Our ears were itching earlier this month—turns out the Ohio newspaper Columbus Dispatch quoted Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy in an article
about travel to ancestral homelands. Planning a your own voyage to the land of your forebears? See the how-to guide in the June 2006 Family Tree Magazine, available now on newsstands and at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/mags.
Speaking of Ohio, Family Tree Magazine staff will be hanging out at the Ohio Genealogical Society conference this weekend. Please drop by our booth to pick up some free research aids and say hi.
—Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com
P.S. Make sure you don't miss a single issue of your E-mail
Update! Add our address (familytree-newsletter@fwpubs.com)
to your email-address book—your software will recognize the Update as an e-mail you want to read.
Government Access
Requesting ancestors' immigration records from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS; formerly called Immigration and Naturalization Services) may soon get easier. The April 20 Federal Register, the government publication that records
goings-on in federal agencies, printed USCIS' proposal for a program to handle your genealogy-related requests for historical naturalization, alien registration and other immigration records.
Currently, USCIS lumps those genealogical inquiries—which number about 10,000 per year—with other Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, creating a huge backlog. FOIA restrictions rarely apply to USCIS' historical records, anyway, because
the subjects of the old documents usually are deceased.
USCIS estimates the new genealogy program would handle 26,000 requests per year, with fees for searching indexes and copying records such as:
- Naturalization Certificate Files (C-files) dated Sept. 27, 1906, to April 1, 1956, containing information related to applications for citizenship
- Alien Registration Forms (AR-2) completed by aliens age 14 and older who lived in or entered the United States between Aug. 1, 1940, and March 31, 1944
- Visa Files, dated July 1, 1924, to March 31, 1944, which contain information on immigrants admitted for permanent residence under the Immigration Act of 1924
- Registry Files, dated March 2, 1929, to March 31, 1944, containing information on immigrants who entered the United States before July 1, 1924, whose original arrival records were lost
- A-files, case files containing all an individual's immigration records since April 1, 1944 (A-files dating before May 1, 1951, would be handled as FOIA requests)
The proposal is open for public comment until June 19. Put in your two cents by visiting http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main. Check Documents Open for Comment; choose USCIS
and Proposed Rules from the pull-down menus and click Submit. Click the link under Document ID in the results, then click the icon by Add Comments. You also can e-mail rfs.regs@dhs.gov; include "DHS Docket No. USCIS-2005-0062"
in the subject line.
Search Pennsylvania Obituaries Online
Pennsylvania's state library has posted microfilmed images of scrapbooks containing newspaper obituaries published between Oct. 16, 1891, and March 3, 1904.
Search for your ancestor's obituary at http://205.247.101.31:2005/
cdm4/search.php (the search page doesn't give you much clue where you are). At the bottom of the page, unclick everything except
State Library of Pennsylvania—Genealogy. Type your keywords (such as a name or place) in the All of the Words field and click Search.
If you're not sure whether Great-grandma would be listed under her maiden or married name, enter both surnames in the Any of the Words field and type her first name in the All of the Words field. The Proximity tab lets you type two search terms and specify
the number of words apart they can occur, letting you net obituaries containing variations such as john smith; john charles smith; and smith, john c. Still can't find the deceased? Try searching for people who might be listed as survivors.
Results show thumbnails of each matching obituary, its page number in the original scrapbook and surnames of everyone whose obituaries appear on that page. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the page; use the icons at the top to zoom in and navigate around
the article.
Even More Genealogy Freebies
If you're on a budget (who isn't these days?), you'll appreciate the 89 fabulous genealogy freebies we featured in the June 2006 Family Tree Magazine. Here are two more free ways to ramp up your research:
- Satisfy your inner memoirist and record your family stories for posterity by creating a WebBiographies.com (http://www.webbiographies.com) online scrapbook of your writings and photos.
Your first 10MB of storage is free. After that, you pay $24.99 a year for up to 100MB and $84.99 a year for up to 2GB. You register and answer some basic questions, then write blog-style entries under chapters you can define (defaults include topics such
as Family, Travel and Adventure, Romance, Advice and Hobbies). Photos are divided the same way.
A table of contents helps you and your readers find their way around your "book." You can link your biography to relatives' in a sort of family tree, and password-protect it. When you die, webmasters seal your work and keep it online at no charge.
See a sample biography at http://bio.webbiographies.com/scottpurcell
- PhpGedView (http://www.phpgedview.net) is an open source family tree program, meaning the code is freely available, so anyone can contribute improvements. John Finlay created it in 2001; now his students at
Utah's Neumont University manage it with help from dozens of techies around the world. They've just released version 4 in beta.
PhpGedView is Internet-based, so you and your family members can use a password to access the files from any computer with an Internet connection. It can search for relatives, generate reports, link to multimedia files, create an ancestral events calendar,
back up files and do just about anything else commercial programs do.
To get started, you'll need an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that gives you server space, a good comfort level with technology and an understanding of the Web's workings. (See the PhpGedView Web site FAQs for more details.) Then you download the program
and either upload your GEDCOMs or start entering family data. Finlay says once you've set up the program, relatives need not be especially tech-savvy to use it. Browse PhpGedView users' Web sites at http://www.phpgedview.net/registry.php.
Your Stories
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my own family stories. I wanted to share one reader's response, and more thoughts on capturing ancestral tales.
Read more at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/
ancestornews/current.html.
AncestorNews columnist Nancy Hendrickson is the author of Finding Your Roots Online, on sale now at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70583.
Browse
past AncestorNews columns at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/previous.html.
Paging Great-grandpa
This week's tip comes from the June 2006 Family Tree Magazine, available now on newsstands and at http://www.familytreemagazine.com:
Family histories are the trickiest collection to search at HeritageQuest Online (free through subscribing libraries). One way to get results is to use proximity searching. For example, the search Robertson near:10 "South Worcester" will
find books in which the surname Robertson appears within 10 words of the town of South Worcester.
Do you have a great idea for discovering, preserving or
celebrating family history? E-mail us your tip at
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com with "TIP OF THE WEEK"
in the subject line. If we publish it, you'll win a free
copy of Walking With Your Ancestors
by Melinda Kashuba, also available for purchase online at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70683.
Overwhelmed by the number of family history-related Web sites popping up? FamilyTreeMagazine.com sorts through them all—whew!—to bring you only the very best. We recently recommended the following as Sites of the Week:
• Fashion-Era
http://www.fashion-era.com
Discover the fashion dos and don'ts of your ancestor's time with this fun site. You may even get some tips for dating old family photos with clothing clues.
• Pioneer Living History Museum
http://www.pioneer-arizona.com
Take an online tour of this living history museum with restored and reconstructed 1800s-era buildings.
• Minnesota Veterans Grave Registration Index
http://people.mnhs.org/vgri
Search a free grave registration index for military veterans in the Gopher State.
Proving a Point
Is this Winslow Farr Sr. with his sixth wife and their child—or is it someone else altogether? Find out at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/
photos/current.htm.
In this Web-exclusive column, expert photo historian Maureen A. Taylor helps readers analyze old family pictures. If you have a family photo mystery for Taylor to solve, check out our submission guidelines at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/
photos/photohelp.htm.
Toledo, Ohio
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
April 27-29
Ohio Genealogical Society Conference
Topics: - From Yawner to Page Turner: Writing Your Ancestor's Story
- Cracking the Tombstone Code: Interpreting American Tombstone Art and Symbols
- Before You Publish: What Every Genealogist Needs to Know About Copyright
For more information, see http://www.ogs.org.
Winchester, Va.
James M. Beidler
May 3
Shenandoah Valley Genealogical Society Meeting
- Topic: Pennsylvania State Archives and Library of Pennsylvania Resources
For more information, see http://www.svgs.org.
Birmingham, Ala.
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
May 6
Alabama Genealogical Society
Topics: - Flesh on the Bones: Putting Your Ancestors into Historical Perspective
- The Silent Woman: Bringing a Name to Life
- Oral History: Use It or Lose It
- Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard
For more information, see http://www.archives.state.al.us/ags.
New York City
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
May 6
Genealogical Society of Rockland County at New City Library
- Topic: Trace Your Roots with DNA
For more information, see http://rocklandgenealogy.org.
Loro Ciuffenna, Italy
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Elaine Trigiani
Sept. 23-30
(Early Registration Deadline: May 31)
Personal/Family Memoir Writing Retreat & Tuscan Culinary Adventure
For details, see www.sharoncarmack.com or e-mail Sharon@sharoncarmack.com.
Adare, Ireland
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and James W. Warren
Oct. 7-14
(Early Registration Deadline: May 31)
Family History Writers' Retreat in Ireland
For details, see www.SharonCarmack.com or e-mail: Sharon@sharoncarmack.com.
DNA can help your genealogy research. There are good reasons why 9 out of 10 genealogists choose Family Tree DNA:
we have the largest database in the world to match your sample with
others to find a relationship our scientists are the top in this field
and developed the right tests that will help your genealogy.
GenSmarts Automated Genealogy Research - finds missed research opportunities. Free trial at http://www.GenSmarts.com/ftmagDeals.asp
RootsMagic Genealogy Software - "An excellent choice for any genealogist" says Family Tree Magazine. Get a free trial copy at http://www.RootsMagic.com
Need help translating German genealogical documents into English? Get your copy of the GERMAN-ENGLISH GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY, by Ernest Thode
http://www.genealogical.com/products/German-English%20Genealogical%20Dictionary/5758.html
PUBLISH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY. Preserve and share your precious family research. Personal coaching. Many options. www.GatewayPress.com
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