1) Think of a trip to a computer
like a trip to the library. You wouldn't go to the library unprepared,
so do a little preparatory work before you
log on. I keep a 3-ring binder
with printed pedigree charts and family group sheets on my desk.
The binder also contains blank pages where I can make notes of ideas
for new research strategies, sites I want to investigate later, etc.
2) With the immense array of resources
available online (and new sites going up every day) it is impossible to
keep track of where you have
searched, when, and for what. Keeping
a research log of sites visited, searches performed, and results can save
much duplicated effort. I keep my log in a spreadsheet form and keep
the log open as I search. Then I can simply copy/paste the URL into
the document and keep track of my searches as I go. With Web sites that
are constantly being updated and/or added to, you may want to go back every
so often to recheck them. Your log can tell you when you last checked
a site. Those with a preference for a paper copy, can use the downloadable
Research Calendar at:
http://www.ancestry.com/download/forms.htm
to record searches.
3) Determine what information you need. While it can be fun to wander aimlessly about the Web, most of us have a limited amount of time that we can spend surfing for ancestors. Go over your research and decide what information you are looking for. Once you have decided on a particular piece of information that is missing, pursue it.
4) Don't just search for surnames. If you know your ancestors were from a particular location, find out all you can about their hometown or homeland. While learning about an area, you will often find clues that will open up new avenues of research.
5) Learn. How-to, beginner sites,
and specialized sites dealing with specific record types, geographic areas,
repositories, and/or ethnicity
abound. Use them to locate
new resources and methods for conducting your search. The Ancestry.com
Learning Center contains a wide variety of information and helpful articles,
all in one place at: http://www.ancestry.com/research/index.htm
6) If you don't find the information you seek online, use online sources to determine what offline avenues are available to you.
7) When you find a pertinent piece of information, make sure you record the full bibliographic citation. If it is not available on the Web site, write the webmaster and request it. Citing your sources is critical both online and off.
8) Post queries on sites like FamilyHistory.com
(http://www.familyhistory.com), where large numbers of researchers visit
regularly and where the people
that may have the information you seek have a good chance of seeing your
post.
9) Once you log off, follow through by proving your findings with original primary source documents. Online resources are secondary sources at best, and often contain errors. Additionally, there is often much more information in the original documents.
10) Have some fun with it!
Every so often when you have the time, go off and explore a bit.
You'll be surprised at what you can find in unexpected places!
Newspapers, especially old ones,
make fascinating reading material, and they can provide a wealth of information
for the genealogist and family
historian. In the race to "go online,"
newspapers have not been left behind. The Internet home pages of newspapers
often provide wonderful
surprises. When a genealogist thinks
"newspaper," often the first thought that pops up is of an obituary. The
search for possible birth or marriage notices usually follows. While an
Internet version of the newspaper is a great place to start your search
for these notices--as well as for archived copies of notices--newspaper
sites often have much more to offer.
The Standard-Speaker of Hazleton, Pennsylvania is a good example. The main page's link to "History" takes the reader to a capsule history of Hazleton, with additional sections on the town's banking history, World War II, the Civil War, hotels, the Flu, coal discovery, mine accidents, "Bloodshed at Lattimer" (mining strike), military history, war heroes, profiles of several prominent citizens, schools, and textiles.
The "Our History" page of Schuylkill
(Pennsylvania) Online site, (sponsored by the Pottsville Republican and
Evening Herald
http://www.pottsville.com/pub/services/history.htm)
features some great links to various local historical and genealogy-related
Web sites.
These Pennsylvania newspapers are not isolated cases. The Hammond Times (Indiana) is running a special mini-site called "Times Capsule: Countdown to the Millenium." The site features events that have shaped the Calumet region in the past century. The front pages of past issues are featured every week, along with columns by a local historian.
Many newspaper sites provide capsule histories of their own publications. The Shelbyville Union (Illinois) page states that it was "founded as a weekly newspaper on May 9, 1863, by a group of Shelbyville residents who supported President Abraham Lincoln's Union policies during the Civil War." (http://www.dailyunion.com/) On the Internet site, you may also learn how a town's newspaper evolved over the years, and any name changes.
These informational newspaper sites
are not limited to the U.S. The Hampshire Chronicle (England) (http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/)
has a link to the paper's first issue in 1772, and "classical historical
events from the Chronicle archive." The history of the paper is also on
the site.
The Belfast Telegraph (Ireland)
has a section called "Exodus: As I Was" that documents the mass exodus
from Ireland in the nineteenth century (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/emigration/).
Also in Ireland, the Irish Times
(Dublin), founded in 1859, has a special section on "Irish Ancestors" (http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/).
This
section has a several helpful research
guides including a place name search that gives the county, civil parish,
and poor law union for locations in Ireland. There is also a magazine section
with helpful articles, a surname help section, and Gen.ie, where for $25.00,
you can fill out a form and get a "complete personalized guide to the records
relevant to your Irish ancestor."
In the event you find that the newspaper for your area of interest is not online, or does not include a history section, an inquiry addressed to the local office may bring good results. Once a publisher understands that there is a demand for this kind of information, and that competitive papers are doing it, the chances of seeing your newspaper online are greatly increased. Newspapers are an important resource for family historians and their Web sites can be extremely helpful in bridging the distance between you and the home of your ancestors.
To find the newspaper for your area of interest, try one of the following:
AJR Newslink
http://ajr.newslink.org/menu.html
Newspapers.com
http://www.newspapers.com/
{{TAZEWELL COUNTY NEWSPAPERS:}}
Clinch Valley
News Richlands News-Press
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
One problem researchers frequently run across in browsing old documents is out-of-date terminology. Below are some resources that may help interpret these antiquated terms.
OneLook Dictionaries
http://www.onelook.com/
Searches 560 dictionaries. Wide variety includes medical,
historical, computer, names, grave terminology--You name it!
Sam's Genealogy Home page
http://genweb.net/~samcasey/index.shtml
This site includes pages with Genealogy Terms, Genealogy
Abbreviations, Colonial Occupations, and Colonial Diseases.
The Gene Pool, by Joanne T. Rabun
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/
This site includes a section on "Phraseology" with several
helpful (and some entertaining) pages.
The Olive Tree--Index to Tools & Tips
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/indextip.htm
Many helpful pages here including: Old Handwriting, Glossary
of Diseases, Obsolete Occupations, Graven Images, and Definitions of Early
Immigrants.
Online Dictionaries, Glossaries and Encyclopedias
http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/~baum/hyperref.html
Huge collection of links to a wide variety of resources
Good research methods are essential if you are to locate
the best information about your ancestors and if you are to come to the
right conclusions about them. We've all been guilty of making errors or
omissions in our research at some time or another. Some of these common
mistakes can take us down the wrong road, sometimes putting us on the trail
of someone
else's ancestry altogether. In "Along Those Lines . .
." this week, let's identify and define some of the most common research
wrong turns.
USE OF LIMITED RESOURCES-- First, you have to realize that you can only locate so much information by looking at only a few types of records. Census records, family bibles, marriage and death certificates are good places to start, but there are so many other sources that can yield clues. These include probate packets, land and property records, tax rolls, court records, ships' passenger lists, immigration and naturalization records, Social Security and Railroad Retirement records, city directories, military service and pension records, and publications of genealogical and historical societies, to name a few. The key is to not limit yourself; there are so many alternate resources to be studied.
BELIEVING ALL YOU READ-- Not everything you read is accurate.
A healthy dose of skepticism is a valuable research tool. Census records
are a great example of information to be questioned. Census data is only
as accurate as the enumerator made it. If he or she was too tired or lazy
to make the trek to your ancestor's farm or up that five flights of stairs
to their
apartment, he or she may have asked neighbors for the
information required to complete your ancestors' profile. Published biographies
and genealogies, and a great deal of information found on the Internet
can also contain discrepancies or errors. You should always verify, confirm,
or corroborate facts found in one source with another source whenever possible.
USING ABSTRACTS, EXTRACTS AND TRANSCRIPTIONS-- Records
copied and published by others are often fraught with problems. Transcription
and handwriting interpretation errors are common. More than that, however,
are the problems
resulting from someone else's interpretation of a document.
One will abstract I recently encountered contained spelling errors of surnames,
omissions of some other heirs' names (including those of slaves), and included
no description of the division of property. I strongly urge you to follow
up on your find of abstracts and transcriptions with a look at a copy of
the original documents. While many abstractors and transcribers do excellent
work, you can often find additional important information (and errors)
when you examine the documents yourself.
NAME VARIANTS-- It is uncommon today for people to change their names. In other times, however, people changed their names without going through a legal process. Some ancestors of mine named WHITEFIELD decided to change the spelling of their surname to WHITFIELD. Names were also written or recorded incorrectly. Perhaps the person writing the name wasn't a good speller or simply misheard the name. My great-great-grandmother's given name was Hepsevah, and her name appears in the 1870, 1880, 1900 and 1910 censuses as Hepsebah, Hebsevah, Lizzie and Hezzie, respectively. Start your research with a list of possible alternate spellings of names and be on the lookout for these and others. I might never have found a record for a great-grandfather HOLDER had I not looked at a record for a Mr. HALTER.
USING THE WRONG MAP-- A great deal of time is wasted by people who don't use the correct map when doing their research. As countries grew, counties or provinces were subdivided into new ones and boundaries changed. Wars and political conflicts caused boundaries to change as well. If you are looking for a marriage record, make sure you write to the correct government office that might hold that record. First use a current map to determine where the event took place. Then locate a map of the same area from the time when the event occurred. If the location is now in a different county or other governmental jurisdiction, contact or visit the old one for a copy of the record.
PLACE NAME CHANGES AND LOST PLACES-- Many researchers give up when they encounter a place name that no longer exists or, worse yet, they make assumptions. Somewhere there is a map or other reference that includes the place name and can tell you where it was. Using the correct map is always important, and locating these obscure towns and villages can be essential in locating records you need. If an old atlas or gazetteer doesn't help, look for alternative records. One of these might be old post office or railroad station site listings. It was through an 1895 Post Office Directory that I found the community of Sheva, NC, a small package express stop. As a result, I now know precisely where to continue research on specific ancestors whose letters in the 1880s were postmarked there.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOOD INFORMATION-- Your relatives are some of your best resources. Time and again you hear how important it is to interview all of your relatives. Their recollections of names, places, events, and details can be invaluable starting points for other research. They also may have important written materials in their possession that they might be willing to loan to you or make copies for you. These include Bible records, letters, diaries and journals, military records, wills, deeds, marriage certificates, and a host of other materials. I've had excellent experience here. I obtained a wealth of document copies from a first cousin once removed for an entire line. An elderly aunt who no longer had room for a ten-pound box of family photographs and who thought no one wanted them gave them to me rather than throw them away. Other relatives have shared copies of Bible records, made photographs of gravestones, and have recounted many stories of their and my families. Don't miss the opportunity to investigate what your relatives have to share!
KEEPING TRACK OF WHERE YOU FOUND MATERIAL (OR DIDN'T FIND
ANYTHING)-- A great deal of time is spent duplicating research. It is important
to keep track of what resources you have investigated in the past, even
those that yielded nothing of value, so that you don't duplicate your efforts.
A research log or research calendar can help you record your progress.
You can maintain your log by surname, by individual, by geographic area
or whatever organizational method makes you most effective. Using one of
these, such as those found at
http://www.ancestry.com/download/pdf/rescal.pdf
Or http://www.genrecords.com/forms/genealogyresearchlog.pdf
can
be enormously helpful.
FAILURE TO REEXAMINE PREVIOUSLY LOCATED MATERIALS-- One of the research techniques most overlooked by genealogists is reexamining materials they have previously obtained. As you uncover new facts, it is important to assess and compare the new information with what you already know, and assess the viability of the old and new facts. Do they agree? Do they compliment one another? Is there a discrepancy? Is one source better or more reliable than another and, if so, why? Does one source make the information furnished by other, or both, questionable? It is very important to continually reassess the facts you have acquired. Sometimes they all fit together to form a great tapestry of your ancestor's life. Other times, however, the pieces don't fit together and new data may raise even more questions than provide answers.
These are some of the more common of the research wrong turns. There are others, of course, and the whole reason for writing "Along Those Lines . . ." is to try to help other researchers make better research decisions and to perhaps investigate other record types. Please take some time to reassess where you might be making some wrong turns or might improve your own research methods. After all, a little course correction can always be a good thing.
Happy hunting!
George
********************************************************************
Copyright 1999 George G. Morgan. All Rights reserved.
"Along Those Lines . . ." is a weekly feature of the Genealogy Forum on
America Online (Keyword: ROOTS). The article originally appeared in the
Genealogy Forum on America Online. You may send e-mail to mailto:alonglines@aol.com.
George Morgan would like to hear from you but, because of the volume of
e-mail, is unable to personally respond to each letter individually. He
also regrets that he cannot assist you with your personal genealogical
research. Visit George Morgan's Web page at: http://members.aol.com/alonglines.
George is also the author of "The Genealogy Forum on America Online," which
is available in the ancestry Online Store at: http://shop.ancestry.com/ancestry/genforonamon.html
The "Along Those Lines ..." column appears each Friday in the Genealogy
Forum on America Online, is cross-posted at the Ancestry.com Web site (http://www.ancestry.com),
and is transmitted as part of Ancestry.com's "Hometown Daily News" E-mail
newsletter (available by E-mail subscription at the Ancestry.com Web site).
Mr. Morgan is the author of the book, "The Genealogy Forum on America Online:
The Official User's Guide," which is available for sale at the Ancestry.com
Web site, in the Genealogy Forum on AOL, at the Amazon.com Web site (http://www.amazon.com),
and through Borders and Barnes & Noble booksellers (often via special
order).
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