Genealogy Videos Galore

Years ago I started creating genealogy related playlists on YouTube. 

I update them about twice a year. 

There are so many free tutorials available. 

Take advantage of them!

To go to the playlists click HERE.

It Paynes Me

My apologies, this should have been Rule #1.

RULE #12  Pay attention to what you're doing!

 Harriet S. Payne

 PARENTS
 Peter I Coughnet (1793-1856)
 Catherine Wohlgemuth (1794-1881)

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Lafayette Wilmarth (1811-1854)
 ✿ Harriet Ceilinda "Hattie" Wilmarth (b. 1841)
 ✿ William P Tiffany (b. 1844)
 ✿ Katherine (Kate) Tiffany (b. 1844)
 ✿ Priscilla Tiffany (b. 1845)
 ✿ Luther Scott Tiffany (b. 1867)

 Birth  April 30, 1812 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
 Marriage  22 Feb 1842 to Lafayette Wilmarth
 Marriage  30 Jun 1846 to Lafayette Wilmarth
 Death  March 29, 1859 in Jackson Twp, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
 Residence  1880 in Davenport, Scott, Iowa, United States
 Burial  in Davenport, Scott, Iowa

After the jump: The records and more

Kan u hep me fine my famly?

Usually in genealogy we say that spelling doesn't count. That applies to searches and records created before the advent of Social Security, not to Facebook and message board posts. If you want to be taken seriously, in life not just in the genealogy world, learn to proofread. Spelling, grammar, capitalization (especially of surnames)...it all matters.

This is especially important if you're posting on a page/group/message board where the language used is not one you are fluent in. If you don't use an online translator before you post another user will use one after. They may be able to help you break down a brick wall but if you can't write a coherent post you won't be able to communicate with them.

If you are posting, or reading posts, on Facebook I would recommend not using the Bing translator that automatically appears on some Facebook posts. If there are minor misspellings Google Translate will suggest possibilities. I pasted the title of this post into Google Translate and while it detected the sentence as Norwegian it also asked if I meant, "Can u help me find my family?" Bing, on the other hand, detected English and the translation was the exact same thing I pasted in to be translated. I have also seen the "see translation" option under Facebook comments that were entirely in well written English.
One last tip, no online translator is perfect. If you are going to publish something in another language try to find an actual person to proofread your work. Otherwise you could end up with something like this.

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The Best Newspaper Site For You

"Which subscription newspaper site is the best?"
"Which newspaper site is the best for obituaries?"

These questions are asked weekly on genealogy message boards and Facebook pages. The answer? The site that has the newspapers you want.
Newspapers that have been digitized are scattered all over the web. Here are just a few:

Ancestry.com's Newspaper Collections
Chronicling America
GenealogyBank
Google News Archive
NewspaperCat
Newspapers.com
SmalltownPapers.com

Some are free, some require a paid subscription. Are the paid sites better than the free ones? Only if they have the newspapers you want. (Sensing a theme yet?)
The largest online newspaper collection won't do you any good if they don't have anything for the branch of your family you're working on. Your brick wall may come tumbling down because of a small site that hasn't been updated since 1998 and has a dozen pages from an old newspaper on it. Does that make it the best newspaper site? No. That makes it the best newspaper site for you.
For the subscription sites you don't have to pay to find out if they have what you need. The same goes for genealogy research sites in general. These companies do not want unhappy customers which is why their card catalogs are free and not behind the pay wall. If they have what you need you will subscribe and most likely find something useful. If they don't have collections that apply to the places and time periods you're researching you can walk away. 
Many card catalogs for newspaper sites are organized by state. Of course you can't just assume that because they have a number of newspapers for your state that your ancestors will be in them. A site may have 20 papers for Texas but if they're all from the Houston area and your family was in Amarillo they won't be much help. (Houston and Amarillo are over 700 miles apart.)
Be sure to check the dates of the papers included in the collection. If your ancestors moved to the area in 1912 and the paper you need only goes up to 1910 on a particular site then you'll need to look elsewhere. On the other hand, if your ancestor left in 1910 and the collection starts in 1912 it might be worth checking. A retired teacher who moved to another state to be closer to her siblings might have an obituary in the town paper where she taught.
If your ancestor was involved in a newsworthy event, e.g. a murder, a weather catastrophe, or a scientific discovery, it may have been covered outside of their county or even outside of their state. In that case it might be worth subscribing to every newspaper site you can find for a month or a year each. In my tree I have a newspaper article from San Antonio, Texas for a murder in Pineville, Kentucky. I also have an article from a paper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a deadly tornado that happened in Melissa, Texas. The former was found on Ancestry.com, the latter on GenealogyBank.
If you're on a tight budget keep a list of items to look for in papers. Maybe start a spreadsheet with the names, places, dates and notes on what to look for, e.g. obituary, marriage announcement, crime. Also note death certificates with causes of death that might warrant a newspaper article, e.g. "gunshot", "injuries from an accident" or "struck by lightning."
Once you've searched the card catalog or had a subscription and cancelled don't cross the site off your research list. More newspapers are being added to most of these sites every month. Some of the subscription sites will send monthly emails with details about newly acquired collections.
All that said, the number of newspapers not digitized is far greater. What you are looking for may not be online in your lifetime. You do not, however, need to spend your children's inheritance on plane tickets and road trips. Unless you want to, of course. A little online research can help you find alternatives. Just a couple of examples:

1. In their research services the Minnesota Historical Society offers obituary and other newspaper article look-ups for a small fee.
2. The Public Libraries of Saginaw (Michigan) has an online obituary index and will mail copies of obituaries if you are out of state. The service is free but a donation is always good for your research karma.

Check your local library to see what newspaper databases they have access to and here's a list [the 3rd green box] of subscription sites that are available for free at Family History Centers.
In some cases finding a the newspaper you want may involve a bit of serendipity. I took a road trip to visit the cemetery where my 3rd great-grandparents were buried. While I was there I stopped at the local library. They had a few random issues of the local paper on microfilm. One included my 4th great-grandmother's obituary and also had an advertisement for my 3rd great-grandfather's shop.
If you need to go completely old school and are looking for newspapers from 1821 to 1936 try to find a copy of THIS. At the link enter your zip code to see if there's a copy at a library near you. It is a list of every paper published that had copies existing in 1937 and where to find them. You'll still have phone calls to make and/or emails to send to find out if they still exist but it's a start.

RELATED LINKS:  
Newspapers for Genealogy Research, a YouTube playlist of tutorials
Newspapers!, links galore from Kenneth Marks
Elephind, a search engine for world's historical newspaper archives
Newspaper category on Cyndi's List
Newspaper Archives, Indexes & Morgues from The Library of Congress

RELATED POST: Obituaries
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Keeping Up With the Joneses

Here's one way I find potential blog fodder. I search Ancestry.com for public tree photos for a common surname and look for flags or coats of arms images. Within minutes I will have found a tree full of zombies, premature births, and other illogical profiles. It never fails. Inevitably it will also be a tree that is wasting space with useless iconography that has been uploaded hundreds of times.
Today I searched for Jones and Johnson. For each name I clicked the first flag in the search results and ended up in the same tree. Here is just one page from that tree's media gallery:

Over 40,000 images and I would bet about 30,000 of those could be narrowed down to 50 if the tree owner would just attach more than one profile to each image.
For those of you who noticed the page number, no, I didn't click through all 735 pages to get to this one. I chose a random page. You can do this quickly in any media gallery with three easy steps.
1. Click to page 2 in the media gallery.
2. Go to the address bar and change the last number (which should be a 2 if you followed step #1) to whatever page you want to jump to.
3. Hit enter.
If you want to take a look through a media gallery on a public tree go to any page on that tree. You'll see the address starts with http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/ followed by a number. That is the tree's id number. Delete everything following that id number and add /media. Hit enter and you'll be taken to that tree's media gallery.
You've probably already guessed that my next post will be a profile from the tree that goes with the above media gallery ;-)


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Case Study #1: Hammack & Mott

I've been wanting write a post about the research process for a while now. Even if you aren't a Hammack or a Mott I hope you'll find some helpful hints here. I'm actually not a Mott either but we'll get to that later. Here are the main characters in this story:

Sophia Ann "Annie" Hammack, my father's maternal grandmother
John Franklin Hammack and Martha Cornelia Mott, Annie's parents

Martha Cornelia Mott's name will change a couple of times during the course of this post.

Talking to Dad

The names of my father's maternal aunts and uncles were known to me, I had met them all. For anything beyond that I had to ask Dad what he remembered. His maternal grandmother's name was Annie Hammack and this case study is about her line. According to Dad the names of Annie's parents, his great-grandparents, were John Franklin Hammack & Martha Cornelia Mott. He never met them but he did have a memory of meeting one of Annie's sisters and thought her name might be Carrie. So with that I was off to try and find out something about his maternal grandmother's family.

Annie Hammack Loftice with my baby brother and me.

I had no problem finding Annie with her husband and children in U.S. censuses but finding anything prior to her marriage was my first road block. Annie was born in Missouri so there wasn't an immigration issue.

By Any Other Name

Most of my great-grandparents applied for Social Security. I had a list of applications to order. Ordering all of them was out of the question financially so I prioritized the list. Annie was not at the top. I had names for her parents and that would be the primary reason for ordering the application. As I was running out of alternate spellings and different searches to try I started moving her up the list.
Dad seemed sure of the names but I was stuck so I crossed my fingers and ordered her SS-5. A few weeks later I found out that Dad was right with one small, but very important, omission.

After the jump: The answer, more questions and contact from distant family.

Consider the Source

Updated 21 Feb 2014

There are endless instances where we as genealogists and family historians need to consider the source of our information. The story that Grandma told, was it a first hand account or was it information that had been passed down? The informant on the death certificate, was it a close family member or a friend of 5 years? The witnesses for a delayed birth certificate, how clear is their memory 20-70 years after the event?
We should be just as skeptical of certain record collections. Regular readers of this blog know that calling Ancestry Member Trees a "source" is laughable. Here are some other collections that should be ignored or considered leads to real sources.

Millennium File

"The Millennium File is a compiled source and is similar in form to other linked databases, such as Ancestry World Tree. Databases like these are great starting points for beginning your research. It is always good to find out what others have already learned and compiled about your ancestors." Of course that assumes that those "others" have done actual research. A great starting point for your research is records, not trees.
"Many of these lineages extend back to nobility and renowned historical figures. In fact, one of the things the Millennium File focuses on is linking to European nobility and royalty." So this is a clickophiles dream collection. "Source information is also provided in this database, making it easier to verify the accuracy of the research done." This is what you should pay attention to. If the source information is trees or family group sheets walk away.

Family Data Collections

These include the following:

Family Data Collection - Births
Family Data Collection - Marriages
Family Data Collection - Deaths
Family Data Collection - Individual Records

Originally these were a single collection, divided into smaller collections after being added to Ancestry.com. When an "individual record" includes birth, marriage, and death information Ancestry suddenly has four records instead of one. Great way for them to pad their numbers.
The Family Data Collection is extraneous data from a genetic study. "Citing the source of every genealogical fact in the electronic gene pool was deemed unnecessary and cost prohibitive by medical researchers." While there may be valuable information in these collections these are not records but essentially trees and should be treated as such.

U.S. and International Marriage Records

This collection is data compiled from family group sheets. While this is also not a source there is a link in the "About" section to order copies. The copies may or may not have sources listed but should include contact information for the individual researchers. I am going to place an order and post an update once I have it.

UPDATE: The family group sheets are purchased by surname. They are relatively inexpensive, especially if you order the PDFs, because they do not search the pages for your family. You get them all at once and sift through them yourself.
The sheets do not have space for formal sources so at most there may be a brief list of sources. Anything from "MO death cert., Greene Co. mar. cert., Probate rec. for [name]" to "Letter from [name]" or "Notes from [name]." There are submitter names and addresses on each sheet so you can write to the person if you have more questions. Of course there is a possibility the submitter has moved or passed on. Each sheet is stamped with the date received. The ones I ordered have stamps from about 1985 to 1999.
In the sources lists you may find the name, and author, of a family book that you didn't know existed. You may find multiple sheets that involve your family or you may find just the one that was indexed in the U.S. and International Marriage Records collection.

Gravestone Index

The indices of Find a Grave and Billion Graves are the most popular of these. Data on these sites is created by users. I'll focus on Find a Grave since I haven't used Billion Graves.
On Find a Grave users can add memorials without photos or proof that the person is buried in that particular cemetery. Personally I give more weight to memorials that have a photo but even then, the stone could have been placed on the grave yesterday. It could have been purchased by a descendant who never met the person. Unlike the Family Data Collection, which I generally ignore, these records should be examined closely. Click through to the actual memorial. A user may have added a bio, obituary or photo of the person. If no family members are linked click on the name of the cemetery and search the cemetery for other members of the family.
These records should be viewed with a critical eye but can potentially be a treasure trove.


If you have a question about any collection's validity go to the search page for that collection and scroll down to the "About" section.

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Your Genealogy Library

Updated: 16 Jan 2015

Like the playlists on YouTube I'll be updating this periodically. Once the lists are larger I'll break them down into more categories. This list is for more recently published books but may include a few older books that have stood the test of time.

Books on internet research, especially those focused on a specific website, quickly become outdated.

"The company that purchased Ancestry Publishing’s business several years ago has published the second edition of The Official Guide to Ancestry.com in Kindle format and Nook format. That book was published in 2008 and is extremely outdated...George [the author] strongly recommends that you do not purchase either ebook version of this book." - The Genealogy Guys Podcast

So books dealing with a specific website or internet research in general will be kept to a minimum. The categories so far are: 

Fiction
Non-Fiction: DNA
Non-Fiction: Ethnic Research
Non-Fiction: Genealogy Reference
Non-Fiction: Personal & Historical Stories
Children's Books

If you have any suggestions for the list or an opinion on any book on the list please comment. Thanks!

 The main library in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1874.

FICTION

✿ Bonner, Brynn  Family History Mystery series

✿ Brown, James  A Promise to the Past

✿ Day, Patrick  Murders and Genealogy in Hennepin County

✿ Fishman, Stephanie Pitcher  Finding Eliza

✿ Fox, Jimmy  Genealogical Mystery series

✿ Goodwin, Nathan Dylan  Hiding the Past

✿ Hart, Hazel  Family History

✿ Havelin, Michael  The Ben Bones mystery series

✿ Hollingsworth, Gerelyn  The Janet Burney genealogy novellas

✿ Luben, Jacquelynn  Tainted Tree

✿ MacPherson, Rett  Torie O'Shea mystery series

✿ Mathieson, Gordon  The Family Tree

✿ Molyneux, Stephen  The Marriage Certificate

✿ Nixon, John  The Cuckoo Clock

✿ Nixon, John  Family Shadows

✿ Nixon, John  Stolen Futures

✿ O'Neary, Gearòld  Where's Merrill?

✿ Peartree, Cecilia  Reunited in Death

✿ Percival, Wendy  Blood-Tied

✿ Rawlings, Norma E.  It's in the Genes 

✿ Rawlings, Norma E. Malvern Murders

✿ Rawlings, Norma E.  Sleeping Dogs

✿ Rawlings, Norma E.  Sleeping Dogs II

✿ Robinson, Steve  Genealogical Crime Thriller series

✿ Sprinkle, Patricia Family Tree Mysteries series

✿ Vandagriff, G.G.  Alex and Briggie Genealogical mystery series

✿ Wiseman, D.J.  A Habit of Dying

NON-FICTION: DNA

✿ Kean, Sam

   The Violinist's Thumb and other lost tales of love, war, and genius, as written by our genetic code

✿ Smolenyak, Megan & Turner, Ann

   Trace Your Roots With DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree

✿ Sykes, Brian

   Adam's Curse

   Blood of the Isles

   DNA: USA

   Seven Daughters of Eve 

NON-FICTION: Ethnic Research

✿ Beidler, James

   The Family Tree German Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Germanic Ancestry in Europe

✿ Bowen, Jeff [trans.]

   Applications for Enrollment of Chickasaw Newborn Act of 1905, Volumes 1-7

   Applications for Enrollment of Creek Newborn Act of 1905, Volumes 1-14

   More transcriptions

✿ Clifford, Karen
   Locating Your Immigrant Ancestor's Homeland
✿ Colletta, John Philip

   They Came In Ships

   Finding Italian Roots

✿ Melnyk, Marcia Iannizzi & Tedesco, Mary M.
   Tracing Your Italian Ancestors
✿ Ouimette, David S.

   Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide

✿ Phillips, Richard Hayes

   Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children in Colonial Court Records

✿ Ryskamp, George R. & Ryskamp, Peggy Hill

   Finding Your Mexican Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide

NON-FICTION: Genealogy Reference

✿ Breland, Claudia

   Genealogy Offline: A beginner's guide to family history research records that are not online [Only available for Kindle]

✿ Clark, Gary W.

   19th Century Photos Kwik Guide: A Step-by-Step Guide to Identifying and Dating Cartes de Visite and Cabinet Cards

   Gravestone Photography and Documentation

✿ Clifford, Karen
   Becoming an Accredited Genealogist
   Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program (2012)
   Digging Deeper: Using Essential Pre-1850 Records
✿ Coleman, Ruby

   Genealogical Research in Nebraska

✿ Cooke, Lisa Louise

   How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers

   The Genealogist's Google Toolbox

   Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse 

✿ Hite, Richard

   Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends

✿ Jones, Thomas W.

   Mastering Genealogical Proof

✿ Kemp, Thomas Jay

   International Vital Records Handbook

✿ Leclerc, Michael J.

   Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research

✿ Mills, Elizabeth Shown

   Evidence Explained

✿ Milner, Paul

   Discover English Parish Registers

✿ Morgan, George G.
   How to Do Everything Genealogy (4th ed., 2015)

✿ Morgan, George G. & Smith, Drew

   Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques

✿ Newman, John

   Uncle, We Are Ready! Registering America's Men, 1917-1918

✿ Rising, Marsha Hoffman

   The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors

✿ Roberts, Gary Boyd

   Ancestors of American Presidents

✿ Rodda, Anne Patterson

   Trespassers in Time: Genealogists and Microhistorians

✿ Rose, Christine & Ingalls, Kay Germain

   The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy

✿ Smolenyak, Megan

   Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing

   Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History 

✿ Taylor, Maureen A.

   Family Photo Detective: Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries

Check out Family Tree Magazine's Shop for more.

NON-FICTION: Personal & Historical Stories

✿ Cohen, Rich

   The Avengers: A Jewish War Story

✿ Colletta, John Philip

   Only a Few Bones

✿ Fradin, Dennis Brindell

   Bound for the North Star: True Stories of Fugitive Slaves

✿ Gates, Henry Louis

   Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts

   Finding Oprah's Roots: Finding Your Own

   In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past

✿ Griswold, Mac

   The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

✿ Hill, Richard

   Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

✿ Jackson, Buzzy

  Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist

✿ Littrell, Ryan

   Reunion: A Search for Ancestors

✿ Luxenberg, Steve

   Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret

   - Interview with Steve Luxenberg Part 1 and Part 2.

✿ McThenia, Tal & Cutright, Margaret Dunbar

   A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping that Haunted a Nation

   - This American Life episode: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar

✿ Miller, Edward A.

   Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress

✿ Roach, Marilynne

   Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials

✿ Scott, J. Richard  The Secrets of Jackson Glen

✿ Smolenyak, Megan

   In Search of Our Ancestors

✿ Wilson, Jennifer

   Running Away to Home 

   - Interview with Jennifer Wilson here.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

✿ Hovorka, Janet
    Zap the Grandma Gap

Disclaimer: Inclusion in this list does not constitute an endorsement or positive review.

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Searching for Mexican Ancestry

While Ancestry.com is the first site that comes to mind when we think about genealogy it, unfortunately, does not have much for Mexico. Only the following 21 collections in fact. Most of them would only apply to a small segment of the population. Those in blue are free collections. My notes are in [ ].

✿ 1930 Mexico National Census (in Spanish)
✿ Coahuila y Texas : desde la consumacion de la independencia hasta el tratado de paz de Guadalupe Hidalgo [scanned book]
✿ Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial [scanned book]
✿ Encyclopedic History of the LDS Church
✿ Hispanic Surnames and Family History, 1996 [scanned book]
✿ Histoire des Fortifications et des Rues de Québec (in French) [scanned book]
✿ Historical and Genealogical Account of the Family of Vance (Vans, Vaux, and De Vaux) [scanned book]
✿ History of Mexico. Vol. I. 1516-21 [transcribed book]
✿ Illustrated history of southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time; also, Full-Page Portraits of some of their Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of Many of their Pioneers and of Prominent Citizens of to-day. [scanned book]
✿ Jewish Given Name Variations
✿ Journal d'un missionnaire au Texas et au Mexique (in French) [scanned book]
✿ Mexico Historical Postcards (in Spanish)
✿ Mexico, European Immigrants to USA Arriving at Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1921-1931
✿ Nacogdoches, Texas, Spanish and Mexican Government Records, 1729-1836 (in Spanish)
✿ Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, Mexico, Selected Parish Records, 1751-1880 [Index only, images are on FamilySearch]
✿ Treasures of Pioneer History [Mormon history]
✿ U.S., Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916
✿ Web: BillionGraves.com Burial Index
✿ Web: International, Find A Grave Index
✿ The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft [scanned books]
✿ World Foreign Gazetteer, Vol. 1

The one site you won't be able to do without is FamilySearch. They have civil and church records for Mexico. No matter your religious beliefs you'll be thanking the Mormon church for digitizing them and the Catholic church for keeping good records in the first place. You can read more about FamilySearch here and we'll come back to their site a little later.

LEARN SPANISH

Reading handwritten records takes some practice and you'll need to know, or learn, some Spanish. You don't need to be fluent but the ability to recognize key words will be helpful. It will enable you to work faster and cheaper. Your other options are to wait for a volunteer to help you translate each record or pay someone to translate for you. Doing a Google search for 'genealogy word list' plus whatever language you need is an easy way to find a glossary list specific to genealogy. Here's one from FamilySearch. Google Translate is another option. If you are unsure of a letter or a word take a guess. If it's not a word but it's close Google Translate will ask, "Did you mean..." and offer a suggestion.

NAMES

Children take their surnames from both parents. For formal use the father's surname is followed by the mother's surname. In casual use the mother's surname is dropped. Of course if transcribers are not familiar with naming conventions they may enter the father's surname as a middle name and mother's surname as the last name. I haven't seen errors like this on FamilySearch but it's something to be aware of if you are searching other sites or if you get stuck. Mistakes are made.
Because children have both their father's and mother's surname and because women did not take their husband's surname it's rare to have a difficult time finding maiden names for Mexican women. I'm not sure if this carries through to today but as recent as the 1930 Mexico Census that is the case. It was quite a shock for me to see my great-grandmother's headstone didn't include my great-grandfather's surname.

Headstone for Porfiria Carreon, wife of Ysidro Dimas

A few spelling quirks to keep in mind while searching. Some letters are used interchangeably: B and V, C and S, S and Z. Vargas may be Bargas. Sisneros instead of Cisneros. Sapata for Zapata. FamilySearch has their search engine set up so these variations are searched automatically. Because of that I was able to find my Bernals in the 1930 U.S. Census even though the enumerator wrote down "Vernal" and they did not show up in the first 5 pages of search results on Ancestry.com. I was then able to go back and find them on Ancestry by searching for Vernal and attached the census to their profiles. Keep this in mind if you're having trouble finding your family in a U.S. census. What a name sounds like will give you clues to variant spellings.

CIVIL REGISTRATION

The Civil Registration Office and requirement to register births, marriages and deaths was enacted into law by Benito Juàrez in 1859. It wasn't really enforced until 1867. Even then not everyone registered their family events with the government. It was rare, however, for them not to get married in the church, baptize their children, or have a church funeral. In many cases church records will go back much farther than 1859.
Most civil records are listed on FamilySearch like this: Mexico, [state name], Civil Registrations, [years available]. There are two exceptions, Aguascalientes and Tiaxcala, which are listed here. Hopefully FamilySearch is just in the middle of reorganizing and the records will all be listed in the same format soon. Once you click on "Browse Images" you can narrow down the collection by city/town and then by record type and/or year. Some smaller towns may have kept all vital records in one book.

CHURCH RECORDS

Each church has it's own format for records and that format may change over time. For decades records may be overflowing with information and then because of a change over in priests or a war the records will only have the bare minimum of information.
Baptismal records (bautismos) should tell you whether the child was adopted (adoptado), born out of wedlock (natural), or born to a married couple (hijo legitimo or h.l.). If adopted the record will have the adopted parents' names, if natural only the mother's name. A child born to a married couple should have both parents' names on the record. If grandparents' names are included there will also be a notation if any of them are deceased.
Once you have parents' names try searching FamilySearch with just parents' names without any other information.

 Click "Parents"

 

Enter parents' names and nothing else.

You may find records for other children in the family.

Other church records you'll find are confirmations (confirmaciones), marriage records (matrimonios), more in depth marriage information (informaciòn matrimonial), and death records (defunciones). Informaciòn matrimonial is a record of the parish priest's investigation to make sure there were no impediments to the marriage, i.e. related by blood, godparent-godchild relationship, impotence, criminal activity, etc..

Examples of records and more after the jump.

What's Happening?

Sorry that there is no crazy tree today. THIS is what I've been working on this week. Please bookmark and share! I love that there's such a wide variety of videos available online. If I haven't found your favorite genealogy video or YouTube channel yet let me know so I can add it to the bunch.

Here are some interesting links that have crossed my path this week...

Kerry over at Clue Wagon has made Family Tree Magazine's list of 40 Best Blogs! Check out the May/June issue for the list. Kerry's posts never fail to make me lau-SQUIRREL!

Get the handouts from this year's Who Do You Think You Are? Live.

WDYTYA? is coming back to American television! Between that and Family Tree, Christopher Guest's new show on HBO, I just might get cable.

The Ginger Jewish Genealogist has found the most depressing death certificate I've ever seen.

FamilySearch has revamped their website and it has some people concerned. (I haven't had a chance to explore the new site.)

Rootsonomy now has a researcher in Ireland! They haven't updated their web page yet but they made the announcement yesterday on their Facebook page. "Cost for Irish lookups is $20. Records will be emailed to you within a couple days. To submit your request, click the button "Request Research or a Lookup" on this Facebook page." Lookups are limited to these records:
• Births, marriages, deaths for 32 counties, Jan 1864 to Dec 1921
• Births, marriages, deaths for 26 counties, Jan 1922 to Mar 2013
• non-Catholic marriages, April 1845 to 2013
• Catholic marriages, April 1864 to 2013

I'll leave you with this great graphic from got genealogy?

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AncestryDNA Site Tools

The DNA site is still in the BETA phase. If you think of something that can be improved or a feature that you'd like added be sure to use the feedback button on your DNA page. Hopefully they'll add features that many people have asked for. A surname search, a username search, the ability to find common matches with another user, and the ability to find matches that match each other are just a few suggestions I've made.

Top right: Feedback button
Bottom left: Full Results button

Here's a look at the features as they are today...

FULL RESULTS

Of course the pie chart is the most obvious part of the results. Under the chart you'll see a "Full Results" button. On the full results page there are tabs for each ethnicity where you'll find out information about each ethnicity in your results including: Modern Day Location, About Your Region, Migrations into this region, and Migrations from this region. To the right of that is a list of your closest matches with that ethnicity in their results.

If you have more than four regions in your results the page is esthetically unappealing but the function is there.
In the "About Your Region" section you may find some helpful information but you will need to get past pointless filler statements like, "This is where Shakespeare wrote his plays and poems. It's home to the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood." In what way is that is helpful?

PEDIGREE AND SURNAMES

The 10-generation tree is probably the first thing you'll look at on your match's profile. If the tree is public you'll see the tree and on the left side of the page will be a list of surnames from their direct line. If you share surnames there will be a a separate list of those above the surname list.

This does not mean you are related through those surnames. This is not a "You are Related Here" sign but rather a "You May Want to Look Here First" sign. The common surnames are hints. If you click on a surname in that box you'll see, side by side, lists of people with that surname from your tree and your match's tree. The lists will only include people in the direct lines.
You should also look through the complete surname list below the box. The matches in the "shared surnames" box are exact matches only. While your great-great-grandmother might have been a Smith one of her brothers may have decided to use Smyth.

MAP AND LOCATIONS

The shaky leaf shows on the map.

The further back you go in time the less likely it is your family moved around a lot. Many families stayed in one place for decades. Because of that you may be able to find family connections if you find a relative of your match living in the same place at the same time as one of your ancestors.
In the case above the match has a shaky leaf hint. That shows on the map. Even if there wasn't a shaky leaf hint there would still be other hints. I could look at the "shared birth locations" on the left or the green markers on the map to try and find some common ground. Literally.
Just like the surname box you can click on a location in the "shared birth locations" box and see a list of people with that birth location from both trees.

NOTES

Surnames, maps and hints are only viewable by opening up the profile page. Notes on the other hand can be viewed on the results page by hovering over the note icon. The note will show only after you've written a note.
I can only tell you how I use notes. You may find other uses. When I've determined where the link is I put that in a note along with my relationship to the match. For those I haven't figured out I write a list of surnames in the note. Surnames that match those in my tree and surnames that I've seen on the trees of other matches. Then I can view the notes and open, in a new window, only those matches with a certain surname so I can compare their trees.
I haven't used the map feature yet, except to see how it functions. I will probably add any location details that I think are important to the notes as well.

Top arrow: Send message button
Bottom arrow: Add a note here

MESSAGES

Use the "send message" button on the match profile and a link to your match profile will be included in the message so the person you're messaging won't need to sift through their matches to find you. This link will not appear if you message them from their main Ancestry.com profile or from their tree.

After the jump, the various sorting options for your matches.

No Tree and Private Tree DNA Results

The most common complaint from those who have taken Ancestry.com's autosomal DNA test is about the number of test takers who either have a private tree or no tree at all. Frankly I'm sick of the whining and need to vent. So here goes...

PRIVATE TREES

For the private tree issue I have suggestions for both sides. For those wanting to see private trees, take a break from your complaining and message the tree owners. If you message them you stand a chance of opening a line of communication. If all you do is grumble about people who have private trees I can guarantee you'll get nowhere and accomplish nothing. And if your message has even a tinge of "Why the heck is your tree private?" attitude you shouldn't expect a response.
If you really want a response don't demand to see their tree. Don't even politely ask for an invite to view it. Ask if they can tell who your common ancestor is or if they have an idea where the link may be. I did just that and now know where my connection is to the person with a private tree. If someone does give you an invite to their tree don't start copying all their media to your public tree. Anyone who does that is the reason those with private trees are wary about letting others view their tree.
To those with private trees I'll ask you to consider something. Please think about making a public tree. Hear me out. You don't need to add media. You don't even need to attach records. Create a tree that has only your direct line with names, birth dates/places and death dates/places. That's it. Attach your DNA results to that tree. I'd also suggest that if you are interested in finding family that you should message your matches. There are plenty of people who are doing what I'm doing and putting matches with private trees in the trash. I'll go back and look at them periodically to see if any have decided to switch to a public tree but I'm overwhelmed with matches and have decided to focus on finding connections on the closer matches with public trees.

NO FAMILY TREE

If a match shows "no family tree" check to make sure. The person could have multiple trees and be undecided about which tree to attach their DNA results. If they have a tree, or two or three, they may show as "no family tree" on your match list but when you click to their match profile you'll see this:

"Select a tree to preview" and you may find a clue or even an exact match.
Another reason someone may not have a tree is they were adopted. Y-DNA and mtDNA each focus on a single family line. Autosomal DNA looks at all of them and can be taken by both men and women. This is the ideal test for those who have been adopted and want to find out something, anything, about their background. Chances are if you have someone who was adopted on your match list they will be contacting you. I recently had someone who was adopted contact me. She is a very distant match and has realistic expectations. She just wanted to know more about the ethnicity we have in common. I told her what I know and hope I can help her more in the future.

JUST THE PIE

Some people may not care about making contact with distant relatives. This applies to everyone whether the trees are public, private, or non-existent. They may want to contact only 1st or 2nd cousins or may not want to contact anyone at all. You're probably wondering why they bothered taking the test at all. They took the test for the ethnicity results. Period. Just because they are your 7th cousin twice removed does not mean they have to return your messages. They did not take the test for you.

NO EMAIL

One last reason for no response may be Ancestry's glitchy message system. Last week I received emails for every message on Ancestry. This week? Plenty of new messages but not a single email from Ancestry's message system. Be sure to keep an eye on the number next to the envelope in the top right toolbar on the Ancestry.com page. That number should reflect the number of new messages whether you get an email or not.

Whatever the case you cannot force anyone to answer your message so quit whining and move on to your next match.


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Fixing What's Not Broken 3

If you haven't read the first two "Fixing" posts these are comments made on Ancestry.com's Facebook page. Specifically on threads asking, "How are we doing?" or something similar. These threads seem to be posted every other day now.
The most (intentionally) amusing comment:

✿ Go back in time and save the US 1890 census before it was burned up, please.

Okay, now on to some tips with a side of snark. As always my comments are in red and the other comments have been cut and pasted so I take no responsibility for spelling or grammar.

FROM THE CLICKOPHILES

✿ I liked it about 12 years ago when if you clicked on a person's name it would take you back one generation to say who the parents were and so on and so on.
✿ Ah, the mentality of a clickophile. "I just want to click and poof, a tree appears by magic. Why do I have to actually read and search and stuff?"

✿ It would be nice if you got back to a certain point on one branch and find that you are related to a certain person and research it back as far as it goes. It would be nice if you could automatically copy it if you find you are related to the same person up another branch. Also, it would be nice to have more verification that the information is correct.
✿ It's your job to verify the information and the last thing we need is an easier way to propagate erroneous information. 

✿ Make it a lot easier to find photos of your relatives- I've come across distant relatives who have mutual relatives of mine in their tree and they have tons of pictures of them. I'd love to be able to find those directly, rather than accidentally.
✿ Why can't Ancestry's hints be perfect and spoon feed everything to me so I only have to click once to add stuff? I don't want to search or anything.  

TECHNICAL ISSUES

✿ I would like to be able to specify a date that would automatically turn my PRIVATE tree into a PUBLIC tree. (Like after I die!)
✿ Everyone here who knows their own death date raise your hand. Leave your username, password and your wishes in regards to your tree to someone. They can change your settings after you're gone.

✿ Find a way to stop signing me out of the site while I am in the middle of a search. I constantly have to sign in again, and again, and again....
✿ I am always getting bumped offline. I'll be in the middle of looking at a record and then it asks me to sign on again. This happened 7 times last night before I gave up.
✿ how about not bumping me off line all the time..and this is not bumping me off the internet.., just off Ancestery.
✿ This usually happens when the user is on a browser that isn't compatible, usually Safari. Read here to find out if your browser is compatible. Also, clearing cookies/cache will solve a multitude of problems on the site. Always try that before calling support.

✿ I tried 3 times & could not get that link to open up. That would be one suggestion as to how to improve Ancestry: Have valid links !
✿ Of course there is no mention of which link but I'm sure Ancestry will check all of their millions (trillions?) of links just for him.

✿ I would like to see less ads.
✿ I pay for a subscription, I would really appreciate no more annoying "count the bouncing ball" or other adverts. They slow the loading of pages and are generally distracting.
✿ Get rid of pop up adds. They're distracting and unwanted!
✿ Ancestry.com doesn't have pop-up ads. You have malware, a virus, or an add-on to your browser. One known culprit is an plugin called Ghostery but I'm sure there are a number of others.

✿ First, thanks for all you already do. I love spending time searching. I do have a question, though, I have some ancesters that are duplicates. Mothers/fathers of 2 sons that marry 2 sisters. Is there any way to enter them without "duplicating?" If not, is it a possibility?
✿ How do you remove duplicates on your tree?
✿ being able to delete duplicate people
✿ Is there an easy way to Merge duplicates?
✿ I guess the new merge feature needs to be placed more prominently.   

✿ ...why should I add all my information when as soon as I add it becomes ancestrys an they make money, look at there TV ADDS an TV shows with all the actors they even have shows in other countrys They are doing everything they can to keep all your information an selling you photo copies I'm not saying I do not enjoy what service I do it has helped me with a lot but I have help them Look at there TV adds they are selling people photos right on TV AN they don't offer us any discounts I have deleted 4 family trees an my profile 3 more to go I'm leaveing ancestry I'm done
✿ From Ancestry.com's terms and conditions: "Except for the rights granted in this Agreement, Ancestry acquires no title or ownership rights in or to any content you submit and nothing in this Agreement conveys any ownership rights in the content you submit to us."

✿ I don't like that I added dozens and dozens of photos from ancestry photo hints over the last year and now those pictures are no longer available partly because the tree they were related to went private and I have no idea what else caused it. All those hours upon hours wasted !
✿ Once media has been attached to a public tree it is public even if the original tree is private, deleted or the photo was removed from the original tree. If your media suddenly disappeared you have other issues.

✿ i would like to be able to download the record images (i.e census, military) to my computer and not just to my trees.
✿ I too would like to be able download the records to my computer.
✿ When viewing the original record the last option is to save to your computer. Save to your computer = download

✿ Please add a feature that allows people who input a photo or other attachment to "approve" its copying to other trees. Otherwise, those of us posting valuable family photos and primary documents here will keep our trees private.
✿ And what happens once we're gone? Is everything on our tree forbidden from being copied forever? And what's to stop someone from taking a photo of their computer screen while viewing your photo or retyping your story? 

LEARNING

✿ The only thing I think could be added is a place where you could ask a question.
✿ Ancestry's Facebook page, Ancestry's Community Forum, Ancestry's Message Boards, comments on Ancestry's blog, on Livestream twice a week after Crista's presentation, in comments on videos on YouTube,... Yes, there's absolutely nowhere to ask a question.

✿ I sometimes find hints for parents or children which, by the timing of the dates given, are impossible. Maybe a little more help for new members to understand how genealogy works?
✿ Videos from Ancestry available live, on YouTube, as podcasts in iTunes; other podcasts on iTunes that can be found by searching genealogy or family history; books from professional genealogists available at your local bookstore or library; numerous magazines; thousands of blogs;...

✿ Online videos to teach us how to do everything. I'd like one on how to organize my paper records. I'd also like one explaining how areas are listed in Scotland since it's different from the US (city, state, country) and several names have changed from 100+ years ago. Sort of like YouTube - just accessed thru Ancestry.com.
✿ Every Tuesday and Thursday Crista Cowen does a livestream video tutorial. It's posted to this playlist on their YouTube channel within 24 hours. Here's a playlist that's organized by topic. There's also a "Learning Center" on Ancestry.com. Since their YouTube channel has essentially become a learning center it would be nice if they revamped the learning center on their site. It's a bit haphazard. Just my opinion but there are lots of videos. 

✿ the educational seminars are always during the work week at 1pm EST. many can never participate. can you make a downloadable pod cast please?
✿ Have you searched iTunes for Ancestry.com? They DO have a podcast. They're getting a little better at keeping it updated with the latest tutorials. One of these days they will actually post to iTunes at the same time they post to YouTube. 
As to why the seminars are always during the work week, here's a response from the host of the seminars, Crista Cowen: 

"My show is every Tuesday and Thursday at 1pm (Eastern), regularly scheduled like any other show. Within a few hours after each episode originally airs, we archive it on our YouTube channel where you can watch it at your convenience. On occasion we do special events that are held at different times but will most likely always be during my own working hours. I do make an exception for the Tweetchat events (because I can do them from home if I need to). We hold one morning, one afternoon and one evening Tweetchat each month...I hope that helps you understand why we do these the way we do."

✿ Yes, a dollar a day doesn't sound like much, but the records I need from ancestry are for Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Germany. No amount of emailing Ancestry.com had given me an answer as to whether they have any records from those countries ... so it is a pretty expensive exercise just to find out they don't. Maybe they could tell me here???
✿ Hover over the search tab on Ancestry.com. The last option is the card catalog. Click that and on the left is a filter. You can find out what countries Ancestry has records for. To find out what's available for those countries online try Cyndi's List.  

✿ I would like to be able to filter out what I don't want to see from searches. At present, I get what I ask for, plus anything that could remotely be like what I want. If I know I *don't* want it, it would be nice not to have to sort through it.
✿ A list of videos about searching is here.

OTHER RANDOM COMMENTS

✿ Somehow find a way to see records from the the Canadian Railroad Companies. They won't even let us see our own ancestors records from 100 years ago. Maybe an organization like you can have more convincing power than us as an individuals. Also the Canadian Ship records from before 1865. 
✿ An American company will probably have less influence than an effort by Canada's own citizens to change their laws.

✿ ...it bugs me when I copy a person's name from a CENSUS, and it won't automatically allow copying of the rest of the family AT THAT TIME without going back and forth-back and forth for dad, mom sibling #1, sibling #2, #3, #4, etc. This gets to be a real pain when there are abt 15 siblings. THANKS FOR ALL THE RECORDS, THO. I'LL GLADLY CONTINUE TO USE!
✿ Why can you load whole families from a census on some of them, but not all of them?
✿ When I'm adding a census to a person, the rest of the family doesn't show up anymore for me to add the census to them too. What happened?
✿ I hate that I can no longer attach records to every member of a family that is listed in them.
✿ 1850, 1860 and 1870 to add and save the whole household instead of one at a time.
✿ Welcome to the pre-1880 censuses! Did you notice that those censuses do not show relationships? The first person listed may be the "head of household" but even that is an assumption. It's up to you to figure out if the others in the house are children, nieces/nephews, grandchildren, servants, or some other relationship.

✿ Yes, the private thing is so weird to me. Why!? If you are hiding, do enroll on a public site.
✿ The site is public for you because you have chosen to use it that way. Everyone with a private tree may think it strange that you make your tree public on a private site. They have their own reasons for having a private tree. I'm also fairly certain that keeping information from you is not the reason. Don't take it personally.

✿ There should be a "delete person" button on a person's main page. Having to go into the 'edit' mode just to delete is time consuming.
✿ Yes, please put it front and center where it can be clicked accidentally.

✿ I would like Ancestry.com to make corrections in the census transcriptions that are totally botched. Some of my families records are a joke, and I can't believe Ancestry.com is proud of them. I would volunteer to help.
✿ If you want to make corrections, make corrections.

✿ When is the 1950 US census coming?
✿ I am wondering why the UK censuses from 1921 onwards aren't available.
✿ Two words: privacy laws. For the US the federal law is 72 years. Guess the first person missed all the hoopla around the release of the 1940 US Census. For the UK the privacy law covers 100 years. 

✿ I want to see more episodes of "Who Do You Think You Are?"!!!!
✿ A Facebook status from one of the producers: "Working on a 4th season of "Who Do You Think You Are" for a new network. Very exciting."

✿ i have original birth certificates from Scotland I have the history of the Montgomery family from when they left the U.S.A in 1 776 through till 1950s photos wills letters an there all off line I have the index of all the books written by The Montgomies I bet there is a lot information out people would be willing to share if they had some incentive My research s almost finished
✿ Finished? I do not understand. Does anyone know what this means in relation to a family tree?

Can Ancestry force people to think?

✿ the sight is awesome, I treat myself to one month a year! only thing different would be, your sight recognizing mistakes..ex.. sometimes the mothers are born after the children, etc.. I wish you had a program to alert that things are wrong before you add the information, a lot of peoples trees are messed up, you have to watch that when following them.. just my 2 cents.
✿ I think there should be some type of prompt in place that doesn't allow someone to enter a date of birth that would have a parent dying years before their child was born, having people live for 200 years, or letting someone enter 1982 instead of 82 for a person's birth/death date, or a city in the USA as someone's birth/death place when they lived during the Roman Empire. When looking at other trees, I tend to look at those things: was this woman of childbearing age at the time her supposed child was born, or has someone picked up completely wrong information in their tree? Is this a typical lifespan for a person? How did this person get to this place?
Also, I see a lot of people with a death place of "Y" which is a city in France, and wondered why a lot of my Welsh ancestors were dying there when I could find nothing in history about a war going on or a large migration of Welsh to the Picardie area of France. Then I read somewhere that a lot of people would enter a "Y" to indicate that yes, someone was deceased, and that Ancestry was picking up that information as the city in France. Since then, I have been removing that reference to Y, Picardie from any of my ancestors' profiles on which I come across it. When people enter questionable information such as this, you could have a message pop up that says "Are you sure?" and explain what doesn't make sense. It may be a little annoying, but maybe a logic corrector could be a feature you offer that people could turn on or off.
✿ It would be great if there was a way to alert you if the birth year listed of a parent is after/within 10 years of a child. I've run into occasions where there is a match on a person in another family tree, but the person's parent's birth year is after the child's. Most of the time this has proven to be an incorrect person match, not an incorrect birth year.
✿ That illogical date warning exists but doesn't work when you're copying trees. If people would engage their brain while working on their tree rather than turning it off and clicking away there might be fewer of those errors.

After the jump are comments about the price of Ancestry.com. Sigh.

Fixing What's Not Broken 2

The threads on Ancestry.com's Facebook page have changed to "What can Ancestry.com do better?" but they are still posted once a week. Most people who comment never look at the thread again so replying over there seems rather pointless. At least here I can entertain myself and hopefully some of you too.
You know what's after the jump. As always the comments are cut and pasted with no corrections and my comments are in red.

Rise Up Lights

When I first started the blog I covered the spelling of names but I saw something on Facebook last month that may get the point across better than any blog post. Many of us probably have a mental list, if not a physical one, of letters that are most commonly transcribed wrong - L and S; a, e and o; M, N and W. Still we may have trouble finding a record because we didn't consider the y or g or f hanging from the line above changing the look of a letter in the name we're searching for. On top of all that we have to factor in accents and pronunciation because, in the case of census records, the person writing the record would write what they heard. Correct spelling was not a high priority.

Okay, so the Facebook posting that triggered this post: Say "rise up lights" a few times quickly. Out loud. Now slow it down. Do you hear it?
If you don't I'll tell you after the jump.