The registration dates for my talks this Fall at West County Library have been added to the descriptions in the Upcoming page. Since the DNA talk is not in the lab, no registration is required.
In an online world of compelling records, I have found LAND RECORDS to be the singularly most addictive set of online records available. Be sure that you have a block of hours available, because you will have that urge to see just one more page.
The Clerk may have recorded many things in these books. I have seen examples of property purchases, wills, and even prenuptial agreements. Although tedious to search for, these records may be worth the effort to further your research. If your ancestors were not land owners, these records may not be helpful to you.
Land records can be found online at FamilySearch.org. Follow the links to records from the United States, then choose your state.
There is a four step process:
1) Find the correct index
2) Locate the index entry
3) Find the correct deed book
4) Locate the deed
Those items recorded in the Deed books are recorded as they came into the Clerk. The Clerk recorded the legal document in the Deed book, and also used another book as an index. The index was needed to find specific names without having to search all the pages of each Deed book. Names are recorded alphabetically in the index, with a section for each letter. Rather than store all the names of a given letter as they are recorded, I have seen clerks using a system to organize the recording of the names by the first three letters. After all, they had to be able to search for the records, too. When the lines for a section are exhausted, the entries may continue on the blank pages at the back of the book. Whatever system a clerk uses, you will be doing a lot of reading, because there is not an online index for the names in these index books.
In a recent research trip, I spent the days visiting Historical Societies and Museum Research rooms, and at night worked finding online records using the knowledge I found during the day. In turn, I used what I collected to shape the work of the next day.
A tutorial walking through the process can be found on this website
I’ve been hard at work this week to capture material I present in my lectures with updated hints, tips, and tricks to help you make the most of your online genealogy research time.
“A Week of Genealogy” is now available at the Allen County Public Library. If you like the book, please feel free to order a copy from me. http://smartcat.acpl.lib.in.us/?itemid=|acpl-bibs|ocn871005709
The Washington DC Family History Center 8th Annual Conference was great! It is always an honor to be invited to speak. I enjoyed the audiences for my talks, and learned from them, too.
I’m hoping that their will be a lot of new blogs out there after my talk. You CAN do this! And maybe it will help distant cousins to find you.
The other speakers that I had the pleasure to listen to were very professional, and interesting. The Keynote speaker talked about his work on the Baltimore Immigration Memorial Project.
If you need to download the syllabi, please do it before Sunday night (4 May 2014). Remember that the syllabus for Dr. Ezell’s talk, Genealogy Apps for Tablets and Smartphones, is not included in the download all option and has to be downloaded separately.
