another branch added thanks to indexing

A big thank you to past indexers . While it was not a brick wall it was a unkown branch of my tree that I recently added. My husbands great grandmother's baby sister was born in 1880 and not on the 1880 census and was never found as a member of the family. She married and had a new name for the 1900 census. By indexing other sisters and their marriages I was able to find her and a whole new family. To Gail Borden Library and indexers another big thank you.

Free Online Genealogy Classes

Family Search is now offering free online genealogy classes!!
From news release of March 12, 2010

The FamilySearch Family History Library is now making its popular classes available at FamilySearch.org, where anyone anywhere in the world can access them for free at a time that is convenient for them. The classes have been offered on-site in Salt Lake City for years. Until now, attendance has been limited to those patrons who are fortunate to live in the surrounding community or happen to be visiting the library as part of a research trip. Making the classes available online allows access to many more patrons.

There are currently 23 Family History Library classes available online, with subjects ranging from European research to United States military records. The most popular offerings are the Beginning Research Series for Ireland and England and a class on descendancy research.

The classes vary in length from 6 to 58 minutes, with most lasting about 25 minutes. The format of the class varies, depending on the content being presented. One type of class shows a video that alternates between the teacher and the PowerPoint slides. Another kind of class integrates video of the presenter, the accompanying PowerPoint slides, and links to supplemental materials all in one screen.

Several of the classes are interactive, such as a course on reading German handwriting. In these classes, the teacher is represented with still photographs and audio narration, and the student can actively participate in learning activities, such as matching English and German characters or transcribing selected words from a document. As a student types, the correct text appears in green and incorrect answers appear in red, providing immediate feedback.

FamilySearch is continually adding new online offerings; classes on how to read English handwritten records are currently in development. All of the classes can be accessed on www.familysearch.org  by clicking on Free Online Classes on the home page.

Ramblings

Last Saturday I was speaking at the LaSalle County Genealogical Guild in Ottawa, IL.
The Guild has their own facility which seemed very nice. (I did not have very much time to investigate.) A large number of people attended, in fact they were spilling out the doorways. Everyone seemed interested. The point being a large amount of interest.

As a member of the board for ISGS (Illinois State Genealogical society) I am in contact with Carol McCarty the ISGS president. Carol told me that the ISGS office has been swamped with telephone calls from people interested in starting their own genealogical research. I am sure this is a result of the television series "Who do you think you are?" (Did I get the name correct?)

I think this is an excellent time for all Gene societies to reach out to this new generation of beginners and help them start their research.

Newspaper indexing

There are indexing cards in the genealogy drawer at GBPL. Please go anytime you like. I will be there April 12 and 21 in the AM.

I was visiting another library and their old vital records were not indexed. I so appreciate all that you do. It is a wonderful gift for those who research.

Digital Resources

If you're looking for digital resources like documents, images and such, you don't want to miss the Digital Library of the Decorative Arts and Material Culture from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Here you will find links for a huge array of documents, texts, images, resources and more. A wonderful source; don't miss it!!
And, take the time to look are each option; you may be surprised at what you'll find.

newspaper indexing

to my indexing friends.

Right now there are few cards for indexing. Wait about a week before indexing. I will keep you posted. Thanks for all you do.

World Vital Records

If you're thinking about subscribing to World Vital Records, it's 40% off until March 29, 2010.

I'm not endorsing this, just passing on the information. It might be worth a look:)

2010 Census Suggestions

Check out this blog post by Mark Tucker for suggestions for preparing a 2010 census care package for your descendants. Remember the information on this census won't be available for 72 years!! and the data on it is scant anyway.

Some great ideas here.

Paul Milner Presentation of March 18, 2010

We had a great turn-out for our evening meeting last night. Of course, Paul Milner always draws a good crowd! I believe we had some 35 members and 5 guests in attendance and, of the five guests, one chose to join our group.
The presentation, A New Location: Steps for Quickly getting started, provided us with tips to be used whenever we find the ancestor we're researching moving from on place to another. Whether the relocation is "across the pond" or just to the next county or State, the process remains the same. Paul supplied plenty of  personal accounts and anecdotes to illustrate his points keeping what could be a rather dull subject lively and entertaining.
The 10 steps he discussed were:

1. Are You Ready to Move? [Be sure you have enough information before you transition to a new place.]
2. Identify the Place
3. Learn the History
4. Join Genealogical Societies [related to the new location]
5. Use Genealogical Guide Books [Easily found at familysearch.org]
6. Learn what Events Created Records
7. Identify the Records
8. Identify Printed Sources
9. Identify the Indexes
10. Query Services
11. Develop A Search Strategy? [Don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to]

Of course, there is much more to each step so I'm sorry if you missed the meeting. I'm sure all of us who were there have much to mull over as we try to put this process into action.

Family Tree Maker webinar...it's free too.

The following is from the Ancestry.com Blog:

If you’ve mastered the basics of Family Tree Maker and you’re ready to learn more, join us for a free webinar on March 24th at 8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Watch as the experts demonstrate some of the advanced features available in Family Tree Maker 2010. You’ll learn how to work with the Web Merge feature, resolve unidentified place names, export different branches of your family tree, and much more. To attend the Advanced Topics webinar, click here to register.

And if you have questions you’d like answered, please enter them in the Comments section [at http://blogs.ancestry.com]. We’ll try to respond to them during the webinar or on the blog. (Please limit your questions to functionality available in Family Tree Maker 2010.) We appreciate your questions and look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks!

Have you missed past webinars? You can view them any time at FamilyTreeMaker.com.

The links won't work from here but I think you can find out more by visiting: FamilyTreeMaker.com

Sara

Using Google for Genealogy

If you're still looking at ways to use Google for your genealogy research check out this article from Genealogy In Time weekly newsletter: How to Use Google Advanced Search for Genealogy - Part II.


While you're there you might want to subscribe to the newsletter; it's free!!!


Becky

Free Census Records at Footnote

Hi all,
Just wanted to pass this information along in case anyone wants to check it out. Click this link to find out more!!

Enjoy,
Becky

CIG March Meeting Review

Since I'm the facilitator for the CIG meeting, I'm probably not the one who should be doing this review but, oh, well. I think we had a good time this morning. Our topic, Using Google Tools for Genealogy: alerts, books, and more...  was well-received and solicited much discussion, questions and suggestions.


Hopefully, attendees will be using more of the tools available on Google. We also discussed our EGS blog showing how to submit a comment and also requesting members to author some posts, as well.


At our April meeting we'll be talking about Family Tree Maker.


See you then?,


Becky

At the CIG Meeting

We're showing how easy it is to post!!! Everyone can't wait to do their own!!

Computer Interest Group

Our March EGS CIG will meet this Thursday, March 11 at 9:00 am at GBPL. Our topic this month is Using Google Tools for Genealogy: alerts, books, and more. If you're only using Google as a search engine, be sure to come and learn about other great tools that can help in your research.

Hope to see you there,
Becky

Genealogy as Therapy

Hi all,
I just wanted to pass along what I believe is a great genealogy blog posting by Jasia on Creative Gene. Have a look and I'm sure you'll agree. http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2010/03/genealogy-as-therapy.html.

March AM Meetinge - Illinois Online Resources

This mornings meeting was well-attended and well-received. Michael Mulholland from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library spoke to us about some of the resources available on-line for Illinois. Some of these sites were known to many of the members but a fresh look brought many oohs and ahhs from the audience.
The first sites are specific to Cook county and if you have ancestors from Cook you'll want to be sure to take a detailed look at them. They are:

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/ - To access the online databases click on Departments, then Illnnois State Archives, then Online Databases. Searchable databases include the Illinois State Death Inde 1916-1950, the pre-1916 Death Index (in progress), the pre-1900 marriage index, and many more. Be sure to read the description of each database before you start searching. FREE

http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com/ - Search this index with over 8 million vital records for Cool County. Birth records = 75 years and older, Marriage records = 50 years and older, Death records = 20 years or older. This database is updated regularly. FREE - registration required

http://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/ - Holdings date from the 1871 Chicago Fire Click on Records/Archives. The Archives houses Naturalization, probate, and divorce records but only Declarations of Intention are searchable online (on-going project). FREE

http://www.alookatcook.com/ - Use this website if you are searching Chicago census records. There are maps of the city of Chicago for 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 including boundary descriptions for wards, townships, and enumberation districts. FREE

http://www.familysearch.org/ - This is the website for the Family History Library of the LDS Church. Under What's New, click on See prototype for searching millions of records. Scanned records are available. This id an on-going project. FREE [The on-line records can also be accessed at this url: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start]

http://www.cyndislist.com/ - This is THE website for all genealogists! Internet genealogical resources are alphabetically categorized and cross-referenced. It is constantly updated with new websites. Go to United States - Illinois - Localities [Localities has been changes to Counties] FREE

Thanks to Michael for a very interesting and informative talk.