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DECEMBER 2018 M A G A Z I N E

75 BEST FREE
WEBSITES
to Trace American Ancestors

12 Time-Saving
Research Tips
EASY PLANNING
WORKSHEET
Write Your
Family History!
Complete Guide
to Scottish Genealogy

7 Ways to Preserve
Holiday Heirlooms
 FIND IT FAST!
The genealogy
facts you need—
at your fingertips

t handy, at-a-glance lists and

charts, including historical
timelines, census basics,
vital record dates and
definitions

t quick hints for finding

ancestors in records,
searching genealogy
websites like Ancestry.com,
DNA testing, and more

t travel-size for easy

reference and research
on the go

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contents D E C E M B E R 2 018

27

branchingout 17
E 42 InAreGood
Look for the green arrow
throughout this issue 18 Cyber States
Discover your American ancestors
Time
you always running out of
for hints to expanded
versions, free downloads in cyberspace! Search these 75 best research minutes? Get more
and related products at websites—all of them free—for genealogy done in less time
familytreemagazine.com! genealogy in US states. with these 12 time-saving tips.
by Rick Crume by Lisa A. Alzo

27 Taking the High Road

Whether they came from the High-
48 Do the Write Thing
Let your research live beyond you.
lands or the bonnie banks of Loch Put it all together with these tips for
Lomond, your Scottish ancestors writing your family history, plus a
left behind a trail of civil registration project organizing worksheet you’ll
records in their home country. refer to again and again.
ON THE COVER by Amanda Epperson by Diane Haddad
75 Best state sites 18
12 Time-saving tips 42
Write your family history 48
33 State Research Guides
Tips and resources for tracing your
54 The Great Unknowns
Search beyond basic records with
Scottish genealogy 27 ancestors in US states. these six little-known sources to
Preserve holiday heirlooms 14 ALABAMA 33 discover your immigrant ancestors’
by David A. Fryxell hometowns and life details.
COVER PHOTO: AL PARRISH
DESIGN: JULIE BARNETT OREGON 37 by Rich Venezia
by Diane Haddad

family t re emagaz ine.com 1

D E C E M B E R 2 018

14 everything’srelative 6
8 Family
Lisa’s Picks
history faves from the founder of Genealogy Gems, LLC.
by Lisa Louise Cooke

10 Timeline
Serving up the history of cookbooks.
by David A. Fryxell

12 Stories to Tell
Genealogy volunteers discover their own family history while
helping other researchers.
by Sunny Jane Morton

48 13 Your Turn
Preserve childhood memories by answering our family history prompt.

14 Family History Home

Expert tips on preserving holiday heirlooms.
by Denise May Levenick

treetips 61
62 Now What?
Discovering parents’ names and locating obituaries.
by David A. Fryxell

64 Photo Detective
Identifying a family portrait, starting with a date.
by Maureen A. Taylor

66 Tech Toolkit
by Sunny Jane Morton
Ellis Island site adds records, RootsTech
goes to London, and more 66
How to photograph an heirloom 68 IN EVERY ISSUE
Out on a Limb 3
Roundup: international archives 69
Tree Talk 4

64 Website: New York passenger search 70

DNA Q&A: Y-DNA by Diahan Southard 71
The Rest is History 72

Family Tree Magazine (ISSN 1529-0298) is published seven times per year: January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September, October/November and December by F+W, A Content + eCommerce Company,
10151 Carver Road, Suite 300, Cincinnati, OH 45242; telephone (513) 531-2690. Copyright ©2018 F+W Media, Inc., Vol. 19, No. 7, December 2018. Subscription rates: one year, $36. Canadian subscriptions add $8 per year,
other foreign subscriptions add $10 per year for surface mail or $35 per year for air mail and remit in US funds. Postmaster: Send all address changes to Family Tree Magazine, Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32141; return
undeliverable Canadian addresses to Box 1632, Windsor, Ontario N9A 7C9. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio and additional mailing offices. Produced and printed in the USA.

2 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 out on a limb
DECEMBER 2018 / VOLUME 19, ISSUE 7

Group Publisher Allison Dolan

Publisher Patty Craft
Editor Diane Haddad
Art Director Julie Barnett
Editor/Content Producer Andrew Koch In each December issue
Instructional Designer Vanessa Wieland of Family Tree Magazine, we recognize
Online Content Director Ashlee Peck state- and locally focused genealogy web-
Web Producer Rachel Fountain sites. They’re the sources—often, free—of
Contributing Editors Lisa A. Alzo, Rick Crume, goodies like digitized records, maps,
David A. Fryxell, Nancy Hendrickson,
Sunny Jane Morton, Maureen A. Taylor
photos of people and places, and tried-
and-true how-tos from folks researching
F+W, A CONTENT + ECOMMERCE COMPANY the same towns and families as you. It’s
CEO Gregory J. Osberg like getting an unexpected gift.
CFO Kenneth Kharbanda Among the treasures I’ve found on
SVP, General Manager F+W Fine Art, Writing, Outdoors such sites are:
and Small Business Group Ray Chelstowski  the name of the village one of my
Managing Director, F+W International James Woollam
immigrant ancestors came from, in a list
VP, General Counsel Robert Sporn
of founders of a local German club
VP, Human Resources, Customer Service
 an image of a 1910 Minor League
and Trade Gigi Healy
VP, Product Management Pat Fitzgerald baseball card for my third-great uncle,
Newsstand Sales Scott Hill, scott.hill@procirc.com a catcher for the Richmond Pioneers
VP, Advertising Sales Kevin D. Smith  many newspaper articles about

Advertising Sales Representative Tim Baldwin my father-in-law’s family in upstate

Advertising Services Assistant Connie Kostrzewa New York
 lots of city birth and death records,
Family Tree Magazine, published in the United States, kept before statewide records began
is not affiliated with the British Family Tree Magazine,
with Family Tree Maker software or with Family Tree DNA.  the whereabouts of records includ-

EDITORIAL OFFICES: ing penitentiary registers naming my

10151 Carver Road, Suite 300, Blue Ash, OH 45242,
ftmedit@fwmedia.com.
bootlegger ancestor, hospital registers for
ADVERTISING:
another ancestor, and a meaty court file
Tim Baldwin, (248) 837-9293, on my third-great-grandparents’ divorce
tim.baldwin@fwmedia.com.
A little of this stuf is now available on
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION:
U.S.: (888) 403-9002; international: (386) 246-3364; big genealogy sites that cover all of the
familytree@emailcustomerservice.com, United States and beyond, but most of it
<www.familytreemagazine.com/contact>.
Single copies, back issues, books and supplies:
is still only where I first found it online.
<familytreemagazine.com/store>. I encourage you to start with our 75 Best
NEWSSTAND AND INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION:
State Sites listing (page 18) and explore
Curtis Circulation Co., (201) 634-7400. the websites of state archives, libraries
PRIVACY PROMISE: Occasionally we make portions of our and historical societies, as well as their
customer list available to other companies so they may
contact you about products and services that may be of county counterparts, covering the places
interest to you. If you prefer we withhold your name, simply
send a note with the magazine name to: List Manager, F+W,
where your ancestors lived. They’re gene-
A Content + eCommerce Company, 10151 Carver Road, Suite alogy gifts that keep giving.
300, Blue Ash, OH 45242.
Copyright © 2018 F+W Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Family
Tree Magazine is a registered trademark of F+W Media, Inc.


Visit the Genealogy Insider blog at <bit.ly/
2xVo0w2> to read how I found my third-great-
grandparents’ 1880s divorce records.

family t re emagaz ine.com 3

 TREE TALK
Readers’ favorite family finds I donate my research
skills as an auction
I RESEARCHED A FRIEND’S French-Canadian
line, using the fantastic records available. I took item to my favorite
her back to the founding families of Quebec in local animal charity
the 1600s. Great fun. Now if I could find just one
of them in my own tree, I’d be thrilled! I learned each year. It’s been
a lot of history I didn’t know before, too. so rewarding to help
Peg Osborne Eddy
people learn about
their families.
We found the plat map that Kathleen Mcquillan-Hofmann

showed where an ancestor had

land near Holy Hill, Wis. My mom
and I have stood on that land. AS A GENEALOGIST AND A STORY TELLER, I’ve
been telling family stories to my daughter and
Kristine Henry
her son for years. Three years ago we moved
to a small town. My grandson, who is shy, used
those stories to help make new friends. Appar-
ently no one else had family stories to share, and
they thought he was a wizard for knowing so
[I did genealogy] for a friend’s
much family history. The entire high school now
cousin’s father-in-law, who was knows the “Wizard.”
turning 80. He didn’t know his Raelene Crotser

father’s family. I found royalty

I’ve helped a number of friends trace their
way back in the 1600s. They
ancestors, and had much better luck with theirs
gave the information to him as than mine. One had seven ancestors on the May-
a birthday present, with a crown. flower, one had an ancestor at the Alamo, and
LaVonne Fields Hallberg
one was descended from Daniel Boone.
Lindy Sheehan

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

<www.facebook.com/
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Genealogy books, how-to videos and online subscribe> @FamilyTreeMag
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Genealogy advice from host The best of everything: a Family
Lisa Louise Cooke and VIP Tree Magazine print subscription, @familytreemag
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<familytreemagazine. Tree Shop discount <family
PODCAST com/podcasts> treemagazine.com/subscribe>

4 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
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DISEASE. ALL DOCTORS MENTIONED ARE REMUNERATED FOR THEIR SERVICES. ALL CLINICAL STUDIES ON ALOECURE’S ACTIVE INGREDIENT WERE INDEPENDENTLY CONDUCTED AND
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 everything’srelative

walk in the posada in Mexico, re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s journey to

©FITOPARDO.COM/ MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES

DID YOUR ANCESTORS

Bethlehem? Light the Menorah to celebrate eight miraculous days of light in Jerusalem’s temple?
Your young German relatives may have toed the line to avoid the horned demon-goat Krampus, and
left shoes on the doorstep for St. Nicholas to fill. Southern Italian families may still sit down to Esta
dei Sette Pesci (the Feast of the Seven Fishes) on Christmas Eve.
No time of year in America features such a wealth of traditions and customs as the holiday sea-
son. Our ancestors brought those customs from all over the world, and they spread and changed and
blended to create the holidays we know today. Find out which traditions your forebears followed—and
incorporate a few into your celebrations—at <familytreemagazine.com/premium/holiday-heritage>.

6 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
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everything’srelative L I S A’ S P I C K S

Hark the Heritage

Take time this month to share your family’s holiday traditions.

E Christmas Seals
I’ve loved Christmas seals
since fourth grade, and
my collection now covers
nearly every year since
the program began in
1907. Inspired by a fund-
raising campaign in Den-
mark, Emily Perkins Bis-
sell designed holiday seals
to sell for one penny each
at post oices. The funds
would fight tuberculosis,
then America’s leading
cause of death. Today,
the American Lung
Association also funds
lung cancer and asthma
research, still largely
thanks to Christmas Seals.

PEARL HARBOR PHOTO: REED KAESTNER/CORBIS / GETTY IMAGES PLUS; FIGGY PUDDING PHOTO: SARAH CHRISMAN,
AUTHOR OF THIS VICTORIAN LIFE; ALL OTHER IMAGES: LISA LOUISE COOKE
Lisa Louise Cooke
is the founder of the
E A Little Christmas
Genealogy Gems One of my favorite descriptions of Santa Claus
website and podcast is in the iconic book Little House on the Prairie.
<lisalouisecooke.
After crossing a swollen creek to deliver gifts
com>, and host of the
Family Tree Podcast from Santa, the fictional Mr. Edwards tells Mary
<familytreemagazine. and Laura Ingalls: “He swung up on his fine bay
com/podcasts>.
horse. Santa Claus rode well, for a man of his
weight and build. And he tucked his long, white
whiskers under his bandana.” Laura Ingalls
Wilder began writing the Little House books on
her beloved Rocky Ridge Farm <lauraingalls
wilderhome.com> in Mansfield, Mo. My visit
there several years ago was a bucket-list item
for this lifelong fan.

8 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
N App Obsession
I’m always looking for ways to give the gift of family
history. The Inkwork app for iOS made it easy to create a
family coloring book for my grandkids. I saved old photos
to Dropbox (any cloud storage app is fine). Simple images
work better than detailed ones. On my phone, I opened
Inkwork and imported an image. You can select from a
variety of styles (I used Comic) to turn photos into line
drawings. I saved the drawings back to Dropbox, then
printed and bound them.

N Getting the Records
The Dec. 7, 1941, raid on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor
resulted in a staggering loss of nearly 3,000 American
lives. Thirty-two years later, the military service records
of many who served that day and throughout the war
were lost in a fire at the National Personnel Records Cen-
ter (NPRC) in St. Louis. I learned from Theresa Fitzger-
ald, the center’s chief of archival operations, of the hun-
dreds of auxiliary files that can help you fill in the blanks.
See <archives.gov/personnel-records-center> for details.
N Retro Recipe
There’s a reason our ancestors sang, about
figgy pudding, “We won’t go until we get some!”
Whip up a batch with help from the Plymouth
Union Cook Book of 1894: “One pound of figs cut
fine, imported ones are best but dried domes-
tic ones will answer, one and a half pounds of
bread crumbs, one-half pound chopped suet
[you could use shortening], twelve ounces moist
sugar [brown sugar], a little nutmeg [1 tsp.], two
eggs, one teacup of milk. Mix all together and
steam four hours.” See pudding prep in action at
<youtu.be/lCBjcGbi9w0>.
W Podcast
Revisit the top genealogy
stories and sources of 2018
with podcast host, Lisa
PODCAST Louise Cooke. Subscribe via
your favorite podcast app. 

E
Listen to Lisa’s interview with NPRC archivist
Theresa Fitzgerald in our free podcast <familytree
magazine.com/articles/genealogy_research_
strategies/adoption/dna-adoption-episode-122>.

family t re emagaz ine.com 9

 everything’srelative TIMELINE

Cooking the Books

PEOPLE BEGAN COOKING long before they had cookbooks, of course.
Archeologists have found 300,000-year-old evidence of food cooked
on fires. Yet, the desire to preserve and share recipes ran deep among
our ancestors. The oldest surviving recipes are etched on Mesopo-
tamian stone tablets, dating to 1700 BCE. Chefs for kings collected
cookbooks, both to show of their culinary prowess and to record the
splendor of royal feasts.
As with so much else, the printing press democratized recipes.
Only the gentry could aford printed cookbooks in 1615, when Gervase
Markham published The English Housewife for ladies with estates to
supervise. But by the late 19th century, even common cooks could
consult tomes such as England’s 1847 Plain Cookery for the Working 1786
Classes. A few more technological and marketing leaps later, you have Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery is the irst
the launch of Food Network in 1993. cookbook to use ingredients easily found in
America, like corn, cranberries and pump-
kin. A lengthy subtitle explained her intent:
“The art of dressing viands, ish, poultry, and
vegetables, and the best modes of making
1st century AD pastes, pufs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards,
Marcus Gavius Apicius collects De re coquinaria (“On the subject of cooking”). and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the
The James Beard of the reign of Roman emperor Tiberius (14-37), Apicius is imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this
generally credited with compiling the earliest extant European cookbook; country, and all grades of life.”
his surname became synonymous with “book of recipes.” The surviving text
was most likely transcribed in the fourth or ifth century, and a printed edition
appeared in 1483.

| 70 |
1700 | ||
1800 ||

CORN: NICOOLAY/E+/GETTY IMAGES; BETTY CROCKER: HILDA TAYLOR, COURTESY OF GENERAL MILLS;
1390 Cookbooks for “common” readers

DIGITALVISION VECTORS/GETTY IMAGES; BEETON’S BOOK: WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON [CC BY 4.0
JULIA CHILD: LYNN GILBERT [CC BY-SA 4.0 <CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/4.0>], WIKI-
MEDIA COMMONS; RICHARD II: WESTMINSTER ABBEY, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; GAME: ILBUSCA/
Richard II’s royal chefs offered tricks for making meat from
compile The Forme of domestic animals resemble game
Cury, the irst known
English cookbook
cooked for landed gentry. Coal, for
<CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0>], VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
(“cury” was any cooked example, could be used to darken a
food). Its nearly 200 pig’s bristles like those of a wild boar.
recipes include exotic
fare, such as roasted
peacock and porpoise
porridge, as well as
humbler meals suit-
able for servants. Like
most early cookbooks,
the recipes lacked
ingredient quantities.

10 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
1896
Fannie Farmer edits The Boston Cooking
School Cookbook. The school pioneered the
“domestic science” movement, relected
in the cookbook’s precise measurements
and instructions. Farmer, who enrolled at
age 30, went on to head the school and
collect some 1,800 recipes in what became
“the Bible of American cookery.” But
publisher Little, Brown had so little faith in
the project that it made Farmer pay for the
irst printing. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook,
to which Farmer wisely retained copyright,
sold 4 million copies in her lifetime.
1845
Eliza Acton publishes Modern
Cookery for Private Families.
Called “the best writer of rec-
ipes in the English language,”
Acton was irst to include
now-standard elements: an
ingredients list, quantities,
and suggested cooking
times. Her book became a
classic guide to Victorian
domesticity and remained in
print for almost 70 years.
|
1900
1950
The Washburn-Crosby
Co. (now General Mills)
publishes Betty Crocker’s
Picture Cook Book. The
ictional Betty Crocker
was created in 1921 to
answer customer ques-
tions; she irst appeared
on soup mix in 1941 and
cake mix in 1947. Her
recipe collection went
on to sell more than 65
million copies—more
than the Bible that irst
year—and become the
bestselling cookbook 1961
of all time. Julia Child writes Mastering the Art of French Cook-
ing. With her cookbook and PBS television show,
launched in 1963, she showed Americans that
they, too, could tackle the world’s most elevated
cuisine. With her friend James Beard, Child laid the
groundwork for today’s multimedia recipe mania
and superstar chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Rachel
Ray and Ina Garten. 
| |
2000 |
1931
Irma S. Rombauer publishes Joy of Cooking.
Rombauer had no professional culinary creden-
tials and began gathering recipes only in her 50s.
1857-1861 With help from her husband’s former secretary,
Isabella Beeton serializes Rombauer developed the “action method” of
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household recipe writing, incorporating the ingredients into
Management. Though only 25 years the directions. In 1936, she sold Joy of Cooking to
old, Beeton set the standard for Bobbs-Merrill, which published new editions until
Victorian housekeeping, from her death in 1962. Rombauer’s grandson coau-
childcare to animal husbandry. thored a 75th anniversary edition in 2006.
Most of the recipes were illustrated
with colored engravings. Beeton
followed Acton’s innovations with
a standardized recipe format that
David A. Fryxell is the founding
would look familiar today.
editor of Family Tree Magazine. He
now researches his tree from Tucson,
and had 300 cookbooks at last count.
family t re emagaz ine.com 11
everything’srelative STORIES TO TELL
Chance Discoveries
While digitizing records of other people’s ancestors,
genealogy volunteers stumble across their own.
aelynn Klake of Murphy, Texas, is a genealogist
R whose retirement provides her with extra time.
Several years ago, she and Joy Rife, her friend of 40
years, called FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org> to
ask how they could volunteer to help other researchers.
“The person who answered the phone was over record
preservation camera capture,” recalls Klake. “He told
us about serving as camera operators, [and] we were con-
vinced it was for us.” The pair flew to Melbourne, Aus-
tralia, and spent six months digitizing historical records.
“I love old documents and books,” Klake says. “It’s
such a powerful feeling, touching something that has
been kept over many generations. I’m pretty convinced
that if anyone ever digitized records, they wouldn’t want
to do anything else.”
After another volunteer stint in Salt Lake City, Klake
and Rife headed to Norton, Kansas. “Joy was born and
raised in Kansas, and I knew I had ancestors there, too,”
12 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
While volunteering to
digitize records, friends
Raelynn Klafke (right) and
Joy Rife kept coming across
their relatives’ names.
Klake says. Her fourth great-grandmother’s brother,
J.W. Vining, was Norton’s sherif—and he’d worked in an
oice right across the street from where Klake was run-
ning the FamilySearch camera.
“When I got there, I picked up this book and opened it
right to something about J.W. Vining. I grabbed another
LISA HERMAN, NORTON TELEGRAM (KS). USED WITH PERMISSION.
set of pages, and there was his name again. I was like,
‘Ok, he knows I’m here.’”
The serendipitous discoveries continued. “As we’d
digitize, I’d come across a name and say, ‘Hey, isn’t this
your family name?’ Then we’d go home and look up
those people to see how they fit into the family.”
The friends’ next record imaging stop is at the Plaza
del Patriarca in Valencia, Spain. Klake doesn’t expect to
find her family history there, but no matter. “If I can help
someone else find and feel that connection to their own
ancestors … what a privilege.” 
Sunny Jane Morton
 YOUR TURN everything'srelative

WRITE THIS
Who was your best childhood friend?
How did you meet? Do you still know this person?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

In each issue, Your Turn ofers a memory prompt to help you preserve your family’s
unique stories. Tear out and save your responses in a notebook, or use our downloadable
type-and-save PDF <familytreemagazine.com/freebie/your-turn>. We’d love to hear your
responses, too! Send them to ftmedit@fwmedia.com with “Your Turn” as a subject, and we
might feature them in the magazine or on Facebook to inspire other genealogists.

f il t em g z
ema .co
co
om 13
everything’srelative FA M I LY H I S T O R Y H O M E

Preserving Holiday Heirlooms

1 Plan ahead. When you’re unpacking
holiday décor is the best time to think
about storing your decorations post-
festivities. Note storage boxes needing
replacement so you can take advantage
of holiday sales on archival supplies, and
plan to give away any extra or unsenti-
mental decorations.
2 Location matters. Although you might
store lights and garlands in the garage or
basement, those aren’t the best spots for
treasured heirlooms. Summer heat, winter
cold, moisture, pests and other hazards can
turn paper and fabric decorations brittle and
cause glass to fade and oxidize. If storage
space is limited, separate special items,
like menorahs, crèches and handmade
ornaments, to keep inside your home.
3 Preserve memories. Bread-dough
snowmen and pasta angels are doomed to
early demise as the food decays. Cross-stitch,
porcelain or vintage glass baubles are likelier
to survive the ages. Any item will have bet-
ter longevity if carefully wrapped in white,
acid-free tissue and stored in a clean, dry
container, such as a divided ornament stor-
age box. Inexpensive plastic bins are a good
choice as well. Store boxes of the ground,
away from sources of moisture.

Denise May
Levenick
aka The Family
Curator <www.the
familycurator.com>
is the author of
How to Archive
Family Keepsakes
(Family Tree Books).

AL PARRISH
4 Say no to newspaper. Don’t store
treasures wrapped in newspaper. Not only
is the cheap newsprint paper highly acidic
and damaging to things it touches, but it also
loses its cushioning properties as it degrades.
The ink rubs of, too. Instead, use acid-free
white tissue paper, such as Gaylord Archival
Acid-free Tissue <www.gaylord.com>, or
polyester craft batting from a fabric store.
5 Secure Santa. Individually wrap holiday
igurines in white, acid-free tissue paper and
place inside a sturdy plastic or cardboard
box. Cushion the space between items with
polyester batting.
6 Salvage broken memories. Are you
hanging onto beloved glass ornaments
that are chipped or broken? Arrange them in the shop
together in a bowl with the damaged parts Save the stories of
hidden. Add tinsel or silver garland for extra holiday heirlooms with
printable Ornament
sparkle, and display the bowl where it’ll Provenance Cards
catch the light. <familytreemag
azine.com/store/
ornament-provenance-
7 Look after linens. Store linens and
cards-download>.
Christmas stockings in a clean, dry location,
preferably inside your home. Wrap stockings
in white acid-free tissue paper, and place in
an acid-free box or tissue-lined drawer. Don’t
wrap in plastic. Moisture can get trapped
inside and cause mildew and mold. 
 TECHNOLOGY SIMPLIFIED – BIGGER AND BETTER
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“I love this computer! It is easy to
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from my children and grandchildren
all the time.”
– Janet F.
Have you ever said to yourself “I’d
love to get a computer, if only I
could figure out how to use it.” Well,
you’re not alone. Computers were
supposed to make our lives simpler,
but they’ve gotten so complicated
that they are not worth the trouble.
With all of the “pointing and clicking”
and “dragging and dropping” you’re
lucky if you can figure out where you
are. Plus, you are constantly worrying
about viruses and freeze-ups. If this
sounds familiar, we have great news
for you. There is finally a computer
that’s designed for simplicity and ease
of use. It’s the WOW Computer,
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your fingertips. From the moment
you open the box, you’ll realize how
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components are all connected; all you
do is plug it into an outlet and your
high-speed Internet connection. Then
you’ll see the screen – it’s now 22
inches. This is a completely new touch
screen system, without the cluttered
look of the normal computer screen.
The “buttons” on the screen are easy
to see and easy to understand. All you
do is touch one of them, from the
Web, Email, Calendar to Games– you
name it… and a new screen opens
up. It’s so easy to use you won’t have
to ask your children or grandchildren
for help. Until now, the very people
who could benefit most from E-mail
and the Internet are the ones that
have had the hardest time accessing
it. Now, thanks to the WOW
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 “PR ACTICALLY NO LIMIT has been put upon the
materials held suitable for preservation. The
history of Alabama and of her people and insti-
tutions cannot be understood and interpreted
aright save through the annals of the older States
branchingout
of the Union, and through the histories of those
nations who at varous [sic] times held sway over
her territory. Her civilization, her institutions,
and her people spring from the former and,
through them, still further back, from the
mother nations beyond the sea.”

Thomas McAdory Owen , first director of the

Alabama state archives, in The Establishment, Or-
ganization, Activities, and Aspirations of the Depart-
ment of Archives and History of the State of Alabama
(Brown Print Co.,1904). Established Feb. 27, 1901, the
Alabama archives was America’s first publicly fund-
ed, independent state archives.
JOHN COLETTI/ THE IMAGE BANK/GETTY IMAGES

family t re emagaz ine.com 17

CYBER STATES
BEST STATE
WEBSITES
2018

Discover your American ancestors in cyberspace! Search these

75 best websites—all of them free—for genealogy in US states.
by RICK CRUME
 Every year, our hunt for the best state-focused websites for
genealogy turns up new databases and indexes, plus more of what we crave
most—digitized records, photographs, newspapers and books. This year’s list of
the 75 Best State Websites for genealogy has both old favorites and sites not in
last year’s listing. Some of the new entries—marked with a  on these pages—
opened up previously untapped resources for my own family history research.
Searching the Maine State Library’s new Digital Maine Repository site, I found
digitized local newspaper items regarding my ancestors. The Indiana State
Library’s new Indiana Legacy site revealed dozens of references to my relatives
in obituaries, biographies and vital records.
And many of our favorite state sites keep expanding; they’re designated here
with EE. Since last year, the terrific California Digital Newspaper Collection has
added 5 million articles. Washington State’s Digital Archives grew by 5 million
records. The ambitious guy behind Old Fulton NY Post Cards has boosted that
site with 4 million more newspaper pages from New York and other states. Min-
ing these sites alone for new discoveries should keep me busy for a good long
time—and there’s a lot more where those came from.
All these sites are free and fun to browse. No matter where your family lived
in the United States, your family history is just waiting to be discovered in some
of these stellar state sites.

ALABAMA ARIZONA

AlabamaMosaic Arizona Genealogy Birth and

<www.alabamamosaic.org>
Among the digitized records you’ll
find from archives and libraries across
the state are family histories, natural-
ization records, school yearbooks and
Civil War diaries and letters.
Death Certiicates
<genealogy.az.gov>
You can search for births from 1855
to 1942 and deaths from 1870 to 1967,
and view the original records online.

ALASKA
Alaska State Library
<library.alaska.gov>
Under the For the Public tab, select
“Vital Records of Alaska & Yukon” to
browse an index to birth, christening,
marriage, divorce, anniversary and
death listings in newspapers from
1898 to 1936. To search indexes to
biographies, obituaries and funeral
cards, look under For the Public and
select Collection Guides, Indexes &
Educational Resources. Then click
on an item under Indexes & Guides
(these large PDF files may open slow-
AL PARRISH
 Arizona Memory Project
<azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital>
Search Arizona newspapers from
1859 to 1922, oral histories and land-
ownership maps.
ARKANSAS
EE Arkansas State Archives
<archives.arkansas.gov>
Select Digital Collections from the
Research tab to search Civil War dia-
ries, records of Japanese-American
internment camps during World War
II, and other digitized records. Select
Search Records from the Research
tab to search indexes to county, mili-

ly). Use Ctrl-F in Windows to search tary, land and church records, plus
for a name in a document. maps, newspapers and manuscripts.

family t re emagaz ine.com 19

Every year, our hunt for the best state-focused
genealogy websites turns up more of what we crave most—
digitized records, photographs, newspapers and books.
EE ArkansasGravestones.org
<arkansasgravestones.org>
Search for a name in more than 1.1
million gravestone photos from all
over the state. Sam Walton’s mod-
est gravestone is there, along with a
biography.
CALIFORNIA
EE California Digital
Newspaper Collection
<cdnc.ucr.edu>
This site puts more than 22 million
articles (5 million more than last year)
in California newspapers dating from
1846 to the present at your fingertips.
Place quotation marks around a name
to search on an exact phrase.
EE Calisphere
<calisphere.org>
The University of California libraries,
along with other libraries, archives
and museums throughout the state,
have digitized more than 925,000
photographs, documents, letters, dia-
ries, oral histories and other items for
this site. That’s 175,000 more than
last year.
Online Archive of California
<www.oac.cdlib.org>
This site describes collections of dia-
ries, letters, photos and other items in
more than 200 libraries, museums,
historical societies and university
archives across the Golden State. You
can view more than 220,000 digital
images and documents.
COLORADO
Colorado State Archives
<www.colorado.gov/pacific/
archives/archives-search>
Archives Search scours millions of
entries in original sources, such as
20 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E
county birth and death registers, a
statewide divorce index from 1880
to 1939, and will and probate records.
You can order copies of the original
records for a fee.
Denver Public Library
Genealogy, Western History and
African-American Resources
<digital.denverlibrary.org/
cdm/genealogy>
A search of the genealogy collection
here covers many resources, includ-
ing indexes to marriages, newspaper
notices, military records, biogra-
phies, obituaries, the 1885 Colorado
state census, cemetery records and
naturalization records.
CONNECTICUT
 Connecticut Digital Archive
<collections.ctdigitalarchive.org>
A collaborative efort of the Uni-
versity of Connecticut Library and
the Connecticut State Library, this
site has digitized photos, books and
manuscripts from libraries, historical
societies and museums.
 Connecticut Index
<dunhamwilcox.net/0_ct-index.htm>
This extensive collection of indexed
records includes cemetery, church,
marriage and town records from
across Connecticut.
Connecticut State Library
Digital Collections
<cslib.cdmhost.com/digital>
Search and view 27 collections of
digitized books, diaries, photo-
graphs, court records, witchcraft tri-
al records, newspapers, vital records
indexes and more. For research
guidance, look under Departments>
Access Services and then click His-
tory & Genealogy.
D E CE M B E R 2 018
DELAWARE
Delaware Public Archives
<archives.delaware.gov>
Click on the Digital Archives link to
access Civil War records, natural-
ization records, historical maps and
more. Click on Research and then on
Collections Gateway to search index-
es to bastardy bonds, death registers
and probate records. You can order
copies of the records for a fee.
FLORIDA
Florida Memory
<www.floridamemory.com>
Click on the Collections tab to access
free databases from the State Library
& Archives of Florida, including
Confederate pension applications,
WWI service cards and Spanish land
grants. Click on the Photographs tab
to search an online collection of more
than 200,000 photographs.
GEORGIA
EE Digital Library of Georgia
<dlg.usg.edu>
If your ancestors hailed from the
Peach State, you can cover a lot of
ground at this recently redesigned
site that connects users to a half-
million digitized items from more
than 130 institutions and 100 govern-
ment agencies. A single search covers
digitized books, manuscripts, photo-
graphs, newspapers and more.
EE Georgia Archives
<www.georgiaarchives.org>
Click on Virtual Vault at the right to
search colonial wills, Confederate
pension applications, death certifi-
cates from 1914 to 1930 and the Gen-
eral Name File. Use the search box
to search across multiple collections
or click on the Advanced Search tab.
You can view digitized images of the
original records for free.
HAWAII
Hawaii State Archives
<ags.hawaii.gov/archives>
Under Research Our Records, click
on Genealogy for research informa-
tion and Genealogical Indexes to
search marriage, divorce, citizen-
ship and death records. You can order
copies of the records for a fee. Click
on Digital Collections to search vital
records, land records, passenger lists
and WWI service records. You can
view these records online for free.
IDAHO
Idaho State Historical Society:
Searchable Indexes
<history.idaho.gov/
searchable-indexes>
Search for your ancestor in the Potato
State with these indexes to natural-
ization records, Civil War veterans,
pension records and state penitentia-
ry inmates. Use the Idaho Biographi-
cal Index to find names from local
histories, periodicals and select
newspapers. When you find a prom-
ising reference, contact the Archives
for more details.
ILLINOIS
Illinois Digital Archives
<www.idaillinois.org>
Digital collections on this site come
from the Illinois State Library and
other Prairie State libraries. The
materials include oral histories, com-
munity history books, manuscripts,
letters, photographs and newspapers,
and you can search it all at once from
the home page.
Illinois State Archives: Databases
<www.cyberdriveillinois.com/
departments/archives/databases>
This straightforward collection list-
ing lets you find your Illinois ances-
tors in indexes to court, criminal,
probate, veterans and vital records.
Don’t rely on just the Global Database
Search; search the individual data-
bases, too.
INDIANA
 Indiana Digital Archives
<www.indianadigitalarchives.org>
This new website indexes more than
1.2 million historical records, includ-
ing court, military and naturalization
records, with veterans’ burials com-
ing soon. Some entries are linked to
digital images.
 Indiana Legacy
<digital.statelib.lib.in.us/legacy>
This new site combines state library
databases with a collaborative state-
wide database of local history and
vital records, letting you search more
than 4 million references at once. You
also can use the Advanced Search
link to check only the types of records
you want to search.
Indiana State Library:
Genealogy Collection
<www.in.gov/library/genealogy.htm>
Click Online Resources in the site
index at the left and scroll down to
Resources Provided by the Indiana
State Library to search indexes to
marriages, deaths, biographies and
newspapers. We especially like the
Indiana Memory search for its digi-
tized images of county histories, oral
histories, plat books, city directories,
photographs, newspapers, yearbooks
and more. Back on the state library
home page, you’ll find plenty of links
to help for genealogists.
IOWA
EE The Iowa Heritage
Digital Collections
<www.iowaheritage.org>
Civil War diaries, county atlases,
biographies and high school year-
books are just some of the digitized
items you can view from dozens of
Iowa libraries, museums and histor-
ical societies.
KANSAS
Kansas Historical Society
<www.kshs.org/18943>
Two large indexes on this site will
help you find your ancestors in the
Sunflower State. The Kansas Names
Index covers the 1895 state census,
biographies, marriages, death notices
and more. The Kansas Military Index
has records from the Civil War to the
present. Select Photo Orders from the
Research tab for instructions on how
to order copies.
Kansas Memory
<www.kansasmemory.org>
Digitized materials from the Kansas
Historical Society include photos,
letters, diaries, books, church records
and interviews with WWII veterans.
KENTUCKY
EE Kentucky Digital Library
<kdl.kyvl.org>
Search digital images of more than
a million items from the Bluegrass
State, including books, manuscripts,
newspapers, maps, oral histories and
pictures. This site is under construc-
tion—look for a new, even better ver-
sion coming soon.
LOUISIANA
EE Louisiana State Archives
<www.sos.la.gov/HistoricalResources/
ResearchHistoricalRecords>
Click on Locate Historical Records
to search indexes to death records
(mostly 1804 to 1967), birth records
(mostly 1790 to 1917) and Orleans

parish marriages (1831 to 1967). Oth-
er online databases cover passenger
lists from January to July 1851 and
Confederate pension applications.
MAINE
 Digital Maine Repository
<digitalmaine.com>
The result of a partnership between
the Maine State Library and librar-
ies, historical societies and museums
across the state, this site has digitized
books, newspapers, church records,
maps and manuscripts.
 Maine Genealogy
<www.mainegenealogy.net>
Christopher Dunham’s site brings
together many resources for Maine
genealogists, including historical
records, links to key collections on
other websites and discussion forums.
EE Maine Memory Network
<www.mainememory.net>
Developed and managed by the
Maine Historical Society, this site
lets libraries and historical societies
upload digital copies of items from
their collections into this site’s data-
base. The site has more than 45,000
historical items, including letters,
photographs, maps, clothing and
audio and video files. Individuals can
also contribute their recollections to
My Maine Stories.
MARYLAND
EE Digital Maryland
<www.digitalmaryland.org>
Items digitized from libraries, histor-
ical societies and museums around
the state include African American
funeral programs, Civil War records,
diaries, oral history videos and slave
lists. Click Collections to see the full
list with descriptions.
22 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E
MASSACHUSETTS
EE Digital Commonwealth
<www.digitalcommonwealth.org>
Explore digitized photographs,
maps, postcards, manuscripts, books
and artifacts from historical insti-
tutions across the Bay State. Start
searching with a name, and then
choose Place from the All Fields pull-
down menu to find resources about
towns and cities.
MICHIGAN
Seeking Michigan
<seekingmichigan.org>
Click on Discover to access more than
a million digitized records, including
death records from 1897 to 1952, state
census records from 1827 to 1894,
Civil War service records, letters, dia-
ries, photographs and plat maps. Click
on Advanced Search to select one or
more collections to search.
EE Western Michigan
Genealogical Society
<data.wmgs.org>
Search indexes to more than 2.75 mil-
lion marriages, deaths, obituaries and
other records—including 150,000 new
records since last year—all for free.
You can click to order copies of most
records for just $5.
MINNESOTA
EE Minnesota Historical Society
<www.mnhs.org/research>
Click on Minnesota People Records
Search to search indexes to birth
records from 1900 to 1934 and death
records from 1904 to 2001, as well as
state census records, veterans’ graves
and the Gold Star Roll of Minnesotans
who died while in military service
during WWI. To search hundreds
of thousands of pages of newspapers
D E CE M B E R 2 018
dating back to 1856, click on Digital
Newspapers, then Minnesota Digital
Newspaper Hub.
MISSISSIPPI
EE Mississippi Digital Library
<www.msdiglib.org/search>
Libraries, colleges and historical and
genealogical societies contributed
old scrapbooks, letters, photographs,
books, oral histories and the large col-
lection of family histories digitized
on this site. Click Start Researching
Now to get started.
MISSOURI
EE Missouri Digital Heritage
<sos.mo.gov/mdh>
Access more than 9 million death,
military, naturalization and oth-
er records from around the state
through the main search form on
this “75 Best State Sites” favorite. To
search individual databases, click on
Browse Collections by Topic and then
on Genealogy.
EE The State Historical Society
of Missouri Digital Collections
<digital.shsmo.org>
This website features a large newspa-
per collection, plus diaries, plat maps,
photographs, oral histories and Civil
War letters. You’ll also find newslet-
ters published by local historical and
genealogical societies, which are
often full of inside research info.
MONTANA
EE Montana Memory Project
<montanamemory.org>
Use the home page search box to find
a name in digitized newspapers, year-
books, prison records, photographs
and more from archives across the
state. A video tutorial on the right
ofers search tips. Underneath the
search box, you also can opt to search
additional digital repositories such as
the Mountain West Digital Library
<mwdl.org> and Chronicling Ameri-
ca <chroniclingamerica.loc.gov>.
 9 SEARCH TIPS
for Hard-to-Search Genealogy Websites
You might be used to the multi-faceted searches and fancy algorithms of websites such as Ancestry <ancestry.
com>, MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>. But sometimes the
best brick wall-busting treasures are on free, volunteer-run or library websites that don’t enjoy the same invest-
ment as those bigger genealogy databases. With a little time and these nine tricks, though, you can unearth
hard-to-ind, free genealogy gems.

4 Check the original. A web-

site might have an index,
but no record images. Look for
instructions to request a copy of
the original or to borrow the item
through interlibrary loan (usually
for a small fee). You also might
search online for the book title,
collection title or type of record
7 Take care when using
photos. Many state-focused
memory websites feature col-
lections from multiple libraries.
If you want to use a photograph
on your website or in a book,
look for the name of the library
that owns the original item and a
contact link to ask permission.

1 Go exploring. Websites of
nonproit and volunteer-run
organizations are often added to
over time by a changing crew of
people who may not be website-
building experts. This means you
5 Search without names.
might ind pertinent information
in unexpected places on the site.
Watch for sections with labels
like Genealogy, Local History,
Databases and Indexes, but
peruse other pages as well.
online, to see if it’s digitized on
another website.
8 Don’t limit your visit to
searchable databases.
Many old newspapers and
printed books are indexed with
The strength of many library and
genealogical society websites
is their local expertise—the tips
optical character recognition and resource recommendations
software, which can “misread” from folks with lots of experience
words on a page. Try name researching in that place.
variants and other terms associ-
ated with your ancestor (such
as a street address, employer or
spouse’s name), or browse.

2 Search for name variants.

Many smaller websites don’t
automatically search for similar
name spellings, so you need to
do this manually. Be methodi-
cal about it: Make a list of all the
spellings you can think of, and
9 Research places, not
just names. A collection
may not be indexed by name,
then check of each one as you so focusing on items related to
run the search. your ancestral places could lead

3 Try a stem search. You

can save time by searching
6 Target records you want.
for just the beginning part of a
name. Mort, for example, would
catch Morten, Mortenson, Mor-
ton, etc. Do a few test searches
to make sure the site allows stem
searching.
Explore the site for a collec-
tion listing with descriptions,
then search collections that best
it your ancestor’s life. Or narrow
your focus to the time of your
ancestor’s birth or death, and
browse records covering that
time and place.
you to the records you need. And
learning about the neighbor-
hoods your family called home
can tell you about their churches,
schools, social organizations,
employers and more. You’ll add
to your ancestors’ timelines—and
ind out about more records that
could hold genealogy answers.
E
Libraries, archives, repositories—oh, my! Discover what
kinds of resources each one has at <familytreemagazine.
com/premium/library-repository-archives>.
NEBRASKA
 History Nebraska
<history.nebraska.gov>
The Nebraska State Historical Soci-
ety’s new website has many resources
for genealogists. To start, select Col-
lections, then Research & Reference,
then Research Resources & Databas-
es. This lets you search the Atlases/
Plat Books Name Index, Civil War
Veterans, Prison Records 1870-1990
and other collections.
NEVADA
Nevada State Library,
Archives and Public Records:
Digital Collections
<www.nsladigitalcollections.org>
The Nevada State Digital Archives
has more than a half-million online
records, including territorial census
records from 1861 to 1864, state land
patents from 1865 to 2013 and records
of prisoners and orphans.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
EE New Hampshire
Genealogy & History
<www.nh.searchroots.com>
This encyclopedic guide to New
Hampshire genealogy and history
includes old maps, photographs and
local histories. The site map is a great
starting point to what’s here.
 University of
New Hampshire Library
<archive.org/details/University_
of_New_Hampshire_Library>
The University of New Hamp-
shire Library has posted many New
Hampshire town histories and fami-
ly Bibles at the Internet Archive web-
site, where you can read them all for
free. To search just this collection,
type your terms in the search box on
the left. Select Text Contents to do a
full text search.
24 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E
NEW JERSEY
EE New Jersey State Archives
<nj.gov/state/archives/search.html>
In the center of the home page, click
on Searchable Databases and Records
Request Forms to access indexes to
marriage records from 1666 to 1799
and 1848 to 1878, and indexes to
death records from 1848 to 1897. The
searches cover more than a million
references to documents and photos.
NEW MEXICO
New Mexico Digital Collections
<econtent.unm.edu>
This site, hosted by the University
of New Mexico Libraries, gives you
access to digitized manuscripts,
including handwritten genealogies,
as well as photographs, oral histories
and maps from New Mexico librar-
ies and museums. The Newspapers
Database tells where copies are avail-
able and includes links to digitized
versions of some titles.
NEW YORK
EE German Genealogy Group
<www.germangenealogygroup.com>
and Italian Genealogical Group
<www.italiangen.org>
We put these two sites together
because the coordinated eforts
of their volunteers let you search
indexes to births, marriages, deaths,
naturalizations and church records
(including those for non-German and
non-Italian ancestors) in New York
City and Long Island.
tip
State archives and libraries are full of genealogy
resources, some not available anywhere else. Pay a
visit to the archives and library websites for every
state where your family lived—whether or not
those sites are listed here.
D E CE M B E R 2 018
EE New York Heritage
Digital Collections
<www.nyheritage.org>
The Empire State Library Network
brings you this collection of books,
newspapers, photographs, letters,
diaries, directories and maps from
more than 250 historical institutions.
You’ll find many family Bible records,
diaries and cemetery records.
EE Old Fulton NY Post Cards
<fultonhistory.com>
Despite the name, Thomas Tryniski’s
website has digitized newspapers
from all over New York, plus some
from other states and Canada. Search
for a word or phrase anywhere in
more than 43 million pages (that’s an
addition of 4 million pages since last
year) from 1795 to 2007.
NORTH CAROLINA
EE DigitalNC
<www.digitalnc.org>
With contributions from cultural
heritage institutions across the state,
this site—not just a top state geneal-
ogy site, but also one of our 101 Best
Websites overall—has digitized news-
papers, yearbooks, photographs, city
directories, genealogies, yearbooks
and more.
EE North Carolina
Digital Collections
<digital.ncdcr.gov>
A joint project of the Tar Heel State’s
archives and its state library, this site
has digitized Confederate pension
applications, naturalization records,
Bible records and newspapers back
to 1752. The Family Records collec-
tion groups together the most useful
records for family history.
NORTH DAKOTA
EE Digital Horizons
<digitalhorizonsonline.org>
Town and county histories, photos
of homesteaders and oral interviews
conducted with Germans from Russia
are just a few of this site’s treasures
depicting life on the Northern Plains.
OHIO
EE Ohio Memory
<www.ohiomemory.org>
A collaborative project of the Ohio
History Connection (the Buckeye
State archives) and the State Library
of Ohio, this collection includes items
from more than 360 cultural heritage
institutions. You’ll find yearbooks,
county atlases, photos of Civil War
oicers, more than 415,000 newspa-
per pages (that’s 100,000 more than
last year) and much more.
OKLAHOMA
The University of Oklahoma
Western History Collections
<digital.libraries.ou.edu/
homehistory.php>
Key collections on this site include
Civil War soldiers’ personal narra-
tives, oral interviews with Oklaho-
mans from the 1930s, and more than
200 manuscript collections about
American Indians.
OREGON
Archival Records: Guides,
Records and Indexes
<sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/
records.aspx>
An area’s early arrivals can be hard
to trace, but this site’s Early Orego-
nians Database helps you document
your pre-statehood Oregon pioneers.
The Historical County Records Guide
includes county maps, histories and
record inventories. The Oregon His-
torical Records Index lists 600,000
names from county records, includ-
ing birth, marriage, death, divorce,
naturalization and probate records.
PENNSYLVANIA
State Library of Pennsylvania
<www.statelibrary.pa.gov/
GeneralPublic/Collections>
Click on Digital Collections to search
the Pennsylvania Genealogy Col-
lection, historical newspapers and
Civil War regimental histories. To
search the genealogy, local newspa-
per, Pennsylvania history and year-
book collections, click on POWER
Library> PA Photos and Documents.
RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Historical
Cemetery Commission
<www.rihistoriccemeteries.org>
More than just an index to grave-
stones, this site includes dates of birth
and death, names of family members
and maps. Many entries include
detailed descriptions and photos of
the gravestones.
SOUTH CAROLINA
EE South Carolina Department
of Archives and History
<archives.sc.gov>
Choose Research and Genealogy,
then Online Records Index to search
more than 300,000 items (many with
images), including Confederate sol-
diers’ home and pension applications
(1909 to 1973), criminal court records,
state land-grant plats, legislative
papers, will transcripts (1782 to 1855)
and even 2,662 school insurance pho-
tos (1935 to 1952). New here are 11,170
Revolutionary War claim documents.
To search them, click on the box to
“Show advanced search functions.”
Select “Combined Index to Records
Series, 1675-1929” as the record group
and “S108092: Accounts Audited of
Claims Growing Out of the Revolu-
tion” as the Series, then enter one or
two names in the Individual boxes.
South Carolina Digital Library
<scmemory.org>
This collection of 200,000 items
from 40 cultural heritage institutions
across the state includes handwritten
family histories, high-school year-
books, oral histories, photographs
and family Bible records.
SOUTH DAKOTA
EE South Dakota State
Historical Society
<history.sd.gov/archives/
genealogists.aspx>
Find your ancestors in the Mount
Rushmore State with the help of these
indexes to naturalization papers,
cemetery records and biographies;
a transcription of the 1885 census of
Civil War veterans; and more. Click
on Digital Archives to search old pho-
tographs, manuscripts and land sur-
vey records.
TENNESSEE
Tennessee Virtual Archive
<teva.contentdm.oclc.org>
The Tennessee State Library and
Archives has digitized historical
records, photographs, documents,
maps and other items to create this
online collection. You’ll find Civil
War records and soldiers’ photo-
graphs, family histories, family Bibles
and diaries.
Volunteer Voices
<digital.lib.utk.edu/
collections/volvoices>
This site, a statewide efort by Ten-
nessee historical organizations, has
digitized photos, letters, diaries, oral
histories and artifacts in archives,
libraries and museums across the
family t re e magaz ine.com 25

state. You’ll find many Civil War-
related items, including letters from
soldiers, photographs of veterans and
pictures of relics.
TEXAS
EE The Portal to Texas History
<texashistory.unt.edu>
Libraries, archives, historical societ-
ies and genealogical societies from
across the state have contributed
digitized books, maps and photos
for this site. You’ll find college year-
books, church records, county histo-
ries and newspapers dating from 1813
to recent years.
UTAH
EE Utah State Archives
Name Indexes
<archives.utah.gov/research/indexes>
The state archives created this con-
venient list of online records search-
able by name. In addition to images
of death certificates from 1904 to
1967 and birth certificates from 1905
to 1909, you can browse birth cer-
tificates from 1910 to 1915 and search
birth registers and other records
from several counties.
EE Utah State Cemeteries
and Burials Database
<heritage.utah.gov/
history/cemeteries>
This database contains cemetery
records for about 600,000 people
who are buried in Utah. More buri-
als are always being added, with
information coming from both sex-
ton’s records and gravestones. To
do a search, look under Cemeteries
& Burials and click on the link for
Search (don’t use the search box at
the upper right of the screen).
VERMONT
Vermont Historical Society
<vermonthistory.org>
Under the Research tab, select Gene-
alogy and then Genealogy Indexes
& Lists for links to PDF files with
26 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E
indexes and transcriptions of various
records, including baptisms, mar-
riages, deaths, naturalizations and
town records.
VIRGINIA
EE Library of Virginia
<www.lva.virginia.gov>
Among the many useful indexes and
digitized documents on this site,
don’t overlook the index to wills and
administrations up to 1800 at <www.
lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/opac/
willsabout.htm>. The library has a
separate site for its digitized materi-
als at Virginia Memory <www.virginia
memory.com>. Select Collections by
Topic from the Digital Collections
tab. Under Military Service you’ll
find Revolutionary War records and
Confederate pension rolls. Under
Land Oice Patents & Grants you’ll
find digitized records back to the
17th century.
WASHINGTON
EE Washington Rural Heritage
<wrh.statelib.lib.wa.us/cdm>
Drawing on the collections of Wash-
ington’s small, rural libraries and
historical societies, this site has
scrapbooks, oral interviews, old pho-
tographs and more.
EE Washington State Archives:
Digital Archives
<digitalarchives.wa.gov>
This terrific site has more than 71 mil-
lion searchable records online (five
million more than last year), includ-
ing birth, marriage, death, census,
cemetery and naturalization records.
WEST VIRGINIA
EE West Virginia
Archives and History
<www.wvculture.org/history/
archivesindex.aspx>
Vital records databases here include
digitized birth records from 1790 to
1942, marriage records from 1780 to
1971, and death records from 1753 to
D E CE M B E R 2 018
in the shop
Find guides, books
and webinars to help
in your US research at
<familytreemagazine.
com/store/us-state-
genealogy-guides>.
1967. Scroll down to Explore Archives
and History and click the West Vir-
ginia Memory Project link for index-
es to Civil War records.
WISCONSIN
EE Recollection Wisconsin
<recollectionwisconsin.org>
Historical resources from librar-
ies, archives and historical societies
across the state include county his-
tories, diaries, genealogies, letters,
local history, manuscripts, marriage
records, newspapers, oral histories,
photographs, plat maps and year-
books. Select Genealogy Resources
from the Explore menu for help
searching.
EE Wisconsin Historical Society
<www.wisconsinhistory.org/
genealogy>
This search covers more than 3 mil-
lion records, including indexes to
birth, marriage and death records,
plus obituaries, biographies and pho-
tos. Scroll down the page for links
to other resources, including Civil
War records and local history and
biography articles. This site ranks
among the very best state websites
for genealogy.
WYOMING
Wyoming Newspapers
<newspapers.wyo.gov>
You can search and view more than
800,000 newspaper pages here,
including all papers published in
Wyoming between 1849 and 1922.
The site even has some newspaper
titles up to 1989. 
Contributing editor Rick Crume has found
ancestors living in 23 states.
 TAKING
the HIGH
ROAD

Whether they came from the Highlands or the bonnie banks

© PETER LOURENCO/MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES

of Loch Lomond, your Scottish ancestors left behind a trail

of civil registration records in their home country.

by AMANDA EPPERSON

family t re emagaz ine.com 27

 Have Scottish roots? You’ll first need to identify your immigrant
ancestor and his network in US records—and learn when he arrived and the
name of his hometown in Scotland. But once you have that information, you can
turn your search to records in the home country. This is where you’ll discover
the people, places and events that marked your ancestor’s life in Scotland.
If your ancestor was in Scotland after 1855, start your search with statutory (or
civil) birth, marriage and death records. In this excerpt from my new book The
Family Tree Scottish Genealogy Guide <familytreemagazine.com/store/family-
tree-scottish-genealogy-guide>, we’ll explore the information contained in
these records, plus how you can acquire them from places like the Scotlands-
People Centre. Let’s take the high road to your roots.

Once you’ve identiied your

immigrant ancestor using
US records, you can turn
your search to records in
the home country.

28 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 HITTING THE RECORDS ROAD
In the 19th century, Scotland’s lack of consistent
birth records became problematic. It was diicult
for lawyers to prove inheritance cases and for
factories to show they weren’t hiring underage
employees. To remedy this, Parliament passed
the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages
(Scotland) Act in 1854. The law, which took efect
Jan. 1, 1855, made registration of births, marriag-
es and deaths free and compulsory, while leveling
fines for registering these events late.
These civil records supplemented the records
that parishes already kept, and civil registra-
tion district boundaries usually followed parish
boundaries. The earliest registrars in each dis-
trict were the session clerks who worked under
the town council. Each registration district was
assigned a number, which also was tied to the
parent parish. Having the session clerk embed-
ded in the community helped the government
ensure all events were recorded. A registrar in a
small community would’ve been aware of most
births, marriages and deaths, so his records
were more likely to be complete. Here’s what
you can expect to find in each kind of record.
 Births: By law, parents were required to
register the births of their children within 21
days in the district where the birth occurred.
SWEN_STROOP/ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
The birth register contains a host of valuable
information: name of the child; place, date and
time of birth; names of the parents; father’s
occupation; mother’s maiden name; and the
place, month and year of the parents’ marriage
(pointing you to marriage records and regis-
ters). The informant was required to sign the
registration form, potentially adding a member
of your ancestor’s network you can research.
Children with unmarried parents are marked Until 1919, statu-
as illegitimate until 1919. These entries have tory records desig-
only the mother’s name, though the father could nated the child of
be included if he and the mother appeared at the unmarried parents
same time to register the child. as “illegitimate.”
 Marriages: Historically, Scotland rec- Only the mother
ognized two kinds of marriages—regular and was named unless
irregular. Regular marriages fulfilled the stan- both parents
dard requirements for a wedding ceremony that appeared to
was performed by a minister in front of two wit- register the birth,
nesses, after the marriage banns had been read as David Hood’s did
for three consecutive Sundays in the home par- in 1868 in Riccarton
ishes of the bride and groom. Parish, Ayrshire.
Irregular marriages required no minister,
witnesses or banns. A couple simply consented
and agreed to be married. The couple still had to
provide evidence of this agreement, with at least
two witnesses if the evidence was only oral.
After 1855, couples pursuing an irregular mar-
riage had to present their evidence to the sher-
if within three months. Over time, this type
of marriage became unpopular. It was banned
in England in 1754, but remained legal in Scot-
land until 1939. You can find some surviving
registers of irregular marriages at the National
Records of Scotland <www.nrscotland.gov.uk/
files//research/irregular-border-and-scottish-
runaway-marriages.pdf>.
tip
Besides statutory registration, the Scot-
landsPeople website also has church
registers, census returns, valuation rolls
and more. Search all records at once
with a Basic Search, or use the Advanced
search to scour one collection at a time.
family t re emagaz ine.com 29
 The statutory marriage record is quite infor-
mative (see an example, opposite). It lists the
names, ages and occupations of the bride and
groom; their marital statuses (spinster, wid-
owed, etc.); the date and location of the mar-
riage; and the religious rites under which the
ceremony was performed. You’ll also find the
names of their parents with the fathers’ occu-
pations and mothers’ maiden names, the minis-
ter’s name, and the identities of two witnesses.
 Deaths: Like births, deaths were to be reg-
istered in the district where the event occurred,
preferably by an informant who was present.
Registration had to happen within eight days,
in the shop and burial couldn’t take place until a death
Get The Family Tree certificate was given to the funeral home. The
Scottish Genealogy death record (see one on page 32) includes the
Guide at <bit.ly/ deceased’s name, gender, age and occupation.
Scottish-book>.
Also recorded are the deceased’s marital sta-
tus and parents’ names, with mother’s maiden
name and father’s occupation. The name of a
spouse may be included, along with a cause of
death, which is helpful if you’re compiling a
medical family history.
Informants for death records had to sign and
identify the relationship to the deceased. This
fact is useful, as it helps you to gauge the accura-
cy of the information in the register. For exam-
ple, the deceased’s adult child is more likely to
know about the deceased than a landlord.
You can find civil registration records at two
major free-to-search websites, FamilySearch
<www.familysearch.org> and ScotlandsPeople
<www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk>. Both require
you to register with the site. For the former
option, you’ll need to either visit a local Family-
Search Center (keep reading for details) or do
some legwork to find microfilmed records. At
ScotlandsPeople, you can pay to view original
records. It’s the only resource that gives you
access to the statutory death records.
FINDING RECORDS AT FAMILYSEARCH
To view this site’s digitized collection of Scot-
tish births, marriages and deaths <www.family
search.org/search/catalog/79310>, you must
use the computers at a FamilySearch Center
(find one near you at <www.familysearch.org/
locations>). The collection has record images for
select years—1855 to 1875, 1881 and 1891—as well
as indexes for 1855 to 1956. These indexes were
handwritten from 1855 to 1865 and printed from

Scottish Online Civil Records at a Glance

FamilySearch ScotlandsPeople Ancestry Findmypast
<www.familysearch.org> <www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk> <ancestry.com> <www.indmypast.com>
Indexes access from home (IGI  births, 1855-2016  births, 1564-1950  births, 1564-1950
data, no RD* info):  marriages, 1855-2016  marriages,  marriages, 1561-1910
 births, 1564-1950  deaths, 1855-2016 1561-1910 (no RD info)
 marriages, 1561-1910 (includes RD info) (no RD info)
access at FamilySearch
Center (no RD info):
 births, 1855-1956
*RD: registration district
 marriages, 1855-1956

Register access at FamilySearch  births, 1855-1917 n/a n/a

images Center:  marriages, 1855-1942
 births, 1855-1875,  deaths, 1855-1965
1881, 1891
 marriages, 1855-1875,
1881, 1891
Register n/a  births, after 1917 n/a n/a
extracts  marriages, after 1942
 deaths, after 1965
Cost none (free site registration  register image: 6 credits, at $34.99/month or $14.95/month or $129/
required) $13.75 for 40 credits $149/six months World year Essential British &
 certiicates: about $15.50 Explorer subscription Irish subscription

30 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
1866 onward. Recordkeepers indexed males
and females separately (even if bound in the
same volume), so you’ll need to look in diferent
sections to find the same family, and cross-
reference the bride and groom in marriage
records. Index data include:
 Birth and baptism: child’s name, date and
place of birth, gender and names of parents
 Marriage: names of the couple and the date
and place of marriage
If you’re searching the FamilySearch web-
site from home (or you subscribe to Ancestry
<ancestry.com> or Findmypast <www.find
mypast.com>), you can access two index-only
collections of Scottish registrations: Scotland
Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, and Scotland
Marriages, 1561-1910. These indexes include
information that other researchers have sub-
mitted to the International Genealogical Index
(IGI). FamilySearch cautions that the data may
not be complete, and you should verify any
claims by searching original records.
Neither index—the digitized printed version
or the IGI data you can search from home—gives
the registration district number or the entry
number. These are crucial details for accessing
the actual record. Many FamilySearch citations
refer to microfilm No. 6035516, the Register of
Births, Marriages and Deaths of Scotland <www.
familysearch.org/search/catalog/593463>. This
publication can help you identify the registra-
tion district number for the event location and
the years held by FamilySearch. This source
isn’t yet available digitally. But if you can access
it on microfilm at the Family History Library in The 1891 statutory
Salt Lake City, look up your parish/registration marriage record for
district on the alphabetical list, then find the David Hood and
county and years you need. Identify the roll of Elizabeth Hodge
microfilm that covers that place and time peri- Angus gives the
od, then search for this microfilm number in the marriage place,
FamilySearch online catalog. name of oiciant,
Find a PDF guide to registration districts bride’s and groom’s
from the National Records of Scotland at <www. places of residence
nrscotland.gov.uk /f iles//research/statutor y- and occupations,
registers/registration-district-guide.pdf>. It has plus the names of
an alphabetical listing of parishes, the county, witnesses and the
years of coverage, and the “old” and current couple’s parents.
registration district numbers (you’ll likely need
only the old one).
Once you know the registration district num-
ber and year you need, visit the FamilySearch
catalog’s Scotland, Civil Registration page
<www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/79310>
to identify the right microfilm amongst the more
than 4,200 rolls. At the top of the page is an
alphabetical listing of the parishes or districts
and their corresponding numbers. Scroll down
to the listing of microfilm rolls by birth, then
marriages, then deaths. If you’re in a Family-
Search Center, click the camera icon to access
the records. (At home, write down the microfilm
number, so you can easily search the catalog for
it next time you’re at a FamilySearch Center.)
E
What’s a clan—and do you have one? Get
answers on this important aspect of Scottish
identity at <familytreemagazine.com/premium/
scottish-clans>.
family t re emagaz ine.com 31
Martha Clark’s MEETING SCOTLANDSPEOPLE
April 4, 1913, death ScotlandsPeople is a government website oper-
record names her ated by National Records of Scotland. The site’s
neighbor as the Statutory Registration collection has indexes
informant. The and record images (or extracts, for more-recent
record also gives records) from 1855 through 2016. Viewing index
the names of her information is free, but you must purchase
husband and par- credits to see record images. Credits cost £7.50
ents, as well as the (about $10.50) for 30, or £10 (about $13.75) for
time, place, cause 40. Unused credits expire in two years unless
and date of death. you buy more (see <www.scotlandspeople.gov.
uk/content/our-charges> for details). You’ll
pay separately for birth, marriage, death and
divorce certificates; see <www.scotlandspeople.
gov.uk/certificate-search>.
Access statutory registers on Scotlands-
People from the Advanced Search page <www.
scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search>. The
birth index includes the name of the child, gen-
der and birth year. Note that parents’ names
aren’t indexed here, so if you can’t determine
whether a birth record is your ancestor’s, run
the same search at FamilySearch, where results
include the name of the child’s parents.
You’ll also get the registration district name
(RD), and a reference number. The reference
number is the district number, plus the entry
number. For example, John MacDonald died in
1889 in Moy, and his record has the reference
number 105/4. You would then look for regis-
tration district 105 for the year 1889, and John
MacDonald would be the fourth entry. A refer-
ence with more numbers indicates that the reg-
istration district has been split. For example, the
Riccarton registration district was No. 611. In
1887 it was divided into two: Riccarton, 611/1;
and Hurlford, 611/2.
32 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
The marriage index shows the names of the
couple, their year of marriage, the RD and the
reference number. Your search results for death
records show the name of the deceased, age at
death, year of death, registration district and
reference number. A married woman should be
indexed under both her birth name and married
names. If she married more than once, however,
she may not be indexed under all her married
names. This double (or even more) indexing
should help you locate your female ancestors
in either the ScotlandsPeople database or the
printed indexes at FamilySearch. Some entries
include the maiden name of the deceased’s
mother, which can help you verify you have the
right record.
Once you’ve found the index entry you want,
look for a blue box with the number of credits
needed to view the original register (six credits,
about $3). Downloaded images of original regis-
ters include citation information.
For records that fall under privacy restrictions
of 100 years for births, 75 years for marriages, or
50 years for deaths, the download link directs
you to order a certificate of extracted informa-
tion from the register (also available via the Cer-
tificate Search page <www.scotlandspeople.gov.
uk/certificate-search>). These cost £12; about
$15.50. You also can order certificates for ear-
lier records, but you’ll want to view the original
register whenever possible. Now, with your rel-
atives’ statutory records in hand, you’re on the
high road to your Scottish ancestry. 
Scottish genealogy expert Amanda Epperson is the
author of The Family Tree Scottish Genealogy Guide, avail-
able from Family Tree Books at <bit.ly/Scottish-book>.
 STATE GUIDE
ALABAMA
by DAVID A. FRYXELL

IT’S HARD TO imagine Alabama was ever the US frontier. and 1816. Look for an index to these territorial censuses
But as Colonial America itched to expand, this was the on subscription site Ancestry <ancestry.com>. Alabama’s
“Old Southwest”: a rough country of pioneers, Indians and rapid growth led to its territory status in 1817 and then to
cheap land for those willing to pull up stakes from more- statehood in 1819.
civilized places such as Virginia and the Carolinas. From Parts of the 1820 and all subsequent federal censuses
1810 to 1820, “Alabama fever” took the population from survive for Alabama; search these on Ancestry or Family-
9,000 to 144,000. “There is no question that this fever is Search. ADAH has originals of several state censuses. Find
contagious,” warned a North Carolina congressman in indexes to the 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866 state head counts
1817, “for as soon as one neighbor visits another who has at Ancestry, and 1855 and 1866 at FamilySearch. Voter reg-
just returned from Alabama he immediately discovers the istrations for 1867 (which include black Alabamians) are
same symptoms which are exhibited by the one who has indexed at <archives.state.al.us/voterreg/search.cfm>.
seen alluring Alabama.” As Alabama’s population grew, its native peoples got
Others had previously discovered “alluring Alabama,” pushed out. After a succession of treaties and land grabs,
of course. The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek most Alabama Indians were forced in the 1830s to migrate
tribes were already there when the French established to land that’s now Oklahoma, along what’s called the Trail
the first permanent white settlement in 1702, near today’s of Tears. If you have American Indian ancestors, the FHL
Mobile. Over the next century, Alabama would be variously has microfilm of several censuses of these tribes, includ-
claimed by France, England, Spain and ing 1831 Choctaw, 1832 Creeks, and
neighboring Georgia. In 1798, Con- FAST FACTS 1835 and 1851 Cherokee. Digitization
gress created Mississippi Territory, is ongoing, so check the free Family-
which included what’s now Alabama  Statehood: 1819 Search website to see whether the cen-
along with Mississippi and Tennessee.  First federal census: sus you need is online. You’ll also want
1830 to check the National Archives Bureau
CENSUS RECORDS  Statewide birth and death of Indian Afairs records for Okla-
Colonial censuses of French settle- records begin: 1908 homa <archives.gov/research/native-
ments taken in 1706, 1721 and 1725 americans/bia-guide/oklahoma.html>
were published in the Deep South
 Statewide marriage records
and the Oklahoma Historical Society’s
begin: 1936
Genealogical Quarterly (volume 1, American Indian Archives <www.
issues 1, 2 and 3), available at the Fami-  Public-land state okhistory.org/research/indianarchive>.
ly History Library <www.familysearch.  Counties: 67
org> (FHL) and other large genealogi- COUNTY AND LAND RECORDS
cal libraries. Spain also took several
 Contact for vital records:
What really triggered “Alabama fever”
Alabama Center for Health
censuses of Mobile, available through Statistics, Box 5625, was the establishment of the first of 13
the FHL. The library also has various Montgomery, AL 36103, federal land oices in 1804. You can
censuses from the Mississippi territo- (334) 206-5418, <alabama trace how your ancestors gobbled up
rial period: 1801 and 1808 (Washington publichealth.gov/vitalrecords> Alabama land through the Bureau of
County), 1809 (Madison County), 1810 Land Management’s General Land

family t re emagaz ine.com 33

 ALABAMA
T EN N E SSEE
Pickwick
Lake Lauderdale Limestone
Wilson Lake
Florence Athens
Madison Jackson
Sheffield Wheeler
Muscle Shoals Lake
Madison Huntsville
Colbert Scottsboro

Decatur Ten Guntersville

nes Lake
see
Hartselle R Fort Payne
Franklin Lawrence
Morgan Marshall Dekalb
Albertville
Cullman
Marion Cullman
Winston Lewis Smith Lake
Etowah
Gadsden Cherokee
Blount
Jasper
Calhoun
Jacksonville
Lamar Fayette Walker Saint Clair Cleburne
Jefferson Anniston
Trussville
Pell City Oxford
Birmingham Leeds
Fairfield Mountain Brook Talladega
Hueytown Vestavia Hills
Tuscaloosa Bessemer
Hoover
Talladega

Pickens Pelham
Clay
Northport Alabaster Randolph
Tuscaloosa Sylacauga
Shelby
Bibb Tallapoosa
Alexander City
Greene Martin Lake Chambers
Coosa
Hale Chilton
Perry Opelika
Elmore Auburn
Autauga Lee
Sumter Millbrook
Prattville Tuskegee Phenix City
Selma

Dallas Alabama R.
Macon
Montgomery Russell
Marengo
Montgomery
Choctaw Lowndes Bullock
R.
igbee

Wilcox Eufaula
Barbour
Tomb

Pike
Troy Walter F. George Res.
Butler Crenshaw
Clarke G EO RG IA
M ISSISSIPPI

Monroe
ochee R.

Coffee Dale Henry

.
aR

Washington Ozark
Chattaho
bam

Conecuh
Ala

Enterprise
Dothan
Escambia Covington
Geneva Houston
Baldwin
Mobile
FLO R IDA
Saraland
Prichard
Mobile
Daphne
Fairhope

t i mel i ne
1721 1802 1813-1814 1835 1846 1861
The Africane Georgia abandons Andrew Jackson Treaty of New Montgomery Alabama
arrives in Mobile its claims to is a prominent Echota leads to becomes the secedes from
harbor with more Alabama. figure in the the removal of state capital. the United States.
than 100 slaves. Creek Indian War. most Indian tribes.

34 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 ALABAMA

Between 1828 and 1965, 52 ires damaged

courthouses in 32 Alabama counties.

Oice records search <glorecords.blm.gov>; records begin are less complete for those who served the Confederacy),
in 1820. The Alabama Department of Archives and History as well as those in later wars. Search for indexes and digi-
(ADAH) <archives.state.al.us> has 550 ledger books of fed- tized versions at FamilySearch and Ancestry, or request
eral land transactions, and the FHL has microfilmed tract photocopies following the instructions at <archives.gov/
books—many browseable on FamilySearch—from 1785 to veterans>. Search indexes to both Confederate and Union
1935. For more on Alabama land records, see <alabama service records at FamilySearch.
genealogy.org/land>. Ancestry and Fold3 have digitized Confederate pensions
Alabama’s first seven counties, all originally part and Civil War muster rolls, and the ADAH and FHL have
of Mississippi Territory, were Washington, Madi- microfilmed versions. ADAH also has incomplete statewide
son, Baldwin, Clarke, Mobile, Monroe and Montgom- censuses of Confederate veterans in 1907, 1921 and 1927;
ery. Another 17 counties were established in 1818, and 11
more came from Creek Indian land in 1832. This began
a long and confusing habit of redrawing the state’s STATE HISTORY HIGHLIGHT
boundary lines and renaming counties, which compli-
cates figuring out which county your ancestor’s records
were created in. To sort it all out, see the county forma-
tion information at <www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/
Alabama_County_Creation_Dates_and_Parent_Counties>.
Another challenge of researching genealogy in Ala-
bama’s counties is the tendency for their courthouses to
catch fire. Between 1828 and 1965, 52 fires damaged court-
houses in 32 counties. To see whether your ancestor’s
records may have gone up in smoke and to look for addi-
tional sources of local records, visit <archives.state.al.us/
localrecords/search.cfm>.
 In 1806, Congress appropriated $6,400 to build the
CIVIL WAR AND OTHER MILITARY RECORDS Federal Road through Creek territory in Alabama.
Many of Alabama’s early arrivals were Revolutionary  The 4-foot-wide, 1,100-mile postal road was a major
MONIQUERODRIGUEZ/ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

War veterans. To learn whether your ancestor was among
them, try ADAH’s free online soldier database <archives.
state.al.us/al_sldrs/~start.html>.
The Civil War remained a vivid memory for Alabam-
ians, many of whom referred to it as “the War Between
the States.” The war produced as many records as it did
memories. Search for Alabama Confederates in ADAH’s
database of service cards <archives.state.al.us/civilwar/
index.cfm>. The National Archives has compiled military
service records of soldiers in the Civil War (though records
thoroughfare for the western migration of settlers
and slaves into the Old Southwest.
 In 1811, as tensions with Great Britain escalated, the
United States widened the path to 16 feet across,
capable of carrying wagons and soldiers.
 Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins reported that 3,726
Federal Road travelers went West past his agency
between October 1811 and March 1812. The traffic
contributed to the Creek War of 1813.

1868 1871 1881 1955 1961 1974

Alabama rejoins Birmingham is Booker T. Rosa Parks stays Monroeville’s “Sweet Home
the Union. founded at the Washington in her seat, Harper Lee wins Alabama” by
crossing of two is the first sparking the the Pulitzer Lynyrd Skynyrd
rail lines. superintendent Montgomery Prize for To Kill a reaches No. 8 on
of the new bus boycott. Mockingbird. Billboard charts.
Tuskegee Institute.

family t re emagaz ine.com 35

 ALABAMA
TOOLKIT
Websites
1835 Cherokee East of the Mississippi Census
<accessgenealogy.com/native/
1835-henderson-roll.htm>
Alabama Genealogy <alabamagenealogy.org>
Alabama USGenWeb Project
<usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm>
Alabama Pioneers <www.alabamapioneers.com>
Black Families of Alabama’s Black Belt
<www.prairiebluff.com/blackbelt>
Encyclopedia of Alabama <encyclopediaofalabama.org>
Publications
Alabama: The History of a Deep South State
by William Warren Rogers Sr., Leah Rawls Atkins et al.
(University of Alabama Press)
Early Settlers of Alabama: With Notes & Genealogies,
Parts 1 & 2 by James Edmonds Saunders (BiblioLife)
Researching African American Genealogy in Alabama
by Frazine Taylor (NewSouth Books)
Tracing Your Alabama Past by Robert Scott Davis
(University Press of Mississippi)
Archives & Organizations
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Box 300100, 624 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL
36130, (334) 242-4435, <archives.state.al.us>
Alabama Genealogical Society
Samford University Library, 800 Lakeshore Drive,
Birmingham, AL 35229, <algensoc.org>
Alabama Indian Affairs Commission
771 S. Lawrence St., Suite 106, Montgomery, AL 36130,
(334) 240-0998, <aiac.state.al.us>
Birmingham Public Library
2100 Park Place, Birmingham, AL 35203,
(205) 226-3600, <www.bham.lib.al.us>
Mobile Public Library Local History and Genealogy
753 Government St., Mobile, AL 36602, (251) 208-7093,
<mplonline.org/lhg.htm>
National Archives at Atlanta
5780 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260,
(770) 968-2100, <archives.gov/atlanta>
36 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
the first two are indexed at Ancestry. Learn more about
Alabama Civil War resources at <www.familysearch.org/
wiki/en/Alabama_in_the_Civil_War>.
The end of the Civil War represents a new beginning for
researchers of African-American ancestors. Search Freed-
men’s Bureau records, which document labor contracts
with freedmen, rations, eforts to reunite families, mar-
riages during slavery, and more, at FamilySearch. Alabama
had two branches of the Freedman’s Saving and Trust Co.
(Huntsville and Mobile). Find records online at Family-
Search, HeritageQuest Online and Ancestry. ADAH has a
guide to African-American records at <archives.alabama.
gov/research/ADAH-researchroom-AFAmgenealogy.pdf>.
VITAL RECORDS
Like many Southern states, Alabama adopted statewide
registration of vital records relatively late. Counties were
required to record births and deaths beginning in 1881.
State-level registration began in 1908, though full com-
pliance happened only about 1925 for deaths and 1927
for births. The Center for Health Statistics keeps these
records, but they’re subject to a privacy period of 125 years
for births and 25 years for deaths. Only immediate family
can order restricted birth certificates; grandchildren can
also order death certificates. Death records and index-
es covering 1908 to 1972, and birth records and indexes
covering 1881 to 1930, are available on FamilySearch.
Most counties began keeping marriage records within 10
years of their creation. Request pre-1936 records from county
probate oices and later ones from the Center for Health Sta-
tistics. These aren’t restricted. Marriage records from 1809
to 1930 are also available on FamilySearch and Ancestry.
Search for Alabama newspapers in the ADAH collec-
tions at <archives.state.al.us/newsmicro/search.cfm> (on
microfilm) and <archives.state.al.us/newshard/search.cfm>
(in hard copy). Useful obituary directories are at <usgw
archives.net/obits/al/obitsal.htm> and <ancestorhunt.com/
alabama_newspaper_obituaries.htm>. Search online obit-
uary indexes at Ancestry and <bpldb.bplonline.org/db/
obituaries> (for Birmingham papers).
Many Alabama tombstones have been transcribed as
far back as the early 1800s. Find the transcriptions in a
44-microfilm collection of Daughters of the American
Revolution <dar.org> records and in the book series Ala-
bama Records by Pauline Jones Gandrud, both at the FHL
and other major libraries. Alabama Records also has vital,
probate, church, Bible, tax and other records. Find a cem-
eteries guide at <raogk.org/cemetery-records/alabama>.
Despite its burned courthouses and other genealogical
glitches, Alabama rewards the persistent researcher with a
wealth of lively history. Before long, you may find yourself
catching “Alabama fever,” too. 
 STATE GUIDE
OREGON
by DIANE HADDAD

A LIT TLE MORE THAN 200 YEARS AGO , America’s most couples. Then, under the federal government’s Donation
famous explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Land Claim Act of 1850, citizens received real estate if they
led their Corps of Discovery to the place we now call Ore- agreed to live on and farm it for four years. The Homestead
gon. The land was sparsely inhabited by American Indians Act of 1862 added a $34 filing fee and a five-year residency
and a handful of European fur traders. Then the floodgates requirement with an option to purchase the property after
opened. Starting in the 1840s, at least 80,000—and some six months’ residence.
historians say it’s more like 200,000—hardy souls trekked Land claim records may provide the filer’s birth, mar-
the Oregon Trail looking for land, gold and opportunity riage, citizenship and migration details. The Genealogical
in the Beaver State. Most of the migrants ended up in its Forum of Oregon has online indexes to donation and pro-
northwestern corner, where the Willamette (pronounced visional land claims, linked at <gfo.org/resources/indexes/
“Wuh-LAM-et”) Valley’s fertile soil and mild climate all-indexes.html>. Microfilmed donation land claims are
nourished crops and cattle. at the National Archives and Records Administration’s
Settlers’ 1843 meetings to deal with wolves resulted (NARA) Pacific Region facility <archives.gov/seattle> in
in their first provisional government, and they received Seattle and the Family History Library (FHL) <www.family
oicial-territory status five years later. In 1859, when Con- search.org> in Salt Lake City (check the FHL online cata-
gress made Oregon the 33rd state, fewer than 1,500 of the log for Oregon and Washington Donation Land Files, 1851-
53,000 white residents lived in the arid region east of the 1903). Find earlier provisional land claims at the FHL and
Cascade Mountains. the state archives.
Americans still beat a path to Ore- The General Land Oice distrib-
gon, but the state remains mostly FAST FACTS uted the remaining land, and has
rural, with Portland and Eugene/  Statehood: 1859 searchable patents at <glorecords.blm.
Springfield as its largest cities. Before gov>. You can order copies of applica-
you embark on your research, arm
 First federal census:
tions for land, called land entry case
1850
yourself with Connie Lenzen’s Oregon files, from NARA; see <archives.gov/
Guide to Genealogical Sources (Genea-  Statewide birth and death research/land>. Land sales between
records begin: 1903
logical Forum of Oregon). Then visit private citizens were documented at
the state archives’ Archival Records  Statewide marriage records county courthouses; some records are
web page <sos.oregon.gov/archives/ begin: 1906 on FHL microfilm and FamilySearch.
Pages/records.aspx> to see available  Public-land state
records and search the Oregon Histori- RECORDS OF EARLY PIONEERS
cal Records Index. This database lists  Counties: 36
Your 19th-century Oregon ancestors
matching records such as vital records,  Contact for vital records: may be on record in a pioneer file. The
county probates and censuses. Center for Health Statistics, Oregon Genealogical Society, Oregon
Box 14050, Portland, OR 97293, Historical Society (OHS) and Genea-
(971) 673-1190, <oregon.gov/
LAND RECORDS logical Forum of Oregon (GFO) keep
oha/ph/birthdeathcertificates>
In 1843, Oregon’s provisional govern- registers of pre-1900 settlers and their
ment began giving free land to married descendants; see the Toolkit box for

family t re emagaz ine.com 37

 OREGON

Clatsop Columbia WA SHIN G TO N .

nde R
Hermiston de Ro
a R. Umatilla Gran

Washington
Hillsboro P rtland Troutdale
Hood River Pendleton
Wallowa
City of
Forest Grove
Beaver on Gresham Multnomah the Dalles
Tillamook Yamhill T r
Milwaukie Morrow
L k Oswego
Tualatin Oregon City Gilliam
Newberg La Grande
Canby
McMinnville Woodburn
Union
Wasco
Keizer Clackamas
Dallas
Pacif ic Ocean

Polk Salem R.
Marion John Day

Baker
Lincoln Linn Jefferson Wheeler Grant

IDAH O
Corvallis Albany
ebanon
John Day R.
Benton
Redmond Crook
ringfield
.

Bend
tes R

Ontario
Eugene
chu
Des

R.
Deschutes

ur
lhe
Lane

Ma
Umpqua R.
Oxbow Res.

Douglas Malheur
Coos Bay
Malheur L.
Coos Roseburg
Klamath Lake
R.

Harney
ue
Rog

Ow
yhe
e R.
ue R.
Rog
Agency L.
Jackson
Grants Pass
Josephine Sprague R.
Central Point Upper Klamath L.
Curry Medford
Klamath Falls
Ashland
Goose L.

C ALIFO R NIA NE VADA

t i mel i ne
1765 1805 1811 1837 1846 1853
British Maj. Robert Lewis and Clark John Jacob Astor’s Oregon settlers The United States Oregon and Wash-
Rogers uses the Expedition mem- Pacific Fur Co. sets form their first and Great Britain ington territories
term Ouragon in bers set up their up trading posts cooperative ven- divide Oregon are separated.
a proposal to winter camp at along the lower ture, the Willamette Country at the
explore west of the Fort Clatsop. Columbia River. Cattle Co. 49th parallel.
Mississippi River.

38 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 OREGON

Starting in the 1840s, at least 80,000 hardy souls

trekked the Oregon Trail to the Beaver State.

web addresses. The Early Oregonians database includes
residents before 1860 (link to it from <sos.oregon.gov/
archives/Pages/db-early-oregonians.aspx>). Oregon Trail
history and wagon train lists, diaries and biographies are
accessible from the Oregon-California Trails Association
<octa-trails.org>.
.
ke R
<www.findmypast.com>. State censuses, taken every 10
years from 1865 to 1905, only partially survived: Check
<sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/records/aids-census_osa.
aspx> for enumerated counties (a few are indexed there).
MILITARY RECORDS
Oregon’s legislature formed the state’s first organized

VITAL RECORDS militia in 1847 to defend against attacking Cayuse Indians.

Sna

Oregon began statewide recording of births and deaths Visit the state archives for early service records from the
in 1903, marriages in 1906 and divorces in 1925. The city Indian Wars with the Cayuse (1847 to 1850), Rogue River
of Portland, however, kept birth and death records as (1855 to 1856), Modoc (1872 to 1873), Bannock (1878) and
early as 1862, and various records are available for births Umatilla (1878) tribes.
throughout the state from 1842 to 1903. Birth records have
a 100-year access restriction; marriage and death records
are restricted for 50 years. Accessible records are on FHL STATE HISTORY HIGHLIGHT
microfilm and at the state archives, and most are included
in the Oregon Historical Records Index. Find a list of all
available vital records from the state archives at <sos.ore
gon.gov/archives/Pages/records/aids-vital_listings.aspx>.
You can browse various county-level vital and other
records at the free FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>
website. The Western States Marriage Record Index <abish.
byui.edu/specialcollections/westernstates/search.cfm>
lists thousands of mostly late-1800s marriage records from
17 Oregon counties. If you’re in Portland, peruse OHS’
Biography Card File of birth, marriage and death informa-
 Pendleton Woolen Mills opened as a wool scouring
plant, and in 1896, began making patterned blankets
tion from early resources, including newspapers. incorporating local Indian motifs.
ROBERT ALEXANDER/ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

STATE AND FEDERAL CENSUSES
Oregon held provisional censuses almost annually begin-
ning in 1842; generally, they list just heads of household.
The FHL has indexes to the surviving portions of these
censuses, as do OHS and the state archives. Some are on
subscription genealogy site Ancestry <ancestry.com>.
The US government first enumerated Oregon (along with
Washington) in 1850, when it was still a territory. Federal
census records are searchable on Ancestry, FamilySearch,
MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> and Findmypast
 Thanks to unrestricted grasslands and new rail lines,
Eastern Oregon sheep ranches grew from 1 million
sheep in 1880 to just more than 3 million in 1900.
 After the mill failed in 1907, the town persuaded the
Bishop brothers, whose family ran a successful mill
in Salem, to revive it. The sixth generation of
Bishops now owns the mill.
 The Bishops introduced square-cornered blankets.
Collectors especially prize the earlier, rounded-
corner Pendleton blankets.

1855 1873 1912 1973 1990 2008

Superintendent of A fire burns 22 city Led by Portland Gov. Tom McCall The spotted owl’s New Carissa, a
Indian Affairs Joel blocks in Portland. suffragist Abigail signs the country’s threatened species freighter that ran
Palmer establishes Scott Duniway, most progressive status pits environ- aground on Coos
the Grande Ronde women win the land-use law to mentalists against Bay beach in 1999,
reservation. right to vote slow urban sprawl. Oregon loggers. is finally removed.
in Oregon.

family t re emagaz ine.com 39

 OREGON

TOOLKIT
Although Oregon banned free African Americans, it also
Websites banned slavery and joined the Union just in time for the Civil
Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive War. Look for relatives in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors
<library.vancouver.wsu.edu/archive/crbeha> Database <nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.
htm>, an online index of all soldiers and African-American
Historic Oregon Newspapers
sailors. Also consult Soldiers Who Served in the Oregon Vol-
<oregonnews.uoregon.edu>
unteers, Civil War Period, Infantry and Cavalry, compiled
Northwest Digital Archives by M.A. Pekar and Edna Mingus (GFO). Find index to ser-
<archiveswest.orbiscascade.org> vice records at FamilySearch; results link to record imag-
Oregon American History and Genealogy Project es at subscription site Fold3 <fold3.com>. Union pension
<oregongenealogy.com/ahgp> indexes are at FamilySearch, Fold3 and Ancestry; request
pension applications from NARA through the Order Online
Oregon Historical Records Index system <eservices.archives.gov/orderonline>.
<genealogy.state.or.us> To find your ancestors’ records from the Spanish Ameri-
Oregon Newspaper Index can War, Mexican War and the World Wars, consult
<library.uoregon.edu/govdocs/indexing> NARA’s website <archives.gov/research/military> and the
Southern Oregon Digital Archives <soda.sou.edu> Oregon state archives’ military records research guide <sos.
oregon.gov/archives/Pages/records/aids-military.aspx>.
Also check the archives’ Oregon Historical Records
Archives & Organizations Index. It includes statewide enlistment and service
Bend Genealogical Society records (1848 to 1928), as well as Roseburg Soldier Home
Box 8254, Bend, OR 97708, (541) 317-9553, applications (1894 to 1933).
<orgenweb.org/deschutes/bend-gs>
AMERICAN INDIAN ANCESTRY
Bureau of Land Management Oregon-Washington
Oregon is rich with American Indian history. More than 40
1220 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204, (503) 808-6001,
tribes lived there before white settlement. Access Geneal-
<blm.gov/oregon-washington>
ogy has excellent information about Oregon tribes and the
City of Portland Archives state’s five reservations at <www.accessgenealogy.com/
1800 SW 6th Ave, Suite 550, Portland, OR 97201, oregon-genealogy> (look under Oregon Native American
(503) 865-4100, <portlandoregon.gov/archives> Records). The Bureau of Indian Afairs (BIA) first set up
Genealogical Forum of Oregon shop in Oregon in 1848. OHS and the state archives keep
2505 SE 11th Ave., Ste B-18, Portland, OR 97202, some BIA records, but most are at NARA headquarters
(503) 963-1932, <gfo.org> in Washington, DC. The FHL also has vital records for
several Oregon tribes.
Oregon Genealogical Society Since 1880, Indian youth from all over the Pacific
955 Oak Alley, Eugene, OR 97401, Northwest have attended the Chemawa boarding school,
(541) 345-0399, <oregongs.org> founded in Forest Grove, Ore., as the Training School
Oregon State Archives for Indian Youth (it moved to Salem in 1885). NARA has
800 Summer St. NE, Salem, OR, 97310, microfilmed Chemawa records among its BIA holdings.
(503) 373-0701, <sos.oregon.gov/archives>
... AND MORE
Oregon State Library In the last few years, many Oregon resources have become
250 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR, 97301, more accessible to faraway researchers via the internet. In
(503) 378-4243 ext. 221, <cms.oregon.gov/OSL> addition to all those resources on the state archives web-
Oregon State University Valley Library site, Oregon libraries have several digital archives, includ-
121 The Valley Library, Corvallis, OR, 97331, ing two for newspapers dating to the 1840s (see them listed
(541) 737-3331, <library.oregonstate.edu> in the Toolkit box, left). All these virtual archives aren’t
Southern Oregon Historical Society meant to dissuade you from a visit to this gorgeous state
106 N. Central Ave., Medford, OR, 97501, and its abundant archives, though. You’ll find the desti-
(541) 773-6536, <sohs.org> nation doubly tempting: Oregon is still as rich in natural
beauty as when your ancestors made it home, and it’s also
rich in information about them. 

40 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
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Are you always running out of research minutes?

Get more genealogy done in less time
with these 12 time-saving tips.
by LISA A. ALZO

42 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
So many ancestors, so little time.
Maybe your busy schedule has stopped the clock
on your ancestor search. Or you’re making little
progress because you don’t know what to do
next, and even small research tasks seem over-
whelming and laborious.
Time is on your side with these strategies for
accomplishing more research in less time. These
12 genealogy timesavers will show you how to
take advantage of technological shortcuts, orga-
nize your space and focus your search on the
most-efective ancestor-finding game plan. Fol-
low this advice and time will be on your side.
1
SET SMART GOALS.
You could be losing time right
from the start if you’re setting
unrealistic genealogy research or
writing goals—or not setting goals at all. Borrow
a concept from the business world and use the
SMART system. SMART stands for:
 Specific: Describe exactly what you want to
accomplish or what question you want to answer.
 Measurable: Break down your goal into
measureable steps or elements, with deadlines.
This might require consulting how-to guides on
the problem you’re trying to solve, such as what
records might reveal your ancestor’s village of
origin, or name his parents before oicial birth
records began.
 Attainable: Keep your goal realistic. Make
sure you can invest the time and money needed
to achieve it.
 Relevant: Be certain that achieving this
goal is important to you and will advance your
genealogy research.
 Time-bound: Give yourself a deadline for
achieving your goal.
A SMART goal keeps you from getting over-
whelmed and helps you to break down your
projects into manageable pieces. We’ll walk you
through setting a SMART family history goal on
page 44.
2
GO PAPERLESS
WHEN POSSIBLE.
Are you drowning in a sea of
papers, old photographs and other
research materials? Do you sometimes feel like a
family history hoarder? If your passion for fam-
ily history has taken over your desk and added
disorganization to your life, it’s time to reduce
some of that genealogy clutter by digitizing
documents and pictures. By developing a system
for going paperless, you’ll not only preserve pre-
cious family memories and important informa-
tion, but you’ll also open up space in your home
and save yourself time searching through bind-
ers, boxes and stacks of paperwork. Instead,
when you need a file, you’ll be able to easily find
it on your computer hard drive or in your cloud
storage space.
The startup time for going paperless can be
lengthy, depending on your collection, but it
pays of in the end. You’ll need to:
 Scan documents and photos or collect digi-
tal copies.
 Establish an organization and storage sys-
tem for your digital files that makes sense to you.
This includes a way to tag files with related sur-
names and places for easy retrieval, as well as a
way to back up your files.
 Incorporate your existing digital files into
the new system.
Many genealogists I know like Evernote
<evernote.com>, Microsoft OneNote <www.
onenote.com> or Apple Notes <www.icloud.
com/#notes> to help with making the transition
from paper to digital. Or if you use Google tools,
you might like Google Keep <keep.google.com>.
These powerful tools let you capture and save
genealogy information in one spot. In general,
you set up an account, and your account acts like
a file box. You create notes (which function as
notecards in the file box), type into them, and
attach images, PDFs, clippings from websites,
or other digitized material. You can tag notes
with names of ancestors, places, record types,
repositories, and other terms. This lets you click
on a tag to pull all the notes with that tag out of
your file box. If you put the app on your mobile
phone or tablet, you can access your notes on
that device.
For help with Evernote, see the guidebook
How to Use Evernote for Genealogy by Kerry
tip
When you’ve inished your research time
for the day, jot the next genealogy thing
you need to do on a sticky note and stick
it to your computer. It’ll be easier to hit
the ground running next time.
family t re emagaz ine.com 43
 Scott (Family Tree Books). Find in-depth history papers, notes and books to hold onto.
guidance on going paperless in Organize Your Try to carve out a genealogy workspace, even
Genealogy by Drew Smith (Family Tree Books). just a corner of a room, so you’ll have a single,
dedicated place where you can find these things.

3
OPTIMIZE YOUR Keep an in-box for papers to file, and empty it
RESEARCH SPACE. once a week. You’ll also save yourself from hav-
Even when you go digital, you’ll ing to set up and clean up your stuf every time
probably still have some family you want to research.

Work SMARTer, Not Harder

Setting SMART genealogy goals help you focus your research and form plans to
make real progress. A SMART goal also makes you accountable for your results by
establishing a way to measure your progress and giving you a deadline. Here’s an
example of a goal for a family history writing project:

SPECIFIC Now it’s your turn. Think of a research problem you’ve been working
“I will write a profile for each of my four on or a genealogy question you’re dying to answer, and write out your
grandparents.” SMART goal for solving it:

MEASURABLE Specific: ___________________________________________________

“For each profile, I will write 250 words a day for
five days, for a total of 1,250 words per profile.”
(You also could plan to write for a certain amount
of time per day, rather than setting a word count.)
ATTAINABLE
“I’ll write on my laptop at night instead of watch-
ing TV.”
RELEVANT
“Writing these profiles will help me view my
grandparents’ lives in historical context and make
it easier to show my family what I’ve discovered
about them. This will be especially meaningful to
my dad, who was young when his dad died.”
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Measurable: _______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Attainable: ________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Relevant: __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

TIMEBOUND ____________________________________________________________
“I’ll complete my four ancestor profiles by Jan. 1.”
Time-bound: ______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

44 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
4
LOG YOUR SEARCHES.
As the saying goes, you can’t know
where you’re going until you know
where you’ve been. Many gene-
alogists have some sort of “memory jogger” for
their research. This lets them easily see what
they last worked on and pick up where they left
of, or track their progress toward a research
goal. Or if they’re stopping by the library, they
can pull up a list of lookups needed.
A research log is a comprehensive list of
sources you’ve searched or plan to search. Set-
ting one up is another task that involves a little
work on the front end but saves time in the long
run. Information logged should include:
 the source name and URL or physical
location
 the purpose of each search (what you want
to find)
 the date you performed the search
 a summary of what you did or didn’t find
 the related person or family and place of
residence
 notations and source citations
 comments about your search strategies,
suggestions, questions, analyses, discrepancies
and any other helpful details you want to add
Your research log should be searchable and
sortable by diferent columns so you could,
for example, retrieve all tasks involving your
local library or searches associated with Great-
grandma Rosie. Above all, it should be porta-
ble, so you can consult it at the library or share
recent discoveries while visiting with relatives
at Cousin Louis’ wedding. An Excel or Google
sheet often ofers the most flexibility, and tem-
plates are available from the Family Tree Shop
<shopfamilytree.com>. A table in a Word doc or
notes in Evernote also can do the trick.
5
SIMPLIFY SOURCE CITATIONS.
It can be time-consuming to find
the correct format for document-
ing sources such as the Ances-
try website’s index to various states’ marriage
records, which links to FamilySearch’s online
images digitized from Genealogical Society of
Utah microfilm. Or the obituaries Grandma
clipped and saved (but didn’t notate with news-
paper names or publication dates). Or the coun-
ty history with some wrong information about
your relative.
For these situations—and even for simpler
sources—you need a file of source citation tem-
plates. That way, you’ll spend time finding the
correct citation format only once. Next time you
use that source, just search your file for the cita-
tion you’ve already created, and use it as a model
for your new citation. The first time you create
a citation for any source, copy and paste it into
a note in OneNote or a document called Source
Citation Templates. Tag notes with the website
name, title of the database or book, source type
(such as census or newspaper), and “Source
Citation Template.” If you use a spreadsheet,
include columns for these details.
Your genealogy software also may help you
format citations. If you find the feature doesn’t
quite suit your citation needs, you still may
want your own file of templates for sources you
frequently use. For formatting help, your best
reference is Evidence Explained: Citing History
Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Eliza-
beth Shown Mills (Genealogical Publishing Co.).
Follow the book’s companion Facebook page
for quick tips and common questions <www.
facebook.com/evidenceexplained>.
6
STORYBOARD YOUR
FAMILY HISTORY.
The “How do I begin?” challenge
is a common barrier for genealo-
gists who want to write their family history. But
what if you stop thinking like a genealogist and
start thinking like a writer? Creating a story-
board for your writing project not only gets you
started, it also streamlines the entire process.
And it helps you think cinematically rather than
linearly about an ancestor’s life—that is, it helps
you structure your story in a way that’s engag-
ing to readers.
A storyboard is basically a visual outline dis-
played on thumbnail images of book pages. It
puts the topics you’ll cover in order, estimates
the number of pages each topic will cover, and
shows where images and sidebars (such as boxes
with timelines or family-tree charts) will go. It
gives you a framework for what to write about,
an estimated length (which helps determine the
budget), and the images that need to be prepared.
You could list the topics you want to cover and
images you want to use, then sketch out a story-
board or use the printable templates at <www.
printablepaper.net/category/storyboard>. I have
family t re emagaz ine.com 45

A storyboard is also used PowerPoint software, with each slide
simply a sketch of representing one book page. Update your story-
your book pages board as needed throughout the project.
and what topics If you’re really serious about your writing
and images you project, invest in my favorite writing software,
want to put on Scrivener ($45 for Mac or $40 for Windows,
each page. This with a free 30-day trial). It ofers a “virtual
example, created corkboard” feature that’s perfect for plotting a
in Scrivener, is story in scenes you can move around and stitch
from a story about together. See <literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/
my grandfather. overview> for more information. I’ve created a
free Ancestor Profile template for use in Scriv-
ener, which you can download from <lisaalzo.
com/seminars/resources/scrivener>.
7
AUTOMATE ONLINE
RESEARCH.
Websites are always growing and
changing, and it can be time-con-
suming to check and re-check the same sites
for new information. You can save much of that
time by automating your searches. Here’s how:
 Post trees on all sites that give you hints
to genealogy records, especially the big ones—
Ancestry <ancestry.com>, FamilySearch <www.
familysearch.org>, Findmypast <www.find
mypast.com> and MyHeritage <www.my
heritage.com>. Have one online tree where you
focus your research eforts, and export GED-
COMs for upload elsewhere. (At FamilySearch,
instead of uploading a GEDCOM, you’ll need to
start your tree by hand with yourself. Then add
people one at a time until you get to a person
who’s already in the FamilySearch unified tree.)
When the site finds records it thinks match an
ancestor, a hint icon appears on that person’s
profile in your tree. Hints aren’t always correct,
so thoroughly investigate them before adding
records to your tree.
46 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 Set up watches and saved searches
at other sites you use. At Fold3 <fold3.com>,
you can “watch” a search to be notified of new
matches, or watch records to find out when
another researcher annotates them. If you
search the auction site eBay <www.ebay.com>
for heirlooms or family history books, you can
save those searches, too.
 Set Google Alerts <google.com/alerts>
to cover most of the rest of the web. Sign up
for a free Google account or log into the one
you already have, run your genealogy search,
and then copy and paste the search query into
Google Alerts. Select your delivery preferences,
and Google will continually run the search and
email you relevant results.
8
TRACK ANCESTORS
WITH TIMELINES.
When it comes to sorting out who,
what, when, where and why about
your ancestors, a timeline can save you lots of,
well, time. Listing all the major life events that
occurred for your grandfather from his birth to
death highlights the gaps in your research. Now
you can easily see what information you can
stop looking for because you already have it, and
focus your research on the places where details
are missing. If your grandpa was 21 when World
War I started, but you don’t have any draft or
service records, there’s an opportunity to find
out what he was doing.
This timesaver includes another timesaver:
Your genealogy software program or online tree
site likely has a built-in timeline feature on your
ancestor’s profile page. It automatically updates
the timeline when you attach a record to that
ancestor, or you can manually add an event. You
also can create a visual timeline with a tool like
Twile <twile.com>, now part of Findmypast. It
lets you map out your family tree on a timeline
with photos, notes and maps, and it automati-
cally adds major historical events.
9
STREAMLINE
YOUR SCANNING.
Digitizing a lifetime of memories
can be a daunting project, but it’s
quicker and easier if you set up a routine. Sched-
ule an hour or two per week just for scanning
photos (or snapping high-quality images of
them with your mobile device). Try to set aside a
 When it seems like life is conspiring to keep
you from building your family tree, block out
15 minutes a day for uninterrupted genealogy.
well-lit space in your home until you’re finished.
If you’re working through stacks of pictures or
using a shot box as a photo backdrop, cover them
between sessions to prevent dust.
Use technology to your advantage: Set up
your mobile phone or computer hard drive to
automatically back up images to Google Pho-
tos <photos.google.com>, where automated
facial recognition will help you tag photos of the
same folks. Or use a mobile app such as Joyflips
<www.joyflips.com>, which restores digitized
photos and lets you quickly tag them with your
voice. If you want to turn paper records or pages
of notes into PDFs, use an app such as Scanner
Pro (iOS) or Adobe Scan (iOS and Android) or to
take the photo, automatically correct distortion,
convert to text and upload to the cloud.
10
QUICKLY TACKLE
TRANSLATIONS.
If you work with records in your
ancestors’ native language, or
with church records in Latin, use a quick-ref-
erence chart of common terms so you’re not
always going to an online dictionary. You can
build one yourself anytime you look up a trans-
lation, search for one online (try a search like
Latin genealogy terms), or use the 22-language
Genealogist’s Instant Translation Guide from the
Family Tree Shop <familytreemagazine.com/
store/genealogists-instant-translation-guide-at-
a-glance-glossaries>.
11
USE DNA TESTING
ORGANIZATION TOOLS.
Looking through your DNA
matches can be a time-suck for
sure. It’s easy to get bogged down in information
E
Don’t research without the 10 rules for
accepting (or rejecting) online family tree
hints at <familytreemagazine.com/articles/
news-blogs/genealogy_insider/online>.
you might only half understand and don’t know
how to put together.
Start with the tools your testing company
ofers. “Every DNA testing company provides
a notes field associated with each match, which
you can utilize as a mini-journal to record your
progress and discoveries,” says Blaine Bettinger,
author of The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing
and Genetic Genealogy (Family Tree Books). He
suggests using this field for notes about common
surnames, which family you think you share
with this match, and any messages exchanged
with the person.
Bettinger also recommends keeping the same
information in a second format so it’s all in one
place, it’s sortable and you’ll have a backup. You in the shop
could keep a DNA-results log with columns Source citation
for the match’s name, testing service, amount templates and tips
are easy to ind in
of shared DNA, common surnames, common
our cheat sheet
ancestral birthplaces, shared matches, messag- <familytree
ing and hypotheses. magazine.com/
store/genealogy-
12
source-citation-
FIND YOUR 15. cheat-sheet>.
Wouldn’t it be great to have
unlimited genealogy time? But
work, family, chores and other
interests need your time, too. When it seems
like life is conspiring to keep you from build-
ing your family tree, block out 15 minutes a day
for uninterrupted genealogy. In a quarter of an
hour, you can update your online tree, scan a few
photos, search an online library catalog, check
for new DNA matches or record hints, or write
a paragraph for an ancestor’s profile. Of course,
if you’ve followed the other tips we’ve talked
about—like optimizing your research space and
keeping a research log—you’ll be able to get right
to work and use all of those 15 minutes for find-
ing ancestors. 
Author and instructor Lisa A. Alzo blogs about her
genealogy adventures at <theaccidentalgenealogist.
com>. She enjoys helping family historians research more
efficiently through her Family Tree University courses.
family t re emagaz ine.com 47
 do t he
w r ite
t hing
Let your research live beyond
you! Put it all together with
these tips for writing your
family history, plus a project
organizing worksheet you’ll
refer to again and again.
by DIANE HADDAD

48 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 O
nce you’ve been doing gene-
alogy research for a while,
and you have a family tree or a
computer hard drive or a filing
cabinet with a bunch of notes
and old records, you might wonder what to do
with it all. Or perhaps you’ve always harbored
the dream of sharing your family history, and
you’re not sure how.
It’s a hard truth: Few people have much use
for an unstructured assortment of documents
and computer files. Even folks who are curious
about their family history—and that describes
most I’ve met—aren’t likely to sort through your
research and rebuild the store of knowledge
you’ve amassed over years.
If your family research is to live beyond you,
you’ll need to do the work of putting it into some
shareable, lasting form. That usually means
summarizing your finds in writing, maybe
enhanced with photos and images of interest-
ing documents. Whether you go all-out with a
self-published hardback or just pass out stapled
pages at the next family reunion, you’ll create a
legacy—a framework others can use to under-
stand your family’s story and the genealogical
evidence you’ve gathered. We can’t promise the
project will be a breeze, but we can promise it’ll
be easier when you follow these six tips and use
our handy organizing worksheet.

1
KNOW YOUR PURPOSE.
Before you begin, it’s important to
know what you hope to accomplish
with this writing project. Do you want to sum-
marize all your research, share your family leg-
acy, pass down the stories Grandpa told, tell how
your family fits into local history, share the story
of an ancestor or family you admire, celebrate
your ethnic heritage, or something else?
A strong focus makes the project more man-
ageable, says Sunny Jane Morton, author of Sto-
ry of My Life <familytreemagazine.com/store/
story-of-my-life>. “A small, finished project is
better than a three-volume tome that exists only
in your dreams.”
RICHVINTAGE/E+/GETTY IMAGES


Start writing now with the free e-book
download 30 Family History Writing
Prompts <familytreemagazine.com/
freebie/30-family-history-writing-prompts>.

family t re emagaz ine.com 49

If your family research is
to live beyond you, you’ll
need to put it into some
shareable, lasting form.
Need help narrowing the scope? Morton
advises looking at your research for the most
compelling story or interesting person. Alter-
nately, you could choose a topic that commem-
orates an upcoming family milestone, such as
your parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Or you
might start with whatever’s most doable.
Your audience is an important aspect of your
goal. For a project just family will see, you might
use a casual writing style, refer to relatives with
familiar titles (“Great-grandpa Thornton”), and
use in-text source information. If other genealo-
gists will read your work in a newsletter, journal
or published book, you’ll want a more authori-
tative style with an emphasis on your research
process, and formal source citations in foot-
notes and source lists.
in the shop
2
Preserve your MAKE A PLAN.
personal history
An outline gives you a framework for
with this workbook
<familytree building your project, especially if it
magazine.com/ involves multiple people or a long time span.
store/story-of- Make a list of elements you want to include—
my-life>.
you can use the worksheet on the opposite
page (or the downloadable version from <family
treemagazine.com/freeforms/researchforms>).
Don’t worry about organizing the list yet. Here’s
an example for my maternal family history opus:
 a family tree of Mom’s family
 information about the places the family
came from with a map, including why so many
immigrated from each place
 names and immigration details of all the
immigrant ancestors: Henry Seeger, Eduard
Thoss, Mary Mairose, Thomas Frost, Edward
Norris, Elizabeth Butler, Henry Hoernemann,
Anna Maria Weyer, and so on.
tip
Not sure what type of project to put
together? Find inspiration on Pinterest
on our Family History Writing board
<www.pinterest.com/familytreemag>.
50 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 where these families settled in the United
States, their jobs and their children
 Eduard Thoss tavern in Northern Kentucky
 info on Cincinnati Over-the-Rhine neigh-
borhood, where so many settled
 Dierkes boys in family cemetery plot
 Henry Seeger’s cigar store, with photos and
timeline, and two babies who died as infants
 Thomas Frost/Mary Wolking divorce
 Ade Thoss and the Covington Blue Sox
 possible family connection to Windthorst,
Kan.
 death of Elizabeth Teipel Thoss and several
of her children
 Benjamin Teipel trap-shooting invention
and death
 Civil War service of Frank and Benjamin
Thoss
 firefighter Raymond Norris and Newton
Tea & Spice Co. Fire
 how Grandma and Grandpa met
Your list might cause you to rethink your proj-
ect scope. For example, I’m seeing that I could
divide up my project by family branches, break-
ing it down into smaller parts (and this is only
part of my list).
When you know the topics you want to cov-
er, arrange them in an order that makes sense
to you. You could do chronological order, geo-
graphical order (group all information related
to Germany, all immigration information, all
second generation information), family branch-
es one at a time, or some other arrangement.
You could opt for a general overview then add
several shorter profiles of specific ancestors or
families. Next, create an outline by organizing
topics into sections or chapters.
3
SAY IT WITH PICTURES.
Pictures and graphs will engage your
readers, help them follow complicated
lineages and show what you’re talking about.
“Plan as you go which pictures, documents,
maps, charts and genealogical reports will best
illustrate your narrative,” Morton advises.
Depending how many photos and documents
you’ve found, you’ll want to winnow the options
to those from key moments in your family his-
tory, selecting those that will reproduce well
in the finished product. Consider adding tran-
scriptions for hard-to-read or foreign-language
documents.
fi
WORKSHEET
Organize Your Family History Writing Project

PROJECT SUMMARY
What person, family or event is your focus for this project? What do you want the final results to look and feel like, for exam-
ple, do you want it to be short or long? Do you want a quick read with bulleted names and family charts, or more complex?
What about a story heavy with photos, record images and other visuals; more narrative focused; or somewhere in between?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

FORMAT STORIES TO INCLUDE

How will you share your final product? What stories and topics are important to cover in this project? Continue your
 printed at home or at a copy shop list on another page, if needed. Depending on your time and other resourc-
 self-published book es, you may want to break down a long list into multiple writing projects.

 photo book ______________________________________________________________

 PDF
 video
 slideshow of captioned images
 other format
Notes: ____________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
YOUR AUDIENCE
Who do you hope will read this project?
 very close family
 current and future relatives
 other genealogists
 history scholars
Notes: ____________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
VISUALS
List family trees, maps, photos, records and personal timelines you want to
include. Remember that images you plan to print must have a resolution
of at least 300 dots per inch (dpi) when printed at the size you want them
to appear in the book. If you have a small photo that you want to be larger
in your book, it must have a resolution higher than 300 dpi. Also take into
account copyright considerations, and make sure you have permission to
use images you find online or in printed sources.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
 fi
Family History Writing Project Logistics

BUDGET PHOTO BOOK/SELFPUBLISHING SERVICES

Your budget line items will vary depending on how you
plan to share your work, so we’ve provided extra lines you
can customize.
paper $ __________________________________________
binding (binder, presentation folder, etc.) $ ____________
digital media (CD, flash drive, etc.) $ __________________
editing services $ __________________________________
design services $ __________________________________
other services $ ___________________________________
printing services $ _________________________________
postage $ ________________________________________
miscellaneous $ ___________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Total $ ___________________________________________
If you’re planning a printed photo book or a self-published
book, you’ll need to consider the factors below. Your
options and fees will vary depending on the service you
choose. Thinking about self-publishing? See the guide in
the September 2015 Family Tree Magazine for tips.
publishing service _________________________________
book size ________________________________________
number of pages __________________________________
binding __________________________________________
cover type _______________________________________
paper type _______________________________________
color/black and white ______________________________
quantity _________________________________________
Notes: ___________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

PROJECT TIMELINE
Your timeline will vary with the size and scope of your project. If you plan to write several pages about your family, email
them to a few relatives, and call it done, then you might just need a goal for your “copies shared” date. Our timeline is
fleshed out with suggested project phases. You also could use a spreadsheet to customize a timeline to your project.

Completion date
Project phase
Goal Actual

Planning worksheet completed

First narrative draft

Photos and other visuals selected

Second narrative draft

Visuals created/digitized

Captions/labels written for visuals

Additional narrative draft, as desired

Design/layout created
Project proofread

Corrections made
Final copy(ies) created

Copies shared
 Keep copyright in mind. If you plan to publish
your work (including on a website), get permis-
sion from the copyright holder or owner of any
images you didn’t create or that aren’t in your
personal collection.
4
GET ASSISTANCE.
Now you’re ready to write. As you
work, go over your records for fami-
lies and people you’re writing about. To help
you organize source references, add in-text
references with the title, author and page or
record number in parentheses when you use
information from a record, article, book or
website. Also create a bibliography of sources as
you go. This should include everything needed
to find that source again: title, author, publish-
er or creator (such as the National Archives),
publication date and place, website, etc.
Later, when your project is mostly complete,
you can keep the in-text references, or num-
ber the references and create footnotes (short-
form citations at the bottom of the page) or end
notes (short-form citations at the end of a chap-
ter). Include the bibliography at the end of your
work. For help with source citations, use the
book Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown
Mills (Genealogical Publishing Co.).
You might have a writing head start if you can
pull together blog posts or short essays you’ve
already written about your family history. Your
genealogy software or online tree might ofer a
timeline you can follow, or even generate a nar-
rative report for you. For an ambitious project
or if you do a lot of writing, you might invest in
software such as Scrivener <www.literatureand
latte.com/scrivener>.
FILE BACKUP PLAN
This keeps you from losing files mid-project,
and makes it easier to archive your final files
later. For example, you might work in Google
Drive, or write in a document on your com-
puter and upload it to Dropbox each time
you change it.
Notes: ________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
The Write Time
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, it may be time to
pause your genealogy research and start writing:
 Have you accumulated a lot of records and contextual information
you’ve found difficult to adequately record in a family tree?
 Has the pace of your research slowed?
 Are you stuck in your research, unsure what to do next?
 Are you worried what’ll happen to your research when you’re gone?
 Have you discovered a compelling or surprising story your relatives
would want to hear?
 Would family history knowledge add meaning to an upcoming birth-
day, anniversary or other big family event?
5
BEGIN IN THE MIDDLE.
Don’t let the “how to start” roadblock
stall your project right out of the gate.
If you don’t know how to begin, just start writ-
ing a story you like—maybe it’s about an ances-
tor’s immigration, military service or venture to
the wrong side of the law. The words will flow
from there. An interesting or dramatic event
is often the best way to begin a story, anyway.
Remember, you’re not carving in stone: You can
always rearrange things later.
6
TAKE YOUR TIME.
A deadline can motivate you, but give
yourself plenty of time. You want
this project to add fulfillment to your family
research, not cause stress. Start now and work
on your writing project a little at a time, once
a week or every evening if you can manage it.
Imagine where you’ll be a year from now. 
Editor Diane Haddad blogs about her family history on
the Genealogy Insider blog <familytreemagazine.com/
articles/news-blogs/genealogy_insider>.
family t re emagaz ine.com 53
 THE GREAT
UNKNOWNS
Search beyond basic records
with these six little-known
sources to discover your
immigrant ancestors’
hometowns and
life details.

by RICH VENEZIA

When tracing immigrant

ancestors, one of the most important pieces
of information you need is where they were
born. This is one of the keys to finding family
in the Old Country. Familiar genealogy sourc-
es like the census, obituaries, passenger lists
and even older naturalization records don’t
always have the answer.
As a specialist in immigration research,
I’ve found ancestors’ overseas hometowns
named in some unexpected, underused and
relatively unknown record sets. Today, I’ll
introduce you to my top six unusual immigra-
tion sources, where I found them, and what
gems they delivered about the families I was
researching.

54 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 1 PASSPOR T APPLIC AT IO NS

P
assports haven’t always been a necessity for travel
abroad. Until 1941, they were mandatory only for
brief periods during the Civil War and WWI. But
some of our ancestors, particularly naturalized immi-
grants, used them as proof of citizenship. If yours did,
it could be the key to learning your ancestors’ places
of origin.
 Case history: Rose Abalin immigrated to the

United States from Le Havre, France, in 1898, with her

husband, Brahim (“Abraham”) Aftoura (also spelled
Aftoora and Afdany), and their first child. They settled
in Cleveland, where Abraham worked as a peddler. They
had three more children in Cleveland, then temporar-
ily returned to Syria in 1907. One more child was born
there. Abraham died between 1910 and 1912.
Censuses tell a lot about the family. They were store-
keepers at first, and later, fruit dealers. Between 1920
and 1930, Rose bought a home on West 14th Street in
Cleveland, where some of her children lived with her.
But censuses, Abraham’s naturalization paperwork
(filed before 1906, when these records became more
detailed), and other records give no birthplace more
specific than Syria
 The big break: In 1912, Rose applied for a US pass-

port with the US consulate at Beirut (then in the Otto-

man Empire; now in Lebanon). She stated her place of
birth as “Zahleh” (actually spelled Zahlé), Lebanon.
Had she applied just a few years later, the application
would’ve had a photo of her and the children. Though
the document doesn’t provide Abraham’s birth loca-
tion, it does give us insight into the family and their trip
back to Syria. We can infer that since Rose and Abraham
immigrated together in 1898 that they were married in
the old country, so Zahlé would be a good place to look
for a marriage record
 Finding the records: Passport applications from

1795 to March 1925 are available through the National

Archives and digitized at subscription site Ancestry
POJCHEEWIN YAPRASERT PHOTOGRAPHY/MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES

<ancestry.com>. They’re also on the free Family-Search

<www.familysearch.org>. For later applications, you
need to send a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request to the US Department of State <foia.state.gov>.

in the shop
This collection has all the guides and
video classes you need to ind your
family’s origins <familytreemagazine.
com/store/immigration-ancestry-
mega-collection>.

family t re emagaz ine.com 55

 2 COUNT Y H ISTO R I ES

C
ounty histories, sometimes called “mug books,”
are full of information on places your ancestors
lived. They also might supply glorious maps and
illustrations, and have personal biographies with places
of birth.
 Case history: William Purcell was about 10 years old

when he came to the United States from Ireland in 1853.

In the mid-1860s, his family moved from Huron County,
Ohio, to Quincy, Ill. He married Isabella “Belle” Brooks,
daughter of the local newspaper editor, on Sept. 3, 1873.
They had three children, Edith, Austin and William.
William, Sr. was somewhat active in local politics, serv-
ing as an assistant marshal for the Adams County Central
Democratic Committee’s grand mass meeting in 1876. He
started a livery business in Quincy in the 1870s, but died
in March 1879.
An obituary reports that William was a native of Ire-
land. Though burial records often are recommended as
sources of immigrant birthplaces, William’s weren’t help-
ful. He left a sizable estate for the time, worth roughly
$3,700. Estate files rarely mention the deceased’s birth-
place, and William’s is no exception.
 The big break: Luckily for us, the United States’

1876 centennial spurred interest in local history and gene-

alogy. Counties across the country began to record their
histories. The History of Adams County, Illinois, published
just after William’s death, identifies William’s place of
birth as Kilcooley, County Tipperary, Ireland.
As for William’s widow and children, tragedy struck
again. Edith and little William both died in the early
1880s. Belle moved to Springfield, Ill., where she died in
1894. Her son Austin, the last of this Purcell family, died
there in 1919.
 Finding the records: County histories are available

online and in print. Start with the genealogical or histori-

cal society, or the main branch of the local public library,
in the county where you’re researching. Free websites like
HathiTrust <hathitrust.com>, Internet Archive, Family-
Search and Google Books host numerous county histories.
You’ll also find collections on Ancestry and MyHeritage.
A Bibliography of American County Histories by P. William
Filby lists more than 5,000 published county histories.
Keep in mind that individuals may have paid to be
included in county histories, giving publishers incentive
to embellish the truth. Mistakes, faulty memories, and
lack of fact-checking also could lead to misinformation.
Research historical records to verify claims you find in
county histories. For example, locating baptismal and
other Purcell family records in Kilcooley would confirm
William’s place of birth.

56 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 If you’re researching immigrant ancestors,
one of the most important pieces of information
you need is their place of birth.

3 STATE M ILITARY R ECOR DS

C
ountless immigrants joined the
US Army. In fact, beginning in
the Civil War, alien soldiers with
honorable Army discharges could be fast-
tracked to naturalization. (Marine Corps
and Navy veterans were eligible for the
program beginning in 1894, and WWI sol-
diers could be exempted from residency
requirements, too.)
You might know about the pension
records and compiled military service
records (CMSRs) held at the National
Archives <archives.gov>. The Washing-
ton, D.C., location has records of service
in the Revolutionary War through the
Spanish-American War, and the National
Personnel Records Center in St. Louis has
them for WWI and later. But often forgot-
ten are state military records, which difer
from war to war and state to state. They
might be muster rolls, service question-
naires, adjutant general service records,
or another type of record.
 Case history: Rudolf Wassmer was

the son of a Swiss shoemaker who immi-

grated to Bufalo, NY, in the early 1850s.
He followed in his father’s footsteps,
making lasts—models used in the manufacturing and
repair of shoes. After the Civil War began, Rudolph enlist-
ed in the Army at Elmira, NY, in May 1861. A private in
Company K of the 21st New York Infantry Regiment, he
saw action at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and
Fredericksburg. He mustered out of the Army May 18,
1863, at Bufalo. Following Rudolph from Bufalo in the
 The big break: New York has a set of military records
called Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, available from the
state archives <www.archives.nysed.gov> and on Ancestry.
Of all the records naming Rudolf, only this one specifies
his birthplace: Suhr, Switzerland. It also describes him as
having brown hair, blue eyes, and a “sandy” complexion.
 Finding the records: State archives are your prima-

1870 census, to Rochester in 1880, back to Bufalo by 1892,
to a soldiers’ home in Bath, NY, in 1913, and finally back
to Bufalo, where he died in 1914, records consistently list
his birthplace as Switzerland. That includes his obituary in
the Buffalo Evening News.
tip
Once you’ve identiied your European ancestor’s
birthplace, locate it in old gazetteers and then look
to local church records for more family information.
ry resource for state military records, and collections also
might be digitized on genealogy websites. North Carolina
WWI service cards and WWII discharge papers are avail-
able on FamilySearch. New Jersey has a database of WWI
soldier deaths on the state archives’ website <wwwnet-
dos.state.nj.us/DOS_ArchivesDBPortal/WWICards.aspx>,
and Wisconsinites’ Civil War CMSRs are available via the
Wisconsin Historical Society <www.wisconsinhistory.org/
Records/Article/CS4267>. Not all of these records provide
a specific place of origin, but all let you enrich your immi-
grant ancestors’ military stories.

family t re emagaz ine.com 57

 4 ALI E N E N EMY R EG ISTR ATIO N

D
uring wartime, the United States considered as Female. These forms
“alien enemies” any immigrants with citizenship are a genealogical
in—and sometimes, merely heritage from—the goldmine: birth date,
country on the other side. During the War of 1812, that birthplace, employ-
meant British subjects. During World War I, German, Aus- ment, date of arrival,
trian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Turkish nationals were parents’ names and
alien enemies. German-, Italian- and especially Japanese- residences, names and
Americans were considered enemy aliens in WWII. They birthdates of spouses
were subject to increased scrutiny, curfews, registration and children, for-
and even internment, generating records that can shed mer military service,
light on their struggles. whether any relatives
 Case history: William Rohleder arrived from Ger- served in enemy forc-
many in 1909 and went straight to Atchison, Kan., where es, a physical descrip-
his aunt and uncle lived. He worked as a shipping clerk, tion, a full set of fingerprints, even a photo. William’s
secretary and bookkeeper, before becoming proprietor of aidavit states he was born Jan. 10, 1889, in Amorbach,
R.K. Creamery. William’s WWI draft registration card Bavaria, Germany.
described him as an “alien enemy,” but one who “has atti-  Finding the records: Unfortunately, many of these

tude to be friendly to the United States.” He applied for US
citizenship in 1920, but was denied because he’d suppos-
edly used his alien-enemy status to claim exemption from
the WWI draft. He married and became a stepfather about
1925, and eventually had two more sons. He finally natu-
ralized in April 1937.
 The big break: During World War I, alien-enemy
men had to file a form called Registration Aidavit of Alien
Enemy; women had to file a Registration Aidavit of Alien
records no longer exist. Those that do are scattered among
National Archives locations. Records for Kansas; North
Dakota; Minnesota; eastern North Carolina; Phoenix; San
Francisco; Shreveport, La.; Allen County, Ind.; and Frank-
fort, Ky., are known to exist. More may yet be found. Most
Kansas alien-enemy registrations—including William’s—
are available digitally in the National Archives’ catalog
<catalog.archives.gov> (search for enemy alien with a
name) and on Ancestry.

58 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 5 E AR LY ALI E N R EG ISTR ATIO N

A
lien registration wasn’t just for wartime. The as a farmer, his arrival in Portsmouth in November 1810,
United States passed its first registration laws, the and his father’s name: George.
Alien and Sedition Acts, in 1798. They allowed for  Finding the records: In 1828, Congress ended the

the imprisonment and deportation of alien enemies, and
the registration of white aliens. Aliens had to provide their
“place of birth, age, nation, place of allegiance or citizen-
ship, condition or occupation, and place of actual or intend-
ed residence.” The government lifted this requirement in
1828. Most of these early alien registrations didn’t survive.
But a federal law passed in 1816 led some of the records to
be preserved, providing a little-known resource for some
ancestors who naturalized between 1816 and 1828.
 Case history: George Forrester was a Scot-
1816 law. These unique copies of alien registration are
part of naturalization records only from March 22, 1816,
to May 24, 1828. For aliens arriving into or residing within
the jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(i.e., Philadelphia and the surrounding areas), the original
alien registration records are on National Archives micro-
film and digitized on FamilySearch. Registration records
of British nationals during the War of 1812 are on National
Archives microfilm and at Ancestry.

tish-born schoolmaster and mathematics teach-

er. He married a woman named Agnes before
1811 and immigrated to Portsmouth, NH. There,
he filed papers declaring his intent to become a
citizen. By 1817, he’d moved to Pittsburgh. He
naturalized Nov. 23, 1818 at the Common Pleas
Court of Allegheny County.
According to the 1820 census, he lived in east
Pittsburgh with two males under age 10, pre-
sumably sons (remember that pre-1850 censuses
name only heads of households and don’t state
relationships); a female of age 16 to 25, likely his
wife; and two male slaves under age 14. While
several records specified George’s birthplace as
Scotland, none named the town.
 The big break: A March 1816 federal law

required an alien’s registry information to be

included in his naturalization paperwork. As a
result, some naturalization records—includin
George Forrester’s—became richer with detail.
George’s 1813 alien registration from Ports-
mouth gives us his birthplace: Ayton, Berwick-
shire, Scotland. It further noted his occupation

E
Discover another little-known immigration resource,
naturalization correspondence files, at <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/bureau-naturalization-correspondence-files>.

family t re emagaz ine.com 59

 6 CIT Y MAR R IAG E R E TUR NS

G
overnment clerks sometimes
created multiple copies of
a record, or filed multiple
records for the same event. These
records sometimes include additional
or diferent information.
 Case history: Vincent Kuralsky

and Franzisca (aka Frances) Jahudka

married Aug. 10, 1903, at St. Elisabeth
Roman Catholic Church in Pitts-
burgh. Both had recently arrived in
the United States. Vincent worked as
a laborer with Jones & Laughlin Steel
Co., and the couple bought a house at
5015 Ladora Street in the Hazelwood
neighborhood in 1909. They had a
daughter, Agnes.
Vincent’s naturalization papers
said he was born in Rayec, Hungary
(now Rajec, Slovakia). But where did
Franzisca come from? Their mar-
riage record and other documents
said only Hungary, which at the time,
probably meant the Austro-Hungari-
an Empire. The 1910 census reported
Austria; the 1920 census, Bohemia.
 The big break: Allegheny
County has a county marriage license
and marriage license docket for the
Kuralsky-Jahudka marriage, but
from 1875 to 1909, the city of Pitts-
burgh also recorded nuptials among
city marriage returns. In this case,
I was in luck. The city record gave
Franzisca’s birthplace as Zerav-
ice, Moravia (now Žeravice, Czech
Republic). Now I have enough infor-
mation to begin looking for Vincent’s
and Franzisca’s records overseas.
 Finding the records: In addi-

tion to dual recording of an event

at diferent levels of government, you may also discover
duplicate records created by the same oice. For example, a
town may have kept one copy of a record and made another
to forward to the state. Whatever the reason for multiple
records, it’s worth examining all existing versions.
The locations of diferent versions of marriage records
depend on the place and record types. Local genealogi-
cal societies may be able to point you in the right direc-
tion. Look among city health department records in city
archives and libraries, town records (especially in New
England), county courts and state health department
records. The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh <www.
heinzhistorycenter.org> had Vincent and Francizka’s city
marriage record. 
Rich Venezia is a Pittsburgh-based professional genealogist whose
research firm, Rich Roots <www.richroots.net>, specializes in immi-
grant ancestry.

60 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 treetips
IF YOUR ANCESTRYDNA RESULTS LOOK DIFFERENT, it’s not that they were wrong before. In Sep-
tember, the company updated customers’ ethnicity results using a new algorithm that analyzes
longer segments of genetic information, as well as an expanded reference panel (the set of DNA
profiles from places around the world, against which your sample is compared). The changes
led to more precise results for Asia and Europe: For example, Scandinavian roots got more nar-
rowly defined as Norwegian or Swedish, Western Europe was split into France and Germany, and
“Asia East” was broken into six regions. See details at <blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2018/09/12/
ancestry-unveils-more-detailed-precise-ethnicity-estimates>.
EMILIJA MANEVSKA/ MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES

family t re emagaz ine.com 61

 tips N O W W H AT ?

Q My immigrant A If you’re not sure of an exact location, start with a large online
database. The best free source is the Library of Congress’
ancestor, who Chronicling America <chroniclingamerica.loc.gov>, which has close
to 14 million digitized pages from newspapers nationwide. You can
arrived at New York, search by state or specific newspapers, and limit the date range to
the year your ancestor traveled through. You could also try Elephind
died en route to <www.elephind.com>, whose search includes Chronicling America
as well as other free collections.
Iowa, where the rest Among the largest online newspaper collections with an emphasis
on obituaries, is subscription site GenealogyBank <www.genealogy
of her Kuen family bank.com>. You can do some searching for free to see if it’s worth-
while. A quick search on Kuen, for example, turns up 317 obituaries.
settled. Where Another paid option is Newspapers.com <www.newspapers.com>,
owned by Ancestry, with more than 8,000 titles. And Ancestry
should I look for <ancestry.com> also has a pretty good collection of newspapers.
If you know some towns your family went through, try searching
an obituary? online for the town name and obituaries to turn up online obituary
indexes at public libraries and local newspapers. You also can contact
libraries, which might have offline indexes.
Beyond obituaries, also consult church records, cemeteries and
funeral homes in places where your ancestor might’ve died.

Find your Get genealogy

German advice from the
experts in the
Ancestors! free Family Tree
Professional German Podcast, hosted by
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of experience provides a
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podcasts>
we print books unnaturally fast.

62 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018

Q I’ve hit a brick wall with my North Carolina ancestors in
the early 1800s. How can I find clues to their parentage?
A Identifying relationships can be tricky before modern vital
records and censuses that named everyone in the household.
Ideally, you’d be able to find a will or other estate document listing
your known ancestor as the child of the testator, or deceased. Ancestry
<ancestry.com> has North Carolina wills and probate records, 1665-
1998. The Family History Library (FHL) has microfilmed abstracts
of many North Carolina wills, and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.
org> has digitized estate files, 1663-1979.
You also can find clues to familial relationships in land records.
These records are less likely to explicitly state two individuals’ par-
ent/child relationship, but they can suggest candidates to investigate.
The FHL has microfilmed North Carolina land records, and Ancestry
has land grant files, 1693 to 1960. The latter site’s civil action court
papers, 1712 to 1970 might ofer clues in a similar fashion.
Don’t overlook North Carolina marriage records, which date to
colonial days. FamilySearch has two large collections of county mar-
riages, covering 1762 to 1979, and 1759 to 1979, as well as a smaller
database of civil marriages from 1763 to 1868. Ancestry has a mar-
riage database, 1741 to 2011. Even if the marriage record doesn’t list
the couple’s parents, it might contain clues such as the names of
bondsmen, who were often siblings or in-laws. You might get truly
lucky and find a bondsman with the same last name as the groom,
and listed as a “Jr.” If you can prove the groom and the bondsman are
brothers, you then also have the groom’s father.
Q A 1799 birth record for my Danish ancestor gives the
father’s name as Jens Hansen Bødker, but I can’t find
this person anywhere else. What am I doing wrong?
A It’s possible that whoever transcribed that church record mis-
takenly added the occupation to the name. Much as in Eng-
lish, some Scandinavians took occupational terms as surnames. But
in the period you’re researching, patronymic surnames (the father’s
first name plus -sen or -datter) were much more common. Bødker is
Danish for a cooper, or barrel maker, and the original church record
could certainly have noted this occupation. Try searching with just
Jens Hansen and see if you have better luck. To diferentiate among
the zillions of Danes with that name (even today, Hansen is the third
most common Danish surname) try to include a place, such as the
parish from the birth record, and Jens’ child or wife, if known. Find a
handy list translating occupations and other words commonly found
in Danish records at <www.folketimidten.dk/gb.htm>. 
David A. Fryxell
is the founding editor of
Family Tree Magazine. He
now writes and researches
his family tree in Tucson.
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIR-
CULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section
3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Family Tree Maga-
zine. 2. (ISSN: 1529-0298). 3. Filing date: 10/1/18. 4. Issue
frequency: 7 times annually. 5. Number of issues published
annually: 7. 6. The annual subscription price is $36. 7.
Complete mailing address of known office of publication:
F+W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite 300, Blue Ash,
OH 45242. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. 8. Complete mail-
ing address of headquarters or general business office of
publisher: F+W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite 300,
Blue Ash, OH 45242. 9. Full names and complete mailing
addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Pub-
lisher, Patty Craft, 10151 Carver Road, Suite 300, Blue Ash,
OH 45242; Editor, Diane Haddad, 10151 Carver Road, Suite
300, Blue Ash, OH 45242; Managing Editor, N/A. 10. Owner:
F+W Media, Inc.; Gregory J. Osberg, CEO, 1140 Broadway,
14th floor, New York, NY 10001. 11. Known bondholders,
mortgages and other security holders owning or holding
1 percent of more of total amount of bonds, mortgages
or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed
During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: Family
Tree Magazine. 14. Issue date for circulation data below:
September 2018. 15. The extent and nature of circulation:
A. Total number of copies printed (Net press run). Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
60,886. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 62,192. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed
outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of
copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 42,170.
Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest
to filing date: 41,766. 2. Mailed in-county paid subscrip-
tions. Average number of copies each issue during preced-
ing 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue
published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through deal-
ers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
4,551. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 4,161. 4. Paid distribution through
other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number
of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 395.
Actual number of copies of single issue published near-
est to filing date: 367. C. Total paid distribution. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
47,116. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 46,294. D. Free or nominal rate dis-
tribution (by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal
outside-county. Average number of copies each issue dur-
ing preceding 12 months: 205. Actual number of copies of
single issue published nearest to filing date: 515. 2. Free or
nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies
each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number
of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date:
0. 3. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other Classes
through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue
during preceding 12 months: 305. Actual number of cop-
ies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 346. 4.
Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
0. Actual number of copies of single issue published near-
est to filing date: 0. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution.
Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12
months: 510. Actual number of copies of single issue pub-
lished nearest to filing date: 861. F. Total free distribution
(sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each is-
sue during preceding 12 months: 47,626. Actual number
of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date:
47,155. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of cop-
ies each issue during preceding 12 months: 13,260. Actual
number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing
date: 15,037. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number
of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 60,886.
Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest
to filing date: 62,192. I. Percent paid. Average percent of
copies paid for preceding 12 months: 98.9% Actual percent
of copies paid for preceding 12 months: 98.2% 16. Elec-
tronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
2,013. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 1,463. B. Total Paid Print Copies (Line
15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number
of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 49,130.
Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest
to filing date: 47,757. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f ) +
Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of cop-
ies each issue during preceding 12 months: 49,640. Actual
number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing
date: 48,618. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Cop-
ies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of cop-
ies each issue during preceding 12 months: 99.0%. Actual
number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing
date: 98.2%. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (elec-
tronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. Report
circulation on PS Form 3526-X worksheet. 17. Publication
of statement of ownership will be printed in the DECEM-
BER 2018 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of
editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Patty Craft,
Publisher. I certify that all information furnished on this
form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who
furnishes false or misleading information on this form or
who omits material or information requested on the form
may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.
family t re emagaz ine.com 63
treetips PHOTO DETECTIVE

Date with Destiny

The key to this family’s identity starts with estimating when the photo was taken.

3
5

4
2

1 The photographer
posed this family so that
the parents (seated)
flank their children.
2 This woman’s fashion-
able shoulder puff dates
the picture to about
1897. The full upper
sleeves on the other
women also are
characteristic of the
mid- to late-1890s.
3 Often, the youngest
child is in the center of a
portrait, but this image
may be different. Study-
ing the faces, I’d say one
of the women is the
youngest, and the oldest
child is this son.
4 If the parents are in 5 The photo’s owner,
their 60s and the old- Barbara Rivers, believes
est son in his late 30s, this might be her Findlay
the parents would’ve family of Iowa. Examin-
been married in their ing censuses close to the
early 20s. This makes the date of the image—the
1850s a good time 1895 Iowa state census
frame to look for a and 1900 US census—
marriage record. could lead her to a
matching family. 

Maureen A. Taylor is Family Tree Magazine’s Photo

Detective blogger <familytreemagazine.com/articles/
news-blogs/photo_detective> and author of Family Photo
Detective (Family Tree Books) <familytreemagazine.com/
store/family-photo-detective-u9824>.

64 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 Find Your Roots
Reconnect to
your birth family
with this guide,
featuring:
t strategies for adoptees,
donor-conceived
people, and anyone with
unknown parentage to
find biological relatives
using DNA testing

t help understanding the

major DNA tests and
testing companies

t tips for identifying

and contacting DNA
matches

SAVE 10%!
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/#1 !*ɥƭɥƐƓƎɥ/%#2ɥƭɥǬƐƙƥƙƙ
treetips TECH TOOLKIT

WHAT ’S NEW

Ellis Island Adds Free Records

THE FREE ELLIS ISLAND ONLINE PAS
SENGER SEARCH <www.libertyellis
foundation.org/passenger> now pro-
vides full arrival record coverage
from 1820 to 1957. That reflects the
Port of New York’s immigration hey-
day, which began long before Ellis
Island opened in 1892 and lasted until
1924, when federal laws restricted
the flow of arrivals.
The passenger records were post-
ed online through a partnership
between the Statue of Liberty-Ellis
Island Foundation and FamilySearch.
You also can search indexes to these
passenger records at the free Family-
Search website <www.familysearch.
org>, where your search results link Jackie Schalk, director of the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island, helps a
to record images on the Ellis Island visitor search online immigration passenger lists.
site. On either website, you’ll need a
free registration to view matches to tax purposes. Fortunately, the lists (such as a region instead of a village)
your search results. named passengers, because a fire on and missing occupations in customs
New York passenger records from Ellis Island in 1897 burned the origi- lists, so knowing as much as possible
the 1800s aren’t actually original nal New York arrival records stored about your ancestor’s immigration
passenger lists, but rather customs there. You may notice abbreviated will help you identify the right person
lists that ship’s pursers recorded for first names, generalized place names in the records.

ROOTSTECH GOES TO LONDON ELLIS ISLAND: MEREDITH HEUER; TOWER OF LONDON: JORDAN HOLIDAY AT PIXABAY

FamilySearch’s popular RootsTech conference, hosted annually in Salt Lake City since
2012, is adding an overseas event in 2019. RootsTech London <www.rootstech.org/
london> will take place October 24–26 at the ExCeL London Convention Centre,
stepping into the gap left when Who Do You Think You Are? Live! ended its 10-year
run in 2017 due to financial problems (see <www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.
com/news/wdytya-live-close-its-doors> for details).
The three-day RootsTech London promises 150 hands-on lectures on topics such
as DNA, historical records and preserving memories. An exhibit hall will feature
genealogy technology vendors. Expect the same type of well-known, world-class
featured speakers as the US event; Nick Barratt from the BBC’s “Who Do You Think
You Are?” television series is already on board.
RootsTech London Registration will open in late February 2019 (coinciding with
the US RootsTech conference, Feb. 27- March 2).

66 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
SEE MOM’S YEARBOOK PHOTO ON ANCESTRY
Ancestry <ancestry.com> has doubled the size of digitized US yearbook collections, adding
about 150,000 high school and college annuals. The collection now comprises 324,000 year-
books—more than 52 million pages—representing all 50 states.
Genealogical clues in yearbooks include the year and place of residence, as well as the
presence of siblings, cousins or future spouses. You may find fun glimpses into relatives’
younger years: nicknames, interests and accomplishments, and awkwardly endearing photos.
The collection includes teachers and staff, but there’s a catch to searching for them: Results
give estimated birth years, based on the assumption that everyone in the book was age 14 to
17 at the time. So check search results that match on the name, even if the birth year is off.

RootsWeb Returns (Slowly)

FREE GENEALOGY WEBSITE ROOTSWEB <www.rootsweb.
com> is gradually returning after a security-related shut-
down several months ago. The shutdown was initiated
in December 2017 after the website’s owner, Ancestry,
learned RootsWeb usernames and passwords had been
compromised.
According to updates on the RootsWeb site, mailing lists
are working again and message archives are gradually
being reinstated. The Obituary Daily Times index is back
and being updated. You now can search the user-uploaded
trees in World Connect, but new uploads aren’t yet enabled.
Hosted websites are coming back in phases, starting with
about 600 USGenWeb project sites. Owners of other sites
hosted on RootsWeb can request their site be reinstated or
simply download their site contents, via the request forms
linked at <home.rootsweb.com/sites/siteDirectory>.
The comeback includes a new, more-modern look for the
RootsWeb home page, plus a blog (which you can check for
site restoration updates) and a wiki. The new RootsWeb
Wiki has content from the now-defunct Ancestry Wiki,
including Ancestry’s Red Book and The Source.

FINDMYPAST ADDS ELECTORAL REGISTERS

Subscription genealogy website Findmypast <www.
findmypast.com> has released more than 53 million elec-
toral registers for England and Wales. The new database,
England & Wales Electoral Registers 1920-1932, improves
upon Findmypast’s previous electoral register collec-
tion by reprocessing the original documents to improve
image quality. This enabled optical character recognition
software to index the rolls, so you now can search them
by name.
“Searches will now also cover all of England and
Wales,” according to the company’s announcement, “and
matching records from the registers will feed into hints
for all customers with a Findmypast Family tree.”
These records cover a critical time in British history: the
period between the 1911 census and the 1939 Register.
The 1921 census won’t be published until 2021, the 1931
census was destroyed in a fire, and World War II kept the
1941 census from happening.

family t re emagaz ine.com 67

treetips TECH TOOLKIT

HOW TO Photograph an Heirloom

1 Handle fragile and one-of-
a-kind objects carefully. Wash
your hands before touching and
support a heavy item’s weight
with both hands when carrying 4
and repositioning.

2 Set up your backdrop with

white fabric (a bedsheet
works well) or butcher paper,
or plain black fabric. Here,
fabric is secured to the wall with 2
painter’s tape and draped
over a table. You also can
experiment with other non-
distracting backgrounds.

3 Place the object alone or,

for artistic or historical appeal,
group it with two to four related
objects. An odd number of
objects with varied sizes often 5
looks best. 1
4 Choose an area with good
overall lighting. Use additional
light sources as needed to illu- 3
minate the artifact evenly from
all sides. Cover direct or harsh
light sources with a translucent
shade or curtain.

Here’s the resulting image!

5 Document identifying
information in the filename and
metadata of the resulting digital
image. You also could place a
printed label in the photo or
add one digitally, with photo-
editing software.
PHOTOS: DIANE HADDAD

68 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 TECH TOOLKIT tips

ROUNDUP International Archives

1 Library and Archives Canada
<www.bac-lac.gc.ca>
From the home page, choose Online Research> Genealogy and
Family History. Read the How to Begin and Access the Records
descriptions. Under Database, click Ancestors Search to search
individual databases of censuses as well as vital, immigration,
naturalization, land or military records and more.

2 The National Archives of Ireland

<www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie>
Search indexed census records (1901, 1911 and surviving fragments
1821-1851), census search forms (1841-1851), tithe applotment books,
various collections of wills, marriage licenses, Catholic convert rolls,
tax valuations and more, and view record images for free.

3 Arkivverket (Norway)
<www.arkivverket.no/en>
Click English on the home page to translate the site. Scroll down
to Genealogical Research to find getting-started resources and to
access digitized censuses, parish registers and emigrant records in
the Digital Archives. You even can download records for free.

4 ScotlandsPeople
<www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk>
Use this Scottish government website to search government records
and archives, and order copies of official certificates. You’ll find
name-searchable censuses, civil and church registers, valuation rolls
and legal records, all free to search (you’ll pay for copies). Image and
map libraries can also prove valuable.

5 The National Archives (United Kingdom)

<www.nationalarchives.gov.uk>
Start by clicking Help with Your Research> Family History for handy
guides to genealogical record types. Click the box to limit guides to
those with online records: you’ll see a handy list that points to online
collections on and off the site: censuses, the 1939 Register, wills,
passenger lists, alien and military records and more.

6 National Archives and Records

Administration (United States)
<archives.gov>
Choose Information for Genealogists to read descriptions and
research information about immigration, military and other feder-
ally held records. Relatively few searchable-by-name records are
online; click Online Research Tools from the genealogy page to
reach them via Access to Archival Databases.

family t re emagaz ine.com 69

treetips TECH TOOLKIT

WEBSITE New York Passenger Search

Between 1820 and 1920, nearly 80 percent of US immigrant arrivals landed at New York ports. Now the full
run of New York passenger and customs lists, 1820 to 1957, is free to search on the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island
Foundation website <www.libertyellisfoundation.org>.
Sunny Jane Morton

c
A

B e
A Search nearly B Click an icon to
65 million names, add the param-
including immi- eter to your search
grants, ships’ crew, before you run it—
and other travel- or wait until you
ers who passed see results to apply
through New York these parameters.
harbor.
in the shop
Find your ancestor’s citizen-
ship records with tips from
this video class <family
treemagazine.com/store/
naturalization-records>.
C Passenger names D Choose Ellis E Trouble finding
in search results Island History from family? Try search-
link to record this drop-down ing New York
images (you’ll need menu for a timeline passengers at your
a free site login to synopsis of the favorite genealogy
view them). You immigrant experi- website or via One-
can’t download the ence at Ellis Island. Step Webpages by
images, but you Choose Ship Search Stephen P. Morse
can click to order to see ship images, <stevemorse.org>.
high-quality prints. information and These searches
passenger mani- may pick up results
fests for specific missed by the Ellis
arrival dates. Island site.

70 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018

DNA Q&A
Why Go Y?
GREATGRANDPARENTS
PATERNAL PATERNAL
GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER
FATHER
YOU MALE
Q I’m trying to decide between autoso-
mal DNA and Y-DNA for my paternal
uncle. The line has been traced back to
Nova Scotia for a number of generations,
and I’m trying to go further back to find
the original immigrant. Which test
should I use?
A While autosomal DNA testing is valuable
and has helped countless genealogists
find their families, it has two glaring flaws: It’s
shortsighted and it’s blurry.
To the first point, your autosomal DNA can
help with only about five or six generations of
your family tree. You do have autosomal DNA
from your eighth-great-grandfather, but it’s in
tiny pieces. Current tests can’t use such small
pieces to tell if you match someone else because
you share an eighth-great-grandfather, or you
both just came from the same population group.
Autosomal DNA testing is blurry because it
doesn’t give you a clear picture of how you’re
related to someone. Based on how much DNA
you share, you might be estimated as third cous-
ins. But you also could be fourth cousins, third
cousins once removed, second cousins twice
removed, or another relationship that shares
about the same amount of DNA. Without some
TECH TOOLKIT treetips
Men inherit
Y-DNA relatively
unchanged from
GREATGRANDPARENTS their fathers; it
follows the dark
blue squares. We all
inherit autosomal
MATERNAL MATERNAL DNA from all our
GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER ancestors, but
the pieces get
smaller and less
MOTHER informative over
generations.
legwork, you won’t even know if the match is on
your paternal or maternal side.
Y-DNA, on the other hand, has both vision
and relative clarity. Your uncle’s Y-DNA has
been passed down basically unchanged through
generations of fathers, and therefore represents
a near-perfect record of his eighth-great-grand-
father on his direct paternal line. (Women don’t
inherit Y-DNA.) Furthermore, when you find
a match in a Y-DNA database, there’s no doubt
that you share a direct paternal line with that
match. You might not know in which generation
you connect, but you’ll have a range of a few gen-
erations to start your search.
Since you’ve already traced your ancestry back
several generations, you’ll probably want to have
your uncle take the Y-DNA test—so long as he’s
descended through male lines from the immi-
grant you’re interested in. The best-case scenario
is that your uncle’s Y-DNA will match someone
who knows more than you do about the family’s
origins. Y-DNA testing is more expensive than
autosomal, but it’s also worth it. You can start
with the Y-DNA 37-marker test at Family Tree
DNA <www.familytreedna.com> for $169, and if
you want, upgrade to a higher level of testing
later without having to submit a new sample. 
Diahan Southard
family t re emagaz ine.com 71
the rest is history

I’m 73 percent
European,
23 percent
African and only
4 percent Indian.
When I got the results,
I was thinking it was going
to say American Indian and
maybe some black, because my
mom is a little dark skinned and
my brother is kind of dark skinned,
too, as was my grandfather, who was
a merchant from La Capital.

Actress Michelle Rodriquez, whose mother

is from the Dominican Republic and father is
Puerto Rican, expressing surprise at the
results of a DNA test she took for her
appearance on PBS’ “Finding Your
DANIELE VENTURELLI / GETTY IMAGES ENTERTAINMENT

Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.”

72 FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E D E CE M B E R 2 018
 n e a l o gi s t ’s
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on the #1 Genealogy Website

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