Take Our October Issue Quiz and Win
How closely do you read your Family Tree Magazine? Take our test and find out: Go grab your October 2005 issue and use it to answer the following five questions. The first three people to e-mail the correct answers to
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com will each get a free copy of the 2006 Family Tree Guidebook, a special issue of Family Tree Magazine coming Nov. 22 to a newsstand near you.
- What year did Congress authorize pensions for Mexican War veterans, and what year did it stop accepting them?
- What map at the Utah State Historical Society can help you locate a now-defunct territorial town?
- What floor of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library (http://www.familysearch.org) houses US and Canada microfilm?
- If you examine a photograph with a loupe and see the image is made up of tiny dots of ink, what does that mean?
- Trick question: Who is the actual father of actress Jane Fonda?
In the News
Two new online newspaper projects will let you read all about your ancestors:
- Family who hail from the Land of 10,000 Lakes might show up in an archive of three late-19th and early 20th-century Winona, Minn., newspapers: the Winona Argus, Winona Daily Republican and Winona Republican Herald. (That's what the
home page says, but the drop-down search menu only lists the Argus and the Daily Republican. I haven't found where they're hiding the Herald.) Eventually, the archive will include issues up to 1925 and more than 123,000 pages of text.
Get started at http://www.winona.edu/library/databases/
winonanewspaperproject.htm. Before you get to the actual search page, you'll have to click through a few steps,
including indicating whether you have dialup or broadband service. If you don't use Internet Explorer (IE), you'll also get a warning that the database works best with IE. (I use Safari and had no problems viewing newspaper articles.) Then you can select
an edition
to browse, or search on a keyword plus a particular newspaper, date range or type of content (ads, articles and pictures). Click on the headline in the list of matches to open the article in a new window.
- The Colorado History Museum has digitized more than 75 historic newspapers from 20 Colorado cities covering 1859 to 1923. You can search them online at http://host1.cdpheritage.org/newspapers using
the same system as for the Winona newspapers. Browse by issue or date, or search by keyword.
Pitching In
To future genealogists, the record loss Hurricane Katrina wrought will be a brick wall equal to thousands of courthouse fires. Worse, many Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana residents now lack important documents. "The loss of our collective memory of
this region, 'identity loss' in other words, is at stake," said head of the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA; http://archives.gov) Allen Weinstein. "Property deeds; birth certificates; personal papers;
information
documenting the rights and entitlements of citizens, such as Social Security and veterans benefits, are all at risk."
Last week, Weinstein announced NARA's hurricane response initiatives, including emergency grants of up to $25,000 to state archives, a conservator to help with document recovery, assistance for states in securing restoration funds, online preservation
information at http://www.archives.gov/
preservation/disaster-response, and expedited copies of records for veterans and retired civil servants (see http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/katrina.html).
Weinstein pledged additional grants of up to $100,000 per affected state from the fiscal year 2006 budget, once the funds are appropriated.
Changes Afoot at Ancestry.com
Online genealogy conglomerate MyFamily.com has delivered on its promise to redesign the subscription genealogy-records site Ancestry.com. Visit http://www.
ancestry.com to see the clean, crisp new look—as
well as nonaesthetic changes that may or may not make it easier to use the site. A MyFamily.com announcement listed these updates:
- a worldwide Ancestry Connection service, which—in conjunction with member profiles—lets you "meet" people researching your family lines (perhaps this idea came from new MyFamily.com CEO Tim Sullivan, who used to run the online dating service
Match.com)
- a Recent Activity section on the home page, so you can go right back to an interrupted research session
- enhanced integration between searching records and saving results, so you can more quickly document ancestral finds
- improved contextual search tips (the advice that pops up while you're searching a database)
- new site tutorials
The bottom navigation links on Ancestry.com's home page take you to learning centers that roughly correspond to the site's record collections. This can be confusing: Click Newspapers & Periodicals and you get to a page descibing the benefits of Ancestry.com's
"Newspapers & Periodicals" collection. But do a search (using the link on the right), click on a match, and if you're not a subscriber, you'll be asked to subscribe to the Historical Newspapers Collection for $49.95 per year. There's no collection called
Newspapers & Periodicals.
Since there’s no single page listing all of Ancestry.com’s offerings, you have to be vigilant about what subscription you’re purchasing. The Subscribe link on the home page offers only a $49.95 One World Tree subscription; a $129.85 combo
of the US Census Collection, US Records Collection and OneWorldTree; and the $199.95-per-year Ancestry Value Collection—which includes OneWorldTree plus the US Census, US Records, UK & Ireland and Historical Newspapers databases. (Note that the US Census
Collection now includes an every-name index to the 1920 census—earlier indexes for that census list just heads of household.)
If you want to subscribe to a single database (or just see how much it costs), you have to circumvent the system. Say you’re thinking about the US Records Collection: Click the Learning Center link for military; vital; or court, land and probate records.
Do a search, click on a match and scroll down for your opportunity to buy the $79.95-per-year US Records Collection. You'll also be offered either the Value collection or the new $189.95 Super Subscription to the US Census, US Records, Historical Newspapers
and UK & Ireland collections.
What do you think of the redesigned Ancestry.com? Once you've had a chance to use the site, drop us an e-mail at ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com.
Working Backward (and Sideways!)
I'd like to share a recent breakthrough with you-one that proves that genealogy puzzles are often solved through less than direct methods.
I found an ancestor, Aaron Hendrickson, on an 1860 Daviess County, Ind., census. The discovery was puzzling, because most of the family was in another Indiana county-and not a neighboring one, either.
Continue reading 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.
Homework Assignment
This week's tip is from the September 2005 Family Tree Sourcebook, available now on newsstands and at http://www.
familytreemagazine.com/mags/display.asp?id=1699.
Before you request copies of your ancestors' birth and death certificates, visit the state vital-records office Web site. You may learn county offices or state archives hold older records, you'll find out how to request a record, and you'll get
information about access restrictions and copying fees.
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 Plugging Into Your Past
by Rick Crume, also available for purchase online at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70624.
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:
• British War Memorial Project
http://www.britishwargraves.org.uk
Search more than 98,000 photos of British servicemembers' gravestones by name, unit service number, service branch, cemetery, county and country.
• The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jfd3a
Search wills, probates, court records, biographies and research papers to discover your Pilgrim ancestors.
• Green County Arkansas
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ar/county/greene
This site has transcribed newspaper articles, an index to wills, links to census information and a surname page where you can post the names you're researching.
• Historic Deerfield
http://www.historic-deerfield.org
Find out about events and genealogy workshops at this Deerfield, Mass., living history museum. Search for Deerfield probate records, as well as related items in the collections of five area universities.
Keeping the Peace
Two of Lisa Wooldridge's aunts disagree with her about the man in a group portrait—is he the children's father or their grandfather? Wooldridge has compared family photos, consulted other relatives and studied her family history. Now she wants
an unbiased opinion: Is the man in her group shot the same man who's shown here?
See both mystery photos for yourself 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.
Moorhead, Minn.
Rick Crume
Oct. 1
Minnesota State University Moorhead, 30th Annual Family History Workshop
Topics:
- Commercial Genealogy Databases: Should I Subscribe?
- Immigration & Naturalization Records Online
For more information, see http://www.mnstate.edu/heritage/FHW30.htm.
New York, NY
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and James W. Warren
Oct. 22-23
New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
Topic: Family History Writing Workshop
For more information, see http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org.
Shannon and Cobh, Ireland
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and James W. Warren
April 8-15, 2006
Enchanting Ireland and Your Irish Genealogy: Family History Writer's Retreat in Ireland
Topics:
- Writing Your Family History in Small, Manageable Pieces
- Getting Your Writing Project Started
- Writing About Life in Ireland
- Writing About the Irish Emigrant Experience
- Writing About Arrival in America, Canada or Australia
- Continuing Your Writing at Home
- Plus writers' discussion groups, individual writing time, one-on-one consulations, group tours, visits to historic sites that provide context to your family's history, and more.
Register by Nov. 30, 2005 to receive a discount. For more information, see http://www.enchantingireland.com or http://www.youririshgenealogy.com.
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you are related to another family with the same or a different
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