search family histories,
early and rare histories and genealogy references
brenda kellow
february 9, 2014
Many of the Goodspeed’s family biographies and rare history and genealogy reference books are available free on MyGenealogyHound.com. Others require a subscription. I opened some of the Goodspeed biographies on my family who lived in Arkansas. Years ago, I read them and took notes, but since they were available, I copied and sourced them for my genealogy program. There are old maps on the site, too.
SAVING NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO ANCESTRY.COM: If you find an article on one of your ancestors in Newspapers.com and want to attach it to someone on your tree at Ancestry.com, it is easy to do. In fact, there is a tutorial on doing this at http://go.newspapers.com/video.php/?vid=SZshMP6_WWk. To create a link from the newspaper to Ancestry, just click the “Save to Ancestry.” That button is on the top right of each page. I just found our wedding announcement in the paper, saved it, and it is there whenever I open it up. There are additional tutorials under “Newpapers.com/Basics.”
DNA FORCES NEW THOUGHTS ON IRISH ORIGINS: We always thought the Irish and Scotts were Celts. Recent DNA investigations are showing their closest origins to be the people found in North Spain in the region known as Basque Country. Not only do the Basque genes show up in Ireland, but also Britain and especially in Scotland. You might remember that Picasso was Basque. The full investigation on this is at www.sott.net/article/263587-DNA-shows-Irish-people-have-more-complex-origins-than-previously-thought. It is a very informative article.
SAN ANTONIO LIBRARY MAKES TEXANA LESS AVAILABLE: San Antonio Public Library director Ramiro Salazar chose to cut the Texana department’s hours to only 20 hours a week beginning February 1. In addition, he cut two of the four staff members. One is department head Frank Faulkner. These people are the ones who built the collection. They also serve as guides to the city’s history. It is distressing to think about the years of knowledge and experience these employees will take with them. Just a few weeks ago, San Antonio opened their first eLibrary—accessible only by eBooks of course.
OVER TEN MILLION NEW YORK CITY VITAL RECORDS, 1866-1948, GO ONLINE: Search these New York City birth, death and marriage records that span nearly a century in this free search. This is a wonderful addition for those of us who had family lines who took up residence there during 1866-1948. This is made possible in a partnership between Ancestry.com and the New York City Department of Records/Municipal Archives. At the same time, Ancestry.com announced it added the New York State Census Collection to include the state census for 1855, 1875 and 1905. Earlier it added the 1892, 1915 and 1925 census. Even though you have to give your credit card information to Ancestry.com to access the free databases, they only do this to know who is using them free. Access the Municipal Archives at nyc.gov/html/records.
A NEW AVENUE FOR UNDESIRABLE EMAILS: I have not tried this yet, but I am setting it up shortly. Read the story on giving out ‘your’ email address to those companies that ask for it that you are just going to delete without ever reading. This is important information for some of us. Read what was written in the New York Times blog by Nicole Perlroth titled, “Stop Asking for My Email Address” at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/stop-asking-me-for-my-email-address/?_php=true&_&_r=0, or Google Stop Asking for My Email Address.
USE GOOGLE FOR GENEALOGY: I have long been a fan of Google for its searching abilities and used Google Earth on occasion, but I am just learning about these new uses. Please do not discount the importance of Google Earth because you may be able to locate your ancestors’ cemeteries, old home sites or a forgotten road through a field that leads to where you may want to search or just walk on your ancestors’ former properties. Read about this at http://genealogythroughgoogleearth.blogspot.nl/2014/01/why-use-google-earth-for-genealogy.html?m=1. Use Google Alerts to hunt for any mention of your ancestors’ names to appear daily or weekly in your email box, http://hidefgen.com/presentations/google-alerts-genealogists/.
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].
