GENEALOGY ONLINE

Tony Morris

The biggest difference between regular genealogical research and online research has to do with accuracy. There are typically more levels between the original source and what you see online and that creates the potential for errors. VERIFY EVERYTHING!

Work from the known to the unknown. Begin with yourself.

Pay attention to how software handles surnames. It affects reports and indices.

Back up your data on some other medium and store it elsewhere (128 MB USB flash drives are sufficient and outstanding – watch for sales)

Don’t put your mother’s maiden name online.

Delete living individuals from GEDCOM files.

SOFTWARE

The good packages include spell check, accuracy checks, search/replace, etc. They also reuse information (e.g., sources) making editing much easier. And they provide a multitude of reporting formats.

Marthe Arends Genealogy Software Guide (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998).

http://www.genealogytoday.com/software/ – Lots of information about software including a search engine for software for specific platforms, specific purposes, and/or pricing.

Software reviews:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,485469,00.asp

http://www.mumford.ca/reportcard/ (PC and Mac)

http://genealogy-software-review.com/

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/family/genealogy_software/

PC software:

Family Tree Maker – http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/ Rated #1 by genealogy-software-review.com. PCMagazine Editors Choice (tie). ($30)

Legacy Family Tree – http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ Excellent for beginners and intermediates. Rated #2 by genealogy-software-review.com. PCMagazine Editors Choice (tie). Free-$60. (Some packages include training series).

Ancestral Quest – http://www.ancquest.com/ Rated #3 by genealogy-software-review.com. Free demo. ($35)

Personal Ancestral File – http://www.familysearch.org/ Rated #4 by genealogy-software-review.com. Free.

Roots Magic – http://www.formalsoft.com/demo.htm Rated #5 by genealogy-software-review.com . Free demo. ($30) [Doesn’t create websites]

Master Genealogist – http://www.whollygenes.com/tmg5.htm Professional level but has tutorial; video/DVD training available. PDA companion program. Flexible. Excellent source referencing. 30-day free trial. ($40-80)

Macintosh software:

Reunion – http://www.leisterpro.com/ Generally regarded as the premier Mac program. Free demo. $100+/-

Special purpose software:

Census data management and other forms:

http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/columns/eastman/4521.asp

http://www.dhc.net/~design/fcr30.htm

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forms/download.html

http://www.familysearch.org/

Cemetery data:

http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/columns/eastman/4618.asp

Database programs:

http://www.clooz.com/ MSAccess database program.

Research logs:

http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/researchcal.htm

Create a website from a GEDCOM file:

http://misbach.org/gedbrowser/

http://www.gendex.com/ged2html/

http://www.wtoram.co.uk/ged2web/ged2web.htm

http://www.lesandchris.com/ged2www/

http://www.genealogytoday.com/software/geneaware/

http://www.rootsWeb.com/~gumby/igm.html

http://www.ufti.com/index.htm

Delete information about living individuals from GEDCOM files:

http://www.raynorshyn.com/gedclean/ Deletes all information except name. ($10)

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~naibor/rpriv.html Res Privata. Control exactly what details are removed, including the start year for data removal. (Free)

PDA software:

http://www.cyndislist.com/software.htm#Palm

GENEALOGY MAGAZINES

http://shops.ancestry.com/product.asp?productid=1564 Genealogical Computing magazine. Quarterly, non-technical from Ancestry.com. ($22.95/yr; $34.95/2yr)

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ Family Tree Magazine. Bi-monthly web-oriented genealogy magazine. ($20/yr)

http://shops.ancestry.com/product.asp?productid=1026062&shopid=0 Ancestry Magazine. Bi-monthly, non-technical. ($22.45/yr)

http://www.familyhistorynetwork.net/magazine/ Family History Magazine. Bi-monthly, non-technical. ($28.95/yr)

BOOKS AND CDS

http://www.genealogical.com/ – Genealogy warehouse for Genealogical Publishing Company and Clearfield Company, the two largest publishing companies in the field.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/keyword=genealogy – Nearly 15,000 books on genealogy.

http://shops.ancestry.com/?ti=0 – Books, CDs, supplies.

GENEALOGY EDUCATION

http://genealogy.com/university.html – Self-paced courses from beginners on up including 31 lessons on Internet genealogy. (Free)

http://genealogy.com/genehelp.html – Genealogy learning center with lots of how-to articles. (Free)

http://www.dearmyrtle.com/read.htm – Genealogy columnist on AOL. Step-By-Step for beginners. Checklists. Personal history. Lots more. (Free)

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/ – National Genealogical Society. Extensive series of resources and courses for all levels of genealogists, beginner to advanced. ($55/yr basic membership; courses extra)

http://www.familysearch.org/ – How to start a family history. Extensive selection of guides for finding information about ancestors.

DIRECTORY SITES

http://www.cyndislist.com/ – Absolutely the best, most comprehensive genealogy website. Links to virtually everything relevant on the Internet (more than 200,000 links)!

http://www.genealinks.com/ – Lots of links to everything, but especially strong on marriage records and state genealogy sites.

http://www.genealogylinks.net/ – In addition to 28,000 comprehensive links, it rates the top 22 genealogy websites.

http://www.genhomepage.com/full.html – Lots of comprehensive links with daily updates.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/101sites/2003/ – Rates 101 best genealogy websites for 2003 (includes links to 2000-2000 choices).

http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/Genealogy/ – Mail portal on Yahoo. Includes links to more than a dozen beginners’ guides.

http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/U_S__History/Genealogy/ – Provides links to state genealogical sites.

http://www.geneasearch.com/ – Links to all kinds of genealogical databases and resources.

http://www.familysearch.org/ – Links to hundreds of excellent websites.

FREE COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH SITES

http://www.gencircles.com -- Outstanding place to start your search. More than 90 million names and an excellent format that is easy to use.

http://www.rootsweb.com/ – Family trees (>300 million names), surname list (>1 million), mailing lists, message boards, Social Security death index, state death records, census data, newspapers, dozens of other databases. Free webspace.

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ – Lineage-linked database with more than 300 million names.

http://surhelp.rootsweb.com/srchall.html – Searches for surnames on USGenWeb, WorldGenWeb, surname pages, message boards, and many personal genealogy pages.

http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/ – Surname Resources provides links and searches (including searches through all RootsWeb databases).

http://www.genealogy.com/ – Genealogy library, World Family Tree, 1900 U.S. Census, international, passenger records, message boards, lessons (including 31 lessons on Internet genealogy). Some resources limited to paid members (see below).

http://www.gendex.com/gendex/ – Indexes thousands of World Wide Web databases containing genealogical data for 1.4 million surnames and nearly eighty million individuals.

http://www.familysearch.org/ – Latter-day Saints website with more than 400 million names to search for. Also step-by-step guides on searching at the state, county and city level with links to appropriate resources in each state. Maps, forms, links to other websites. International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, Ancestral File and more.

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ – Databases, biographies, books, and links to other websites.

http://www.ancestry.com/ – Social Security Death Index (1930-present), World Tree database, lessons, phone and address searches, websites, maps, gazetteers, chat area, bookstore, and more. Some searches require membership (see below).

https://elibrary.mel.org/validate/http%3A%2F%2F0-www.heritagequestonline.com.elibrary.mel.org%3A80%2F - HeritageQuest Online provides Census (1790-1930), 22,000 family and local histories, 1.9 million genealogy articles, Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank, and U.S. Serial Set (free to Michigan residents)

SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines use different algorithms for finding sites, so the results from one are likely to differ from the results from others. Also, each engine uses somewhat different defaults for Boolean searches, wild cards, quotes, etc.

Start with the most uncommon word first to speed up the search.

Search engines:

http://www.altavista.com/

http://hotbot.lycos.com/

http://www.excite.com/

http://www.go.com/

http://www.askjeeves.com/

Metasearch engines:

http://www.google.com/

http://dogpile.com/

http://www.highway61.com/

http://www.mamma.com/

Genealogy-specific search engines:

http://www.genealogy.com/ifftop.html – Good search engine that only searches genealogy sites and goes deeper into the site than most other search engines.

http://www.gensearcher.com/

http://www.genealogy.com/allsearch.html

http://www.gensource.com/ifoundit/

http://www.genealogyportal.com/

http://www.gengateway.com/

MEMBERSHIP SITES (FEE-BASED)

http://www.genealogy.com/ – Annual memberships provide Family Tree Maker software, online access to genealogy library and (depending on the level) World Family Tree, U.S. census data, and international and passenger records. ($70-200)

http://www.ancestry.com/ – Search historical records by category or location, build a family tree. Also includes message boards, news, research tools, and how-to articles. Membership provides access to census data, immigration data, Social Security death index, newspapers, obituaries, etc. depending on level. ($30-200)

E-MAIL LISTS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail.html – Links to thousands of genealogy e-mail lists.

http://lists.rootsweb.com/ – Links to nearly 30,000 genealogy e-mail lists and archives.

http://www.cyndislist.com/mailing.htm

NEWSGROUPS

http://www.genealogy.com/201/lesson1/course1_01.html – Information about using newsgroups.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=soc.genealogy – Access to key genealogy newsgroups.

http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_announcement.html – Search newsgroup archives.

http://www.newsrover.com/ – Software that searches newsgroups for your search terms and downloads relevant messages to your computer.

BULLETIN/MESSAGE BOARDS

http://www.genforum.genealogy.com/

http://boards.ancestry.com/

http://www.thecore.com/~hand/genealogy/post/

http://www.yourfamily.com/bulletin.cgi

CHAT ROOMS

http://www.cyndislist.com/chat.htm – Genealogy chat rooms.

SPECIALIZED RESEARCH WEBSITES

Vital Records:

http://www.vitalrec.com/ – Most comprehensive site with information about how and where to write for vital records in each state (state, county, municipality).

http://www.usgenweb.org/ – Excellent source of county vital records information (maintained by volunteers).

http://www.cyndislist.com/usvital.htm – Excellent source of both general and state-specific links.

http://www.vitalchek.com/ – Links to vital records sources in each state and order forms.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm – How and where to write for vital records in each state.

Obituaries:

http://www.cyndislist.com/obits.htm – Comprehensive resources for obituaries including mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~obituary/ – “The Obituary Daily Times” e-mail list and searchable database.

http://www.king.igs.net/~bdmlhm/obit_links.html – Source of obituaries, tombstones, death registers.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/7748/obit/obituary.htm – Obituary links for each state; obituary search (paid members only).

http://www.familyworkings.com/links/obits.htm – Selected obituary information.

http://www.ancestry.com/search/obit/ – Recent obituary information (searchable).

http://www.legacy.com/NewspaperMap.asp – Recent obituary information (searchable).

Immigration records:

http://www.ellisisland.org – Database of immigrants through the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924 searchable at no cost. Members can post annotations, contribute scrapbooks, and more.

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/intro.html – Convenient forms for searching the Ellis Island database.

Census records:

http://www.cyndislist.com/census2.htm – Links to hundreds of census sites as well as some mailing lists.

http://www.ancestry.com/ – Monthly or annual subscriptions to census data for U.S. and many foreign countries; includes actual scanned census pages.

http://www.genealogy.com/ – Annual subscription to searchable U.S. Census ; complete images for 1790 -1930.

Cemetery records:

http://www.cyndislist.com/cemetery.htm – General resources, locality-specific sites, mailing lists.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemphoto/Cemetery_Photos.html – Photos from cemeteries around the world. Contact a volunteer to take photos of cemeteries.