Genealogy Research

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Genealogy Research

• Using the Internet

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Not Just a Tutorial, But Also Advice and Warnings
When Researching Your Ancestorsand Building Your
Database

• MOTTO
• If youre going to do it, do it correctly.
• If you dont know how, ask someone.
• If you dont know how to locate data, ask
  someone.
• If you dont 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
  dont just copy data from other databases.
• Doubt even official birth, marriage, and death
  records.

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WRITE DOWN THESE ADDRESSES

• GermannaResearch_at_comcast.net
• http//homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/george/ind
  ex.html
• (Im 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.)

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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

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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

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Census, Birth, Marriage, Death Records

• CENSUS
• http//www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/census/usfe
  dcen/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/?tiddr03 (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.)

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Mailing Lists Message Boards

• (Too complicated to put on slides!)
• If youve subscribed in the past, you know how to
  go to Rootsweb and subscribe to new Lists and/or
  Boards.
• If youre a newbee, email me.
• When all else fails, email me
• GermannaResearch_at_comcast.net

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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.)
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Ancestry Census Search
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Ancestry Census Search-1870(Searching by Year,
State, County, Enumeration District)
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Ancestry Census Search-1870(Searching by Year,
State, County, Enumeration District)
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Ancestry Census Search-1870-Virginia-Culpeper
Co.(Searching by Year, State, County,
Enumeration District)
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Ancestry Census Search-1870-Virginia-Culpeper
Co.(Searching by Year, State, County,
Enumeration District)(A tough one! The town of
Culpeper didnt exist in 1870! The Census
enumeration district was Jeffersonton, the main
town in the area. The town of todays 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.)
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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)

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2009 Genealogy Software Review Product
Comparisons - 1http//genealogy-software-review.t
optenreviews.com/
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2009 Genealogy Software Review Product
Comparisons - 2
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2009 Genealogy Software Review Product
Comparisons - 3
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RootsMagic v.4.0.4.0
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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, theres 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!

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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 youll 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!!!!!!!

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Cemeteries

• EPODUNK
• http//www.epodunk.com/search/cemeteries.html
• FIND A GRAVE
• http//www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?pagecs
• 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

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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)

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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/countyfor
  mations/indianaformationmaps.html
• KY-http//homepages.rootsweb.com/george/countyfor
  mations/kentuckyhformationmaps.html
• MD-http//homepages.rootsweb.com/george/countyfor
  mations/marylandformationmaps.html
• NC-http//homepages.rootsweb.com/george/countyfor
  mations/northcarolinaformationmaps.html
• TN-http//homepages.rootsweb.com/george/countyfor
  mations/tennesseeformationmaps.html
• VA-http//homepages.rootsweb.com/george/countyfor
  mations/virginiaformationmaps.html
• Example Catherine BROYLES
• Born 1719, Essex Co., VA
• Married Adam WILHITE 1740, Orange Co., VA
• Died 1763, Culpeper Co., VA

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More

• CAPITALIZE SURNAMES!
• In Databases, Emails, Posts to Mailing
  Lists/Message Boards.
• ENTER ALL ALTERNATE NAMES!
• SOURCES!
• Someone elses database is NOT a valid source.
• If you have someone elses 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 elses 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 persons 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!

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My GERMANNA Database at RootswebThe 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/ind
  ex.html
• If you want a copy of this Power Point
  Presentation, go to the website immediately
  above, and, on the left, click on Sarges
  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.