Get Organized
The better organized you are, the more success you're likely to have with your research efforts. If you know ahead of time where you stand in researching your family lines, you can identify rather quickly which records or other materials you need to find about a particular surname, location, or time frame. Knowing your gaps in information enables you to get right down to the nitty-gritty of researching instead of spending the first hour or two of your research rehashing where you left off last...
Helping Others Is Its Own Reward
Don't go overboard patting your own back you know, promoting your home page or blog for the sake of receiving awards from other sites, magazines, societies, or other sources. Post your genealogical site or blog with the intent of helping other genealogists and encouraging a sharing genealogical community. If you use the majority of your page to advertise your awards and beg people to vote for your site in popularity contests, you lose a lot of valuable space where you can post information...
Creating a biographical brag book
You already know more about yourself than anyone else knows about you. Regardless of what your spouse thinks he knows, we are convinced that you're really the expert on you. You probably know your birth date, place of birth, parents' names, and where you've lived. We recognize that not everyone knows all this information adoptions or other extenuating circumstances may require you to do the best you can with what you know until you can discover additional information about yourself. So, sit...
American Indian Resources
Tracing your American Indian heritage can be challenging. Your ancestor may have moved frequently and, most likely, few written records were kept. However, your task isn't impossible. With a good research strategy, you may be able to narrow down your search area and find primary resources to unlock some of the mysteries of your ancestors. One key to your research is old family stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Interviewing your family members is a good way to...
Consolidating information in a database
After you get rolling on your research, you often find so much information that it feels like you don't have enough time to put it all into your computer-based genealogical database. A genealogical database is a software program that allows you to enter, organize, store, and use all sorts of genealogical information on your computer. When possible, try to set aside some time to update your database with information you recently gathered. This process of putting your information together in one...
Click the link of any result to see more information
A few results jump out at us. The second record is an Emanuel Helm born about 1863 in Fayette, Illinois. Looking for other records from Illinois, we find Manuel Helm in the 1870 U.S. Census and an Emanuel Helm born about 1863 in Fayette, Illinois, in the International Genealogical Index. As it turns out, all of these are the same person in the 1870 Census, his name was misspelled as Manuel. The results of a search for Emanuel Helm at Family Search.org. The results of a search for Emanuel Helm...
Researching Through the brick wall and beyond
Of course, researching your family history online is the topic of this entire book, so you can find the necessary resources to do a great deal of your online research in these pages. A time will undoubtedly come when you run into what genealogists affectionately call the Brick Wall Syndrome when you think you have exhausted every possible way of finding an ancestor. The most important thing you can do is to keep the faith don't give up Web sites are known to change frequently especially as more...
Assigning unique numbers to family members
If you have ancestors who share the same name, or if you've collected a lot of information on several generations of ancestors, you may have trouble distinguishing one person from another. For example, Matthew has an ancestor Samuel Abell, who had a son and two grandsons also named Samuel Abell. To avoid confusion and the problems that can arise from it, you may want to use a commonly accepted numbering system to keep everyone straight. Now genealogical numbering systems can be a bit confusing...
Finding land records in the United States
Your ancestors may have received land in the early United States in several different ways. Knowing more about the ways in which people acquired land historically can aid you in your research. Your ancestor may have purchased land or received a grant of land in the public domain often called bounty lands in exchange for military service or some other service for the country. Either way, the process probably started when your ancestor petitioned or submitted an application for the land. Your...
Scanners
Scanners remain one of the most popular computer peripherals for genealogists. Everyone wants to include some family photos with their genealogy or preserve precious documents electronically. With the cost of scanners decreasing and the availability of bundled software that allows you to use a scanner not only as a scanner, but also as a fax machine and copier adding a scanner to your equipment collection makes a lot of sense. It can make your genealogical research more colorful and more...
Understanding genealogical charts and forms
By the time that you have information on a few hundred people, it will become nearly impossible to keep all of those ancestors straight. To make life simple, family historians use charts and forms to organize research and make findings easier to understand and share. Some examples include Pedigree charts that show the relationships between family members, Descendant charts that list every person who descends from a particular ancestor, and census forms in which you can record information...
Helm S Family Research Page
Matthew L. Helm is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for FamilyToolbox.net, Inc. He's the creator and maintainer of the award-winning Helm's Genealogy Toolbox, Helm Helms Family Research Page, and a variety of other Web sites. Matthew speaks at national genealogical conventions and lectures to genealogical and historical societies. Matthew holds an A.B. in History and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. April...
Trial and Error at the Courthouse
Do you have an ancestor who was on the wrong side of the law If so, you may find some colorful information at the courthouse in the civil and criminal court records. Even if you don't have an ancestor with a law-breaking past, you can find valuable genealogical records at your local courthouse. Typical records you can find there include land deeds, birth and death certificates, divorce decrees, wills and probate records, tax records, and some military records provided the ancestors who were...
Searching census records from other countries
The United States isn't the only country that has collected information on its population. Census counts have taken place in several countries throughout history. Here are examples of a few countries with census records. Although Australia has taken a census every ten years since 1901, the first Australia-wide census was conducted in 1911. Now for some bad news every return has been destroyed, in accordance with law. There are other records that you can substitute for census returns in the form...
Collecting useful information
After you generate a research plan see the preceding section, Planning your research, for more information , you may need to fill in a few details like dates and locations of births, marriages, and deaths. You can collect this information by interviewing family members and by looking through family documents and photographs. See Chapter 2 for tips on interviewing and using family documents and photographs. You may also need to look up a few things in an atlas or gazetteer a geographical...
Icons Used in This Book
To help you get the most out of this book, we created some icons that tell you at a glance if a section or paragraph has important information of a particular kind. Here we refer you to other books or materials if you'd like additional information. fit U i q Here you can find concepts or terms that are unique to genealogy. When you see this icon, you know we're offering advice or shortcuts to make your researching easier. This icon points out software that's included on the CD-ROM. We walk...