Wood County, Texas Genealogical Society Bulletin » Tips

Useful Cheat Sheets

netexas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:39:35 +0000

Hi,

The following link is for cheat sheets for all kinds of computer use. Especially useful is the Google search cheat sheet.

I thought you’d like this:
Click here

MakeUseOf Cheat Sheets

Tagged: Computer Tips

Not On The Census?

netexas — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:36:33 +0000

Yet another reason you might not find your ancestor on a specific census is pointed out by the Ancestry Insider in its latest blog article: Darned Missing Census Pages.

The Insider points out that NARA “missed the pages” when filming the census on which the Ancestry.com census is based. Going back to the original microfilm (while it’s still available) is the only recourse.

You can get full details of the Insider’s observation at one of the links to that blog which are highlighted in the text above.

Tagged: Ancestry Insider, census, Virginia

Obituary Documentation

netexas — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:28:14 +0000

When citing an obituary for your research or when fulfilling a research request from another person, the source and date lends credibility to the obituary or information from it which you present. It is particularly important to note the name of the publication and the date of publication. When preparing obituaries to go into a collection such as the one in the Wood County Texas Genealogical Society research room, it is important to add the publication name and date to the clipping.

Tagged: Obituaries

National Family History Month Ideas, Resources

netexas — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:52:01 +0000

From the newsletter of the National Genealogical Society comes these tips and ideas. You can subscribe to this newsletter at this link: http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/. When you arrive at the linked page, scroll down near the bottom of the page to the narrow left hand column for chances to subscribe by email or by RSS reader.

UPFRONT WITH NGS
The Blog of the National Genealogical Society
10 OCTOBER 2011
October is Family History Month! Let’s Celebrate …
Special events and activities abound. Do check out if your local society, library, archive, etc have any special events planned!

Some of what has crossed our desk includes:
o Kimberly Powell, About.com talks about how you might celebrate Family History Month
o Family Tree Magazine is offering some Free Webinars:
o Start Writing Your Life Stories with Sunny Jane Morton, author of the book My Life & Times: A Guided Journal For Collecting Your Stories, takes place Thursday, Oct. 13 at 1 pm Eastern Time (noon CT, 11 am MT, 10 am PT). Click here to sign up for this webinar.
o Be a Family History Detective: Secrets to Starting Your Genealogy, with Desmond Walls Allen, author of the book Family History Detective, is scheduled for Oct. 26 at1 pm Eastern Time (noon CT, 11 am MT, 10 am PT). Click here to sign up.
o The State Library of North Carolina has created a page with many tips and great resources for either starting or pursuing your Family History

What is happening in your community or state? Please let us know!
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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS.

Tagged: Allen, Family Tree Magazine, Morton, National Genealogical Society, Powell

Google News Archive – Gone for Good?

netexas — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:53:17 +0000

Reprinted with permission from the NGS Weekly, 23 September, 2011

If last month you were following the news about Google +, Google Maps and many of the other Google services and their latest and greatest features, the bit of news about the final chapter of the Google News Archives may have escaped your notice.

Read what Kimberly Powell (About.com) had to say about this (18 August 2011) … “I was not a happy camper last night when I went to the main Google News Archive page, previously available at http://news.google.com/archivesearch, only to find it redirecting to the main Google page. Today Google News Archive is still redirecting, although it takes you to the Advanced News Search page. Does this mean Google News Archive is gone for good?

“Read the full article to see what Kimberly learned….

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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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Tagged: National Genealogical Society, Powell

Using Rootsweb

netexas — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:24:58 +0000

By Mary Harrell-Sesniak
“Genealogy is not just a pastime; it’s a passion.”

Genealogy Favorites and Freebies. Everyone has favorites, and I am no exception, especially when it comes to free genealogy websites. They don’t completely replace subscription sites but are a wonderful starting point for your research.

RootsWeb, of course, is my top pick, not because I am associated with it, but because it is rich with genealogical tools and has an extraordinary network of user-contributed content, mailing lists, and message boards.

There are too many features to cover them all, but my top picks include the Obituary Daily Times and family trees at WorldConnect, along with these additional resources.

Blank Charts and Forms
Index of All Search Engines and Databases
Message Boards
Newsletters —RootsWeb Review and Ancestry Weekly Discovery
RootsWeb MetaSearch —Searches multiple engines
RootsWeb Surname List (RSL)
Social Security Death Index (SSDI)
U.S. Town and County Database

When asked which sites are best outside of RootsWeb, I typically answer, “It depends what you are looking for.” Try to focus on locations, events, or specific topics. A nice site for surname and location links is Linkpendium , developed by Karen Isaacson and Brian (Wolf) Leverich, co-founders of RootsWeb. And these are some military links of interest.

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors
Daughters of the American Revolution Genealogical Research System (GRS)
National Archives and Records Administration—Genealogists Archival Research Catalog

A nice selection of vital record transcriptions and images can be found at FamilySearch , the website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

And here are some more free sites, organized by categories.

Books:
WorldCat
Google Books

Cemetery Databases:
Find A Grave (burials, bios and photos)
Interment.net (burial data only)
Political Graveyard (politicians only)
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs Gravesite Locator (includes many spouses)

Immigration & Passenger Lists:
Castle Garden
EllisIsland.org
Olive Tree
1-Step Webpages by Steve Morse (searches other sites)

Land Records:
Bureau of Land Management

Queries and Message Boards:
Cousin Connect
GenForum

Videos:
Who Do You Think You Are? —Learn search techniques followed in tracing the ancestry of celebrities

In addition to these suggestions, look to state archives and local genealogical and historical societies. Many will feature content specific to their area or direct you to related sites.

Finally, there is one more freebie, which may surprise you. Many subscription sites, such as Ancestry.com, offer free databases, which are located by entering the keyword free into the card catalog. Among the freebies you’ll find at Ancestry.com, are a variety of census records, New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957 and the U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791–1992 (indexed by the World Archives Project).

A search of the Internet will uncover additional lists of favorites and freebie genealogy sites, including ProGenealogists list of the 50 Most Popular Genealogy Sites for 2011. Your lists of favorites may differ from these, so feel free to let us know what your favorites are at RootsWeb and around the Web!

Permission to reprint articles from RootsWeb Review is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; andthe following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 14 September 2011, Vol. 14, No. 9.

Tagged: Free Sites, Harrell, Rootsweb

Immigration Records Free This Week

netexas — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:19:43 +0000

Ancestry.com is offering free until Sept. 5 it’s immigration collection records. You can see more about the offer and what you have to do to access these free records by taking a look at this post from Randy’s Seaver‘s Genea-Musings blog.

Tagged: Ancestry, com, Seaver

The Living Book of the Dead

netexas — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:30:05 +0000

You don’t have to write a book to publish your family history research for future generations, and you don’t have to wait until you have eliminated every brick wall to start publishing.

That’s what one of my favorite bloggers, Denise Barrett Olson, has to say in a recent blog post. You can get all the details spelled out much more spiffily than I can do it by reading her contribution to FamilySearch.org’s Techtips at this link: http://goo.gl/KVjbn. A brief quote got me to thinking:

And, who says your family history has to be a book? Why not a documentary? Or a multimedia scrapbook? Or a blog?

While there take a look at some of the other Tech Tips.
FamilySearch TechTips
Technology tips for genealogists and family historians.

You can take a look at Denise’s Moultrie Creek Gazetter at this link: http://moultriecreek.us/

Tagged: FamilySearch, Olson, Tech Tips

African-American Genealogy Research

netexas — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:30:38 +0000

There’s no question that an enormous brick wall faces most African-American researchers because of the lack of readily available information especially in the lack of census records during the era of slavery.

Kimberly Powell of About.com Genealogy has listed her top ten online sites for African-American genealogy research at this link: http://genealogy.about.com/od/african_american/tp/best_sites.htm

Tagged: About.com Genealogy, African-American Research, Powell

Research Rule #2

netexas — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:46:15 +0000

James Tanner‘s Rule No. 2 (Focus on more recent sources and documents before you try to jump back in time) for genealogical research is pretty powerful but his rules one and three are absolutely key to getting started (or restarted) on your family research.

You can take all three in (and perhaps put them on the wall to look at over and over again) at his blog Genealogy’s Star at this link: http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2011/08/it-is-both-who-and-what-you-know.html

Tagged: Genealogy's Star, Tanner