Genealogy

According to Eastman's Online Genealogy, World War I Veterans' Records now Available at State of Washington's Digital Archives The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1996 - 2009 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com The Washington state Digital Archives has a new program allowing people to access records of about 48,000 World War I veterans from Washington. Copies of World War I Service Statement Cards from 1917 to 1919, recently indexed by Washington Historical Records Project volunteers, are now available and searchable online at the Digital Archives. The United States War Department had originals of the cards, and copies were provided to the Washington State Auditor many years ago. Information contained in the records includes full name, serial number, race, place inducted, place of birth, unit assignments, ranks a...

Maps of the Counties of Scotland, 1580-1928 : http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/early/counties.html . All their Maps of Scotland : http://www.nls.uk/maps/ Gateway to Scotland , Geography Department, University of Edinburgh: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/scotland.html Not quite a map, although there is a clickable map, and not quite a gazeteer either. The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1835 are searchable by placename for free: http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/ . Ignore logging in and go to the bottom option, Browse Scanned Pages. If you want to use the clickable map, you will have to create an account (free) and login. Britrail British Travel Shop , New York City, phone 1-800-677-8585 Your Maps Online : http://www.yourmapsonline.org.uk    150 English maps (12 Scots) and etchings available for download; also maps scanned onto CDs for sale Old Ordnance Survey Maps : http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/ Old Maps - 19th century Ordnance Survey maps . Search b...

Thanks to cousin Diana Roth, who pointed me to the Lot Histories of the Puslinch Historical Society, at http://www.puslinchhistorical.ca/ RG L29 Juniper Hill Farm In 1848 owned by James Durand, and sold to We McKenzie. In 1849 it was sold to Walter Cowan Sr. In 1851 census, Walter Cowan from Scotland age 35, with wife Margaret, age 30, and son Walter, age 9. [I wonder if they rented the farm from 1832-1849?] In 1886 the deed was transferred to son Walter Scott Cowan. Walter Cowan Sr. had built stone house. Mr. Kennedy was the mason. There was a spring fed creek in rear. Orchard east of barn. Well behind house 187' deep. Walter Cowan Jr. m. Annie McPherson of l.8 RG 1. Margaret 1870-1961 m. Hugh McAninch [Hugh of F1 L21 ] 2. Alex 1881-1963 m. Margaret Naismith 3. Jean 1883-1945 m. John Sawyer of l. 19 FF 4. Wm. 1887 d. infancy 5. Mary 1888 m. James Blake of l. 19 FG 6. James 1885-1948 m. Clara Naismith 7. Thomas 1890-1970 m. Elsie Scheol (sic) [Elsie Schell] 8. W...

Ancestry has put Meyers Orts online, searchable, and FREE! This is they way they describe it: This database contains Meyers Geographical and Commercial Gazetteer of the German Empire (or Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs in German). [One can] use it to locate place names in German research. ...Originally compiled in 1912; this is the gazetteer to use because it includes all areas that were part of the pre-World War I (WWI) German Empire. Gazetteers published after WWI may not include parts of the Empire that were lost to bordering countries. Overall, this gazetteer includes more than 210,000 cities, town, hamlets, villages, etc. Meyers Orts at Ancestry : http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/list.aspx?dbid=1074 Thanks to Barbara A. H. Nuehring who reported this exciting resource to the Pfalz list , saying, "it is not the easiest resource to use, but worth every minute of working your way through it. What is really nice about the digital image is that you don...

Sometimes your Swedes may have come from Denmark originally, married a Dane after emigration, or emigrated through Denmark. Here are some resources, generously collected by Arne Hansson on the Swedestoo list  (update: list now dead). Arne's note: Copenhagen in Danish is "København". In Swedish, it is Köpenhamn. To use the character "ø", copy and paste it from here, if you have difficulties creating an "ø" on your keyboard. Danish Demographic Database : http://ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm Danish digitized churchbooks : http://www.arkivalieronline.dk/ (similar to Genline for Swedish research). Both are run by the Danish State Archives. Press the button English flag to the left to get English. Both sites are free if you register. DIS-Danmark : http://www.dis-danmark.dk/dis-english.asp - the site for Danish researchers online. Danish Emigration Archives :  https://aemi.eu/the-danish-emigration-archives/

Elizabeth Shown Mills' 10-point blueprint that would provide solid grounding and enhanced skills for any genealogist who is making or considering the transition from "family researcher" to "professional." (extracted from post to Transitional-Genealogists-Forum list, 19 Dec 2007: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM/2007-12/1198123606 TOTALLY FREE: 1. http://www.bcgcertification.org Read all the "Skillbuilding" articles, study all the work samples, and do the "Test Your Skills" module at the Board for Certification of Genealogists website. BASE-LEVEL STUDY: 2. Greenwood, Val D. Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy . 3d ed. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001. Amazon: $29.95 or used from $14.95. Read Greenwood from cover to cover--several times or until you feel you have well learned its content. For three decades, this has been the leading textbook for genealogical study, and Greenwood has ke...

Cleverly titled Sex in Middlesex: Popular Mores in A Massachusetts County, 1649-1699 by Roger Thompson (University of Massachusetts Press; 1986) is a readable socialogical look at the lives of adolescents, married people, families and communities in early Puritan Massachusetts. The stories are drawn from early court records, and are very engagingly written for a socialogy treatise. Some very nice punning. :-) Anyone with Puritan ancestors will find the stories interesting, and the conclusion that our pious ancestors were not so dour and rigid as we might think. Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. - Albert Einstein

How to search the mailing list archives : http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/searching-list-archives-by-joan-young.html List Archives : start at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ to browse, or click the Search link to search one or all of the Rootsweb lists. http://lists.rootsweb.com/ if you don't know what list you want. Formulaically - Archiver (browse) : http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/LISTNAME One wonderful tool Rootsweb has, that many people fail to use, is the Post-Em . You can place Post-Ems on individual records found in WorldConnect , the Social Security Death Index , User-Contributed Databases , and some of the other available vital records databases . Don't forget to register your research interests in the Rootsweb Surname List . If you have a website, add a link to the RootsWeb Resource Pages . If you don't have a website yet, get one ! Once you have created it, register it . Search all of Rootsweb with Google , by clicking Advanced Search , filling in yo...

I read a wonderful comment today on Dick Eastman's site, by Geoff Riggs ... Genealogy is the bones - gathering of the facts about ones ancestors such as names, dates, places. Family History is 'putting the flesh on the bones' - finding the stories, history, geography, and so forth that shaped the lives of our ancestors. Rudyard Kipling wrote: I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who I added a second verse to this some years ago: For pure Genealogists 'Who, When and Where?' suffice But Family Historians> Add 'Why, What, How?' for spice Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. - Eugene S. Wilson

Prosopography: the study of collective biography, for individuals of a certain group (social class, profession, time frame, geographic origin, etc.). By accumulating data on individuals in a group, one learns more about the group. The term may have been coined by anthropologists but it is widely used among medieval historians, particularly social historians. - Nathaniel Taylor, ntaylor@fas.harvard.edu freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~randyj2222/gendictp.html Prosopography is an important methodological tool within historical research, its goal being the collection of all known information about individuals within a given period, often in the form of a register or database (frequently also known as a "Prosopography", e.g. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopography Thanks to Sharon Sergeant of the APG list for introducing me to this term. She references Mel Wolfgang's presentation Researching 'Birds of a Feather'...

William Briggs DISNEY 1853-1912 had children by 1. Mary WALTERS: Foresman lists Hester as the first child, with no dates, but I see no evidence of her (note at end of post). Roy Lee DISNEY will be covered next. My great-grandmother Minnie DISNEY is covered here: John BAYSINGER, Viola, Minnie and children I. George L. G. (Luther Granville) Disney is 6 in the 1880 census, born in Arkansas. Foresman says he born 1873, and I think he must have been named for his uncle George Luther DISNEY. He married Ava Marie WELSH 1896, and had sons Cecil (1898-1980, born Illinois) and Luther Granville (1906-1965). I can't find him after 1920, so perhaps he died between 1920 & 1930. The Illinois Marriage database has a listing for: DISNEY, GEORGE marrying WELSH, NORA ELLEN on 10/24/1896. Vol. 00E page 43 in WARREN County, IL. 1900 United States Federal Census (index spelling correction submitted to Ancestry) Name: Geo L Disoney Home in 1900: Berwick, Warren, Illinois Age: 26 Estimated birt...

William Briggs DISNEY was the son of George Disney and Anne Elizabeth ANDERSON, born 22 Jul 1853, in Iowa , according to his death certificate. George joined sister Amelia Jane and brother George Luther, and was followed by Martin Luther in 1847, and Alice A. who died in 1852 at age two. His father George died 8 Aug 1855 at age 39. His little brother Martin Luther also died in 1855, and his mother followed them in death in 1856, leaving little William an orphan at age three. They are all buried in Carlisle Cemetery, Allen Township, one-helf mile from the town of Carlisle, Warren County, Iowa. I've never found them in any 1850 Census, but I believe this is the family in the 1853 Iowa State Census, living in Warren County. GN Disney, with 3 females, and 3 males. That would be daddy George, sons George Luther or Martin Luther, and William Briggs; mama Ann Elizabeth, and daughters Amelia Jane and Alice A. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [datab...

Making of America University of Michican: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ Cornell: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/   Education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology Berkeley: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MOA2/Help/ Wildly cool - The American Colonist's Library: Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History : http://www2.pitnet.net/primarysources/ Yale Law's Avalon Project : http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm Federal Land Patents : http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Search the Missouri Digital Library : http://tinyurl.com/ytkxj Documents of Tennessee History, 1796-1850 : http://diglib.lib.utk.edu/dlc/tdh/index.html Repositories of Primary Sources, Eastern United States and Canada : http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/east1.html#usga Hundreds of links to Primary Sources, USA & Worldwide : http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/other.html Online Collections at BYU - Family History Archive : http://w...

Grampa Cowan's (Thomas Cowan) oldest sister Margaret (Maggy, Grett) married Hugh McANINCH in Puslinch, Ontario 27 Feb 1901. According to the record, Hugh was the son of John McAninch and Jennie McPHATTER, and was born ca. 1875, in Puslinch. Here is the Ancestry index entry for the marriage: Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1857-1922 Name: Hugh McAninch Birth Place: Puslinch Age: 26 Father Name: John McAninch Mother Name: Jennie McPhatter Estimated birth year: abt 1875 Spouse Name: Maggie Cowan Spouse's Age: 21 Spouse Birth Place: Puslinch Spouse Father Name: Walter S Cowan Spouse Mother Name : Annie McPherson Cowan Marriage Date: 27 Feb 1901 Marriage Place: Wellington Marriage County: Wellington Image of the marriage record: Their only child Walter was born (according to the SSDI) 28 Jun 1920, and died 26 Mar 2000. He served in WWII, and according to that record he was not yet a US citizen, and was born in "British North America or Canada or Labrador or Newfoundlan...

From the Rootsweb Review , 25 April 2007, Vol. 10, No. 17. This article is by Joan Young, not me. Using RootsWeb: THE NEW ARCHIVES SEARCH ENGINE By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com Until recently, if you wanted to search the archives of a RootsWeb mailing list from within RootsWeb, you had to search one list at a time and search year by year for keywords or surnames of interest. This worked just fine if you knew you were looking for ROBINSONs on the ROBINSON mailing list, for example, although searching year by year could become cumbersome at times, especially if you were not sure which list you wanted to search--or if you preferred to search all lists. RootsWeb has retired the veteran ISearch or Interactive Search engine and unveiled a spiffy new search engine. It is able to search the nearly 31,000,000 messages posted to all RootsWeb mailing lists over their entire history--all at one time. An easy and convenient way to access the new Archives search engine is to click on the...

Les Archives des Alpes-Maritimes (includes the city of Nice) - copies of the actes d'etat civil & ditized copies of old newspapers (la presse ancienne): http://www.cg06.fr/culture/culture-archives.html Cannes Archives Municipales - birth, marriage and death for over 100 years (etat civil): http://archives.ville-cannes.fr/ Côtes d'Armor Archives Departementales - registres paroissiaux (parish registers) of Côtes d'Armor plus The Cadastre Ancien (land register): http://sallevirtuelle.cotesdarmor.fr/EC/ecx/connexion.aspx Geneactes some civil records, mostly from 1700s & early 1800s: http://www.geneactes.org/ ; in English: http://www.geneactes.org/index-en.html Sarthe Archives Departementales - Parish & civil registers, and Le Cadastre index (land records): http://www.archives.sarthe.com/ Yvelines Archives Departementales - Actes etat civil (birth, marriage and death), recensements de population (census records) and parish registers (registres paroissiaux) for...

" Google has launched a new Google Scholar search service, providing the ability to search for scholarly literature located from across the web ," according to Search Engine Watch . They say, "The goal is to allow and enable users to search over scholarly content," said Anurag Acharya, a Google engineer leading the project. [Scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, and technical reports.] Much of this material has been added to Google over the past few months. However, the new service allows searchers to specifically search against just the academic material.... Google has worked with publishers to gain access to some material that wouldn't ordinarily be accessible to search spiders, because it is locked behind subscription barriers. ... When spidering the content, Google has worked to understand who the authors of the papers are, as well as the formal titles of the papers and other documents that cite the material....

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives: http://www.elca.org/os/archives/    Research in the archives, hire research, rent microfilm. 321 Bonnie Lane, Elk Grove Village, IL, just south of Oakton St. Bonnie Lane is about halfway between Arlington Heights Road and Busse Road (Rt 83). Open 8:30 to 5, Monday through Friday. Phone: 847-690-9410, FAX: 847-690-9502, email: archives@elca.org Swedish Research Augustana College's Genealogy Research FAQs : http://www.augustana.edu/x14885.xml Smultron list archives: http://smultron.com/pipermail/swedestoo/ Jerry's Scandinavian/USA Genealogy Links : http://longstrom.com/ SweGGate : http://sweggate.com/ Genealogy in Sweden : http://www.algonet.se/%7Ehogman/swe_genealogy.htm R&oubml;tter : http://www.genealogi.se/ (part in English) The Swedish Emigrant Institute at Växjö (Svenska Emigrantinstitutet): http://www.swemi.nu/eng/ Gothenburg Regional Archives (Landsarkivet i Göteborg är din arkivmyndighet i V...

Tracing the Tribe - The Jewish Genealogy Blog : http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com Excerpts from Gary Mokotoff's essential book, How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust : http://www.avotaynu.com/Holocaust/ JewishGen FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about Jewish Genealogy - How to do Jewish genealogical research, and InfoFiles: http://www.jewishgen.org/ Jewish Mail Lists : http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_jewish.html Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center (American Red Cross): http://www.redcross.org/services/intl/holotrace/ Towns with Published Yizkor Books : http://www.avotaynu.com/Holocaust/appendixa.htm Tracing Your Roots - Holocaust Research : http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/jewish/holocaust/holocaust.htm Yad Vashem Search for Names : http://www.yadvashem.org/remembrance/temp_remembrance Global Holocaust Registry : http://www.jewishgen.org/registry/ Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors : http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registr...

Big news - New York Times Online for Free, 1851-1922; 1981-1987 : http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html Both the US and English governments are committing to digitizing old newspapers now! US project: http://www.loc.gov/preserv/ndnp.html (millions of pages, 1836-1922, first images ready by 2006). Update: more than 226,000 pages of public-domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia and the District of Columbia published 1900-1910 : http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/ . England: http://www.bl.uk/collections/britishnewspapers1800to1900.html (2 million pages, 1800-1900) British Library Online Newspaper Archive: http://www.uk.olivesoftware.com/ (HORRIBLE interface, not accessible with Firefox, my browser of choice). US and world current newspapers : http://newslink.org/metnews.html , http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html , http://www.onlinenewspapers.com FREE, $$$ Newspaper Archives , most 1990+: http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/int...