The Family History Guide: A Review

You have heard that there are websites on the Internet that can help you with your research. You have probably found some of them. Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone who could show you, step-by-step, where to find help when you need it? Could you benefit from a guide who would point you to good websites where you learn about a specific family history topic, or even about computer basics? You can find such a guide for the web, in The Family History Guide.

 

 

The Family History Guide was launched in July 2015 as an instructional website that organizes family history resources together so that you can start your research and go directly to the best information on the web.

On the home page there are links to the Introduction; Projects; and Training (about The Family History Guide). A good place to start is on the Introduction Page.

 

 

I recommend that you view “The Family History Guide Quick Tour” (left) for an overview of how to use the website. You can also find links to webinars on this page. You can view past issues of the FHG Newsletter including information about subscribing.

When you are ready, you can click on the menubar to go to the Projects area. There are eight projects to explore, and goals within these topics. The projects are: Family Tree (for the FamilySearch Family Tree); Memories; Descendancy Research; Discover; Indexing (for FamilySearch); Help; Tech (to learn about using Technology in genealogy); and DNA. Each project contains goals, which are sections that contain links to resources on the web. You may be interested all or some of goals within a project. From the menubar you can also select a link to find resources for Children.

 

 

The Topics Page, which can be reached by a link on the left side of the Projects pages, shows you a linked index to the topics that are covered in The Family History Guide.

This Guide is good for experienced as well as beginning genealogists. The links to resources are well organized within each project. I especially liked Project 4: Discover. You will find links to in-depth resources for geographic-based and ethnic research.  Several geographic locations are on the menu; for others you will have to view the submenu to find out which countries are covered. The QUIKLinks on the left side of the these pages send you to websites that have the records.

 

 

You will find this a worthwhile website to explore. To get the most out of using the Family History Guide, take the time to understand the navigation. Think of a topic you need help with or want to know more about. Then check out the resources for that topic from the menubar, or the Topics page, and follow your guide.

Note: You will find several posts from A Week of Genealogy included in the resources.

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USAHEC Visit – Homework

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) holds a tremendous amount of information that may assist you in your research about U.S. Army ancestors. They may not have an image of your ancestor, or papers with you ancestor’s name, but there may be material from contemporaries that will shed light on your ancestor’s experience. The Staff is extremely knowledgeable and is available to help you.

There are books about military history, and Army publications. There are extensive collection of unit histories and photo archives. There are veterans’ surveys from the Spanish-America War to the Cold War. There are oral histories. There are collections of personal papers, diaries, and letters. U.S. Army doctrinal, training, and administrative publications. Most post-WWII U.S. Army Chiefs of Staff have donated their personal papers to USAHEC. This is a brief description.

 

Homework:

Before your visit, locate it of items or collections of interest using USAHEC’s online catalog. Tutorials to help find material are available here.

When you have located material of interest, contact USAHEC by e-mail or phone to verify that the materials are available. Also ask what other material they might recommend for the topic you are researching.

The list of documents I wanted to view were:

1. The 51st pioneers [weekly]
2. The Moses Thisted photograph collection
3. The WWI Veterans Survey Pioneer Infantry documents for SGT John Mansfield
4. The SGT John Mansfield photographs (Photographs from the survey had been transferred to the Photo Archives.

I had e-mailed a Technical Information Specialist to check if these materials would be available on the dates of my visit. As it turned out, Item #4 did need to be cleared and would be before I came.

 

3 Reasons to use WorldCat (and a Tutorial)

Have you been using WorldCat? If not, you need to be.

1. WorldCat is the world’s largest library catalog. It spans many libraries, including those at the Family History Library, the Allen County Public Library, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
2. WorldCat lets you search for publications of interest. It lets you save lists of the publications. You can also save your searches to run them again at a future time.
3. Last, but not least, WorldCat helps you find where the materials are located. You can enter your zip code and find out if there is a copy near you. If none is nearby, you can also investigate an inter-library loan.

Give the new WorldCat Tutorial a try. In it, WorldCat is searched for publications about the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

 

3 Things to Do at Graduation Time

Graduations are a great time to celebrate! They are a time for families to gather, and when families gather they share memories. Thinking about graduations made me recall that Mrs. Lindsey, wife of New York City’s Major John Lindsey, attended my graduation from preschool. My Brother recalled that author Frank McChort spoke at my PhD graduation.

1. Capture the memories. Have the graduate write, or record, about his or her favorite memories about the school experience.
2. Capture others’ memories. While you are remembering, list the graduations you attended.
3. Scan the ephemera. There may be programs, awards, certificates and notes generated for the event. Be sure to scan them, and use descriptive file names. Store the important ones, like the programs, using archival materials.

One of the things I like to do is capture the data that I wish I had about past generations. Start capturing graduation memories for your children, grandchildren and yourself! This Graduation Memory Worksheet and School Memory Worksheet can help you to capture the stories.

3 Things to do on Find A Grave Today

If you are not using Find A Grave, you should! If you have not used it in a while, you should use it again.

1) Search for an Ancestor

You can search all the listings by selecting the link “Search 145 million grave records” from the Find A Grave Home Page. (Since Find A Grave is growing all the time, the number may vary depending on when you search.)

Alternately, you can search within a cemetery by choosing the “Search for a cemetery”, then entering the name of the cemetery or the country and state to find a specific cemetery.
When you find an ancestor memorial, consider searching for everyone with your surname in a specific cemetery.
If there is no record for your ancestor, you can select the link on the cemetery page to “Add a name to this cemetery”.

2) Add a short bio for an Ancestor

Add a short biographical sketch for your ancestor. This could include places s/he lived and highlights of their lives. You can link to spouses and children’s memorials on Find A Grave.

3) Request a Photo

If there is no photo of the tombstone, you can request that a volunteer take one. You will need to register for a free account to do this. Follow the links on the memorial page.

 

In an upcoming post, I will describe how to fulfill a photo request.

It’s Complicated: Marital Status State Diagrams

When you are looking for records, you have to play to your strengths. State diagrams are important in my field of Computer Science and Engineer. They show the state that a computer can be in, and how it moves from one to another via a transition. State diagrams are merely roadmaps showing how to move through a computer system in time. For football fans, John Madden uses something similar to show how plays are made.

While I was trying to formulate how to continue searching for records of a married ancestor, I enumerated all the possible variations of her marital status that there could be. She might remain separated, divorce, remarry or die. It occurred to me that this path through life could be captured in a state diagram! So I got out my tablet and did some drawing.

When a person is born, she is single. She might die single or marry during her lifetime. If she marries, then she is a married person. You can follow the arrows from her single state to either of these.  A married person can be separated, divorced, widowed, or dead. As you can see by following the arrows, a separated, divorced or widowed person can marry again. Then her status would go back to married. For a woman, this probably means a change in surname, and that is where your search becomes more complicated.

If you might want capture more information, by adding another status like “engaged” or “it’s complicated”.

This really helped me to focus my searches for the ancestor in one particular geographic area. It reminded me to check the available marriage and death records.

This particular diagram only captures changes in marital status. If you still cannot find a person, keep in mind that people also move or migrate.