Using Ancestry.com’s Ancestor Profile Options

Ancestry.com has some new options with in an ancestor’s profile

In your Family Tree, decide which ancestor’s profile you will be investigating.

 

 

Click on an ancestor.

 

 

Click on the Profile button.

 

 

If it is not already selected, click on Lifestory.

Click on the Settings (Gear icon) if you would like to:

• Show/Hide Family Events

• Show/Hide Historical Events

 

 

From the Profile, you can also Resize Profile Image to crop the image that you use. This comes in handy when all you have is a group photo.

 

 

Drag and resize the square around your ancestor’s head.

 

 

The original image stays in the Gallery. (You can check by selecting Gallery from the Profile.)

 

 

To print the Lifestory, use the Tools drop down menu.

 

 

Select Print.

 

 

You have the options to print use the Print-friendly option.  A printer dialog box will open.

You can also choose one of the mycanvas products, which will take you to a partner site.

 

 

 

Using FamilySearch.org

Thanks to all the people who came on Tuesday night to learn more about FamilySearch.org.

As you know the website is provided for the public to use for free by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is much more to the website than searching or browsing for Historical Records.

Records were microfilmed records beginning in 1938. There are records from more than 110 countries, territories, and possessions. Currently the 2.4 million filmstrips, containing 3.5 billion images, are being digitized. Of course, these images are more useful when they have been indexed! So consider becoming an indexing volunteer (https://familysearch.org/indexing/get-started-indexer). Approximately 200 cameras currently microfilming records in more than 45 countries

Some of the way to search are to go to the search page at https://familysearch.org/search. From there you can search using the boxes on that page; click on the map and select a place from the list in the pop up menu to begin your research in a region; or Browse All Published Collections and use filters.               

In addition to the Historical Records, remember to search the Books and the Genealogies.

Use the Wiki to learn about the places and records you are searching. (https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki)

Take a lesson from an expert. Watch and learn from the courses in the Learning Center. Remember to download the Class Handout. (https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/home.html)

I promised to post some of the useful information that FamilySearch has on social media. To find helpful groups on Facebook, browse the list at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Genealogy_Help_on_Facebook and follow the links to the Facebook page. You can join the page to see updates and ask your questions. There is a page in the FamilySearch Wiki about social networks at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Popular_Social_Networks_for_Genealogy. FamilySearch has Tech Tips in their blog to help you learn about social media https://familysearch.org/blog/en/techtips/learn-about/social-media/. Yes, you can even follow Family Search on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FamilySearch

You can type “familysearch” in the search box on Twitter to find more!

When you are ready to tackle browsing, do not forget the tutorials on this website about land records and probate records to get you started.

Researching the Merchant Marine

During my talk about military archives at the Howard County Genealogical Society, the question came up about researching Merchant Marines.

Some brief research was educational. I learned that the U.S. Merchant Marine has no official historians and researchers. The Merchant Marine predates the U.S. Navy (13 October 1775), the U.S. Marines (10 November 1775) and the U.S. Coast Guard (formerly the Revenue Cutter Service was founded on (4 August 1790)). On 12 June 1775, a party of Maine mariners in an unarmed lumber schooner captured the HMS Margaretta, which was a fully armed British warship.

The mariners involved in “ocean-going service” during World War II do have Veteran Status. They may be entitled to a gravestone, a flag for their coffin, and burial in a National Cemetery. Merchant Mariners who served during other wars do not have this recognition. For more information, see the information at http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

Remember to make a timeline for your ancestor and gather information about the ships and their history while the ancestor served.

I recommend the resources at the American Merchant Marine at War website. These are the links that would be good starting places:

 

1) American Merchant Marine at War

http://www.usmm.org/

This website is dedicated to those Mariners who died during U.S. wars, and contains many links to valuable research material about the Merchant Marines. This website covers a lot of ground, including history and links to help a researcher dig farther into researching their Merchant Mariner and ships. You can also purchase gift items or make donations to support the website.

 

2) American Merchant Marine at War Records and Contact Information

http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

This page has the contact information for service records for mariners and ships.

However, do check the website for more history and historical documents.

 

3) Frequently Asked Questions about the Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/faq.html

This list of frequently asked questions is a great gathering of information about the Merchant Marine including the background about the people, the history, the wartime casualties, and how to join.

 

4) One page Information Sheet Handout about WWII Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/infomm.pdf

This pdf document is a one page summary of how the U.S. Merchant Marine made victory possible in WWII.

Remembering during a time of loss

As I sat in a hotel room trying to prepare myself for the viewing (wake) and funeral of both of my Son’s Grandparents, it was comforting to turn to genealogy. They left this world after full lives, but sadly for us, within days of each other.

Of course, repeating the caveats of capturing information while family members are still alive came to mind. But enough has been written about finding out the stories, the details, and who those people are in the pictures. And enough has been said about reminding to people to make those phone calls and tell people that you love them.

That night I thought back to when my Mother died. Memories of her were running freely to me and to the others around me. Many were stories I had not thought of for many years. For example, after my Father passed away she told me that she was not intending to follow him soon. In fact, if something happened to her she cautioned me “to suspect foul play”.

Each story reminded me of a facet of her personality, especially her quick wit, confidence and generosity. At the time, I opened a Word document to capture those recollections of things she said. It was a way to hold onto the memories and be able to share them with my Son at a later time. It was also therapeutic to put so much into the context of her life and times.

In the past few days, memories have been rushing back to my Husband about his parents, and also about his childhood in a small town.  There were adventures of those adults who are no longer with us. Naturally, I will encourage him to record those stories in mp3 files.

So, I suppose this is a time for mourning, for remembering, and for genealogy.

Google Searches

Without a doubt, Google search is one of my go-to genealogical tools. Google is always changing its tools to increase their effectiveness. The addition of tools and features is exciting. The elimination of tools can be frustrating. Google search is not immune from such changes. Over time, Google has removed some of the search operators.

Since “A Weekend of Genealogy” was published, Google has dropped one of its operators. The tilde (~) operator was described on pages 54-55 of the book. The tilde operator was used to return web pages that contained words similar to the specified term. Google manually built the list of similar words to include in the search. There was never a listing of what those similar words were, but by looking at the search results some of the words were obvious. According to Google, not enough people were using the operator to justify the cost of building those lists.

For a power Google user, it means that you can no longer use the search on these terms:

mcmahon ~genealogy

and expect to receive web pages that contain “family history” as well as “genealogy” in the results.

It means that you have to explicitly include the words that you want Google to search for in the search terms. One way you could do this is:

mcmahon (“genealogy” OR “family history”)

One way to make sure you know the current Google search terms is to use Google and search for:

google operators

By investigating the google operators, you may find advanced operators that might help you in your genealogical searches.

 

 

Using the USAHEC Tutorials

If you have had ancestors in the military, using military archives can be a research destination. You may find information about your ancestor, but it is more that your ancestor’s name will not be indexed. It is more likely you will locate collections and documents that contain information about the time and unit that where your ancestor served. In turn, these may contain references to your ancestor. At there very least, they will provide insights into the times and places your ancestor inhabited.

After a visit to the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), described in a previous blog post, I created these tutorials to capture what I had learned.

The main way to search for holdings is to use the Reference Bibliographies, described here. Use these Bibliographies as a finding aid to locate resources relevant to your ancestors at the USAHEC. You may discover that there are collections of images available for your ancestors time and possibly from the group with which he or she served. In my tutorial, you can learn to use the entries bibliographies and look for digital copies of the books.

When you are ready to narrow down your search to the Library and Digital Collections use this tutorial.

An amazing holding is the Veterans Surveys. These documents have been completed by Veterans to capture their own story of service. Copies of the survey form are available at USAHEC and can filled out by any veteran. The tutorial for locating the Veterans Surveys is located here.

After finding holdings that may contain data, in collections that are not online, you will have to visit the facility to view them. That will be covered in upcoming blog posts.