'how-to' manual for printing wall charts. Of course, it focuses on getting the most out of Legacy Charting Companion. It also has tips for wall chart printing in general. Download the manual here.

Once you've created your wall chart in either Legacy Charting Companion or TreeDraw for Legacy, send the electronic file to our wall chart printing service and we'll print it on the nice, big paper for you.

However, if you don't have the Charting Companion or TreeDraw, our chart printing service accepts Legacy files or GEDCOMs. You can select from a wide variety of pre-defined charts. Best of all, as soon as we've created the chart, we'll send you an electronic preview version of it so you can make sure it looks just like you want.

Understanding Relationships: half 9th cousin, three times removed - What?

Since we're genealogists, we completely understand and can perfectly visualize the following relationships, right?

• 4th cousin
• 2nd cousin, twice removed
• half 9th cousin, three times removed

Once I understand it, two weeks later I'm back to where I started - confused.

Connie Lenzen recently wrote for The Columbian an article entitled "Genealogy Today: How to Piece Together the Relationship Puzzle" where she explains this mystery quite well. Read the article here.

Legacy Family Tree also has a nice chart to help you visualize these relationships. Instructions:

1. Click on the Reports icon.
2. Click on the Books/Other tab.
3. Click on the Forms Center button.
4. Click on the plus sign next to Relationship Diagrams and select the desired language.
5. Click on the Preview or Print button.

If your ancestor was born between 1805-1847 . . .

The following article is from Genealogy Research Associates' newsletter and is copyright by GRAonline.com. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at www.graonline.com.

If your ancestor was born between 1805-1847 . . .

. . . then he may have served in that conflict which pitted family against family in the United States, known as the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of Americans fought in the Civil War; the entire population felt its effects. Even men in their 60s, and boys in their early teens participated. For the genealogist, the Civil War can be one of those tragic events in American history that can open up your family to its posterity. The records that resulted have helped genealogists break down their brick walls and add fascinating stories to their ancestors' lives. If your ancestor was born between 1805 and 1847, chances are good that service and even pension records exist for them.

Pension Records: a Gold Mine of Information

Without question, pension records when used with service records can be the most revealing documents on the personal effects of the war on your family. We've seen files ranging from 1 page up to nearly 500 pages. These papers commonly contain medical examination records, affidavits from family members, applications for invalid pension, and applications for widow's pension. Often, letters from the soldier are included, and in a fewer cases, photographs of the soldier.

Some of the best documents include questionnaires that the solider was asked to fill out. Here are some of the required questions:

• Date and place of birth?
• State your wife's full name and her maiden name.
• Were you previously married? If so, state the name of your former wife, the date of the marriage, and the date and place of her death or divorce.
• State the names and dates of birth of all your children, living or dead.

Soldiers were often asked to give legal proof of their birth or marriage. If they could not provide a physical marriage certificate, they would either transcribe information directly from the family Bible, or they would rip out the relevant page in the Bible and send it. These pages are often still in the pension packet.

The best pension packets are the ones where the soldier's application was denied. In the case of Frederick Deppe, the application and denial resulted in over 400 pages of information. Frederick claimed that the effects of the war led to his blindness. To verify these claims, the government sent an agent to his home in Arizona. The agent requested that Frederick spit watermelon seeds into a bucket to test his blindness. These stories led to a wealth of information about Frederick, his ancestry, and his immediate family.

How to Obtain Pension Records

Pension records for Union states are located in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. Ordering directly from NARA can take 3-6 months. GRA's Record Lookup Service can provide you with the pension records in just weeks. First you'll need to obtain the index information:

• you can search these cards at Ancestry by clicking here, or
• you can order the index from GRAonline by clicking here.

With the index information, order the pension file:

• from NARA by clicking here, or
• from GRAonline by clicking here

Service Records

Not everyone applied for a pension, but they will have service records. While service records do not contain the same wealth of information as pension records, they can still be valuable. Asa Goas' pension papers totaled over 130 pages, but not once was his birth place listed. His service records which included seven documents listed his birth place as Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Perhaps your ancestor was a minor, or very close to the age of 18. In these cases, they often had to obtain permission from their parents. In the case of David Brown, his father, Asa C. Brown signed the papers.

Civil War Websites

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
American Civil War Research Database: http://www.civilwardata.com
The Civil War Archive Regimental Index:  http://www.civilwararchive.com/regim.htm
Civil War links at Cyndislist: http://www.cyndislist.com/cw.htm

Tips for Getting Past Genealogy Burnout

It happens to all of us at one time or another. Our genealogical research becomes so frustrating or confounding that we feel like throwing in the towel. At other times, we may feel overwhelmed with the other extreme of having acquired so much information about a person or family, some of it conflicting with no means to reconcile it, that we want to give up.  . . .

Click here to read the entire article.

The Inflation Calculator for Genealogists

Have you ever wondered how much money your ancestors really made, or how much they actually paid for their land? We've all heard the phrase:

Back in those days, we worked for just pennies an hour

In fact, a story of my great-grandfather mentions that "although the rate of pay was not enviable, sometimes as low as 15 cents an hour, he worked hard. . . ." This was in the early 1900s.

Fifteen cents an hour sure doesn't seem like much in today's terms. In fact, according to the Inflation Calculator, it is only about $3.32 an hour.

Back in 1822, land sure seemed cheap -- William McCall purchased 250 acres of land for just $200. Using the Inflation Calculator, it appears that William got a good deal. In 2005, with inflation, this $200 equals about $2,771.

When writing a family history, explaining yesterday's prices in today's terms makes for an interesting insight.

Use the inflation calculator at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Early Landowners of Pennsylvania

We ran into Dr. Sharon MacInnes and her husband, Angus, on the recent Caribbean cruise, as they are both are Legacy Family Tree users and took advantage of the opportunity to learn more.  (The 2006 cruise, an Inland Passage to Alaska, is September 6-13; book early as space should go quickly.)

The MacInneses have established a new firm, Ancestor Tracks (www.ancestortracks.com), to publish the land tracts of the earliest landowners of Pennsylvania.  Their first step was to introduce starting two years ago a new series of atlases called Early Landowners of Pennsylvania: Atlas of Township Warrantee Maps of *** County, PA.  So far, books have been completed for Washington and Fayette Counties and Greene County will be available shortly.  They are compiling data for their next one, which will cover Berks County.  They plan eventually to publish books of all counties in Pennsylvania for which such maps exist.

Starting in 1907, the Pennsylvania Land Office began to research the original surveys, locating them once and for all on the maps of current townships.  These maps show precise metes-and-bounds outlines of each original tract and all surrounding tracts in the township, giving the names of the warrantee and patentee; dates of the warrant, survey, and patent; and the patent book and page of the recorded patent.  Dates of the transactions range from the 1700s into the 1900s. 

Until now, these Township Warrantee Maps, located in the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg, have been underutilized because the thousands and thousands of names have never been indexed and the maps themselves are too large to work with easily.    Ancestor Tracks has solved those problems by compiling all information into 8 ½ X 11” books with everyname indexes. Each County book contains separate chapters for all townships in that county.  These include the Township Warrantee Map reduced to a 8 ½ X 11” and tables detailing all information from each tract, along with the coordinates where the tract may be found (see an example of a page from the Fayette County book at http://ancestortracks.com/Dunbar_pg1.htm).  Numerous footnotes for individual landowners and townships from published county histories have been added.

Armed with this kind of information, researchers now can:

o Pin families down to exact locations prior to the 1790 census
o Verify their ancestors by identifying settler groups who lived and moved near each other. 
o Identify migration trails of their families as they moved through Pennsylvania
o Determine the correct location of family wills, church records, deeds and orphans court records by knowing exactly where their families lived
o Plan a trip to the land of their ancestors so they can walk where they walked and feel their roots

Ancestor Tracks also publishes companion county CDs of scans of the Township Warrantee Maps which show far more detail than the 8 ½ X 11" reduced images in the books. 

The books and CDs can be ordered directly from the Ancestor Tracks website (www.ancestortracks.com) 

Santa Claus in the 1930 census

Santa Claus and his family apparently live in Marshall, Saline County, Missouri in April. Click on the image below for the evidence:

Search for Santa in the 1930 census by clicking here.

North Dakota Death Index Now Available Online

BISMARCK - Family researchers in North Dakota and beyond are now able to also access the state's death index online, thanks to the worldwide reach of the Internet. Prior to its online launch earlier this month, the state's death index was only available at the State Archives and Historical Research Library (SAHRL) at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck.
The index supplies the individual's full name, date of birth (if known), date of death, county of residence and county of death.  It supplements the publication, North Dakota Necrology, 1920-1926, and the obituary and death notices found in the newspaper abstract file in the SAHRL at the North Dakota Heritage Center.

The time period covered in the death index is January 1, 1881 through October 31, 2005, with monthly updates. The website is maintained by the North Dakota Department of Health's Division of Vital Statistics. Many early deaths were not recorded, and there are very few deaths listed in the index prior to 1900.

The death index website's address is https://secure.apps.state.nd.us/doh/certificates/deathCertSearch.htm . The website is the result of an 18-month project by a committee composed of staff from the State Historical Society of North Dakota, the North Dakota State Genealogical Society (NDSGS) and the North Dakota Department of Health's Division of Vital Statistics.

The website was made possible by funding and support provided by the NDSGS, which received an initial grant of $1000 from the North Dakota Community Foundation. The NDSGS was then able to raise more than $2000 in matching funds/donations from other genealogical societies and genealogists from North Dakota and other states. Additional information about the NDSGS is available by visiting their website at www.rootsweb.com/~ndsgs/index.html.

For more information about the State Historical Society of North Dakota, visit its website at www.nd.gov/hist or call the North Dakota Heritage Center at (701) 328-2666.

If you have an ancestor born between 1872 & 1900 . . .

. . . then he may be listed in the U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards. In 1917 and 1918, about 24 million men living in the United States filled out a draft registration card. The cards represent about 98% of the men under the age of 46.

Information on the cards may contain the following: full name, date and place of birth, race, citizenship, occupation, personal description, nearest relative, and signature.

Ancestry.com just released the final installment of indexes and images - every name in this collection is now indexed.

Search for your ancestor by clicking here.

Hard bind your books from home

When it comes time to share your family's history with others, we are faced with many choices - how to publish:

• CD
• DVD
• Web site
• GEDCOM
• Traditional book

While creating and sharing your publication to CD or to a web site are the least expensive, I still enjoy flipping through the pages of a traditional hard-bound book. Publishing to a book still has its challenges to overcome:

• How to print it
• What kind of paper to use
• Who will bind it?
• How much will it cost?

Aspen Bookbinding has a simple solution for genealogists. They have come up with an easy method to hard-bind your book from home. Their kits include everything you need to create a classic, professionally bound book.

Included in each kit:

• Photo and archival quality paper with pre-drilled sewing holes
• The hard case cover
• Book lining paper
• Hinge cloth
• Head band and book mark ribbon
• Bookbinders glue
• Glue Roller
• DVD and written instructions

Best of all - there's still time to publish your history and have it bound before the holidays.

For more information, or to purchase your own kit, click here.

FindUSA Database Now Available

The Godfrey Memorial Library has added a powerful new tool for contemporary genealogical research. FindUSA is particularly good for finding missing living relatives. It gives name, date of birth, addresses and past residences, and related information for individuals for the past 30 years.

You can search by full name, surname, location, street address and more. This resource includes millions of Americans across the 50 States and the US Territories. FindUSA is available to those with a Godfrey library card. Membership is $35 a year.

In addition to FindUSA, members have access to the following:

• OCLC WorldCat
• Early American Newspapers
• HeritageQu