Collin County People Found At Genealogy Corner
Brenda Kellow
December 11, 2011
Mary Collins and Tonya Kellogg are adding the names of past Collin County Officials to the County Clerk’s Office site, Genealogy Corner, www.co.collin.tx.us/county_clerk/genealogy/genealogy.jsp. The database is still in progress, but they intend to add pictures to the names. If you have pictures, they ask you send them to Mary at [email protected].
The site has indexes on birth, marriage, deaths and school census. The site is slow, so give it a minute to download. I typed in the last name of a family member and Plano as the school district and lo and behold, my older cousin’s school record popped up. It was an original hand written document. She attended Wylie before moving to Plano on March 4, 1942. It gave both names of her parents. Her brother was not old enough to be listed on it, but had he been his name would have been on it too. E. A. Sigler signed it. The school census timeframe is the 30s and 40s. Mr. Sigler was my Superintendent from first grade through the 12th. If you are about to look for my name in the index you will not find it yet.
The Plano Genealogy Library has the school census, but not the index.
MyHERITAGE.COM ACQUIRED WORLD VITAL RECORDS: WorldVitalRecords.com first came on the scene in 2006 with an extensive collection of historical records, including vital records, burial, census, military, immigration, yearbooks and scanned original documents, all searchable. The MyHeritage database combined with World Vital Records collection is huge and features the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada. Look at the site at www.worldvitalrecords.com/.
VITAL RECORDS DATA AND DATABASES AVAILABLE ONLINE: FamilySearch.org now has vital information for 19 states. Texas is one of those you are able to search from home at no charge. Most are now cover states in New England, the South, Central United States, Montana, South Dakota, Washington, California and Wisconsin.
ANCESTRY APP FOR iPHONE and iPOD: Ancestry.com just released an upgraded version for mobile users. The new app is for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with iOS. It is improved but I still find it a little clumsy. It is free and available from the iTunes App Store.
WATCH FREE ACCESS DURING HOLIDAYS: During the holidays, many of the expensive database sites may run specific databases or free searches of the site for a few days. This allows searching the site from home rather than spending valuable time in the library searching those sites.
FOLD3 CONTINUES TO UPLOAD DATABASES: Fold3.com has an extensive database on World War II records such as documents, stories and even photos. Highlights include records on the USS Arizona, a hero page and photos. The outstanding collection of Holocaust records is growing. Fold3.com used to be Footnote.com. They run free access to the site from time to time. Watch for it during the holidays.
BRITISH NEWSPAPERS SEARCHABLE ONLINE: You can now search many newspapers online originating in England through British Newspaper Archive, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/. This site is by subscription but rather than subscribing annually, you can subscribe for only two days for a minimum cost. The date begins in 1700 and goes through 1949. You can search by date, region or county. You can do a search before subscribing to read the synopsis before paying any money.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].
The site has indexes on birth, marriage, deaths and school census. The site is slow, so give it a minute to download. I typed in the last name of a family member and Plano as the school district and lo and behold, my older cousin’s school record popped up. It was an original hand written document. She attended Wylie before moving to Plano on March 4, 1942. It gave both names of her parents. Her brother was not old enough to be listed on it, but had he been his name would have been on it too. E. A. Sigler signed it. The school census timeframe is the 30s and 40s. Mr. Sigler was my Superintendent from first grade through the 12th. If you are about to look for my name in the index you will not find it yet.
The Plano Genealogy Library has the school census, but not the index.
MyHERITAGE.COM ACQUIRED WORLD VITAL RECORDS: WorldVitalRecords.com first came on the scene in 2006 with an extensive collection of historical records, including vital records, burial, census, military, immigration, yearbooks and scanned original documents, all searchable. The MyHeritage database combined with World Vital Records collection is huge and features the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada. Look at the site at www.worldvitalrecords.com/.
VITAL RECORDS DATA AND DATABASES AVAILABLE ONLINE: FamilySearch.org now has vital information for 19 states. Texas is one of those you are able to search from home at no charge. Most are now cover states in New England, the South, Central United States, Montana, South Dakota, Washington, California and Wisconsin.
ANCESTRY APP FOR iPHONE and iPOD: Ancestry.com just released an upgraded version for mobile users. The new app is for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with iOS. It is improved but I still find it a little clumsy. It is free and available from the iTunes App Store.
WATCH FREE ACCESS DURING HOLIDAYS: During the holidays, many of the expensive database sites may run specific databases or free searches of the site for a few days. This allows searching the site from home rather than spending valuable time in the library searching those sites.
FOLD3 CONTINUES TO UPLOAD DATABASES: Fold3.com has an extensive database on World War II records such as documents, stories and even photos. Highlights include records on the USS Arizona, a hero page and photos. The outstanding collection of Holocaust records is growing. Fold3.com used to be Footnote.com. They run free access to the site from time to time. Watch for it during the holidays.
BRITISH NEWSPAPERS SEARCHABLE ONLINE: You can now search many newspapers online originating in England through British Newspaper Archive, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/. This site is by subscription but rather than subscribing annually, you can subscribe for only two days for a minimum cost. The date begins in 1700 and goes through 1949. You can search by date, region or county. You can do a search before subscribing to read the synopsis before paying any money.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].