A few months ago, I talked about doing genealogy from home. I promised to write a blog about researching your family history online and now, at last, I am keeping that promise!
As a stay-at-home mom, I have a strong testimony of eternal families and a huge difficulty with doing any research. I’m not wanting my kids to grow up too quickly – I know it will happen faster than I can realize – but one thing I am looking forward to when they are old enough to be without me for a few hours is the research I can accomplish. With that in mind, I have diligently researched a variety of online sources to share with you.
There is no way that I could share a comprehensive list, so instead I will send you to Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com/). This is an enormous list of online genealogy sites. You can search by location, by name, by region, and so forth. This is a free resource, and Cyndi does her best to make it comprehensive. It is indexed six ways from Sunday, and pretty much every other site I am going to share with you is featured there.
Another free source by location is USGENWEB. (http://www.usgenweb.org/) This site is broken up by states, and staffed by volunteers. You never know what you will find. For instance, my family is from Montgomery County, Virginia, and some kind women have transcribed several of the cemeteries in the area and posted them. In this way, I was able to not only locate the dates online but, knowing what cemetery my ancestors were buried in, find the actual site and take pictures of the tombstone on another visit. Other people list only the tombstones relevant to their families. Folks have transcribed diaries, wills, and other legal records. It’s a virtual hodgepodge of information, and it’s very much hit-or-miss. Several years of census records are also available online. One thing: if you have any genealogy information, do everyone else a favor and post it.
Rootsweb (http://www.rootsweb.com/) is also a similar arrangement. Here, you have forums arranged by name and locality. You can join mailing lists and ask for and exchange information about various relatives. This isn’t quite so document-centric, but it can give you information on missing ancestors and fill in holes in your family tree.
Of course, I couldn’t neglect to mention FamilySearch, (http://www.familysearch.org/) the church’s website. You can search many of the records that are easily available at your local family history center online. If you have your membership number and confirmation date, you can also log in and see what work has been done for your ancestors, and where work still needs to be finished. If you have the ability to visit your local family history center on occasion, you can use the website to page through the catalog and locate the record or records you want to order. You will still need to visit your local center to place the order, but this is something you can do quickly even with kids in tow. Then you can return alone once the records come in.
If you want something a little more organized, and are willing to pay for it, you can purchase a membership at Ancestry (www.ancestry.com). They have all of the census records for the nation, including the most recently published 1930 records, and you can search them in various combinations. The information varies by state – for instance, there is very little on Montgomery County, Virginia, where my dad’s family lived for about two hundred years – but you can see what is available before purchasing a membership. The census records by themselves have given me some great places to start and, while they are not reliable, they have frequently pointed me in the right direction. I will caution you NOT to use those records as definitive, however, because they tend to be riddled with errors; however, they can give you an idea of where to go.
These are some ways to locate your family online. Tomorrow, I will share some suggestions on obtaining the records you need, which will give you the facts you need. Nothing can compare with holding even a copy of your ancestors marriage records in your hands.
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