“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

World Deluxe

• Netherlands Births and Christenings, 1608-1882 (in Dutch) 
• Netherlands Marriages, 1637-1892 (in Dutch) 
• Denmark Births and Christenings, 1631-1900s (in Danish) 
• Denmark Marriages, 1631-1900s (in Danish) 
• Varese, Lombardia Region, Italy, Civil Registration, 1866-1937
  (in Italian)

U.S. Deluxe

• Wisconsin Divorce Index, 1965-1984 
• Delaware Marriage Records, 1744-1912

More…

• View a list of all new and updated databases 
• Learn more about what’s new at Ancestry.com 
• Search the Ancestry.com Card Catalog

Coming Soon

As we look towards 2009, let’s set some goals in our family history research. Whether your goal is to finally find great-grandpa in the 1900 census, to file that stack of papers, label those photographs, or master a new skill–make a list of things you’d like to accomplish this year. Put it on your desktop where you can review it regularly. Then take each item and set up a plan to make it happen. For example, you could set aside a certain amount of time each day to browse through the census for great-grandpa, even if it’s just ten minutes over that morning cup of coffee. Keep track of where you left off for the next day. File or label photos for fifteen minutes a day. Investigate webinars, classes, or publications that can help you further your research and grow your skills. Let’s make this a great year for your family history!

We’ve come a long way technologically with family history research tools. Years ago locating a record sometimes meant many hours cranking away at a microfilm reader and often transcribing the record because there was no machine to print it out. Now, with many records, we can sit in the comfort of our homes and locate our ancestors with the click of a mouse. Another click prints a copy, and with another click we can attach it to our electronic family tree. Voila! We’re done.

Ah, not so fast. While I love the advances that technology has brought us, sometimes we’re a little too quick to attach the record to our tree and move on. That wonderful find is relegated to a kind of electronic purgatory where we never fully explore it.

Here are some steps you can take to ensure that you’re getting the most from every find:

1. Transcribe it.
While this might seem a bit tedious, the act of transcribing a record forces you to read and think about every element of the record. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can glean from a find when you examine it closely.

2. Put it in context.
Create a chronology or timeline for all the records you’ve found on your ancestor and copy your transcription into that timeline. Seeing the information in the context of other information you have found can help you to estimate important dates and learn more about your ancestor.

3. Create an action or to-do list.
While you’re plucking clues from your new find, ideas will pop into your head for follow-ups. Keep a to-do list open on your desktop and add these ideas as they come to you. That way you don’t risk forgetting about them, and the next time you get a chance to return to your research, you know exactly where to start.

4. Add it to your tree.
O.K., if you haven’t already done it, now is a good time to click and add that record to your online tree and/or genealogical software. You may have to do this in more than one place if you maintain an online tree and another in a genealogical software program.

5. File a paper copy.
I like to keep a paper copy of what I’ve found. When I’m looking for a new angle, I find that browsing through paper copies is helpful. Plus, when it comes to showing family what I’ve found, most people seem to respond better to browsing through a binder than clicking through electronic files on a computer.

6. Pat yourself on the back.
With every record you find, you’re adding a piece to your family history puzzle. Take some time to appreciate each find and know that you’re doing your part to preserve your family’s place in history.

Have you perhaps been too hasty in dismissing a recent find? During these cold winter months venturing outdoors on slippery roads to do research isn’t quite appealing. Winter is an ideal time to revisit what you’ve found and search for clues you may have missed the first time around and pursue new leads online. 

Juliana Smith has been an editor of Ancestry newsletters for ten years and is author of “The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book.” She has written for “Ancestry” magazine and wrote the Computers and Technology chapter in “The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy,” rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e- mail at Juliana@Ancestry.com, but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.

Religious records rank among the most promising sources for discovering dates, places, and family relationships. In fact, in years before civil registration of vital statistics (a relatively late development in the United States and some other countries), religious or church records rank as the best available sources for birth, marriage and death information.

Traditionally, various denominations have kept different types of records. For example, presbyteries transferred membership records when a member moved to the new church. For centuries, Catholics and most Protestant denominations have kept careful records of baptisms and marriages that included names of godparents and witnesses–many of whom were relatives. Some religions baptized later in life and these records will contain important information about adult members.

Death and funeral information was not always recorded in official registers by some denominations and may therefore be harder to find.

Locating Religious Records
Church records themselves are becoming increasingly available on the Internet. Put the name of the denomination of interest into a search together with the name of the place where your ancestors lived and you may be pleasantly surprised to find great clues. The Jewish Family History Collection is just one indication of how rapidly religious sources are being added to Ancestry.com.

On a personal note, we were able to find several wonderful clues for our own family from the records of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Brooklyn, New York, 1837-1900, which were also added to Ancestry.com in recent months (baptisms and marriages). These pre-Civil War records took on added importance since civil registration did not begin in Brooklyn until the late 1860s and there may be no other source for this vital information.

Newspapers provide a fascinating way to find the religious affiliation of ancestors. Obituaries and death notices, engagement and wedding announcements are among the best places to look for clues. Articles about church fundraisers, picnics, sewing circles, clubs and other social events often listed the names of the participants and the sponsoring religious group. News publications are also great sources for biographical information about ancestors that cannot be found elsewhere. For example, “The Southern Christian Advocate” was a publication of the Methodist Conferences of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, during the 1860s and 1870s. Here’s an example from that publication of what you might find in similar periodicals:

“Mrs. Mary Smith died on 14th March 1867, in Abbeville District, S. C. She was born in Newberry District, 25th March 1805, and was for about 35 years a faithful and consistent member of the Methodist Church. She was twice married, in 1823, to George Cameron, and in 1855 to William Cuttino Smith, who survives her.”

Cemetery sexton’s records and gravestone inscriptions are also logical places to find clues. Once a death date is known, a death certificate or obituary can lead to religious records. As in any genealogical search, it’s a good idea to track information on other relatives listed in the obituaries or buried in the same cemetery plot. Their records may include missing details that will help you to learn more about a common ancestor.

Information about religious affiliation can be found in some pretty surprising places, too. For example, the 1925 Iowa State Census, available at Ancestry.com, lists the religious affiliation of everyone enumerated as well as ages and birthplaces so that you can often estimate where and when a baptism or marriage took place.

City directories (increasingly available online) are great places to discover where an ancestor was living at a given time. Look in the same directory for the addresses of churches or other religious institutions where your ancestors may have worshiped or gone to school. Be aware, however, that the closest church may not have been the one they attended. In many cases, ethnic groups chose to worship in a church where they could be with others who spoke their language. This may be especially true in Catholic churches. Even though an ancestor may have lived right next door to an Irish parish, the Germans and Poles probably chose to travel some distance to be with fellow immigrants and to hear sermons in their mother tongue.

Religious records may be a little more difficult to find that other records, but in most cases, the search will be worth the effort!

Loretto (”Lou”) Szucs is the author of several books and co-editor (with Sandra Luebking) of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. She previously worked for the National Archives-Great Lakes Region in Chicago, and has been with Ancestry for sixteen years.  

This Christmas I was able to give my mother a one-of-a-kind gift. A while back, I wrote about my Tobin hatters in an article that was posted to the 24/7 Family History Circle blog. A lady in England had happened across an old business card for “Tobin’s New Hat Store” in New York and posted it for sale on eBay. Thankfully, she did a quick search for more information online about Tobin hatters in New York and found my article posted on the blog. She left the information in the comments section of the blog and I was able to bid on and win the auction for that card. For a very modest sum, I was able to give my mom one of the best gifts ever! And the interesting image on the card had the whole family talking about it on Christmas night. What on earth does a donkey serenading a goose (Mother Goose?) have to do with a hat shop? If you have any thoughts on the meaning of the image, please share them with me through the comments section of the blog. I’d love to hear your ideas!

You don’t have to have a blog to broadcast your family history interests, although it is an increasingly easy and popular way to share your interests and finds publicly. Public Trees on Ancestry are a great way to connect with cousins or complete strangers who may have valuable information or long-lost heirlooms. Every day more people decide to explore their family history and search Ancestry.com looking for leads. If your tree is out there, that search can lead possible family members to you.

Message boards are another great way to share your family surname interests and leave a breadcrumb trail for those with information to share.

How much you choose to share is entirely up to you, but even just the names, estimated dates, and locations of your ancestors may lead you to a family treasure too!

Simplify Finding Distances between Locations
Not long ago I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how far my ancestor lived from the cemetery that I believe he is buried in “as the crow flies.” I could locate both locations on a map, but didn’t know where roads might have been on the frontier. I have since found a free website for joggers and bikers very useful for getting distances. GMaps Pedometer allows you to get straight line distances (manual) between two or more points.

Distances on current roads are available taking into account curves and turns onto other roads (automatic). This will be useful to get an exact driving distance from a landmark to a cemetery or other location. The site is based on Google Maps and has that look and feel to it. Double click to set your start, turn, and end points. I like to zoom in quite a bit and then click and hold to move the map when my route starts to go off the edge. The cyclist route will not let you go down a one-way street the wrong way like the runner route would.  

Gerald M. Graves
Van Meter, Iowa

Handprint Tablecloth
I purchased a book through Ancestry called Creating Junior Genealogists.

One good project was to have the family buy a plain white table cloth and use this for family gatherings. The idea is to have everyone draw their hand print on the table cloth. Have them use permanent markers that are made for material and have them sign and date each handprint.

Over the years the kids can see how they have grown and see how their handwriting has changed. The tablecloth can be passed down through the family to keep the tradition ongoing.

M.J. Waldschmidt

Saving Family Correspondence
When we moved my parents from Colorado to Nebraska some years ago, my brother started to throw out all the “junk”–greeting cards, old letters, post cards and notes. I said I wanted all of them. He could not believe I would pack all that “junk” back to California. He should have said all that “gold” back to California.

My mother was born in 1895 and died at the age of 96. One letter was from her girlfriend when they were young. They wrote a tiny note under the stamp on their letters like, “I miss you” or “I like BK,” etc., licking only around the very edges of the stamp. They thought they were really being clever — I think so too.

I have names of relatives from some of her cards and letters that I never knew existed. There are so many birth, death, marriages, anniversaries, accidents and illnesses along with other things in the lives of these families. Most of the birth announcements and marriage invitations are in their original envelopes.

There are a few letters where one relative that can’t stand another one and my mother being in between receiving letters from both and being sweet to both in answering them. Another find was over ten years of Christmas photo cards from a family to her. I put them in a row and I could see how their family grew.

I will still go through all the “junk” again later as I know there is probably something I have missed.
 
June Timm   
Murrieta, California

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: mailto:juliana@ancestry.com . Thanks to all of this week’s contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the “Ancestry Weekly Journal,” please state so clearly in your message.

The year was 1905 and it marked the end of the Russo-Japanese War, which was fought over a dispute stemming from Russia’s occupation of territory in Manchuria. Losing a series of costly battles made the war unpopular in Russia. In January 1905 when protesters assembled at the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition asking for better working conditions and an end to the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Guard opened fire on the crowd turning the peaceful protest into a massacre. “Bloody Sunday” led to riots and strikes throughout Russia as resentment for the Tsar spread. The disorganized Revolution of 1905 forced the Tsar into concessions, many of which were quickly withdrawn, leaving little change other than the temporary break-up of the revolutionary factions that were fighting for change. 

Norway, which had been united with Sweden since 1814, made a peaceful break and became in independent nation with the signing of the Karlstad Agreement.

Canada added two new provinces in 1905 as Alberta and Saskatchewan, formerly part of the Northwest Territories, joined the Canadian Confederation.

The railroad town of Las Vegas, Nevada was founded in 1905 as one hundred and ten acres of land were auctioned off. The city would be incorporated in 1911 with a population of around eight hundred. Legislation passed that year would make the city a popular destination for “quickie” divorces for people who would meet the short residency requirement of six weeks staying in dude ranches along the area that would later become the famous Las Vegas Strip.

The Wright brothers were still working on perfecting their airplane and by 1905 they were able to better control the aircraft allowing for turns and figure eights, and remain in flight for more than thirty minutes until the plane ran out of gas. This first practical airplane launched the aviation industry–an industry that literally “took off” in the ensuing years. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Prior to 1905, cocaine was popularly used as a local anesthetic, but its addictive properties made it too dangerous. In 1905, Alfred Einhorn created Novocaine, which could then be used in surgeries, dulling the pain and constricting blood vessels to reduce bleeding. It is primarily used in dental offices these days, causing dental patients to drool and talk like they have a mouth full of marbles following a filling. 

Contributed by Andrew Nichols, Phoenix, Arizona
This is a picture of my great-great-grandfather, Henry Rose, just back from a successful rabbit hunt.  This picture was taken in the late 1800s near Agra, Kansas.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Contributed by Donna and George Ballamy
This picture is of my Grandfather Henry Lowe, Aunt Lucille, and Grandmother Lowe in their 1908 Maxwell.

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.
~ Thomas Carlyle

Posted This Week

• Paris & Vicinity, France Electoral Rolls, 1891
• Social Security Death Index (SSDI)–Updated through November 2008 
• View a list of all new and updated databases 
• Learn more about what’s new at Ancestry.com 
• Search the Ancestry.com Card Catalog

During this holiday season as you’re enjoying time with family, spice up conversation with copies of records you’ve found. Check out the free historical newspaper sample pages online at Ancestry. These actual news accounts of historical events are bound to get the conversation and memories flowing. And check out the letters to Santa that appeared in newspapers from the 1920s and 30s. They are bound to stir up memories of Christmases past. Who knows? Maybe among those memories you’ll find a clue you can use in your family history quest!

As I look out my office window, I can see the snow falling, and I’m grateful to be bundled up in a warm blanket, rather than outside in the frigid temps. I can’t believe we’re just a week away from Christmas and two weeks from a new year. Where does the time go?

A lot has changed in the world since we looked hopefully at a new 2008, and while the news reports will probably focus on the more negative aspects of the year, I want to focus on the good. While we’ve certainly had some rough patches in our family, we also have much to be grateful for and that is what we will be celebrating this holiday season.

I’ve also had some good news in my family history, and as a community, we’ve seen some great new resources added to the collections at Ancestry. I browsed past newsletters to select some of the highlights to include in this article, and after going through the entire year I found that I had copied seven pages of URLs. I was going to either have to scale down a bit or this was going to be a VERY long article.

All told, Ancestry added 1.3 billion names to its collections and 52.9 million images. Wow! That’s a whole lot of scanning going on! Since this will be the last newsletter of the year, let’s look back at just a few of the collections that had us doing the happy dance this year.

Naturalization Records
Because of the nature of the naturalization process, locating naturalization records can be challenging. An immigrant ancestor may have begun the process in one location and completed it in an entirely different location, perhaps even another state. And for many years, they had various options when it came to the courts in their area. They may have naturalized in a criminal court, federal court, circuit court, or marine court, among other options. Because of the scattered nature of the records, the search can be challenging and some records might never be found.

In May, Ancestry posted nearly 2.5 million in the U.S. Naturalization Records, 1794-1995 database. On September 7th, I wrote about how the index to post-27 September 1906 records could be used to order the naturalization records through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) new genealogy program. The following month, access to some actual naturalization records got even easier when Ancestry posted the images of more than 490,000 naturalizations to its Immigration and Emigration Collection.

And the news gets better–naturalization index records from New England, New York, and Southern California are currently being converted to searchable databases as part of the Ancestry World Archive Project. As more and more of these records are centralized in the Immigration Collection, the odds are getting better and better for millions of family historians seeking these valuable records.

Canadian Passenger Arrivals
The addition of Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 had researchers all over North America jumping for joy. While it’s obvious why this is good news for Canadians, many others who emigrated to the U.S. did so via Canada. For much of the nineteenth century, travel to Canada from Europe was cheaper than the trip to U.S. ports. Many chose the cheaper route and later moved on to the U.S., while others may have stayed. You may found that some families split, leaving siblings or cousins in Canada.

Additionally, in 1921 the United States began imposing quotas on immigrants based on nationality, so many eastern Europeans turned their eyes toward Canada. Again some remained in Canada, while others moved on. For those that moved onto the U.S., you may find them entering the U.S. in the database of Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1956, which was also updated this year.

U.S. City Directories
Since we just talked about the 1,100 new city directories that were recently added to Ancestry, I won’t dwell on it here, but for those who missed it, I dissected a directory from Brooklyn in a recent column that can be found on the blog. City directories give you an up close look at your ancestor’s neighborhood, with insights into the people and businesses that populated it. Because they’re listed alphabetically, it’s a great way to find other family members, some of whom may have lived in close proximity to your ancestors.

Newspapers Doubled in Size
Until historical newspapers made their way to the Internet, family historians searching for mentions of their ancestors typically had to spend hours going through microfilms of their ancestor’s hometown paper. Access was limited to library or archive hours of operation. This year Ancestry doubled the size of its newspaper collection, giving us the ability to browse newspapers into the wee hours of the night. Newspapers give us a real sense of the times in which our ancestors lived, and even if our ancestor’s hometown paper isn’t available yet, we can still read about the events in the world the year they were born, married, or died. We can read about weather events like droughts that might have forced our agrarian ancestors to move on to greener pastures. Or an epidemic that may have made them flee the city for a time—or for good. Take the time to browse through papers for the years when your ancestor seems to be missing from records. You may find the answer right there in the pages of history.

Mortality Schedules
Just this month, Wisconsin mortality schedules were added to the collection of U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880. While this might not seem to be of interest to many, I’m including it here because it is the first database made available through the Ancestry World Archives Project, and there are more to follow. So far contributors have preserved more than 8 million records. To learn more about the project and how you can join more than 9,000 other contributors, click here. 

Around the World
For our readers in other parts of the world, I haven’t forgotten you. I compiled a list with some of the more significant U.S. and international databases that were posted this year. To review more titles from 2008, you can see my list on the blog.

What’s Your Favorite?
I’m curious. What was your favorite database or tool launched at Ancestry this year? Please share your favorite addition of 2008—or any year for that matter—with all of us in the comments below.

Juliana Smith has been an editor of Ancestry newsletters for ten years and is author of “The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book.” She has written for “Ancestry” magazine and wrote the Computers and Technology chapter in “The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy,” rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e- mail at Juliana@Ancestry.com, but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.

This week, I went through all of the newsletters from this year and pulled out some of the larger databases that were posted this week, and some of my personal favorites from this year. My thought was to write a column about them, but when I realized how many there were, I decided that the article would focus on five or so. Here is my initial list, beginning with some of the more exciting titles for the U.S.  (Bear in mind though that this is not all-inclusive for 2008. To make sure you’re catching all the resources for your area of interest, search the card catalog.)

• U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880 (Update adding Wisconsin) First release from the World Archives Project
• U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918
• U.S. City Directories (1,100 directories from various states) 
• Major Historical Newspaper Collection Update– 20 million images added
• California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968
• Brooklyn, New York Catholic Church Baptism Records, 1837-1900
• Brooklyn, New York Catholic Church Marriage Records, 1839-1900

Native American

• U.S. Native American Enrollment Cards for the Five Civilized
  Tribes, 1898-1914 
• U.S. Native American Applications for Enrollment in Five Civilized
  Tribes, 1896
  

African American

• U.S. Southern Claims Commission Master Index, 1871-1880
• U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Allowed Claims, 1871-1880
• U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880
• U.S. Freedmen Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1865-1872 (Updated)
• U.S. Freedmen’s Marriage Records, 1861-1869

Census

• Florida State Census, 1867-1945
• Illinois State Censuses for the following years: 1825, 1830, 1835, 1845, 1855, and 1865
• Missouri State Census Collection, 1844-1881
   

Military

• U.S. Navy Pensions Index, 1861-1910 
• U.S. Military and Naval Academy Registers, 1805-1908 
• U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 
• U.S. Navy Cruise Books, 1950-1988 
• Returns from Regular Army Regiments, 1821-1916 (browseable)
• Official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861-1865
• U.S. Compiled Revolutionary War Military Service Records, 1775-
  1783 (Browsable by location)
• U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1940 - Updated
• U.S. Army Indian Campaign Service Records Index, 1815-1858
• U.S. Index to General Correspondence of the Record and Pension
  Office, 1889-1904 (browseable) 

State Vitals

• Cook County, Illinois Birth Index, 1916-1935 
• Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 
• Cook County, Illinois Death Index, 1908-1988 
• Missouri Still Birth & Miscellaneous Records, 1805-2002 
• Missouri Death Records, 1834-1931
• Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 
• North Carolina Marriage Collection, 1741-2004 (Updated adding nearly 500,000 records)
• North Carolina Divorce Index, 1958-2004 
• Tennessee Divorce and Other Records, 1800-1965 
• Washington Births, 1891-1907 
• Washington Deaths, 1891-1907 
• Wisconsin Death Index, 1959-1997

Immigration/Naturalization

• U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995
  (Index with certificate number and for most, volume and page number.)
• California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957 (Updated)
• Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Philadelphia, 1800-1819 
• South Carolina Naturalizations 1783-1850 
• New York Petitions for Naturalization-Update (Index cards)
• Michigan Passenger and Crew Lists, 1903-1965 
• Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956 (Updated)

International/Ethnic

Australia

• Australia, Convict Savings Bank Books, 1824-1886 
• Australia, List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842 
• New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists,
  1828-1896 
• New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists,
  1826-1922 
• New South Wales, Australia, Convict Death Register, 1826-1879 
• New South Wales, Australia Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related
  Records, 1790-1849 
• 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (Australian Copy) 
• 1841 New South Wales, Australia, Census 
• New South Wales, Australia Historical Electoral Rolls, 1842-1864

Canada

• 1891 Census of Canada 
• Drouin Collection (French-Canadian)
• Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 
• Nova Scotia 1770 Census 
• Canadian City and Area Directories, 1819-1899 
• Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900

France

• Marne, France Births, 1501-1907 (in French) 
• Marne, France Marriages, 1529-1907 (in French)
• Marne, France Deaths, 1547-1907 (in French) 
• Paris, France & Vicinity Births, 1700-1899 (in French) 
• Paris, France & Vicinity Marriage Banns, 1860-1902 (in French) 
• Paris, France & Vicinity Marriages, 1710-1907 (in French) 
• Paris, France & Vicinity Deaths, 1707-1907 (in French)
• Paris & Vicinity, France Electoral Rolls, 1891

Germany

• 500 German City Directories
• Bremen, German Deaths of Sailors and Ship Passengers, 1834-1875 (in German)
• Bremen, German Desertions of Sailors, 1855-1874 (in German)
• Bremen, Germany Ships Crew Lists, 1815-1917 (in German)
• Bremen, Germany Sailors Registry, 1824-1917 (in German)
• Bremen, Germany Births on Ships, 1867-1911 (in German)
• Germany, Topographic Maps, 1860-1965 (in German) 
• German Casualties in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 (in German)
• Various German directories and biographical titles (in German, some with free indexes)
• Holocaust: Schindler’s Lists

Ireland

• Ireland–Index to Griffith’s Valuation, 1848-1864 
• Ireland–Tithe Applotment Books, 1824-1837 

Italy

• Calabria Region, Italy, Civil Registration, 1810-1936 (in Italian)
• Lombardia Region, Italy, Civil Registration Records, 1866-1936 (in Italian)
• Piemonte Region, Italy, Civil Registration Records, 1870-1937 (Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Provinces–in Italian)

Jewish

• Jewish Family History Collection

Sweden

• Värmland, Sweden, Parish Records, 1661-1895 (in Swedish-updated)

Switzerland

• Swiss Overseas Emigration, 1910-1953 (in German)

UK/Scotland

• UK Medical Registers, 1859-1959 
• UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
• British Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1918 
• UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 
• The Voters’ List for the City of London, 1895 
• The Voters’ List for the City of London, 1897 
• England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906
• England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1940 
• British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
• England, The National Roll of the Great War, 1914-1918 
• British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
• British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920 
• Great Britain, Royal Naval Division Casualties of The Great War, 1914-1924 
• Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910-1950 
• Former Colonial Dependencies Slave Register Collection, 1812-1834 
• Dunfermline Journal, 1851-1931 (Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland)

Recently I wrote about facilities in Scotland that are tempting me to return for another research trip, and I made brief reference to the online maps at the National Library of Scotland website. We all appreciate the value of maps whether researching at home or on location. Maps clarify our planning, whether for research or travel, or both, because a visual aspect helps us think logically and break a problem down into workable segments.

Whatever record I am searching, I begin with getting my bearings and that means finding out about boundaries specific to the record and contemporary with my research.

Wherever I travel I want contemporary maps of different scales. They help me find the bed and breakfast where I am staying, or the location of a surviving house, or the local library. Good road maps are usually at a scale of four miles to the inch and detailed town plans can be as large a scale as six inches to the mile–or the metric equivalent. (Maps in the United Kingdom are metric.)

I also look for maps that portray background information, such as the distribution of names, the historic location of industries, or patterns of migration.

Online Selection
At the National Library of Scotland website, you can examine the first three editions of maps at the one inch to one mile scale that were published by the Ordnance Survey, Britain’s official mapping agency:

• One-inch to the mile, 1st Edition - 1856-1891 - 131 sheets
• One-inch to the mile, 2nd Edition - 1885-1900 - 131 sheets
• One-inch to the mile, 3rd Edition - 1903-1912 - 131 sheets

In addition, the website offers the first edition at the scale of six inches to the mile (2123 sheets), the four miles to the inch series of 1921 to 1923, and something known as the one-inch popular map of 1921-30.

Scotland produced many famous mapmakers of its own and the National Library reflects this in its online collection with the 1912 Bartholomew’s Survey Atlas of Scotland, and an atlas by John Thompson published in Edinburgh in 1832. A very useful collection is of town plans, many from the first half of the 1800s. Choose from a list of places, some with one or two dozen maps available (e.g. Edinburgh and Glasgow).

On the Scotland’s Family website you’ll find maps of county and parish boundaries.

The parish boundary plans are from The Parishes, Registers and Registrars of Scotland (first published 1993), which is available from the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.

Try out the interactive website, Gazetteer for Scotland. On this site you can view modern and historical maps, read about places, and find the location of historic buildings.

Place Name Aids
There are many place name lists online. Among those I refer to are gazetteers at Ancestry; you can find them by going to the Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers collection and typing in Scotland or a county name.

Among those listed is a favorite of mine, The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by Francis Groome. The Gazetteer of Scotland website mentioned above also is a good source for place names and I sometimes use the gazetteer at the website of the Scottish Archives Network. 

Sometimes I know I am dealing with a very specific bit of place name information, and in those situations I use the free database of all addresses in the 1881 census, available at Scots Origins. Test how it works with the place name Broomley. You will get seven results in two counties, four in the parish of Dun in Angus. You can also search on part of a word such as “stam.”

Other Useful Suggestions
I am always watching for old guide books and pamphlets, some are useful not only for research but for trip planning. I enjoy early motoring guides that were written before four-lane roads were built. One good example is the “Road Book of Scotland” published by the Automobile Association in 1953. There are descriptions of thousands of places, town plans, suggested routes to drive, and an atlas in the back. For up-to-date information I refer to Ordnance Survey maps, in particular the Explorer Series which are at the scale of 1:25,000 (4 cm to 1 km or 2.5 inches to the mile). If you use the Get-a-Map tool at the Ordnance Survey website you can zoom in to see the level of detail at this scale.

If you are considering a trip to Scotland in the near future be sure to visit the genealogy site for Scottish tourism.

Sherry Irvine, CG, is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English, Scottish, and Irish family history. She is the Course Director and co-owner of Pharos Teaching and Tutoring (www.pharostutors.com), a British company. Her books include Your English Ancestry” (2d ed., 1998), “Scottish Ancestry” (2003) And Finding Your Canadian Ancestors (co-author, 2007) all published by Ancestry. Upcoming lecture locations include Ottawa, Kelowna, London, and Auckland.

Search local and ethnic newspapers for information about your immigrant ancestors. Obituaries and other notices pertaining to life events (birth, marriage, anniversary, etc.) frequently list the town or county of origin for immigrants. You may also find lists of new arrivals, immigrants who were treated in a local hospital, lists of arriving indentured servants or apprentices, queries about missing relatives or friends, and notices of probates of estates–all of which may include clues to the immigrant’s origins. And don’t just look for direct line ancestors. While your ancestor’s obituary may not list that town of origin, the death notice of a sibling or cousin could be just what you’re looking for.

Check for newspapers in online collections like those at Ancestry. Inquire at local and ethnic libraries and genealogical/historical societies as they may have or know of collections, indexes, or compilations. State libraries and archives are another good place to check.

Spellcheck Your Family History Notes
If your record management program does not include a spell checker for an individual’s notes, try this. It’s fast, easy, and it works! Open a new, empty Word document and minimize it. Now open an individual’s Notes page and copy it to your clipboard. (Yes, copy–don’t cut yet!) Open the Word document and paste the copied notes there. Draw a short line at the lower end. Select the spell check feature and work through the set of notes. When finished, copy the corrected set of notes and paste at the top of the individual’s Notes page. When you are satisfied that all is well, highlight and delete the old set of notes below the line you added and then delete the corrected set on the Word document. Voila! Correctly spelled notes!

I use PAF and printed a list of all the names of individuals whose record contained notes (File > Print Reports > Lists > Individuals with Notes > Print.) I then worked through the list using the above idea.

Della Nielson Steineckert

AWJ Editor’s Note: Family Tree Maker 2008 and 2009 have a spell checker for the Notes section. Just open up the note for a particular ancestor and click on the spell check icon. Be sure to check the entire note though. If you close the check window before the program has checked the entire note, your changes will not be saved.

More About the Mc
As several recent tips have mentioned, it pays to be really creative when looking for Irish names. Think of variations. I’ve found the same person using macneal/mcneal/neal/m’neal/mneal. Sometimes that apostrophe really needs to be there and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the search engine. MacKneal just might be found under M’Kneal/M’Neal or Mkneal/Mneal. Don’t forget to do a Soundex search with and without the apostrophe.

Kathy Farrell
Payson, Arizona

Summer Homes
In response to Juliana’s city directory article, indeed your missing people may have had summer homes. After years of trying to find a death certificate for an 1894 death, I was amazed this summer to find her obituary that said she, a New York City resident, died at her summer home in Bath Beach, Rhode Island! And the obituary was in a Chicago newspaper–go figure. Her husband did business in Chicago among other places.

And a big thank you goes to Ancestry, though it was not on their website. This past summer I attended the IAJGS conference in Chicago and Ancestry provided the computers and had the obituary website on them.

Barbara Kaufman
Mt. Vernon, New York.

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: mailto:juliana@ancestry.com . Thanks to all of this week’s contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the “Ancestry Weekly Journal,” please state so clearly in your message.

Contributed by Shane Lear
Art and Mercedes (Loveless) Lear’s engagement picture taken in 1928 in Kokomo, Indiana. They were married for nearly sixty years before he passed away in 1985 and she in 1986. They had seven college-educated, successful children and more than a dozen grandchildren, too. I miss them so much.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Contributed by Glenda Magsam
This old photo is from my Danish side of the family tree, and is labeled “Married Nov 1, 1905; Joahannes B. Benson and Anna M. Mogensen Benson.” The wedding took place in Elk Mound, Wisconsin. During this era, smiles were unusual on photographs. I love looking at the “Mona Lisa” smile on her face!

Was just out looking at some World Archives stats and am thrilled to report that there has been significant progress. 8 million records have now been keyed by more than 9,000 contributors! Here’s a list of projects that are currently being keyed: 

• Cartes postales historiques - France [Historic Postcards]
• England and Wales, Criminal Registers, 1805-1892
• England, Newspaper Index Cards (Andrews)
• Nebraska State Census, 1885
• New England Naturalization Indexes
• New York Naturalization Indexes
• NYC Naturalization Indexes
• Southern California Naturalization Indexes
• Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piemonte, Italy: Marriage and Death Records

Click here if you’d like to learn more about the World Archives Project or if you’d like to join the community of keyers.

To lear more, check out the free webinar that was held on the World Archives Project in the Learning Center webinar archive. There is also a new article on Reading Old Handwriting in the Help section of Ancestry.com, that is useful both in keying for the World Archive Project and in reading the handwriting we’re faced with in our research.

“The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.”
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes