Thursday, December 20, 2007

ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers

Here is a site with links to digital online newspapers from around the world, many of which are free http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm . The pay sites are clearly marked with a dollar symbol in a circle.

I have used Colorado Historical Newspapers & Utah Digital Newspapers for a few years and found some real gems. One hint is 1st search by name & time period, but if that doesn’t work I have had good luck is searching by date only. Say you have death date, search in that paper just after the event then look in the next 3 papers. Smaller papers will have sections for local news for different towns & if it is a real small paper death & marriage will be front page news.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Land Research

Rede had done several videos on Land Research using very useful websites. I covered 2 of the sites April of 2006 http://quartzsitegen.blogspot.com/2006/04/using-blm-land-patent-search.html

Searching Land Patents Part 1
http://blip.tv/file/506725
Using the BLM website http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ to find homestead land patents.

Searching Land Patents Part 2
http://blip.tv/file/506735
Using TSR-data website http://www.esg.montana.edu/gl/trs-data.html to find land patents on a map.

Searching Land Patents Part 3
http://blip.tv/file/506740
Plotting land descriptions on a map.

See http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/Visitors/PLSS.asp for more info on plotting land descriptions.

Plotting Land On Quad Maps
http://blip.tv/file/527860
Plotting land on free quadrant maps from http://libremap.org/

I was VERY impressed with the quality of the maps on Libre Map Project http://libremap.org/ , but the TIF files were a bit large (I averaged about 10 megs). I would recommend converting them into PDF so you can just print out what you need.

Basically to use the Libre Map Project, Click “Data” > Click the state you want > Then use the “Search” or Click “View the entire list of USGS Oklahoma Digital Raster Graphic Maps” > Then look in the “Cell Name” or “Longitude & Latitude” for the map you want.

Finding Towns In Your Genealogy

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names http://geonames.usgs.gov is wonderful site to find towns in your genealogy & also figure which maps you may need. The nice thing it will link you over to Google Map, TerraServer, MapQuest if you need county bounders, and others.

To use it for US places, click domestic > click Search GNIS > then enter your location > click on your location > then you can view the location on many online mapping services.

Rede Video:
http://blip.tv/file/485490

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Genealogy Training Course

Genealogy Training Course
With Carol Brown

9:30 am - 11:30 Thursday’s (Except as noted)
December 6, 2007 - February 14, 2008
In the building beside the Bouse Public Library
44031 E. Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ 85325 phone 928-851-1023
Sign up - contact nrcmackey@yahoo.com
Everyone Welcome

Suggested donation is $5.00 per class per person
Each week Carol teaches a different aspect of genealogical research followed by an open discussion session. All classes are approximately 2 hours in length. You do not have to attend every session. You can choose the topics you wish to attend.

  • December 6 - Class 1 - Beginning Genealogy, Record Organization and Source Citation
  • December 14 (Friday at 1:00) - Class 2 - Computers and Genealogy on the Internet
  • December 20 - Class 3 - Census and Social Security Records
  • January 3 - Class 4 - Researching in Libraries and Court Houses
  • January 10 - Class 5 - Immigration and Migration Patterns
  • January 17 - Class 6 - Genealogical Societies and Magazines
  • January 24 - Class 7 - Over Coming Dead Ends
  • January 31 - Class 8 - Preponderance of Evidence
  • February 7 - Class 9 - Researching in Military Records
  • February 14 - Class 10 - Sharing Your Family History

Monday, November 12, 2007

Communication

I can’t stress the importance getting out on there and contacting other researcher, via message boards, people that have posted their genealogy to the Internet, etc… But to avoid spammer you may want to get another email address because the spam bots are out there reading email address that have been posted to the web.

There are many free places out there to get emails but it can be rather tiring always checking them just to find nothing. The way I handle this is using the instant messaging programs that are also offered with them. Myself I use a free program called Pidgin http://pidgin.im/ , it capable of connecting with AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once. It will notify me when an email comes in & will give me the sender’s name & subject of the message. The disadvantage to this program is no voice or video chatting. But what I like the best is it doesn’t change or add things to my browser, you can choose to have it load at boot up or manually load it, and I can several identities on one mail server.

Now you may want to scan and organize your pictures and documents because they are great things to trade with, and people will go more out of their way getting you information if you give them something they don’t have.

When first starting out Surname message boards are good, but I have more success with county & religious message boards. County histories & Church records are wonderful in your research.

A good thing to remember what goes around comes around. So find out what local resources are available to you and volunteer to help other via message boards and lookup services like www.raogk.org and www.usgenweb.org county sites.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Making A PDF Document

People ask, why would you make a PDF file when all you can do is print or view this document? The main reason is different computers and even different word processor programs will not open a document the same. So when layout is important, like when a document with an index or newsletters or limit how people can use your document you will want to do it as a PDF file.

One I use a lot is PrimoPDF http://www.primopdf.com/ , it work like a printer driver so if you can print it, you can make a PDF file and best of all it’s free. I see the last version the horizontal printing problem has been fixed. To a horizontal print click “custom” when PrimoPDF’s screen comes up.

There are many different free PDF creators out there so look around & see what you like. They all work about the same, you click File > Print > select the PDF creator > click OK > tell it where to save the file > click OK. The only differences are how you change the settings.

Rede’s demo with PrimoPDF:
http://blip.tv/file/476452

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Converting PDF into RTF

PDF is a very popular way exchanging documents because the layout stays the same no matter what computer you are on, BUT there is no way to edit them or put them in your notes in your genealogy program. There are two ways I do it. Copy/Paste from Acrobat Reader or OCR it.

With Copy/Paste you need to paste it into word processor using the text selection tool. But you have to find the beginnings of your paragraphs & take out the end of lines within that paragraph. I will “Justify” all the text and do an indent, that way I can see my paragraphs.

The other is OCR but rather than print, scan, and convert to text, you just use the snapshot tool in Acrobat to copy and paste it into your OCR program. I found a free program that does an ok job of this called TopOCR http://www.topocr.com/ . It doesn’t work well with bold, italics, or pictures, but for free it does speed things up. I just found out if you change your setting to scanner mode "Settings->Image-> Source->Scanner" it will do a better job even with this copy/paste method in TopOCR.

Rede’s method:
Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 1 (Copy/Paste)
http://blip.tv/file/449914

Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 2 (OCR)
http://blip.tv/file/449936

Friday, October 26, 2007

Interlibrary Loan

If you are luck enough to find someone that has listed a book as a source in their genealogy, a good way of getting that book is through the interlibrary loan at your local library. A good place to start is WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/ to see if it is available. Your local library has their own network they work with. So if it shows up on WorldCat doesn’t mean they can get it but if your search pulls up a close library it increases your chances.

I like the advance search, but on the homepage your can enter a title, subject or person in the main search. When you find the book you want it will list whether it is a book, microfilm, computer file, etc… Click on the book you want, and where it list the libraries type in your zip code and click go. This will sort the libraries by how close they are to you. Take down the information like title, author and anything else you think your library will need & ask you librarian about it.

Two things to remember, not all libraries are in WorldCat and just because it is in WorldCat doesn’t mean your library can get it. This is just a way to increase your chances to find it.

Note: I have had family actually get microfilm from state historical societies via interlibrary loan, so that is another good source.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Using Notepad For Your Genealogy

Using Notepad to transcribe images & copy text for your genealogy. Read my way of doing it click here.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Making Multi Page PDF Images With IrfanView

One nice thing about Multi Page PDF files are for things like Wills and other documents that take several pages, you can make a single file out of them for archiving & emailing.

I have talked about making multi page documents with IrfanView back in April of 2007. With the new update they fixed the compression problems I was getting with making multi page PDF documents with IrfanView. You can now choose how much compression you want to put into the images, thus making smaller files.

You will need to download & install the program & plugins from http://www.irfanview.net/ . It is DonationWare which means anything you want to donate is appreciated.

I think you can actually scan with IrfanView and save as a multi page PDF. But for this article I will just take a few pictures & combine them.

Steps for make a multi page TIF that some people prefer for archiving:
  • Open IrfanView.
  • Click “View”> put mouse over “Multiple Page Images”> and click “Create Multiple Page TIF”.
  • Click “Add Images” find the images you want> sort if needed> click “Compression” choose what you want> click “Browse” to put it where you want it on your computer> give it a “name”> click “Create TIF Image” and your done.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with IrfanView:
  • Open your TIF file in IrfanView.
  • Click “Save As”> choose "Save as type: PDF - Portable Document Format".
  • In the PDF Settings Tab "layout" Page Format=Like Image. Page Rotation=none. Page Border=unchecked. Compression Tab=Activate Compression is checked & "True Color Images" and "Grayscale Images" are set to "JPG (medium quality)".
  • Give it a name and click “Save”.

7 color images totaling 8 megs became a 76 meg TIF, on the medium compression setting I ended up with a single 1.64 meg multi page PDF file.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ancestor Cards for Children

This was such a great idea I had to share. Please read the rest of the story it is just wonderful http://tinyurl.com/2vurh6

"Ancestor Cards for Children Recently I've been mulling over how to present the genealogy I've done on our family so that it would grab my 9 year old grandson's attention. My good friend Illya of Genealogy Today suggested I use a baseball or hockey card format with one ancestor per card.

I loved the idea and created cards 6 cm x 9 cm. Each card features one ancestor's picture or a picture representing that ancestor. The back of each card has ancestor stats - their relationship to my grandchildren, date and place of birth, date and place of death, spouse's name, parents' names and a tiny blurb about that person (hopefully something unique or of interest to an 9 year old!)"

More info: Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ancestor Cards for Children

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Genealogy In Bouse

The Bouse Genies are meeting again, with a new website & classes.

Just to let you know The Bouse Genies have moved their website to http://bousegenies.weebly.com & meeting every other week in the building next to the Bouse Public Library 10:00 AM to Noon (44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ) except October 5 which will be in the Bouse Community Center 1/2 block from the library. More info on the meeting here http://bousegenies.weebly.com/bouse-genies-meetings.html

Carol Brown will be having her genealogy classes at the same location. More information on the classes here http://bousegenies.weebly.com/genealogy-classes.html

Friday, August 24, 2007

Microfilm Camera Mount

Tired of bad copies on the microfilm copy machines or having to make several tries to get the machine set just right? The GSC Associates Microfilm Camera Mount could help. Any camera with a standard 1/4-20 mounting hole will fit on it, and with digital cameras you will be able view the image before you move on. Most cameras now a days have auto focus & exposure so all you need to do is turn off the flash. More information is here http://www.gscassociates.com/camera_mount.html

TIP: To get better pictures out of your camera use the timer or remote to take the picture. Even though it is on a tripod or mount, just pushing the button can still shake the camera.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

News from Bouse

The FULL Ancestry.com is available at the Bouse Library. It is hard to believe that we at that little library figured out a way to get it when none of the bigger libraries on this side of the state got it. Maybe because we are little, those who yell the loudest and work the hardest can get what they want.

The Bouse library was given a lot of artists books. One of the members of our Desert Brushes group died this year and her entire library, which was quite large, was donated to the library. We also have wifi. We are set up for people to bring in their laptops and get online wirelessly.

When I get back to Bouse I will be working with the librarian to set the dates for both the genealogy classes and the computer classes. I will teach 10 classes in each group once through. I will probably start the first of the year to catch most of the winter visitors. Once things are set up I will send you the full schedule.

More info on the Bouse Genies here: http://quartzsite.gen.googlepages.com/bousegenies

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Using Online Photo Galleries To Identify Pictures

I have been using Picasa http://picasa.google.com & Picasaweb http://picasaweb.google.com to identify old photos that were in my grandmother’s trunk, and it has been a great success.

Any online photo gallery will work here. All I did was upload my photos to a public gallery & email a link to the site to relatives. Then ask them to try to identify the pictures, also ask them to let any of their relatives know about what I’m doing.

The only problem with Picasaweb was there was no way to edit comments, just delete them.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Census Maps

I have run into times when researching someone’s birth I find out the state didn’t excite on that date. It turns out it was a territory or owned by Spain, Britain or Mexico. These maps would have really saved me some time http://www.us-census.org/states/map.htm

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Photographing Headstones

This is a good project for you, a church, scouts, community or any group.

Things you may need:
  • Camera, digital is best.
  • Tripod for a sharper picture.
  • Large sheets of paper and charcoal for weathered headstones.
  • A brush & water for cleaning.
  • Something to clear grass or weeds away from the face of the stones.
  • A graphics editing program.

First visit the cemetery and find out which direction the stones are oriented. It is best to shoot the stone just as sunlight barely crosses the face and the inscription is still shaded. Might even be a good time to clean and clear anything that may of grown over the stone. There has been too many time I could of kicked myself for not sweeping off the stone or I have a weed going across the picture.

When the light is best have your camera on a tripod and use a timer or remote for best results. There is less of a chance of you shaking the camera when you take the shot. Most newer stones you won’t have to worry about light, but nothing is worse than getting home and you have an unusable picture. Zoom into the picture to make sure you have a good clear shot, and then move onto the next stone. After good light has past move to the stones that light isn’t an issue or the weathered stones. For the weathered stones use the paper & charcoal to make a rubbing of the inscription & photograph the headstone and rubbing.

http://www.sampubco.com/gpp/crop.htm is a good site for showing how to crop the picture to put it online, but first I like to make a good quality file for 4x6 digital prints. Picasa is my favorite http://picasa.google.com/ and it’s free and doesn’t effect your original. For prints I like original size with a quality 70, online 600 pixel width a quality of 40-50 or what ever the website requires.

Where to put the images would be the county website on www.usgenweb.org, www.findagrave.com, and if a state is available http://gpp.jlconsulting.com/. They all have limits on size of file or pixel size of the picture. This is why I recommend making a good quality 4x6 file, there are a lot of websites that have free space for your digital pictures. Make a public web album and people can download or order prints for themselves.

It is a wonderful feeling when someone thanks you for making a picture available.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Ancestry.com at the Bouse Library

Early this week the Bouse Library received an e-mail from Ancestry.com offering to sell the full Library subscription to them for $995. Almost 1/2 price. The offer expires on June 30, 2007 so they have to do it right away.

Since we had collected $674 between the winter Genealogy Classes, the money for shipping the books and the winter Computer Classes, the Friends of the Bouse Library Board offered to pay the difference and get the full library subscription this month. We will repay the Friends of the Bouse Library in the fall and winter to cover the difference of $321. Hopefully we will collect that via the genealogy classes, computer classes and donations next season.

The great thing about this is that more than 2 people can use it at a time. Also we are the only Public Library west of Phoenix that will have it available, which should (we hope) bring in more people. I would like to suggest they we see if we can get a donation box just for Ancestry.com placed in the Library to help cover the cost and maybe pay for it next year also.

As we had discussed earlier, access will only be available at the library. It will be open to anyone visiting the library, not just the Bouse Genies.

Also, this subscription price will set the cost we will have to pay in the future. We will not have to go back to the full $1700 price when we renew.

We will advertise the fact that it is available at the library and hopefully it will bring in more members or visitors.

Carol Brown

Note: The money has just been OK, will post later when it is up and running.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Free Genealogy Web Courses

BYU Independent Study Free Web Courses http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm. There is a 1 time registration, then you just log in using your email address.

Family History/Genealogy - Introductory
FHGEN 68 — Finding Your Ancestors
FHGEN 69 — Providing Temple Ordinances for Your Ancestors
FHGEN 70 — Introduction to Family History Research
FHGEN 80 — Helping Children Love Your Family History

Family History/Genealogy - Record Type
FHREC 71 — Family Records
FHREC 73 — Vital Records
FHREC 76 — Military Records

Family History/Genealogy - Regional and Ethnic
FHFRA 71 — France: Immigrant Origins
FHFRA 72 — France: Vital Records
FHFRA 73 — France: Reading French Handwriting
FHFRA 74 — France: Genealogical Organizations and Periodicals
FHFRA 75 — France: The Internet and French Genealogy
FHFRA 76 — French Research: Paris
FHFRA 77 — French Research: Alsace-Lorraine
FHGER 71 — Germany: Immigrant Origins
FHGER 72 — Germany: U.S. Sources and Surname Changes
FHGER 73 — Germany: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHGER 74 — Germany: Reading German Handwriting
FHGER 75 — Germany: Calendars and Feast Days
FHGER 76 — Germany: Vital Records
FHHUG 71 — Huguenot Research
FHSCA 73 — Scandinavia: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHSCA 74 — Scandinavia: Reading Gothic Script
FHSCA 75 — Scandinavia: Church Records and Feast Days
FHSCA 76 — Scandinavia: Census Records
FHSCA 77 — Scandinavia: Probate and Other Records

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Timeline and Map Views Searches

Google is experimenting with some different type of searches. What caught my eye was the Timeline and Map Views. It works best for the queries listed on their page http://www.google.com/experimental/, but I tried some of my own & thoroughly loved it!!!

The Timeline Search just add "view:timeline" to your search & it will categorize your results by date. Great if you just want to search a name during a certain period of time.

The Map View I don't see much difference in just plain old Google Maps. If you want to give this a test drive just add "view:map" to your search.

Maybe if enough people give feedback how much they like it they will get it fully functioning sooner.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Gravestone Photo Project

I really like this Gravestone Photo Project http://gpp.jlconsulting.com/ . I have found headstones or transcriptions here not found on some of the larger headstone databases. Also the women can be listed as married & maiden name, which really helps. The only thing I don’t like if you make a mistake after you upload a photo you have to contact the Webmaster to make changes.

One thing to remember if you want to add an image, do your editing before uploading. The built in editing in the program doesn’t do a very good job. The first time I uploaded some pictures they were too big & they ended up almost unreadable. Make sure the longest side of the image is no more than 450 pixels & make sure the file size is between 20-40 kb. Here are some tips for editing photographs of grave markers for the Gravestones Photograph Project http://www.sampubco.com/gpp/crop.htm .

The following states are currently using a version of the Gravestone Photo Project software:

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Copyrights In The Public Domain

I have been seeing copyrights on lot of microfilms & digital images where the original documents were published before 1923. So I set out to find out how they could copyright a public domain document.

First stop was to see what I could find out about copyrights as it applies to Public Domain. The only thing I could find was Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. But I couldn’t figure out if it was dismissed due to “Fair Use” or because the reproductions involved no originality.

Then a kind Professor of Law put this topic in terms I could understand, “The content is not copyrighted and there is debate about even the image”.

Finally a response from the Library of Congress “Merely reformatting a work is not considered copyrightable authorship. There would have to be the addition of an appreciable amount of original copyrightable matter in order to support a claim to copyright, and, even then, the copyright would not extend to the public domain matter”.

We need to see these people putting on these copyrights as supplying us great service, and we shouldn’t copy their entire works to resell. But we should not have to feel like criminals sharing bits & pieces.

This article is not intended to define the law, but only to report my experiences.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Creating A Multi Page Documents With IrfanView

Some important documents are more than 1 page and it is nice to have it on 1 file. You will probably want to see if your scanner software comes with these options first.

IrfanView www.irfanview.net makes very nice multi page TIF & PDF files that are nice for archiving & sharing, the disadvantage is the Compression on the PDF files still leave rather large files. But if you use a PDF printer driver to make the PDF file you can make them small enough to email.

Steps for make a multi page TIF that some people prefer for archiving:
  1. Open IrfanView.
  2. Click “View”> put mouse over “Multiple Page Images”> and click “Create Multiple Page TIF”.
  3. Click “Add Images” find the images you want> sort if needed> click “Compression” choose what you want> click “Browse” to put it where you want it on your computer> give it a “name”> click “Create TIF Image” and your done.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with IrfanView:
  1. Open your TIF in IrfanView.
  2. Click “Save As”> choose "Save as type: PDF - Portable Document Format".
  3. In the PDF Settings Tab "layout" Page Format=Like Image. Page Rotation=none. Page Border=unchecked. Compression Tab=Activate Compression is checked.
  4. Give it a name and click “Save”.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with a PDF Printer Driver:
  1. Open your TIF in IrfanView.
  2. Click “File”> “Print”.
  3. 3. In Print Preview, Printer=your PDF Printer Driver. Choose “Portrait” or “Landscape” depending on your document. Print Size=Best fit to page, Mulipage images=Print all pages> Then click "Print". Just follow your PDF Printer Driver steps to finish.

TIF files that worked with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer:
*No compression (recommended)
*Original 909 KB - TIF 22.4 MB - PDF 9.36 MB
*With PDF Printer Driver it is 1.02 MB

*With Packbits compression
*Original 909 KB - TIF 18.2 MB - PDF 9.36 MB
*With PDF Printer Driver it is 1.02 MB

*With LZW compression
*Original 909 KB - TIF 15.7 MB - PDF 9.36 MB
*With PDF Printer Driver it is 1.02 MB

As you can see there is no difference on the PDF files but the using the PDF Printer Driver is much better for emailing. The difference is the PDF Printer Driver will leave a larger blank area because it is trying to fit it to an 8.5x11 page.

There are other commercial products that that work better but IrfanView is donation ware.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Newspapers On The Library of Congress Website

Looks like the U.S. Newspaper Program http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html is starting to pay off. I have always liked Colorado & Utah's free digital newspapers. Now it looks like you will be able to access the digital papers from The Library of Congress website. Now in BETA, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/index.html only covers 25 papers in 7 states between 1900-1910, but this will be an interesting project to watch.

The Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website will also let you find information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present in the Chronicling America Directory & tell you where you can find them.

Hoping to find the original digital newspaper websites for a larger database I was able to find these:
CA-http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cndpsearch.pl
DC-not found
FL-http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/UFDC.aspx?c=fdnl1
KY-http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?;page=simpleext&c=kynews
NY-not found
UT-http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/index.html
VA-not found

Good site for finding world wide digital newspapers:
The International Coalition on Newspapers-http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm

Friday, March 30, 2007

Online Backup & Storage

After trying 2 online backup services that offer free accounts, Xdrive http://www.xdrive.com/ and Mozy http://mozy.com/, I see strong points in both. For accessing your files from another computer or sharing I must go with Xdrive, no online access to your files with Mozy. For automaticly backing up of importaint files I must go with Mozy, Xdrive is slow as tar. Mozy is much faster & you can restore you files to any point up to 30 days old. I think we can relate to adding wrong information in our genealogy, well if you catch it in 30 day you can restore your file back to the point you made the mistake. Another thing to concider is where Xdrive offers 5 Gigs of storage, where Mozy offers 2. If security is an issue nothing beats a good old fasion external hard drive.

More info:
Xdrive http://www.xdrive.com/
Mozy http://mozy.com/

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Family Tree Guide

Family Tree Guide http://www.familytreeguide.com is a nice website were you can put your genealogy. It is similar to other web based PHP genealogy programs, but you don't have to have your own website or do any of the setup. More information on the features can be found here http://www.familytreeguide.com/home_features.php.

Things I like:
  • You get you own web address ie. name.familytreeguide.com.
  • Several different way to view people; Individual, Pedigree, Descendancy, Relationship Calculator, Timeline.
  • You register others for your account so you can collaborate.
  • The advanced search you can search names, dates, places, notes & more.
  • You can even add histories, documents, and photos.

Things I didn’t like:
  • You are supposed to be able upload a gedcom to update your file, but I tried to replace my gedcom to take out photo links in my file but was unable to. I ended up deleting the file & then uploading the edited gedcom as new.
  • The only way to add contact info was to put my email in the footer.
  • The biggest problem is the defalt is no event/facts (census, moved, etc...), but all I had to do was select them to be allowed & reupload the gedcom.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Need Extra Storage Space?

Dead Site!!!!

3 sure things in life are death, taxes & hard drive crashes. Xdrive http://www.xdrive.com/ is an online storage service offering 5 Meg of free storage. There are a lot of free photo storage services out there but what I like about this is you can store other files.

Here are some things you can do with Xdrive:
  • Better secure your important files - photos, video, music, and more.
  • Keep your digital photos in full resolution.
  • Prevent bounced e-mail - share very large files without a problem.
  • Schedule Automatic Backups of your important files.
  • Share folders with others for just viewing or to work collaboratively.
  • Access your files anytime through any web connection.
  • Organize, edit and stream music playlists through any Web connected PC.


"Xdrive Desktop" acts as an auto backup of certain folders on your hard drive, but I found it slow as tar. The slide show you can add music & email an invitation out to people to view it, myself I don't like giving emails of friends to free services. The things I really like about this service is backing up your bookmarks. You can also upload groups of files or folders & download them just as easily. Downloads are grouped together as a ZIP file so you will need to uncompress them when done.

Should you find 5 Gig just isn't enough try putting your pictures on AOL Pictures http://pictures.aol.com, that is unlimited storage & can be accessed from Xdrive.

One last piece of advice locks & security only keep honest people honest, put confidential information online at you own risk.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Arizona Obituary Index

Mesa Regional Family History Center has a very nice obituary index on their website http://www.mesarfhc.org/. On this index you get names, age at death, newspaper, section, page, and date. Most of the hits I got were in the 1990s & 2000s, some are in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the oldest I found was the Arizona Miner 1864.

There was no list of what papers they have or time period, but here is what I was able to find:
Apache County Reporter
Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Sun
Arizona Miner
Arizona Republic
Au-Authm Action News
Casa Grande Dispatch
Cottonwood Journal Extra
Daily Courier
Daily News-Sun
East Valley Tribune
Eastern Arizona Courier
Gazette
Mesa Tribune
Navajo County Pioneer
Navajo Times
Payson Roundup
Phoenix Gazette
Prescott Daily Courier
Prospector
Republican
Scottsdale Tribune
The Spectrum
The Sun (Yuma)
Tucson Citizen
Verde Valley News
White Mtn Independent
Yuma Daily Sun

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Obituaries, Genealogy Treasures

One of the best places to get you over a hump in your genealogy are obituaries.

Start with dates off the Social Security Death index or other death indexes or cemetery records. With that you can get a death date and a possible death location.

Next check your local library website & see if they offer NewsBank or other national newspaper databases, they are good for recent obituaries.

Next check the newspaper websites for the county they died in. Smaller newspapers are more likely to keep a free obituary archive longer than the bigger cities. My experience, the bigger cities obituaries usually windups on NewsBank after 30 days or other pay sites.

Finally ask for a lookup on mailing lists, message boards, http://raogk.org/ or http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~obitl/ are good. But if no one gets back with you try emailing that county’s library & find out if they keep newspapers on microfilm and if they can mail you a copy. There might be a small fee involved, but usually not much.

Why is this document important? It is most likely to give you clues on your ancestor’s life, ie… Son or daughter of, born, married, survived by, where they lived and what they did in their life.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Ancestry.Com Free Databases

Looking at free databases on http://www.searchforancestors.com/ancestryfreebies.html, I see several interesting databases but most are already free on http://rootsweb.com/. To test it out I tried the WWI Civilian Draft Registrations. I had to register which was easy enough (just had to give a name and email address), but only got an index and only 1 of 3 brothers came up. So it is not as complete as the pay database, but worth taking a look at.

Update: I just got my 1st Ancestry SPAM from signing up. If you want to try this be warned!!!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Family Roots Radio

An new genealogy internet radio show has popped up http://www.familyrootsradio.com/ , hosted by Kory Meyerink. It is played on VoiceAmerica every Thursday at 1PM Pacific. To make things easier you can listen or download it and listen it at your convenes. I found the first two shows very interesting & educational.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates

Arizona has Birth (1887-1930) and Death (1878-1955) certificates online at http://genealogy.az.gov/. The nice thing is you can view the actual images online. You have the option to include Father & Mother's name in the search, good for birth certificates or narrowing down death certificates. And to limit the search by county & year range, helpful if you know the county but not the exact year.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

County Boundaries

If you need to find a county boundary for a state & can’t justify spending the money for a book or a program, HeritageQuest has made it easier. They have put maps online from “Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses”, 1790-1920, By Wiliam Thorndale and William Dollarhide.

On HeritageQuest, click browse in the census area. Pick a year & a state, and then click “View State Map”. You will be able to view that year’s county boundaries (black lines) & currant boundaries (white lines). Just plot the current location & compare it to the one for that year.

To find out if HeritageQuest is offered from your local library website or one in your state please visit http://www.eogen.com/HeritageQuestOnline .

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Genealogy Training Cource

With Carol Brown
9:30 am- 11:30 noon Tuesday’s & Thursday’s
January 9, 2007 - February 8, 2007
(Except as noted)

Sign-up at the library
Everyone Welcome
At the Bouse Library, 44031 Plomosa Road
Cost is $5.00 per class

Each week Carol teaches two different aspects of genealogical research followed by an open discussion session. All class are approximately 2 hours in length. You do not have to attend every session. You can choose the topics you wish to attend.

  • January 9 - Class 1 - Beginning Genealogy, Record Organization and Source Citation
  • January 10 - Class 2 - Computers and Genealogy on the Internet
  • January 16 - Class 3 - Census and Social Security Records
  • January 18 - Class 4 - Researching in Libraries and Court Houses
  • January 23 - Class 5 - Immigration and Migration Patterns
  • January 25 - Class 6 - Genealogical Societies and Magazines
  • January 30 - Class 7 - Over Coming Dead Ends
  • February 1 - Class 8 - Preponderance of Evidence
  • February 6 - Class 9 - Researching in Military Records
  • February 8 - Class 10 - Sharing Your Family History