Reclaim the Records, a non-profit group of genealogists, historians, and researchers identify important genealogical record sets and try to get them moved to the public domain. One of the record groups that they were successful in getting access to is the Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) database that was originally created by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. It provides an index to basic biographical information on more than 18 million deceased American veterans who received benefits from the VA in their lifetime. It includes all branches of the military. On their website you can make a free Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the file for a deceased veteran. Here is the link to the page to make the FOIA request.
Official blog of Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries. Be sure to follow us on Facebook. Send news to newsletter@genealogyfriends.org
Monday, December 30, 2024
TxSGS Offers Genealogy Essentials Program
January 13 to February 25, 2025 |
Whether you're new to family history or need help organizing and verifying the records you already have, "Genealogy Essentials" set you on the path to discovering your roots with confidence. All you need is a computer with sound and a desire to learn. There are eight sessions, two sessions will be released each week. Participants can access the video-based lessons at their convenience, complete practical homework assignments, and engage in guided Zoom discussions with expert instructors each Saturday. More information is available on the TxSGS Website |
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Roundtable Recap – Church Records
December 12, 2024
Do you know what religion your ancestors practiced or which church,
synagogue, etc., they attended? The December Roundtable Discussion Group
provided many ideas for finding this information and the associated records
which could lead to more details about our ancestors.
We often know the religion preferred by our recent ancestors, but
what about those we are unsure of? There are a number of possible sources that
can provide this information or clues to find it. Newspaper articles, including
wedding announcements and obituaries, often mention the church or location of
services, give the name of the minister, or even state the person’s religion. Personal Mention type articles could include publicity about church group meetings, such
as a Women’s Aide Society, often listing the members or maybe a couple
celebrating a special anniversary naming the church they were married at. A christening
or baptism might even be mentioned. Civil records can also provide clues such
as a death certificate listing the burial place which could be a church
cemetery. Once the name of a minister or cemetery is found, further searching in
city directories, newspaper sites, or even Google can lead to the specific
church or religious affiliation. If you are fortunate to have an ancestor
written up in a county or town history, you will probably find their religious
affiliation mentioned. History of the local churches including founding members
is also often found in these.
Once you have determined the religion your ancestors practiced,
there are multiple ways to find records for the specific church or meeting
place they attended.
The Family Search Wiki has a section titled How to find Church Records in the United States with
advice on how to prepare for your search and where to look for records. Among
other things, it provides a list of 50 major religions in the US with links to
archive information and also a clickable list of all the states leading to Wiki
articles for church records for each state.
A research guide, Church and Synagogue Records for Genealogists, is
offered by the Library of Congress (LOC). It includes links to some
external websites and databases in addition to search strategies for using the
online LOC Catalog. A genealogist, Sunny Morton, shares her knowledge, tips and
stories from her research using church records in a featured webcast located on
the Introduction page.
Gazetteers can be used to find names of churches in specific areas
during specific years. A good tool for this is OldMaps Online.
Colleges, especially those with a religious affiliation, likely
have collections and archives possibly containing church records. Swarthmore College is an
example, with its large collection of Quaker records.
Historical societies and other state and local organizations often
have information, some of which is not available at the larger search engines.
ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million
records describing archival materials, bringing together information about
historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over
1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking
for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and
historical societies. A broad search for ‘church records’ brought up
over 68,000 hits. The search can also be narrowed to a specific religion,
location, etc.
A few specific sites for international records mentioned during the Roundtable are:
Archion –
German church records
National Library
of Ireland (NLI) – Catholic Parish Records at the NLI
Matricula – Church records from various European countries
Video options for those of us who like visuals
and/or need some inspiration:
A quick search on YouTube for ‘church records for
genealogists’ brought up many videos. The search can be refined for a specific denomination
or location, too.
Legacy Family Tree Webinars offers
webinars about church records, but a subscription might be required to view
them.
Remember to check ConferenceKeeper.org for virtual seminars about church records.
Additional tips:
Also search for the maternal/maiden name. Records are sometimes
recorded that way for different reasons.
When contacting a specific church and the person says there are no records available, watch for a change in the staff. A new person might be more agreeable to helping.
The records for a closed Catholic church should be available through that diocese.
Books are available to help with this research. One specifically mentioned was How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist's Guide by Sunny Morton. It is easily found online both for purchase or for viewing at libraries including Haggard Library in Plano.
Monday, December 2, 2024
Genealogy Roundtable
December 12th from 7-9:00pm, virtual
Church records is the topic for the December Roundtable discussion.
DNA User Group
December 10th from 7-8:30pm, virtual and
in-person
The Leeds Method will be the topic of discussion at the
next DNA User Group session. See this method put into practice to help a GenFriends
member with a DNA problem. More information about the Leeds Method can be found
at https://www.danaleeds.com/the-leeds-method/.
A free tool to construct Leeds charts has been
developed by David Nowotnik of the Genealogy Association of Colleyville. This
tool, the Leeds Chart Generator, can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/colleyvillegenealogy/member-contributions/leeds-chart-generator.
David is hoping to participate in our DNA User Group session.
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Genealogy News
The Texas Czech Genealogical Society (TCGS) invites you to attend the January 25, 2025 in person event “From the Czech Lands to Texas” at the Caldwell Civic and Visitor Center. You do not have to be a TCGS member or of Czech heritage to attend. Everyone is welcome. Detailed information and registration forms are on the TCGS website https://www.txczgs.org under “Events” https://txczgs.org/
NARA has announced some new features in the Advanced Search. Researchers can now search the Catalog for all contributions: Tags, Comments, Extracted Text, and Transcriptions, and the page where the contribution is found is highlighted with a green box around the thumbnail and a link to the page. These improvements should make it easier to search the NARA catalog.
FamilySearch recently added 49.8 million new records from 49 countries including over 22 million additions to the United States City and Business Directories. This FamilySearch Blog article has more information and links.
Save up to 50% through December 2024 with the RootsMagic Holiday Special! Check out their sale here. Be sure to use the code HOLIDAY2024.
UPDATE - RootsMagic issued an update today, December 9th, to fix the Relationship Chart issue. For RootsMagic 10 users - According to a reply from the @rootsmagician to a post in the RootsMagic Users Facebook Group, do not run the Relationship Chart report or else you will lose data you subsequently add or edit in that session. An update with a fix will be released soon.
My Heritage announces the publication of four huge new collections of
names and stories extracted from newspaper pages on OldNews.com. The new
collections, containing more than 3.4 billion records, are searchable on
MyHeritage, with the full images of the newspaper pages available on OldNews.com via direct
links from MyHeritage. Additional collections still to be published in
December 2024 will collectively add more than 10 billion records to
MyHeritage’s historical database, expanding it by 50%!
Registration is now open for the Research Like A Pro With DNA Study Group facilitated by Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer with Family Locket Genealogists. Click here for more information and early bird registration. The Spring 2025 sessions start February 5th.
Sale extended through Dec 7th! American Ancestors Cyber
Monday Sale ends December 2, 2024. Enjoy $30 off a new membership.
Sale extended through Dec 8th! Get 50% off a full
year’s webinar membership (new memberships only) at Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Learn more here. Offer expires December 6,
2024.
Newspaper.com is offering 40% off new Publisher Extra subscriptions now through December 8, 2024. Click here for details.
Fold3 Cyber Week Sale – 40% off now through December 8th for new memberships. View offer here.
Learn new skills with virtual on-demand Encore sessions from the 2024 TxSGS Family History Conference! Conference access is available for purchase through December 31, 2024 for access through February 2, 2025. Click here for details and to register.
FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records at https://www.freebmd.org.uk/. The database was last updated on Wed 27 Nov 2024 and currently contains 295,385,672 distinct records (397,999,729 total records). On Tue 26 Nov 2024 FreeBMD users did 206,777 searches. (More information)
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA by Roberta Estes is now available in full color. More information is available at the FamilyTreeDNA Blog.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Genealogy News
Fold3 Cyber Week Sale –
40% off now through December 8th for new memberships. View offer here.
Newspaper.com is offering 40% off new
Publisher Extra subscriptions now through December 8, 2024. Click here for details.
NARA has partnered with FamilySearch to have AI extract the text from all 2,322,137 pages of the Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, ca. 1800 - ca. 1912! These records are available in the National Archives Catalog, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/300022?utm_campaign=AIandRevWarPensions&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
Korean War era draft cards from Alaska and Wyoming are now available on Fold3. More states to follow in 2025. The Fold3 Blog has information here https://blog.fold3.com/korean-war-era-draft-registration-cards-now-available-on-fold3/
Top Ten AI Genealogy Breakthroughs of 2024 webinar by Steve Little is free through November 27th at Legacy Family Tree Webinars, https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/top-ten-ai-genealogy-breakthroughs-of-2024/ Steve is the AI Program manager for the National Genealogical Society. Learn more about him at https://aigenealogyinsights.com/author/digitalarchivst/
My Heritage is introducing LiveMemory: Bring Your Photos to Life in Video. It's free for a limited number of videos. https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/11/introducing-livememory-bring-your-photos-to-life-in-video/
Want to learn more about the history of Thanksgiving? The Mayflower Society has information about the history and customs here https://themayflowersociety.org/learn/thanksgiving/ You can also learn more about the Mayflower passengers at https://themayflowersociety.org/passenger-profiles/
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Roundtable Recap – Land Records
November 14,
2024
Land records
were the topic for the November Roundtable Discussion Group. The discussion
reminded all of us that land records can be found with a variety of other
records, not just deeds.
Family Search is now offering a full text search as
one of their experiments in Family
Search Labs, and a link to it can be found as you scroll
down the homepage after logging in. Images are being added all the time. Clicking
on any of the buttons at the top of your search results will allow you to
filter further down to more specific years, locations, and types of records. The
summary of the document is helpful in deciphering the image and may also be
downloaded. Video tutorials have been created since the full text search was
announced earlier this year, but more recent videos such as this one from EasyGenie show the current search box.
It was noted
during the Roundtable meeting that land records are mentioned in numerous types
of documents including wills, probate, court records, etc., not just deeds. A
brief full text search in Family Search gave me further documentation placing
ancestors in specific areas at specific times. I also unexpectedly found in a
court case that my GGGrandparents who had always lived in Illinois owned land
in Comal County, Texas. The wife’s name was listed first in each mention
indicating she possibly inherited the property, and now I have more clues to
follow.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), General Land Office (GLO) records site is an extensive
resource offering access to more than five million records including Federal
land titles, land patents, survey plats and field notes, tract books, and others.
In addition to their own records, GLO provides Resource Links for states and general research.
Their Reference Center includes a glossary to help us better understand land related terms.
Other
sources for land record information include:
Tax
records – The Family
Search wiki has some good information about tax records and includes links to articles about state-specific
taxation records here. The Ancestry Family History
Learning Hub also provides information about historical tax records in this article. Tax records can provide information
about the location, value, size, and type of property our ancestors lived on,
such as a farm or a home in town, and whether or not it was rented or owned.
Census
records – The
Federal census can provide a location and whether a property was owned or
rented. Some states also had a state census every five years which can provide
additional location and property records. Agricultural census schedules taken
in 1850, 1860, 1870, & 1880 recorded information about farm value,
livestock, and crops, but these did not include small farms. NARA offers some information about the Agricultural schedules and
other nonpopulation census records. There is a list by state showing where some
of these records can be found towards the bottom of the page. Some records are located
at sites such as Ancestry and Family Search while others are only found at
State Archives, State Historical Societies, etc.
Maps – Some of the types of maps we
talked about at the October Roundtable are also helpful for finding land
records. Plat maps list the owner of parcels of land. Gazetteers provide place
names, some no longer in use, which can help us narrow down the location of our
ancestors.
Old
newspapers – Land
transactions were often reported in the local newspaper.
Bounty
land records –
Family Search has a very informative wiki, United States Military
Bounty Land Warrants, providing information and research links. A Google search also brings
up free online resources such as Kentucky’s Revolutionary War
Warrants Database and
Library of Virginia’s Revolutionary War
Bounty Land Claims. These are both national databases, not state specific. Update - NARA has partnered with FamilySearch to have AI extract all pages of the Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, ca. 1800 - ca. 1912. They are available in the National Archives Catalog.
State,
county, and town records – State agencies such as a state archive, general land office, or
historical society are all good resources. County and city level entities will
also probably have some historical records. Any of these should also be able to
tell you where to locate records that they do not have. Area universities often
have historical holdings, too.
Road crew
records – This
source was new to me. A Google search for ‘historical road crew records Travis
County’ brought up the article Early Travis County
Road Records at
the Travis County Archives explaining how the road crews were chosen from the
residents in the area for work on those county roads. It also has links to
records viewable on the Portal to Texas History such as this book which includes local road maps with
property owners listed. Other searches I tried at the state and city levels
turned up a variety of results. These records are definitely worth checking into
especially if you know of a road with the same name as your ancestor who lived
in that area.
Deed
books – These are
usually recorded at the county level, and most counties have some records
online. The county website should have a link to the county recorder or
register’s office. Greenville County, South Carolina, has a very efficient Register of Deeds
Digital Archive site
allowing me to easily locate and view deeds and other information for ancestors
living there as early as the late 1700s. A different county in a different
state offered a free search giving the number of results, but they were only
viewable after paying a fee.
Laws – Each state has their own rules pertaining to how land is divided, bought, taxed, inherited, etc., and those laws can change over time. The Advancing Genealogist website has a tab, Law Library Index, with links to law information for many of the states, territories, and some special topics. This could be useful for trying to sort out an odd situation with your ancestor’s land.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Black Friday Deals
'BLACK FRIDAY' DEALS ALREADY!'BLACK FRIDAY' DEALS ALREADY!
UPDATES!
- AmericanAncestors is offering 20% discount on all Great Migration and Mayflower books - Use code GMMAYFLOWER24. (thru Nov. 25).
- Updated! Ancestry.com has their (human) DNA kits on sale for $39, and their newly launched Pet DNA kits for $79, as well as gift memberships to their website on sale until November 27.
- FamilyTree DNA - DNA kits also are on sale with big discounts.
- Family Chartmasters is offering 10% off custom decorative charts (ends Nov. 30).
- Family Tree Magazine (UK) is offering a 90% discount on the usual price of their Plus program.
- NEW! International Institute of Genealogical Studies: Now through Dec. 3: Take $25 off 4 courses with code $25OFF. Nov. 28 to Dec. 3, Take $50 off 6 or more courses with code $50OFF. Dec. 2-9: Take $100 off 12 or more courses with code $100OFF. (The discount replaces the regular automatic package discount. They do not combine.)
- Legacy Family Tree Webinars almost always has a great sale but hasn't posted one yet. Keep an eye out this week (and I'll mention it next week if I find one!)
- MyHeritage has their DNA kits on sale for as low as $29.
- Pharos Tutors is offering 15% off ALL courses with discount code FRIDAY15, until Dec. 2.
- RootsMagic is offering up to 50% off their genealogy software, including RootsMagic10, Personal Historian and Family Atlas programs.
- NEW! RootsTech will have a Black Friday sale on in-person passes, starting Monday, Nov. 25 thru Dec. 2. If you haven't purchased a pass yet, you'll want to get it this week!
- Updated! Storied currently has a great deal on their gifting options, but I have it on good authority that another Black Friday deal coming very soon! Keep an eye on their website and Facebook page for details!
- Vivid-Pix is not only offering really great discounts on their Restore software; Educat
ion/Software Bundle and their Memory Station Scanner/Software and Continuin g Education Bundle (use coupon code Turkey2024), but even better, through “Giving Tuesday” on December 3rd, 5% of all Vivid-Pix sales will be donated to The Alzheimer’s Association. Read more on their News page.
Giving thanks for Citizen Archivists
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Viewer Update at FamilySearch
FamilySearch has updated their image viewer to stay current with new technology. This includes keyboard shortcuts:
Monday, November 4, 2024
Genealogy Websites
Check out these genealogy websites:
Old Job Titles From German Church Records
http://baseportal.de/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/JGorsler/Berufs/Beruf&localparams=1
Alte Berufsbezeichnungen aus Kirchenbüchern is a list of 3,179 alphabetically listed entries of occupations along with their descriptions. There is a search feature (Suchen). The website doesn't have an English option but you can use the translate this website in Chrome once you find the occupation to get an English version of the explanation.
Odessa A German-Russian Genealogical Library
A digital library dedicated to the cultural and family history of the millions of Germans who emigrated from Russia in the 1800s and their descendants. The collection is primarily digitized books and records plus indexes of microfilms and research aids. The website is free and provided by Roger Ehrich.
International German Genealogy Partnership Conference
https://iggp.org/2025-iggp-conference/
"Celebrate Your German-Speaking Ancestor" conference will be held June 13-15, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. Registration opens December 1, 2024.
Applied Genealogical Institute Spring 2025
The Spring 2025 schedule is available for AppGen. They have courses on Irish Research, Southern States Research, Land Records in Public States, Genealogy & The Law, and Write As You Research.
GRIP Genealogical Institute 2025
https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/
GRIP 2025 virtual class week will be 22-27 June 2025 and In-Person in Pittsburgh, PA will be 13-18 July 2025. Registration Opens February 4, 2025.
Digitize New York
https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/content/digitize-new-york
The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society has two digitization centers that are working to preserve at-risk documents. A list of the completed projects is available on the website.
Voting
https://stlgs.blogspot.com/2024/11/voting-in-americaa-genealogical.html
The St. Louis Genealogical Society has an interesting blog post about the history of voting in America with links to resources.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Roundtable Recap – Maps
October 10,
2024
GenFriend members
shared many suggestions for locating different maps to aid in our genealogy
research and fill out our family stories during the October Roundtable
Discussion Group.
Google Earth and Google Maps are well-known resources that offer much more than
the current view of an area. Google Earth Outreach offers a Learn section with tutorials to create
custom maps. A quick Google or YouTube search will bring up instructional
videos, such as this one, on how to overlay historic maps.
Current and historic maps can also be compared side by side in two different
windows. It was noted during the Roundtable that these maps can provide some
clarity if known locations are viewed in relation to county and/or state
boundaries or other known landmarks. For example, the answer to why your
ancestor always went to another state to give birth could be as simple as the
nearest medical facility was closer to home but just over the state line.
The largest
collection of Sanborn Maps is found at the Library of Congress.
These maps were created for the fire insurance industry and provide information
on the construction materials and size of structures in a particular vicinity.
Each map will have a key on it explaining all of the symbols and colors used
for that map. It’s advisable to read the “About this Collection” for further
information. These maps can help us picture the homes of our ancestors and
their neighbors along with other structures in the town. Sanborn Maps can also
be found in many other places including regional collections, manuscript
collections, and at historical societies.
The online Perry-Castaneda Library
(PCL) Map Collection is a small part of the PCL holdings at The University of
Texas Libraries. This is an extensive collection of many different types of
maps from throughout the world and can be browsed by region, country, state,
type of map, etc. Most of the links still seem to work, but there is a notice
on the front page that the website is archived and no longer being updated.
There are links for additional information.
USGS provides topographical maps of the United States,
including a Historical Topographic
Maps Collection and a Geographic Names search. These maps are useful for
providing the historical names of creeks and other places that are sometimes
mentioned in deeds and other paperwork. This can be very helpful in determining
more exact locations for our ancestors.
Land
ownership maps, known as plat maps, are another useful tool for locating the
exact location our ancestors lived in a given vicinity. They show how the land
was divided at the time the map was created. The surname of the owner of each
tract of land is written in that property’s space. The owner’s name will
sometimes include the first name or initial. If a widow owns the land, that is
often indicated with Widow or Mrs. It’s a good idea to search for plat maps at
any genealogy site you use as many resources have at least some for their area
and maybe additional locations. HistoryGeo offers a searchable database and
document images but is a subscription site. Access to it is available through many public
libraries, including the Plano Public Library, with your library card.
Several
other large sites offering a variety of maps are Historic Map Works, the David Rumsey Map Collection, the Bureau of Land Management, Digital Public Library
of America,
and the National Archives. The Library of Congress also offers other maps in addition
to Sanborn.
Other
types of maps:
Cemetery
maps similar to what can be found at Burial Search and the VA’s National Cemetery Administration. The specific cemetery of your
ancestor might also have a plot map.
Transportation
maps such as the Railroad Maps found at the Library of Congress.
Military
maps of battles/locations where an ancestor might have served. The National Archives has Civil War maps, for example.
Migration
route maps can be found at many websites via a Google search. The National Park Service offers some good information and
maps about historic routes in America.
Sites
helpful for understanding map information:
A United
Kingdom website, MapServe, has information about Ordnance
Surveys in other countries.
The Newberry Library offers an interactive website
depicting historical boundaries for US Territories, States, and Counties.
Creating
personalized maps:
Family Atlas is a genealogy mapping and
publishing software available from Roots Magic for a modest cost. It’s a
stand-alone product, not a subscription.
Many family
tree programs provide some sort of timeline/map option. The timeline feature at
Family Search, for example, is accessed on the
profile page of a person in your family tree and includes a map.
There are
many more sites to access maps useful for our family history research. In
addition to the ones mentioned above, there are some older but still helpful
options. USGenWeb is a completely free website that
was created almost 30 years ago by genealogists and maintained by volunteers.
The Internet Archive and
Wayback Machine provide access to a wide range of materials and past versions of
websites. County courthouses, historical societies, and local libraries can
provide suggestions, if not actual maps, for possible locations where your
ancestors might have been. State archives and college collections are another
good source. A simple Google search with terms such as ‘historic map + (place
name)’ or ‘(town name) + Sanborn map’ could yield new materials to research.
GenFriend members also mentioned to search again at sites you have checked in
the past as many sites continue to digitize additional records.
Serendipity often leads to genealogy finds. Many years ago, I was watching a genealogy show, probably Who Do You Think You Are, when a 1641 plat map of New Haven, CT, popped up on the screen. I was not related to the ancestor of the guest on the show, but my eyes immediately focused on two names, Joshua Atwater and David Atwater, as Atwater is the maiden name of a gggrandmother in one of my paternal lines. I had not yet researched her line, but I wondered if there could be a connection. It turns out that the David Atwater on that 1641 map is my 9x greatgrandfather! You never know what direction a map might lead you in your research, so they're always worth looking at.