Question of the week: Favorite technology

It is amazing to think of the technological tools available to genealogists today that were not available twenty or even ten years ago.

I didn't start getting interested in family history research until about 2001, and have thus always used the internet. It's hard for me to imagine someone trying to find such information B.W. (Before Web).

So... what are your favorite technological tools/programs/devices that you use for genealogy? How do you use them?

The power of inquiry

It's amazing how much you can learn-- and acquire-- just by asking.

The other night I'm sitting with Dad after supper; he's talking about his parents and his childhood-- something he's been doing more of as he gets older. I finally ask him something I had been meaning to ask him for awhile: "Where is your father buried?" My grandfather died in 1956, 18 years before I was born.

Dad told me the name of the cemetery and mentioned that my grandmother was buried with him; for some reason-- perhaps because she died in 2001 and I knew her fairly well-- I never thought to ask about her final resting place. I knew it was in the Boston area, but had been out of town when she passed and couldn't go up there for her funeral.

Anyway, the cemetery is kept up and has a website. I emailed them through it and asked where my grandparents' plot was. I added that the reason I was asking was because I wanted send out a photo request for their marker on Find A Grave-- and most photo volunteers will want to have some idea where to look in the cemetery before they'll try to fulfill a request.

I was hoping by mentioning this that whoever read my email would be nice enough to take a photo themselves and send it to me-- and the dear lady who responded to my email did just that. Of course I sent back a nice reply thanking her.

I know where my paternal grandparents are buried because I asked Dad.

I have a location because I asked the cemetery.

And I have a photo because I hinted for one in my email to the cemetery.

I guess the moral of this story is, don't be afraid to ask for stuff. The worst answer you'll get is "no."

2011's genealogical discoveries

Christmas celebrations are over, and it's a good time to look back over the past year. For me, it's been a pretty remarkable one as far as genealogical discoveries go:

One of the biggest discoveries I've made was the FamilySearch site; this is an invaluable resource for genealogists of all experience levels. Many of my mother's family and ancestors were from New Hampshire, and this is the only place that I have been able to find New Hampshire vital records online. They are not the original records, but derivative records that were filled out around the turn of the 20th century by town clerks. But they are still extremely helpful.

A very recent discovery I've made in regard to FamilySearch is that of FamilySearch research centers that exist throughout the U.S. I did a search, and found that there is an LDS (Mormon) church just a few miles up the road from me that is a such a center. They are unfortunately closed from December 17th to January 4th.

Here they might have microfiche of records that aren't available online. I believe that you can also order microfiche through the FamilySearch website on loan for a small fee and have it delivered to a FamilySearch research center.

When I'm able to get to my local FamilySearch research center (probably on a Saturday morning), I'll blog about my experience. For many reading this who have been doing this much longer than I have and who have far more experience, it will probably be like reading about someone marveling over the discovery that the earth is round...

Find A Grave is another discovery I've made. Here you're likely to find memorials to at least some of your family members and ancestors-- often with photos of their tombstones, and sometimes even with photos of the people themselves. Membership is completely free, and as a member you can create memorials to deceased family members and ancestors and upload photos.

Fold3 (formerly Footnote)has been wonderful for finding military records-- specifically of my ancestors who fought in the American War for Independence and a couple of great-great-great uncles who fought in the Civil War.

Here I've also found some census records that I could not find on ancestry.com, as well as many city directories. One of the great things about Fold3 is that they have images of the actual records-- not transcriptions. Ancestry.com members are usually offered good membership discounts via ads.

City directories are also something that I've only recently started paying attention to, finding them to be great at giving information on where your relatives were living and what they were doing in years between census records. Fold3, the site mentioned above, has Boston city directories for most years between 1789 to 1925.

GenealogyBank, another newly discovered site, has Boston city directories for 1939 and 1959 as well. They also have a wonderful archive of newspapers going back to the 18th century. Here I've found a few marriage and death notices of ancestors.

Using the above resources, I've been able to find a great deal of information about various ancestors, filling in marriage dates and death dates and occupations.

Lastly, there was also the discovery of how enjoyable it is to blog about genealogy! It's a great way to share information, ideas, and stories with people who are also interested in family history research. I've found that learning about family histories is fascinating even when it's not my own family. And through research and the genea-blogosphere, I've met many truly wonderful people.

What will I discover in the year to come?

Original documents versus transcriptions

FamilySearch.org is probably my favorite go-to site for genealogical research on the web; not only do they have tons of records that you can't find anywhere else, but they also often provide images of the original documents as opposed to just electronic transcriptions of them.

Original documents or images of them are preferable to transcriptions for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, they are more reliable. Records that have been electronically transcribed were done so by human beings, for whom English is not a first language in some cases (Ancestry.com has much of their transcription work done in China).

Example of an error that can occur in transcription: a transcribed census record from Ancestry.com lists one of my ancestors as being 70 years old, but when an image of the actual census was pulled up and examined, his age was found to be listed as 30, not 70.

Secondly, transcriptions often leave out information contained in the original documents.

I had a transcribed death record for my 3rd great-grandfather William Winslow, but checked back yesterday to find that FamilySearch.org now has the original record available. I clicked on it, and was able to see the cause of William Winslow's death, which was... ahem... "intemperance and exposure."

So I now know that Great-great-great grandfather William was probably staggering home after a few too many at a local pub or something when he passed out in the freezing February snow and never awoke.

Not a terribly flattering vignette of my ancestor, perhaps, but it's one that I wouldn't have if I relied on a transcription instead of the actual document.

Just one little problem with the 1940 census

So I had been getting excited about the upcoming release of the 1940 census, which the National Archives will make available for research at 9:00 a.m. on April 2, 2012; this is the first census in which I'll be able to find my parents.

Or maybe not.

You see, this census won't be indexed.

So forget typing in a name and finding the person, the way we spoiled internet genealogists have been used to doing. Until they index the census, which is predicted to take about six months, we will instead have to locate searchees by enumeration district. And it appears that you can only find the right enumeration district if you have a street address.

In other words, unless you know exactly where the person you're looking for was living in April of 1940, good luck.

The NEHGS e-newsletter I received this morning warned of this little challenge, and advises trying to utilize city directories, the 1930 census, and World War II draft cards to try to determine residence locations.

This is good advice, of course, but then it defeats a main purpose of finding your family in the census-- which is to find this information in the first place.

No index? Really, National Archives?

It's not as if you haven't had TEN FLIPPIN' YEARS to prepare for this.

I shouldn't have a problem finding my dad and his parents, only because I know what their address was. However, my mom and her parents and grandparents will be a very different story.

You can search enumeration maps here; just type "1940 census maps" into the search engine, followed by the name of the county (and state, if the name of the county is common). Then click on the name of the one you want, and then the "digital copies" tab.

After having to wait so long, this is a very big disappointment. Might it possibly have something to do with why they're going to make access to this census free?