Another Search Engine- this one with a Twist!

Well, fellow researchers, I've got a new tip for you today- how about a VISUAL map on your computer of the web searches you do, showing you visual links between the sites listed out in your search? Try www.kartoo.com

The homepage is simple and you watch a genie wave the white flag from a pile of papers (are some of those papers mine?) as the search progresses. A series of site maps are displayed and as you move your pointer to each document icon, lines show connections between the sites now displayed! A short verbal descrition appears in the text box to the left, as the icon is touched. What a clever idea!

While I cannot assertain the extent or thoroughness of the onhnline "metasearch" with this preview today, I am excited for the visual learners who should really appreciate this website for all of their online research!

National Archives

The National Archives Records Administration publishes Prologue Magazine, both in print form for $20 a year and some articles free online, with genealogical articles, as well as links to records housed around the country, in regional archives and even presidental libraries. You can check them out online at www.archives.gov/publications/prologue

Links in the "Genealogy Notes" are divided into 14 sections, including African American sources, Immigration, WWI and WWII, Spanish- American War and the Civil War. Many of these databases help you in your family history research and offer you tips in obtaining full records, when available and when needed.

New Cool Web site!!!!

Hey, I don't get excited too often by a new web site that I stumble upon, but this one is GOOD, my friends! Check out: iTools - a "quick access to the best Internet tools." You have "Search Tools", "Language Tools", and "Research Tools". The "Search Tools" give you several options, such as web search, Google video search, web directory, discussion groups and even finding other people in the U.S. and Canada.

The "Language Tools" would be quite helpful for genealogists, with options of English to Spanish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Portuguese and Spanish to English, French to English, German to English and Portuguese to English.

"Research Tools" include checking encyclopedias, newspapers, biographies, quotations, topic guides and so forth. Again, a broad range of searching for a variety of purposes, but definitely useful for the genealogist!

Success in the search!!!!!

Celebrations

Family and community celebrations are an excellent time to ask questions about family and family history!!!! Whether it be Cinco de Mayo, May Day, St. Patrick's Day or the Fourth of July, we have an oral history interview opportunity at these events annually. A friend of mine was able to accumulate a narrative history of his father's life through asking a personal history question in each letter to his father over a period of more than two decades. After his father died, he was able to compile all of the information into a personal history that he organized, typed and self-published for his own children. What a great idea!

Take those few moments that we have and ask a pertinent question and then record the answers! Use photos to jog memories or ask for clarification and you have a great opener for "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey would say.

Women's Lives

Putting flesh on the bones of the family histories is one of my personal goals, like answering questions about what the lives of our ancestors was actually like from day to day, whether in the mother country before they came here, the colonial timeframe or the Homestead land rush conditions of the Midwest. The details fill out a more complete picture of the events that shaped our ancestors and made the conditions that lead them to marriage, to war, to migration, to college, and so forth.

A site to help you with the lives of women is "Women's Lives of the 16th, 17th 18th Centuries" at http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/lives161718th You can never finish seeing all the wonderful material the Internet has made available for your various research purposes.

Success in the search!!!