Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Revolutionary Roots

Did your ancestors fight in the American Revolution 233 years ago? Thousands of men answered the call to arms in 1776. These thousands probably have many millions of descendants today. Many Americans can find a Revolutionary War veteran in the family tree if they expend a bit of time and effort. Luckily, there are a number of online and offline sources to help you in that search.

Finding Revolutionary ancestors isn’t much different than finding anyone else in your family tree. You always start with yourself and then work your way back, one generation at a time. You can search the online databases as well as the traditional resources, such as census records, vital records, and especially, Revolutionary War pension applications. However, you should be aware of several unique sources of records that contain information about Revolutionary War soldiers.

One excellent tutorial to read is "Finding Your Patriot: Basic Sources for Starting Revolutionary War Research" by Curt B. Witcher, available on Ancestry.com (without subscription) at: http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/1561.asp.

Free Downloadable Genealogy Charts and Forms

Looking for some blank forms that you can fill in during your genealogy research? You can download free, high-quality blank forms online from several web sites and print them on your own printer.

Family Tree Magazine has a huge collection of downloadable forms on the company's web site. The forms include pedigree charts, research calendars, note-taking forms, deed indexes, research journal, correspondence logs, family group sheets and census extraction forms. You can see this impressive collection of forms at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forms/download.html

It Takes Details to Bring Your Ancestors to Life

Sharon Tate Moody has written an excellent article that perhaps should be required reading for all beginning genealogists: "People new to genealogy often are surprised to learn they can't "do their family history" on the Internet in a weekend. In fact, those of us who have been working on our families for 30 or 40 years know it might take more than one lifetime to get it all done."

You can read Sharon's entire article at http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/may/24/tr-it-takes-details-to-bring-your-ancestors-to-lif/life/.

Video Teaches Correct Citations of Online Sources

Mark Tucker has created a YouTube video that describes the process of source citations. The seven-and-a-half minute video consists of two sections. The first section discusses some of the current issues with citing sources especially when it comes to online sources. The second section demonstrates an approach to quickly and accurately cite online sources. As Mark states in the video, "The technology needed to accomplish this exists today."

100 Genealogy Resources to Discover Your Ancestry

Suzane Smith has written an article entitled “100 Genealogy Resources to Discover Your Ancestry.” I think a list like this should be given to every  genealogy novice. This list does look good.

“100 Genealogy Resources to Discover Your Ancestry” at: http://phlebotomytechnicianschools.com/?page_id=52.

A Sanity Check for Your Genealogy Data

Are you confident of the accuracy of your genealogy data? You might be amazed at how many databases I see that include mothers giving birth at the age of eight, marriages at age twelve, or deaths at the age of 135. Sometimes you even find a person with a birth date prior to those of the parents. Download almost any GEDCOM file from the Internet and I suspect you can find similar problems.

Such errors are easy to create. Sometimes selecting the wrong person in original records can cause such errors. Copying someone else's errors can cause other errors. Mistakes also occur because you had a keystroke error when entering the data; attempting to type 1835 on the keyboard can easily result in 1845 being pressed on the keys.

Histpop — The Online Historical Population Reports Project

The University of Essex has created a collection of British Historical Population Reports. The site contains no entries about people listed in the census records but does provide a wealth of background information of interest to genealogists, historians, and others.

Family Stories and Other Fairy Tales

Do you have a family story handed down over the years? Perhaps an ancestor was a ship's captain. Or perhaps the family name was changed at Ellis Island. Or some lady in your family tree was a Cherokee princess. Another story I have heard many times is that some immigrant was the illegitimate child of the Russian czar or another royal person. Proving such stories can be difficult for one very simple reason: they often are not true! A more common scenario is a family story that contains a bit of truth but was embellished over the generations.

If you are using a family story to try to find an ancestor, I'd suggest that you consider the possibility that the story is only partially true or at least was built on some amount of facts. I can offer two examples from my family's stories plus a third example from someone else's family.

How to Trace Your Family Tree without Spending the Family Fortune

Esther Rantzen has written an article that will be of interest to anyone researching ancestors in England or Wales. She describes the services of the General Register Office that is now available online on Directgov. Some commercial companies charge as much as GBP30.00 for a birth certificate but each certificate costs from just GBP7.00 if you order online via Directgov.

Bankruptcy Case Files Can Reveal A Wealth Of Data

Sharon Tate Moody has written an article about an often-overlooked source of genealogy data: bankruptcy records. She writes, "Today's economic troubles offer us the chance to understand some of our ancestors from an enlightened perspective." She then goes on to describe the types of records available and how to access them.

Practical Tips For Gravesite Searching

Leslie Wagner has some great tips on how to visit  cemetery and find genealogical-relevant information there. She advises that "Take a camera to photograph the headstone. Headstone rubbings will actually cause chemical damage to the stone."

Pitfalls That Can Create Brick Walls or Cause You to Claim the Wrong Ancestors

"Mary L. B." has placed an interesting article on the EOGN Discussion Forum that I wish all genealogy newcomers would read. Entitled, "Pitfalls That Can Create Brick Walls or Cause You to Claim the Wrong Ancestors," Mary details several bits of "misinformation" that most of us struggled with when we first started.

Stalking the Insanity that Stalks My Family

A biological disorder of the brain that runs in families, schizophrenia is the most severe of all the mental illnesses, one characterized by auditory, visual and even tactile hallucinations.

Patrick Tracey has written an interesting article about inherited schizophrenia. In this case, it has been handed down from generation to generation within his family. He even went back to old Ireland to stalk the madness that stalks his family.

Half of Brits Have Immigrant Ancestors

Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and many others assume that their ancestors immigrated to the new lands. However, we don't often think about immigrants to the "old country" in Europe or the British Isles. We seem to assume that they were always there. New research now shows that more than half of Britons have immigrant ancestors. In fact, 23 per cent originated from Ireland.

Preserving Old Newspapers

Toss a paper keepsake into a pile, and in months it can yellow and crumble like papyrus from Tut’s tomb. But there are things you can do to keep paper keepsakes safe.

Most printed paper “contains the seeds of its own destruction,” says University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries archivist Michael Doylen.

Close Spellings Count Toward Matches

Sharon Tate Moody has published an article in the Tampa Bay Online web site that should be required reading for all beginning genealogists. She writes:

Genealogy is all about names. We find most records through surnames, and then narrow the search with given names. But too many of us search only for the perfect match. Close counts not only in horseshoes but also in heritage hunting.

What To Do With All Those Christmas Cards

Diana Lynn Tibert has published a great article in the Kings County (New Brunswick) Record about Christmas cards, She writes, "Yes, Christmas cards are significant to genealogy research." She then goes on to describe her method of tracking "almost every known address for family members regardless if I send them a card. I always buy a large book, so it will last 20 years or more."

You can read this interesting article at http://kingscorecord.canadaeast.com/news/article/519815.

Genealogy Resources by State

Genealogists constantly pore over old records. Of course, the biggest provider of old records in the U.S. is the U.S. government. The government even maintains a listing of significant record collections available for genealogists. The list also mentions many state and local archives.

You can view the listing at: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History_Family/State_Genealogy.shtml.

Online Genealogy Dictionaries and Lists

I have been collecting URLs (Web addresses) of various online dictionaries and lists that are useful to genealogists. These are useful when trying to decode foreign or obsolete words often found in genealogy work. Here are a few of my favorites:

Thought for the Day

"He who laughs last probably made a backup."