How to Find More Obscure Collections of Genealogy Records

How to Find Some of the More Obscure Collections of Genealogy Records

Dick Eastman · March 22, 2019 · Genealogy Basics, Online Sites · 2 Comments

Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and other search engines are great for finding online databases that are useful to genealogists. However, smaller collections and even obscure ones are not prominently listed in the big search engines. Yet there are a few online listings that can point the way to finding what you seek.
The Genealogy Roots Blog at https://genrootsblog.blogspot.com contains pointers to many online genealogy databases, records and resources. The focus is on vital records (birth, marriage and death records), obituaries, census records, naturalization records, military records and ship passenger lists. Although the blog is based in the USA, online European, Canadian, and other records sources are sometimes included. You may also occasionally see a fun post or genealogy news. Joe Beine does a great job of adding more and more links as time goes by.
Another huge resource is Cyndi’s List, available at: https://www.cyndislist.com. The site contains roughly 336,000 links to genealogy-related web pages in more than 200 categories. The various categories include many sources online records as well as pointers to newsletters, religious groups, historical information, geography, and much, much more.

Cyndi’s List is free for everyone to use and is meant to be your starting point when researching online for information in the United States and also in many other countries. Indeed, Cyndi Ingle has labored many thousands of hours since 1996 to produce this huge online resource at https://www.cyndislist.com.
I would suggest you check out both the Genealogy Roots Blog and Cyndi’s List to see if they contain information that may help you in your family history searches.

Loyola University to Create Database of Loyalist Americans’ Claims

Loyola University to Create a Database of Loyalist Americans’ Claims

Dick Eastman · March 18, 2019 · Announcements · 4 Comments

Loyalists, the women and men who chose to stay loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution, have been the subject of a resurgence of scholarly interest over the past decade. Many of the Loyalists moved to Canada as the U.S. Revolutionary War came to a close and a few others moved to England.

Previously dismissed as the losers in the conflict, scholars have turned their attention to those who separated themselves from their friends and neighbors and gave up their land and possessions when they chose to leave the new United States at the end of the American Revolution. The story of that difficult decision recorded in the Loyalist Claims Commission is one that has been largely overlooked since the end of the war.


The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William & Mary has awarded Benjamin Bankhurst, assistant professor of history at Shepherd University, and Kyle Roberts, associate professor of public history and new media and director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago, with a $5,000 Lapidus Digital Collections Fellowship for “The Maryland Loyalist Project.” The project is a collaboration between Bankhurst and Roberts, aiming to make the letters and petitions of British loyalists who fled the American Revolution housed in the British National Archives available in a digital archive.

You can read the full story in an article in the (Martinsburg, WV) Journal at: bit.ly/2XZSkB4.

Teaching Kids About Family History.... Helps Increase Resilience

Teaching Kids About Family History Reportedly Helps Increase Resilience

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · One Comment

I wish I had read this article when my children were young and I was just beginning to research my family tree! According to an article in the (Utah) Daily Herald:

“Resilience, or the ability to overcome challenges in life, is a trait many parents hope their children will develop. Resilient children are more likely to have good emotional and mental health.

“Research has shown that children who know more about their families and family history are more resilient and tend to do better when facing challenges in life. This may be because seeing patterns of overcoming failures and surviving hard times can help children recognize that people can recover and triumph, despite hardships. One of the best things families can do is develop a strong family narrative.”

You can find this interesting article at: http://bit.ly/2T2Yv3F.

Where to Find Personal Papers in Genealogy Searches

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · No Comments

Sometimes, the documents we seek as genealogists go beyond government-generated paperwork like vital records, federal and state censuses and military records. Sometimes, we need private documents — letters, business records and diaries or journals — to confirm dates or relationships. Those aren’t the kinds of things you usually find at the National Archives or your state’s archives.
Daniel Klein has published an interesting article in The Jersey Journal that offers suggestions for finding these personal documents, wherever they may be stored. The article may be found at: http://bit.ly/2Ja1FTy.

State-By-State Look at Your Public Records Laws

MuckRock Provides a State-By-State Look at Your Public Records Laws

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Legal Affairs, Online Sites · 3 Comments

These are laws that strongly affect genealogists. Many states are locking up public domain birth, marriage, and death records under the bogus claim of “preventing identity theft.” What’s the odds that an identity thief wants to use the personal information of my grandmother who died more than 60 years ago? Does anyone believe a thief can obtain a loan or a credit card in her name?
In any case, MuckRock tracks the laws of 50 states plus Washington D.C., all with different statutes, exemptions, and limitations that dictate what you can get from your state and local agencies. With the rules of access differing across the board, MuckRock provides an easy way to keep track of them all through our interactive database showcasing the best, the worst, and the confusing parts of state records law.
MuckRock is available at: https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/mar/08/sw-state-guide.

Genealogical Journey to Québec City

Making a Genealogical Journey to Québec City

Dick Eastman · December 14, 2018 · Travel · One Comment 

 

Québec City is rich with history, artifacts and documents – all of which make the search for French Canadian ancestry relatively straightforward. Searching records online through the Monastère des Augustines and sites like PRDH are highly recommended, and, of course, so is a trip to Québec City.
Jean-Pierre Gendreau-Hétu did exactly that. Luckily for the rest of us with French-Canadian ancestry, he was interviewed by Pamela MacNaughtan who then wrote about the trip, describing the genealogy journey.

If you have French-Canadian ancestry from the Quebec City ancestry and would like to research the archives where those ancestors lived, you might first want to read the article in the Quebec City Tourism’s Website at: https://blogue.quebecregion.com/en/things-to-do/genealogy-journey and also watch the video below or on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/QVt1D4bVl8k.

Attention French-Canadian Descendants

If you are new to French-Canadian genealogy, you may be surprised by the number of famous relatives you have. My own ancestry is 50% French-Canadian (thanks, Mom!) but I researched my father’s Yankee ancestry first. Sometime later I started on my mother’s side of the family and was soon amazed by the number of interconnected families. I also found French-Canadian family trees to be rather easy to research when visiting a major library dedicated to French-Canadian genealogy.

Attention French-Canadian Descendants: You Are Undoubtedly Related to Almost All Other French-Canadians

Dick Eastman · February 5, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · 27 Comments

I have often jested, “I never met a French-Canadian that I am not related to.” That’s a bit of a joke, but it also seems to be true!
Almost all French-Canadian descendants can find family relations to Madonna, Justin Bieber, Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and about half the players and coaches in the National Hockey League!

The French-Canadians lived for many years in small communities, somewhat shut off from the outside world by the politics of the time. They all intermarried. The result is somewhat twisted family trees with lots of cousins, certain ancestors appearing multiple times in a family tree, and more than a few inherited medical conditions.
Here is but one example:
The Perche-Quebec.com web site has explored the ancestry and cousins of Madonna. Like me, her mother was French-Canadian. In her case, however, her father was of Italian descent.
Quoting from the web site at http://www.perche-quebec.com/files/madonna/individus/madonna-en.htm:

“Willard and Elsie Fortin, the maternal grandparents of Madonna, are direct descendants of Julien Fortin dit Bellefontaine, the first Fortin who settled in New France in 1650. He was from the parish Notre-Dame-de-Vair, today part of the village Saint-Cosme-en-Vairais (Sarthe, France). 90% of the American Fortin descend from Julien Fortin. The Fortins are today the ninth largest family in Quebec.”

However, the story doesn’t stop there. The web site displays ALL of Madonna’s maternal ancestors for five generations. That only goes back to the late 1700s/early 1800s in Quebec. If the web page could display a wider pedigree chart, I am sure the researchers could have traced most of those families back to France in the late 1500s/early 1600s!
Now for the fun statistics. According to thePerche-Quebec.com web site, Madonna is related to:

• Justin Bieber via 345 different connections
• Celine Dion via 309 different connections
• Xavier Dolan via 268 different connections
• Jack Kerouac via 188 different connections
• Angelina Jolie via 153 different connections
• Ryan Gosling via 144 different connections
• Justin Trudeau via 76 different connections
• Hillary Clinton via 45 different connections
• Camilla Parker-Bowles via 32 different connections
• Alanis Morissette via 20 different connections

And that’s not unusual! In fact, almost all French-Canadian descendants can find multiple connections to most all–probably all–of the above famous people. Your challenge is to prove your own connections!
I would suggest you plan a visit to one of the following excellent genealogy libraries in the U.S.

American-Canadian Genealogical Society and Library (I have spent many wonderful hours in this library!)
https://acgs.org/
7 Elm St
Manchester, NH 03103

American-French Genealogical Society
https://afgs.org
78 Earle Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895-3108

French-Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut, Inc.
https://www.fcgsc.org
P.O. Box 928
Tolland, CT 06084

Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society and the Vermont Genealogy Library
http://www.vt-fcgs.org/
Physical address: 377 Hegeman Ave. (Across from the State Police)
Fort Ethan Allen
Colchester, Vermont

Mail address: P.O. Box 65128
Burlington, VT 05406

La Maison de la Généalogie
http://sgcf.com
3440, rue Davidson
Montréal, QC, H1W 2Z5

Also, the Le Comité des Archives de la Louisiane, Inc. is a non-profit genealogical support group for the Louisiana State Archives. While this organization does not maintain a large library of its own, it has published numerous articles of original genealogical and historical articles dealing with topics from around Louisiana. This society can be a big help, especially with information about French-speaking Louisiana residents. For more information, go to: http://www.lecomite.org/.

NOTE: The Quebec Family History Society Library in Pointe-Claire, Québec, also has an extensive genealogy library but specializes in genealogy research for the Non-Catholic, English-speaking population of Quebec throughout the centuries. This is not the best library for French-speaking Canadian ancestors, but it is an excellent resource for English-speaking Canadian ancestry research. Details may be found at: https://qfhs.ca/.

Don’t Want to Deal with Family Skeletons, Don’t Look in the DNA Closet

If You Don’t Want to Deal with Family Skeletons, Don’t Look in the DNA Closet

Dick Eastman · December 5, 2018 · DNA, Genealogy Basics · 12 Comments 

 

Amy Dickinson is an American newspaper columnist who writes the syndicated advice column Ask Amy. In a recent column, she published a letter from a reader asking how to handle a family surprise: upon having her DNA tested, the writer discovered she had a half-sibling that she was not aware of previously. She then shared this bit of information with her family, including with both of her parents.
The information was not well received.
You can read this rather interesting letter and Amy Dickinson’s advice in a number of newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press at: http://bit.ly/2QxfdL6.

Comment by Dick Eastman: I certainly cannot compete with Amy Dickinson’s nationally-syndicated advice column but I will offer one piece of advice to genealogists: If your research finds a something that was previously not widely known within the family, you might want to stop and consider the implications before you broadcast that information to your relatives. Do you really HAVE to tell everyone? or anyone?

12 Comments--see original article--click on 12 comments above to see--very informative.

Reclaim The Records Wins Again and Freely Publishes the New York State Birth Index, 1881-1942

Dick Eastman · September 17, 2018 · Online Sites · 7 Comments

Goodbye microfiche sheets, hello Internet!
Reclaim The Records has announced that the organization has won and published the first free online copy of the New York State birth index, for the years 1881-1942!
Reclaim The Records made a Freedom of Information request to the New York State Department of Health a year ago, in September 2017, and it has finally been fulfilled. The data for 1881-1934 is online right now at the Internet Archive and the remaining data for 1935-1942 will be online by the end of this week. With more than 700 gigabytes of high-resolution images, it is taking a while to upload all the images.

This statewide birth index was previously only available to researchers who were sitting in a small number of upstate New York public libraries, as well as the Manhattan branch of the National Archives (NARA). And even then, it was only available in an old-fashioned and difficult format, scratched-up and faded microfiche sheets. And you had to hand in your driver’s license to be held hostage by the librarian just so you could see a single sheet at a time.

Thanks to Reclaim The Records, genealogists and others can research all the people in the New York State birth index whenever we want, from our own homes, for free. You can browse the images, download the images, re-post them to your own website, and even transcribe everything into your own database, if you want.
You can read more in the Reclaim The Records web site at: https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/records-request/10/.
The images of the New York State Birth Index, 1881-1942 are available on Archive.org at https://archive.org/search.php?query=New%20York%20State%20Birth%20Index%201881-1942.

Over 60 Million Pages of Digitized Canadian Heritage Soon To Be Available At No Charge

Over 60 Million Pages of Digitized Canadian Documentary Heritage Soon To Be Available At No Charge

Posted by Jean-Yves on Nov 19, 2018

As of January 1, 2019, 60 million pages of Canadian digital documentary heritage will be available at no charge to users. The Canadiana collections are the largest online collections of early textual Canadiana in the world. The removal of the subscription paywall will allow unimpeded access to this unique historical content for researchers, students, faculty, and all users in Canada and around the world.
Making the Canadiana collections available at no cost to users is a result of the recent merger between Canadiana.org, a not-for-profit charity, and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), a not-for-profit partnership of 75 Canadian universities, finalized in April 2018.
Source & Full Story