Genealogy Today

Another spot to check is GenealogyToday.com. The site has a Family Tree Connection, Missing Person Register, Funeral Cards Online, Online Family Trees, a Surname Tracker Service, Local Genealogy Directory, and GenWeekly. With more than 50,000 registered users, new users are adding weekly to the site, which also has New England resources. I thought the Surname Tracker would be useful, since I would receive an e-mail when a match for my surname is found, so I wouldn't have to remember to check the site regularly myself.

While some of the services have fees, others are free. You could check, for example, the Ancestor Information Reprint Service, which has out of print books, photographs and documents that possibly mention your ancestor. Gift and supplies are available through the site's Marketplace. Maybe you could get your Christmas shopping done early this year!

Resources for Research via your Local Library

Always on the look-out for the free and inexpensive resources for my genealogical and history research, I checked the Hennepin County Library homepage for their "Genealogy" links and classes. I was surprised to see not only "Heritage Quest", purchased with funding from my own property taxes, but the "Biography and Genealogy Master Index and" the "Historical New York Times, 1851-2001". An easy link for Catalog searches is at the top of the right bar, along with classes offered, events and other relevant information links, such as "Databases vs. Websites" and "Citing Electronic Sources". The site is attractive, easy to navigate and useful for any level of researcher. You should check your local and state libraries, as you may already have free access through your library card and don't even know it!

Success in the search!

Upcoming Conference

Twenty five classes will be offered at the upcoming "Searching for Your Family History" conference at the Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, Minnesota September 30, 2006 from 8:30 to 3:30 p.m. Registration is $30 and some of the topics include: Beginning Irish Genealogy, Canadian Immigration, Using Technology in Your Genealogy Research, Griffith's Valuation, State Prison, Hospital, and Orphange Records at the Minnesota Historical Society, and Catholic Church Records. The conference information states that an open Internet lab will be staffed all day for research assistance, so you can check those new sources and hints immediately before you forget!

Another Genealogy Blog

You can check Everton's Genealogy blog at http://genealogblog.com

There are entries for Midwestern states, such as Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and so forth as wellas topics of interest, such as DNA research, Revolutionary War, and the Detroit Public Library. Of course, the information is only as good as the informant and we all know that blog writers aren't always scholars! Remember, there may be possiblities for some research networking on your lines.

Research Facility Etiquette

One of my genealogy research friends and I got today for the day yesterday at the Minnesota Historical Society work on family death certificates. Even though it was a Wednesday, it got fairly busy after 10 am. and here's where the story turns to etiquette. The woman next to me on the microfilm readers brought her two nieces and her Dad to help her research the family lines- no probelm there. But after two hours of her talking loudly to the "helpers" from a row or two away, I was about to make a comment about no one being able to her her up at the front desk, but I bit my tongue. We took a break for lunch and there they were again- we ate as far away from them as the cafeteria walls would permit. The afternoon was more of the same, with just her Dad there to help but more chastising and berating him publicly when a microfilm wasn't in the drawer or he didn't read fast the newspaper pages fast enough for her.

Does she know how loud and offensive she was? Probably not. Why didn't anyone say anything? Probably that "Minnesota nice" thing at work again. What is the standard for behavior?

Well, no one minds when you cheer a good find or get excited about your work, but loud and obnoxious for hours on end just doesn't cut it for any of us, whether researchers or not. Yelling from row to row or one end of the facility to another doesn;t work either. Even though a lot of the researchers are older, it doesn't mean that they are deaf!

Genealogical Publishing Co. Book Search

Another search venue- Genealogical Publishing Company has a book search site at www.genealogical.com, which includes over 2 million names from over 2,000 publications. While the bulk of the books are concentrated in New England and the South, the quick search by surname or surname and first name may pick up some of your migrating ancestors that came to or through the Midwest. There are also German records, Scotch-Irish and so forth, along with some tabs with instruction and research hints, like "Genealogy for Beginners", "Genealogy Essentials", and "Unique Genealogical Data".

Once you do see your ancestor's name, click for a full description of the book or CD and its availability. The actual page number for the individual in each book is referenced, so you could eliminate common name duplicates by other entries of related ancestors in the title in question. Obviously, purchasing the book is an option but since the inter-library loan is one of my favorite resources, you could easily check for the possibility of checking the information for free, after your wait for the material to arrive locally. Success in the search!!!!

Check EVERY possible spelling!!!!!

Here we are again- I've been working on one of my Civil War era German immigrant lines for a decade, with little success in finding a village of origin for the family. We all know we need a solid lead before we start slogging through dozens of German parish microfilms looking for our families! Plenty of documentation here in the U.S., although they drop off the map in the 1950's, but we all know we need more than "near Hamburg" to work with.

I've checked the nturalization index for Grant County, Wisconsin once before with no success, but decided to see if I could find some collateral family that married into the Bushhausen line, as we know families tended to migrate in groups and oftentimes settled here with someone they knew. Bingo on the index - the first portion of the surname was dropped off- my Great-Great Grandfather was listed as "Von Housen", so now I've ordered up the petitions and declarations of intent to see if more information might be gleaned from that documentation, a mere year after his arrival in Wisconsin!

So once again, check EVERY possible spelling- however long the long-shot may seem to be!!!!