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Aug 2006 Issue
by LaRae Free Kerr
NOTE: This is the second of two columns describing the Ancestor Fishing Project. The first was published in the July 2006 issue of DSM. Visit our online archives at DesertSaintsMagazine.com.
Here are the websites for young people to search to find the newest information on their relatives.
The databases for the Ancestor Fishing Project are presented in this column. Refer to the July 2006 column for general instructions. This great, summer computer game requires no special sites or equipment, just a computer, a printer or disk for saving information, the names and information of people to search (a family group sheet helps) and a willing person. It is an especially good activity for the young people you love.
The objective is to find new information recently posted to the internet about true relatives. The only actions required are to bring up each search engine or database in turn, type the ancestor’s name into the search box, hit click, then evaluate and record the results. Following is the check list for sites to search.
Google It
The first two moves plumb search engines. “Google” the relatives’ name in every possible combination and spelling. Enter nicknames and initials into the Google search engine. Try putting quotation marks around the whole name to limit responses. If too many hits occur, add a birth year, a parents’ or spouse’s first name, and/or a place.
Check AltaVista
Since all search engines do not index the same materials, do an “AltaVista” search, too. Just type AltaVista in the address line of your internet home page and click to bring up the search box. Consistently, AltaVista brings up more spot-on genealogy sites than the others.
Visit FamilySearch.org
Hopefully, you’ve found a boatload of information from “googling” the search engines. The third move is to do a leviathan search by going to familysearch.org and discovering all there is to know about your subjects. After entering the name and data, then clicking on “Search,” a list of names will appear. Be sure to scan every category: Ancestral File, 1880 census, International Genealogical Index (IGI), Pedigree Resource File and Social Security Death Index for your ancestors.
On the same site, on the main page, click on “Explore the Family History Library Catalog,” then click on “Surname” and enter the surname. Look at the entries to see if the books listed cover the time and place your subjects lived. Copy only those that could possibly be ancestral. Record or print or copy only those few books that look pertinent to the family.
Back at the familysearch.org home page, go to “Find people with similar genealogy interests.” Register for free, then once you are in, click on “Search e-mail lists.” Enter the surname as the keyword. You may need to click on the “matches exactly” option. If a group already exists for your surname, send a message asking for more information on your assigned names.
Rootsweb.com
Rootsweb.com, the fourth destination in the internet ocean, is affiliated with Ancestry.com, a fee site, but still provides much information free. The home page will give you the option of choosing to search Rootsweb or Ancestry. Be sure to stay with Rootsweb to avoid fees. As you can see from the home page, you could spend much time on this site. Genealogists are continually adding information to Rootsweb, a great place to fish for ancestors free.
Another service Rootsweb provides is a marriage record database at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/marriages/. Compared to the others, this is just a minnow of a database. But it might contain data on your ancestors.
Hamrick.com
Just for fun, go to the Hamrick Software site at http://hamrick.com/names/. Enter the surname you are searching to see the distribution of that name in 1850, 1880, 1920 and 1990 in the United States. Another minnow site is Dead Fred at http://www.deadfred.com/ to find pictures of ancestors. Since this site is growing constantly, it’s worth a quick look at regular intervals.
Manuscripts
The next group of sites for the Ancestral Fisherman Project are manuscripts. The Moby Dick of manuscript sites is from the Library of Congress, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections at http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/. Under “Searching Manuscripts” search both the RLG Union Catalog and the OCLC Catalog.
Catch your ancestors at http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/, the site of the Library of Congress manuscript database. While there be sure to see if your ancestor is included in American Life Histories, short autobiographies from the Federal Writers Project at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html.
Troll for ancestors at http://library.usu.edu/specol/ and http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/.
Books, CD’s and More
To net recent information on ancestors, go to http://www.genealogical.com/ and enter the ancestors’ names to see if any newly published books or CDs include them. New books and CDs are among the best sources for new information about ancestors.
Gather together all the information you have netted and present the package to the researcher who asked for your help. Then request new names to search. The Ancestor Fishing Project will make an intriguing summer project.
If you have emailed LaRae Free Kerr without receiving a reply, please resend the request to this new address, Itsallrelatives@sfcn.org.
