Roots & Branches

Hello fellow genealogists!

Just wanted to share a quick bit of information.

Shop Family Tree .com is holding a drawing for a $250 shopping spree.

You are allowed to enter daily so be sure to enter one time each day for a

better chance of winning.

To enter go to

http://win.familytreemagazine.com/

Good Luck!!

When I think of immigrants coming to this country the first thing that comes to mind is Ells Island.  Not all people coming to America came through Ellis Island, but a large percentage did.  Luckily for those of us that do have family that came to this immigration station the records have been preserved.

In March of this year, “American Profile” did an article “Return to Ellis Island; Millions of Americans can Trace Their Roots to the Immigration Station” story by Marti Attoun, Contributing Editor.

Here are a few excerpts.

“Al Jolson, Irving Berlin, Chef Boyardd, Knute Rockne, to name just a few, came through here, “says National Park Service ranger Jamie Keller, 35, as he stands in the vaulted Registry Room where immigration inspectors once questioned 5,000 or ore new arrivals each day.

“Think of all the immigrants brought” Keller says.  “They gave us pizza and hot dogs.  They built skyscrapers.  They built America.”  About 40 percent of Americans have at least one ancestor who came through Ellis Island says Stephen Briganti, 67, president and CEO of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

First-class and second-class passengers were inspected aboard ship, but third-class and steerage passengers were inspected in the main building on Ellis Island.  Doctors observed new arrivals for signs of labored breathing, limping and other obvious ailments, and marked in chalk on their sleeves-L for lameness or X for mental illness-if further medical examination was needed. They turned up immigrants’ eyelids with a buttonhook to check for trachoma, a highly contagious eye disease.  “Officials wanted you coming over here ready, willing and able to work,” Keller says.

With help from interpreters, inspectors asked each immigrant a series of questions: Occupation? Who is meeting you? Who paid your passage?  Have you ever been in prison?  About 2 percent of immigrants were rejected and returned to their homeland for medical or legal reasons, which gave one nickname to Ellis Island the “Island of Hope and Tears”.

Today, Americans visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to experience where their ancestors first set foot on American soil.  Not only can they trace the steps of their grandparents and great-grandparents, but they also can search for their names on the original ships’ manifests.  Information on more than 25 million immigrants, who arrived between 1892 and 1924, and the 2, 500 ships that transported them are available at the museum’s American Family Immigration History Center and online at www.ellisisland.org.

Please visit the website for more information on the immigrants and ship records.

Items available at the Sweetwater County Library are:

Forgotten Ellis Island (DVD) PBS Home Video

The Extraordinary Story of America’s Immigrant Hospital

Ellis Island (VHS) by Lisa Bourgoujian

Ellis Island: a pictorial history by Barbara Benton

The Library can help you with your

Genealogy Research.

The library provides patrons with many genealogy tools.

A separate genealogy computer for research, which is connected to internet, along with the subscription databases Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest.

Public computers, printing, copying and internet access.

There is access to the microfilm/microfiche reader.

The library houses the Green River Star on microfilm, 1907 to the past year.

A selection of books and videos are available for research to help inform you of everything from How to Get Started to Internet Sites.

The Reference Section has several items not for check out, but available in-library use only.

• o Included in these are the cemetery listings for Green River Rock Springs and surrounding area, Phone Books for local areas and most western states.
• o Polk Directories- 1944 to 2000
• o Wyoming Business Directories- 1904 to 1952

Magazines:

• o Annals of Wyoming
• o Everton’s Genealogical Helper
• o Family Tree Magazine

Stop by and see all the great tools the library provides for you and your research.

The Internet is in the process of changing from a collection of corporate, organizational, and personal websites to a social network of dynamic services full of user-contributed content (think Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, etc.)  The benefits of participating in the universe of expanded and shared information are incalculable and will lead, potentially, to the greatest exchange of information in history.  Genealogists in particular will thrive in the new Internet environment of sharing, exchanging, and interacting.

This book describes the wide array of social networking services that are now available online and highlights how these services can be used by genealogists to share information, photos, and videos with family, friends, and other researches.  Each chapter guides you through a unique category of social networking services using genealogy-related examples.  From blogs and wikis to Facebook and Second Life, author Drew Smith show you how to incorporate these powerful new tools into your family history research.

Specifically, you’ll find chapters devoted to the following social networking concepts and services:

Blogs, Collaborative editing, Genealogy-specific social networks, General social networking (Facebook), Message boards & mailing lists, Photos & video sharing, Podcasts, RSS feeds, sharing personal libraries, Tags, Virtual worlds, Wikis.

Library Journal Review

Social networking can be the answer to many a family researcher’s prayers. Not only do social tools and sites encourage the sharing of information, they also facilitate locating relatives and like-minded individuals. Still, many genealogists older than the Jon Stewart crowd are not aware of or hesitate to join the online social fray. Smith, Genealib mailing list administrator and costar of the Genealogy Guys Podcast (www.genealogyguys.com), explains the uses and benefits of social networking in easy-to-follow steps. Written in a conversational tone, the book highlights the individual features of tools like RSS, tagging, message boards, podcasts, blogs, and wikis. He also details the genealogical applications of sites like Flickr, LibraryThing, Facebook, Geni, and Delicious-even encouraging researchers to explore the virtual world of Second Life. Each chapter, copiously illustrated with screenshots, concludes with “assignments” to encourage readers to sample that particular social tool or service. Bottom Line While Brad and Debra Schepp’s Online Genealogy Handbook (Sterling, 2008) addresses some aspects of social networking, Smith’s book covers many more resources that could benefit genealogists in their quest to connect with relatives and fellow researchers.-Elaine M. Kuhn, Kenton Cty. P.L., Covington, KY Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

This book looks like something all of us should take a look at.  In this age of technology social networking it is just one more tool in staying connected.  Inside you will find straight forward information on how, why and when.  I actually think this book gives a simple and easy review of terms and tools so that anyone looking for information on social networking for genealogy or any other reason, will find it very useful.

Check it out.

Sometimes the closest people to us are not our family but our friends.  If you take a minute to think about your own life and who is around you every day, is it your family or your friends?  When looking into someone’s family history it is good to look for the unexpected as you go.  Many times it is with the friends. 

Example: Years ago I was looking for information about my grandfather’s first wife.  My mom knew some but not much.  We had been looking through old photos and ran across a picture of our dear friend Kiko.  She and her family had lived on the same street as my grandparents when my mother was young.  It occurred to me to contact Kiko and ask if she knew anything about this person. 

I wrote to her and did not hear back so I assumed that she did not have anything for me.  To my surprise not long after, a letter came with a few pictures and what information she could remember.  Lucky for me she knew where she was from and sent a couple pictures that included this lady and her brother.  I then and there made mental note to remember to include friends and neighbors in the contact list when doing a search. 

A while back I taught a class on Basic Genealogy and mentioned this story.  It was interesting to hear other stories like this.  Friends sometimes know so much about us.  Think of how many times you have shared family information with a neighbor or friend.  I know I have.  My co-workers are always sharing family information with each other.  You know the thing, daily life, our children’s events, our parents, etc.  We do not always think that someday this will all be looked back as history. 

Also as I stated before these people my have pictures that we do not.  I know I have pictures and home movies of many of my son’s friends.  I have tried to make copies for the parents as events happened.  I have birthday parties and football games, also town parades and wrestling tournaments. 

One of my youngest son’s best friends died his first year of college.  We have so many pictures of him at every event since the boys were small.  He was always with our family doing all the crazy kid things.  So for his family there is a great archive of pictures and home movies sitting at my house. 

Think about this when researching your family.  Do you know who they hang around with or who they worked with?  This just might be the key to helping you break that wall that is blocking your finding your people.

Good Luck!

Recently I watched an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” with Lisa Kudrow on NBC.  I am hooked on this show and it is now one of my weekly “must-watch” shows.  Set your DVR or just take the time to watch.  So far I have not been disappointed at all with the interviews, guests or findings.  Each week a new celebrity is asked to share what family history they know, which is usually not that much, and then a search is made to find their people. 

On March 19^th Lisa Kudrow was searching for information on her great-grandmother in Belarus which is near Poland.   Lisa’s father had told a story of how his family was living in the U.S. during the reign of Hitler.  When he was a small boy a cousin came to tell them that the great-grandmother had been killed and then they never heard from the cousin again.  He was presumed to be dead.  The family was Jewish and most everyone from the small town they were from had been killed.  Or so they thought. 

Lisa set out to investigate what had happened to her great-grandmother and cousin.  She visited the small town and began asking questions.  The local records keeper helped her find her great-grandmother in a list that was copied from records kept in Moscow.  They found her great-grandmother listed as well as it told what had been done to her.  Unfortunately it was very hard to hear.  The soldiers had been very brutal.  My heart broke for the Kudrow’s.  It is one thing to know someone was killed, but being killed in such a way is heart wrenching. 

Lisa follows a lead and then travels to Poland .  She finds a listing of her cousin’s family and sees that he lived on and had a family of his own.  From all the sadness there was finally some happiness to share with her father.  She calls the listing for the cousin and was greeted by the grandson.   Once she tells him who she is and that they are related he invites her to the house.  There they meet and talk about what happened so long ago.  There are tears and hugs and it is an emotional day for all.  I found my eyes were welling with tears.  What a bittersweet meeting for them all.  Their story is a true testament to the strength of people caught in very extreme circumstances.

If you missed this episode or any others go to:

http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/

Many of you are thinking spring is just around the corner.  Well I am thinking that was also, but I am also thinking just a little further ahead, Christmas.  I know, I know.  No one really wants to think about Christmas this early, but some times it is necessary.

How many times have we gotten to the fall season and realized we should have started a project much earlier.  Well if you are like me, you have done this.  So this is my way of sharing a few little things that can be used for Christmas or for that matter, family reunions for summer.  Let this year be the one that you not only finish Christmas presents a little early, but your family will love you for it.   You can not get much better than that.

Here are a few suggestions:

Bookmarks-Some time ago a friend sent me a picture of some great bookmarks from off the web.  I am sorry I do not have the site, but I think they are a fun idea.  What a great way to share some family basics.  The person that prepared the bookmarks used a basic format, one picture, simple and basic information.  I love this idea and I will probably be doing this one myself.

Family Tree-There are many ways to do a printable family tree.  Many of the popular software programs include the ability to print out a standard, fan, or fancy family tree.  If you use one of the popular software on your home computer take a minute to check.  This can same you a little money.   If not there are several places that a family tree can be accessed online.  Some are very fancy (and expensive) and some are more reasonable.

Picture Books-One of the hottest new gifts are the beautiful picture books.  They can be made online.  It ‘s all pretty simple.  You pick a theme and upload your pictures.  Most sites allow you to arrange the photos how you would like.  There are templates that are available for you to use.  Just follow the directions and there is usually a “Help” button if you run into trouble.                                            There are many to choose from.  Here are just a few Picaboo.com, MyPublisher.com, Shutterfly.com, Vistprint.com, SeeHere.com, and Lulu.com. (insert photo book picture)

I hope these ideas will give you inspiration and help you to get a jump on the gifts you will enjoy giving.

Enjoy!!

Recently someone asked the questions “what do I do if I can not read the column markers at the top of the pages on old Census records?”  This made me think of how often Census records do blur or are in poor condition.  It is very hard to read the questions that are on each years Census record.  There is hope.

From time to time I do Basic Genealogy and Intermediate Genealogy classes at the Sweetwater County Library.  One thing I always mention is to make print outs of the blank Census forms when ever possible.  Once you find the Census Record that you are needing, use the zoom feature to view the record so each column is more easily read.  At this point take out a blank copy of that Census Record and pencil in the information.  Once this is done staple them together so that in the future I have the original and the penciled in copy.  Later you will be glad you did this.

Blank forms can be found at the following:

http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/charts/ancchart.aspx .

This is not a fix-all for all Census Records of course.  Some are very hard to read.  We do what we can.  Remember when doing a search a page will appear with the listing information.  This is the page that was prepared by the database programmers whether on Ancestry Library Edition or Heritage Quest (Library subscription for public use) or any others that you may subscribe to.  Many times this is the only way to know what the Census Record states because of the poor readability.  One word of caution is these are prepared by the staff or volunteers that work on that site.  There is always the possibility of human errors.

For each Census Record the forms are slightly different.  Take the time to review each form to see what information is available.  As you work back in time, notice that some of the records are hand written and it will take time to decipher what is recorded.   Also some of the very old records show mostly the “men folk” and therefore will not always have the women in the household.  Try to find as much information about the family group you are working on.  This may help you to find the men that are in that family and this may lead to the women you need to find.

Census Substitutes & State Census Records: An Annotated Bibliography of Published Name Lists for All 50 U. S. States and State Censuses for 37 States  by William Dollarhide

This book is a reference guide for historians and genealogists.  There are two volumes Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.  They are divided by regions and by states giving years Federal and State Census were conducted, years for which Census substitiutes are available.  Some listed records can be used as substitutes such as tax lists, voter registration, mortality schedules, probate records, warrant registers, military records, immigration and naturalization records, etc.  Substitutes vary from state to state.  In some cases the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah microfilm numbers are given to assist the reader n his research.  For many of the states a bibliography is given of other books and websites for additional information.  Both volumes are quite compete and easy for the reader to use.

If you have ever been cruising the internet and came across something that looks a little like this, it is called a word cloud.  They are the hot new trend.  They look cool, people become curious and they do have a bigger purpose.

If you look close you will see that the “word cloud” actually take the words from the website and places them in a way that shows what is shown most to least.

Take a look and see all the words that I have used while writing my blog.

If you are interesting in doing your own check out Wordle.net.