• http://www.ellisisland.org Runs the American Family Immigration History Center on Ellis Island, which offers access to the passenger records of the ships that landed some 22 million immigrants, crew members, and other passengers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924.
• http://www.progenealogists.com Official research firm for Ancestry.com. Professional genealogists specializing in family history research worldwide. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Family History Library. Genealogists for the NBC TV show Who Do You Think You Are?, the member genealogists have accumulated over 500 years’ worth of research experience.
Golden Needles in the World Wide Haystack
In the manner of websites everywhere, these sites will all lead you to other sites, where (I hope) you’ll find the information you need. Note that this isn’t even close to an exhaustive list. For that, see Cyndi’s List and Genealogy Resources on the Internet. I have sorted these sites by topic.
Adoption
The following are places that concentrate on reuniting birth families:
• Adopting.org This site includes a birth-family search guide.
• Adoption.com This site has a discussion board for adoptees, including birth mother searches.
• American Adoption Congress (http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org) The American Adoption Congress (AAC) is an advocacy group for adoption reform. AAC members support those whose lives are touched by adoption or other loss of family continuity. The organization promotes honesty, openness, and respect for family connections in adoption, foster care, and assisted reproduction. It educates members and professional communities about the lifelong process of adoption and advocates legislation that will grant every individual access to information about his or her family and heritage.
• Bastard Nation (http://www.bastards.org) This organization fights to open all adoption records. It’s a strident site, but has some good articles and book reviews. A sample from their “About Us” page: “We at Bastard Nation believe that there is NOTHING shameful about having been born out of wedlock or about being adopted. We selected our name because we will no longer be made to feel shamed by the odious state laws that permanently seal our original birth records. We do not fling the word ‘bastard’ at anyone. Rather, we wear it proudly as we work to achieve our goal of equal and unconditional access to original birth records for all adult adoptees.”
• Karen’s Adoption Links (http://www.karensadoptionlinks.com/worldwide.html) This site has a section for adoptees.
• Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) Facebook has some groups and pages for adoptees to network, many sorted by geography (states, countries, etc). Simply search Facebook for “adoptees” to find several.
• RootsWeb Adoption Discussion Lists (http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Adoptions/) This site provides four different lists for those researching adoptions in their genealogy: Adoption-Gen, Aus-Vic-Adoptions, Il-Rhbal (Illinois-Research hindered by adoption laws), and Pre-1940_Adoption_Genealogy.
Beginners’ “Classes,” How-to Articles, Tips, Etc.
• About.com Genealogy (http://www.genealogy.about.com) This site has tips, discussion groups, and weekly articles on genealogy.
• Ancestors Series Teacher’s Guide (http://www.byub.org/Ancestors/teachersguide) This site is a set of pages designed to help teachers and students in grades 7–12 use the ten-part Ancestors series to create their genealogies as a school project.
• DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Lessons (http://www.dearmyrtle.com/lessons.htm) This is a self-guided course for beginners.
• Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/) This is a weekly newsletter on genealogy topics. A typical issue will cover reviews of genealogy computer programs; news items of note to genealogists; a list of websites to visit; reviews of books, CD-ROMs, TV programs; and more. Eastman publishes a short free version and a “Plus Edition” for $20 a year.
• GeneaWebinars.com If you ever wake up one morning and say to yourself, “Self, I want to learn more about genealogy today,” then head over to http://www.geneawebinars.com. There you will find a Google Calendar schedule of online meetings, classes, hangouts, seminars, and webinars. Many are free, although some are fee based. Note: The times on the calendar are in U.S. Eastern Time Zone (New York). If you need a time zone converter, see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html.
• Genealogy Dictionary (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~randyj2222/gendict.html) This site gives you definitions for all those confusing terms such as “cordwainer” and “primogeniture.”
• Genealogical Glossary (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nsdigby/lists/glossary.htm) This page is similar to the Genealogy Dictionary.
• Genealogy Lesson Plan (http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/misc/familytrees040199.html) Located at TeachNet.com, this site has a lesson plan on family history for different curriculum areas.
• Genealogy Today (http://www.genealogytoday.com) This site announces and rates genealogy sites, has news updates and links to databases, lets readers vote for their favorite sites, and so forth.
• Kindred Trails (http://www.kindredtrails.com) This site has links, a kinship calculator, articles, message boards, and more.
• Lineages, Inc. (http://www.lineages.com) This is the website for a group of professional genealogical researchers who, for a fee, will help you find your roots. Many of them hold professional certification. In addition, their site includes some free information, such as “First Steps for Beginners,” a free genealogical queries page, and more.
• Association of Personal Historians (http://www.personalhistorians.org) This site helps you find a professional to write your personal history.
• Treasure Maps (http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps) This how-to genealogy site is one of the best sites on the Web for novices. To keep track of the latest news on Treasure Maps, you might want to subscribe to its monthly newsletter.
Blogging and Genealogy Blogs
Genealogy bloggers can help you with techniques, news, and more, as noted in Chapter 9. Here are a few more blogs to consider:
• Ancestry Insider, at http://www.ancestryinsider.org, reports on the two big genealogy organizations: Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. The unnamed author, who is a genealogical technologist, has worked for both companies, but strives to be objective in his analysis. It is always worth a read.
• Arlene H. Eakle is a speaker, blogger, and president and founder of The Genealogical Institute, Inc. Arlene’s blogs include Arlene H. Eakle’s Genealogy Blog (http://www.arleneeakle.com/wordpress/), Tennessee Genealogy (http://www.tnblog.arleneeakle.com/), Virginia Genealogy (http://www.virginiagenealogyblog.com/), and Kentucky Genealogy (http://www.kyblog.arleneeakle.com). She is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/arleneeakle. Dr. Eakle is a professional genealogist with more than 30 years’ experience in research, consulting, lecturing, and writing and is an expert in tracing families from New York, the Southern United States, the British Isles, Switzerland, and parts of Germany.
• Cheryl Rothwell has three blogs: Logan County Genealogy (http://www.logancountygenealogy.blogspot.com/) is about Logan County, Illinois, and the companion blog, Graveyards of South Logan County (http://www.southlogancounty.blogspot.com/) focuses on the cemeteries there. Ancestor Hunting (http://www.genealogysleuth.blogspot.com/) is more general and covers “the never-ending, incredibly addictive search for information about our ancestors, their family and friends, neighbors, and total strangers, commonly known as genealogy.” It’s witty, informative, and fun. Also, she’s my friend and neighbor!
• Documenting the Details (http://www.lfmccauley.blogspot.com) is the blog by Linda McCauley about her own genealogy, the use of technology in research, the value and fun of genealogy events such as conferences and workshops, and delightful musings.
How Blogs Can Be Cousin Bait
Linda McCauley has had lots of contact from people because of blog posts, but the best was
probably an e-mail she received on Christmas Day a few years ago. The writer found a blog post Linda had written about a fourth great-grandmother months earlier. Linda knew the great-grandmother’s husband’s name, their children, and where they lived in Kentucky and Illinois, but nothing about her parents, not even a surname. This writer not only knew her maiden name, he had a copy of her father’s will that clearly identifies her. Her father died in Pennsylvania and lived in Maryland before that. Chances are Linda might never have found that on her own.
Diane MacLean Boumenot, whose blog is One Rhode Island Family (http://www.onerhodeislandfamily.com) was really lost about her great-great-grandmother from Pictou, Nova Scotia. She didn’t even have enough material for an individual blog post, but instead included her in a blog post about ten of Diane’s brick walls. Then a fifth cousin contacted her and told Diane about a family history book written in 1956 by her great-great-grandmother’s nephew. “I got the book, and although I still have a few mysteries, I learned a lot,” Diane said. “I also got to meet the fifth cousin, and he and his wife had traveled to Scotland and gave me pictures of the graves of our mutual ancestors. The book in question was rare, only in a handful of libraries. Since a common last name was involved, I may never have found her.”
• Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse’s Genealogy blog (http://www.elysesgenealogyblog.com) shares both her personal family history and her knowledge of research techniques. An elementary schoolteacher as well as an administrator of WikiTree, she has a fresh and breezy approach to genealogy.
• Gena Philibert Ortega writes for the blogs at Gena’s Genealogy (http://www.philibertfamily.blogspot.com) and contributes to the World Vital Records blog (http://blog.worldvitalrecords.com). She wrote the books Putting the Pieces Together (Lulu, 2007) and Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra (Arcadia Publishing, 2007). Follow her on Twitter: @genaortega and @WVRNewsletter.
• Geneabloggers (http://www.geneabloggers.com) is Thomas’ MacEntee excellent blog about blogging… for genealogists, by genealogists, about genealogists, and so on! A good description is at http://www.geneabloggers.com/about/. This is a must-see site! Thomas MacEntee specializes in the use of technology and social media for better family history research and to cooperate with others in the genealogy world. He is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tmacentee and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/tmacentee.
• Jean Wilcox Hibben blogs at Circle Mending: Where Music and Genealogy Meet (http://www.circlemending.org). Hibben lives in Riverside County, California, and is a Board-Certified Genealogist, with a doctorate in folklore and a master’s in speech communication. She is also president of the Corona Genealogical Society and the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
• Lee R. Drew writes the FamHist Blog (http://www.famhist.wordpress.com/about/) and Lineage Keeper Blog (http://www.lineagekeeper.blogspot.com). You can reach Lee at the Twitter account http://www.twitter.com/lineagekeeper.
• Lisa Alzo writes The Accidental Genealogist (http://www.theaccidentalgenealogist.com) and is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/lisaalzo and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/lisaalzo. Lisa has written seven books, including Baba’s Kitchen: Slovak & Rusyn Family Recipes and Traditions (Gateway Press, 2005) and Finding Your Slovak Ancestors (Heritage Productions, 2005). She teaches classes for GenClass.com and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Lisa has presented at numerous national and international conferences, genealogical, and historical societies.
• Lisa Louise Cooke (http://www.lisalouisecooke.com) owns Genealogy Gem. She writes blogs and magazine articles, hosts podcasts and videocasts, and works closely with Family Tree Magazine. She is the author of Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies (privately published, 2007) and several other books. You can find Lisa on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/LisaCooke and on Facebook.
• Renee Huskey blogs at http://www.photoloom.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/PhotoLoom). Renee writes about preserving the images and stories in order to turn genealogy data into family history.
• Renee Zamora writes Renee’s Genealogy Blog (http://www.rzamor1.blogspot.com) and is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/rzamor1. Renee has been secretary for the Utah Valley PAF Users Group and a Family History Consultant at the Alpine Family History Center. Her blog is often about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) family history scene. She began researching at age 15, mainly in Warren and Washington Counties, New York.
Other blogs to check out:
• Amy Johnson Crow writes the blog No Story Too Small about the small stories that make up family history. She shares the stories and the techniques to find them for your genealogy. Find it at http://www.nostorytoosmall.com.
• FootnoteMaven.com is a wonderful blog about citations, sources, reference works, and genealogy. It is much more entertaining and fun than that sounds. You can also follow the author on http://www.facebook.com/footnoteMaven and http://www.twitter.com/footnoteMaven.
• Marian Pierre-Louise writes Roots and Rambles (http://www.rootsandrambles.blogspot.com) and Fieldstone Common podcast (http://www.fieldstonehistoricresearch.com). Her podcast gives away weekly book prizes for listeners!
• Thomas J. Kemp blogs for http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/.
• Maureen Taylor is the author of The Photo Detective (http://www.photodetective.com).
• Randy Seaver writes the Genea-musings Blog (http://www.geneamusings.com).
• Colleen Fitzpatrick writes The Forensic Genealogist (http://www.forensicgenealogy.info).
• Paula Hinkle writes the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree (http://www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com/).
• Stephen Danko PhD writes a genealogy blogger at http://www.stephendanko.com/blog.
Birth, Death, Marriage, and Other Records
Here are just a few of the sites where volunteers are uploading data. Be sure you visit RootsWeb and Cyndi’s List often for updates and new pages:
• Australian Office of Regulatory Services has a page where you can search vital records at http://www.ors.act.gov.au/community/births_deaths_and_marriages/historic_death_index.
• Danish Demographic Database (http://www.ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm) has several ways to search for information in different sources. You can search for individuals when you have some information. Information is being added regularly by volunteers, so keep searching!
• There are three good sites for finding cemetery information. Cemetery Junction: The Cemetery Trail (http://www.daddezio.com/cemetery/trail/index.html) has transcriptions of tombstones found in cemeteries across the United States, Canada, and Australia, collected and uploaded by volunteers, links to other sites focusing on cemeteries, and some interesting articles on the subject. Find a Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/index.html) is all about cemetery research and recording gravesites, new and old. Here, people volunteer to find headstones for each other. Finally, check out http://www.BillionGraves.com, a site searchable on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. BillionGraves also has its own smart phone/tablet computer app.
• Census Bureau Home Page (http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www) site has a list of frequently occurring names in the United States for 1990, a Spanish surname list for 1990, an age search service, and a frequently asked questions (FAQs) file on genealogy.
• FreeBMD (http://www.freebmd.rootsweb.com), which stands for Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths, is made up of volunteers transcribing the Civil Registration Index information for England and Wales from the years 1837 to 1898 onto the Internet. Progress is sporadic; volunteer if you can.
• GENWED (http://www.genwed.com/) is a free genealogical research database for marriage records and a directory to other marriage records online for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Some of the records can be obtained for free; others will require some sort of cost. Most of the records are volunteer submitted and are therefore considered secondary material.
• The Bureau of Land
Management Land Patent Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov) is a searchable database. It’s invaluable, especially for information in the Western states when they were territories and when local records were scarce.
Also, do not forget that many states, provinces, and territories have online sites for the official archives of vital records. Even if you cannot find the actual record online at some of them, usually, you can at least search an index of them and then write for a copy. On occasion, this is also true of larger libraries.
DNA
DNA research is becoming part of online genealogy. These are sites you can explore for this topic:
• Chris Pomeroy’s DNA Portal (http://www.dnaandfamilyhistory.com) What was a website of articles turned into a book, a free e-mail newsletter, and a set of articles on the cutting edge of DNA genealogy.
• Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com) This is a company you can pay to look for matches with people you suspect are relatives. In searching my mother’s genealogy, we had long suspected that our Abraham Spencer was related to a certain Abner Spencer. Using this site, my uncle and another man submitted saliva samples. The other man (who wishes not to be named) was a proven descendant from that Abner. The results showed that he and my uncle have an ancestor in common. Many professional genealogists scoff at such proof (for example, the white descendants of Thomas Jefferson), but we feel this has finally solved our 30-year brick wall on Abraham’s parents.
• Genealogy DNA Mail List (http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/DNA/GENEALOGY-DNA.html) This is a discussion group about the topic of DNA hosted by RootsWeb.
• Oxford Ancestors (http://www.oxfordancestors.com) This is a company that does the same thing as Family Tree DNA, but in the United Kingdom.
• Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (http://www.smgf.org) Brigham Young University (BYU) has a site explaining its DNA genealogy research. You can learn how this project is progressing and how you can participate in your area. You can also read about how BYU hopes to use the data to further the Mormons’ quest to have a family history for all mankind.
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